well, hello, good morning sunshine. how are you on this monday? i hope you're doing well. i'm very happy to see you, i'm robin meade. a massive wildfire sent thousands of families scrambling to safety, unsure of what they are going to come home to. why today could be the turning point that the firefighters have been waiting for. more kids than ever face some kind of autism. we'll look at why there's such a sudden increase in the number of cases. and new details on the suspected extortionist who started david letterman's on-air

confession. how their lives intertwined. a dangerous wildfire is burning outside of l.a. thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate. look at that tape. the fire is only 20% contained. yesterday the crews went door to door rounding up people evacuees grabbed what they could and stuffed it in their cars. >> grabbed everything we can think of, clothes, family albums. >> clothes and valuables. >> we evacuated last night. >> 7500 acres are scorched. three homes are destroyed. officials don't know how the fire started. it's been burning since saturday. yesterday winds as high as 50 miles per hour. that was fanning the flames and making it hard for the firefighters. gusts are expected to be lighter today. 1 in 100 kids in the united states has some type of autism

disorder. those are stunning results of two new government studies. the finding is an increase over previous studies and based on 78,000 parents and a cdc review of health estimates. it might be underestimating the actual number of cases. >> nfs a study done by telephone survey if a health care provider had diagnosed anywhere child. imagine the numbers of people who might be inaccessible by telephone or those that are not diagnosed by providers at all. it is a striking study. >> the study's authors say greater awareness and better diagnosis of autism may explain some of the increase that they found. u.s. forces in afghanistan have suffered their worst losses in more than a year. at least eight american troops were killed saturday when hundreds of militants attacked the outpost.

the military says the attack was pushed back after a 12-hour battle. now the incident comes as the obama administration is reviewing u.s. strategy in afghanistan. >> i don't foresee the return of the taliban and i want to be very clear that afghanistan is not in imminent danger of falling. >> the top u.s. commander in afghanistan has asked president obama for as many as 40,000 additional troops. mcchrystal says without them the mission in afghanistan could fail and the taliban could return to power. the nfl was thinking pink. did you notice it was in recognition of breast cancer awareness month? it was hard not to notice. >> not quite the bright pink, a darker shade of pink. >> stronger. >> but still strange to see linebackers with pink wrist bands. my favorite was the pink cleats some wore.

his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 and underwent a double mastectomy. williams told the new york times they all inherited the gene from the father's side of the family. those items will be auctioned for charity. we'll try to find out who else was wearing pink this weekend. >> there's ben roethlisberger, right. >> what a nice thing to do. thank you very much. the mother who was stabbed and her baby snatched has none of her children the newborn was found in alabama but tennessee protective services took him and three other kids for safety reasons. a judge will review the case this week. a woman is charged with kidnapping a baby. three americans are sharing this year's no bell prize in

medicine. chrome sole research has indications for cancer. $1.4 million is the prize. investigators have several people under round the clock surveillance in connection with the a suspected plot to explode bombs in new york. that is from sources close to the investigation. they say some of them traveled to pakistan with najibullah zazi and are now back in the united states. zazi is facing conspiracy charges and pled not guilty last week. >> do you remember when we had a contest asking for confidence booster, how to radiate confidence and feel it too? we now have the grand prize winner and it is -- lindsay s from north carolina. hey! she wins a trip for two to atlanta so we can meet her. we all applaud her. thank you to all viewers that

sent in stories, you were very inspiring. >> that's the cure for building confidence. you want confidence, go stand next to our weather man. i guarantee that will give you confidence. he's a mess. >> that's great. where are folks are visiting in areas that have precipitation of two different kinds. i know we're talking snow in one area. >> montana, 2 to 4 feet of snow. not inches. we're talking a lot of snow today. with this low pressure across the rockies. the big rain maker for the east coast is coming through georgia into the carolinas, a quick moving low should be off the coast by tonight. before that happens, we're going to see a steady stream of rain into lower parts of georgia. broken showers in towards

atlanta. more rain coming in across south carolina and north carolina. this is wilmington radar, picking up rain coming out of that state line with north and south carolina. big showers also towards hilton head towards bluffton, that will be all for the morning. by late this afternoon should begin to break up a little bit. rain around tallahassee, big thunderstorms possible today. most of the thunder is near mobile and biloxi stretching down towards new orleans. you can see it there on the radar. that's where it's going to be again for the morning. lake-effect rain for the morning. then over towards the rockies, here's the low around wyoming and here's the snow lower parts of montana. lots of that action starting in early october. let me show you video from yesterday morning. major flooding in san antonio texas, more than 5.4 inches of rain. caused massive street flooding. that broke a record for the daily amount of rainfall. this area was in exceptional

drought, they are obviously whittling that away. more rain in the future but scattered showers, nothing like yesterday. >> they've had for weeks now. >> they have. >> today's warm and fuzzy animal story, a cat nursing a baby chihuahua. the dog was in danger because the mom died while giving birth. an arizona animal shelter introduced her to the cats which looks really ticked off that has kittens about the same size. >> hoped mom wouldn't notice much and she thought that was fine. >> we're really happy she's willing to be such a good mom. >> if all goes well, they are all going to be put up for adoption in a few weeks. you probably think you pay too much in taxes and those who don't pay must be cheating. this year almost 50% of us won't pay a dime in federal income

taxes. how is that legal? then we're learning more about the man accused of trying to blackmail david letterman and his alleged money problems.

all righty, our salute to the troops is going to sergeant major oakley. you can hear how much his wife really misses him. >> hi, robin, my husband's name is srgt major glenn den oakley. i want to say i love you, dear. i miss you. it's really been hard here trying to keep it all together. but i'm holding it together. i just miss you being here to take the weight off my shoulders. but i'm doing it. we miss you so much. hurry home, dear. love you. >> be strong jacqueline. sounds like you are. if you have somebody in the service, go to cnn.com/robin, we

would love to have you salute them. the man accused trying to extort david letterman is free on bond after pleading not guilty. joe halderman tried to take down letterman for $2 million to keep quiet p about affairs with fellow staffers. what is the link to letterman? >> they work together. here's a possible link. halderman's former live in girlfriend is letterman's assistant. letterman telling "the new york times" that she and letterman had a sexual relationship in the past. halderman as you were saying worked for 27 years for cbs, most recently producer for the show "48 hours." halderman was suspended from his job on friday. >> what do we know about a possible motive? given the fact there was allegation as money? >> a little bit deeper here, prosecutors say he was in debt and desperate and willing to do

anything. court documents showing he had to pay $6800 a month in child support and alimony. two years ago earning more than $200,000 a year. halderman was upset about be far away from his kids. halderman's attorney saying they will fight the charges and the story is more complicated. >> we'll hear how the other comics are reacting. richard has that in 20 minutes. let me ask how you are reacting. are you still going to watch him? tom says on facebook. as for letterman he gets a pass from me. i like him and his honesty. i salute him for not giving into the bribe. what he did is not right but the other guy is a jerk trying to extort money from him. he is just accused, not convicted.

gregory, you're good -- i'm saying that, yes, it's true not been convicted. if several employees where you work would suddenly get sick with h1n1 would there be a back up plan? small businesses may not be ready for the swine flu. jennifer westoven is here. >> when you work with people, sometimes they make themselves indispensable. when they are out, the whole place may shut down. that is not good for your whole shop. experts say ask to be cross trained so you can do another's job in a pinch. your boss should also have somebody to back up key roles, like fixing computers. and if you catch the swine flu, don't feel bad about calling in

sick. even the president asks companies to be flexible in the case of swine flu. if you do get sick, you could infect a lot more people. talk to your boss beforehand and talk about what happens if you get swine flu. if you pay taxes you won't like this statistic. it's how many americans don't pay a dime to the irs. 47% of households, not just people. $71 million and they are not necessarily cheating. most $50,000 a year. there's the millionaires who are sliding right on through, probably through some loophole. >> what do you think? bob hates that story. >> it's the worst story there is. how dare you not pay taxes. >> making millions.

>> makes you want to spit your coffee out. heavy rain moving through the deep southeast. the rain is out there for atlanta towards charlotte. watch for that to slow you down later this afternoon. gusty winds out of the west and new york city, 30 minute one-hour delays and rain and morning fog in denver. a man was arrested for allegedly stalking and secretly videotaping an espn reporter. he could get out of jail as season as today. a 3-year-old girl is found at the gruesome crime scene unharmed. she may have witnessed the shooting.

welcome back. it's 18 minutes past the hour. the mother of a chicago teen seen being beaten to death on video says she can't bear to watch the tape but she wants it shown. albert was laid to rest on saturday. the funeral drew family members and city officials. she sat down and talked about the vicious beating. >> i can't watch it. but i want them to see it. i want them to know what they are doing. i want them to see what they did to my son. they need to pay for this.

it is unfortunate that these are kids doing this. something has got to be done. somebody has got to step in. >> this is the amateur video call on a cell phone. he was an innocent bystander when two gangs got into a fight. four suspects are charged with first degree murder. the guy accused of videotaping erin andrews through a peephole was arrested over the weekend. larry smith with more on that. >> andrews told oprah winfrey how horrified she was and how she felt like a victim all over again when this broke last summer. thankfully she is putting this behind her. 47-year-old michael david barrett faces federal charges, videotaping her through an altered peephole and posting the

videos online and trying to sell them. they tracked him via the digital footprint. a few weeks ago brandon marshall was refusing to catch passes and kicking balls away from assist personnel acting like a chump. fast forward to sunday's game against the cowboys and marshall was doing things like this. pass goes up, catches it. watch the great run and play afterwards. the broncos remaining undefeated on the season and happy days out in colorado. marshall happy here. he's hugging teammates here and even hugging the coach after the game. wow. mark sanchez has been the anointed ones since the jets drafted him. who's he's date sg hot tabloid todayer.

in a 24-10 loss, first loss as nfl starting quarterback. you get paid millions of dollars to play football and can't get the play book right? the steeler got benched. nice run last night. a couple of touchdowns as the steelers beat the chargers. tony stewart is trying to win for the first time as a driver/owner took the checkered flag for the fourth win of the season moving up to fourth place in the chase for the cup. a georgia high school that displayed bible verses on its banners at football games tried something different. they ran through a banner that said simply, this is big red country. each player knelt on the field to pray before the game. some spectators painted bible verses on their chest in response to school district banning. they said it could be considered unconstitutional. a man rushing his pregnant

wife to the hospital, the dramatic delivery that happened in a mini van. they said it would never last.

but it's been two months, and you're still going strong. glade lasting impressions. two fragrances alternate to keep things... fresh and exciting day after day. - and not just for 30 days. - ( inhales deeply, sighs ) but for 60.

it's the longest-lasting plugins ever. get freshness that won't fade away for 60 days. ahhh! with plugins lasting impressions. and yes, it's glade. s.c. johnson, a family company. unfortunately one of them belonged to one of our employees and he lost a number of his pets. >> how sad. a fireman is battling a wildfire in california that took his own home. winds could be calming today helping crews get control of the flames. wind gusts were as high as 50 mills. the supreme court starts a new term today, the first for justice soto mayor. some big cases include how corporate spending is handled in political campaigns and lawsuit

dealing with chicago's ban on hand guns. thee workers were killed in pakistan. officials from the world food program said five other people were wounded. the taliban's new leader in pakistan threatened new attacks yesterday but it's still unclear whether they are behind the bombing. those are some of the headlines we've been following. it is 31 minutes past the hour. good morning, sunshine. more than 1 in a million babies die before they reach a month old because they were born too early. 10% of babies born around the world are premature. 85% of the cases occur in developing countries in africa and asia. today a 19-year-old accused of trying to blow up a dallas skyscraper returns to contract for a hearing. smadi is accused with trying to detonate a truck bomb beneath a 50 story building. the landlord says there is

nothing suspicious about him. >> some people told me that he was more of a party animal than a fill os fehr. >> two weeks before his arrest he was pulled over for a string of traffic violations. david letterman's fellow comedians are not cutting him slack. here's jay leno on that scandal. >> came here tonight for sex and the talk show host, you have the wrong studio. what is going on? first conan hit his head. then somebody tries to extort money from letterman. i'm so glad i'm out of late night. >> here's more on how other comedians are reacting to the bombshell of a story. >> good morning to you. letterman had to see this coming. jimmy fallon zinged him on the top ten list. >> why women have sex that has a list of 237 reason why women

have sex. and letterman knows the top ten. >> all right. who did not crack jokes about letterman? jimmy kimmel spared letterman in his friday monolog so did conan o'brien. o'bri o'brien's guest brought up the scandal and he shot him down with a no comment. "saturday night live" had this for us. >> a producer for 48 hours was arrested for attempting a stupid human trick. it was purported the blackmailer was threatening to reveal embarrassing details of letterman's personal life. after sex he would always say, stay tuned for craig ferguson . >> well, that is a good one. that's our comic update on letterman. >> how might this affect, not

the joking, but the scandal itself affect letterman's show. females make up a large portion of his audience, like 58%. >> 6 in 10. the scandal comes as letterman's show was on a roll since jay leno's depart you're, it has been crushing the competition in the ratings. the scandal might raise questions about whether letterman's affairs may have been sexual harassment or abuse of power over employees. his production company says it's policy does not prohibit relationships within the company, only that they cannot be tied to employees' performance. >> let me ask you, what are your thoughts about the letterman scandal? bob from south carolina e mailed us saying, maybe letterman should remember that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones. ouch. on facebook. letterman didn't lie and he accepts responsibility for it.

that's more than we can say for elected officials and their ethics policies. if you want to e-mail us or go right to our facebook link and we'll read your comments all morning. i'll tell you right now most of the comments are supportive of letterman. it's been hard for us to kind of p prepresent a balanced view because we haven't had any e-mails against letterman. 35 minutes past the hour. okay, bob van dillon, the weather stories, precipitation of two different kinds. >> we have snow in the west north rockies and rain across the deep southeast. this weather brought to you by tylenol. if you're doing any travelers here's heavy rain. the entire pal met to state covered with downpours. it is basically a first half of the day event.

scattered showers developing but the heaviest rain by far will be this morning. moving away from atlanta back towards eastern georgia. more rain across north carolina. you can see it there coming out of the wilmington radar. the cape fear area covered with heavy rain. down the coast line, same deal. charleston down to savannah. showers and maybe light thunderstorm action too. otherwise drying out late this afternoon and this evening. look at the thunderstorms near tallahassee. not a lot of lightning with them of the an occasional strike here and there. you can see the one line that connects almost in towards lake pon at a train. lake-effect rain going on. syracuse and albany too, a major snowstorm is wrapping up around wyoming in towards montana. all of the white you see there is all snow. you can see as much as 2 to 4 feet of snow. we have the winter storm

warnings in red. we're still in fall. more on that in a half hour. >> i say bah hum bug. >> better for the skiers than anybody. >> i was on a book tour -- >> used up all vacation days. not like you're getting paid to do this, this is your time. >> thank you very much. i was not drinking margaritas on a beach. expect a lot of one gloved trick or treaters. michael jackson and other dead celebrities like farrah fau set and willy mays are popular costumes and you'll see jon and kate costumes. people are expected to spend 56 bucks on halloween stuff, down 11 bucks from last year. move over mcd's how they are slipping in the drive tlu

ratings.

♪ did you recognize or realize that the flu season officially got under way yesterday. this year people are more concerned about the swine flu that's already been around for a while. now health officials say that the virus is making the second major sweep. flu vaccinations begin this week but you may have to wait to get yours because there's still not enough vaccine for nereverybody the horror comedy

"zombieland." movie goers more interested in the family dining feasted on "cloudy with a chance of meatballs." for dessert, "the toy story" 3-d feature. >> did i confuse you? did you think it was all one story. >> i thought, that's the good -- >> screen writing or something in her head. >> are you looking for a job? there are good ones out there. the positions are not filled. you do have to get the proper training. jennifer, you were surprised to find so many jobs going unfilled. >> some of them have nice looking salaries. they are trying to find people and don't have the right experience. this is one of those things, if can you take the courses and find the money and then have the will to finish them up, you can get a job.

companies desperate to hire people. what kind of industries are we talking about? nursing, engineering and accounting and sales. many of them have math in there. but i'm really telling you this story in the spirit of they are out there. find a way to get the training. check with the state department of labor and also local community colleges. ask around. gas prices are down again. that is good news in a bad economy. people are trying to keep a tight budget. on the ride this morning, you may see them yourself. $2.46 is the national average but it is costing you less to fill up the tank than last year, 15 to 20 bucks to fill up. that's helpful. who's king of the drive through? maybe you thought it was mcdonald's, but they thought it was okay to make you wait in line so long. they got bumped for doing that, knocked from number two to number seven. >> a big slide. >> patient had to wait in line

15 seconds longer. >> that's what got them bumped? >> over time that gets aggravating when you're trying to get to work. wendy's was the speediest but doesn't just measure speed. the number one overall, chick-fill-a, speaker clarity, that you could understand what the person was saying on the other side. >> i would like an orange slushy. wasn't that a recording from the late 80s? i said orange soda, or is that just in ohio. maybe so. have you checked out our new edition to the lineup. for example, friday joy was chatting with comedian cathy griffin. >> i want to be jennifer aniston then my life would be better and i would be happy. >> do you think she is happy? she didn't have a boyfriend. >> i want to be somebody from "the hills." i want to be a kardashian.

>> no you don't. >> i want to be chloe. you thought i would say kim. >> you know what, i don't even know who they are. >> catch "the joy wehar show at 9:00 p.m. men

all righty. let us look at the morning papers. "washington post" reports that president obama has postponed a meeting with the dollalai lama s week. the first time since 1991 that a sitting president will not meet with a spiritual leader while in d.c. a record number of people are applying for home heating assistance. the demand is up as much as 25% in some places but there's no extra mrn money in the federal budget. think twice before you trust an online review. the average grade is 4.3 out of

5 and in response ebay made 4.3 its minimum service. some sites are switching to thumb's up or thumb's down. the former fiance of a cast member of "real housewives of atlanta", a.j. jewel is seen here. atlanta police say he suffered a severe blow in a fight outside a strip club. they arrested and charged a man in his death. brett favre and the packers will be on the same football field not in the same uniform, as you know. that will be strange. >> do you go, hey, how's the family? >> if favre can beat his old team he's be the first quarterback to have beaten every team in the league. the former three time mvp, suits

up against the franchise which he starred. favre won his three mvp with the pack and led them to a super bowl win after the 1996 season. nfl players wore pink gloves and cleats and towels in support for breast cancer awareness. helping the patriots to a win over the ravens. the bears and lions, watch this play in chicago, jay cutler decides to run for it, good idea until he gets hit. >> did he get in? >> he did get in. look at this. >> they love him now. >> bear fans go that's my guy. he's a tough guy of the we like that. >> 48-24. >> detroit trying to avoid one of baseball's great collapses in recent years. they had a seven-game lead atop the al central division less

than a month ago, that is now gone. they'll play a one-game playoff tomorrow to determine who will win the american league central division. congratulations to tiger woods. today is the fifth anniversary for he and his wife. they have two children, sam alexis and son charlie. that's a look at sports. and they have a lot of money too. >> and the kids will too. >> one gardner planted a pumpkin seed in the spring and now it has a pumpkin that weighs more than 1,000 pounds. his daughter said he also gave the pumpkin a lot of attention. >> uses my mom's heating pad to keep it warm and help it grow and in the fall covers it with blankets and puts a lot of dedication into it. >> it was enough for only third place in a pumpkin weigh-off

over the weekend. you can check out the mona lisa and order a big mac. mcdonald's is opening at the louvre. french fries don't louvre. french fries don't belong. that is new for you in the next hour. excuse me. if you bought a power ball ticket in orlando you might be $189 million richer. the winning ticket was sold at a chevron food mart there. the store owner gets $80,000 for selling the ticket. he says he's going to spread the wealth. >> i'm going to give some money to my -- >> the jackpot winner has not come forward yet. i think that's fantastic. he didn't tell you how much. it could be an extra dollar for your troubles. seems like a good guy. show you what's happening now. a ground stop. if you're headed towards

atlanta, in or out, the low clouds are here. about a five-mile visibility pch a problem trying to get into the airport. a ground stop in atlanta till 8:30 this morning. here's what it looks like. if you're traveling outside, new york city metro, gusty winds. charlotte, rain showers, too. especially this morning. watch for half hour delays. atlanta, 40 minute delay. houston later today, showers and thunderstorms. watch for about a half hour delay. more on that in about a half hour. in about three weeks u.n. inspectors will visit a nuclear power plant recently revealed by iran. that's according to the head of the international atomic energy agency. iran says that its program is for peaceful purposes only like using enriched uranium to help treat cancer patients. but the united states and other countries fear that it's trying to build nuclear weapons. tough times mean that your choice of rental cars has dropped. but the rates have not. so how do you make your next trip a little cheaper?     

good morning. ready to start another workweek? i'm ready to start with you. i'm robin meade. morning, sunshine. here's what's going on. firefighters battle a massive wildfire that's forced people to grab their stuff and run for safety. we now know the weather may give the fire crews the break they need. u.s. forces suffer a severe blow in afghanistan after a bloody 12-hour battle. a man rushing his pregnant wife to the hospital ran out of time, ended up at a restaurant. and it's a delivery that just could not wait. you know what? my favorite part about that is

what his other children said about what daddy could do. wait for that. high humidity and cooler weather are helping firefighters battling a dangerous wildfire. this is going on outside l.a. the fire is 20% contained, is all. and thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate throughout san bernardino, california, county. crews went door to door rounding up people yesterday. evacuees stuffed their cars with whatever they could and got out of dodge, basically. >> everything we could think of. clothes, computers, pictures, family albums. >> mostly clothes and valuables. stuff from my wife's family. >> we evacuated 40 head from my ranch last night. >> some 3,500 acres have already been scorched since the fire started saturday. three homes are destroyed. officials still don't know how the fire got started. yesterday winds as high as 50 miles an hour were fanning the fla flames. the gusts are expected to be a little lighter today.

u.s. forces in afghanistan have suffered their worst losses in more than a year. at least eight americans were killed saturday when hundreds of militants attacked their outpost in the nuristan province. the military says the attack was pushed back after a 12-hour battle. the top u.s. commander in afghanistan has reportedly asked president obama for as many as 40,000 additional troops. >> ideally it's better for military advice to come up through the chain of command. and i think that general mcchrystal and the others in the chain of command will present the president with not just one option, which does, in fact, tend to have a forcing function, but a range of options that the president can consider. >> the obama administration said that it's reviewing u.s. strategy in afghanistan. nearly one in every 100 kids in the united states has some type of autism disorder. those are the stunning results of two new government studies.

the finding is an increase over previous studies. now, this is based on a survey of more than 78,000 parents and a cdc review of health records. one expert says that the study might be underestimating the actual number of cases. >> the costs are enormous. the studies back in '07 suggesting this may be a $35 billion challenge to the u.s. health system. so we're not ready to tackle that. >> the study's authors say that bra greater awareness and better diagnosis may be responsible for some of the increase. officials from the world crew program they five other people were wounded. the taliban's new leader in pakistan threatened new attacks yesterday. it's unclear whether they're behind today's bombing. a 3-year-old girl was okay after she was found in a house

where her father was shot twice and two others were killed. florida authorities think the shooting was drug related. they say a group of mentortured the girl's father, his roommate and a woman who was visiting. deputies found the 3-year-old under the woman's body. >> they tortured him and said, if you're going to sell drugs, you're going to sell our drugs. and, by the way, where's the $5,000? >> the girl's father is at the hospital in serious condition. police are still looking for the suspects. investigators have several people on around the clock surveillance in connection with the suspected plot to explode bombs in new york. that's from sources close to the investigation. they say that some of them traveled to pakistan with najibullah zazi and are now back in the united states. zazi is facing conspiracy charges related to the bomb plot. he pleaded not guilty last week.

it's four minutes past the hour. today the weather story is about precipitation of two different kinds but it's only autumn, bob. >> yeah, it is. only the first week of october. good morning to you. what a snow, too. we're talking about montana. wait till you see some of this action coming in. first thing's first. heavy rain right now across lower parts of georgia, moving into alabama, stretching into the carolinas. a lot of rain coming in pulling in towards north carolina. live to atlanta. try and travel down here yoush lo you're looking at a lot of rain in the forecast. that's verified by looking at our land camera. half hour delays at the airport now. that's because of the rain coming in. oh, thank you very much. did you see that? i didn't know we had squeegee men out there. you can see the rain coming out of alabama in towards lower parts of georgia. again, it's a morning event in north georgia and the carolinas. later today more thunderstorming

involving in areas of the panhandle of florida. that stretches all the way down towards new orleans for the morning. lake effect rain. cold air over warmer waters generating rain now. not reaching nyc. here's the tower cam. looking very nice. highs today mid-60s. dry as well. winds out of the west at 15 to 20 miles per hour could slow you down. the winter storm we're talking about is the low pressure center around wyoming. winds wrapping around the mountains in montana. two to four inches a possibility across southern parts of montana and western montana, too. winter storm warnings are out there. that storm breezed through washington state yesterday. check out this video we got near ridgeville, washington state. it's a stretch of i-90 closed down for 40 miles because of a dust storm. winds gusting to 40 miles per hour, kicking up dust, dropping down visibility. they closed i-90. doesn't happen very often for dust up there. more in a little bit. >> how can we be talking about

snow on your previous story there? >> snow, dust, rain. remember how we had a contest not long ago asking you for confidence boosters in conjunction with my new book, "morning sunshine, how to radiate confidence and feel it, too." which is number eight on "the new york times" best sellers list? lindsay, you win a trip to atlanta so we can all meet you here. thank you to everybody who sent a story to win the contest. you were very inspiring. seven minutes past the hour. we're learning more about the man accused of trying to blackmail david letterman and his alleged money problems. plus, you probably think you paid too much in taxes. well, this year almost 50% of us won't pay a dime in federal taxes? how is that legal?

you know, it's our honor every day to salute our troops.

today the salute goes to sergeant major glenden oakley. he's on a second tour to iraq. i think you can hear how much his wife misses him. >> i'm becky oakley. my husband is sergeant major glenden oakley. i want to say, i love you, dear. i miss you. it's really been hard here trying to keep it all together. i'm holding it together. i just miss you being here to take some of the weight off my shoulders. but i'm doing it. we miss you so much. hurry home, dear. love you. >> you sound like a strong lady. thank you for the message. if you have somebody in the service, go to cnn.com/robin. we'd be honored to salute them. a man accused of extorting david letterman is free on bond after pleading not guilty friday. prosecutors say joe halderman tried to shakedown letterman for $2 million to keep quiet about letterman's affairs with fellow staffers. richard lui joins us.

they work at the same network. how so? >> there's more. halderman's live-in girlfriend is halderman's personal assistant. halderman has also worked for 27 years for cbs. same network that letterman does. most recently as producer for "48 hours." halderman was also suspended from his job on friday. >> halderman's pleaded not guilty, though. any other clues about his -- >> halderman's attorney made a somewhat cryptic comment. this is what he said. take a listen. >> this story is far more complicated than what you heard this afternoon. it's not the open and shut case that you just heard about. >> well, you know, prosecutors say halderman was in debt and desperate and willing to do anything. court documents show he had to pay $6,800 a month in child support and alimony. and two years ago he earned more than $200,000 a year. aside from money, a family member says halderman was upset

about being far away from his kids, his ex-wife moved to colorado after their 2004 divorce. you'll hear how other comments, robin, are reacting to the letterman scandal. >> some of them letting it slide. some not. what are your thoughts on the david letterman scandal? are you still going to watch him? does it make any difference to you? go to cnn.com/rob. click on the contact us button if you want to e-mail us. if you're a facebooker, go to our facebook page and we're going to read your comments this morning. if you pay taxes, this could make you a little hot under the collar. there are many americans that do not pay a dime to the irs. money expert jennifer westhoven, some people say it's because they don't make enough money. >> it's not necessarily because they're shirking their civic duty or they're trying to get out of it. it does mean that if you're paying taxes it just lets you know what a burden you've got. taking care of a lot of people. almost half of households, 47%,

that's 71 million people who aren't paying a dime in income taxes. they're not cheating. most of them make less than $50,000 a year. they don't end up owing any money once they do the math. there's always rich people that slide through. check that out. even people making almost a million dollars or half a million dollars, some of them are managing to find legal ways not to pay any tax. >> is that legal? >> they're counting the legal people here. they couldn't really count the illegal ones. come on. that just doesn't seem right. >> no. not if you're making a million bucks. >> all right. if you're someone on the go, this headline could mean an easier time getting through the airport security lines. "usa today" is reporting on how a lot of the stimulus money is going out to airports. $100 million going to tvs for safety and bottle liquid scanner. maybe, i'm holding my hands up

and sending up a prayer, maybe we can finally get carry-on liquids on board. that would be great. and new systems that are better at sensing explosives. here are the airports that are going to gut the money. washington dulles, san jose in california, san antonio, texas, portland, maine. who's the senator from there? columbus, ohio, and atlanta, georgia. i'm just thinking portland, maine, probably not getting as much traffic as like boston and new york or -- okay. >> and i don't know how much traffic columbus gets. didn't seem to be a huge airport when i was there. must be growing. >> maybe that's kind of lake ik some breast cancer survivors now have permanent badges of honor. how a tattoo shop is paying tribute by making pink ribbons out of ink. a man who was arrested for allegedly stalking and secretly videotaping an espn reporter could get out of jail. out of jail as soon as today.

rescuers do not think that anyone could have survived this long buried in the rubble from last week's earthquakes in indonesia. they called off their search

today. the crews are now clearing the rubble. the u.n. says it'll focus on providing relief now. strong quakes hit indonesia two days in a row last week. more than 600 people died, and more than 300 others are missing. the mother of a chicago teen seen beaten to death on video says that she can't bear to watch the tape, but she wants it shown. derrion albert was laid to rest saturday. his funeral drew family members, city officials and community leaders. his mom sat down with don lemon of our sister network, cnn, and talked about the vicious beating. >> i can't watch it. but i want them to see. i want them to know what they're doing. i want them to see what they did to my son. because they need to pay for this. it's unfortunate that these are kids doing this. but something's got to be done. somebody's got to step in. >> this is the amateur video

caught on a cell phone. police say derrion albert was an innocent bystander when two gangs got into a fight. four suspects are charged with first-degree murder. people in denver are showing their commitment to fighting breast cancer permanently. a tattoo parlor is giving away pink ribbon tattoos every saturday until the end of the month. >> truly an honor to be able to offer these women, these survivors that i've met, a tattoo in recognition of their strengths and what they've gone through. we get the honor of making women happy with the tattoos that they receive and offering back to them just some artwork that has strong meaning to them. >> the parlor said that they've already booked up with 600 pink ribbon tattoos scheduled this month. if you want one, don't worry, though. they said they're going to offer them again next year. erin andrews said she hopes

this weekend's arrest will help others who've been victimized in the same way she has. the man accused of illegally videotaping the espn reporter is going to be in court today. here's larry with more on the story. >> she told oprah winfrey on the "oprah" show how horrified she was and felt like a victim all over again as the media kept showing pictures from the video when the story broke this summer. thankfully she's putting this behind her. she continues to do great work for espn. michael barret faces federal charges. he's accused of videotaping andrews through an altered peephole in hotels in nashville and milwaukee, posting the vi o videos online and trying to sell them. they tracked him via digital footprint on the internet and through e-mails. the issue is whether he'll be released on bail today. a few weeks ago brandon marshall was being -- fast forward.

he's a happy lad now. broncos versus the cowboy. watch this great catch. this is why he's such a great player. athletic ability here makes all the cowboys players, look at that, seven white jerseys in the screen at one point. marshall scores a touchdown. denver remains undefeated. look at this. he's hugging teammates. he's even hugging the coach. look at that. happy days. joy, joe. mark sanchez has been the anointed one since the jets drafted him last april. he's been in "gq." led the jets to a 3-0 start. that's no more. he was abused by the saints in new orleans yesterday, 24-10 loss. his first as an nfl starting quarterback. you get paid millions of bucks to play football and you can't read the play books? the steelers mendenhall got pen benched last week for his lack of knowledge, lack of studying. a georgia high school has

displayed bible verses on banners. they tried something different. they ran through a banner that says big red country. each player kneels on the field. where there's a will, there's a way. >> looks like they got a big response. farmers got the rock star treatment in st. louis this weekend. the annual concert featured performances by willie nelson, neil young, and dave matthews. >> help america, help the farm. >> we have this fight where we all have to support changes to stop the government supporting this big agricultural corporate culture of overproducing. >> thousands of people came to watch, chow down on locally grown produce and support

family-owned farms. since 1985 farming has raised more than $35 million to help family farms. a man ended up staying in thailand a little longer than he planned when this happened. did you see that? his bungee cord broke! 

at least three u.n. workers were killed in a suicide bomb attack on their office in pakistan. officials from the world food program say five other people were wounded. the taliban's new leader of pakistan threatened new attacks yesterday, but it's still unclear whether they're behind today's bombing. the supreme court starts a new term today. it'll be the first for justice sonia sotomayor. some of the big cases on the docket include how corporate spending is handled in political campaigns and a lawsuit challenging chicago's ban on handguns. >> unfortunately one of them belonged to one of our employees. and he lost a number of his

pets. >> a fireman is battling a wildfire in california's san bernardino county that took his own home. the winds could be calmer today, helping the crews trying to get control of the fire. yesterday the gusts got as high as 50 miles an hour. the undead were hungry for the big take at the box office over the weekend. "zombieland" opened at number one. moviegoers were interested in family dining feasted on "cloudy with a chance of meatballs." dropped to second place. how are you doing? it's monday. that's how you're doing. i'm robin meade. morning, sunshine. appreciate your time. today a 19-year-old accused of trying to blow up a dallas skyscraper returns to court. smadi is charged with trying to detonate what he believed was a truck bomb beneath a 60-story

building. his landlord said there was nothing suspicious about him. >> some of the people told me he was more of a party animal than a philosopher. >> two weeks before his arrest smadi was pulled over for a string of traffic violations. a dash cam vid wreo shows him asking about the legal process. three americans are sharing this year's noble prize in medicine. they won for their work on chromosome research. the prize includes $1.4 million. congra congrats. david letterman's fellow comedians are not cutting him slack. here's jay leno. >> if you came here tonight for sex with a talk show host, you've got the wrong studio. what is going on? first conan hit his head. then somebody tries to extort money from letterman. i'm so glad i'm out of late night. >> he's on an hour earlier now. correspondent richard lui

has more on how the other comics are reacting. some of them are letting it slide. others are not. >> they are not, robin. nbc's jimmy fallon zinged him on his very well known top ten list. >> there's a new book out called why women have sex that has a list of 237 reasons why women have sex. letterman knows the top ten. >> all right. those are some they're piling on. also interesting, by the way, who did not crack jokes about letterman as you were talking about there. jimmy kimmel spared letterman. so did his new rival nbc's conan o'brien. we've got "saturday night live." they did not hold back. >> a producer for "48 hours" was arrested yesterday for atte attempting a stupid human trick. it was reported that the blackmailer joe halderman was

threatening to reveal embarrassing details of letterman's personal life. for example, after sex, he would always say, stay tuned for craig ferguson. >> that's our comic update. how might this affect letterman's show? he has a lot of female viewers. i'm wondering how female viewers might react to it. >> we have some funny implications that there's some who will not be. the number of women that actually watch is six out of ten in terms f his ratings. although his show was on a roll since jay leno's departure. the scandal may raise some questions now about whether letterman's affair may have been sexual harassment or an abuse of power over employees. according to "the new york times," letterman's production company, worldwide pants, saying its policy does not prohibit relationships within the company. only they cannot be tied to an

employee's performance. >> what are your thoughts about the david letterman scandal? you still going to watch him? jamie writes he scrutinized many people over having affairs in the past. no break for hypocrites. judy also comments. that's his business. roger from missouri sent us an e-mail saying i feel sorry for david letterman's family. now i understand why his production company's name is worldwide pants. go to cnn.com/robin. click on the contact us button if you're an e-mailer. g or go to facebook. we're there during commercials reading whatever you wrote. thanks. would you believe a man is still alive after calling 165 feet in a bungee cord accident? here's the tape. the bungee rope came loose! yeah. he reports he was falling 80 miles an hour when he hit the water chest first. that's a nightmare. he was in thailand celebrating

his college graduation. he had to stay in the hospital for a month. he had a ruptured spleen, a torn liver and collapsed lung. hopefully he knew how to swim, too. is that not unbelievable? >> i was thinking -- oh, man. >> seriously. he is lucky he's alive. >> i think he's unconscious. someone had to have dived in to get him. expect a lot of tricker treaters this year. a costume company says michael jackson and other dead celebrities like farrah fawcett, ed mcmahon, billy mays are very popular costumes. you'll also see a lot of the twilight vampires and a few jon and kate gosselin. i want to know which company is going to make the kate gosselin wig. does chshe have the ted to send bucks less on halloween this year. >> it's creepy for a 36-year-old

man to dress up. >> you're not? >> it's creepy, right? when you see someone -- >> if you're not out with your kids. >> just out by yourself, i'm talking about. answering the door. it's kind of weird, right? i'm just saying. a regular guy, it's not something we would do. am i right? >> for an adult party, that's fine. >> that's different. just to do it, just to do it, is kind of strange. i usually would stay away from those houses with the kids. let me show you what's happening. a couple storms we're watching. one is the low just out to memphis. a lot of clouds. all rain. obviously it's warming up well above the freezing mark to get nothing but liquid. northern part of the rockies, arctic air across northern parts of montana and rain rolling up it. we're seeing a lot of snow. let me show you what we're calling for. computer generated models looking at about two to four feet of snow across southern parts of montana in towards northern wyoming. see the dark shade of purple there. you see just to the southwest of billings. watch for two to four feet of snow total, now.

it's been snowing since yesterday when the rain switched on over. it's going to last through tonight into early tomorrow morning before it finally buzzes away from you. first major snow maker of the year. lower parts of montana and northern wyoming. the rest of the country, here's your rain any time. south of atlanta stretching in towards the carolinas. the drying out trend is going to take place western south carolina and north carolina shortly. you can see the rain around the raleigh area. let me show you live what it looks like at the state capital. rain is out there. low clouds as well. sunshine breaking out later today. rain around, though, for the morning. rain through hilton head, back through florida panhandle. thunderstorms out there. again, not quite as bad as what you had over the last couple days. lake effect rain, no big deal,

northern new york state. the snow maker around great falls. snow coming in through idaho falls as well. that low breezed on past washington state. let me show you video of what happened when that went on by. a dust storm. i'll show you that in a little bit. this is what it looked like on i-90. shut down around washington state by ridgeville. more in a half hour. i've never been in something that bad. i would imagine it probably gets into every pore in your head. >> thank you. a colorado woman said that she owes her life to a cab driver. >> you can see the tears from her eyes. and she look at me and say, thank you. i said, you don't need to thank me. i just did what i was supposed to do. >> the heroic act that's earned him the title of taxi driver of the year.

in about three weeks u.n. inspectors will visit a nuclear power plant recently revealed by iran. that's according to the head of the international atomic energy agency. iran says its program is only for peaceful purposes like using enriched uranium to help treat cancer patients. but the united states and other countries fear that it's trying to build nuclear weapons. okay. so you're looking for a job. the good news is there are a lot of good jobs out there. unfilled. our money expert jennifer westhoven is looking out for you here. >> we've been talking about how there's like 2.5 million jobs out there that are open. and there are a lot of companies who say, we can't find anybody who's qualified to fill these. even in this economy.

there are job openings out there. how can you get yourself into them? the industries are nursing, engineering, accounting, sales. notice how many of them use math. even if you think you're not good at math, keep practicing. you can get better at it. i'm telling you this story in the spirit of, look, there really are jobs out there if you can find a way to get yourself trained. it may take a long time. you can get yourself a really good job that's never going to be outsourced. check with your state department of labor. maybe you can qualify for benefits to take classes. also local community colleges. sometimes what they do is they'll actually work with local companies that have openings so they can train you specifically for a kind of a job. that could help. gas prices. they're down again. that's a little bit more good news in a bad economy. something that can help your budget. check out the signs. aaa's latest tally shows $2.46 is the average. bottom line, it's costing a lot less to fill up your tank. probably $15 to $20 a tank less

than it did last year. that's nice. who is king of the drive-through. chick-fil-a. mcdonald's made you wait too long in line. an average 15 seconds longer than the year before. >> don't make we wait 15 seconds longer. >> when you're late for work, every second counts? they were also measuring did your order come? was it exactly what you asked for? and speaker clarity as well. back to you. >> thank you. just amazing, though, how fast fast food companies are able to get the food out to you. >> it is. always feels like it takes a long time while you sit in the car line. >> that's true. they have a long time to make up for it. that's true. have you checked out our new addition to our primetime lineup? "the joy behar show" airs every night. friday she chatted up comedian kathy griffin. >> i want to be jennifer an ston? >> why?

>> my life would be better. i'd be happy. i'd have everything figured out. >> you think she's so happy? >> pick somebody out. i want to be somebody from the hills. i want to be one of the kardashians. i want to be khloe. you didn't see that coming. you thought i'd say kim. >> i didn't. i don't know who they are. >> check out "the joe behar show" at 9:00 p.m. eastern on hln. a star of the hit reality show "real housewives of atlanta" is coping with the death of her former fiance. it's got a lot of people talking about it. a nasty strip club brawl.

♪ i like their new emergency. that's "the fixer" from pearl jam. the group's new album "backspacer" is on top of the charts right now. it's their first number one album in 13 years. former fiance of a cast member on "the real housewives of atlanta" was killed in a brawl.

the story has been getting a lot of your attention on cnn.com. a.j. jewel is seen here with candy burress who joined the show this season. atlanta police say he suffered a severe blow in a fight outside a strip club. they've arrested and charged a man in his death. so picture it. for years, brett favre has been in minneapolis with the green pay packers. tonight he's in the twin cities playing against the packers. larry, good morning. >> keep in mind, this summer a lot of packers fans burned their brett favre jerseys, brett favre memorabilia. so mad he went to the hated rival vikings. he'll meet his old team tonight, and make history becoming the nfl quarterback to have beaten every team in the league. he suits up against the team where he starred for almost all of his career. he won his three mvp awards with the pack and sent them to a

super bowl win in the 1996 season. players wore pink this weekend to show support for breast cancer awareness month. it's a darker more masculine pink they were sporting. tom brady looking good in pink as were the patriots. they beat the ravens. bears and lions. watch this play. quarter back jay cutler. didn't see a receiver open. goes into the end zone. good idea until this. wow. one more look at it. cutler goes in for the touch down. 48-24 win. yes, he was okay. >> and he got a touchdown. >> and he got the score is right. detroit is trying to avoid one of baseball's great collapses in recent years. the tigers had a seven-game lead over the twins less than a month ago. but it's gone. they are tied at the end of the season. they'll play a one-game playoff tomorrow to determine the american league central division champ. the winner faces the yankees in round one of the playoffs.

congratulations going out to billionaire golfer tiger woods today. his fifth wedding anniversary for me and his wife and two kids as well. daughter sam alexis and son charlie. for them. >> just so cute. >> i love it. >> so sweet. larry, thank you for that. >> tomorrow's my anniversary. >> you forgot? >> no, no, no. i don't believe that. your birthday is the same day as your wedding anniversary? what kind of man does that? i'll tell you. t >> i know you're doing the math. let me show you what it looks like, no delays to speak of. gusty winds out of new york city metros today. 30 minutes to an hour delay.

charlotte, the rain in the morning. atlanta, we had a ground stop and might see a few delays. some thunderstorms popping in later today. i kid, robin. more details coming up. >> i'm not kidding. >> i know. i know. the flu season officialry got underway yesterday, but this year, people are more concerned about the swine flu. health officials say the virus is making its second major sweep through the united states. vaccinations begin this week, but you may have to wait to get yours. there is still not enough for everybody. indonesia's called off the search for survivors who may be under toppled buildings. emergency workers are clearing the rubble now. the u.n. says it's focussing on relief for the survivors. two devastating quakes hit indonesia last week. more than 600 people died and more than 300 are missing.

there may be more children with autism than we first thought. a new study says the disorder could affect almost one in every 100 american children.

morning, sunshine. i've been waiting for you. been away for a bit, but now, i see you. a massive wildfire sends thousands of families scrambling to safety unsure of what they're going to come home to. why today could be the turning point the firefighters have been waiting for. plus, more kids than ever face some kind of autism. and a man who's accused of secretly videotaping erin andrews and trying to cash in on

it, could walk out of jail today. high humidity is helping firefighters battle a huge fire outside of l.a. the fire is 20% contained. thousands have been ordered to evacuate. the crews went door to door rounding up people yesterday. evacuees stuffed their cars with whatever they could and left. >> everything we could think of. clothes, computers, pictures. >> mostly just clothes and valuables, stuff from my wife's family. >> we evacuated 40 heads from my ranch last night. >> 3500 acres have been scorched since the fire started saturday. yesterday, the winds as high as 50 miles an hour fanned the flames and made it hard for the firefighter. u.s. forces in afghanistan have suffered their worst losses in more than a year. at least eight american troops

were killed saturday when hundreds of militants attacked their outpost. the military says the attack was pushed back after a 12-hour battle and the militants suffered heavy casualties. the incident comes as the obama administration is reviewing u.s. strategy in afghanistan. >> i don't foresee the return of the taliban and want to be clear that afghanistan is not in imminent danger of falling. >> the top u.s. commander in afghanistan has reportedly accused president obama for as many as 40,000 troops. the general said without them, the mission in afghanistan could fail and the taliban could return to power. the mother who was stabbed and her baby snatched now has none of her children. she briefly saw her newborn saturday. but then, tennessee's protective services took him and her three other kids. a judge will review the case this week. a woman is charged with

kidnapping the baby. investigators have several people under survey lens linked to the plot to bomb new york. some traveled to pakistan with zazi and are now back in the united states. zazi is facing conspiracy charges related to the bomb plot. the nfl was thinking pink over the weekend in recognition of breast cancer awareness month. it's a strong pink color, not a baby pink. >> still looks very neat, i think. to see the linemen with pink gloves. i loved the pink cleats. was my favorite. that was the idea of d'angelo williams. his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004.

she's a cancer survivor, but has lost three sisters to breast cancer. all three women inherited the gene from their father's side of the family. we'll have more on this weekend's games and see who else might have worn pink over the weekend. >> that's a nice thing to do. nearly one in 100 kids in the united states have some type of autism disorderer. those are the stunning results to two new studys. it's based on a study of more than 78,000 parents. one expert says it might be underestimating the actual number of cases. >> this was a study done by telephone study of parents who were asked if a health care provider had diagnosed their child. imagine the numbers of people who might be inaccessible by telephone or those not diagnosed by providers at all. it really is a striking study.

>> the study's author says greater awareness and better diagnosis may explain some of the increase they found. all right. it's four minutes after the hour. in the southeast, people are stopping -- it's warm weather? what i say by warm weather, it rains and out come the worms. >> you're right. you can see it on our tower cam. we'll start with that. that's what robin's talking about. here's the rain coming in. we had it hard at times overnight. if you're trying to travel in or out of the city, some light right still out there. that's the warmer system. how about a cold one. the first major winter type storm across the northern roc rockies. here's montana. look at the rain coming up the slopes of the mountain. it's been snowing heavily now

for the last 12 to 24 hours in parts of montana, wyoming and idaho. get back to the west, here's where the snow is falling right now. we have the winter storm warnings out there. two to four feet of snow total for you especially in areas in red. the blue areas are advisories. the dark shade of purple, that's the concentrated amounts of snowfall. two to four feet. that's basically above 4,000 feet elevation. we had storms across the gulf coast. the rain is pulling out from atlanta in towards south carolina and north carolina. lower parts of georgia, heavy rain is here and will slide through the coast over the next few hours. also, rain for lower parts of south carolina and north carolina, too. full details on this and where the rain's going in a bit.

>> thank you. remember how we had a contest not long ago asking you for confidence boosters in conjunction with my new book. we now know who the grand prize winner is and it is lindsay s. from north carolina. thank you to our viewers who sent in stories for the contest. the deadly beating of a chicago teen caught on videotape stunned so many people, but the boy's mom wants that tape shown even though she cannot bear to watch it.

our salute to the troops goes to sergeant major oakley. he is on a second deployment to iraq. i think you can hear in her voice how much his wife misses him. >> hi, robin. my husband is sergeant major

glenden oakley. i want to say, i love you, miss you. it's really been hard here trying to keep it all together, but i'm holding it together. i just miss you being here to take some of the weight off my shoulders, but i'm doing it. we miss you so much. hurry home. love you. >> but strong, jackie. jacqueline, make that. if you have somebody in the service, you want to salute them, go to cnn.com/robin. the mother of a chicago teen seeing beaten to death cannot bear to see the tape, but wants it shown. he was laid to rest saturday and his funeral drew city officials and leaders. she sat down with don lemon and talked about the vicious beating. >> i can't watch it, but i want them to see. i want them to know what they're doing. i want them to see what they did

to my son because they need to pay for this. you know, it's unfortunate that these are kids doing this, but something's got to be done. somebody's got to step in. >> this is the amateur video caught on a cell phone. police say that he was an innocent bystander. three people died during a boat ride and the boat itself is the biggest clue about how it happened. authorities found the boat 150 feet from the water. it's new for you in the next half hour. let's hope it doesn't happen, but say several employees where you work suddenly got the h1n1 virus. who would fill in? how would the business run? small businesses across the country may not be ready for that flu and jennifer westhoven has more on that. >> this is one of those things where it's a good idea if you get involved, you can remind

your boss or take initiative yourself in some way. if you're in a small business, when people don't share jobs at all, they may think, well, i'm making myself indispensable, but the whole team could be in trouble. ask if you can cross train with someone. of course you couldn't do it perfectly, but at least something could get down. plus, your boss should have a back-up in place for key roles like somebody who can fix the computers. and don't feel bad or guilty about calling in sick if you catch the swine flu h1n1. even the president asked companies to be flexible in that case and if you get sick, remember, if you go in, everybody at work could get sick, too. gas prices down. it costs so much less to fill up than it did last year. aaa's latest tally of the average price is $2.46.

it should be 15 to $20 less for you to fill up than it did last summer. if you pay taxes, you may find this a little galling. 47%, that's 71 million people, and we're not talking about people dodging taxes. most just don't owe money. but look at the people there making more than $100,000 a year and finding a way to not pay taxes. >> how do they do that? >> you got me. even if i knew how -- not so sure. >> i don't want to get contacted by the irs three years later. so far, so good, the airports. one delay around atlanta because of a groundstop. the rain is still around the southeast. here's georgia, south carolina, north carolina. notice the rain coming in.

that's the green towards charlotte. here's what we have delaywise later today. winds gusting out of the west, 15 to 20 miles per hour. nyc, short delays. then morning fog, so far hasn't been a problem for you. denver, minneapolis, rain later this evening. new details about david letterman scandal about how the man accused of trying to blackmail him and the woman they both knew.

the man accused of extorting david letterman is free on bond. prosecutors say he tried to shake down letterman for $2 million to keep quiet about letterman's affairs with fellow staffers. what does this mean to letterman? >> here's a possible link, robin. his former live-in girlfriend is letterman's long time personal assista assistant. show representatives saying they had a sexual relationship in the

past. hallderman was suspended on friday. >> what do we know about the possible motive? i mean, deeper than allegation that there were money? >> prosecutors say he was in debt and desperate and willing to do anything. court domes saying he had to pay 48 6800 a month in child support. a family member says he was upset about being far away from his kids. his ex-wife moved to colorado after their 2004 divorce. the story is more complicated than it appears at the moment. >> thanks. we wanted to ask our folks here at home, what are your thoughts and the scandal? are you still going to watch him? ronny says -- randall on

facebook wrote -- heather on facebook wrote -- drew from california says -- go to cnn.com/robin. if you're a facebooker, go to our page, we'll read your comments all morning. erin andrews hopes this weekend's arrest will help others who have been victimized in the same way she has. the man accused of illegally videotaping the reporter will be in court today. >> she told oprah how horrified she was and how she felt like a victim all over again as the media kept showing pictures of

this video. the 47-year-old faces federal charges and will be in court. he is accused of illegally videotaping andrews through altered peepholes and then posting the videos online and trying to sell them. he was tracked through his digital footprint on the internet. a few weeks ago, brandon marshall was throwing tantrums on the field. kicking balls away from personnel. just being a jerk. he must be getting more sleep these days or just got a good spanking from daddy. great catch. what what he does here. later, he's celebrating. teammates come up and celebrate, then goes up and hugs his coach. ♪ broncos undefeated.

mark sanchez has been in "gq." he led the jet to a 3-0 start. he was abused by the saints yesterday. 24-10. a loss, his first as nfl starting quarterback. welcome to the real word. so you get paid millions of dollars to play football and can't get the playbook right? mendenhall got benched last week because he couldn't get it right. a georgia high school that displayed bible verses tried something different this time. the players ran through a banner that said, this is big red country, then each player knelt to pray on the field before the game. this in response to the school district's ban on bible verses. everyone has found a way around that.

>> it's a public school. >> yes. ft. oglethorpe, georgia, near chattanooga. a gardener planted a pumpkin seed and now, he has a 1,000 pound pumpkin. his daughter says he gave it a lot of attention. >> in the springtime, he used my mom's heating pads to keep it warm and help it grow. really, really puts a lot of dedication into it. >> that was still only enough for third place at a pumpkin way-in in new york over the weekend. the undead were hungry for the box office this weekend. "zombie land" opened at number one this weekend. moviegoers more interested in "cloudy with a chance of meat

balls" and ""toy story" third. you can see the tears from her eyes and she look at me and say, thank you. i say, you don't need to thank me. i just did what i was supposed to do. = they said it would never last.

but it's been two months, and you're still going strong. glade lasting impressions. two fragrances alternate to keep things... fresh and exciting day after day. - and not just for 30 days. - ( inhales deeply, sighs ) but for 60. it's the longest-lasting plugins ever.

get freshness that won't fade away for 60 days. ahhh! with plugins lasting impressions. and yes, it's glade. s.c. johnson, a family company. good morning. the new york stock exchange open for business just now and the stocks are ready for a bounce back. we've got a live report on what could drive the expected rebound on wall street. we shall see. unfortunately, one of them belonged to one of our employees and he lost a number of his pets. >> a fireman is battling a wildfire in california that took his own home. now, the winds could be calmer today, helping crews get control of the flames. the gusts yesterday got as high as 50 miles an hour.

look at the way the smoke is spread over the mountains. here are live pictures now. the fire's still burning, but they're way above. it's hard to tell exactly how big it is at this point. it has scorched 3500 acres since saturday. at least three u.n. workers were killed in a suicide bomb attack at their office in pakistan. five others were wounded. the taliban's new leader of pakistan threatened new attacks yesterday, but it's still unclear whether they are behind today's bombings. the supreme court starts a new term today. some cases include how corporate spending his handled. that's a quick check of some of our top stories. welcome to monday. morning, sunshine. i'm robin meade. today, a 19-year-old accused of

trying to blow up a dallas skyscraper returns to court. he is charged with trying to detonate what he believed was a truck bomb. the former landlord says there was nothing suspicious about him. >> some people have told me he was more of a party animal. >> two weeks before his arrest, he was pulled over for a string of traffic violations and a dash cam shows him asking about the legal process. this morning, three americans are sharing the noble prize in medicine. they won for their work on chromosome research. the prize includes $1.4 million. some stories we're watching for you, doctors will join president obama to talk about health insurance reform. he'll then make remarks around

11:00 a.m. eastern. tonight, robert gates and hillary clinton will be at george washington university about america's power and purr situation. you might remember an oklahoma trooper who got into a fight with trooper -- walk toward the street. he said he asked why and the trooper began hitting him. two offers are on paid leave while it's being investigated. if you bought a power ball ticket, you might be $189 million richer. the store's owner is a big winner, too. he gets 80,000 bucks for selling the ticket. he says he's going to spread the wealth. >> i'm going to give some money to my cashier. >> the winner has not come forward yet.

33 minutes past the hour. monday. the rainy days and mondays get you down? hi, bob. >> what about snow? >> that really gets you down when it's only october. >> we're watching for two to four inches of snow per hour basical basically. we have low pressure in wyoming. rain, snow, wrapping up through the mountains. south dakota in towards north dakota, minneapolis, you're going to get snow, too. but the winter weather warnings are off towards your west. all the areas you see shaded here in red, winter storm warning. i think the bulk of snow is going to fall above 5,000 feet. that's going to be right by i-90 in western parts of montana and northern sections of idaho. rain showers, snow showers, we

have them up there for the rockies. we're looking at basically two to four feet of snow here, then it drys out. with the snow underground, cold temperatures in place, below freezing is wa you're going to wake up to. western montana, big story across the deep southeast. this low, it's steering a lot of rain through the carolinacaroli. in charlotte, north carolina, it's going to be a rough go. you're going to see delays out of this. also, we have flooding video from san antonio from the weekend. more than 5.4 inches of rain fell in san antonio from midnight last night through 8:00. that was yesterday. unbelievable amounts of rain coming down. this was an exceptional drought. more details in about a half hour. >> thank you. okay. over to wall street.

the stocks have been lower for two weeks. the longest string since july. susan lisovicz is at the new york stock exchange. how's it supposed to look this week? >> good morning, robin. it looks better. we are seeing some green arrows in the first few minutes of trading. over the past few weeks, investors have been bogged down by the economic news, but stocks rebounding as investors look ahead to the start of third quarter earnings season. most analysts say the economy grew over the past three months. alan greenspan told abc's this week that the economy likely grew at 3%, but warns the unemployment rate will top 10%. "the wall street journal" says bank of america is looking to replace embattled ceo ken

lewis sooner than later. the chief executive facing legal battles from several fronts. and the controversy of a different sort overseas. the german luxury pen maker has stirred up controversy in india over a pen commemorating gandhi's 140th birthday. the limited edition pens sell for nearly $25,000. many find the pen a bizarre way to remember a man who advocate a simple lifestyle and shunned foreign-made goods. robin? >> i could see where they're coming from. all right. thank you. appreciate it. a cast member of atlanta's real housewives is dealing with

a real tragedy. her former fiance was killed in a strip club fight.

david letterman's fellow comedians are not cutting him any slack. jimmy fallon, first up. >> there's a new book out that has a list of why women have sex and letterman knows the top ten. >> that was pretty good. meanwhile, the man accused of

extorting letterman pleaded not guilty friday. prosecutors say he tried to take down letterman for $2 million to keep quiet about the affairs. what are your thoughts about this scandal? will you still watch david letterman? david e-mailed from massachusetts saying -- karen on facebook wrote -- you are welcome to put your comments on our facebook page. we have new info on the man accused of planning a terrorist attack in the united states. it is one of the stories that richard lui's working on in the next hour. >> as we talk about this in the next 15 minutes, we're going to work on the story that sources close to this case are saying that several traveled to pakistan with the suspect and some are now back in the united

states. plus, we've learned a million people had to leave their homes because of floods in india. this is just some of the pictures we've gotten. the death toll is rising until hundreds. also, a couple in new york state have a new bundle of joy times five. >> thank you. the former fiance of a cast member on "the real housewives of atlanta" was killed in a brawl. that story's getting a lot of your attention on cnn.com. a.j. jewel is seen here with kandi burruss. he suffered a severe blow in a fight outside a strip club. they've arrested and charged a man in his death. have you noticed car rental companies have cut back on their fleets, but not their rates? clark howard tells you how to beat those high prices during this recession. >> do you know that car rental companies being on the financial ropes have been in the best

position of anybody in the travel business to do something about the country being in a recession? they simply reduced the number of car rentals they have in their fleet. you think about hotels, they don't suddenly shut the hotels. airlines, what to they do? they park their planes in the desert. car rental companies can say, we're not going to buy as many new cars in this cycle. and that's what they've done. meaning car rental prices are going up, not down, in a down economy. how should you beat it? well, shop multiple companies and try hotwire and priceline for big savings on car rentals. for more ways to save a dollar, go to cnn.com. >> clark will teach you to save more, spend less and avad getting ripped off.

you can expect a lot of one-glove tricker treaters this year. companies are saying that michael jackson and other dead celebrities are popular costumes. you're also going to see twilight vampires and a few jon and kate gosselins. but another trend is saving money. have you checked out our new addition to the prime ti time line-up? >> i want to be jennifer aniston. >> why? >> because my life would be better. >> you think she's so happy? she doesn't have a boyfriend. >> then somebody from "the hills." one of the kardashians. how's that. i want to be khloe. there. you thought i'd say kim.

>> i didn't. i don't know who they are. a 3-year-old girl is found at a gruesome crime scene unharmed though and she may have witnessed deadly shootings.

a power boat slammed into a long island marsh last night killing three on board. someone found the boat 150 feet from the water. a detective told local media that the boat had to be going pretty fast to wind up that far on to the marsh. would you believe that a man the still alive after falling 165 in a bungee accident? here is the video. the rope came loose. he was falling 80 miles an hour when he hit the water, chest first. he was in thailand celebrating his college graduation. he had a ruptured spleen, a torn liver and collapsed lung.

that is a nightmare. >> lucky he survived. that's why i don't bungee jump. for years, brett favre was with the packers. but tonight, he's in the twin cities playing against him. larry has more. >> can't imagine brett favre with the jets, the nfc north against the packers, wearing purple. he could beat his team tonight and become the first quarterback in the nfl to -- he will suit up in purple against that packer franchise. favre won his three mvp awards with them and also a super bowl win after the 1996 season in new orleans, their win over new england in new orleans. nfl players wore pink gloves

and cleats this weekend for breast cancer awareness month. good for them. they're going to auction them off after all the players sign them. that's tom brady and moss looking pretty in pink on sunday. one of the better plays of the day. bears and lions. jay cutler can't find anybody open, so he'll run it in. he has to pay the price to do so. one more look at it. cutler goes airborne. oh, my -- gets the touchdown, holds on to the ball and avoids injury. the tigers trying to avoid one of baseball's great collapses in recent memory. the tigers had a seven-game lead over the twins, but it's gone. they'll play a one-game playoff tomorrow to determine the winner of the american league central division. tony stewart took a chance

to star in his own racing team a year ago and now, he's trying win for the first time as a driver/owner. and congratulations to tiger woods today. he and his wife celebrate their fifth anniversary. they have two children and a billion george washington's laying around the mansion down there in orlando. >> jumping in the money. >> they're more precious than all the money. >> of course you say that. good for them. he earned it. that's fine. bob van dillen in for today's travel update. i just did a very generic talk to you. >> hey. how you doing, robin? we have the low clouds right now across atlanta, so 15 to 30-minute delays.

we also have a delay in houston about 35 minutes because of low clouds. new york city metros, gusty winds today. charlotte, rain in the morning, half hour delays. atlanta, we have our delay. houston, we're looking at rain. already had that delay about 45 minutes. >> thank you. lindsay lohan has a new fashion line. the critics are ripping it to shreds. looks like it was already ripped to shreds. one publication called the clothes cheesey. even lohan admitted the collection was put together very quickly. mcdonald's is opening at the luvre in paris next month. the reports are that the mcdonald's will open in the food court representing american food. they're also building a mick cafe. france is mcdonald's biggest

market outside the united states. a man rushing his pregnant wife to the hospital ran out of time and ended up at a restaurant and the dramatic delivery in the van.