>> this man reportedly tried to extort money from david -- -- born baby. kidnapped in tennessee was found safe in an alabama home last night. police arrested the woman suspected of taking the week-old boy and stabbing his mother.

arrangements are being made to reunite the baby with his mother. here's a picture of him. he was taken from his family's home on tuesday. just four days after he was born. authorities still don't have a motive for the kidnapping. the man who reportedly tried to extort money from david letterman has pleaded not guilty. robert joe hadderman had a court hearing in new york yesterday. he's facing larceny charges that could land him in jail for up to 15 years. after the hearing, halderman was released on $200,000. he demanded $2 million to keep quiet about letterman's affairs with co-workers. letterman admitted on thursday to having sex with female staffers. his company says he didn't violate the harassment policy. so who is this man, robert joe halderman. his uncle said he's not the kind of man who would blackmail people. susan candiotti found out more.

>> reporter: robert joe halderman is making headlines in a tawdry blackmail case. he tried to shake down talk show host david letterman for $2 million to keep letterman's sex life quiet. letterman beat him to it, surprising his audience by announcing he had affairs with co-workers and told the grand jury about it. >> the creepy stuff was that i have had sex with women who work for me on this show. >> reporter: his production company says the affairs happened before letterman's marriage to his long-time companion last spring. halderman gave letterman a rude awakening about 3:00 a.m. six weeks ago leaving a pack annual outside of his home. it was a screen play idea. >> halderman said he needed to make a large chunk of money, unquote, by selling letterman a

so-called screen-play treatment, unquote. the one-page screen play treatment attached to the letter referred to letterman's great success and to his, quote, beautiful, loving son. >> letterman's attorney called the d.a. and set up a sting. two meetings were recorded between halderman and letterman's attorney at the essex house hotel. harderman took the bait, deposited a dummy check. halderman worked for cbs for many years and won an emmy for this documentary. he lives in connecticut, he's divorced with two children and paying $6800 a month in alimony. a spokesman said halderman has been depressed about being far away from his kids. the lawyer says they'll fight the charges. >> he's doing the most that can be expected. he's disspirited. there's another side of the story. not telling it today. it's not an open-and-shut case.

>> how he knew about letterman's affairs not clear. he had a live-in girlfriend who works for the late show. was she the source? the d.a. says his investigation isn't over. susan candiotti, cnn. new york. you can play a great game and still not win. that's what president obama said after learning that chicago will not host the 2016 olympics. yesterday, he and the first lady made personal pitches for having the games in their hometown. chicago is actually the first of the four finalists to be eliminated for consideration. but rio won. thousands of people celebrated at the copacabana beach yesterday. they beat out tokyo and madrid. the top commander in afghanistan and president obama picked up where they were on wednesday. the meeting on strategy took place on air force one. the president was on the way back from denmark and officials say it was a continuation of the three-hour meeting they had at

the white house on wednesday. mcchrystal says a significant number of combat forces are needed in afghanistan. and sources say it's far more than the 21,000 the president has decided to send. >> there's clearly a sharp division and it's a rift that i think -- it could be the sharpest break we've seen in years between a president and his commanding general in the field. "the washington post" is reporting, there are at least several people argued in front of the president on wednesday to not embrace what general mcchrystal wants -- a big buildup of troops. they want to fight with drones from afar and take out top al qaeda leadership. >> however, mcchrystal suggests focusing on al qaeda is not enough and the situation in afghanistan is serious and deteriorating. military veterans who wanted financial help for school are finally getting their money. yesterday, the government gave them some $26 million as an

emergency measure. the veterans applied for government education aid. but they said that the money hasn't been coming for weeks now. the veterans' department, though, partly blames it on a backlog of applications. the delay forced veterans to borrow money or face dropping out of school. a monster typhoon is clobbering some people who were hit by another storm last week. typhoon parma land in the philippines here today with more than 90 mile-per-hour winds. however, the biggest threat is not the wind. but rain. another typhoon deluged some areas last week, including the capital, manila. and today's typhoon is expected to bring up to 20 more inches of rain. the government evacuated tens of thousands of people who were in the typhoon's path. the national guard call in to help provide security at some dc public schools. guardsmen were stationed at a high school football game last night along with police officers. the company that used to provide school security suddenly folded.

300 school security guards were pulled out of dc schools and that left school administrators scrambling and parents worried. >> i'm concerned as a parent because i didn't let my own child go to school today for his safety. >> dc police who oversee school security has hired two new security firms to provide security. the 5-year-old florida boy who got trap in a spinning washing machine was rescued just in time. when a cop heard a mother's screams from a laundry mat, the child was covered in water and suds. the officer couldn't yank open the door so he ripped out the electrical wires to shut off the machine. >> i was thinking he possibly would drown in the water and thinking about him tumbling as possibly breaking his neck or something. so my thing was to get him out. >> when i seen him in there, my heart just dropped. >> luckily, the boy only got a few bumps and bruises. he reportedly climb in to the washer and his younger brother

accidentally locked him in. that automatically started the machine. drew peterson's trial will not be moved to another county. the former illinois police officer has pleaded not guilty in the death of his third wife. and he denies any link to the disappearance of his fourth wife. peterson's attorney is upset that a judge will also allow a so-called hearsay law. he argues it denies a suspect's right to confront their accusers. but the will county state attorneys say he's going to change the trial's venue if it appears a fair trial won't happen. >> very rewarding to have a judge declare the statute constitutional on all grounds because as you know, it's been much malign in the news media. the statute is equitable, fair, and improve our system of justice. >> we can't be anything but disappointing. this law was -- if you read -- there have been legal commentators and lawyers who have commented on it that think

it's a horrible law. i think it's a horrible law. >> possible evidence might include letters peterson's ex-wife wrote claiming he would kill her to shut her up. she was seeking orders of protection. you know, after yesterday, all the storms across the u.s., you kind of wonder, is it going to be a good weekend for me? let's check in with reynolds wolf with a look at that forecast. hey, reynolds. >> it depends on where you happen to be. parts of the southeast should be a better day for you. clearing out a little bit. a little cooler too. high temperatures in some spots, the 50s, the 60s. to the great lakes, not the best day for you. scattered storms possible. breezy to the afternoon. parts of the northeast, same situation. if you're new york, long island. you're going to have to have the heavy rainfall. back out to the east or rather out to the west, central plain, high pressure building in. possibly heavy snow in parts of the rockies and to the central rockies. but in parts of central and southern california, plenty of sunshine. heavy rainfall in texas from

austin southward to san antonio. some places excessive. 62 the high in kansas city. 53 in chicago. 78 in our nation's capital. 90 in tampa, 90 in miami. 92 in phoenix. a look at your forecast across the nation. i'm reynolds wolf for hln. an aging gorilla goes under the knife so doctors can try to save her sight. >> we had to weigh the pluses and minuses here. she's almost blind now. by doing this, we can improve her quality of life. >> the riskiest part of this scenario wasn't the surgery itself.

a 150-pound senior citizen had surgery to repair her vision. cataracts left the gorilla at the miami zoo nearly blind.

surgery to remove them was not the riskiest part of the operation. you are watching surgery on the eye of a gorilla. you're going to see it close. meet josephine. a lowland gorilla from metro zoo. this is what she looks like not strapped to a table. she's old for a gorilla. they live to be about 50. josephine has severe cataracts which makes it impossible to see anything except shadows. a risk to cut her eyes open. but worth it. >> plus and minuses here. she's almost blind now. we can improve her quality of life. >> a team of eye doctors for human and animal attended her pre-on. doctors must monitor everything like a hawk.

>> she's a gorilla. the ris sk the anesthesia. the surgery itself is not as risky as the anesthesia. the gorillas live to be around 50, actually a little less. 42 is an extremely advanced age for this animal. >> once the surgery starts, doctors work in teams and with precision, opening a small cavity to remove josephine's cloudy lenses and replace them with clear, synthetic ones. this type of surgery is common for humans but it's only been done a handful of times on apes. >> thanks to charles belliard from wsbn for that report. the surgery was a success. if josephine heals as expected, she will see clearly again. i'm larry smith. i had to check with an overnight party might still be going on in rio. the vibrant city will be the first south american host of the olympics in 2016. disappointing to the u.s. >> the city of chicago, having

obtained the least number of votes will not participate in the next round. >> well, the boos -- you could hear the pin drop and you could hear it in chicago, not just in losing the bid, but the disappointment on being the first finalist voted out in secret balloting by the international olympic committee. some are crying out for the city to make a run at the 2020 games. >> the fbi has arrested a man of stalking and killing reporter erin andrews through a peephole in her hotel room. he's due to appear in court on several charges. he made videos of andrews in nashville and milwaukee and posted them on the internet. did you know that a high school freshman leads the lpga next avistar championship? she shot a 69 in thursday's opening round and 69 to sit astop of the leader board. one ahead of sophie gustafsson. the youngest winner is 18 years old. that's sports.

hey, guess what. now you can get higher returns from your savings. hln money expert clark howard tells you where to find the best rates. are you a sitting duck? you know what i mean by that? you hang out with the bank you've been using. they're offering you a worse and worse and worse deal. you have fees they charge you on a checking account. puny returns they're giving you on the savings account. the deals just get more and more unfriendly to you. so do you have to sit there and take it? no, you don't. now, a lot of people are reluctant to move their checking account. but at the very least, dip your toe in the water by moving your savings. better have some savings, by the way. but if you look at the on-line banks, wow! the deals that are there are generally paying interest rates that are so much higher than you can get from a traditional bank that you're crazy to let your

idle cash sit and stew at the giant bank. now, for your checking account, i promise, it's not as hard to move it as you think. but what you'll get in return is a much better deal. try it! i'm clark howard for more ways for you to pack a punch in your wallet. go to cnn.com/clark howard. if you want more ways to make your money work for you, don't miss clark's show today at noon eastern time. he's going to help you save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped auchlt off. in's a federal ban on pilots bantering while taxiing and flying under 10,000 feet. that rule is broken pretty often. in a few instances, the consequences have been deadly.

an 18-year-old driver will spend life in prison for the death of a classmate. he drank shots of rum in the party and then drove a car. the driver had been warned before about driving without a lie sense. >> pilots are banned from chitchatting while taking off and landing. that rule has been broken with deadly results. gene meserve explains. >> reporter: minutes before a 2004 plane crash in kirksville, missouri that killed 13 people,

a joking pilot says, love to poke my head back around and say, you know, ladies and gentlemen, uh, we've thought about it. a laughing co-pilot, it was a unanimous up here. the pilot continues, we've come to the conclusion that you people should all shut the blank up. >> it's really sad to listen to a cockpit voice recorder where the pilots are laughing, carrying on, have a great time, not aware they're about to run into the ground. >> after 24 years as a commercial pilot, robert sumwald is a member of the national safety board. he believes the rule that bans nonessential talk in takeoff and landing is frequently violated. and for safety's sake, he says that must change. >> people need to draw a line in the sand and say this is a regulation. we will adhere to it. >> the ntsb has cited vie lage s of the cockpit rule in six crashes since 2004 according to

a survey in "usa today." in lexington, kentucky, 2006, chatting cockpit crew took off on the runway. 49 were killed. in jefferson city, missouri, 2004, the pilot and co-pilot were laughing about alcohol minutes before impact. they both died. investigators are looking to whether the 2009 crash in new york. pilots usually do adhere to the sterile cockpit rule. but says to improve compliance, there should be more training and more observation. >> but a properly train ed airline pilot sits in the jump seat and observes his or her fellow pilots and has the ability to comment, to question. >> in that situation, however, a pilot might be careful not to break the rules. more realistic way to get a sense of the problem might be to pull cockpit voice recorders and listen to conversations. but people on all sides of this debate say that's a nonstarter.

gene meserve, cnn, washington. one man's goldfish became the victim of a family dispute. his common law wife apparently lost it when they had a fight. so, she took it out on the family pets and things got ugly. 8

in man reportedly tried to extort money from david letterman. he says he's not guilty. but you have to hear the details that came out in court. police arrest a man suspected of secretly taping a sports report practitioner the nude. and his first day in court is just hours away. a 42-year-old grandmother gorilla who is blind has a new outlook on life. the delicate surgery is not the tricky part of the operation. good morning to you. thanks for joining us here on hln the first saturday of october. i'm natascha curry. all of the stories ahead. but first, the top story this

morning -- sf a newborn baby found kidnapped in tennessee was found safe in alabama last night. the woman is accused of taking the week old boy and stabbing his mother. the arrangements are being made to reunite the baby with his mother. there's the picture. he was taken from his family's home on tuesday, four days after he was born. authorities don't have a motive for the kidnapping. the man who reportedly tried to extort money from david letterman has pleaded not guilty. robert joe halderman had a court hearing in new york yesterday. he's facing larceny charges that could land him in jail for up to 15 years. after the hearing, halderman was released on $200,000 bail. he reportedly demanded $2 million to keep quiet about letterman's affairs with co-workers. letterman admitted on thursday to having sex with female staffers. he didn't violate the company's harassment policy.

who is this man? he's not the kind of man who would blackmail people. susan candiotti dug deeper and found out about it. >> reporter: veteran news producer robert joe halderman is making headlines in a tawdry blackmail case. prosecutors say he tried to shake down david letterman for $2 million to keep letterman's sex life quiet. he said he had an affair with co-workers and told him about it. >> the creepy thing was i have had sex with women who worked with me on this show. >> reporter: the affairs happened before the marriage to his long-time companion last spring. prosecutors say halderman gave letterman a rude awakening six weeks ago leaving a package outside of his manhattan home. it contained a screen play idea threatening to reveal his

affairs. >> halderman said he wanted to make a quote large chunk of money by selling letterman a so-called, quote, screen play treatment, unquote. the one-page screen play treatment attached to the letter referred to letterman's brief professional success and to his, quote, beautiful loving son. >> letterman's attorney called the da and they set up a sting. two meetings were recorded between halderman and letterman's attorney at essex house hotel. halderman took the bait and deposited a dummy check. he was arrested outside of cbs thursday. halderman worked for cbs for 27 years and won an emmy for this documentary. he's divorced with two children and paying $6,800 a month in alimony. a spokesperson said he's been depressed about being far away from his kids.

the lawyer says he'll fight the charges. >> he's doing as well as expected. he's not disspirited. there is another side to the story. i'm not telling it today. it's not the open-and-shut case. >> how halderman knew about letterman's affairs not clear. we know he had a live-in girlfriend who worked for the late show. was she the source? the d.a. said the investigation is not over. susan candiotti, cnn, new york. you can play a great game but still not win. that's what president obama said after learning chicago will not host the 2016 olympics. yesterday, he and the first lady made personal pitches for having the games in their hometown. chicago is the first of the four final i wases to be eliminated for consideration. but rio won. those thousands of people celebrated at copacabana beach. rio beat out chicago, tokyo, and madrid. yesterday, the top u.s. commander in afghanistan and president obama picked up where they left off on wednesday.

the president and general stanley mcchrystal's meeting on strategy took place on air force one. the president was on the way back from denmark. officials said it was a continuation of the three-hour meeting they had at the white house on wednesday. but mcchrystal said a significant number of additional combat forces are needed in afghanistan. and sources say it's far more than the 21,000 the president has decided to send. >> there's clearly a sharp division. and it's a rift that i think -- it could be the sharpest break we've seen in years between a president and his commanding general in the field. as "the washington post" is reporting, there are several people arguing in front of the president on wednesday to not embrace what general mcchrystal wants. a big buildup in troops. they want to fight with drones from afar and take out top al qaeda leadership. >> however, mcchrystal suggests that focusing on al qaeda is not enough. the situation in afghanistan is

serious and deteriorating. veterans who wanted financial help for school got their money. the government gave them $26 million as an emergency measure. they applied for emergency education aid. but the money hasn't been coming for weeks now. the veterans' department blames it on a backlog of applications. the delay forced veterans to borrow money or force dropping out of school. a monster typhoon is clobbering some people who were hit by another storm last week. typhoon parma land in the philippines here today with 90 mile-per-hour winds. however, the biggest threat is not the wind, but rain. another typhoon deluged some areas last week, including the capital, manila. and today's typhoon is expected to bring up to 20 more inches of rain. the government evacuated tens of thousands of people who were in the typhoon's path. the national guard was call in to help provide security at some dc public schools.

guardsmen were stationed at a high school football game last night along with police officers. the company that used to provide school security suddenly folded. 300 school security guards were pulled out of dc schools and that led school administrators scrambling and parents worried. >> i'm concerned as a parent because i didn't let my own child go to school today for his safety. >> a dc school spokesman says dc police who oversee security has hired two new security firms to provide security. a 5-year-old florida boy who got trap in a spinning washing machine was rescued just in time. when a cop heard a mother's screams from a laundromat, the child was covered in water and suds. the officer couldn't even yank open the jammed washer door. so he ripped out the electrical wires to shut off the machine. >> i was thinking that maybe he possibly would drown in the water and thinking about him tumbling as possibly -- you know, break his neck or something. so my thing was to get him out.

>> when i seen him in there, my heart just dropped. >> luckily the boy only got a few bumps and bruises. he reportedly climb in to the washer and his younger brother accidentally locked him in. that automatically started the machine. drew peterson's trial will not be moved to another county. the former illinois police officer has pleaded not guilty in the death of his third wife. and he denies any length to the disappearance of his fourth wife. peterson's attorney is upset that a judge will also allow a so-called hearsay law. he argues that it denies a suspect's right to confront their accusers. but the will county state attorneys says that he's going to change the trial's venue if it appears a fair trial won't happen. >> it feels very rewarding to finally have a judge declare the statute constitutional on all grounds. because as you guys know, it's been much malign in the news media. and the statute is equitable, fair, and it will improve the system of justice.

>> we can't be anything but disappointed. this law is when you read -- there have been legal commentators and lawyers who have commented on it that think it's a horrible law. i think it's a horrible law. >> possible evidence might include letters peterson's ex-wife wrote claiming he would kill her to shut her up. she was seeking orders of protection. an aging gorilla goes under the knife so doctors can try and save her sight. >> we had a weigh the pluses and minuses here. she's pretty much almost blind now. by doing this, we can improve her quality of life. >> but the riskiest part of the scenario wasn't the surgery itself.

a 160-pound senior citizen just had surgery to repair her bad vision. cataracts had left josephine the aging gorilla at the miami zoo nearly blind. as charles billy of affiliate wsvn reports, surgery to remove them was not the riskiest part of the operation. >> you are watching surgery being performed on the eye of a gorilla. and in a minute, you're going to see this procedure close. meet josephine, a 42-year-old low-land gorilla from metro zoo. this is what she looks like when she's not strapped to a table. she's old, for a gorilla. they live to be about 50. josephine has severe cataracts which make it impossible for her to see anything except shadows. it's a risk to cut her eyes open. but worth it. >> we had to weigh the pluses and minuses here. she's pretty much almost blind

now. by doing this, we can really improve her quality of life. >> a team of top-ranking eye doctors for both human and veterinary attend to her pre-on. sedating a gorilla is dangerous business. and because of her advanced age, doctors must monitor everything like a hawk. >> a 42-year-old gorilla. the risk here is anesthesia. the surgery itself is not as risky as the anesthesia. you keep in mind the gorillas live to be around 50, a little less. 42 is an advanced age for this animal. >> once the surgery starts, doctors work in teams and with precision, opening a small cavity to remove josephine's cloudy lenses and replace them with clear, synthetic ones. this type of surgery is common for humans but it's only been done a handful of times on apes. >> and thanks to charles bill yard for wsvn for that report. the surgery was a success. the doctors say if josephine

heals as expected, she will see clearly again. i'm larry smith. you know, i haven't checked but that overnight party may be going on in rio. the vibrant city will become the first south american home to the olympics 2016. an announcement that was disappointing here in the u.s. >> the city of chicago having obtained the least number of votes will not participate in the next round. >> well, the boos -- you could hear the pin drop and you could hear it in chicago. not just in losing the bid, but the disappointment of being the first finalist voted out in secret balloting by the international olympic committee. some are crying out for the city to make a run at the 20-20 games. the fbi arrested a man suspected of stalking and filming espn reporter erin andrews through a peephole in her hotel room. michael david barrett is slated to appear in court on several charges. barrett made videos of andrews in nashville and milwaukee and then posted them on the

internet. did you know that a high school freshman leads the lpga navistar championship. alexis thompson shot a 65 in thursday's opening round and a 69 yesterday to asit atop of a leader board. one shot ahead of sophie gustafsson. not to get ahead of ourselves but the youngest winner of an lpga event is 18 years old. that's sports. a family is celebrating a baby girl's homecoming after her life got off to a really rocky start. >> we never expected this day to ever happen. people have prayed for her that will never know this child. but have prayed harder for her than anybody. >> find out how the baby survived after weighing less than a pound at birth.

an unlicensed 18-year-old driver will spend 15 years to life in prison for the deft ath a classmate. last year, he apparently drank several shots of rum at a party and crashed his mother's car. his 16-year-old passenger was killed. a judge said the driver had been

warned before about driving without a license. as many as 4,000 people could be buried under the rubble following last week's devastating earthquakes in indonesia. that's according to the united nations. people are digging with chizs, hammers, even their bare hands searching for survivors and belongings. the 7.6 magnitude quake hit the city of sumatra and a 6.6 magnitude quake struck thursday in the same region. 535 people were killed in both quakes. a california man accused of having a gang sign tattooed on his 7-year-old son won't face a charge of mayhem which carries a life sentence. he faces seven to ten years of child endangerment along with a friend who inked a dog paw. it's a symbol of the fresno bulldogs gang. any damage left by a small tattoo does not amount to

permanent and painful disfigurement. the man said he allowed the son to get the tattoo because the boy wanted it. it's normal. we tend to take reliable electric power for granted. but in places like iraq, frequent blackouts are a problem, especially when it comes to medical care. we look at how the u.s. army is helping health clinics in today's ecosolutions. >> reporter: there's new hope for patients for this clinic in baghdad. not because of the medicines inside, but because of the equipment installed outside. the medical center is one of only three clinics in all of iraq to use solar technology for power. why is that a big deal? because iraq's power grid is so unreliable, blackouts so frequent, most clinics can only open a few hours a day. >> this is normally a hot spot, so people here need medical services, especially in the night.

>> for dr. thamer al musawi, the frequent blackouts meant dropping the vaccinations. without reliable power, the vaccines couldn't be kept cool. that changed with the solar powers. >> we can give services and give them help for 24 hours. >> a clinic that stays open around the clock is almost unimaginable in iraq. besides providing jobs and much-needed medical care, it brings hope. before the panels were installed, he had to rely on diesel generators like this one. solar technology is cleaner and in the long run should be far more cost effective. 64 panels here on the roof of the clinic. they were installed four months ago. with great fanfare. the panels are linked to batteries on the ground floor. the equipment automatically runs off of the batteries. when one battery loses its charge, another kicks in. the solar panel technology was underwritten by the u.s. military and supported by the

iraqi health ministry. solar systems are now installed in three clinics. the latest opened last week. colonel joseph martin on hand for the grand opening says that now doctors can concentrate on what they're good at. >> everything within the clinic operates under this system. air conditioners to medical equipment to refrigerator, everything. it allows the doctors to focus on their patients rather than focusing on what supports them in the system. >> not always. before we visited dr. thamer's clinic, someone tampered with it preventing the clinic to use the energy stored in the batteries. until it's fixed, the clinic is back to using the unreliable diesel generator. for more on solar power in iraq and other important environmental news, go to our website, cnn.com/ecosolutions. one man's goldfish became the victim of a family dispute. his common law wife apparently lost it when they had a fight.

so, she took it out on the family pets and things got ugly. $

this man reportedly tried to extort money from david letterman. he says he's not guilty. but you've got to hear the details that came out in court. police arrest a man suspected of secretly taping a sports report practitioner the nude. this first day's report is hours away. a 42-year-old grandmother gorilla who went blind has a new outlook on life. the repair is not the tricky part of the surgery. hey, thanks for joining us. i'm natascha curry.

a new-born baby kidnapped in tennessee was found safe in an alabama home last night. police arrested the woman suspected of taking the week old boy and stabbing his mother. arrangements are being made to reunite the baby with his mother. here's a picture of him. he was taken from his family's home on tuesday, just four days after he was born. authorities don't have a motive for the kidnapping. the man who reportedly tried to extort money from david letterman has pleaded not guilty. robert joe halderman had a court hearing in new york. he's facing larceny charges that could land him in jail for 15 years. after the hearing, halderman was released on $200 bail. he reportedly demanded $2 million to keep quiet about letterman's affairs with co-workers. letterman admitted on thursday to having sex with female staffers. his production company says he didn't violate the harassment policy. so who is this man, robert joe halderman.

his uncle said he's not the kind of man who would blackmail people. susan candiotti dug deeper and found out more about it. >> robert joe halderman is making headlines in a tawdry blackmail case. prosecutors say he tried to shake down late night talk show host david letterman for $2 million to keep letterman's sex life quiet. letterman beat him to it, surprising his audience by announcing he had affairs with co-workers and told the grand jury about it. >> the creepy stuff was that i have had sex with women who work for me on this show. >> his production company says the affairs happened before letterman's marriage to his long-time companion last spring. prosecutors say halderman gave letterman a rude awake ng 3:00 a.m. six weeks ago leaving a package outside of his manhattan home. the package contained a letter and one-page screen play idea threatening to reveal the aff r

affairs. >> halderman needed to make a, quote, large chunk of money, unquote, by selling letterman a so-called screen play treatment, unquote. the one-page screen play treatment attached to the letter referred to mr. letterman's brief professional success and to his, quote, beautiful, loving son. >> letterman's attorney called the d.a. and they set up a sting. two meetings were recorded between halderman and letterman's attorney at new york's essex house hotel. wednesday, prosecutors say halderman took the bait, deposited a dummy check arrested outside of cbs thursday. halderman worked for cbs for 27 years and won an emmy for this "48 hours" documentary. he lives in connecticut, divorced with two children and paying $6800 a month in alimony. a family spokesman said halderman is depressed about being far away from his kids. his lawyers said they'll fight

the charges. >> he's doing as well as can be expected. will's not dispirted. there is another side to this story. not telling it today. there is another side to this story. not the open and shut case. >> how halderman knew about letterman's affairs is not clear. we know he had a live-in girlfriend who worked for the "late show." was she the source? the d.a. says this investigation is not over. you can play a great game and still not win. that's what president obama said after learning that chicago will not host the 2016 olympics. yesterday, he and the first lady made personal pitches for having the games in their hometown. chicago is the first of the four finalists to be eliminated for consideration. but rio won. thousands of people celebrated at the city's copacabana beach yesterday. rio beat out chicago, tokyo, and madrid. yesterday, the top u.s. commander in afghanistan and president obama picked up where they left off on wednesday. the president and general

stanley mcchrystal's immediating meeting took place on air force one. the president was on the way back from denmark. it was a continuation of the three-hour meeting they had at the white house on wednesday. the additional number of combat forces are needed in afghanistan. and sources say it's far more than the 21,000 the president has decided to send. >> there's clearly a sharp division and it's a rift that i -- that could be the sharpest break we've seen in years between a president and his commanding general in the field. as a "washington post" is reporting, there are at least several people argue in front of the president on wednesday to not embrace what general mcchrystal wants, a big buildup in troops. they want to fight with drones from afar and take out top al qaeda leadership. >> however, mcchrystal suggests that focusing on al qaeda is not enough and the situation in afghanistan is serious and deteriorating.

some military veterans who wanted financial help for school are finally getting their money. yesterday the government gave them some $26 million as an emergency measure. the veterans applied for government education aid. but they said that the money hasn't been coming for weeks now. the veterans department, though, partly blames it on a backlog of applications. the delay forced veterans to borrow money or face dropping out of school. a monster typhoon is clobbering some people who are hit by another storm just last week. typhoon parma landed in the philippines here with more than 90 mile-per-hour winds. however, the biggest threat is not the wind, but rain. another typhoon deluged some areas last week, including the capital, manila. today's typhoon is expected to bring up to 20 more inches of rain. the government evacuated tens of thousands of people who were in the typhoon's path. the national guard was called in to help provide security at some dc public schools.

guardsmen were stationed at a high school football game last night along with police officers. the company that used to provide school security suddenly folded. 300 school security guards were pulled out of dc schools. and that left school administrators scrambling and parents worried. >> i'm real concerned as a parent because i didn't let my own child go to school today for his safety. >> a d.c. school spokesman said dc police who oversee school security has hired two new security firms to provide security. a 5-year-old florida boy who got trap in a spinning washing machine was rescued just in time. when a cop heard a mother's screams from a laundromat, the child was covered in water and suds. the officer couldn't even yank open the jammed washer door. so he ripped out the electrical wires to shut off the machine. >> i was thinking maybe that he possibly would drown in the water. and thinking about him tumbling as possibly, you know, could break his neck or something. so my thing was to get him out.

>> when i seen him in there, my heart just dropped. >> luckily, the boy only got a few bumps and bruises. he reportedly climb in to the washer and his younger brother accidentally locked him in. and that started the machine. drew peterson's trial will not be moved to another county. the former police officer has pleaded not guilty in the death of his third wife and he denies any link to the disappearance of his fourth wife. peterson's attorney is upset that a judge will allow a hearsay law. he argues it denies a suspect's right to confront their accusers. but the will county state attorneys said he'll change the trial's venue if it appears the fair trial won't happen. >> it feels rewarding to have the judge declare the statute constitutional on all grounds because, as you guys know, it's been much malign in the news media. and the statute is equitable. it's fair, and it will improve our system of justice. >> we can't see anything but

disappointed. this law is -- when you read -- there have been legal commentators and lawyers who have commented on it to think it's a horrible law. i think it's a horrible law. >> possible evidence might include letters peterson's ex-wife wrote, claiming that he would kill her to shut her up. she was seeking orders of protection. yesterday, all of the storms across spots -- across the u.s., you kind of wonder, is it going to be a good weekend for me. let's check in with meteorologist reynolds wolf with a look at that forecast. >> it depends on where you happen to be. in parts of the southeast, it will be a better day for you. we'll be clearing out a little bit. a little cooler too. high temperatures in some spots, the 50s, the 60s. up to the great lakes. breezy to the afternoon. parts of the northeast, same situation if you're in new york, maybe long island, maybe in spots like pashau, you're going to have the heavy rainfall. back off to the east, the west,

the central plain type pressures building in. heavy snow in parts of the rockies and in to the central rockies. parts of central and southern california, sunshine, heavy rainfall. austin, san antonio, some places in excess of an inch of rainfall. 62, the high in kansas city. 53, chicago. 78 in our nation's capital. 71 in houston. 90 in tampa, 90 in miami. 92 in phoenix. that's a look at the forecast across the nation. i'm reynolds wolf for hln. an aging gorilla goes under the knife so doctors can try to save her sight. >> we had to weigh the pluses and minuses and she's almost blind now. by doing this, we can improve her quality of life. >> but the riskiest part of the scenario wasn't the surgery itself.

a 160-pound senior citizen who was nearly blind should see the world more clearly. yesterday, josephine, the aging

gorilla at the miami zoo had cataract surgery on both her eyes. a unique procedure for gorillas. but that's not why the zoo keepers were worried. >> the thing is, she's a 42-year-old gorilla. a huge risk is the anesthesia. this is an animal because of her advanced age, you keep in mind, the gorillas live to be around 50, a little less. 42 is an extremely advanced age for this animal. >> the surgery went well. and once josephine heals, her quality of life at the zoo should greatly improve. if this dog could talk -- oh, the tales of adventure he would tell. the old lab boxer mix vanished ten years ago. he was just found 1300 miles from home. an oklahoma family took him in as a stray. the vet found a microchip which revealed the dog's name was brindle and also his owner's phone number in virginia. when that didn't work, family put him down on facebook.

dog and family will be reunited soon. i'm larry smith. i have a check but that overnight party may be going on. the vibrant city will be the first talk of the host of the olympics in 2016. an announcement that was disappointing here in the u.s. >> the vicinii have s the city received the least number of votes will not participate in the next round. >> the boos -- you could hear the pin drop and you could hear it in chicago -- not just in losing the bid, but the disappointment on being the first finalist voted out in secret balloting by the international olympic committee. some are crying out to make a run at the 2020 games. the fbi is suspected of stalking and killing erin andrews and killing her. he appears this morning on several federal charges. he made several videos of andrews in nashville and milwaukee and posted on the internet. did you know that a high

school freshman leads the lpga navistar championship. alexis thompson shot a 65 in the opening round and a 69 yesterday to sit atop of a leader board one shot ahead of sophie gustafsson. not to get ahead of ourselves but uh the record of the youngest winner of an lpga event is 18 years old. that's sports. we call it my city, my secret. a look at hidden places in all the towns across the country. we start with the insider tour of cincinnati. what's going on. dhani jones here from the cincinnati bengals. don't forget, cincinnati is my city. these are some of my best-kept secrets. you're at the mt. adams bar and grill. i come to the mt. adams bar and grill because everybody knows my name. my music.

the bartenders are cool. the food is absolutely fantastic. >> we're in downtown cincinnati at the aronoff center. it's art central. whether it be musicals, gallery showings. the premier place where people can come and express themselves. we're in eden park, a place where you can bring your families, friends, and be by yourself. what's unique about eden park is it's in the city, it's next to the river, and it has these magnificent lakes. i might wonder down with one of my model airplanes. sometimes i'll run my radio control cars. other times i'll set off rockets. i certainly live in my own world. i take advantage of the space. the tour is over. sorry i have to go. but i hope you enjoyed some of the best kept secrets of the great town of cincinnati.

an unlicensed 18-year-old driver will spend 18 years to life in prison for the death of a classmate. last year, he drank several shots of rum at a party and then crashed his mother's car. his 16-year-old passenger was

killed. a judge says the driver had been warned before about driving without a license. as many as 4,000 people could be buried under the rubble following last week's devastating earthquakes in indonesia. that's according to the united nations. people are digging with chisles, hammers, their bare hands. a 6.7 magnitude quake hit the city of sumatra and a 6.6 magnitude quake struck in the same region. 535 people were kill in both earthquakes. chitchatting is banned on taking off and landing but that rule has been broken with deadly results. gene meserve explains. minutes before a 2004 plane crash in kirksville, missouri that killed 15 people, a joking pilot said love to poke my head back around and say, that, you

know, ladies and gentlemen, we've thought about it. a laughing co-pilot chimes in, it was unanimous up here. we've come to the conclusion that you people should all shut the blank up. >> it's really sad to listen to a cockpit voice recorder where the pilots are sitting there laughing, carrying on, having a great time, not aware that they're about to run in to the ground. >> after 24 years as a commercial pilot, robert sumwald is now a member of the national transportation safety board. he believes the cockpit rule which bans nonessential talk in ta taxiing, takeoff, and landing is frequently violated and for safety's sake, that must change. >> people need to draw a line in the sand and say this is a regulation. we will adhere to it. >> the ntsb has cited vie lags of the sterile cob pill rule in six crashes in 2004 according to a survey in "usa today." in lexington, kentucky, 2006 chatting cockpit crew took off

on the runway. 49 were killed. jefferson city, missouri, 2004, the pilot and co-pilot were laughing about alcohol minutes before impact. they both died. investigators are looking at whether cockpit small talk contributed to the 2009 colgan air crash in buffalo, new york. the airline pilots' association believes pilots usually do adhere to the sterile cockpit rule. but says to improve compliance, there should be more training and more observation. >> but a properly trained airline pilot sits in the jump seat and observes his or her fellow airline pilots and has the ability to comment, to question. >> in that situation, however, a pilot might be careful not to break the rules. a more realistic way to get a sense of the problem might be to pull cockpit voice recorders and listen to conversations. but people on all sides of this debate say that's a nonstarter. jeanne meserve, cnn, washington. one man's goldfish became

the victim of a family dispute. his common law wife apparently lost it when they had a fight. so, she took it out on the family pets and things got ugly.

this man reportedly tried to extort money from david letterman. he says he's not guilty. but you have to hear the details that came out in court. police arrest a man suspected of secretly taping a sports report practitioner the nude. and the first day in court is hours away. >> a grandmother gorilla who's gone blind has a new outlook on life. the surgery to restore her sight was not the tricky part of the operation. good morning, thanks for joining us here on hln for the first saturday in october. i'm natascha curry. the top story this morning -- a

newborn baby kidnapped in tennessee was found safe in an alabama home last night. police arrested a woman suspected of taking the week old boy and stabbing his mother. arrangements are being made to reunite the baby with his mother. here's a picture of him. he was taken from his family's home on tuesday. just four days after he was born. authorities still don't have a motive for the kidnapping. the man who reportedly tried to extort money from david letterman has pleaded not guilty. robert joe hadderman had a court hearing in new york yesterday. he's facing larceny charges that could land him in jail up to 15 years. after the hearing, halderman was released on $200,000 bail. he reportedly demanded $2 million to keep quiet about letterman's affairs with co-workers. letterman admitted on thursday to having sex with female staffers. the company said thursday he didn't violate the harassment policy. so who is this man, robert joe halderman.

his uncle says he's not the kind of guy who would blackmail people. susan candiotti dug deeper to find out more about him. >> reporter: robert joe halderman is making headlines in a tawdry blackmail case. wille tried to shake down talk show host david letterman for $2 million to keep letterman's sex life quiet. but letterman beat him to it, surprising his audience by announcing he had affairs with co-workers and told the grand jury about it. >> the creepy stuff was that i have had sex with women who work for me on this show. >> his production company says the affairs happen before letterman's marriage to the long-time companion last spring. halderman gave letterman a rude awakening 3:00 a.m. six weeks ago leaving a package in letterman's car outside of his manhattan home. it contained a letter and a one-page screen play idea threatening to reveal letterman's affairs. >> halderman said he had to

make, quote, a large chunk of money, unquote, by selling letterman a so-called, quote, screen play treatment, unquote. the one-page screen play treatment attached to the letter referred to mr. letterman's great professional success and to his, quote, beautiful, loving son. >> letterman's attorney called the d.a. and they set up a sting. two meetings were recorded between halderman and letterman's attorney at new york's essex house and hotel. wednesday, halderman took the bait and deposited a dummy check. he was arrest eed outside of cb on thursday. he worked for cbs for 27 years and won an emmy for this "48 hours" documentary. he lives in connecticut, he's divorcedalimony. he's depressed about being far away from his kids.

his lawyers say they'll fight the charges. >> he's doing well as can be expected. he's not disspirited. there is another side to this story. not telling you this today. it's another side to this story. not the open and shut case. >> how halderman knew of letterman's affairs is not clear. we know he had a live-in girlfriend who works for the late show. was she the source? the d.a. says the investigation isn't over. susan candiotti, cnn, new york. you can play a great game and still not win. that's what president obama said after learning that chicago will not host the 2016 olympics. yesterday, he and the first lady made personal pitches for having the games in their hometown. chicago is actually the first of the four finalists to be eliminated for consideration. but rio won. thousands of people celebrated at the city's copacabana beach yesterday. rio beat out chicago, tokyo, and madrid. yesterday, the top u.s. commander in afghanistan and president obama picked up where they left off on wednesday. the president and general

stanley mcchrystal's meeting on strategy took place on air force one. the president was on his way back from denmark. and officials say it was a continuation of the three-hour meeting they had at the white house on wednesday. mcchrystal says a significant number of combat forces are needed in afghanistan. and sources say it's far more than the 21,000 the president has decided to send. >> it should be the sharpest break we've seen between the president and the commanding officer in the field. as "the washington post" is reporting, there are at least several people argued in front of the president on wednesday to not embrace what general mcchrystal wants, a big buildup in troops. they want to fight from drones from afar and take top al qaeda leadership. >> however, mcchrystal suggests that focusing on al qaeda is not enough and the situation in afghanistan is serious and deteriorating.

so military veterans who wanted financial help for school are finally getting their money. yesterday, the government gave some $26 million as an emergency measure. the veterans applied for government education aid. but they say that the money hasn't been coming for weeks now. the veterans' department blames it on a backlog of applications. the delay forced veterans to borrow money or force dropping out of school. a monster typhoon is clobbering some people who were hit by another storm last week. typhoon parma hit in the philippines with more than 90 mile-per-hour winds. however, the biggest threat is not the wind but the rain. another typhoon deluged some areas last week, including the capital, manila. today's typhoon is expected to bring up to 20 inches more of rain. the government evacuated tens of thousands of people who were in the typhoon's path. the national guard was call in to help provide security at some dc public schools.

guardsmen were stationed at a high school football game last night along with police officers. the company that used to provide school security suddenly folded. 300 school security guards were pulled out of dc schools, that left school administrators scrambling and parents worried. >> i'm real concerned as a parent because i didn't let my own child go to school today for his safety. >> the dc spokesman said the dc school security provided two new security firms to provide security. a 5-year-old florida boy got trap in a spinning washing machine was rescued just in time. when a cop heard a mother's screams from a laundromat, the child was covered in water and suds. the officer couldn't yank open the jammed washer door. so he ripped out the electrical wires to shut off the machine. >> think about him tumbling could break his neck or

something. my thing is to get him out. >> i seen him in there, my heart just dropped. >> luckily, the boy only got a few bumps and bruises. he reportedly climbed into the washer and his younger brother accidentally locked him in. that automatically started the machine. drew peterson's trial will not be moved to another county. the former illinois police officer has pleaded not guilty in the death of his third wife. and he denies any link to the disappearance of his fourth wife. peterson's attorney is upset that a judge will also allow a so-called hearsay law. he argues that it denies a suspect's right to confront their accusers. but the will county state attorneys says that he's going to change the trial's venue if it appears a fair trial won't happen. >> it was very rewarding to finally have a judge declare the statute unconstitutional on all grounds. because as you guys know, it's been much malign in the news media. and the statute is equitable, it's fair, and it will improve our system of justice. >> we can't be anything but

disappointed. this law is -- when you read -- there have been legal commentators and lawyers who have commented on it that think it's a horrible law. i think it's a horrible law. >> possible evidence might include letters peterson's ex-wife wrote claiming that he would kill her to shut her up. she was seeking orders of protection. an aging gorilla goes under the knife so doctors can try and save her sight. >> we had to weigh the pluses and minuses here. she's pretty much almost blind now. by doing this, we can improve the quality of life. >> the riskiest part of the scenario wasn't the surgery itself. i'm robin meade. we salute the troops every weekday. andrew mills -- his girlfriend said he deployed to afghanistan a little over a month ago. he's missed and very much loved.

>> good morning, robin. my name is linda mazarello. i would like to salute my boyfriend and my best friend, army sergeant andrew mills. i want him to know that while he may be absent in our lives the next year, he's ever present in our hearts. >> i'd like to dedicate a poem to drew by emily dickinson. to wait an hour is long it's lovely just beyond to wait eternity is short if love is reward in the end. i love you and miss you. >> linda, thank you so much. what a heart-felt message. if you have somebody in the service and you want to salute them, go to cnn.com/robin. watch for the salutes every morning on "morning express" with robin meade from 6:00 to 10:00.

a 160-pound senior citizen who is nearly blind should see the world more clearly. yesterday, josephine, the aging gorilla at the miami zoo had cataract surgery on both her eyes. a unique procedure for gorillas. but not why the zoo keepers were worried. >> the thing is, she's a 42-year-old gorilla. the huge risk is the anesthesia. the surgery itself is not as risky as the anesthesia. this is an animal because of her advanced age, the gorillas live to be around 50. a little less. 42 is an extremely advanced age for this animal. >> doctors say the surgery went well. once josephine heals, her quality of life at the zoo should greatly improve. if this dog could talk, oh, the tales of adventure he would tell. the old boxer mix disappeared 16 years ago. they took him in as a stray.

the microsoft revealed his name was brindle and also the owner's phone number in virginia. when that didn't work, family tracked him down on facebook. dog and family will be reunited soon. everybody wants to save more and spend less. it's the guy to help you. join hln money expert clark howard at noon eastern. he'll show you ways to save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off. the clark howard show noon eastern here on hln. i'm larry smith. the overnight party may still be going on in rio. it might be the host of the olympics on 2016. an announcement that was disappointing here in the u.s. >> the city of chicago, having obtained the least number of votes with not participate in the next round. you could hear the pin drop. the disappointment of being the

first finalists voted out in secret balloting. some are crying out for the city to make a run at the 2020 games. the fbi is arrested a man suspected of stalking and filming erin andrews through a peephole in her hotel room. he's due to appear in court on charges. he made videos in miami and milwaukee and posted them on the internet. a high school freshman leads the lpga navistar championship? alexis thompson shot a 65 in thursday's opening round and 69 yesterday to sit atop of the leader board. one shot ahead of sophie gustafsson, she's tied for the lead. the youngest winner of an lpga event is 18 years old. that's sports. there's a federal ban on pilots bantering while taxiing and flying under 10,000 feet.

but that rule is broken pretty often. in a few instances, the consequences have been deadly.

an unlicensed 18-year-old driver will spend 15 years to

life in prison for the death of a classmate. last year, he apparently drank several shots of rum at a party then crashed his mother's car. his 16-year-old passenger was killed. a judge says the driver had been warned before about driving without a license. as many as 4,000 people could be buried under the rubble followed last week's devastating earthquakes in indonesia. people are digging with chisels, hammers, bare hands searching for survivors and belongings. the 7.6 magnitude quake hit the city of sumatra and a 6.6 magnitude quake hit thursday in the same region. government officials say 535 people were killed in both quakes. pilots are banned from chitchatting when taking off and landing. but investigators suggest that rule is broken with deadly results. gene meserve explains. -- jeanne meserve explains.

minutes before a plane crash in kirksville, missouri that killed 13 people, a joking pilot says, love to poke my head back around and say, you know, ladies and gentlemen, we've thought about it -- a laughing co-pilot chimes in -- it was unanimous up here. the pilot continues -- we've come to the conclusion that you people should all shut the blank up. >> it is really sad to listen to a cockpit voice recorder where the pilots are sitting there laughing, carrying on, having a great time, not aware that they're about to run into the ground. >> reporter: after 24 years as a commercial pilot, robert sumwald is now a member of the national transportation safety board. he believes the sterile cockpit rule which bans nonessential talk in taxi, takeoff, and landing, is frequently violated. and for safety's sake, he says that must change. >> i think people need to draw the line in the sand and say, this is a regulation. we will adhere to it. >> the ntsb has cited violations of the sterile cockpit rule in

six crashes since 2004 according to a survey by "usa today." in lexington, kentucky in 2006, chatting cockpit crew took off on the wrong runway. 49 were killed. in jefferson pilot and co-pilote laughing about alcohol minutes before impact. they both died. investigators are also looking at whether cockpit small talk contributed to the 2009 colgan air crash in buffalo, new york. the airline pilots association believes pilots usually do adhere to the sterile cockpit rule but says to improve compliance, there should be more training and more observation. >> a properly trained airline pilot sits in the jump seat and observes his or her fellow airline pilots and has the ability to comment to, to question. >> in that situation, however, a pilot might be careful not to break the rules. a more realistic way to get a sense of the problem might be to pull cockpit voice recorders and listen to conversations.

but people on all sides of this debate say that is a non-starter. jeanne meserve, cnn, washington. a california man accused of having a gang sign tattooed on his 7-year-old son won't face a charge of mayhem, which carries a potential life sentence. he still faces 7 to 10 years for child endangerment along with his friend who inked a dog paw on the boy's hip. the paw is a symbol of the fresno bulldogs gang. the judge agreed that any damage left by a small tattoo does not amount to permanent and painful disfigurement. the man says he allowed his son to get the tattoo because the boy wanted it. one man's goldfish became a victim of a family dispute. his common law wife apparently lost hit when they had a fight. so she took it out on the family pets and things got ugly. 

this man reportedly tried to extort money from david letterman. he says he's not guilty, but you got to hear the details that came out in court. police arrest a man suspected of secretly taping a sports reporter in the nude. and his first day in court is just hours away. a 42-year-old grandmother gorilla who was going behind has a new outlook on life. but the delicate surgery was not the tricky part of the operation. hey, good morning to you, thanks so much for joining us here on hln this first saturday of october, i'm natasha curry. all those stories are just ahead. but first, our top story this morning, a newborn baby

kidnapped in tennessee was found safe an alabama home last night. police arrested the woman suspected of taking the week-old boy and stabbing his mother. arrangements are being made to reunite the baby with his mother. here's a picture of him. he was taken from his family's home on tuesday just four days after he was born. authorities still don't have a motive for the kidnapping. the man who reportedly tried to extort money from david letterman has pleaded not guilty. robert joe holderman is facing larceny charges that could land him in jail for up to 15 years. after the hearing, halderman was released on $200,000 bail. he reportedly demanded $2 million to keep quiet about letterman's affairs with co-workers. letterman admitted on thursday to having sex with female staffers. his production company says he didn't violate their harassment policy. so who is this man robert joe halderman? his uncle says he's not the kind

of man that would blackmail someone. >> reporter: veteran cbs news producer robert joe halderman is making headlines in a tawdry blackmail case. prosecutors say he tried to shake down david letterman for $2 million to keep his sex life quiet. letterman beat him to it. surprising his audience by announcing he had affairs with co-workers and told the grand jury about it. >> the creepy stuff was that i have had sex with women who work for me on this show. >> reporter: his production company says the affairs happened before letterman's marriage to his long time companion last spring. prosecutors say halderman gave letterman a rude awakening about 6:00 a.m. three weeks ago, leaving a package in letterman's car outside his manhattan home. the package contained a letter and a one-page screen play idea threatening to reveal letterman's affairs. >> halderman wrote he needed to make "a large chunk of money" by

selling letterman a so-called "screen play treatment." the one-page screen play treatment attached to the letter referred to mr. letterman's great professional success and to his "beautiful loving son." >> reporter: letterman's attorney called the d.a. and they set up a sting. two meetings were recorded between halderman and letterman's attorney at new york's essex house hotel. wednesday, prosecutors say halderman took the bait and deposited a dummy check and was arrested outside of cbs thursday. halderman worked for cbs for 27 years and won an emmy for his "48 hours" documentary. he lives in connecticut, divorced with two children and paying $6,800 a month in alimony. a spokesman says halderman's been depressed about being far away from his kids. >> he's doing as well as can be

expected. there is another side to the story. i'm not telling it today, there is another side to the story. it's not the open and shut case. >> reporter: how halderman knew about letterman's affairs is not clear. we know he had a live-in girlfriend who works for "the late show," was she the source? the investigation isn't over. susan candiotti, cnn, new york. and you can play a great game and still not win. that's what president obama said after learning chicago will not host the 2016 olympics. yesterday he and the first lady made personal pitches for having the games in their hometown. chicago was the first of the four finalists to be eliminated for consideration. but rio won. thousands of people celebrated at the beach yesterday. rio beat out chicago, tokyo, and madrid. yesterday, the top u.s. commander in afghanistan and president obama picked up where they left off on wednesday. the president and general stanley mcchrystal's meeting on

strategy took place on air force one. the president was on his way back from denmark. and officials say it was a continuation of the three-hour meeting they had at the white house on wednesday. mcchrystal says a significant number of additional combat forces are needed in afghanistan. and sources say it's far more than the 21,000 the president has decided to send. >> there's clearly a sharp division. and it's a rift that could be the sharpest break we've seen in years between a president and his commanding general in the field. as the "washington post" is reporting, there are at least several people argued in front of the president on wednesday to not embrace what general mcchrystal wants, a big breakup in troops. they want to fight with drones from afar and take out top al qaeda leadership. >> however, mcchrystal suggests focusing on al qaeda is not enough and the situation in afghanistan is serious and deteriorating.

some military veterans who wanted financial help for school are finally getting their money. yesterday the government gave them some $26 million as an emergency measure. the veterans applied for government education aid, but they say the money hasn't been coming for weeks now. the veterans department, though, partly blames it on a backlog of applications. the delay forced veterans to borrow money or face dropping out of school. a monster typhoon is clobbering some people who were hit by another storm just last week. typhoon parma landed in the philippines today with more than 90-mile-per-hour winds. however, the biggest threat is not the wind, but rain. another typhoon damaged some areas last week, including the capital, manila, and today's typhoon is expected to bring up to 20 more inches of rain. the government evacuated tens of thousands of people who were in the typhoon's path. the national guard was called in to help provide security at d.c. public schools.

guards men who were stationed at a high school football game last night along with police officers. the company that used to provide school security suddenly folded. 300 school security guards were pulled out of d.c. schools and that left administers scrambling and parents worried. >> i didn't even let my own child go to school today for his safety. >> d.c. police who oversee school security has hired two new security firms to provide security. a 5-year-old florida boy who got trapped in a spinning washing machine was rescued just in time. when an off-duty cop heard a mother's screams from a laundry mat, the child was already covered in water and suds. the officer couldn't even yank open the jammed washer door and ripped out the electrical wires to shut off the machine. >> i was thinking maybe that he possibly would drown in the water and thinking about him tumbling is possibly could break his neck or something. my thing was to get him out.

>> when i seen him in there, my heart just dropped. >> luckily the boy only got a few bumps and bruises. he reportedly climbed into the washer and his younger brother accidentally locked him in. that automatically started the machine. drew peterson's trial will not be moved to another county. the former illinois police officer has pleaded not guilty in the death of his third wife and denies any link to the disappearance of his fourth wife. peterson's attorney is upset that a judge will also allow a so-called hearsay law. he argues it denies a suspect's right to confront their accuser. but the will county state attorney says that he's going to change the trial's venue as it appears a fair trial won't happen. >> it was very rewarding to finally have a judge declare the statute constitutional on all grounds. as you guys know, it's much maligned in the news media. and the statute is equitable, fair, and improve or system of

justice. >> we can't be anything but disappointed. this law is when you read little commentators and lawyers who have commented on it think it's a horrible law. i think it's a horrible law. >> possible evidence might include letters peterson's ex-wife wrote claiming he would kill her to shut her up. she was seeking orders of protection. you know, after yesterday, all of those storms across spots across the u.s. you kind of wonder, is it going to be a good weekend for me? let's take a look with reynolds wolf. >> really depends where you happen to be. if you're in parts of the southeast, should be a much better day. we're going to be clearing out a little bit. little cooler too. 50s, and 60s, back up towards the great lakes, not the best day for you, also pretty breezy into the afternoon. for parts of the northeast, same situation. if you're in new york, maybe long island, maybe in spots like pashaw, you're going to have the

rainfall. and possibly some heavy snow in the rockies and central rockies. but california, plenty of sunshine, heavy rainfall possible in texas from austin to san antonio, some places in excess of an inch of rainfall. in terms of your temperature, 62 the high in kansas city, 53 in chicago, 78 in our nation's capital, 81 in houston, 90 in tampa, and 90 in miami, 92 in phoenix. that is a look at your forecast across the nation. i'm reynolds wolf for hln. an aging gorilla goes under the knife so doctors can try and save her sight. >> well, we had to weigh the pluses and minuses and she's pretty much almost blind now. by doing this, we can improve her quality of life. >> the riskiest part of the scenario wasn't the surgery itself.

a 160-pound senior citizen just had surgery to repair her bad vision. cataracts left the aging gorilla at the miami zoo nearly blind.

wsvn reports surgery to remove them was not the riskiest part of the operation. >> reporter: you are watching surgery being performed on the eye of a gorilla. and in a minute, you're going to see this procedure close. meet josephine, a 42-year-old low land gorilla from metro zoo. this is what she looks like when she's not strapped to a table. she's old for a gorilla. they usually only live to be about 50. josephine has severe cataracts, which make it impossible for her to see anything except shadows. it's a risk to cut her eyes open, but worth it. >> we had to weigh the pluses and minuses. she's pretty much almost blind now. by doing this, we can improve her quality of life. >> reporter: a team of top-ranking eye doctors for human and veterinary attend to her pre-op. sedating a gorilla is dangerous business and because of her advance age, doctors must monitor everything like a hawk.

>> she's a 42-year-old gorilla and a huge risk with the anesthesia. the surgery itself is not as risky as the anesthesia. when you keep in mind they live to usually around 50, a little less, 42 is an extremely advanced age for this animal. >> reporter: doctors work in teams and with precision opening a small cavity to remove josephine's cloudy lenses and replace them with clear synthetic ones. this type of surgery is common for humans, but it's only been done a handful of times on as. >> and thanks to charles from wfbn for that report. the surgery was a success and doctors say if josephine heals as expected, she will see clearly again. i'm larry smith. you know, i had to check, but that overnight party may still be going on in rio. it may become the first host of the olympics in 2016.

well, the boos, you can hear the pin drop and you can hear it in chicago. not just in losing the bid, but the disappointment in being the first finalists being voted out. some are crying out for the city to make a run for the 2020 games. the fbi has arrested a man suspected of stalking and filming erin andrews through a peephole in her hotel room. michael david barrett is slated to appear in court this morning on several charges. barrett allegedly made several videos of andrews and posted them on the internet. did you know that a high school freshman leads the high school championship. 14-year-old alexis thompson shot a 65 and a 59 yesterday to sit atop the leader board, one shot ahead of gustafson.

the youngest winner is 18 years old. that's sports. a family is celebrating a baby girl's home coming after her life got off to a rocky start. >> we never expected this day to ever happen. when people have prayed for her that will never know this child have prayed harder for her than anybody. >> and find out how the baby survived after weighing less than a pound at birth.

an unlicensed 18-year-old driver will spend 15 years to life in prison for the death of a classmate. last year he apparently drank several shots of rum at a party and then crashed his mother's car. his 16-year-old passenger was killed. a judge says that the driver had been warned before about driving without a license. as many as 4,000 people could be buried under the rubble following last week's devastating earthquakes in indonesia. that's according to the united nations. people are digging with chisels, hammers, even their bare hands searching for survivors and for belongings. 7.6 magnitude quake hit the city of sumatra wednesday and a 6.2

quake hit thursday in the same region. government officials say 535 people were killed in both quakes. pilots are banned from chitchatting when taking off and landing. but investigators suggest that rule has been broken with deadly results. jeanne meserve explains. >> reporter: minutes before a 2004 plane crash in kirksville, missouri, that killed 13 people, a joking pilot says "love to poke my head back around and say that, you know, ladies and gentlemen, we've thought about it." a co-pilot chimes in, it was unanimous up here, we come to the conclusion that you people should all shut the blank up. >> it is really sad to listen to a cockpit voice recorder where the pilots are sitting there laughing, carrying on having a great time not aware that they're about to run into the ground. >> reporter: after 24 years as a commercial pilot, robert is now a member of the national transportation safety board.

he believes the sterile cockpit rule, which bans non-essential talk during taxi, takeoff, and landing, is frequently violated. and for safety's sake, he says that must change. >> i think people need to draw that line in the sand and say this is a regulation, we will adhere to it. >> reporter: the ntsb has cited violations of the sterile cockpit rule in six crashes since 2004 according to a survey by usa today. in lexington, kentucky, in 2006, chatting cockpit crew took off on the wrong runway, 49 were killed. in jefferson city, missouri, in 2004 the pilot and co-pilot were laughing about alcohol minutes before impact, they both died. investigators are also looking at whether cockpit small talk contributed to the 2009 colgan air crash in buffalo, new york. the airline pilots association believes pilots usually do adhere to the sterile cockpit rule, but says to improve compliance, there should be more training and more observation.

>> a properly trained airline pilot sits in the jump seat and observes his or her fellow airline pilots and has the ability to comment to question. >> in that situation, however, a pilot might be careful not to break the rules. a more realistic way to get a sense of the problem might be to pull cockpit voice recorders and listen to conversations. but people on all sides of this debate say that is a non-starter. jeanne meserve, cnn, washington. if this dog could talk, oh the tales of adventure he would tell. the old lab boxer mix vanished 10 years ago and was just found 1,300 miles from home. an oklahoma family took him in as a stray, the vet found a microchip which revealed his name and owner's phone number in virginia. when that didn't work, the family tracked him down on facebook. dog and family will be reunited soon.

one man's goldfish became the victim of a family dispute. his common law wife apparently lost it when they had a fight. so she took it out on the family pets and things got ugly. !d!d!dd

this man reportedly tried to extort money from david letterman. he says he's not guilty, but you've got to hear the details that came out in court. police arrest a man suspected of secretly taping a sports reporter in the nude. and his first day in court is just hours away. a 42-year-old grandmother gorilla who was going behind has a new outlook on life. but the delicate surgery to restore her sight was not the tricky part of the operation. thanks so much for joining us here on hln this first saturday of october. all those stories are just ahead, but first our top story this morning. a newborn baby kidnapped in

tennessee was found safe at an alabama home last night. police arrested a woman suspected of taking the week-old boy and stabbing his mother. arrangements are being made to reunite the baby with his mother. here's a picture of him. he was taken from his family's home on tuesday. just four days after he was born. authorities still don't have a motive for the kidnapping. the man who reportedly tried to extort money from david letterman has pleaded not guilty. robert joe halderman had a court hearing in new york yesterday. he's facing larceny charges that could land him in jail for up to 15 years. after the hearing, halderman was released on $200,000 bail. he reportedly demanded $2 million to keep quiet about letterman's affairs with co-workers. letterman admitted on thursday to having sex with female staffers. his production company says he didn't violate their harassment policy. so who is this man? robert joe halderman? his uncle says he's not the kind of guy who would blackmail

people. susan candiotti dug deeper and found out more about him. >> reporter: veteran cbs news reporter robert joe halderman is making headlines in a tawdry blackmail case. he tried to shake down late night talk show host david letterman for $2 million to keep letterman's sex life quiet. letterman beat him to it. surprising his audience by announcing he had affairs with co-workers and told a grand jury about it. >> the creepy stuff was that i have had sex with women who work for me on this show. >> reporter: his production company says the affairs happened before letterman's marriage to his long time companion last spring. prosecutors say halderman gave letterman a rude awakening about three weeks ago leaving a package in letterman's car outside hi contained a letter a one-page screen play idea threatening to reveal letterman's affairs. >> halderman wrote he needed to make "a large chunk of money" by

selling letterman a so-called "screen play treatment." the one-page screen play treatment attached to the letter referred to mr. letterman's great professional success and to his "beautiful loving son." >> reporter: letterman's attorney called the d.a. and set up a screen. two meetings were recorded between halderman and letterman's attorney. wednesday, prosecutors say halderman took the bait and deposited a dummy check. he was arrested outside cbs thursday. halderman worked for cbs for 27 years and won an emmy for this "48 hours" documentary. he lives in connecticut, divorced with two children and paying $6,800 a month in alimony. a spokesperson says he's been depressed about being far away from his kids. >> he's doing as well as can be

expected. he's not dis-spirited. there is another side to the story. it's not the open and shut case. >> reporter: how halderman knew about letterman's affairs is not clear. we know he had a live-in girlfriend who works for "the late show." was she the source? the investigation isn't over. susan candiotti, cnn, new york. you can play a great game and still not win. that's what president obama said after learning that chicago will not host the 2016 olympics. yesterday, he and the first lady made personal pitches for having the games in their hometown. chicago is actually the first of the four finalists to be eliminated for consideration. but rio won. thousands of people celebrated at the city's beach yesterday. rio beat up chicago, tokyo, and madrid. yesterday, the top u.s. commander in afghanistan and president obama picked up where they left off on wednesday. the president and general stanley mcchrystal's meeting on

tragedy took place on air force one. the president was on his way back from denmark and officials say it was a continuation of the three-hour meeting they had at the white house on wednesday. mcchrystal says a significant number of additional combat forces are needed in afghanistan. and sources say it's far more than the 21,000 the president has decided to send. >> there's clearly a sharp division. and it's a rift that it could be the sharpest break we've seen in years between a president and his commanding general in the field. as the "washington post" is reporting, at least several people argued in front of the president on wednesday to not embrace what general mcchrystal wants, a big build-up in troops. they want to fight with drones from afar and take out top al qaeda leadership. >> however, mcchrystal suggests that focusing on al qaeda is not enough. and the situation in afghanistan is serious and deteriorating.

some military veterans who wanted financial help for school are finally getting their money. yesterday the government gave them some $26 million as an emergency measure. the veterans applied for government education aid. but they said the money hasn't been coming for weeks now. the veteran's department partly blames it on a backlog of applications. the delay forced veterans to borrow money or face dropping out of school. a monster typhoon is clobbering some people who are hit by another storm just last week. typhoon parma landed in the philippines today with more than 90 miles per hour winds. however, the biggest threat is not the wind but rain. another typhoon damaged some areas last week including the capital, manila, and today's typhoon is expected to bring up to 20 more inches of rain. the government evacuated tens of thousands of people who were in the typhoon's path. the national guard was called in to help provide security at some d.c. public

schools. stationed at a high school football game last night along with police officers. the company that used to provide school security suddenly folded. 300 school security guards were pulled out of d.c. schools and that left school administrators scrambling and parents worried. >> concerned as a parent because i didn't let my own child go to school for his safety. >> d.c. police who oversee school security has hired two new security firms to provide security. a 5-year-old florida boy who got trapped in a spinning washing machine was rescued just in time. when an off-duty cop heard a mother's screams from a laundry mat the child was already covered in water and suds. the officer couldn't even yank open the jammed door so he ripped out the electrical wires to shut off the machine. >> i was thinking maybe that he possibly would drown in the water and thinking about him tumbling is possibly, you know, he could break his neck or something. my thing was to get him out.

>> when i seen him in there, my heart dropped. >> luckily the boy only got a few bumps and bruises. he reportedly climbed into the washer and his younger brother accidentally locked him in. that automatically started the machine. drew peterson's trial will not be moved to another county. the former illinois police officer has pleaded not guilty in the death of his third wife. and he denies any link to the disappearance of his fourth wife. peterson's attorney is upset that a judge will also allow a so-called hearsay law. he argues that it denies a suspect's right to confront their accuser. but the will county state attorney says that he's going to change the trial's venue as it appears a fair trial won't happen. >> it was very rewarding to finally have a judge declare the statute constitutional on all grounds. as you know, it's been much maligned in the news media. and the statute is equitable, it's fair, and will improve our system of justice. >> we can't be anything but

disappointed. this law is -- when you read legal commentators and lawyers who have commented on it that think it's a horrible law, i think it's a horrible law. >> possible evidence might include letters peterson's ex-wife wrote claiming he would kill her to shut her up. she was seeking orders of protection. an aging gorilla goes under the knife so doctors can try and save her sight. >> well, we had to weigh the pluses and minuses and she's pretty much almost blind now. so by doing this, we can improve her quality of life. >> but the riskiest part wasn't the surgery itself.

a 160-pound senior citizen

who was nearly blind should see the world more clearly. yesterday, josephine, the aging gorilla at the miami zoo had cataract surgery on both of her eyes. it's a unique procedure for gorillas, but that's not why the zoo keepers were worried. >> the thing is she's a 42-year-old gorilla and a huge risk is the anesthesia. the surgery itself is not as risky as the anesthesia. because of her advanced age, gorillas live around 50, a little less, 42 is an extremely advanced age for this animal. >> once josephine heals, her quality of life at the zoo should greatly improve. if this dog could talk, oh the tales of adventure he would tell. the old lab boxer mix vanished 10 years ago. and he was just found 1,300 miles from home. an oklahoma family took him in as a stray. their vet found a microchip which revealed the dog's name and his owner's phone number in

virginia. when that didn't work, the family tracked him down on facebook. dog and family will be reunited soon. i'm larry smith. after being denied three times over the decades, finally rio de janeiro is the host. over chicago, madrid, and tokyo. rio will become the first south american city to host. spent nearly $50 million and sent an a-list team including president obama, mayor richard daly and oprah winfrey to denmark this week to help make the pitch. chicago, the first city voted out among the four finalists. some residents were pleased by this result having picketed against hosting the games saying that money that would have been spent on the games should go to other pressing needs in the city. let's go to baseball. rockies and dodgers in the final weekend of this regular season.

troy tulowitzki of colorado, the two-run home run. the rockies closing the gap, just a game behind the dodgers, national league west, ramirez strikes out for the fourth time in the game. make sure you cleared that old cell phone before you give it away. a man bought 25 old phones from the university of missouri athletic department for $190 and planned to sell the parts for $1,000. when he discovered all text messages and contact info still on the phone, some were messages between coaches and the athletic director. now the man hopes to sell them to a memorabilia collector for about $3,000. play of the day. chris paul off the beam, off the floor, off the the back board, in the net. during a dull moment at training camp, right? one more look at it. paul, that's a great shot. like that old macdondald commercial.

play of the day. hey, guess what? now you can get higher returns from your savings. hln money expert clark howard tells you where to find the best rate. >> are you a sitting duck? you know what i mean by that. you hang out with the bank you've been using. they're offering you a worse and worse and worse deal. the fees they charge you on a checking account, the puny returns on a savings account, the deals get more and more unfriendly to you. do you have to sit there and take it? no, you don't. now, a lot of people are reluctant to lose their checking account. but at the very least, dip your toe in the water by moving your savings. you better have some savings, by the way. if you look at the online banks, wow. the deals that are there are generally paying interest rates that are so much higher than you can get from a traditional bank that you're crazy to let your

idle cash sit and stew at the giant bank. after your checking account, i promise not as hard to move it as you think. but what you'll get in return is a much better deal. try it. i'm clark howard, for more ways for you to pack a punch in your wallet, go to cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> and if you want more ways to make your money work for you, don't miss clark's show today at noon eastern time. he's going to help you save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off. a family is celebrating a baby girl's home coming after her life got off to a really rocky start. >> we never expected this day to ever happen. people have prayed for her that will never know this child but have prayed harder for her than anybody. >> and find out how the baby survived after weighing less than a pound at birth.

an unlicensed 18-year-old driver will spend 15 years to life in prison for the death of a classmate. last year he apparently drank several shots of rum at a party and then crashed his mother's

car. his 16-year-old passenger was killed. a judge says that the driver had been warned before about driving without a license. as many as 4,000 people could be buried under the rubble following last week's devastating earthquakes in indonesia. that's according to the united nations. people are digging with chisels, hammers, even their bare hands searching for survivors and for belongings. 7.6 magnitude quake hit the city of sumatra wednesday and 6.6 quake hit thursday in the same region. government officials say 535 people were killed in both quakes. pilots are banned from chitchatting while taking off and landing. but investigators suggest that rule has been broken with deadly results. jeanne mae serve explains. >> reporter: minutes before a 2004 plane crash in kirksville, missouri, that killed 13 people, a joking pilot says love to poke my head back around and say that, you know, ladies and

gentlemen, we've thought about it, a laughing co-pilot chimes in, it was unanimous up here -- the pilot continues, we come to the conclusion that you people should all shut the blank up. >> it is really sad to listen c the pilots are sitting there laughing, carrying on, having a great time, not aware that they're about to run into the ground. >> reporter: after 24 years as a commercial pilot, robert is now a member of the national transportation safety board. he believes the sterile cockpit rule, which bans nonessential talk during taxiing, takeoff, and landing, is frequently violated and he says for safety's sake that must change. >> i think people need to draw a line in the sand and say this is a regulation we will adhere to it. >> reporter: the ntsb has cited violations of the sterile cockpit rule in six crashes since 2004 according to a survey by usa today. in lexington, kentucky, in 2006

chatting cockpit crew took off on the wrong runway. 9 were killed. in jefferson city, missouri, in 2004 the pilot and co-pilot were laughing about alcohol minutes before impact. they both died. investigators are also looking at whether cockpit small talk contributed to the 2009 colgan air crash in buffalo. pilots usually do adhere to the sterile cockpit rule, but to improve compliance there should be more training and more observation. >> a properly trained airline pilot sits in the jump seat and observes his or her fellow airline pilots and has the ability to comment, to question. >> reporter: in that situation, however, a pilot might be careful not to break the rules. a more realistic way to get a sense of the problem might be to pull cockpit voice recorders and listen to conversations. but people on all sides of this debate say that is a nonstarter. jean meserve, cnn, washington.

one man's goldfish became the victim of a family dispute. his common law wife apparently lost it when they had a fight. so she took it out on the family pets, and things got ugly.