it is called the sheep fire, but there is certainly nothing meek about it. why california authorities are especially worried about one area in its path. and this teen's death shocked the country after his fatal beating was captured on videotape. now president obama is getting involved and sending top-level officials to his hometown to find out how to prevent similar violence. the white house has a message for you as well. you could be part of a big security problem without even knowing it. what it wants you to do to tackle the issue. a wind-driven wildfire has destroyed three homes and its threatening dozens of others in southern california now. the so-called sheep fire is

being fueled by high winds, some gusting as high as 45 miles per hour. it is burning through dry underbrush and thick woods near san bernardino. the fire sparked to life yesterday afternoon and burned more than 1,500 acres before daybreak today. authorities ordered evacuations for people in the path of the flames. >> i saw the smoke and it reminded me of the station fire. it looked just as bad. i knew we were in for a bad one. >> our biggest concern is that this fire hits highway 138 more westward. the reason for that is because there's a lot of homes up off of highway 138. >> the fire is also burning close to interstate 15. that's a major highway which connects las vegas to southern california. in arizona, a routine burn that got out of control looks like this now. it is threatening the town known as the gateway to the grand canyon. people in the town of williams are keeping a close eye on this

so-called twin fire. it has burned more than 1 1/2 square miles so far. it is being driven underneath deep undergroves. this fire was actually started as a preemptive way to protect williams from wildfires. this has been a deadly weekend for troops in afghanistan. eight u.s. troops and two members of afghanistan's national security force were killed in a battle with militants. it happened yesterday. that is the largest number of americans killed by hostile action in a single day since july of 2008. officials say coalition forces fought back after militants launched an attack from a mosque. the deaths come as president obama weighs what course to take in afghanistan and an immediate u.s. withdrawal seems highly unlikely. but, ultimately ft. a lyultimal and the top commander in

afghanistan agree it's critical to stop the safe havens s s fro spreading. >> i believe the risk in afghanistan brings huge risk that terrorists like al qaeda will operate from within afghanistan again. >> general mcchrystal is calling for faster training of afghan forces. earlier efforts to speed up afghan training stalled partly because there was a lack of nato trainers. two top federal officials will be in chicago this week to learn about the violence plaguing the city's public school students. president obama is sending attorney general eric holder and also education secretary arne duncan, who was the city's school superintendent. the beating death of 16-year-old derrion albert was captured on cell phone video. here is part of it right here. chicago police say they are up against a code of silence that keeps people from talking to investigators. speakers at albert's funeral warn that the world is watching how they respond to his death. mayor richard daley called on

the community to cooperate with police. >> i'll be meeting with representatives of the community, the high schools, and as well as the police department and the family and others to really get down to the bottom of the code of silence. the code of silence is an unacceptable in this day and age where we have young children being killed. it is something that every family, every community should stand up, shoulder to shoulder, and not allow teenagers to run their family, run their block, or their community. this is truly unacceptable. four teenagers are charged with beating albert to death. police are still trying to find other teens who may have taken part in this attack. during the funeral, the victim's mother, jeannette albert, read from a poem that she wrote for her son. she says she doesn't want any other parent to go through the grief she is going through right now. victor woods, a one-time criminal who now tries to steer chicago's kids away from crime, says the city isn't facing up to its epidemic of violence.

>> we had 37 young people die last year and this is not on the job training. this city is not prepared to stop this problem. i've been doing work at the juvenile detention center downtown where there's 500 boys and girls locked up that they need help and they told me this year they don't have funding to go there and work with these kids that are exactly like the boy that got out and killed that boy. we're not ready. >> derrion albert was buried near the grave of his grandmother. a tennessee mother who was stabbed and had her newborn baby kidnapped got to hold him in her arms again, but the reunion didn't last long. the child seen here along with the woman's three other children were placed in state custody yesterday. child protective services said they were taken for safety reasons, but wouldn't explain why the kids were in any danger. investigators found the baby unharmed in a home in alabama and arrested a suspect on kidnapping charges. the suspect's live-in boyfriend said she told him she adopted

the baby from a cousin who was going to jail. u.n. experts say iran has all the information it needs to design and build a nuclear bomb. a confidential analysis was published yesterday in "the new york times". those same experts say they need more evidence to be sure about the extent of iran's nuclear knowledge. but their report says iran got some know-how from rogue nuclear scientists and it did a lot of research and testing on its own. if this report is accurate, it would contradict an assertion made by u.s. intelligence agencies two years ago that said iran had halted efforts to design a nuclear weapon. "the times" quotes a senior u.s. official as saying the assessment is now being re-evaluated. u.n. inspectors will start looking at iran's newly revealed nuclear site on october 25th. the head of u.n.'s nuclear agency held talks in tehran today. he said he wants to make sure the site is used for peaceful

purposes. president obama said iran attempted to conceal the plant and that is in violation of international rules on atomic facilities, but iran's leader says his country followed the protocol, which requires a country to reveal such a facility six months before it brings nuclear material there for processing. >> translator: based is what is stated in the regulations, we made announcement one year before the time we had to out of respect for law and the director general of the iaea and naturally the united states must have known about it. i do not know why mr. obama was not aware of it. >> u.s. ambassadors say members of the united nations security council are studying options for more sanctions if iran does not prove its motives are peaceful. checking your weekly planner now, the new supreme court term begins monday. issues for the session include gun control, child custody, and juvenile criminal sentences. tuesday, the man suspected of

killing yale student anne le will be in court. raymond clark is being held on $3 million bail. and friday, nasa's lunar crater observer will crash into the moon at the area you see here. many women overcome challenges in their lives and some use that to pass it on and inspire others. take suze orman. 30 years ago, the respected financial expert and award-winning tv host was struggling just to make ends meet. in our new series, breakthrough women, suze orman tells her story and encourages other women to take charge of their lives. >> reporter: she's known for her no-nonsense approach to money. >> stop, stop, stop. you cannot afford pit. >> but before fame and fortune, suze orman's life was a different story. she grew up with a speech impediment and lacked self-esteem. at 29, orman was a waitress, making $400 a month with dreams of opening her own restaurant.

her life changed when some customers chipped in to leave her a big tip, a $50,000 loan so she could realize her dreams. >> we want to help people who have touched our own lives. i think just me being a waitress, who loved being a waitress, inspired them to want to help me. >> reporter: but orman invested the money and her luck quickly changed. >> i didn't know any better. within three months, all $50,000 had been lost. >> reporter: the experience motivated her to get a job as a stock broker. >> the true secret of life isn't to bring all these great things to you all the time, but to make greatness happen out of everything that happens to you. >> reporter: orman eventually got her money back and worked her way to the top. she is now an emmy award-winning financial expert and best-selling author. >> i want women to respect themselves enough to understand what they have doesn't matter. who they are is the key to changing everything in their lives.

the death toll from a pair of devastating earthquakes in indonesia could double. that is the word from officials and search and rescue who are looking for survivors. there is fear that four villages in west sumatra have been wiped out completely by mountains of mud. efforts to reach those areas today were hampered by heavy rains. the quakes killed more than 700 people. as many as 3,000 could still be buried under mud and debris. that includes hundreds of people trapped in a mosque during a wedding. people are using anything they can, hammers, chisels, even their bare hands to dig through debris. firefighters are often called on to be heroes. they frequently rush into situations that other people are running away from.

but as susan candiotti tell us, one new york's firefighters heroics last week may have been overshadowed. >> reporter: these images of a good samaritan who climbed up a fire escape and took an injured boy from the arms of a fireman captured worldwide attention and made horia cretan an instant media hit. >> horia cretan snapped into action. >> the man is a bona fide hero. >> will you marry me? >> was instantly turned into an american hero. >> reporter: an unexpected hero. a closer look at the video made us wonder about the other hero, that fireman who went inside a blazing inferno to snatch that 4-year-old boy. a firefighter who handed off the youngster to cretan. here he is. this is it? >> that's my helmet, my coat, my pants. >> reporter: they belong to firefighter jimmy senk. >> ever since i was a little kid, it just seemed like the right thing to do. i wanted to do something with my life that would mean something to me. >> reporter: he's been a

firefighter for only five years, but his training paid off that day in the bronx. >> as soon as we came around the corner, it was heavy black smoke pushing out all the windows. >> reporter: senk saw the little boy's arms hanging outside the window, but couldn't use the fire escape. too many people were coming down it. his buddies got him up there on a ladder. >> i smashed a window to get in and then to get the boy. >> what happened? >> he disappeared into the black smoke. >> and you thought? >> oh, man, what am i going to do now, i've got to go get him. >> and there you are on the ladder, so -- >> i went to plan "b" and jumped to the fire escape, went in, found him by his door. >> what condition was he in? >> he was unconscious, body was limp, foaming black stuff at the mouth. >> what did you think? >> i think he was going to make it. >> reporter: senk handed the boy to the stranger on the fire escape. the youngster survived. is your colleague a hero? >> oh, definitely. we're extremely proud of him. >> the fact that he lived is incredible, because i wasn't sure he was going to when i took

him out. everybody has to do their job for everything to work right and good things like this to happen. >> reporter: from firefighter to civilian, a chain reaction of heroes. susan candiotti, cnn, new york. it is taken scientists many years to solve the puzzle of some bones recovered in africa. what they have found raises new and profound questions about where human beings come from. we'll give you some of the answers on hln news and views.

a 70-year-old denver woman remains on life-support after a vicious attack by a pair of dogs. mary garcia was watching her great grandson at her home friday night. she apparently went outside to lock her car when the dogs attacked her, just 40 feet from her front door. the animals bit her in the face, leg, and arm. neighbors quickly came to garcia's aid, but the stress of the attack caused her to have a heart attack. >> when we got there last night, she told us she was on life-support. they worked on her and performed a couple different procedures on her. she's still not out of the woods. >> animal control officers say the mother dog and her offspring escaped through a hole in a neighbor's fence. their owner was ticketed on two counts of having vicious animals and faces the possibility of a fine, even jail time. animal control officers captured the dogs and say they will be

euthanized. an unregistered python killed a 2-year-old florida girl earlier this year. well, now state officials are pushing to get exotic animals out of people's homes. florida state law requires owners to have permits. officials have been encouraging people to give up unregistered pets and this weekend they extended an amnesty for turning over exotic breeds with no questions asked. >> when new legislation even just gets mentioned on tv, people tend to misunderstand and start to release animals. >> gatorland, which cohosted the event, will probably take in many of the reptiles. licensed handlers will adopt the rest. here's a question for you. would you like to take a dinosaur home? well, an auction house put up a fossilized t-rex for sale in las vegas. it is one of the most complete t-rex skeletons ever found. so, the auction house has been hoping the get at least $6 million for it. so far, the best offer is about

$3.7 million. the auction house says it is still confident it will find a buyer. scientists are just beginning to understand what a fossil unearthed more than a decade ago can tell us about the history of humanity. morgan neill introduces us to a long-lost relative. >> reporter: it's a discovery that's giving scientists new clues to how humans may have evolved. >> we have recovered a partial skeleton dating to 4.4 million years ago. >> reporter: these are the fossilized remains of ardi, who roamed the earth more than 4 million years ago. discovered in ethiopia in 1994, it's taken years for scientists to analyze the remains and publish a series of new articles in the journal of science. >> this was like discovering a time capsule from a period and a place that we knew nothing about. >> reporter: ardi's skeleton revealed she was 1.2 meters tall and weighed about 49.8

kilograms. the skeleton was discovered in ethiopia, a country that also yielded the remains of lucy, previously the oldest skeleton of a human ancestor. ardi's pelvis and hip indicate she could walk on two legs like a human, but could also climb on all fours among tree branches. scientists say the findings challenge earlier beliefs that humans evolved from a chimp-like creature. >> from the beginning, we've used chimpanzees and gorillas as our stand-ins, if you will, for the last common ancestor. we can't do that anymore. >> reporter: instead, ardi supports beliefs that chimps and humans esolved separately from the same ancestor. >> we can see that as primitive as this creature is, it has already evolved those special characters indicating that it's on our side of the family tree and that it is not on the chimpanzee side of the family

tree, nor is it the common ancestor. >> reporter: experts say what they've learned from ardi leads them to think that common ancestor or missing link was likely less like a chimp than previously thought. and that, they say, opens up entirely new ways of thinking about human evolution. morgan neill, cnn, london. the obama administration wants americans to take cybersecurity much more seriously. the white house is sounding the alarm, saying one of the biggest threats to national security may be the computer in your own home or office. steps you can take to increase your computer security include using antivirus software, using spam filters, parental controls, also firewalls. you should also regularly back up important files to external computer drives. and you should also think twice about sending information over the internet. especially on wireless or unsecured public networks. breast cancer survivors are getting many tributes this month, but few will last as long

as the ribbons being given away from a denver shop. why the recipients will be proud to show some skin. y8

it is called the sheep fire, but there is certainly nothing meek about it. why california authorities are especially worried about one area in its path. and this teen's death shocked the country after his fatal beating was captured on videotape. now president obama is getting involved and sending top-level officials to his hometown to find out how to prevent similar violence. the white house has a message for you as well. you could be part of a big security problem without even knowing it. what it wants you to do to tackle the issue. you're watching hln on this first sunday in october. so glad you're with us. i'm susan hendricks. in southern california, a win

wind-driven wildfire has destroyed three homes and is threatening dozens of others. the so-called sheep fire is being fueled by high winds, some gusting as high as 45 miles per hour. it is burning through dry underbrush and thick woods near san bernardino. more than 4,000 people have been ordered to evacuate the area. the fire sparked to life yesterday afternoon and burned more than 3,500 acres so far. authorities have ordered evacuations for people in the path of the flames. >> i saw the smoke and it reminded me of the station fire. it looked just as bad. i knew we were in for a bad one. >> our biggest concern is that this fire hits highway 138 more westward. the reason for that is because there's a lot of homes up off of highway 138. >> the fire is also burning close to interstate 15. that's a major highway which connects las vegas to southern california. in arizona, a routine burn that got out of control looks like this now. it is threatening the town known as the gateway to the grand canyon. people in the town of williams

are keeping a close eye on this so-called twin fire. it has burned more than 1 1/2 square miles so far. it is being driven through deep undergrowth and pine trees by high winds. about 64 homes have been evacuated in the town, which is about 120 miles north of phoenix. this fire was actually started as a preemptive way to protect williams from wildfires. this has been a deadly weekend for troops in afghanistan. eight u.s. troops and two members of afghanistan's national security force were killed in a battle with militants. it happened yesterday. that is the largest number of americans killed by hostile action in a single day since july of 2008. officials say coalition forces fought back after militants launched an attack from a mosque. the deaths come as president obama weighs what course to take in afghanistan and an immediate u.s. withdrawal seems highly unlikely. but, ultimately the president and the top commander in afghanistan agree it's critical

to stop the terrorist group's safe havens from spreading. >> i believe the loss of afghanistan brings huge risk that terrorist groups like al qaeda will operate from within afghanistan again. >> general mcchrystal is calling for faster training of afghan forces. earlier efforts to speed up afghan training stalled partly because there was a lack of nato trainers. two top federal officials will be in chicago this week to learn about the violence plaguing the city's public school students. president obama is sending attorney general eric holder and also education secretary arne duncan, who was the city's school superintendent. the beating death of 16-year-old derrion albert was captured on cell phone video. here is part of it right here. chicago police say they are up against a code of silence that keeps people from talking to investigators. speakers at albert's funeral warn that the world is watching

how they respond to his death. mayor richard daley called on the community to cooperate with police. >> i'll be meeting with representatives of the community, the high schools, and as well as the police department and the family and others to really get down to the bottom of the code of silence. the code of silence is an unacceptable in this day and age where we have young children being killed. it is something that every family, every community should stand up, shoulder to shoulder, and not allow teenagers to run their family, run their block, or their community. this is truly unacceptable. four teenagers are charged with beating albert to death. police are still trying to find other teens who may have taken part in this attack. during the funeral, the victim's mother, jeannette albert, read from a poem that she wrote for her son. she says she doesn't want any other parent to go through the grief she is going through right now. victor woods, a one-time criminal who now tries to steer chicago's kids away from crime, says the city isn't facing up to

its epidemic of violence. >> we had 37 young people die last year and this is not on the job training. this city is not prepared to stop this problem. i've been doing work at the juvenile detention center downtown where there's 500 boys and girls locked up that they need help and they told me this year they don't have funding to go there and work with these kids that are exactly like the boy that got out and killed that boy. we're not ready. >> derrion albert was buried in homewood, illinois, near the grave of his grandmother. a tennessee mother who was stabbed and had her newborn baby kidnapped got to hold him in her arms again, but the reunion didn't last long. the child seen here along with the woman's three other children were placed in state custody yesterday. child protective services said they were taken for safety reasons, but wouldn't explain why the kids were in any danger. investigators found the baby unharmed in a home in alabama and arrested a suspect on kidnapping charges. the suspect's live-in boyfriend

said she told him she adopted the baby from a cousin who was going to jail. u.n. experts say iran has all the information it needs to design and build a nuclear bomb. a confidential analysis was published yesterday in "the new york times". those same experts say they need more evidence to be sure about the extent of iran's nuclear knowledge. but their report says iran got some know-how from rogue nuclear scientists and it did a lot of research and testing on its own. if this report is accurate, it would contradict an assertion made by u.s. intelligence agencies two years ago that said iran had halted efforts to design a nuclear weapon. "the times" quotes a senior u.s. official as saying the assessment is now being re-evaluated. u.n. inspectors will start looking at iran's newly revealed nuclear site on october 25th. the head of u.n.'s nuclear agency held talks in tehran today. he says inspectors want to make

sure the site is used for peaceful purposes. it has been a huge concern since iran revealed the nuclear enrichment plant last month. president obama said iran attempted to conceal the plant and that is in violation of international rules on atomic facilities, but iran's leader says his country followed the protocol, which requires a country to reveal such a facility six months before it brings nuclear material there for processing. >> translator: based on what is stated in the regulations, we had made the announcement one year before the time that we had to out of respect for the law and the director general of the iaea and naturally the united states must have known about it. i do not know why mr. obama was not aware of it. >> u.s. ambassadors say members of the united nations security council are studying options for more sanctions if iran does not prove its motives are peaceful. president obama and first lady michelle celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary and kept it pretty simple.

they had dinner last night at a restaurant near georgetown. this was the couple's first anniversary since moving into the white house. last year they also had a simple celebration with dinner at a local restaurant in their hometown, chicago. something new for you this weekend. we call it "my city, my secret." it is a look at hidden places in town all across the country. and we start with an insider tour of cincinnati. >> what's going on. dehaney jones from cincinnati bengals. don't forget, cincinnati is my city. and 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, they have good music, the bartenders are cool, the food is absolutely fantastic. we are in downtown cincinnati at

the aronoff center. it's art federal. the premiere place where people can come and express themselves. we're in eden park, a place where you can bring your family, your friends, or 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 sort of live in my own world, but i take advantage of the space. the tour's over. sorry i have to going, but i hope you enjoyed some of the best-kept secrets of the best town of cincinnati.

the death toll from a pair of devastating earthquakes in indonesia could double. that is the word from officials and search and rescue who are looking for survivors. there is fear that four villages in west sumatra have been wiped out completely by mountains of mud. efforts to reach those areas today were hampered by heavy rains. the quakes killed more than 700 people. as many as 3,000 could still be buried under mud and debris. that includes hundreds of people trapped in a mosque during a wedding. people are using anything they can, hammers, chisels, even their bare hands to dig through debris. firefighters are often called on to be heroes. they frequently rush into situations that other people are running away from. but as susan candiotti tell us, one new york's firefighters heroics last week may have been overshadowed. >> reporter: these images of a

good samaritan who climbed up a fire escape and took an injured boy from the arms of a fireman captured worldwide attention and made horia cretan an instant media hit. >> horia cretan snapped into action. >> the man is a bona fide hero. >> will you marry me? >> was instantly turned into an american hero. >> reporter: an unexpected hero. a closer look at the video made us wonder about the other hero, that fireman who went inside a blazing inferno to snatch that 4-year-old boy. a firefighter who handed off the youngster to cretan. here he is. this is it? >> that's my helmet, my coat, my pants. >> reporter: they belong to firefighter jimmy senk. >> ever since i was a little kid, it just seemed like the right thing to do. i wanted to do something with my life that would mean something to me. >> reporter: he's been a firefighter for only five years, but his training paid off that day in the bronx. >> as soon as we came around the corner, it was heavy black smoke pushing out all the windows. >> reporter: senk saw the little

boy's arms hanging outside the window, but couldn't use the fire escape. too many people were coming down it. his buddies got him up there on a ladder. >> i smashed a window to get in and then to get the boy. >> what happened? >> he disappeared into the black smoke. >> and you thought? >> oh, man, what am i going to do now, i've got to go get him. >> and there you are on the ladder, so -- >> i went to plan "b" and jumped to the fire escape, went in, found him by his door. >> what condition was he in? >> he was unconscious, body was limp, foaming black stuff at the mouth. >> what did you think? >> i didn't think he was going to make it, to be honest. >> reporter: senk handed the boy to the stranger on the fire escape. the youngster survived. is your colleague a hero? >> oh, definitely. we're extremely proud of him. >> the fact that he lived is incredible, because i wasn't sure he was going to when i took him out. everybody has to do their job in order for everything to work right and for the good things like this to happen. and everyone did that, thank god. >> reporter: from firefighter to civilian, a chain reaction of

heroes. susan candiotti, cnn, new york. it has taken scientists many years to solve the puzzle of some bones recovered in africa. what they have found raises new and profound questions about where human beings come from. we'll give you some of the answers on hln news and views.

a 70-year-old denver woman remains on life-support after a vicious attack by a pair of dogs. mary garcia was watching her great grandson at her home friday night. she apparently went outside to lock her car when the dogs attacked her, just 40 feet from her front door. the animals bit her in the face, leg, and arm. neighbors quickly came to garcia's aid, but the stress of the attack caused her to have a heart attack. >> when we got there last night, they told us she was on life-support. they worked on her and performed a couple different procedures on her. she's still not out of the woods. >> animal control officers say the mother dog and her offspring escaped through a hole in a neighbor's fence. their owner was ticketed on two counts of having vicious animals and faces the possibility of a fine, even jail time.

animal control officers captured the dogs and say they will be euthanized. an unregistered python killed a 2-year-old florida girl earlier this year. well, now state officials are pushing to get exotic animals out of people's homes. florida state law requires owners to have permits. officials have been encouraging people to give up unregistered pets and this weekend they extended an amnesty for turning over exotic breeds with no questions asked. they held an event with the local alligator theme park. >> when new legislation even just gets mentioned on tv, people tend to misunderstand and start to release animals. >> gatorland, which co-hosted the event, will probably take in many of the reptiles. licensed handlers will adopt the rest. here's a question for you. would you like to take a dinosaur home? well, an auction house put up a fossilized t-rex for sale in las vegas. it is one of the most complete t-rex skeletons ever found.

so, the auction house has been hoping the get at least $6 million for it. so far, the best offer is about $3.7 million. the auction house says it is still confident it will find a buyer. scientists are just beginning to understand what a fossil unearthed more than a decade ago can tell us about the history of humanity. morgan neill introduces us to a long-lost relative. >> reporter: it's a discovery that's giving scientists new clues to how humans may have evolved. >> we have recovered a partial skeleton dating to 4.4 million years ago. >> reporter: these are the fossilized remains of ardi, who roamed the earth more than 4 million years ago. discovered in ethiopia in 1994, it's taken years for scientists to analyze the remains and publish a series of new articles in "the journal of science." >> this was like discovering a time capsule from a period and a place that we knew nothing about.

>> reporter: ardi's skeleton revealed she was 1.2 meters tall and weighed about 49.8 kilograms. the skeleton was discovered in ethiopia, a country that also yielded the remains of lucy,di's discovered in ethiopia, also the remains of lucy were found there. the pelvis and hip indicates she could walk on two legs like humans. the findings challenge earlier beliefs that humans evolved from a chimp-like creature. >> we have used chimps and gar gorillas. we want do that anymore. >> reporter: chimps and humans evolved separately from the same ancestor. >> we can see that as primitive as this creature is, it has already evolved. those special characters indicating that it is on our side of the family tree. and that it is not on the

chimpanzee side of the family tree nor is it the chommon ancestor. >> reporter: that miss link was less like a chimp than previously thought and that opens up entirely new ways of thinking about human evolution. the obama administration wants americans to take cybersecurity much more seriously. the white house is sounding the alarm saying one of the biggest threats to national security may be the computer in your own home or office. steps you can take to increase computer security include using anti-virus software, using filters, parental control and firewalls and regularly backup important files to external computer drives and think twice about sending information over the internet especially on wireless or unsecured public

networks. breast cancer survivors are getting many tributes this month but few will last as long as ribbons being given away from a denver shop. why the recipients will be proud to show some skin. úú?aaauuuuu

it is called the sheep fire, but there is certainly nothing meek about it. why california authorities are especially worried about one area in its path. and this teen's death shocked the country after his fatal beating was captured on videotape. now president obama is getting involved and sending top-level officials to his hometown to find out how to prevent similar violence. the white house has a message for you as well. you could be part of a big security problem without even knowing it. what it wants you to do to tackle the issue. you're watching hln on this first sunday in october. so glad you're with us. i'm susan hendricks. a wind-driven wildfire has destroyed three homes and its

threatening dozens of others in southern california now. the so-called sheep fire is being fueled by high winds, some gusting as high as 45 miles per hour. it is burning through dry underbrush and thick woods near san bernardino. more than 4,000 people have been ordered to evacuate the area. the fire sparked to life yesterday afternoon and burned more than 3,500 acres so far. authorities ordered evacuations for people in the path of the flames. >> i saw the smoke and it reminded me of the station fire. it looked just as bad. i knew we were in for a bad one. >> our biggest concern is that this fire hits highway 138 more westward. the reason for that is because there's a lot of homes up off of highway 138. >> the fire is also burning close to interstate 15. that's a major highway which connects las vegas to southern california. in arizona, a routine burn that got out of control looks like this now. it is threatening the town known as the gateway to the grand canyon. people in the town of williams are keeping a close eye on this

so-called twin fire. it has burned more than 1 1/2 square miles so far. it is being driven underneath deep undergroves. about 64 homes have been evacuated and the town which is about 120 miles north of phoenix. this fire was actually started as a preemptive way to protect williams from wildfires. this has been a deadly weekend for troops in afghanistan. eight u.s. troops and two members of afghanistan's national security force were killed in a battle with militants. it happened yesterday. that is the largest number of americans killed by hostile action in a single day since july of 2008. officials say coalition forces fought back after militants launched an attack from a mosque. the deaths come as president obama weighs what course to take in afghanistan and an immediate u.s. withdrawal seems highly unlikely. but ultimately the

president and the top commander in afghanistan agree it's critical to stop the safe havens from spreading. >> i believe the loss of stability in afghanistan brings huge risk to terrorists like al qaeda will operate from within afghanistan again. >> general mcchrystal is calling for faster training of afghan forces. earlier efforts to speed up afghan training stalled partly because there was a lack of nato trainers. two top federal officials will be in chicago this week to learn about the violence plaguing the city's public school students. president obama is sending attorney general eric holder and also education secretary arne duncan, who was the city's school superintendent. the beating death of 16-year-old derrion albert was captured on cell phone video. here is part of it right here. chicago police say they are up against a code of silence that keeps people from talking to investigators. speakers at albert's funeral warn that the world is watching how they respond to his death.

mayor richard daley called on the community to cooperate with police. >> i'll be meeting with representatives of the community, the high schools, and as well as the police department and the family and others to really get down to the bottom of the code of silence. the code of silence is an unacceptable in this day and age where we have young children being killed. it is something that every family, every community should stand up, shoulder to shoulder, and not allow teenagers to run their family, run their block, or their community. this is truly unacceptable. four teenagers are charged with beating albert to death. police are still trying to find other teens who may have taken part in this attack. during the funeral, the victim's mother, jeannette albert, read from a poem that she wrote for her son. she says she doesn't want any other parent to go through the grief she is going through right now. victor woods, a one-time criminal who now tries to steer chicago's kids away from crime, says the city isn't facing up to its epidemic of violence.

>> we had 37 young people die last year and this is not on the job training. this city is not prepared to stop this problem. i've been doing work at the juvenile detention center downtown where there's 500 boys and girls locked up that they need help and they told me this year they don't have funding to go there and work with these kids that are exactly like the boy that got out and killed that boy. we're not ready. >> derrion albert was buried near the grave of his grandmother. a tennessee mother who was stabbed and had her newborn baby kidnapped got to hold him in her arms again, but the reunion didn't last long. the child seen here along with the woman's three other children were placed in state custody yesterday. child protective services said they were taken for safety reasons, but wouldn't explain why the kids were in any danger. investigators found the baby unharmed in a home in alabama and arrested a suspect on kidnapping charges. the suspect's live-in boyfriend said she told him she adopted

the baby from a cousin who was going to jail. u.n. experts say iran has all the information it needs to design and build a nuclear bomb. a confidential analysis was published yesterday in "the new york times". those same experts say they need more evidence to be sure about the extent of iran's nuclear knowledge. but their report says iran got some know-how from rogue nuclear scientists and it did a lot of research and testing on its own. if this report is accurate, it would contradict an assertion made by u.s. intelligence agencies two years ago that said iran had halted efforts to design a nuclear weapon. "the times" quotes a senior u.s. official as saying the assessment is now being re-evaluated. u.n. inspectors will start looking at iran's newly revealed nuclear site on october 25th. the head of u.n.'s nuclear agency held talks in tehran today. he said he wants to make sure the site is used for peaceful purposes.

it's been a haung concern since iran revealed the nuclear enrichment plant last month. president obama said iran attempted to conceal the plant and that is in violation of international rules on atomic facilities, but iran's leader says his country followed the protocol, which requires a country to reveal such a facility six months before it brings nuclear material there for processing. >> translator: based on what is stated in the regulations, we made announcement one year before the time we had to out of respect for law and the director general of the iaea and naturally the united states must have known about it. i do not know why mr. obama was not aware of it. >> u.s. ambassadors say members of the united nations security council are studying options for more sanctions if iran does not prove its motives are peaceful. checking your weekly planner now, the new supreme court term begins monday. issues for the session include gun control, child custody, and juvenile criminal sentences.

tuesday, the man suspected of killing yale student anne le will be in court. raymond clark is being held on $3 million bail. and friday, nasa's lunar crater observer will smash into the moon at the area you see here. they will study for signs of water. a desperate search for survivors five days after a devastating earthquake as hopes of finding hundreds of missing people begin to fade. we'll take you to the disaster zone.

the death toll from a pair of devastating earthquakes in indonesia could double. that is the word from officials in search and rescue who are looking for survivors. there is fear that four villages have been wiped out completely

by mountains of mud. efforts to reach those areas today were hampered by heavy rains. the quakes killed more than 700 people. as many as 3,000 could still be buried under mud and debris. that includes hundreds of people trapped in a mosque during a wedding. people are using anything they can, hammers, chisels, even their bare hands to dig through debris. hundreds of people from agencies like fema and the red cross are helping samoa dig out from the tsunami aftermath. generators have been provided for areas without electricity and u.s. coast guard is bringing in meals, water, blankets and in california groups are collecting donations to send to survivors in the coming weeks. about 40% of the country's samoan population lives in california. firefighters are often called on to be heroes. they frequently rush into situations that other people are running away from. but as susan candiotti tell us, one new york's firefighters heroics last week may have been

overshadowed. >> reporter: these images of a good samaritan who climbed up a fire escape and took an injured boy from the arms of a fireman captured worldwide attention and made horia cretan an instant media hit. >> horia cretan snapped into action. >> the man is a bona fide hero. >> will you marry me? >> was instantly turned into an american hero. >> reporter: an unexpected hero. a closer look at the video made us wonder about the other hero, that fireman who went inside a blazing inferno to snatch that 4-year-old boy. a firefighter who handed off the youngster to cretan. here he is. this is it? >> that's my helmet, my coat, my pants. >> reporter: they belong to firefighter jimmy senk. >> ever since i was a little kid, it just seemed like the right thing to do. i wanted to do something with my life that would mean something to me. >> reporter: he's been a firefighter for only five years, but his training paid off that day in the bronx. >> as soon as we came around the

corner, it was heavy black smoke pushing out all the windows. >> reporter: senk saw the little boy's arms hanging outside the window, but couldn't use the fire escape. too many people were coming down it. his buddies got him up there on a ladder. >> i smashed a window to get in and then to get the boy. >> what happened? >> he disappeared into the black smoke. >> and you thought? >> oh, man, what am i going to do now, i've got to go get him. >> and there you are on the ladder, so -- >> i went to plan "b" and jumped to the fire escape, went in, found him by his door. >> what condition was he in? >> he was unconscious, body was limp, foaming black stuff at the mouth. >> what did you think? >> i didn't think he would make it to be honest. >> reporter: senk handed the boy to the stranger on the fire escape. the youngster survived. is your colleague a hero? >> oh, definitely. we're extremely proud of him. >> the fact that he lived is incredible, because i wasn't sure he was going to when i took him out. everybody has to do their job for everything to work right and good things like this to happen.

everyone did that thank god. >> reporter: from firefighter to civilian, a chain reaction of heroes. susan candiotti, cnn, new york. cnn's vital signs look at the world of medicine around the world. ageing populations are a concern for many countries but especially in japan. that's where dr. sanjay gupta found a concern being turned into an advantage. >> with a dwindling young workforce and growing number of senior citizens, japan is facing a fiscal squeeze. some say there's a segment of the population overlooked but key to the country's economic survival. we hear about a lush village on a japanese island where we're told we'll see the wave of the future. this 80-something couple provides a glimpse of what an ageing population may look like in coming years.

i was afraid to touch the machine. i was afraid i would break it. a specially designed mouse allows elderly hands to navigate. there are 200 elderly that are the backbone of the agriculture company. half of the two dozen residents are 65 years and old. >> for more on this story an other exciting advances in medicine, head to our website. cnn.com/vitalsigns.

a 70-year-old denver woman remains on life-support after a vicious attack by a pair of dogs. mary garcia was watching her great grandson at her home friday night. she apparently went outside to lock her car when the dogs attacked her, just 40 feet from her front door. the animals bit her in the face, leg, and arm. neighbors quickly came to garcia's aid, but the stress of the attack caused her to have a heart attack. >> when we got there last night, they told us she was on life support. they worked on her and performed a couple different procedures on her. she's still not out of the woods. >> animal control officers say the mother dog and her offspring escaped through a hole in a neighbor's fence. their owner was ticketed on two counts of having vicious animals and faces the possibility of a fine, even jail time. animal control officers captured the dogs and say they will be euthanized.

an unregistered python killed a 2-year-old florida girl earlier this year. well, now state officials are pushing to get exotic animals out of people's homes. florida state law requires owners to have permits. officials have been encouraging people to give up unregistered pets and this weekend they extended an amnesty for turning over exotic breeds with no questions asked. they held a turn in event with a local alligator theme park. >> when new legislation gets mentioned on tv, people tend to misunderstand and start to release animals. >> gatorland, which cohosted the event, will probably take in many of the reptiles. licensed handlers will adopt the rest. here's a question for you. would you like to take a dinosaur home? well, an auction house put up a fossilized t-rex for sale in las vegas. it is one of the most complete t-rex skeletons ever found. so, the auction house has been

hoping to get at least $6 million for it. so far, the best offer is about $3.7 million. the auction house says it is still confident it will find a buyer. scientists are just beginning to understand what a fossil unearthed more than a decade ago can tell us about the history of humanity. morgan neill introduces us to a long-lost relative. >> reporter: it's a discovery that's giving scientists new clues to how humans may have evolved. >> we have recovered a partial skeleton dating to 4.4 million years ago. >> reporter: these are the fossilized remains of ardi, who roamed the earth more than 4 million years ago. discovered in ethiopia in 1994, it's taken years for scientists to analyze the remains and publish a series of new articles in the journal of science. >> this was like discovering a time capsule from a period and a place that we knew nothing about. >> reporter: ardi's skeleton revealed she was 1.2 meters tall

and weighed about 49.8 kilograms. the skeleton was discovered in ethiopia, a country that also yielded the remains of lucy, previously the oldest skeleton of a human ancestor. ardi's pelvis and hip indicate she could walk on two legs like a human, but could also climb on all fours among tree branches. scientists say the findings challenge earlier beliefs that humans evolved from a chimp-like creature. >> from the beginning, we've used chimpanzees and gorillas as our stand-ins, if you will, for the last common ancestor. we can't do that anymore. >> reporter: instead, ardi supports beliefs that chimps and humans evolved separately from the same ancestor. >> we can see that as primitive as this creature is, it has already evolved those special characters indicating that it's on our side of the family tree and that it is not on the chimpanzee side of the family

tree, nor is it the common ancestor. >> reporter: experts say what they've learned from ardi leads them to think that common ancestor or missing link was likely less like a chimp than previously thought. and that, they say, opens up entirely new ways of thinking about human evolution. morgan neill, cnn, london. the obama administration wants americans to take cybersecurity much more seriously. the white house is sounding the alarm, saying one of the biggest threats to national security may be the computer in your own home or office. steps you can take to increase your computer security include using antivirus software, using spam filters, parental controls, also firewalls. you should also regularly back up important files to external computer drives. and you should also think twice about sending information over the internet. especially on wireless or unsecured public networks. breast cancer survivors are getting many tributes this month, but few will last as long

as the ribbons being given away from a denver shop. why the recipients will be proud to show some skin. úú?aaauuuuu

it is called the sheep fire, but there is certainly nothing meek about it. why california authorities are especially worried about one area in its path. and this teen's death shocked the country after his fatal beating was captured on videotape. now president obama is getting involved and sending top-level officials to his hometown to find out how to prevent similar violence. the white house has a message for you as well. you could be part of a big security problem without even knowing it. what it wants you to do to tackle the issue. you're watching hln on this first sunday in october. so glad you're with us. i'm susan hendricks. in southern california, a wind-driven wildfire has destroyed three homes and is threatening dozens of others.

the so-called sheep fire is being fueled by high winds, some gusting as high as 45 miles per hour. it is burning through dry underbrush and thick woods near san bernardino. more than 4,000 people have been ordered to evacuate the area. the fire sparked to life yesterday afternoon and burned more than 3,500 acres so far. authorities have ordered evacuations for people in the path of the flames. >> i saw the smoke and it reminded me of the station fire. it looked just as bad. i knew we were in for a bad one. >> our biggest concern is that this fire hits highway 138 more westward. the reason for that is because there's a lot of homes up off of highway 138. >> the fire is also burning close to interstate 15. that's a major highway which connects las vegas to southern california. in arizona, a routine burn that got out of control looks like this now. it is threatening the town known as the gateway to the grand canyon. people in the town of williams

are keeping a close eye on this so-called twin fire. it has burned more than 1 1/2 square miles so far. it is being driven through deep undergrowth and pine trees by high winds. about 64 homes have been evacuated in the town, which is about 120 miles north of phoenix. this fire was actually started as a preemptive way to protect williams from wildfires. this has been a deadly weekend for troops in afghanistan. eight u.s. troops and two members of afghanistan's national security force were killed in a battle with militants. it happened yesterday. that is the largest number of americans killed by hostile action in a single day since july of 2008. officials say coalition forces fought back after militants launched an attack from a mosque. the deaths come as president obama weighs what course to take in afghanistan and an immediate u.s. withdrawal seems highly unlikely. but, ultimately the president and the top commander in

afghanistan agree defeating al qaeda is critical to stop the terrorist group's safe havens from spreading. >> i believe the loss of afghanistan brings huge risk to transnational terrorists like al qaeda will operate from within afghanistan again. >> general mcchrystal is calling for faster training of afghan forces. earlier efforts to speed up afghan training stalled partly because there was a lack of nato trainers. two top federal officials will be in chicago this week to learn about the violence plaguing the city's public school students. president obama is sending attorney general eric holder and also education secretary arne duncan, who was the city's school superintendent. the beating death of 16-year-old derrion albert was captured on cell phone video. here is part of it right here. chicago police say they are up against a code of silence that keeps people from talking to investigators. speakers at albert's funeral warn that the world is watching how they respond to his death.

mayor richard daley called on the community to cooperate with police. >> i'll be meeting with representatives of the community, the high schools, and as well as the police department and the family and others to really get down to the bottom of the code of silence. the code of silence is an unacceptable in this day and age where we have young children being killed. it is something that every family, every community should stand up, shoulder to shoulder, and not allow teenagers to run their family, run their block, or their community. this is truly unacceptable. four teenagers are charged with beating albert to death. police are still trying to find other teens who may have taken part in this attack. during the funeral, the victim's mother, jeannette albert, read from a poem that she wrote for her son. she says she doesn't want any other parent to go through the grief she is going through right now. victor woods, a one-time criminal who now tries to steer chicago's kids away from crime, says the city isn't facing up to its epidemic of violence.

>> we had 37 young people die last year and this is not on the job training. this city is not prepared to stop this problem. i've been doing work at the juvenile detention center downtown where there's 500 boys and girls locked up that they need help and they told me this year they don't have funding to go there and work with these kids that are exactly like the boy that got out and killed that boy. we're not ready. >> derrion albert was buried in homewood, illinois, near the grave of his grandmother. a tennessee mother who was stabbed and had her newborn baby kidnapped got to hold him in her arms again, but the reunion didn't last long. the child seen here along with the woman's three other children were placed in state custody yesterday. child protective services said they were taken for safety reasons, but wouldn't explain why the kids were in any danger. investigators found the baby unharmed in a home in alabama and arrested a suspect on kidnapping charges. the suspect's live-in boyfriend said she told him she adopted

the baby from a cousin who was going to jail. u.n. experts say iran has all the information it needs to design and build a nuclear bomb. a confidential analysis was published yesterday in "the new york times". those same experts say they need more evidence to be sure about the extent of iran's nuclear knowledge. but their report says iran got some know-how from rogue nuclear scientists and it did a lot of research and testing on its own. if this report is accurate, it would contradict an assertion made by u.s. intelligence agencies two years ago that said iran had halted efforts to design a nuclear weapon. "the times" quotes a senior u.s. official as saying the assessment is now being re-evaluated. u.n. inspectors will start looking at iran's newly revealed nuclear site on october 25th. the head of u.n.'s nuclear agency held talks in tehran today. he says inspectors want to make sure the site is used for peaceful purposes.

it has been a huge concern since iran revealed the nuclear enrichment plant last month. president obama said iran attempted to conceal the plant and that is in violation of international rules on atomic facilities, but iran's leader says his country followed the protocol, which requires a country to reveal such a facility six months before it brings nuclear material there for processing. >> translator: based on what is stated in the regulations, we had made the announcement one year before the time that we had to out of respect for the law and the director general of the iaea and naturally the united states must have known about it. i do not know why mr. obama was not aware of it. >> u.s. ambassadors say members of the united nations security council are studying options for more sanctions if iran does not prove its motives are peaceful. president obama and first lady michelle celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary and kept it pretty simple. they had dinner last night at a

restaurant near georgetown. this was the couple's first anniversary since moving into the white house. last year they also had a simple celebration with dinner at a local restaurant in their hometown, chicago. a zdesperate search for survivors after an earthquake. a fabulous vacation may fit in your budget this fall. >> you'll find lowest prices during the first two weeks of november and first two weeks of december. >> a cheaper destination this year. >> fares are down 30% to resorts like cancun. >> there are also bargains in europe. >> in amsterdam you can get a package deal for 33% less than

you paid last fall. london down 2%. rome down 26%. >> know how much to spend. >> people in most major cities should fly into mexico in the fall for $300 or less. to get to europe, you'll pay $400 to $600 round trip. from west coast, 500 to 700.

the death toll from a pair of devastating earthquakes in indonesia could double. that is the word from officials and search and rescue who are looking for survivors. there is fear that four villages

in west sumatra have been wiped out completely by mountains of mud. efforts to reach those areas today were hampered by heavy rains. the quakes killed more than 700 people. as many as 3,000 could still be buried under mud and debris. that includes hundreds of people trapped in a mosque during a wedding. people are using anything they can, hammers, chisels, even their bare hands to dig through debris. hundreds of people from agencies like fema and the red cross are helping samoa dig out from the tsunami aftermath. the u.s. coast guard is bringing in supplies like meals, water, blankets. in california groups are collecting donations to send to survivors in the coming weeks. about 40% of the country's samoan population lives in southern california. firefighters are often called on to be heroes. they frequently rush into situations that other people are

running away from. but as susan candiotti tell us, one new york's firefighters heroics last week may have been overshadowed. >> reporter: these images of a good samaritan who climbed up a fire escape and took an injured boy from the arms of a fireman captured worldwide attention and made horia cretan an instant media hit. >> horia cretan snapped into action. >> the man is a bona fide hero. >> will you marry me? >> was instantly turned into an american hero. >> reporter: an unexpected hero. a closer look at the video made us wonder about the other hero, that fireman who went inside a blazing inferno to snatch that 4-year-old boy. a firefighter who handed off the youngster to cretan. here he is. this is it? >> that's my helmet, my coat, my pants. >> reporter: they belong to firefighter jimmy senk. >> ever since i was a little kid, it just seemed like the right thing to do. i wanted to do something with my life that would mean something to me. >> reporter: he's been a

firefighter for only five years, but his training paid off that day in the bronx. >> as soon as we came around the corner, it was heavy black smoke pushing out all the windows. >> reporter: senk saw the little boy's arms hanging outside the window, but couldn't use the fire escape. too many people were coming down it. his buddies got him up there on a ladder. >> i smashed a window to get in and then to get the boy. >> what happened? >> he disappeared into the black smoke. >> and you thought? >> oh, man, what am i going to do now, i've got to go get him. >> and there you are on the ladder, so -- >> i went to plan "b" and jumped to the fire escape, went in, found him by his door. >> what condition was he in? >> he was unconscious, body was limp, foaming black stuff at the mouth. >> what did you think? >> i didn't think he was going to make it, to be honest. >> reporter: senk handed the boy to the stranger on the fire escape. the youngster survived. is your colleague a hero? >> oh, definitely. we're extremely proud of him. >> the fact that he lived is incredible, because i wasn't sure he was going to when i took him out. everybody has to do their job in

order for everything to work right and for the good things like this to happen. and everyone did that, thank god. >> reporter: from firefighter to civilian, a chain reaction of heroes. susan candiotti, cnn, new york. it has taken scientists many years to solve the puzzle of some bones recovered in africa. what they have found raises new and profound questions about where human beings come from. we'll give you some of the answers on hln news and views.

a 70-year-old denver woman remains on life-support after a vicious attack by a pair of dogs. mary garcia was watching her great grandson at her home friday night. she apparently went outside to lock her car when the dogs attacked her, just 40 feet from her front door. the animals bit her in the face, leg, and arm. neighbors quickly came to garcia's aid, but the stress of the attack caused her to have a heart attack. >> when we got there last night, they told us she was on life-support. they worked on her and performed a couple different procedures on her. she's still not out of the woods. >> animal control officers say the mother dog and her offspring escaped through a hole in a neighbor's fence. their owner was ticketed on two counts of having vicious animals and faces the possibility of a fine, even jail time.

animal control officers captured the dogs and say they will be euthanized. an unregistered python killed a 2-year-old florida girl earlier this year. well, now state officials are pushing to get exotic animals out of people's homes. florida state law requires owners to have permits. officials have been encouraging people to give up unregistered pets and this weekend they extended an amnesty for turning over exotic breeds with no questions asked. they held an event with the local alligator theme park. >> when new legislation even just gets mentioned on tv, people tend to misunderstand and start to release animals. >> gatorland, which co-hosted the event, will probably take in many of the reptiles. licensed handlers will adopt the rest. here's a question for you. would you like to take a dinosaur home? well, an auction house put up a fossilized t-rex for sale in las vegas. it is one of the most complete t-rex skeletons ever found. so, the auction house has been

hoping the get at least $6 million for it. so far, the best offer is about $3.7 million. the auction house says it is still confident it will find a buyer. scientists are just beginning to understand what a fossil unearthed more than a decade ago can tell us about the history of humanity. morgan neill introduces us to a long-lost relative. >> reporter: it's a discovery that's giving scientists new clues to how humans may have evolved. >> we have recovered a partial skeleton dating to 4.4 million years ago. >> reporter: these are the fossilized remains of ardi, who roamed the earth more than 4 million years ago. discovered in ethiopia in 1994, it's taken years for scientists to analyze the remains and publish a series of new articles in "the journal of science." >> this was like discovering a time capsule from a period and a place that we knew nothing about. >> reporter: ardi's skeleton

revealed she was 1.2 meters tall and weighed about 49.8 kilograms. the skeleton was discovered in ethiopia, a country that also yielded the remains of lucy, previously the oldest skeleton ethiop ethiopia, the country that also revealed the remains of lucy, the skeleton of our oldest ancestor. aldi could climb on two legs like a human or on all four in tree branches. it challenges earlier beliefs that humans evolved from a chimp-like creature. >> we used chimpanzees and gorillas as our stand-ins for the last common ancestor. we couldn't do that any more. >> they believe that chimps and humans evolved separately from the same ancestor. >> we can see that as primitive as this creature is, it has already evolved those special characters that it's on our side

of the family tree and that it is not on the chimpanzee side of the family tree nor is it the common ancestor. >> reporter: experts say what they've learned from ardi leads them to think that that common ancestor or missing link was less like a chimp than previously thought. and that, they say, opens up entirely new ways of thinking about human evolution. morgan neill, london. the obama administration wants americans to take cybersecurity much more seriously. the white house is sounding the alarm saying one of the biggest threats to national security may be the computer in your own home or office. steps you can take to increase your computer security include using antivirus software, using spam filters, parental controls, also firewalls. you should regularly back up important files to external computer drives and think twice about sending information over the internet, especially on

wireless or unsecured public networks. breast cancer survivors are getting many tributes this month, but few will last as long as the ribbons being given away from a denver shop.

it is called the sheep fire, but there is certainly nothing meek about it. why california authorities are especially worried about one area in its path. and this teen's death shocked the country after his fatal beating was captured on videotape. now president obama is getting involved and sending top-level officials to his hometown to find out how to prevent similar violence. the white house has a message for you as well. you could be part of a big security problem without even knowing it. what it wants you to do to tackle the issue. you're watching hln on this first sunday in october. so glad you're with us. i'm susan hendricks. in southern california, a wind-driven wildfire has destroyed three homes and is threatening dozens of others.

the so-called sheep fire is being fueled by high winds, some gusting as high as 45 miles per hour. it is burning through dry underbrush and thick woods near san bernardino. more than 4,000 people have been ordered to evacuate the area. the fire sparked to life yesterday afternoon and burned more than 3,500 acres so far. authorities have ordered evacuations for people in the path of the flames. >> i saw the smoke and it reminded me of the station fire. it looked just as bad. i knew we were in for a bad one. >> our biggest concern is that this fire hits highway 138 more westward. the reason for that is because there's a lot of homes up off of highway 138. >> the fire is also burning close to interstate 15. that's a major highway which connects las vegas to southern california. in arizona, a routine burn that got out of control looks like this now. it is threatening the town known as the gateway to the grand canyon. people in the town of williams

are keeping a close eye on this so-called twin fire. it has burned more than 1 1/2 square miles so far. it is being driven through deep undergrowth and pine trees by high winds. about 64 homes have been evacuated in the town, which is about 120 miles north of phoenix. this fire was actually started as a preemptive way to protect williams from wildfires. this has been a deadly weekend for troops in afghanistan. eight u.s. troops and two members of afghanistan's national security force were killed in a battle with militants. it happened yesterday. that is the largest number of americans killed by hostile action in a single day since july of 2008. officials say coalition forces fought back after militants launched an attack from a mosque. the deaths come as president obama weighs what course to take in afghanistan and an immediate u.s. withdrawal seems highly unlikely. but ultimately the president and the top commander in

afghanistan agree defeating al qaeda is critical to stop the terrorist group's safe havens from spreading. >> i believe the loss of stability in afghanistan brings huge risk that terrorist groups like al qaeda will operate from within afghanistan again. >> general mcchrystal is calling for faster training of afghan forces. earlier efforts to speed up afghan training stalled partly because there was a lack of nato trainers. two top federal officials will be in chicago this week to learn about the violence plaguing the city's public school students. president obama is sending attorney general eric holder and also education secretary arne duncan, who was the city's school superintendent. the beating death of 16-year-old derrion albert was captured on cell phone video. here is part of it right here. chicago police say they are up against a code of silence that keeps people from talking to investigators. speakers at albert's funeral warn that the world is watching how they respond to his death.

mayor richard daley called on the community to cooperate with police. >> i'll be meeting with representatives of the community, the high schools, and as well as the police department and the family and others to really get down to the bottom of the code of silence. the code of silence is unacceptable in this day and age where we have young children being killed. it is something that every family, every community should stand up, shoulder to shoulder, and not allow teenagers to run their family, run their block, or their community. this is truly unacceptable. four teenagers are charged with beating albert to death. police are still trying to find other teens who may have taken part in this attack. during the funeral, the victim's mother, jeannette albert, read from a poem that she wrote for her son. she says she doesn't want any other parent to go through the grief she is going through right now. victor woods, a one-time criminal who now tries to steer chicago's kids away from crime, says the city isn't facing up to

its epidemic of violence. >> we had 37 young people die last year, and this is not on the-job training. this city is not prepared to stop this problem. i've been doing work at the juvenile detention center downtown where there's 500 boys and girls locked up that they need help and they told me this year they don't have funding for to go there and work with these kids that are exactly like the boy that got out and killed that boy. we're not ready. >> derrion albert was buried in homewood, illinois, near the grave of his grandmother. u.n. experts say iran has all the information it needs to design and build a nuclear bomb. a confidential analysis was published yesterday in "the new york times." those same experts say they need more evidence to be sure about the extent of iran's nuclear knowledge, but their report says iran got some know-how from rogue nuclear scientists and did research and testing on its own. if this report is accurate, it

would contradict an assertion by u.s. intelligence agencies two years ago that said that iran had halted efforts to design a nuclear weapon. the "times" quotes a senior u.s. official as saying the assessment is now being re-evaluated. u.n. inspectors will start looking at iran's newly revealed nuclear sight october 25th. they held talks in tehran today. he says inspectors want to make sure the site is used for peaceful purposes. it has been a huge concern since iran revealed the nuclear enrichment plan last month. president obama said iran attempted to conceal the plant and that is in violation of international rules on atomic facilities. but iran's leader says his country followed the protocol which requires a country to reveal such a facility six months before it brings nuclear material there for processing. >> translator: based on what is stated in the regulations, we had made the announcement one year before the time we had to, out of respect for law and the

director-general of the iaea and naturally the united states must have known about it. i do not know why mr. obama was not aware of it. >> u.s. ambassadors say members of the united nations security council are studying options for more sanctions if iran does not prove its motives are peaceful. checking your weekly planner now, the new supreme court term begins monday. issues for the session include gun control, child custody and juvenile criminal sentences. tuesday the man suspected of killing yale student annie li will be in court. friday nasa's lunar crater observer will smash into the moon in the area you see here. scientists will study the dust for signs of water. it has taken scientists many years to solve the puzzle of some bones recovered in africa. what they've found raises new questions about where human beings come from.

an uj registered pooiting killed a girl earlier this year. now state officials are pushing to get exotic animals out of people's homes. florida state law requires people to have owners permits. this weekend, they extended an amnesty for turning over exotic breeds with no questions asked. they hope to turn it over to a local alligator theme park. >> when new legislation gets mentioned on tv people tend to misunderstand and starts to release animals. >> gatorland will probably pak take in many of the reptiles. licensed handlers will adopt the rest. would you like to take a dinosaur home? an auction house put up a fossilized t. rex for sale in las vegas. it is one of the most complete

t. rex skeletons ever found. the auction house is hoping to get $6 million for it. so far the best offer is $3.7 million. the auction house says it is still confident it will find a buyer. scientists are just beginning to understand what a fossil unearthed more than a decade ago can tell us about the history of humanity. morgan neil introduces us to a long lost relative. >> reporter: it's a discovery giving scientists new clues to how humans may have evolved. >> we have recovered a partial skeleton dating to 4.4 million years ago. >> reporter: these are fossilized remains of ardi. who roamed the earth more than 4 million years ago. discovered in ethiopia in 1994, it has taken scientists years to analyze the remains and publish a series of new articles in journal "science." >> this is like discovering a time capsule from a period and a place that we knew nothing

about. >> reporter: ardi's skeleton was 1.2 meters tall and weighed about 49.8 kilograms. it was discovered in ethiopia, the land that also revealed the the remains of lucy. the pelvis and hip indicates she could walk on two legs like humans. the findings challenge earlier beliefs that humans evolved from a chimp-like creature. >> from the beginning, we've used chim papzies and gorillas as our stand-ins, if you will, for the last common ancestor. we can't do that any more. >> reporter: it supports the belief that chimps and humans evolved separately from the same ancestor. >> we can see that as primitive as this creature is, it has already evolved those special characters, indicating that it's on our side of the family tree

and that it is not on the chimpanzee side of the tree for is it the common ancestor. >> reporter: what they've learned from ardi leads them to think that that common link was less like a chimp than previously thought. and that, they say, opens up entirely new way of thinksing about human evolution. morgan neil, cnn, london. the obama administration wants americans to take cybersecurity much more seriously. the white house is sounding the alarm saying one of the biggest threats to national security may be the computer in your own home or office. steps you can take to increase computer security include using anti-virus software, using spam filters, parental controls, also fire walls. you should back up important files to external drives. think twice about sending information over the internet

especially on wireless or unsecured public networks. president obama and first lady michelle celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary and kept it pretty simple. they had dinner last night near georgetown. this was the couple's first anniversary since moving into the white house. last year they had a simple celebration with dinner at a local restaurant in their home town, chicago. great pumpkins indeed. 18 huge pumpkins competed in an annual weighoff in colorado spring, yesterday. a fork lift was used to move them to the scales. look at how huge. this year's winner came in at exactly a thousand pounds. the second place pumpkin was no slacker either, weighing 954 pounds. a desperate search for survivors five days after a devastating earthquake as hopes of finding hundreds of missing people begin to fade. we'll take to you the disaster zone.

the death toll from a pair of devastating earthquakes in indonesia could double. that is the word from officials in search and rescue who are looking for survivors. there is fear that four villages

in west sumatra have been wiped out completely by mountains of mud. efforts to reach those areas today were hampered by heavy rains. the quakes killed more than 700 people. as many as 3,000 could still be buried under mud and debris. that includes hundreds of people trapped in a mosque during a wedding. people are using anything they can, hammers, chisels, even their bare hands to dig through debris. hundreds of people from agencies like fema and the red cross are helping samoa dig out from the tsunami aftermath. fema says it's provided generators for areas without electricity and the u.s. coast guard is bringing in supplies like meals, water, blankets. in california, groups are collecting donations to send to survivors in coming weeks. about 40% of the country's samoan population lives in california. i'm reynolds wolf with a look at your forecast. one of those stories will be the

possibility of heavy rainfall falling right into the red river valley. arkansas, texas, louisiana and into oklahoma where we could see from one to four inches of rainfall. problem with this is that the storm system is expected to jog its way off towards the east. as it does so, we'll see flood watches and warnings are in effect for the atlanta metropolitan area and tennessee and into the carolinas. we could see an additional one to three inches of rainfall. certainly something to watch out for. another area for heavy precipitation, not rain but snow falling from the north to central rockies, we're into the bitterroots of montana and into portions of yellowstone, even into the tetons. back to the sierra, nevada, cascade. but in southern california, breezy conditions for those fires in san bernardino. for the great lakes into the ohio valley, high pressure will be your dominating feature, with that plenty of sunshine and better day for you in parts of new england, rain early, but then a bit of clearing, nice day

for the mid-atlantic coast. high temperatures, 67 in kansas city, 2 in tampa, 4 in houston. with all that rain cooled air in dallas, it will be cooler for you. 71 in vegas. 91 in phoenix as we wrap things up. that's a look at your forecast across the nation. i'm reynolds wolf for hln. a 70-year-old denver woman remains on life support after a vicious attack by a pair of dogs. mary garcia was watching her great-grandson at her home friday night. she apparently went outside to lock her car when the dogs attacked her, just 40 feet from her front door. the animals bit her in the face, leg and arm. neighbors quickly came to garcia's aid, but the stress of the attack caused her to have a heart attack. >> when we got there last night, they told us she was on life support. they worked on her and performed a couple different procedures on her. she's still not out of the woods. >> animal control officers say the mother dog and her offspring

escaped through a hole in a neighbor's fence. their owner was ticketed on two counts of having vicious animals and faces the possibility of a fine, even jail time. animal control officers captured the dogs and say they will be euthanized. a tennessee mother who was stabbed and had her newborn baby kidnapped got to hold him in her arms again. but the reunion didn't last long. the child seen here along with the woman's three other children, were placed in state custody yesterday. child protective services say they were taken for safety reasons but wouldn't explain why the kids were in any danger. investigators found the baby unharmed at a home in alabama and arrested the subject on kidnapping charges. the boyfriend said she told him she adopted the baby from a cousin who was going to jail. cnn vital signs looks at the state of medicine around the

world. asian populations are concerned. dr. sanjay gupta found a concern being turned into an advantage. >> with the dwindling young workforce and a growing number of senior citizens, japan is facing a fiscal squeeze. some say there's a segment of the population overlooked but key to the country's economic survival. we heard about a lush mountain village on this japanese island where we're told we'll see the wave of the future. this couple high in the japanese mountains provides a glimpse of what the rest of an aging world might look like in the coming years. "at first i was afraid to touch the machine. i was afraid i'd break it." a specially designed mouse and mini keyboard allows elderly hands to navigate. in a house outfitted with business technology they're among 200 elderly who are the backbone of this agricultural company. almost half the residents are 65

years and older. >> for more on this story and other exciting advances in medicine, just head to cnn.com/vitalsigns.

. hello, i'm gerri willis, and this is a special edition of "your bottom line." protecting your vie vasy. could your spending hims be cut because of where you shop? who is watching you? we'll take a check into your background file and the big business of privacy data brokers. and what in the world is a fusion center? answers to all those questions and more. the show that saves you money starts right now. let's begin with your credit. indispensable when it comes to getting a home, a loan or even a job. card car issuers used to look only at your credit score to

determine your risk. not any more. recessionary times have prompted the companies to scour your spending habits. if they don't like what they see, the result could be a lower credit limit. >> how are you doing? kevin johnson. >> he is an entrepreneur, candidate for office -- >> running for state representative. >> and according to american express, a credit risk. coming home from his honeymoon last year, he was shocked to find amex had cut his credit limit from over $10,000 to just $3800. >> i've done a very good job of being responsible, making sure i paid my bills on time. >> even more surprising? one of the more reasons amex gave for its decision. other customers who have used their cards at establishments where you recently shopped have a poor repayment history with american express. >> i was shocked when i read it because i didn't know that the companies could actually assess your credit ratings based on others around you.

>> with more than 10% of credit card customers defaulting on their debt, they're trying to weed out the riskier ones. how? by looking for changes in the way we shop. >> you're shopping from a middle or upper tier retail store and suddenly it shows a purchase at a dollar store. some form of downshifting. suddenly shopping at wal mart. >> those red flags can lead to a deeper look at your behavior. >> if you suddenly display different behavior and then you have several purchases at a local bar, that would raise some flags that maybe there's some impending financial crisis. >> for their part, alex says we don't look at and never have looked at where someone shops to make a line reduction. we look at payment history with us, credit reports and fico scores. banking industry sources say

that is still the most predictable sign of spending behavior. they don't consider job loss or divorce. >> all they can do is look at the actual volumes and transactions that are coming in and see changing in that pattern. >> for kevin johnson, the experience has motivated him to get involved and perhaps change the way banks work. >> no one should be penalized for the actions of others. >> so kevin, like many others this year, he's not alone when it comes to dealing with questionable credit card practices. so what is your credit card company looking at, and how can they best protect your bottom line. robert manning is the author of "credit card nation." in washington is evan hendricks, the editor and publisher of "privacy times." how much info are these companies looking at? >> the first problem is that we don't know. we know they're doing it. one of the ironies in trying to protect your privacy, the first

thing is you need transparency so you do know what they're looking at. we know about this american express case and another subprime credit company that was lowering limits because people were going to marriage counselors and places to get their tires retread. i think we need stronger policies so consumers know. >> robert, i want to turn to you now. i mean, millions of us have credit cards. we make hundreds of purchases every year. how can these companies possibly keep up? >> the key is that the companies have been refining their cognitive behavior analysis. >> whoa. >> and the data mining. >> that sounds very technical. >> but the key issue is it was okay when they were satisfying our desires to take a summer cruise and they were going to tell us where we'd prefer to go and what kind of wine we wanted to have at dinner. the problem was when chargeoffs went from 5% to 10%. the same executives who didn't anticipate the recession suddenly panicked for new tools

to identify consumers in financial distress, these tools are misapplied, very inaccurate. >> you were talking about merchant codes where they put numbers on different types of purchases. help me understand that. >> when you make a transaction, the consumer actually sees a statement at the end of the month of what you purchased. you don't understand that there's actually a code associated from the merchant you purchased it from. so if you went to a pawn shop and bought a necklace, you'd see a necklace as maybe the charge. you wouldn't identify that the merchant code was from a pawn shop, which was crucial and important in these data mining activities. >> they know exactly where they are, what we're doing. they own the information at the end of the day because you're using a credit card. can you fight back? >> well, you should not be shy about communicating with your credit card company because most of us have a choice of credit cards. and there is -- like robert said, they're in panic mode right now anyway. you can remind them that you're

a good customer and that you want to know what their policies are. by the way, you need to lower my interest rates because it's too high. we're finding -- a company out in denver that's starting to do this on behalf of consumers. they're having great results by asking for these actions. >> up next, data brokers. we'll take a peek inside your personal background file.

well, if you're like most of us, you probably haven't given much thought to the data broker business, but employers rely on reports from data brokers which track everything from past due loans to police records to determine whether their hiring decisions are sound. now, it sounds simple, but as

one georgia family found out, the information isn't always right. >> that was all the good stuff. >> a job offer with good benefits. a dream for this woman's husband that suddenly turned into a nightmare. >> you know, he did the drug test. of course, that was fine. all we needed was the background check and that was supposed to turn out fine. >> but his background check revealed two felony convictions. and like that, the job offer was gone. she wants her identity hidden to avoid further problems for her husband. >> we just were in shock. >> in shock because the records belonged to another man, with the same name and same birthday as her husband. >> how did they put these two together? how could they miss this? >> the report came from choicepoint, one of the nation's largest commercial data brokers, part of a multibillion dollar industry that sells your personal information, obtained from public and private records to employers and law enforcement. privacy advocate lily cody says

most people have no clue what's in these databases that can include incorrect or outdated information. >> let's say it was an arrest that was based on faulty information and it was resolved and there was no trial, no conviction, they still have that original arrest record that may be in the database that's been passed along repeat lid to people outside of your knowledge. >> i think most of us don't know how exposed we are. >> senator patrick leahy has introduced legislation to make those databases more accessible and more secure. >> i want to know what's in my records. and i want to know how to stop misinformation in my records. and today people cannot do that with surety. >> for its part, choicepoint says that under the fair credit reporting act, individuals may obtain copies of previously prepared reports about them as well as public record information used for such reports and correct such information as appropriate. the company says those corrections typically take two weeks. time this woman says her husband

didn't have. >> i called the department of justice and the fbi. >> and her congressman. who was able to get choicepoint to quickly correct the mistake. her husband got the job, but she is still concerned. >> because this will happen again. if my husband ever has to have a background check or maybe if he ever changes jobs, that record is out there. >> so if you're trying to get that job, how can you be sure your record is accurate? joining us now is lillie coney from the privacy information center. and welcome back to you both. evan, i want to start with this. how often is this info wrong? you see that story. you see the consternation going on with that family. you know, how often do they just have stuff that's not right? >> right. we don't have the research to give us really strong numbers on that. but we know it has to be pretty bad because with credit reports, which is much more standardized and advanced than the evolution, we have a 25% to 30% error rate.

with these background checks, these companies like choicepoint, and there are a whole bunch of them, they're knuckle draggers. they'll produce a record based on a name and date of birth match and they won't go to see, gee, do they have the same social security number or live in the same state? i've been involved in five or six cases where people have been pinned with felonies because choicepoint and these background check companies are in such a hurry to sell this information, they can't bother to do one more check to make sure they don't mess up somebody's life. >> that's amazing. it seems to me that it's in my best interest to get this report and scan it for errors. is it easy to get it? choicepoint says they make these available all the time to consumers. >> you want to see the report that they may have shared with a business. evan is absolutely right. using only a birth date and a name, you are going to pull up a lot of errors. there is an application process that choicepoint has established

for its own record system where individuals can submit the additional information to the company and it's more information than just your name and birth date. they ask for social security number and current address. they even ask if you've had voluntary bankruptcy or any contact with a criminal justice system, which creates another opportunity for the company, if it's not using proper policies regarding privacy to take that information and add it into their record system. but it's important to see the information in order to begin the process of protecting yourself. >> evan, can you get this info corrected? is it hard? >> you have a right to correct it. because of the work of the electronic privacy information center, we know that choicepoint says some of their records are beyond the reach of the law. this is why a company that i'm working with called id watchdog and others like it are providing services to make it easy for people with a fee to get all these records together so they can review them before they go

in for that employment information. >> thanks so much for joining us. coming up, you may not know what a fusion center is, but chances are your personal information is already a part of it.

it's no secret that the government holds a lot of information on your personal life. in the wake of 9/11, fusion centers were set up to prevent terrorists from bringing together information from local, state and federal law enforcement. but these centers are really domestic surveillance agencies watching all of us even if we haven't violated the law. it was the morning of connecticut governor jody rell's inauguration. moments later he was stopped by hartford police officers, handcuffed, arrested and jailed. i said, what did you do? you shouldn't have been making those threats. >> local police had been on the lookout for him after state police gave out a security bulletin with his photo on it. officials wouldn't comment pending a civil lawsuit. but court documents reveal state police were alarmed by his blog

posts. who is going to protest the inaugural ball with me? and no need to make nice. >> why could i have to be nice to a political figure simply because she won an election? >> police began digging for more information mining public and commercial databases. they learned that he'd been a green party campaign director. had protested a gubernatorial debate and had once been convicted for civil disobedience. he had no history of violence. this law professor says that police aren't supposed to gather information on citizens who aren't suspected of a crime. >> if we're interested in someone because they're an advocate for a green party candidate and we think they're suspicious because they want to get other people to protest someone's ideas, but not because we think there's a true threat to their lives, i think that's just troubling. >> today law enforcement collects and shares more information than ever. much of it goes on at state intelligence centers called fusion centers. fusion centers were started

at 9/11 to help federal, state and local law enforcement connect the dots and stop a terrorist attack. the department of homeland security says they're a critical tool in keeping the nation safe. >> in a typical fusion center, an fbi agent might be sitting next to a state highway patrol officer. they don't merely share space, they share databases and techniques. >> but what's going into those databases has critics worried. the aclu says some evidence shows that they've targeted muslim groups for surveillance. >> collecting information about people that has no relevance as to whether they're breaking the law. >> the director of new jersey's center says law enforcement works hard to balance national security with individual privacy. >> we in law enforcement and certainly in fusion centers are very attuned to the bill of rights. we're not in the business of investigating first amendment or

constitutionally protected rights. >> but ken thinks that police in his town crossed the line. >> police did not determine the difference between who was dangerous and who was merely expressing their constitutionally protected viewpoints. >> you don't have to be a political activist to be watched these days, whether a blogger or a member of a social network. everyone from law enforcement or your employer could be searching for information on you. his lancl is from the center for excellent. you spent a lot of time with fusion centers. i know people out there are wondering, should i be worried about this? how concerning is it to the average american? >> it's concerning to all of us. the problem is we're not going to know what the fusion centers have on each of us because their practices are not very transparent. there's very little oversight. >> i want to talk about

employers, friends, social networking sites. h liz, you have a good list of what i should be looking for and what i should doing. >> don't post it on line. don't bad mouth your company, colleagues or customers. don't share private company information. no off-color voeks or provocative photos. >> there's also employers who are looking out there. you know, a lot of people are asking me it's not their right to look on my site but they do it any way. >> they absolutely legally can, there's nothing prohibiting them from doing it. in a sense, it's smart for them to do so, to make sure their employees are somebody who they want their clients to see online. so it makes sense from a business perspective to look at this information. nearly 50% of all employers

they're looking on your social network activity in accepting employment applications. >> it's not so simple. other people talk about you online, on the web, how do you take care of that so you put your best face forward to the employer or maybe to the federal government? >> the first thing is google yourself. so see what comes up when people search on your name and clean up anything on any pages that you control your social networking profiles. take off any inappropriate comments, and any of the pages that your friends control, ask them to take that down too. what you can do going forward is to be mindful of what you post. >> thanks for that. don't move, the daily assaults on your personal privacy continue. what you can do about it, next.

there's something i want you to know about me. i am not into depriving myself, but i am cheap. you give me a half hour, one after another, i'm going to show you how you can be thrifty and live like a king at the same time. ever since i can remember, i've been fascinated by money, saving it, studying. by the time i was 31, i had earned enough to retire. so i'm bark on a new mission, helping you take care of your money. so you can save more. spend less. and avoid getting ripped off. >> now your money expert, clark howard. >> you know what?

we as americans can do so much more with less, and it's rhetoric that we've all heard, maybe even talked it ourselves, but now we're walking the talk. and i got proof in several areas. first, you want video entertainment? well, you can entertain yourself all you want for a dollar. i can't guaranty the movies will be good, but red box is booming. those are those fancy vending machines popping up all over the place where you can rent all the late release movies. and you know what? it's a dollar per day. just don't forget about the thing because it's a dollar every day until you remember to return it. video games? i saw recently that the rental of video games as an alternative to buying them is up 30% in the last year. again, another cheap way to have entertainment at home. and third, if you are in

college, going to college, or know someone who is, how about renting textbooks instead of buying them. probably never heard of that. there's a website called chegg.com where you can learn whether the textbooks you need for school can be rented instead of purchased. think about all the money you'll save. now, do you have any money saving questions you want to ask me? fire away. what's going on with your credit card? >> caller: about six months ago, i closed one of my credit cards because it went over the limit just $2, and then they started charging me like 31% interest even though i closed it. so since i've closed it, they've charged me about $600 in interest. >> wow. >> and they did a negotiation with me. they said if i paid the $600,

they would drop the interest to zero percent and i could pay off my $2,500 balance at $50 a month. i don't know if i should do that. i own a home jointly with a relative, and i'm just wondering if they could ever put a lien against my home if i don't pay them for a while. >> let me explain how that plays out. you have a credit card that goes into chargeoff, and the company wanted to really eat you up. what they would have to do is hire a law firm to sue you against the unpaid balance of the credit card, get a judgment against you, and then having the judgment, a judgment becomes what lawyers call a license to hunt, and they go out and try to figure out what assets you have and at that point is when it's possible that they night try to go after the home that you jointly own with somebody else 679 but that is a lot of ifs

getting to the point where that would happen. so here's what you do. you can have one more conversation with the credit card company and at that point i would say no more conversation. you tell them, here's my alternative offer. you agree to waive all interest and i will pay you on a payment plan and you will pay off the balance at zero percent interest. now, if they don't accept that, here's the offer you make. you say you either accept this, because i'm offering to pay you 100 cents on the dollar of the principal i owe you, but if you do not accept them, then you will not get a single penny from me ever again. hello, marty. >> caller: hi, clark. >> how are you doing? >> caller: clark, the reason i called is i'm finding myself in

a mortgage dilemma i'm not sure is a serious dilemma. i'm in a 5-1 a.r.m. that's going to mature in april of 2012. it's at 5.75% on the primary and a second of 7%. the worth of my house has dropped down to about roughly $235,000, and everybody advising me to get into a fixed rate while the rates are down. and i've been talking to lenders trying to figure out, and i find myself choking on adding $11,000 into my note for all the closing and -- closing costs lately have been off the charts crazy. i mean, they have been really, really up there. now, you said the value of your home has dropped to -- >> caller: arnlt $235,000.

>> and the first mortgage is at? >> caller: $200,000. >> so your equity is around 17%. i think you've got enough time, i think you're okay to sit tight for a while before you'd have to hit any kind of panic button as far as that a.r.m., you know, when we're looking three years out, that a.r.m. going crazy on you, 2012 and beyond. how long do you expect you're going to own this house? >> well, we have no plans on moving. >> so this would be a forever house? >> caller: yes, sir. >> then here's your assignment. you told me that your work is still good, you're still making good money as an electrician. >> caller: yels. >> you need to pour every dollar you can into paying down principal on that loan to create more head room to give you the opportunity to refi. so that, you know, the market

place took equity away from you. you're going to have to rebuild that equity by paying down debt. next dshl >> a collection agency was pretending that they were going to put your stepson in jail and were talking to you about the ticket? >> exactly. >> do you know how much they have broken the law? >> we're here in london why? because trips to europe are the cheapest they've been in eight years because of the sick economy. which means you can travel really well. hotels extra cheap, airfare extra cheap, right in the heart of london, and on this side of me is big ben. the most famous tourist attraction in london.

one of my favorite ways to save shopping in england is to

go to 99 p. store. everything is 99 cents, roughly $1.65 at today's exchange rate and they have a ton of good stuff in there. and lynn is with us. hello, lynn. >> how are you doing, clark? >> great. except you got one of those phone calls nobody wants. >> caller: sure did. >> tell me about this. >> caller: two weeks ago, my husband and i received a call from a department stating they were calling from a warrant division and they were looking for my stepson. i said why are you looking for my stepson? they said he owed $271 on traffic fine. come to find out, this is a traffic ticket he received back in 2001. so that is correct, my stepson did have a traffic ticket. he went to probation. my husband ended up selling his car and paying the ticket off. >> wow. >> caller: we explained that to them.

unfortunately we don't have any recei receipts. come to find out that it was a collection agency -- >> a collection agency was pretending they were going to put your stepson in jail and were talking to you about the ticket? >> caller: exactly. >> do you know how much they have broken the law? >> caller: no, i don't. >> under the fair debt collection practices debt, a collection agency is not allowed to impersonate a member of law enforcement, number one. number two, a collection agent is never allowed to talk to someone else about another person's debt. so do you have an answering machine that -- or do you use voice mail? >> caller: i have the first call that she placed to our answering machine. >> you do? wow! okay, i want you to call the district attorney or the

solicitor in the jurisdiction where your stepson got this ticket eight years ago and offer to play the tape for the d.a. or solicitor. the collection agency operating on behalf of either the court or the jurisdiction is totally in violation of the law, and the district attorney should know that that's going on. how would you like for me to answer your money question? well, that's easy. all you do is go to cnn.com/clarkhoward and submit a video question to me. you'll see the link right on the home screen. speaking of asking me a money question, carman has done so about her retirement plan. let's see what's on carman's mind. >> i'm carman. >> i'm ray. >> and we need a money coach. my biggest concern related to our finances is having enough

money for retirement. i currently have a roth i.r.a. and my husband and i each have one through our bank. i don't feel i need two of them because of the fees. i'm being charged a fee from the bank and through my employer. it's not a large amount of money, but i just think that it's money i can use to save and contribute to one roth instead of two. my question is, do i really need two roths? >> carman, i love what you've got. it's a special kind of roth that more and more people will have over the next few years as a choice in a 401(k) plan. you can stay in the traditional 401(k) or make the decision you did and go in the roth 401(k). they're wonderful, because you put in after tax dollars that will grow tax free through the years and never be taxed again. plus, you're still eligible for

whatever employer match your employer chooses to make. that goes in pretax dollars and that portion will be taxed. yeah, there's a fee embedded in a 401(k) plan. there's also a management fee involved in the roth i.r.a. you're doing. but you want to do both, because it gives you the double opportunity to save. i think it's great. now, why am i so hot on the roth 401(k) versus the traditional 401(k)? simple. you know what? you have a regular 401(k). you put the money in. when you go to spend it in retirement, you have much less money than you thought you had, because so much of it gets shaved away by taxes. you do the 401(k), a dollar in there is a dollar you get to spend in retirement. compa when you retire, you have about 40% more money than you thought

you did. next -- >> you said you want me to direct you to a legitimate place to buy gold, which means you already know how many snakes there are in the grass who are out there pretending to sell gold or selling gold but ripping you off when you go to buy it.

as you've probably figured out by now, i'm a very opinionated guy and it's all

about you taking control of your wallet. if you go to cnn.com/clarkhoward, i've got a variety of them there for you to see how to take control right now. well, now we're at the cheap way of seeing the bird's-eye view of london. we're at monument tower. had to walk 311 steps up from the ground, but we have a view of the complete panorama of london, very much like the london eye but it's 1/7th the cost. plus, behind me, we have tower bridge and the tower of london, a beautiful view from up here. all you got to do is be fit enough to walk the stairs. every day when i'm doing research for my radio show, i go to cnnmoney.com. you should too.

poppy harlow is here with some good money tips for you. poppy? >> trying to keep your small business afloat in these tough times can be a daunting task, but maximizing your company's website, that's a cheap and easy way to target your customers. here are three tips. first of all, focus on the content. consider the top three things that a customer would come to your site looking for, and highlight those things right on your home page. don't bury that information. next, you want to provide expert tips. giving some measure of free advice elevates your own reputation. and finally, consider your site's design. while animation is great for making a splash, most consumers prefer a simple and clear web page that, well, they can use easily. for more tips, check out

cnnmoney.com/smallbusiness. back to you, clark. hi, andy. how are you? >> caller: not too bad. >> tell me what you're thinking of doing. >> caller: i would like to find a legitimate place to buy the actual real gold. >> oh. what if i were to answer your question not the way you asked it. >> caller: well, go ahead and i'll see if it will work for me. >> i would much prefer for you to consider instead of buying the actual tangible gold is that you buy what's buy what's known as an exchange traded fund, where you will buy actual ownership of gold. it will be stored for you off site, not in your possession, but you will have the value of that gold. and with that, what happens is

that you buy gold and you buy it with just money. and then you buy it from an outfit that stores it for you and when you want to sell your gold, they take your gold and they sell it to somebody else. and i know it sounds like i'm talking about some kind of scam or something, but this is completely legit. and then you don't have to deal with the storing of the gold. you don't have to deal with the big rip-off they charge you the buy the gold. you don't have to deal with the big rip-off when you go to sell it. let's say, andy, you want to turn that gold back into money, you can do it like that. you can sit down at your computer and in a blink of an eye, you can sell your shares and a couple of days you have your money in u.s. dollars.

do i have great bargain news for you for your christmas shopping. if you go back over recent years, the toy market has been a toy story of two places. know what they are? walmart, the nation's largest toy seller, and target. used to be that toys r us are the biggest player, but now toys "r" us is doing something that is great. they are going to open hundreds of temporary toy stores around the country. there's plenty of retail space, plenty of people they can hire to work the register, and it's going to inject new competition in the toy market that we haven't seen in a long, long time. and you, as a parent, you're going to be smiling because as we move through october into november, there's going to be deal after deal. next on "clark howard" --

>> i feel like my only recourse is to go to small claims court. >> you should do that. you should go ahead and file, but that's not all you could do.

everybody's got to eat. sometimes i like to eat too much. but one thing i don't want you to do is spend too much in the supermarket. i got some advice about a gotcha you got to watch for. and that's just one thing you're going to learn this half hour that will help you stretch every dollar. ever since i can remember, i've been fascinated by money, making it, saving it, studying it. by the time i was 31, i earned enough to retire. so i'm barked on a new mission, helping you take care of your money to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. >> now your money expert, clark

howard. >> i got to tell you about a tale of two people in a household. if my wife gives me the grocery list, i buy whatever the cheapest is in each thing that she has on the list. when she goes shopping, somehow magically we spend a lot more because we have organic this, that and organic the other. and a lot of people really believe in the health claims, and maybe they're true, who knows, about organic products. should you believe them? let me tell you something. there's been more and more stuff saying organic that truly is not organic, because the federal government has continually loosened the standards on what can say organic. there's something you should look for before you spend huge amounts of money buying organic stuff. make sure it says on the front, 100% organic. don't buy something that says organic or some organic

ingredients. if you're going to spend the big bucks, get the real deal. when something says natural on the package, what does that mean? nothing! it's just a marketing term in most cases. you're throwing your money away. you want my opinion on something other than food, i bet. how about your wallet. david, how are you? >> caller: just fine, clark, thank you. >> you are in the midst of doing some building at your house, huh? >> caller: yes, sir. we got -- >> i don't know if i'm supposed to congratulate you or send you my regrets. >> caller: what we are doing is going to be having a mother-in-law suite built on our home. my mother-in-law is willing to pay for the room addition so we have something in the lines of a gifting here. >> how much money is it going to

cost? >> caller: in the park of $40,000. >> you can do it in a way there's no gift tax issue at all. >> caller: that's what i was looking for. >> your mother-in-law is allowed to give both you and your wife $13,000 each, each year without any tax implications at all. so she can just right off the top give you $26,000, done. and she has to write two checks, one to you, one to your wife. very important there's two separate checks. then she can, you said it's going to be $40,000? >> caller: about $40,000. >> she can give you a note for $14,000 with the first interest payment due january 2nd, 2010. then on that day, she can say, oh, i'm gifting you that money. and you're done.

actually, she would have to do seven and seven, wouldn't she? she would have to do two different notes. and so the $40,000 can be transferred from her to you and your wife in a very short period of time completely tax free. but the notes need to say $7,000 loan for, you know, until january 2, 2010. interest rate of 6% or something that would feel like a market interest rate. >> caller: right. >> and do and payable at that time. when that time comes, she forgives it and that becomes a gift. john joins us. john, welcome to the show. how are you? >> caller: thanks for taking my call. >> what's going on with your wife? >> very simple. back in i believe it was '94 or '95, she had a settlement for

credit card debt and it was settled and there was the settlement drawn up and all and it was a done deal. now, in '02 approximately, the same company sent a collection agency on her for the same debt that was settled, and i believe that she showed the settlement papers and it was dropped. now just yesterday, a subpoena was dropped here for the same company -- >> no way. she was served court papers? >> caller: yes. >> all right, this is very important. very important. you ready? >> caller: yes. >> now, what happened was a collection agency bought what's known as zombie debt. the bank figure your wife reached a settlement with 15 years ago are reporting her as not having paid this, and some collector paid the bank, a penny, two cents on the dollar on this debt.

even if she had not paid it, is well outside the statute of limitations to sue. what the zombie collector does is they file suit against your wife, expecting that she's not going to show up in court. and then they will get a default judgment from the court, an illegal judgment. but sit one that will have full force of law that will then be a judgment against her that will stay on her credit in most states for seven years and will allow the collector, once they have the judgment, to garnish your wife's wages or empty her checking account. so she must answer the court. >> caller: okay. >> and she must, if necessary, appear in court. they are trying to take advantage of the fact that the courts are busy, and that a lot of people will say, oh, that's not a problem. i took care of that a long time ago, or that's too long ago for

that to be an issue for me. and they sue you against it and failure to defend yourself means you lose each on an illegal action. >> caller: unbelievable. >> it is unbelievable. and it is an absolute crying shame that this is going on. next -- >> we're hoping to get some good advice on how to better manage these larger debts.

it's time for money coach. that's where you pose your money riddle to me, and i try to give you the best advice i can for your life and your wallet. let's meet ken and lisa. >> my name is ken. >> and i'm lisa. >> and we need a money coach. our financial situation is pretty stable right now, but the current economy, you never know. so we're trying to get a handle on our debts, and how we should handle paying those off. our two largest debts right now are our home mortgage and home equity loan. one of the extra things is a car. it's got a lot of miles, it's old, and we need another car. so should we be paying more on

the principal to our mortgage or be throwing as much money into the home equity loan as possible? >> all right, i love your question, but it's the wrong one. your mortgage, you don't owe very much on it, you have not that many years left to pay. your home equity line, your current interest rate is great in the 3s, even though that will go up even though you oh so little. any extra cash you have you should pop in savings. the purpose is to build up that money so that when it comes time that you have to replace that car, you already have a substantial amount of money to pay cash for a used car or make a meaningful down payment on a new or used car or a brand new one. this is always a juggling act. do you pay off debt or build

savings? and normally in most circumstances, i talk about, will, savings rates 2%, amount owed on mortgage that the interest rate is a significant factor, 5 plus percent. why would i tell anybody ever to put money in savings instead of toward the mortgage? normally i wouldn't. i would say put your extra dough towards your mortgage balance or any other high interest rate debt. we know there's a specific goal here. same for you. if you have a goal you're trying to meet, relatively short term, pop the money in savings instead of paying down debt. what's happening with you, jennifer? >> caller: well, my husband and i are purchasing a recreational vehicle from a private party. the seller owes a little more on it than he's selling it for. our concern is that how -- we've never bought anything where it's been owed more on it.

so we talked to his bank and they said we could come into the bank, give him the money, and then he will pay the remainder there at the bank and the bank will sign off the title to him. then he would have to be obliged to send the title to us once they receive it. and we're just concerned, because not doing this before, what is the best way to protect ourselves. >> what i have advised people in the past, and what is the normal procedure is that you would pay the portion that you were to pay with the check made out to the individual and to the bank that the money is owed to. but what is the most important thing for you to do is the bill of sale needs to be a thoroughly thought out bill of sale. and in this case, the bill of sale would not only have the

thvin number of the rv, the brand name, model near, almost a narrative following the initial things. and the bill of the sale should have two copies and the two copies should be signed by both you as the buyer and the seller involved. you can do this face to face or no? >> caller: yes. >> what i recommend when you're doing it face-to-face is that you, the seller, and a bank officer are sitting down at a desk doing all this paperwork at that time. i would put on the bill of sale, seller agrees to forward title by -- you should designate a method like fedex or ups. >> caller: okay. >> that the seller forward the title within -- you should give a certain number of days of when the title is received with lien clear from the bank. and i would say within five days

is a reasonable period of time for the seller to get out there and get to a fedex or ups facility and send that to you. next -- >> where can we possibly check or try to find out if these are worth anything? >> oh, that is not an easy thing to do.

you can get tons more money saving advice from me on the web. all you do is go to cnn.com/clarkhoward. you got a question about your credit card, checking account, cars, houses, you name it, go to cnn.com/clarkhoward and that's also the address that you visit if you might want me to be your money coach. upload a video telling your story or fill out that e-mail form so maybe you'll be a candidate. you know what else is there? commentaries from me. i've got a website for you that's chok full of money saving tips. here's poppy harlow with some new info for you. poppy? >> rising up employment is creating an interesting new trend. according to the census bureau, one of eight people between the

age of 25 and 34 are moving back in with the parents. so we have some tips how to deal with this situation. first of all, don't baby your babies. while your kid is looking for a job, charge rent if they have any income and assign responsibilities around the house. you can help your kid find a job by recommending job search websites or networking with friends and also suggesting they get a temp job while looking for a permanent one. and don't forget the exit strategy. make sure your child has put some money aside when they found a job so they can find their own home. find more of these tips at cnn.com. back to the show. hello, theresa. how are you doing? >> caller: hi, clark. my brother passed away about ten years ago, and he had some old coins in a safety deposit box. so i'm trying to find out what

is the best route -- where can we possibly check or try to find out if these coins are worth anything? >> oh, that is not an easy thing to do. but i'm going to give you how i would do it as a layman, a layperson. are you good on the web? >> caller: fairly good. >> there's a website called money.org and it is the website of the coin people. and it's like the trade association for coin dealers. and they have some consumer information on it, but not -- that's not really their market. but what is available on their website is information on where there are going to be coin shows. a lot of people are probably saying ebay, ebay. a lot of people sell coins on

ebay, but you don't even have a feel for the range of value. >> caller: that is true. >> when there's a coin show, you can go with the coins you have from your late brother and go to coin dealers who are buying and buying, selling at the shows and saying, okay, you want not for the collection. you want per coin what's this, what's it worth? and you are not going to know from a single dealer what you have got -- but by the great thing about shoe leather at a show is you can go booth to booth to booth to booth and show what you have got and then see what value people offer you for it. and then you set in place a competitive marketplace. you can at that point get the cards of the people who seem to be on the up and up, who gave you decent offers on your coins. then you can go test the marketplace on ebay and see what people will pay you for particular coins that may have turned out to have meaningful

value. in the new credit card bill of rights, guess who is left out? small business owners. at the last minute, a provision was put into the law, basically taken out, that gave the credit card companies permission to do anything they want to if you have one of the business cards. now remember with a business card, as an entrepreneur, you sign for personal responsibility. the worst of all possible worlds. because of this loophole in the law, what i recommend is that you turn your business cards in for personal cards. because you are liable anyway. and just pay those personal cards from your business. you could always do that, now it becomes extra smart because then you are protected by the new protections in the credit card law that otherwise you're left high and dry from. and do this quickly.

next on "clark howard." -- >> trying to figure out when she gets at jfk if she should exchange money there. >> no, no, no, no, and no. no way!

it is called the fire, why california authority are worried about one area in its path. this teen's death shocked the country after his fatal beating captured on videotape. now president obama is getting involved and sending top level officials to his home town to prevent similar violence. the white house has a message for you as well. you could be part of a big security problem without even knowing it. what it wants you to do to tackle the issue. you're watching hln on this first sunday in october. so glad you are with us. i am susan hendricks.

a wind-driven wildfire has destroyed three homes. the so-called sheep fire is fueled by high winds, as high as 45 miles an hour. dry underbrush and thick woods near san bernardino. more than 4,000 people have been ordered to evacuate the area. it sparked to life yesterday afternoon and burned 3,500 acres so far. authorities have ordered evacuations for people in the path of the flames. >> i saw the smoke and it reminded me of the station fire looked just as bad. i knew we were in for a bad one. >> our biggest concern is this fire hits highway 138, more westward. the reason for that is because there is a lot of homes up off highway 138. >> the fire is burning close to interstate 15, a major highway which connects las vegas to southern california. in arizona, a routine burn that got out of control looks like this now. threatening the town known as the gateway to the grand canyon.

people in the town of williams are keeping a close eye on the so-called twin fire. it has burned more than 1 1/2 square miles so far. it is being driven through deep undergrowth and pine trees by high winds. about 64 homes evacuated in the town which is about 120 miles north of phoenix. this fire was actually started as a preemptive way to protect williams from wildfires. this has been a deadly weekend for troops in afghanistan. 8 u.s. troops and two members of afghanistan's national security force were killed in a battle with militants. it happened yesterday. that is the largest number of americans killed by hostile action in a single day since july of 2008. officials say coalition forces fought back after militants launched an attack from a mosque. the deaths come as president obama weighs what course to take in afghanistan and the immediate u.s. withdrawal seems unlikely. but ultimately the president and the top commander in afghanistan

agree, defeating al qaeda is critical to stop the terrorist group's safe havens from spreading. >> i believe that the loss of stability in afghanistan brings huge risks that transnational terrorists like al qaeda will operate from inside afghanistan again. >> general mcchrystal is calling for faster training of afghan forces. earlier efforts to speed up afghan training stalled partly because there was a lack of nato trainers. two top federal officials will be in chicago this week to learn about the violence plaguing the city's public school students. president obama is sending attorney general eric holder and also education secretary duncan, the city school superintendent. the beating death of 16-year-old derrion albert captured on cell phone video. here is part of it right here. chicago police say they're up against a code of silence that keeps people from talking to investigators. speakers at albert's funeral

warned that the world is watching how they respond to his death. mayor richard daly called on the community to cooperate with police. >> i will be meeting with representatives in the community, high schools, and as well as the police department. and the family and others to really get down to the bottom of the code of silence. the code of silence is unacceptable in this day and age where we have young children being killed. it is something that, every family, every community, should stand up, shoulder to shoulder and not allow teenagers to run their family, run their block or their community. this is truly unacceptable. >> four teenagers are charged with beating albert to death. police are still trying to find out other teens who may have taken part in this attack. during the funeral, the victim's mother, jeanette albert read from a people she wrote for her son. she says she doesn't want any other parent to go through the grief she is going through right now. victor woods a one-time criminal who tries to steer chicago's

kids away from crime says the city isn't facing up to its epidemic of violence. >> we have 37 young people die last year. and this is not on the job training. this city is not prepared to stop this problem. i have been doing work at the juvenile detention center downtown, 500 black boys and girls locked up and they need help and they told me this year they don't have funding for me to go in there and work with the kids who are like the boy who got out and killed that boy. they're not ready. >> albert was buried in illinois near the grave of his grandmother. u.n. experts say iran has all information it needs to design and build a nuclear bomb. a confidential analysis published yesterday in the new york times. those experts need more evidence to be sure about the extent of iran's nuclear knowledge. their report says iran got know-how from rogue nuclear scientists and did research and testing on its own. now if this report is accurate it would contradict an assertion

made by u.s. intelligence agencies two years ago that said iran halted efforts to design a nuclear weapon. the times quotes a senior u.s. official saying the assessment is now being re-evaluated. u.n. inspectors will start looking at iran's newly revealed nuclear site october 25th. head of u.n.'s nuclear agency held talks in tehran today. he said inspectors want to make sure the site is used for peaceful purposes. it has the been a huge concern since iran revealed the nuclear enrichment plant last month. president obama said iran attempted to conceal the plant in violation of international rules on atomic facilities. ir iran's leader said his country followed protocol which requires a country to reveal such a facility six months before it brings nuclear material there for processing. >> translator: based on what is stated in the regulations we have made the announcement one year before the time we had to out of respect for law and the

director general of the iaea and naturally the united states must have known about it. i do not know why mr. obama was not aware of it. u.s. ambassadors say members of the united nations security council are studying options for more sanctions if iran does not prove its motives are peaceful. checking your weekly planner -- new supreme court term begins monday. issues, gun control child custody and juvenile criminal sentences. tuesday, the man suspected of killing yale student annie le will be in court. and friday, nasa's lunar crater observer will smash into the moon in the area here. scientists will study the six-mile cloud of dust for signs of water. desperate search for survivors, five days after a devastating earthquake. hopes of finding hundreds of missing people begin to fade. we'll take you to the disaster zone. this is hln news and views.

a look at your forecast across the nation. a couple big stories we're following. one will be possibility of heavy rainfall forming into the red river valley. talking about arkansas, texas, louisiana and into oklahoma where we could see 1 to 4 inches of rainfall. problem with this the storm system is expected to jog its way off to the east. as it does so we'll see flood watches and warnings for the atlanta metro area parts of alabama, tennessee into the carolinas where we could see 1 to 3 in. s of rainfall. certainly something to watch out for the another area of heavy precipitation. not rain, snowfall into the north, central rockies, into the bitter roots of montana, into portions of yellowstone into the tetons, you could see 1 to 4 feet of snowfall in the sierra nevada cascades, rain and snow. southern california breezy conditions for the fires in san bernardino. rough times for fire fighters to say the least. for the great lakes, ohio

valley, high pressure will be your dominating feature. with that plenty of sunshine. and better day for you in new england. rain early. into the afternoon. bit of clearing. nice day for the mid-atlantic coast the high temperatures across the nation. here you go, 67, kansas city. 58, chicago. 92 in tampa. 84 in houston. with all the rain-cooled air in dallas much cooler day. highs mainly upper 60s. # 1, vegas. 91 in phoenix. as we wrap things up. that is a look at your forecast across the nation. i am reynolds wolf for hln. the death toll from a pair of devastating earthquakes in indonesia could double. that is the word from officials in search-and-rescue looking for survivors. there is fear that four villages in west sumatra have been wiped out by mountains of mud. efforts to reach the areas today were hampered by heavy rains. the quakes killed more than 700 people as many as 3,000 could still be buried under mud and debris.

that includes hundreds of people trapped in a mosque during a wedding. people are using anything they can, hammers, chiselles even their bare hands to dig through debris. hundreds of people from agencies like fema and the red cross are helping samoa dig out of the tsunami aftermath. fema provided generators for areas without electricity. the u.s. coast guard is bringing in meals, water, blankets. in california groups are collecting donations to send to survivors in the coming weeks. about 40% of the country's so mow an population lives in california. the obama administration wants americans to take cybersecurity much more seriously. the white house is sounding the alarm saying one of the biggest threats to national security may be the computer in your own home or office. steps you can take to increase your computer security include using anti-virus software, using spam filters, parental controls, and fire walls.

you should also regularly back up important files to external computer drives. and you should also think twice about sending information over the internet. specially on wireless or unsecure public networks. president obama and first lady michelle celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary and kept it pretty simple. they had dinner last night at a restaurant near georgetown. the couple's first anniversary since moving into the white house. last year they also had a simple celebration with dinner at a local restaurant in their hometown, chicago. ♪ we tend to take reliable electric power for granted. in a place like iraq, frequent blackouts are a problem when it comes to medical care. and our correspondent looks at how the u.s. army is helping health clinics in today's "eco solutions." >> reporter: there is new hope for patients at this clink in baghdad not because of the

medicines inside. but because of equipment installed outside. the medical center is one of three clinics in all of iraq to use solar for power. why is that a big deal? because the grid is so unreliable and blackouts so frequent most clinics open a few hours a day. >> this is a hot spot. so people here -- need medical services. for this doctor, the frequent blackouts meant dropping child vaccinations. without reliable power the vaccines couldn't be kept cool. that changed with the solar panels. >> we can give services and we can give medical for them. >> a clink stays open 'round-the-clock is almost unimaginable in iraq the besides providing jobs and much needed medical care it also brings hope. before the panels were installed, this woman had to rely on expensive diesel

generators like this one. solar is cleaner and in the long run should be far more cost effective. there are 64 solar panels up here on the roof. they were installed four months ago and with great fanfare. panels are linked to batteries on the ground floor. equipment runs off the batteries. when one battlery loses its charge another kicks in. solar panel technology was underwritten by the u.s. military supported by the iraqi health ministry. solar systems are installed at three clinics. the latest opened last week. joseph martin on hand for the grand opening now the doctors can concentrate on what they're good at. >> everything operates. air conditioners, medical equipment, fridges, everything it allows the doctors to focus on their patients instead of whats say porting them in the system. >> reporter: not always. before we visited the clinic, someone tampered with a key circuit board.

preventing the clink from using electricity stored in the batteries. until it is fixed the clibic is back to using the unreliable diesel generator. for much on solar power in iraq and other important environmental news. head to our website, cnn.com/ecosolutions.

a denver woman remains on life support after a vicious attack by a pair of dogs.

mary garcia was watching her great grandson at her home the she apparently went outside to lock her doors when the dogs attacked her. the animals bit her in the face, leg and arm. neighbors came to garcia's aid. but the stress of the attack caused her to have a heart attack. >> when we got there last night. they told us she was on life support. they worked on her, performed a couple different procedures on her. she is not out of the woods. >> animal control officers say the mother dog and offspring escaped through a hole in the neighbor's fence. their owner was ticketed on two counts of having vicious animals and faces possibility of a fine and jail time. animal control officers captured the dogs and say they will be euthanized. an unregistered python killed a 2-year-old florida girl earlier this year. now state officials are pushing to get exotic animals out of people's homes. florida state law requires owners to have permits. officials have been encouraging people to give up unregistered pets.

and this weekend they extended an amnesty for turning over exotic breeds with no questions asked. they held a turn in event with a local alligator theme park. >> when new legislation even gets mentioned on tv people tend to misunderstand and start to release animals. >> gatorland which co-hosted the event will probably take in many reptiles. licensed handlers will adopt the rest. here is a question for you -- would you look to take a dinosaur home? an auction house put up a fossilized t-rex for sale in las vegas. one of the most complete t-rex skeletons ever found. so the auction house has been hoping to get at least $6 million for it. so far the best offer is $3.# million. the auction house says it is still skon fi dent it will find a buyer. scientists are just beginning to understand what a fossil unearthed more than a decade ago can tell us about the history of humanity. morgan neil introduces us to a

long lost relative. >> reporter: a discovery giving scientists new clues as to how humans may have evolved. >> we have recovered a partial skeleton dating to 4.4 million years ago. >> reporter: these are the fossilized remans of arty who roamed the earth more than 4 million years ago. discovered in 1994, it has taken years for scientists to analyze the remains and publish a series of new articles in the journal "science." >> this was like discovering a time capsule from a period and a place that we knew nothing about. >> reporter: ardi's skeleton revealed she was 1.2 meters tall and weighed 49.8 kilograms. the sellton discovered in ethiopia which yielded lucy, so far the oldest skeleton of human ancestor. ardi could walk on two legs like

a human but could climb on all fours among tree branches. the findings challenge beliefs that humans evolved from a chmpl like creature. >> we can't do that anymore. >> reporter: ardi supporters beliefs, that chimps and humans evolved separately from the same ancestor. >> we can see as primitive as the creature it is it has evolved special characters indicating it is on our side of the family tree. and that is not -- on the chimp side of the family tree. nor is it the common ancestor. >> reporter: experts say what they have learned from ardi leads them to think the common ancestor or missing link was less like a chimp than previously thought. that they say opens up entirely new ways of thinking abut human

evolution. morgan neil, cnn, london. breast cancer survivors are getting many tributes this month. few will last as long as the ribbons given away from a denver shop. why the recipients will be proud to show some skin.       

it is called the sheep fire, but there is certainly nothing meek about it. why california authorities are especially worried about one area in its path. and this teen's death shocked the country after his fatal beating was captured on videotape. now president obama is getting involved and sending top-level officials to his hometown to find out how to prevent similar violence. the white house has a message for you as well. you could be part of a big security problem without even knowing it. what it wants you to do to tackle the issue. you're watching hln on this first sunday in october. so glad you're with us. i'm susan hendricks. in southern california, a wind-driven wildfire has destroyed three homes and is

threatening dozens of others. the so-called sheep fire is being fueled by high winds, some gusting as high as 45 miles per hour. it is burning through dry underbrush and thick woods near san bernardino. more than 4,000 people have been ordered to evacuate the area. the fire sparked to life yesterday afternoon and burned more than 3,500 acres so far. authorities have ordered evacuations for people in the path of the flames. >> i saw the smoke and it reminded me of the station fire. it looked just as bad. i knew we were in for a bad one. >> our biggest concern is that this fire hits highway 138 more westward. the reason for that is because there's a lot of homes up off >> the fire is also burning close to interstate 15. that's a major highway which connects las vegas to southern california. in arizona, a routine burn that got out of control looks like this now. it is threatening the town known as the gateway to the grand canyon. people in the town of williams

are keeping a close eye on this so-called twin fire. it has burned more than 1 1/2 es so far. it is being driven through deep undergrowth and pine trees by high winds. about 64 homes have been evacuated in the town, which is about 120 miles north of phoenix. this fire was actually started as a preemptive way to protect williams from wildfires. this has been a deadly weekend for troops in afghanistan. eight u.s. troops and two members of afghanistan's national security force were killed in a battle with militants. it happened yesterday. that is the largest number of americans killed by hostile action in a single day since july of 2008. officials say coalition forces fought back after militants launched an attack from a mosque. the deaths come as president obama weighs what course to take in afghanistan and an immediate u.s. withdrawal seems highly unlikely. but ultimately the president and the top commander in afghanistan

agree defeating al qaeda is critical to stop the terrorist group's safe havens from spreading. >> i believe the loss of stability in afghanistan brings huge risk that terrorist groups like al qaeda will operate from within afghanistan again. >> general mcchrystal is calling for faster training of afghan forces. earlier efforts to speed up tr because there was a lack of nato trainers. two top federal officials will be in chicago this week to learn about the violence plaguing the city's public school students. president obama is sending attorney general eric holder and also education secretary arne duncan, who was the city's school superintendent. the beating death of 16-year-old derrion albert was captured on cell phone video. here is part of it right here. chicago police say they are up against a code of silence that keeps people from talking to investigators. speakers at albert's funeral warn that the world is watching

how they respond to his death. mayor richard daley called on the community to cooperate with police. >> i'll be meeting with representatives of the community, the high schools, and as well as the police department and the family and others to really get down to the bottom of the code of silence. the code of silence is unacceptable in this day and age where we have young children being killed. it is something that every family, every community should stand up, shoulder to shoulder, and not allow teenagers to run their family, run their block, or their community. this is truly unacceptable. four teenagers are charged with beating albert to death. police are still trying to find other teens who may have taken part in this attack. during the funeral, the victim's mother, jeannette albert, read from a poem that she wrote for her son. she says she doesn't want any other parent to go through the grief she is going through right now. victor woods, a one-time criminal who now tries to steer chicago's kids away from crime, says the city isn't facing up to

its epidemic of violence. >> we had 37 young people die last year, and this is not on the-job training. this city is not prepared to stop this problem. i've been doing work at the juvenile detention center downtown where there's 500 boys and girls locked up that they need help and they told me this year they don't have funding for me to go there and work with these kids that are exactly like the boy that got out and killed that boy. we're not ready. >> derrion albert was buried in homewood, illinois, near the grave of his grandmother. u.n. experts say iran has all the information it needs to design and build a nuclear bomb. a confidential analysis was published yesterday in "the new york times." those same experts say they need more evidence to be sure about the extent of iran's nuclear knowledge, but their report says iran got some know-how from rogue nuclear scientists and did research and testing on its own. if this report is accurate, it would contradict an assertion by

u.s. intelligence agencies two years ago that said that iran had halted efforts to design a nuclear weapon. the "times" quotes a senior u.s. official as saying the assessment is now being re-evaluated. u.n. inspectors will start looking at iran's newly revealed nuclear site october 25th. the head of the u.n. agency held talks in tehran today. he says inspectors want to make sure the site is used for peaceful purposes. it has been a huge concern since iran revealed the nuclear enrichment plan last month. president obama said iran attempted to conceal the plant and that is in violation of international rules on atomic facilities. but iran's leader says his country followed the protocol which requires a country to reveal such a facility six months before it brings nuclear materiel there for processing. >> translator: based on what is stated in the regulations, we had made the announcement one year before the time we had to,

out of respect for law and the director-general of the iaea and naturally the united states must have known about it. i do not know why mr. obama was not aware of it. >> u.s. ambassadors say members of the united nations security council are studying options for more sanctions if iran does not prove its motives are peaceful. president obama and first lady michelle celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary and kept it pretty simple. dinner last night at a restaurant near georgetown. this was the couple's first anniversary since moving into the white house. last year they also had a simple celebration with dinner at a local restaurant in their hometown, chicago. checking your weekly planner now, the new supreme court term begins monday. issues for the session include gun control, child custody and juvenile criminal sentences. tuesday the man suspected of killing yale student annie li will be in court. raymond clark is being held on $3 million bail. friday nasa's lunar crater

observer will smash into the moon in the area you see here. scientists will study the dust for signs of water. desperate search for survivors five days after a devastating earthquake as hopes of finding hundreds of missing people begin to fade. we'll take you to the disaster zone. this is hln "news and views."

skrchlt aging populations are a concern for many countries but especially in japan. that is where dr. sanjay gupta found a concern turning to advantage. >> reporter: japan is facing a fiscal squeeze. some say there is a segment of the population overlooked but key to the country's economic survival. we hear about a lush mountain village on a japanese island where we are told we will see the wave of the future. this 80-something couple high in the japanese mountains provides a glimpse of what the rest of an aging world may look like in the coming years. at first i was afraid to touch the machine. i was afraid i would break it. she says. especially designed mouse and minikeyboard allows elderly hands navigate in a modest house

with business technology among 200 elderly the backbone of an agricultural company. almost half the 2,000 residents are 65 years and older. >> for more on the story and exciting advances in medicine head to our website, cnn.com/vitalsigns. the death toll from a pair of devastating earthquakes in indonesia could double. there is fear four villages have been wiped out by mountains of mud. efforts to reach the areas today were hampered by heavy rains. the quakes killed more than 700 people. as many as 3,000 could still be buried under mud and debris. that includes hundreds of people trapped in a mosque during a wedding. people are using anything they can, hammers, chisels even their bare hands to dig through debris.

hundreds of people from agencies like fema and the red cross are helping samoa dig out of the tsunami aftermath. fema says it provided generators for areas without electricity. and the u.s. coast guard is bringing in supplies, meals, water, blankets. in california, groups are collecting donations to send to survivors in the coming weeks. about 40% of the country's samoan population lives in california. i'm reynolds wolf for hln with a look at your forecast across the nation. a couple big stories we are following. one of the stories, possibility of heavy rainfall forming in the red river valley, talking about arkansas, texas, louisiana, and into oklahoma where we could see 1 to 4 inches of rainfall. problem with this the storm system is expected to jog its way off to the east. as the it does so we'll see flood watches and warnings in effect for the atlanta metro area, alabama, tennessee into the carolinas. we could see additional 1 to 3 inches of rainfall.

something to watch out for. an area of heavy precipitation, not rain, snowfall into the north, central rockies, where into the bitter roots of montana and into portions of yellowstone, into the tetons, you could see 1 to 4 feet. sierra nevada, cascades, rain and snow could be an issue. in southern california breezy conditions for the fires in san bernardino. rough times for fire fighters to say the least. great lakes into the ohio valley. high pressure will be your dominating feature. with that plenty of sunshine. and a better day in new england, rain early into the afternoon a bit of clearing nice day for the mid-atlantic coast. high temperature as cross the nation. 67, kansas city. 5 #, chicago. 92 in tampa. 84 degrees in houston. with all the rain cooled air in dallas much cooler day for you. highs into the upper 60s. 71 in vegas. 91 in phoenix as we wrap things up. that is a look at your forecast across the nation. i'm reynolds wolf for hln. it has taken scientists many years to solve the puzzle of

some bones recovered in africa. what they have found raises new and profound question as but where human beings come from. we'll give you some of the answers on hln "news and views."

a 70-year-old denver woman remains on life support after a vicious attack by a pair of dogs mary garcia was watching her great grandson. she went outside to lock her car when the dogs attacked her 40 feet from her front door. the animals bit her in the leg, face and arm. neighbors cam to garcia's aid. but the stress of the attack caused her to have a heart attack. >> when we got there last night. they told us she was on life support. they worked on her performed a couple different procedures on

her. she is still not out of the woods. >> animal control officers say the mother dog and off spring escaped through a hole in a neighbor's fence. the owner was ticketed on two counts of having vicious animals and faces possibility of jail time. the dogs will be euthanized. an unregistered python killed a 2-year-old florida girl earlier this year. now state officials are pushing to get exotic animals out of people's homes. florida state law requires owners to have permits. officials have been encouraging people to give up unregistered pets and this weekend they extended an amnesty for turning over exotic breeds with no questions asked. they held a turn-in event with the local alligator theme park. when new legislation even just gets mentioned on tv, people tend to misunderstand and start to release animals. >> now gatorland which co-hosted the event will probably take in many of the reptiles. licensed handlers will adopt the

rest. here is a question for you -- would you look to take a dinosaur home? well an auction house put up a fossilized t-rex for sale in las vegas. it is one of the most scum pleat t-rex skeletons ever found. so the auction house has been hoping to get at least $6 million for it. so far the best offer is about $3.7 million. the auction house says it is still confident it will find a buyer. scientists are just beginning to understand what a fossil unearthed more than a decade ago can tell us about the history of humanity. morgan neil introduces us to a long-lost relative. >> reporter: a discovery that is giving scientists new clues to how humans may have evolved. >> we have recovered a partial skeleton dating to 4.4 million years ago. >> reporter: these are the fossilized remains of ardi, who roamed the earth more than 4 million years ago. discovered in ethiopia in 1994 it has taken years for

scientists to analyze the remains and publish a series of new articles in journal "science." >> this was like discovering a time capsule from a period and a place that a period and place we knew nothing about. >> reporter: she weighed about 49.8 kilograms. the skeleton was discovered in ethiopia, a country that also yielded the remains of lucy, the oldest skeleton of a human ancestor. the pelvis and hips indicate she could walk on two legs but also climb on all four. it challenges earlier beliefs that humans evolved from a chimp-like creature. >> from the beginning we've used chimps and gorillas as our stand-ins for the last common ancestor. >> reporter: instead, arty supports beliefs that chimps and

humans evolved separately. >> we can see as primitive as this creature is, it has already evolved those special characters indicating that it's on our side of the family tree. and it is not on the chimp's side of the tree nor is it the common ancestor. >> reporter: experts say it leads them to think the common ancestor was likely less like a chimp than previously thought and that, they say, opens up entirely new ways of thinking about human evolution. breast cancer survivors are getting many tributes but few will last this long.