good morning. there you are under the covers. you ready to face your tuesday? let me get your brain ready as you wake up here. i'm robin meade. good morning, sunshine. police might be ready to make an arrest in the stabbing death of an nfl player. the detalsz we're learning about the night he was killed. something could land in the laps of the balloon boy's parents real soon, and it's not a reality tv deal. if you've got young ones, what brand of baby food might be contaminated with botulism.

police have told him his client might be taken into custody. the lawyer says his client did not kill jasper howard, but he was in on the fight with uconn football players when he was stabbed. that's his mother, heartbroken, at a vigil last night. one man was arrested at the scene on sunday, but his lawyer says he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. the man has not been charged with the killing. the killing is dominating conversation on campus. >> you get to see this athlete play and that night something happens like this and it's almost too close to home. it is too close to home because it's here. >> they need to find the killer. he needs to serve his time. rafer has more on the details the night howard was killed. we're hearing details that helps set the scene, basically.

>> what a hair rowing picture it is, robin. at least two teammates the night howard was killed and one of those teammates held howard in his arms as he died while another one tried to give him first aid. we're learning another football player, brian parker, was stabbed, but his injuries are not considered life threatening. today students are encouraged to wear dark clothing to mourn howard. there will be an event every day this week on campus to remember him. how this team picks up a football and plays on saturday, robin, i have no idea. more sports in a bit. >> and they do have one scheduled. >> yep, on saturday. a woman and a man were killed after two suicide attacks in pakistan. at least 32 people were injured. it happened at the islamic university in pakistan's capital. more than 12,000 students from all over the world go to school there. charges in the balloon

boy -- let's just call it that -- case could be charged by saturday. the parents are involved in a huge hoax involving a balloon. the city also wants to get money back that they spent looking for him. >> it is a bad thing that he did, but you know, it is important to keep in mind that no one was hurt. he doesn't appear to have taken any money as a result -- it was a career-building, apparently, endeavor that didn't work, but, i mean, i think it's important to keep it in perspective. >> richard heene has spent time in prison before. we're delving into his record. right now two schools near milwaukee have canceled classes for about four days. about 200 kids have fever, cough and sore throat. many parents support the

closings. >> they're germ factories. they come home with everything. fingers in the mouth, pencils in the mouth. i think it's a good idea. >> the schools could reopen as early as friday. a lot of you are reading about this on c thinn.com. joe seanz is wanted in a kidnapping and a rape. they saw video from last year that they believe shows him killing someone execution style. remember the woman who died in police custody at the airport about two years ago? now the city is offering her family about a $200,000 settlement. carol gotbalm was unruly. she accidentally strangled herself after being chained to a

bench. they tell a judge that the former illinois governor has talked about evidence during other tv appearances and that the reality show may air during jury selection. but they did not ask the judge to bar blago from the show. now, his lawyer says it's going to have a bearing from his client proclaiming his innocence. >> this is the first time i've heard of a law official coming to kortd and saying, judge, please shut the defendant up. usually it's the exact opposite. >> blago was not at yesterday's hearing, he was in new york taping the show. he's scheduled to appear against people like brett michaels, sharon osbourne, and cynd cyndy lauper. so musical guests and then blago. police recently stopped a stolen suv in its tracks

remotely bypassing through the on-star system and disabling the vehicle. presently it's only available in certain gm vehicles, but they could stop car chases or carjackings before they get out of control. we need to recall a baby food here. plum organics makes apple and carrot portable pouchz. it's sold at toys are us and babies are us, but it's being pulled over botulism fears. there's no reports of babies getting sick, but you should throw it out. brett michaels, sharon osbourne, cyndi lauper and blago. here's what i think. blago should have to go interview the balloon boy

family. >> must-watch tv, no doubt. >> we'll get appearances by levi johnston. >> yeah. clearly not a color commentary. it's kind of chilly this morning. are we seeing a bit of a warm-up from yesterday? >> a little bit. that dry air heats up just as fast. the temperatures today, about five or ten degrees warmer than yesterday, mainly from soutd georgia all the way up to the northeast. 39 in baltimore, 39 in richmond. frost advisories all the way through the carolinas. 40 right now in charlotte, outlying areas into the low 30s. take you live to shcharlotte. here's what it looks like right now. you're going to see temperatures approaching low 70s. they got a nice, sunny day. finally you'll get a decent taste of fall out there. as for the rest of the region, about 40 in mobile, 49 in new

orleans. temperatures already in the 60s in houston and dallas. trying to get in or out of dfw at the airport today, watch winds to approach 30 miles per hour. probably going to get delays out of that as well. rain coming out of basically the dakotas into northern minnesota. western wisconsin and minneapolis, just a little light rain but i think that's all you get for today. back into the deep southwest, remember that rain that came across northern california yesterday afternoon. now it's setting shop near the southern part of the rockies, but you've got a lot of rain around san francisco. they got about a half inch of rain, flooded out a little bit of areas right there. look at the muni right there. a bit of rain coming on through. not that bad. you don't see it that often, but that was san francisco yesterday. today a different story. much dryer. >> i'm glad it's going to be dryer. a u.s. scientist had a top security clearance to work on

classified space projects, but now he is charged with trying to sell secrets.

. our salute today is for a marine that turns 21 tomorrow. shane gruell has been in afghanistan since may. her mother misses shane and cannot wait until he comes home. maybe you have someone you love in the service and you want to salute them. cnn.com/robin. criminal charges could be filed against the man at the center of the balloon boy incident, but richard heene has been in trouble with the law at least once before. richard lui, aha!

what are we learning about him? >> he was arrested in 1997 on misdemeanor charges. he pleaded no contest to vandalism and got 30 days in jail and two years in probation. he was charged with vehicle tampering and arguing with police but those charges were dropped. 911 dispatchers also got a call from heene's home earlier this year. it made authorities suspicious about possible domestic violence but no charges were filed in that. the sheriff says he did ask child protective services to investigate the well-being of the heene kids, ages 6, 8 and 10. they're staying with their participants f parents for now. they will look into much more now other than the alleged hoax. >> potentially endangering the children by keeping them storm chasing and engaging in this crazy behavior. that's why they're being looked at, not so much the hoax.

>> richard heene has hired his own lawyer. he says no one has contacted him or his client about taking the kids away. in spite of being a pretty bad economy, people still willing to pay for things. people willing to snap up all those littles whatever they are. >> it's surprising, richard, because we're talking about how people are trying to save money and being careful with their credit card debt, but apple sold more iphones than ever in the first quarter. way past the estimate. that i phone and gps you see so many ads for on television and in magazines. that could mean that it's going to contribute to the stock market opening when that bell rings in a little bit more than two hours. that's something that seems to be helping push the futures

higher this morning. that could be one of the signs that people may be getting a littles tired of saving so much money. there are some hints out there, some stories, that are suggesting that the christmas shopping may not be quite as gloomy as everybody is expecting. that could be some good news in a bad economy. economists say people may be getting fatigue. t.j.maxx and marshall's said things might be a littles better. they make chips that are in so many different gadgets that that could be an indication of a little bit more demand and that could be good for a bad economy. an alleged stick-up is making news. the use of a push-up. not the exercise kind. police say a man was wearing a black bra as a disguise!

a former u.s. government scientist will be in court today to face charges that he allegedly tried to sell classified info to the israeli government. stewart nozed had top secret clearance. the u.s. is charging him with espionage after allegedly trying to sell secrets to the israelis. the israelis are not charged with violating any laws. one man was wearing a bra for a mask! according to local reports, four men held up a man at gun point and got away with his wallet and $10. police say an arrest like this doesn't happen every day. >> it's a first for me for someone to use a black bra as a

face mask. >> yep. everybody in the robbery was okay. lebron james apparently had a cancer scare recently. that's not what you expect to hear about an nba superstar. >> i remember being freaked out last week when i thought he might have the swine flu. you look at these guys as invincible, robin. we did know james had some kind of surgery to remove something from his jaw. doctors discovered it back in january. they did a biopsy to determine if it was benign. he played most of the season with the growth and says he was glad he had basketball to focus on at the time. rio will be ready when it's time to host the olympics in

2016. three officers were gunned down and it happened five miles away from where the olympics will be held. they got seven years. two baseball playoff games. the phillies pulled off some late game heroics. the dodgers, jimmy raul ins hits a double to win. then in anaheim, the l.a. angels taking on bob's yankees. they were tied at 4 in the 11th inning when jeff mathis hit a double score run, so the same ending, 5-4, bringing the sell-out crowd of 40,000 to its feet. the yanks still lead. the nfl keeps rolling and did it in the most hideous uniforms. they were even more hideous than they were last week, if that's

possible. against the red, it's not so good. >> aren't the broncos wearing kind of a brown like that? >> no, but i guess i really shouldn't be throwing stones wearing this color. >> you're fine, you're fine, i thought i saw it on the screen. the doctor who gave fertility treatments to the mother of octuplets has been kicked out of a professional organization. a spokesperson for the american society of reproductive medicine says dr. michael camrava repeatedly violated the group's standards, butd he was not kicked out because of his work with any particular patient. he was kicked out by implanting soledad with six embryos, which is more than is allowed. hi, bob. >> rafer is right.

i thought i was watching highlights of circumstanque de . a lot of wind out there. now getting douchb towards the mid-atlantic and the southeast, how about the delays for date? a little wind especially around dallas. dfw kaulsz for about a half hour delay because of winds at 30 miles an hour. denver some gusty winds, too. how about new york city, perfect, fall-like weather. 65 degrees. look at that sun coming up on the east side. not a bad day atd all. more on that, robin, in a bit. what a great sunrise. the post office may leave a little extra money in your pocket. plus, this one was no hoax. the original balloon boy talks about an experience 78 years ago that even got the smithsonian's attention. d d d d d d d d d d d

it looks like investigators are close to making an arrest in the stabbing death of a university of connecticut football star. investigators say that police told them they intend to take the man into custody soon. school lunches need fewer fries and more fruits, veggies and whole grains. schools are now following the guidelines and need to update their standards, but the researchers say all that could raise some of the cost up 20%.

the father of anna nicole smith's daughter says he was forced to beef up the testimony about the amount she had. birkhead claims a prosecutor told him his daughter might be affected by smith's drug use. those are some of the headlines we're following this morning. good morning. it's 31 minutes past the hour. morning, sunshine. i'm robin meade. so vaccines for the swine flu are slowly starting to trickle into the country. health officials were only giving it out to high-risk patients like babies, pregnant women and the critically ill. >> i don't want to put my grandchildren in danger, and they go to public school, and i don't want them to be in danger, so i told my daughter as soon as it hits miami, we would like to be first.

>> well, federal health officials say despite the slow delivery of the swine flu vaccine, there is no reason for you to panic. however, there has been a rise recently in cases of both the swine flu and the seasonal flu all around the country in different places. the next legal step in the balloon boy saga could come next week. that is when richard heene's lawyer says authorities may file criminal charges. we are also, though, getting new insight into this man from people who knew him before all this. and i'm talking about the dad, richard heene. our richard lui joins us now with more on that. this ought to be interesting. >> yeah. but let's talk about richard heene. two people have come forward with more details and pictures. kerry cavalier took these head shots of him. longer hair, a little younger. she told the associated press that richard heene still owes her a $2,000 security deposit. she also says the family left $6,000 in damage to the home after she gave them an eviction

notice. >> so he was hoping for a modelling job or something? >> what have you, yeah. another man who met heene, by the way, robin, in the '90s says he was always trying to get people to invest money in his storm chasing ventures, including a plan to ride a motorcycle into a tornado. >> what does that say about you, ride a motorcycle into a tornado. those accounts match-up with a lot we've heard about him. he wanted to be well known. he's well known, all right. >> not for things he wants to be known for at this moment. let's talk about the phenomena behind this story, robin. there are dozens of fan groups on facebook now and you can now buy balloon boy merchandise. one t-shirt says go, falcon, go. and one calls him the all time hide and seek champion. the six-year-old was supposed to be inside the attic and here's

what ji lay leno had to say abo the story, too. >> it was smart for them to do the balloon story while president obama was in office. that wouldn't have worked in the bush administration. cheney would have shot that balloon down. get him out of there! >> the story is five days old and we do have to kind of laugh about it now. >> he can barely deliver without laughing at himself here. there is more tape that is emerging from the heene family. you can call this falcon heene, the lost interview. there is a new zinger from the now well-known cnn interview done with wolf blitzer, right? this part was not seen on air. it happened before the interview, the cameras were rolling, wolf was introducing himself to the family. listen to the little foul-mouthed falcon. >> say hi to wolf. >> hi. who the hell is wolf?

>> apparently that is pretty mild, i guess, because what the boys say on youtube and what else, "wife swap" -- >> yeah, it's not good. wolf put a hex on him, though. i don't know if you saw the today show interview, he said, next time we're on an interview, you're going to puke. next time you're on tv, you're going to puke. >> wolf is on the phone. >> i'd be happy to do his show. he's a nice man. >> bob, the weather. >> this weather brought to you by ups. what's going on across the region? we have a wave of low pressure to week one. it's enough to generate some light clouds across the northwest. most of the rain is up towards the north. minneapolis, some showers here stretches into northern minnesota. also notice more showers coming in across south dakota.

another wave of weak pressure but it will go down to new mexico today. temperaturewise, different story. we have high pressure sitting over the eastern seaboard and we have all kinds of frost advisories out there, especially when will you get to the coast of the carolinas. frost advisories out here, freeze warnings in purple, including metro atlanta just to the west and getting into chattanooga, too. pretty impressive from mid to late october. we'll have temperatures below freezing in some places you see in the dark shades of blue. 36 degrees in charlotte right now. outlying areas outside of the heat islands, below freezing. 42 in atlanta, 40 in birmingham, 42 in nashville. you get west a little farther, look at the temperatures warming up. dallas 62, houston 64. that's one thing we're watching. the other thing we're watching is out across the tropics. tropical storm rick losing some

characteristics now. 65-mile-per-hour sustained winds. the track takes it to the north today, bends it just south of lapaz. rain in northern mexico by, i'd say, friday and early saturday. beautiful day for you in d.c. look at that sunrise. that is gorgeous. definitely a postcard look at the capitol. warmer for just about everybody east of the mississippi this afternoon. robin will enjoy that. >> i'm just enjoying that view. thank you. look at this view. wait until you see a brawl that happened near balloon boy's home. a man in a headlock. the punches were flying!

you've got to come see a brawl that happened outside balloon boy's home. a crew with fox and then another man not with fox got involved. okay, it was a takedown. the man in the yellow shirt put the other guy in a headlock, but then they stand up and eventually the first guy, boom, boom! he started throwing punches. my goodness, what's wrong with people! people broke up the fight before police arrived. no arrests so far.

wow. that's a takedown, all right. a man got trapped under water when his truck plunged into a creek. watch this rescue in missouri yesterday. local media reports that bystanders jumped in but couldn't get the man out, so they tried holding his head above water, even. firefighters eventually freed him, they did cpr. he is expected to survive. police are investigating how he wound up in the creek. fresh air! ♪ you are my wife >> the man who wrote the green acres theme song has passed away. he also wrote the adams family theme song. he died saturday in his bel air home. he was 93.

>> i didn't notice that about boe both of those songs. they get you to move. some of these appliances with the best energy rating may not be that great after all. >> good morning. >> there's the energy star label, it's green, it's like a seal of approval. it's saving energy, and that way you can get tax rebates on some of them. but there are reports that many of the appliances should not qualify for the energy star stickers at all. here's consumer reports talking with cnn's mary snow. >> in our labs, we found that it used a lot more energy than they claimed. >> so can a manufacturer just put on an energy star sticker? >> well, they're supposed to have these products tested, and they do, but they self-test it. >> they're supposed to have them

tested. even energy star found a problem, they found the same thing in some of their audits, but not doing very much, the new york times says. the energy department says they're widening some of their independent testing, but is that going to be enough? we haven't really heard of them setting up a timetable to say, okay, companies, you have to make sure these things are clean and really saving energy, so we'll watch for that one. if you're still ending regular mail, snail mail, the post office says they're freezing the price of stamps until the middle of next year. right now a first-class stamp costs you about 44 cents. robin, back to you. do you ever go in your drawer and go, okay, are these forever stamps? how many do i have to add on there? >> you can only buy the forever stamps now. the debate over health care reform is a hot topic in washington. last night, hln's joy behar

taugd about the public option with janine garofalo. i'm wondering how the democrats are going to do in 2010 if they don't get it. what do you think? >> hopefully they would suffer for it, as they should. the public option should be in there and there should be, you know, like grayson -- is his name alan grayson? great guy, speaks with conviction, and i don't know why there aren't more democrats. there's a lot of great democrats but a lot of them are too weak in the face of -- >> woosy, woosy. >> woosy is fine. in the middle of a serious storm, a man drove into a huge sinkhole, but now police say there is something very suspicious about his story.

it is 46 minutes past the hour. we have new details this morning in the addlleged murder-suicide

involving quarterback steve mcnair. we haven't heard very much about the investigation for a while now, so what have we learned? >> we learned there is apparently some correspond ensz between mcnair and the woman who turned the gun on herself. the day before the killings, she apparently texted mcnair saying she was distressed and she might need to go to the hospital because she was having a nervous break down, and she also asked mcnair for $2,000 to pay her bills. he did transfer the money to her account. this came after a report where her friends say she would never commit suicide. it's exciting and a rare play in the nfl. a return for a touchdown, and it happened twice. for the first time in this game, denver receiver eddie royal, the first time a kickoff and a punt

were returned at the same time. we have to talk about the uniforms. look at those hideous things. look at those socks. they look like clowns. there is no child's play about the way they're playing. the mayor of green bay is asking for tasteful suggestions on ways to welcome brett favre's homecoming when his new team, the vikings, come to green bay on november 1st. some suggestions, a large waffle, having at fans wear flip-flops, and my suggestion, give him a standing ovation. he did help you win a super bowl. i know it will hurt. >> so the mayor is really taking -- >> legitimate suggestions. sdp >> to be nice? >> tasteful is how he's phrasing it. he's been in the basement for the scores, but look at him. he's tearing it up. >> give me the cape, i've got it. >> he's got a cape, he's got no shirt on, so the ladies in the

booth liked that. he's got the best score so far, which is a 21. but he does something right here that may cause a fight with his wife when he goes -- then he goes in for it. that's going to cause a fight. >> no, he gets the side of her face. superstar lebron james apparently had a cancer scare. robin? >> or maybe the wife -- who is dancing? >> santana. i don't know if she's married. some criminals are breaking and entering without a weapon. hln money expert clark howard tells you why small businesses are the prime target. >> okay, i have a special warning for you if you own your own business. criminals have been frustrated a lot trying to crack the computers at big companies. why? because usually big companies will have their own it department, they're have their own security on staff. but a small business, you're

essentially the staff. but you might have a lot of money running through your account, especially on payroll day. so what criminals are doing, they're attacking the computer systems of small businesses with what are known as trojan programs that they load onto your onto your computer. they're able to access your bank and brokerage account passwords. then at key moments when with you tend to have high balances, they go in, swoop in, and take off with the money. "usa today" had a great suggestion for small businesses. buy a new computer that you use only for banking and financial websites that you never use for anything else. i'm clark howard. for more ways to protect yourself, go to cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> clark will teach you to save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off. catch him at noon eastern on saturdays and sundays right here on hln. some of the stories we're busy watching for you, at

11:45 a.m. eastern, the nfl and american cancer society teal up to continue to promote breast cancer awareness month. at would:00 p.m. eastern, yale murder suspect raymond clark is expected in court. he is accused of killing annie le last month. i wonder where the trouble spots aror already this morning for our fires. hi, bob. >> hi, robin. so far so good. i don't see delays right now. we'll get a couple but not across california. live to lax, here is a good look at the airport, that city. not looking bad. a decent travel day all around california, including san francisco who had delay yesterday because of clouds and rain. today a little better. lax, things moving fine. dallas, 30-minute delays, 30-mile-per-hour gusting winds stops you down. denver, winds, salt lake city

half hour as well. seattle morning clouds, 30-minute delays. more details in about a half hour. a college student went to a concert and never came back. no one has seen or heard from her since saturday. now police are making an urgent plea for help.

well with, hello. rise and shine, my dear friends. it's tuesday, pretty early in the week. i'm robin meade. while you get ready, let me get your brain ready. an arrest is expected in the death of a college football player, but a lawyer says his client did not stab the player. and balloon boy's parents may be charged next week. but you're going to hear the latest hot air on the balloon boy saga. our top story -- there will be an arrest soon in the stabbing death of a university of connecticut football player. a defense lawyer says that police have told him that his client will be taken into custody. the lawyer says that his client did not kill jasper howard but

he was in on the fight with u convict football players when he was stabbed. in this picture, howard's parents heartbroken obviously at a vigil last night. one other man was arrested at the scene on sunday, but his lawyer says he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. the man has not been charged in the killing. the stabbing is dominating the conversation on campus. >> you get to see this student athlete play and then that night something happens like this, and it's almost too close to home. it is close to home because it's here. >> everybody wants to find this kill he. he needs to do his time, needs to serve. >> rafer weigel is joining us now with more details that are emerging about the night that howard was killed. rafer? >> robin, what a harrowing picture this is. the team's head coach says that at least two of howard's team nates were with him the night he was killed. one with of those players held howard in his arms as he died while another tried to give him

first aid. also, we're learning another football player, 19-year-old brian parker, was stabbed, but his injuries are considered minor. today students are encouraged to wear dark clothing to mourn howard. there will be events on campus every day this week to remember him. the team has a game against west virginia on saturday. how they'll get up for that i don't know. here's what some of you are saying on facebook. jennifer wrote, i find it very sad that our youth can't go and get a degree and complete their dreams without having to worry about this kind of situation. more sports in a bit. >> it is very sad. i agree with our viewer. we have a lot more comments on facebook. you're welcome to join them. balloon boy's parents could find out next week if they will face charges. colorado authorities say the heenes carry carried out a hoax involving their son and a balloon. they could face several felony charges including conspiracy. some say that's taking things too far. >> we need to not get carried

away. fundamentally what happened here is there was a false police report made. that's a misdemeanor. to turn it into a conspiracy and taking the kids away, i think we really need to be careful before we're throwing people in jail for a ridiculous but still mostly comic stunt. >> richard heene has been spent time in jail before. we're digging into his arrest record. today afghan president karzai is expected to announce his plan to deal with the country's messy presidential election. the power struggle there could affect troop decisions. a u.n.-backed fraud investigation found nearly one third of ballots last august were with invalid. that would mean he didn't get 50% of the votes needed to have an outright win. vaccines for the swine flu are slowly starting to trickle in to several parts of the country. federal health officials say despite the slow delivery of the vaccine, there's no reason for you to panic.

there has been a rise recently in cases of the swine flu and the seasonal flu. but the director of the cdc says that more vaccine should be on the way. >> there are about 10 million doses now out in the community or getting to the community, and it is challenging for people to find vaccine. the good news is that if there are no further manufacturing delays, within two or three weeks we should be in a much more comfortable situation where it is much easier to fine the vacci vaccine. >> in south florida many lined up for the vaccine, but health officials were with only giving it out to high-risk patients. a murder suspect has just been added to the fbi's top ten most wanted list, and a lot of you are reading about it on cnn.com. joe siebs is wanted in connection with four killings, a kidnapping and a rape. investigators thought that he might be dead but then they saw a videotape from last year that they believe shows him killing

someone execution-style. new this morning, a swiss court denied bail for hollywood corrector and convicted felon roman polanski, calling him a flight risk. that's despite his lawyer's pleas. he is fighting extradition to the united states. he fled in 1978 before a sentencing for having sex with a 13-year-old girl. child. swiss police arrested him last month. five minutes after the hour. is it going to be slightly warmer than maybe you were feeling yesterday as you went outside maybe for lunch at work? here is meteorologist bob van dillen. >> morning. we're looking at that arctic air retreat back into cab kan a little farther today. when you have that happen, usually the warm air come out of the south, get a couple of boundaries working in october. we have rain falling, all the blue shaded areas, a light batch of showers struggling to reach

the ground when you get toward michigan. the rain will fill back in later today especially when with you get toward the south. we're talking about northern texas, amarillo, about an inch of rain or so. over to the west farther, light showers brof moving away from the pacific northwest now moving into the northern rocky mountains. again it will generate more rain south of denver later this afternoon. light rain showers also by salt lake city. it's been off and or on for most of the morning chgt i think it will be there for the early part of the afternoon, really no big deal. the other story, the cold air we've seen for the last few days, frost advisories for most of of the carolinas, parts of virginia, northern georgia, 41 in atlanta, 37 in charlotte, 43 in roanoke, around 44 when with you get towards d.c., temperatures today are climbing to about five to ten degrees warmer than what we had the last couple of days. however, the cold air is still starting out across northern parts of florida. 50 in j-ville, 59 in tampa, 48 in mobile. here comes the warm air looking

at 60 in dallas, high of 77. your high temp today around houston, probably around 80. right now starting around 64. live to atlanta, huge travel destination in or out. i think we'll see a dees enlt day at the airport today. you have a lot of connections in and out of here. no problems. lots of sunshine, temperatures about 70 in atlanta today. more details in about a half hour. >> finally 70 and sunny! >> it's about time. >> thank you. ♪ sexy boots my theme song. you're going to be able to hear u2 in concert for free. their show will be on youtube live. y "the l.a. times" says it's being recorded for a dvd. breaking news on the afghan election story. afghanistan will hold a

presidential runoff election november 7th. a u.n.-backed fraud investigation found -- these are live pictures by the way of a press conference -- that nearly a third of karzai's dal ballots last month were invalid. that would mean he didn't get 50% of the votes for an outright win. his major competitor was abdullah abdullah. they are going to have a runoff election in november. there were with accusations that karzai wasn't being as cooperative about the process in terms of a runoff if he didn't get the 50% for an outright win. the recessionista trend could be fading. why the christmas shopping season may not be so gloomy. >> plus, the legal battle over rod blagojevich's appearance on a reality tv show.

our salute today is for a marine who turns 21 tomorrow. corporal shane gruel has been in afghanistan since may. to celebrate his 21st birthday, his mom started a 21-day charity bike ride to raise money to build a home for a wounded military member. she misses shane, can't wait until he comes home. if you have somebody in the service, go to cnn.com/robin so we can salute them. criminal charges could be filed next week against the man at the center of the balloon boy incident. richard heene has been in trouble with the law at least once before. correspondent richard lui with

more on this man. >> what we may have thought would be inconceivable is not. heene was arrested in 1997 on misdemeanor charges. the l.a. city attorney's office said he pleaded no contest to vandalism and got 30 days in jail and two years probation. he was charged with vehicle tampering and disturbing the peace. those charges were dropped. 911 dispatchers also got a call from heen me's colorado home early this year. authorities say it made authorities suspicious about domestic violence. no charges were filed. >> there are three kids in the home, ages 6, 8 and 10. if their parents are arrested, what happens to them? >> robin, they're with their parents for now. the sheriff says he contacted child protective services to investigate their well-being. one legal analyst says cps will look into much more than the alleged hoax. >> i mean, getting the children to lie to the police and to the media potentially endangering the children by taking them storm chasing, engaging in this

crazy behavior, that's why they're being looked at by cps not so much because of the hoax. >> heene's wife hired her own lawyer yesterday as well. he says no one has contacted him or his client about taking the kids away as of yet. help is on the way for those hefty overdraft fees. our money expert jennifer westhoven is here saying we have a choice. good morning. >> yeah. and i know that a lot of our viewers can't stand them. the senate just proposed curbs. if this passes, it would sharply limit the number of times you could get hit by these fees, which could be more than 30 bucks to just once a month. how about that? or only six times a year, too. that would be a lot better, a lot stricter, than what the banks are proposing themselves right now. plus, you'd get a choice. you could be warned if you were about to overdraw and then you could either go right around and overdraw and pay the 30 bucks if you want or cancel the transaction instead of sometimes

maybe you might be buying a $5 item and get hit with a $30 fee. we'll watch that one with very closely. it's just in the senate right now. there are signs that people may be getting tired of being elle cheapo, of saving so much money. it can be hard after a while. there are some hints that maybe this season's christmas shopping is not going to be quite so gloomy after all. we'll see. that would be good news in a bad economy. it certainly is good for the entire economy. but some economists say people may be getting frugal fatigue according to bloomberg. we've seen a couple of companies say maybe sales won't be so bad. tj maxx, marshalls, intel as well. they make chips for so many gadgets that that could be a good predictor of lots of electronic sales out there. another sign, apple said it sold more macs and iphones than ever in its recent fourth quarter, profits up 47%, lots of signup for the new iphone. not only helping its stock and

some of the premarket tra trading but the entire market when the bell rings in an hour. maybe it can help bolster the dow hanging on to 10,000. a cancer scare for one with of the nba's most famous player. how is 24-year-old lebron james doing now? police say a robber may have been wearing a black bra as a disguise.

do you remember the woman who died in police custody at the phoenix airport about two years ago? well, now city officials are offering her family a $250,000 settlement. phoenix authorities say that carol got balm was unruly. she was on her way to rehab. gotobama accidentally strangled herself after being chained in a holding room. a homeless man is now linked to one of the biggest fires in southern california history. police arrested him for making a small fire near the spot where the massive wildfire started last august. two firefighters were killed, 89 homes destroyed. the man pleaded not guilty. prosecutors say that rod blagojevich's participation on "celebrity apprentice" should taint the jury pool for his corruption trial. they tell the judge the former governor has talked about evidence during other tv appearances and that the reality show may air during jury

selection. but they did not ask the judge to bar blago from the show. his lawyer said it's unfair to stop his client from declaring his innocence. >> this is the first time i have ever heard of a law enforcement official coming to court and saying, judge, please shut the defendant up. usually it's the exact opposite. >> blago was not at yesterday's hearing. he was in new york last week taping the show. he's scheduled to compete with people like brett michaels, sharon as born and cindy lauper. right now i'm hearing that we have his reaction to being on the show with those people. >> i will be exonerated. i will be conviexonerated. play tapes. that's what he's saying. have the trial. lebron james apparently had a cancer scare recently. not what you expect to hear about a young nba superstar. >> who's in top shape, only 24 years old.

fortunately it was just a scare. we did hear james had surgery to remove something from his jaw, but he is now confirmed it was a benign growth. doctors discovered it in january. they did a biopsy to discover if it was cancer. james said while he was waiting for the results it was nerve-racking and he was on edge for days while finally he had the surgery to remove the growth in june after the season ended. he said he was glad he had basketball to focus on at the time. two baseball playoff games, the same exciting result. first the world champion phillies pull off late-game heroics. down one in the bottom of the ninth to the dodgers, rollins hits a double to score two and win the game. the crowd goes wild. they are one win away from going back to the world series. then in anaheim, the l.a. angels taking on the yankees, the two teams were both tied at four in the 11th inning when mathis scores the winning run. that brought the sellout crowd

of 44,000 to its feet. yankees lead 2-1 in the best of 7. lastly, the mayor of green bay is asking for tasteful suggestions on ways to welcome home brett favre when he and his new team comes to green bay on november 1st. tasteful. a large number four waffle, have the fans wear flip-flops. how could they tell? i say give hem a standing ovation. i know it's going to hurt. i've been hating on favre as much as the next guy. i would love to hear viewer suggestions on some tasteful ways to welcome him. >> oh, here they come. dozens of new planets were with discovered outside the earth's solar system. a group of international scientists say 32 new planets were found using a high-precision instrument. planets outside our solar system are called ex-o planets.

in the middle of serious storms, a man drove into a huge sinkhole. now police say there's something very suspicious about his story.

♪ welcome to comcast local edition. i am donna richardson and my guest this hour is colonel george f. johnson iv superintendent of the maryland natural resources police. colonel, thank you for joining me. >> great to be here with you. >> in addition to being with the maryland natural resources you are president of the maryland police chief association, and who in addition to chief are your members? and who is working with you? >> it is comprised mostly of chief of police from all over the state and state government and law enforcement chiefs and

county and municipalities that exist in all of the state of maryland. >> i know as a group i know there are several initiatives taking place. there is a new one. checkpoint strike force. >> yes, it is a research based-multi-state situation where we pick and we go out there and we look for drivers that are impaired and work to get them off of the road and we do that through our sobriarity checkpoints and our saturation patrols. >> and so, which jerse - jurisdiction, one specific area or all of the jurisdictions now involved? >> all throughout maryland, the chiefs of police have signed on. every jurisdiction signed on in some way shape or form to participate in the checkpoint strike force. >> and so do you find that the checkpoints are helpful in

hopefully lowering traffic fatalities? >> absolutely. fatalities have been reduced 20 percent in the areas where we are doing the checkpoints . it proves to be extremely beneficial to us in many different ways. >> and do you find that the residents are supporting the checkpoints and do you have partner necessary this effort? >> yes, we do. as you know, it is a powerful organization of mothers against drunk drivers. we work with them chosely in this endeavor and other organizations. their surveys indicate 85 to 90 percent of the people they talked to support the checkpoints. >> do you do these at specific times of year or are the checkpoints ongoing initiative. >> they are ongoing initiatives. they will be taking place every week and everywhere and where you think that it is the best

possible opportunity to deploy the work force and effective use knowledge of our people in this endeavor. >> as you are having the checkpoints and i know initially you are looking for impaired drivers, but are you finding other things when you are pulling over the impaired drivers? >> oh, yes. people are very surprised what we run into on the checkpoints. the main focus is to get the impaired drivers that use alcohol off of the streets and identify them. but we are running into people who have warrants on them. their licenses are suspended, some people have drugs in the vehicle this we were able to detect and find. there is a whole gamut of things and seat belt usage. it helps us with the seat belt

initiatives and child safety seat. we are able to make different observations and of course, we put a lot of emphasis on the seat belt usage and child safety seat as well >> i know some jurisdiction or most of the them, there is zero tolerance if you don't have your seat belt on, it is amazing that people are still driving without them. >> it is with the seat belt usage, if you are involved in an accident with the impaired drivers that use alcohol that gives you that much more of a chance to survive. >> how can citizens assist with the checkpoint strike force? >> we need them to be our eyes and ears out there. as with many thing necessary law enforcement and we ask citizens to do. if they see a person driving erratically or aggressively and feel they are under the influence of alcohol. pick up the cell phone and dial the number 911 or what ever it

is that they feel comfortable in using. >> thank you, colonel for joining me. >> donna thank you for helping us. >> thank you for watching comcast local edition. i am donna richason.

horts in islamabad say that at least 18 others were wounded. it is the latest in a wave of recent suicide attacks by militants. they are retaliating against a military offensive targeting insurgents along the pakistan/afghan border.

school lunches need fewer fries and more veggies, fruits and whole grains. that's from a new report from the institute of medicine. it says that schools are not following dietary, federal dietary guidelines and need to update their standards. researchers say all that could raise some of the cost up to 20%. those are the headlines. well with, look at you up so early today. i know. you're, like, it's only tuesday and the bed feels so good. i'll try to get you informed and ready for the day as you get ready. i'm robin meade. private senate talks resume today about health care reform, meanwhile a new poll by "the washington post" and abc showed that most people may support a public option. now, it finds that 57% support a government-run health insurance program to compete with private insurers. that is up 5% since mid-august. 40% oppose a public option. the poll surveyed about 1,000 people. the next legal step in the balloon boy saga could come next week. that is when richard heene's

lawyers say authorities may file criminal charges. we're also meanwhile getting some insight into heene from the people who knew him before all of this happened. correspondent richard lui joins us now with more on what we know about him. >> good morning, robin. two more people -- or two people have come forward with more details on richard heene. a photographer took these head shots, photos of richard heene, also his former landlord. he has longer hair, a little younger here. he told the "associated press" richard heene still owes her a $2,000 security deposit. she said the family left $6,000 in damage to the home after she gave them an eviction notice. some head shots here perhaps he was trying to get into the business as we say. another man who met heene in the '90s said he was always trying to get people to invest money in his storm chasing adventures including a plan to ride a motorcycle into a tornado. >> for media attention. >> who knows?

>> that's a very good point. you know, those accounts kind of match up with a lot of what we've heard about this guy, that he seemed infat waited with getting people to know his name. kind of got what he wanted, didn't he? this is a pop culture phenom now. >> oh, yes. this happened thursday last week. there is already balloon boy merchandise, this t-shirt says go falcon, go, for the 6-year-old supposed to be inside the balloon. one calls him the hide and seek all-time chap, talking about falcon again. and jay leno had his own jokes about the story last night. >> you know, the only good thing to come out of this balloon boy incident -- and you can't spell balloon without loon -- now jon gosselin's kids can say their dad is only the second most embarrassing father. >> take a look at this, the balloon boy game. i was playing that before we started here. if you hit "play now," you can shoot the birds down and use

keys to move the balloon up and down. it says the goal is to waste as much taxpayer money as possible. there it is, w wi, it goes up higher. you can aim and shoot. all the silliness. >> i'm going to predict it's going to be the halloween costume, the balloon, jif fi pop looking thing. public schools will be closed in hawaii on most fridays under a new union contract, the school year is shortened by 17 days to save money. critics say it's not worth it because of hawaii's low achievement rankings. but the head superintendent says they'll try to cram in as much as they can in class. iran is having a hard time vinning americans that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. in a new cnn/opinion research poll out this morning, nearly nine in ten people believe iran is trying to develop nuclear

weapons. there's less agreement on how to respond. more than half favor military action against iran, but that's less popular than other options such as negotiating. police made an urgent plea for help after a virginia tech student disappear over the weekend. they say morgan harrington got separated from her friends at a metallica concert in charlottesville, virginia. that was saturday night. she has not been seen or heard from since. >> she is currently listed as a missing person. however, there is some concern because morgan, out of character, has not contacted anyone since the night of the concert. >> well, police said they have numerous leads and they're searching the area with helicopters and k-9 units. they're asking anybody with information to come forward. former miss california usa carrie prejean is getting sued over her breast implants. the company behind the pageant wants the $5200 back that it paid for her surgery. it's actually a countersuit.

you may remember that prejean sued the company for slander over her anti-gay marriage stance. she lost her title for making appearances without pageant officials' permission. someone wrote on my e-mail, hand them over! 36 minutes past the hour. you've got to love our team. you know, you're thinking it, we'll say it. hi, bob. >> what's going on, rob? show you what's going on near the old tropical storm now, a hurricane yesterday. tropical show you the track. if you are planning on doing any traveling across the next couple of days, here's what it looks like. it's going to continue to the northwest over the next day or so and bend up toward la paz sometime on thursday and essentially rain itself out over

northern mexico over the weekend. that's what it look like right there. moisture-wise, it won't have a lot to give you when you get towards texas. we have another frontal boundary headed in that direction, giving you rain as early as today. that is something we're watching. let me show you more rain showers coming in, especially upper midwest, moon pulling out of basically minnesota into u.p. of michigan, falling apart. that wave of low pressure is still in the upper levels of the atmosphe atmosphere, moving to the east, getting showers going right now. even lightning strikes between kansas city and st. louis is drifting towards the east and the rain is now extending down through missouri. next 48 hours, watch the rain build across amarillo, into western kansas, western nebraska, too. you can see a lot of rain pulling in towards dallas. this is basically overnight tonight into tomorrow. you can see the rain developing in shreveport as well. the rain will come back. give it a day or so. more in about a half hour. >> thanks. this is related to the balloon boy story, but there was

a big brawl near his home. there was a guy in a headlock, punches flying. >> break it up! hey! come on! >> drama. such drama! >> would you like a pony?

good morning to all of our viewers, especially right now our folks joining us from charleston. pretty out there. >> how about that? 42 degrees, a cold start, rob, up to about 75. not bad. maybe a frost delay out there if you're playing golf, the first time this year. >> isn't that the bridge everyone likes to run over? >> the one in the background. it's high, not an easy run. >> 42 degrees helps.

thank you. >> how about boston? good morning to you guys. what a dry start. i know you're not playing baseball, but the weather is fine. how about 65 the high in boston today? >> that's beautiful. thank you very much, bobby. >> you got it. here are the headlines from some of the papers around the country. the boston globe says that cigarette maker phillip morris may have to pay for chest exams for some smokers. the case is ongoing, but it raises the possibility of a new front in the lawsuits against tobacco companies. "usa today" reports that the federal government is afraid lotses of americans will not respond to next year's census. workers might have to work on 4 million more doors than 2000, which could send the price tag much higher. "the l.a. times" takes us to southern ohio where the government spent $4.4 billion to clean up an old nuclear weapons factory. it's still so radioactive that it will have to be monitored for thousands of years and nobody can live there.

a new feature could help you fight back if your car is stolen. police in california recently stopped a stolen suv in its tracks remotely by tapping into the onstar system and disabling the device. well being the vehicle. for now the new feature is only available on certain gm models but police say it could save lives by stopping carjackings or car chases before they get out of control. some of the appliances with the best energy rating may not be so hot shot after all. our money expert jennifer westhoven is looking out for you. so you go and look for the stickers because they tell you, oh, you're doing something good and it will pay less to run the machine. >> you pay a lot of money, it it'sed to mean the product is saving energy. sort of a seal of approval. that's why you get tax rebates. there are reports a lot of these appliances should not qualify for the energy star rating at all. here is "consumer reports" talking to cnn's mary snow.

>> in our labs we found it used a lot more energy than it claimed. >> so can a manufacturer just put on an energystar sticker if it wants to? >> they're supposed to have the products tested and they do, but they themselves test it. >> they're supposed to have the products tested. soy guess the question is, do we trust the companies to be doing all the testing without any checks? the energy department says they'll widen some of the independent tests, "consumer reports" say it's 5% to 10% of your appliances. good chance your appliance isn't living up to its rating. recall of baby food. it's being pulled over botulism fears. no reports of any babies getting sick, but you should throw it out if you have it. in case you can't write this down fast enough, check the website cnn.com/robin, then look under looking out for you. if you love books, this is your holiday. target is joining the book wars.

last week we were talking about how walmart and amazon were gunning at each other by undercutting prices on some hot hard cover books for just $9. now target says, $8.99. then walmart shot book, $8.98. we're not talking about some big coffee book. these are hot books, steven king, john grish ham and others. >> it makes me wonder how the equation works out. does it make the publisher not make as much money or the retailer making that much more? >> the publishers are really nervous, rob. they don't like this at all because they could lose money, but basically they're just hoping that if they can get you to the online store they can sell you more stuff. you're not going to want to pay for shipping so you might order other things as well. that's how they get you. >> interesting. thank you. people are still talking about the 6-year-old colorado boy, obviously, and the alleged balloon hoax. here's what hln's joy behar and

her guests have to say about it. >> i love that the kid threw up. i mean, it's so incredibly freudian. he lies and then he pukes. >> absolutely. look at when he throws up. he throws up when his dad is asked, is this a hoax? he's expected to go along with the lie. >> i don't know if a kid knows the word "hoax". >> he also threw up twice, on two morning shows and the parents didn't bow out of the second one. throw up on tv, shame on me. throw up on tv twice, shame on you. stop the interview. >> didn't george bush use that? >> catch "the joy behar show" 9 p.m. eastern here on hln p. months after former nfl star steve mcnair was killed, there are new details coming out about his final days. his mistress was stressed out and struggling as she let him know about it, say reports.

you've got to see a brawl that happened outside balloon boy's home, as if the story isn't odd enough. a man confronted a fox news crew on sunday when another man who's not with fox then got involved.

>> hey, hey! >> the man in the yellow shirt put the other guy in a headlock. but eventually the first guy then somehow got up and, boom! pembroke up the fight before police arrived. no arrests so far, but what a spectacle. we have new details in the alleged murder/suicide involving former nfl quarterback steve mcnair. rafer has more on that. >> these new developments would appear to support the police's claims, robin. they released text messages that apparently show a stressed-out and despondent woman. police still say mcnair's mistress texted mcnair before killing him and then herself. in those texts she said she was having a breakdown and she might

need to go to the hospital. right before that, she had a dui arrest. she also texted mcnair asking for $2,000 to pay for cell phone bill ed bills. this is the dui report. this is after cbs news talks to her friends who said she would never commit suicide. the mayor of rio de janeiro says his city will be safer by the time they host the olympics in 2016. two weeks after rio was given the games, a police helicopter was shot down in a gunfight with street gangs. 23 people died, including officers. it happened five miles away from one of the zones where the olympics will be held. >> makes me wonder if it would have changed anybody's vote on the olympic committee. >> that's what i'm thinking. it is the most exciting and the most rare play in the nfl, the return for the touchdown and it happened twice in this game.

denver receive ebecame the firs broncos ever to run back a punt and a kick for a score in the same game. the broncos are the biggest surprise in the nfl this year. they beat the san diego chargers. but we have to talk about the uniforms. just look at those things. bob said earlier it looks like cirque du soleil. that was actually in style 50 years ago. speaking of the nfl, former nfl star michael irvin had his best performance on "dancing with the stars." >> give him a cape and he can do magic. >> going around. got no shirt on. this guy scores a bit in the basement, but he scored his highest yet, a 21, a 7 from every single judge. if we have time we've got to hold for the big finish. right there. is he going to kiss her? is he going to kiss her? in the next half hour, lebron james said he had a cancer scare. we'll have it for you.

fewer people are getting married these days. it's one of the new findings in a new poll about marriage in america. people in the northeast wait longer to get married than people out west. how i wish bob and jennifer were here right now. education appears to play a role. in states with high numbers of college educated adults, couples tend to get married at older ages. >> but you have a college education and you got married young. >> but i met my husband in college. >> there you go. a former u.s. government scientist will be in court today to face charges he allegedly tried to sell classified info to the israeli government. stuart nozette has top secret clearance. the aerospace expert is charged with espionage after allegedly trying to sell secrets to an fbi agent posing as an israeli official. there is trouble for a doctor who helped nadya suleman

have her octuplets. why some of his colleagues are turning their backs on him. 

all righty. good morning. that was a short night, probably, for you. got so many things going on, don't you? i'm robin meade. morning, sunshine. while you get ready, because that's never easy, let me get your brain ready and tell you what's going on today. police might be ready to make an arrest in the stabbing death of a university of connecticut football player. the heart wrenching details that we're learning about the night that he was killed. plus the balloon right to nowhere could land the boy's parents in trouble with the law. why it wouldn't be the first time that his father was charged with a crime. why prosecutors want rob

blagojevich fired from "celebrity apprentice." investigators may be close to a big break in the stabbing death of a university of connecticut football player. a defense lawyer says police have told him that his client will be arrested soon. but the lawyer says that his client did not kill jasper howard, but he was in on the fight with uconn football players when howard was stabbed. police have not named a suspect yet. in the picture here coming up are howard's parents. i can't imagine how heartbroken they are. this was at a vigil last night. one other man was arrested at the scene on sunday. but his lawyer says that he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. the man has not been charged in the killing. the stabbing is dominating the conversation on campus. >> you get to see this student athlete play and then that night something happens like this. and it's -- it's almost too close to home. it is close to home because it's here. >> everybody wants to find his killer. he needs to do his time.

he needs to serve. >> rafer is joining us because there are more details about what happened the night that howard was killed. >> somehow this team has to be able to move forward and play a game on saturday. i have no idea how. especially for the young men that the team's head coach say were with jasper howard the night he was killed. one of these other players held howard in his arms as he died while another player tried to give howard first aid. the coach says that those two players may be excused from suiting up for saturday's game against west virginia. it'll be up to them. another player, 19-year-old brian parker was stabbed at the scene. his injuries are considered minor. so today students are encouraged to wear dark clothing, mourning howard. there will be events on campus every day this week to remember him. some of you are comments on our facebook page. robin?

>> so many people are really touched by this on our facebook page. really just seem bewildered at how could this happen on a college campus as someone is trying to better themselves, get their education. it's really tugging at our heart strings. you are welcome to make your opinion known on our facebook page. charges in the balloon boy case could be filed next week. colorado authorities say the heenes carried out a hoax involving their son and a huge balloon. law enforcement officials also want to get the money back they spent looking for the little boy. >> i think restitution is a reasonable order to give here. but, you know, it is a bad thing that he did. but it is important to keep in mind that no one was hurt. he doesn't appear to have taken any money as a result of it. it was a career building, apparently, endeavor that didn't work. but i think it's important to keep it in perspective. >> so richard heene, did you know, has spent time in jail before? we're digging into his arrest

record in less than ten minutes. breaking news on the afghanistan election story that we've been telling you about. the country will hold a presidential runoff election november 7th. a u.n. backed fraud investigation found nearly a third of president hamid karzai's ballots last august were invalid. that would mean he did not get 50% of the vote that's needed for an outright win. the white house is closely watching this as it considers the troop levels there. vaccines for the swine flu are slowly starting to trickle into several parts of the country. federal health officials say that despite the slow delivery of the swine flu vaccine, there's no reason to panic. there has been a rise recently in cases of the swine flu and the seasonal flu, but the director of the cdc says that more vaccines should be on the way. >> there are about 10 million doses now out in the community or getting to the community. and it is challenging for people to find vaccine. the good news is that if there

are no further manufacturing delays, within two or three weeks, we should be in a much more comfortable situation where it is much easier to find the vaccine. >> in south florida several people lined up to get vaccinated for the h1n1 virus. but health officials were only giving it out to high risk patients like babying, pregnant women and chronically ill. this morning at least four people were killed after two suicide attacks at a university in pakistan. at least 18 people were wounded. the blast happened at the international islamic university in pakistan's capital. more than 12,000 students from all over the world go to school there. if you send snail mail, the post office says it's going to freeze the prices for stamps and some other products through the next year. all right. right now a first class stamp, by the way, is about 44 cents. well, it's exactly 44 cents. prosecutors say rod

blagojevich's appearance on "celebrity apprentice" could taint the jury trial for his corruption case. the reality show may air during jury selection. they did not ask the judge to bar him from the show. his lawyer said, hey, it's unfair to stop his client from declaring that he's innocent. >> this is the first time i have ever heard of a law enforcement official coming to court and saying, judge, please shut the defendant up. usually it's the exact opposite. >> blago was not at yesterday's hearing. he was in new york taping the show. he's expected to compete with people like brett michaels, cindy lauper and sharon osborne. good morning, bob. >> great tv. love him or hate him, he's great tv. >> seems to be attracted to any camera he's ever seen. >> even if there's not an actual

light on, he'll still look right at it. we're looking at this wave of low pressure developing right across central kansas. it's actually going to deepen over the next couple days and draw some moisture out of the gulf states and throw it on in towards the mid-mississippi valley later this week. look at the rain and clouds moving through. yesterday it was the state of idaho. they got a lot of clouds, a lot of rain. it's going to be moving over to the east the next couple hours. rain in northern minnesota now in towards northern michigan and the u.p., too. in columbia, missouri, headed towards jefferson city. not severe. a rainmaker with the occasional flash of lightning. ahead of the cold front. look at the way it goes the next couple days. watching for rain pulling up out of texas in towards oklahoma city and tulsa. that red shaded area is about two to three inches of rain in the next two days. yellow is about 1 1/2 to 2. we're going to see the rain come back to the southern part of the plains and move to the southeast for the weekend. let me take you live first to

san francisco. if you're traveling out here, yesterday some flooding concerns right around the bay area. you had a lot of rain, too. about an inch. even about a half inch around san francisco itself downtown. there's the bay bridge. mid-60s the high. across the country a better day for you around charlotte. north carolina starting out on the cold side, no doubt. you're going to get up to about 70 degrees today. much warmer than yesterday. it'll feel betbetter, too. not much wind. that's my old station. good morning to you guys. >> really? harsh criticism for the fertility doc who helped nadya suleman have her octuplets. a college student went to a concert and has yesterday to come back. police are making an urgent plea for help to find her.

our is a salute today is for a marine who turns 21 tomorrow. shane gruell has been in afghanistan since may. his mom started a 21 day bike ride to raise money to build a home for a wounded military member. she misses shane and cannot wait until he comes home. sounds like two great people. if you have somebody in the service, why don't you salute them? we'll help you. remember the woman who died in police custody at the phoenix airport about two years ago? now city officials are offering her family a $250,000 settlement. phoenix authorities say that carol gotbaum was intoxicated. she accidentally strangled herself after being chained to a bench in a holding roo ining ro airport. ohio police arrested three men including one who was wearing a bra for a mask. four men held somebody up at gunpoint and got away with his

wallet and ten bucks. police say, you know, an arrest like this doesn't happen every day. >> it's a first for me, never knowing anyone use a black bra for a face mask. >> police are looking for the fourth suspect. the victim in the robbery was okay. is there something the team is trying to say to me? >> yeah. son, you have a panty on your head. if you can name the movie in ten seconds or left you get a prize. >> i can't. who can name it. >> oh, you know what, "raising arizona," our director knew. the doctor who gave fe fertility treatments to the mother of octuplets has been kicked out of an organization. the doctor repeatedly violated the group's standards. he wasn't kicked out because of his work with any particular

patient. he implanted nadya suleman with six embryos. that is more than a national guidelines. how do you see through the cup? >> you just said it. c-cup. >> we're talking obviously about the bra robber. help is on the way for those hefty overdraft fees. our money expert jennifer westhoven is here. now that's support. >> that's support. all right. this story, i'm going to serious up for a second. you can get really hit by overdraft fees. lawmakers have gotten plenty upset about them. the senate has proposed some big curves. if this passing it would sharply reduce the number of times you can get hit. some of the banks say we'll cut it down to four times a day. thanks a lot. this would really limit it to just once a month or more than that, only six times in a year. plus you would get a choice. you'd be warned if you were about to overdraw on your

account. then you could have a choice, go ahead and take the money and get hit with the fee or say, no thanks, cancel the transaction. that would be help for a lot of people. there are signs a lot of people are getting tired of being so frugal. they're not necessarily ready to go back to the free spending ways. but there are some hints that at least for christmas, the shopping may not be quite so gloomy. that's good news in a bad economy, right? because shopping is a big part of the economy, frankly. consumer spending. economists say people may be getting frugal fatigue. tj max and marshalls recently said things might be a little better for christmas. so did intel, which makes chips for so many different gadgets. we know apple did pretty well, too. it's tuesday. if you are traveling this morning, bob says it's looking pretty good out there. >> what are you laughing at? >> just you and your c-cup jokes. >> i'll tell you, it's going to be a great day in travel, too. finally decent conditions coming in for just about everybody.

we will see a couple delays. not at the airports across the west. a lot of volume popping in. see it around nor they are parts of utah in towards great lakes spreading out to the west. let me show you the tower cam we have, too. not exactly sure which airport this is, but it looks pretty nice. no. i'm just kidding. that is clearly l.a.x. you'll see a decent day out there. not much in delays around the rest of the country. dallas, denver, salt lake city, gusty winds. rain in salt lake city. seattle, morning clouds. but that's it. good day to travel. in the middle of some serious storms a man drove into a huge sink hole in atlanta. now police say there's something very suspicious about his story.

a man drove into a huge sink hole last month. but it may not have been like we thought. in fact, now the driver has been arrested. there were supposed to have been barrels blocking the road. a witness tells police there were barrels there. a witness claims the man drove around the barrels, got stuck, and moved the barrels to make it look like they weren't blocking the sink hole. the driver is facing several charges. ♪ >> bono, sing to me, baby. you're going to be able to hear u2 sing that song and many others in concert for free. their show in pasadena, california, sunday is going to be on youtube live.

the band's manager says that u2's fans from all over the world can tune in and the "l.a. times" reports the concert is being filmed for a dvd. >> actually be one of your theme songs. lebron james apparently had a cancer scare recently. lebron james. what happened? >> yeah. you don't think somebody like that even getting sick, remotely. >> young, super star, active all the time. >> 24 years old. we knew we had some surgery, something removed from his jaw. he has now confirmed it was a benign growth. doctors discovered it in january. they did a biopsy to determine if it was cancerous. while waiting for the results it was nerve-racking. he finally had it removed in june. he played most of the season with it. he said he was glad he had basketball to focus on. the same exciting result and

same score. first world champion phillies pulled off late game heroics. down one in the bottom of the ninth to the dodgers. jimmy rollins hits a double to score two and win the game. watch how everybody goes insane crazy. phils are one win away from getting back to the world series. in anaheim the l.a. angels taking on the yankees. both teams were tide at 4 in the 11th inning when l.a.'s jeff mathis hit this double to score a winning run. also won 5-4 bringing the sellout crowd of 44,000 to its feet. yankees still lead that one 2-1 in the best of 7. the mayor of green bay is asking for tasteful suggestions on ways to welcome brett favre's homecoming when his new team, the vikings, come to green bay on november 1st. what do you think? couple suggestions. a large number 4 waffle. have the fans wear flip-flops. >> that's not nice. >> we had one viewer post on our facebook page they should where a purple cheese head, the fans should.

i say, much as i have been hating on brett favre, give him a standing ovation. he helped them win a super bowl. he was there for 16 seasons. give him a standing o. i don't think they will. >> remind me, didn't he want to go back there and they didn't take him back? >> yeah. pretty much. >> okay. >> so, you know. >> all right. > the man who wrote "the adams family" theme song has died. ♪ vic mizzy sang the song himself. his manager says mizzy died saturday at his home in bell air. he also wrote the theme song for "green acres" and songs recorded by doris day, perry como and billie holiday. a swiss court denied bail for roman polanski, calling him a flight risk. that is despite his lawyer's

pleas he would stay in switzerland. he's fighting extradition to the united states. he fled in 1978 before his sentencing for having sex with a 13-year-old girl. swiss police arrested him last month. a latina in hollywood is keeping her eye on the ball. you're going to hear the story about the spicy note that amy garcia sent every casting director in l.a.  not long ago, this man had limited mobility.

last month, this woman wasn't even able to get around inside of her own home. they chose mobility. and they chose the scooter store! if you or a loved one live with limited mobility call the scooter store! no other company will work harder to make you mobile or do more to guarantee your complete satisfaction. if we pre-qualify you for a new power chair or scooter and your claim isn't approved, the scooter store will give you your power chair or scooter free. that's our guarantee. they were so helpful and nice. they filed all the paperwork, and medicare and my insurance covered the cost. we can work directly with medicare or with your insurance company. we can even help with financing. if there's a way, we'll find it! so don't wait any longer,

call the scooter store today. the new york stock exchange just opened for business. it looks like the stocks will edge forward this morning after some solid results from apple. we are going to check in in a moment. but first there will be an arrest soon in the stabbing death of a university of connecticut football player. a defense lawyer says police have told him that they intend to take his client into custody. the lawyer says the man did not stab jasper howard, but was there when it happened. a runoff election to determine afghanistan's president is planned for next month. a u.n. backed fraud investigation has found that nearly a third of president hamid karzai's ballots last

august were invalid. he is now agreeing to a revote. president obama says that he welcomes that decision. the outcome there could affect u.s. troop decisions. school lunches need fewer fries and more veggies, fruits and whole grains. that's from a new report from the institute of medicine. it says schools are not following federal dietary guidelines and need to update their standards. researchers say all that could raise some of the costs up to 20%. those are just a few of the day's top stories. good morning. as your alarm clock rings and you go am i going to hit the snooze button or not? i'm robin meade. welcome. lots of you are commenting about the death of jasper howard, the uconn player killed over the weekend. lacy on our facebook page writes where are the security cameras? college is supposed to be safe. daniel says it's scary to think during college, the greatest time of your lifer, you can't have fun without worrying about all the violence that can go on on your campus. meredith adds it's terrible

these kids can't complete their education without violence. it's a story tugging at your heart strings. go to our facebook page and tell us what you're thinking. a flu outbreak is forcing some schools to close. right now an elementary school and two middle schools near milwaukee have canceled their classes for a few days. about 40% of the kids there have a fever, cough, and sore throats. many parents support the closings. >> they're germ factories. they come home with everything. pencils in the mouth, crayons in the mouth, fingers in the mouth. i think it's the right decision. >> during the closing crews will clean the schools. they should reopen early as friday. the man in the balloon boy incident has been arrested before. the l.a. city attorney's office says richard heene pleaded no contest to vandalism charges in 1997. he got 30 days in jail, two years' probation. 911 dispatchers also got a call from heene's colorado home earlier this year. the sheriff says it made

authorities suspicious about possible domestic violence. no charges were filed. a murder suspect has just been added to the fbi's top ten most wanted list. a lot of you are reading about this on cnn.com today. joe saenz is wanted in connection with four killings, a kidnapping and a rape. investigators thought that he might be dead. then they saw a videotape from last year that they believe shows him killing someone execution style. former miss california usa, carrie prejean is getting sued over her breast implants. the company behind the pageant wants the 5 r$5 rk$5,200 back i for the implants. she lost her title for making appearances without pageant officials' permission. a man is picking up the pieces of his beach house that was swept away into the ocean. a weekend storm in chatham,

massachusetts, finished off the house. the surrounding area began to erode two years ago. wow. it was the last of 12 beach houses left standing. how do you get insurance for that? >> you need separate stuff. that's tough. that was that nor'easter with the huge waves and wind action that chewed away the beach. >> when the last is gone i always have a question. what do you get back? your land is gone on which to rebuild. it's very -- a terrible situation. >> outer banks, stuff like that, it's all movable. it's there for a reason. to protect the mainland. it's tough to build on something like that and expect it to last forever. that's what it looked like up there. we still have a tropical system we're looking at now, tropical storm rick. here's what it looks like on the satellite picture. not very well organized at least compared to the weekend when it had 180 mile per hour sustained winds. the tropical storm continues to

move up to the north and ultimately in towards mexico. let me show you a track. it hasn't changed much in the last couple days. if you're planning a trip down to, say, la paz, hold off. it approaches you late tomorrow into early thursday and raining itself out over northern mexico friday and saturday. as for the rest of the country, watching one wave of low pressure develop over kansas. it's going to deepen and strengthen over the next day or so. gets in towards central michigan later this morning. it's going to be on the light side. not heavy. it's still going to be out there. also looking at rain and thunderstorms between kansas city and right around st. louis. something we're watching that wouldn't be severe. still looking at heavy rain. the northeast, great day to travel. if you're getting towards the big apple, there's central park. look at the leaves changing. your high 65 degrees. mid to upper 60s, philly. around 70 by d.c.

gorgeous, fall-like weather back across the east. more in a half hour. the dow hit another one-year high yesterday. will the gains continue? it all depends on what some big name companies are telling us today. stephanie elam is there. good morning. >> hi, robin. so far the news seems to be pretty decent. although we have a down market right now. dupont and dupont united health group recorded higher profits. dupont sees improvement in tril business. caterpillar expects global demand to rebound. new home construction rose by half a percent last month. that's in the right direction. but it was weaker than expected. building permits fell by the biggest amount in five months. that's important. because building permits give us clues about what to expect down the road. this is a worrisome sign that building won't be too strong in the near future. finally, target is getting in on the online book pricing wars. "the wall street journal"

reports that the retailer is slashing the prices on seven of its most popular hard cover books available for preorder. target will charge $8.99 for the books, matching the price walmart set on friday. it's expected to expand its list of discounted available books to ten, including sarah palin's "going rogue." all of that for those people who are going to get books in their stocking this year, at least they know where they might be able to get it for a little bit cheaper, robin. >> yeah. a lot a bit cheap fehr prier if continue to go down. the father of anna nicole smith's daughter says he was pressured to beef up testimony against defendants in smith's drug case. now the prosecution is paying the price. plus this -- >> say hi to wolf. >> hi. >> hi, guys. >> who the hell is wolf? >> the balloon boy fires a zinger. this is a fire at the great

lake steel plant in michigan. it's just south of detroit. now, these are live picture heers here. this is a steel plant fire just outside of detroit. now the cameras have zoomed in. you can see smoke that is billowing out. it looks like maybe from -- it's hard to tell. maybe from the ceiling, from the roof of the complex. but it's very hard to make out right now. no reports of injuries. that is good right now. we don't know what caused the fire at the steel plant. once again, these are live reports, live pictures. we'll be back with more of those and incoming information that we might get.

the father of anna nicole smith's daughter says that he was pressured to beef up his testimony about the role that smith's former boyfriend had in her medication. larry birkhead is a star witness in the former playmate model's drug case. birkhead claims a prosecutor told him that his daughter might be affected by smith's drug use. the d.a.'s office says it's discussing the prosecutor's future role in the case. your friends might not be the only ones keeping a close eye on your facebook profile. richard is working on a story related to that for the 10:00 hour eastern. good morning. >> good morning. if you're on your computer right now, folks got to be careful. we know how cyber crooks have used e-mail to steal people's identity. they may be trolling social network sites you use looking for their next victim. we'll tell you how to be safe.

plus it's like csi meets the latest creature feature. how these slimy guys, blood suckers, may help take a bite out of crime years after the deed is done. then it was the plus 8 who really made john and kate famous. how kate says the kids are coping with their parents' very public problems coming up in about 15. the face of hollywood is changing. actress amy garcia is helping that. you may know her from "the george lopez show." soledad o'brien shows us how she's paving the way for future latina stars. >> no one looked like me when i was younger. i mean, punky brewster kind of. i related to her because she had freckles. >> reporter: she's part of a new generation of actors changing the face of television. >> latina is an asset instead of a handicap. i think everybody wants a latina

on their show. we could play anything. i think hollywood is starting to catch up on that. i can't believe george wants me to play on his team. i haven't swung a golf club in 60 days. >> reporter: she's a latina actress who's not afraid to break down barriers. >> we welcome you to the national kidney foundation celebrity golf classic. >> reporter: and take on new challenges like golf. >> you know, what you lack in skill you got to make up in style. >> reporter: aimeeg., spicy mexican chicken town. call if you want to see her. who did you send that to? >> every casting director in town the day i arrived. i guess go big or go home was my motto. >> reporter: her plan paid off. the half mexican half puerto rican actress quickly found work in hollywood and eventually landed a role on "the george lopez show." >> i feel very lucky i can play

veronica. a millionaire latina with no accent. >> what is wrong with giving a nice latina a job? >> to me "the george lopez show" did what "the cosby show" did in that it was an all american family that had the trials, tribulations, laughs and tears that every other family had. they happened to be hispanic. >> she doesn't quit. that says a lot about a person. >> reporter: what kind of advice do you give her. >> there there are a lot of bad parts. there will always be bad parts. you don't have to take them. >> reporter: she's proud of her latest part as a helicopter pilot in "trauma." she continues to challenge people's perceptions and expand the definition of what it means to be latina. >> i feel like i won the lottery. i get to be sarcastic, funny, strong. i love it. because you rarely find a role for a woman like that. and much less a latina. yeah. we're sexy. we got the sexy thing going on.

we're also smart. george is like, it's like sweeping. >> you're latina. i had to make you understand. >> reporter: soledad o'brien, cnn, los angeles. >> be sure to check out the new "latino in america." you can see it tomorrow and thursday, october 21st and 22nd, on our sister network, cnn. wait until you see a brawl near the balloon boy's home. like the story couldn't get any stranger. a man winds up in a head lock. and then the punches are flying. drama.

this just in. this is a fire that we are covering live here at the great lake steel plant at ecourse, michigan.

i hope i'm saying it correctly. we know it's south of detroit. you can see the black smoke coming out. fire officials don't know how it started. thankfully, no reports on injuries. we don't have word on do we have everybody out of the wibuilding how much longer dill they have it under control. this is tape from five minutes ago. the amount of smoke, a little more perspective as you look at the top of maybe a garage or building there. you can see smoke billowing out. we don't know what particular part of the building it's coming out of or what started it. just want to let you know that's going on and we're covering it. meanwhile, here's what's making headlines in some of the papers. the boston globe says cigarette maker philip morris may have to pay for chest exams for some smoke smokers. the case is ongoing. "usa today" reports that the federal government is afraid that lots of americans will not respond to next year's census.

workers might have to knock on 4 million more doors than they did in 2000. the "l.a. times" takes us to southern ohio where the goth spent $4.4 billion to clean up an old nuclear weapons factory. it's sill to radioactive it'll have to be monitored for thousands of years and no one can live there. a look at the papers. okay. come here and look at this tape of a brawl outside the balloon boy's home. like the story couldn't get any more strange. a man confronted a fox news crew on sunday when another man, who's not with fox, got involved. okay. the man in the yellow shirt put the other guy in a -- what is that? full nelson? >> that's a nelson, yes. >> then the headlock happens. it was a scene! eventually the first guy started to throw punches. now he's, like, taunting.

people broke up the fight before police got there, so there were no arrests so far. >> it gets rough in the field. we've all been in the field. it gets rough out there. >> really i just want an interview. exactly. remember, both of thosethere. >> both of those two were not from the knnews crew. it's been a while since we have heard anything new out of this investigation. >> right now, police have released text messages between mcnair and the woman who they say killed him and then herself. -- she texted the day before the killings saying she was so stressed she may have to go to the hospital and she needed $2,000 for bills. this all comes off a news record. it is the most exciting and the most rare play in the nfl, it happened twice, the return for a touchdown.

denver receiver eddie royal became the first broncos player ever to return both a kick and a puntd in the same game. the broncos have been the biggest surprise in the game. we definitely need to point out the retro uniforms. boy, are those socks hideous. at point those were in style 50 years ago. and sticking with the informal and wild outfits, michael irvin had one of his best performances in his paso doble. irvin's been in the basement so far. his score so far a 21. and that's a look at sports. >> i thought he looked just fine to begin with. now he's improving. >> big infinish. no jazz hands in come on. >> here's bob with a travel.

>> we have some tower coams coming n not exactly sure where this is. just kidding, looking pretty nice. l.a.x. is looking pretty good, but san francisco an hour delay because of fog. more morning express coming your way in just about a two minutes.