good morning. our director said the weekend went way too fast! it must have for uh-uh, too. over the weekend, people stood in long lines to get the h1n1 vaccine. now the epidemic is a national emergency. why this makes a huge difference in the front lines of the battle of that illness. this girl was found in new york, saying she didn't remember who she was or where she came from and asked for help. now all that has been figured out. plus the hoax claims keeps piling up in the balloon boy incident. one man says he saw a proposal to get it on reality tv.

oh, my word. first, though, our top story. new preparations for an h1n1 pandemic, after president obama declared a national emergency. his order on friday night gives doctors and hospitals the okay to cut through government red tape so they can act quickly if things get worse. already, more than 1,000 people in the united states have died from the h1n1. >> i think the government is doing everything they possibly can and centers for disease control. >> i think they're making every move possible. i think it's a better indication that this is a monumental challenge and the monumental challenge is being met. >> there still are not enough doses of the h1n1 vaccine for everyone who wants one. correspondent richard lui explains why, and has new details on a new treatment in about ten minutes. new this morning, at least 14 americans have died in two helicopter crashes in afghanistan. nato says one chopper went down

in western afghanistan, killing 10 americans, both service members and civilians, and two other helicopters collided in southern afghanistan. four u.s. troops were killed in that crash. nato says it does not believe that enemy fire was involved. a friend of convicted swindler bernie madoff was found dead in his swimming pool. jeffrey picower's wife found him dead in the pool yesterday. he was accused of getting $78 million in bonuses from madoff's scheme. they are investigating his death as a drowning, but apparently are not ruling anything out. an 18-year-old woman who turned up in new york city two weeks ago with amnesia now has been identified. her name is casey elise peterson. his father is on the way to pick her up. he says it's not the first time

that she has been lost and lost her memory. airplane that overshot the minneapolis airport by 150 miles last week. >> nobody was asleep in the cockpit and no arguments took place. other than that, i cannot tell you anything that went on, because we're having hearings this weekend. we're having hearings on tuesday. all that information will come out then. >> for more than an hour, air traffic controllers could not reach them. during wednesday's flight, the ntsb interviewed the pilot and co-pilot yesterday and may interview flight attendants yesterday. they asked the flight attendants to keep passengers in their seats while they checked who was in the cockpit. possibility of the faa notifying the military. noo rad scrambler fighter jets that never took off.

northwest is cooperating and doing its own investigation. a raging wildfire is forcing 85 people to evacuate their homes. near santa cruz, california, conditions are making it difficult for firefighters. it's only about 20% contained. authorities do not know what started that fire. people have given more than 1,000 tips to detectives, searching for the killer of a little girl. authorities in florida say they still don't know what happened to 7-year-old somer thompson on her way home from school last week. over the weekend, neighbors raised more than $18,000 so somer's mom doesn't have to go back to work right away. >> if it were me, i don't see how she could go back to work so soon. she has bills to pay, she has a car payment. she has other children to take care of. >> we had had to make sure we showed our support here, me and my family. >> we all have children, we can all relate and we're all hurting for the thompson family. we want them to know we love

them and we're praying for them. >> somer's body was found at a landfill in georgia wednesday. there is a public visitation tonight and memorial service tomorrow in orange park, florida. the burial and reception tomorrow are private. i know you're in a hurry, but come here and take a look at this would you? this patrol car in the washington state area got hung up on a wire from a power pole. witnesses say that another car had hit him and rammed him into the power pole. power lines were snapped and they started a grass fire under the car. nobody was hurt. >> looked like a barbecue. >> problems to the right of me. my goodness. >> patrol car barbecue on a spit. >> sure d i think we're lucky there wasn't an explosion since there was a fire underneath it. how fast your weekend? >> pretty good. we'll have a decent start for the northeast, east coast today. look what's headed into the

direction of the eastern time zone? most people who are awake right now, heavy rain out of dallas and houston. it's a cold front, steering moisture into the lower part of the gulf coast the next couple of days. rain comes into new york city overnight tonight and probably boston tomorrow afternoon. showers, heavy thunderstorms to the west of shreveport, louisiana. more heavy rain around san antonio. it's beneficial rain. you still need it, especially areas south of san antonio. you'll get a little taste of that action later today. houston dry, showers popping up here and there. rain by college station will drive into the city later this morning. we'll see delays at the airports, dallas first thing tomorrow morning. look at the rain around little rock. dry now. you'll see the showers off to the west, and get off to the east coast. rain off the carolinas. that's about it. advisearies for flooding, we'll talk about that in half an hour. >> thank you. those of you looking for a job -- i know it's a lot of people. here you go.

we have good news in a bad economy. more jobs could finally start coming your way in a few months. plus a driver got a ticket -- get this -- for not speaking english? what she's doing to make sure that doesn't happen to anyone else.

today's salute is from the family of senior airman benjamin frank, deployed to afghanistan and his wife, three sons and daughter are waiting for him. his wife says that the kids are trying hard to stay strong, but they miss their daddy. maybe you have somebody in the service you want to share your love with them. go to cnn.com/robin.

share their love with you. president obama declared a federal emergency, trying to stay one step ahead of the h1n1 virus. thousands of people who want to protect themselves from the flu can't even get the vaccine. correspondent richard lui joins us now. so, you know, it's called a national emergency now. >> right. >> there's a hold-up on the vaccine and that makes people nervous. what is the hold up? >> it has to do with an egg here, robin. scientists make the vaccine by growing a weakened virus in eggs. it's not been growing as fast as experts had wanted. >> we're nowhere near where we thought we would be by now. we're not near where the vaccine manufacturers predicted we would be. >> over the summer, the government estimated about 100 million doses would be ready by now, but only about 11 million, robin, have been shipped to doctors and hospitals so far. the new estimate is to have 50 million doses by mid november and then 150 million in december. >> well, the government says that millions of people, though,

have already come down with this type of flu. >> uh-huh. >> they just okayed a new drug to treat t this won't prevent you from getting it. what will this do for you? >> it's called bramavir. it's an iv drug only for people hospitalized with the virus. if you're not responding to the drugs already out there. this clearance does not mean that peramivir is fda approved but has worked for some people with serious complications. some hope there. >> richard, thank you. a lot of our viewers have questions, they have concerns now that the president has declared this is a national emergency. let us know what you're thinking about. go to cnn.com/robin and there's an icon you can push there to get to our face book page and we'll try to address your questi questions and issues about that. our money exert jennifer westhoven, finally?

>> yeah. this is like, we keep adding up this little deck of cards of small signs that the economy could be healing. but there are signs that it could be getting better, not everybody necessarily seeing it. still, though, we're taking it. good news in a bad economy. more economists saying companies will be adding jobs. these aren't economists who sit in the ivory tower at schools and make predictions and work at harvard. these are the economists who work with businesses so that they can make their plans, what should we be doing over the next six months. here you see 24% say they plan to hire. it could mean the job market may be coming into the end of the awful rut that it has been stuck in. u.s. economy has lost more than 7 million jobs since the recession started. unemployment, we know, right, almost 10%, the worst in 26 years. those baby einstein videos -- >> oh, this is a great story! >> they kind of make you think they're good for your baby's brain. they get called educational.

well, you could get your money back. disney is giving their money back. why? well, basically there's a group called the campaign for a commercial-free childhood and they're arguing that the tapes are not good for kids. they're pointing to research that, in fact, found people -- i'm sorry, babies, if they watched an hour a day of baby einstein, they got their words slower, not faster. so, you can get about $16 back each for the videos. the information is on our website. basically, robin -- >> do you have to have a receipt? >> 0 to 2 years old, do not put them in front of the tv. >> it's not like people save receipts for all that time. >> you don't need the receipts. >> you can get money up to four different tapes. one out of every four babies in the united states, research says, has these tapes. thanks to mom and dad. it's not like they got them -- some businesses apparently are recession proof.

the best tacos in houston. melissa long serves up their recipe in this small business success. >> reporter: yolanda navara inherited a texas tacoria from her mom. thanks to three key ingredients. >> quality, consistency and personal attention. >> reporter: it's a business that prides itself on treating customers like family, serving overstuffed tacos in homemade tortillas. >> from a pricing standpoint, they're going to get full on our tacos. we're not skimpy. >> the best tacos in houston. >> an institution for the area. a lot of people make breakfast tacos. few people make them like we do. >> reporter: this was not an overnight success, but grew steadily and now enjoys long lines. >> know what you're doing. love what you're doing. have people that are really committed to you. >> reporter: their recipe for success would not be complete without one more thing.

>> it's great food. that's what keeps them coming. >> good tips there. we would like to see your success story. go to cnn.com/robin. upload a video and you could be featured here on "morning express." 15 minutes after the hour. a basketball player lost his cool and went after a heckler in the stands and now is going to pay for a long, long time.

let's check on the time.

17 minutes. hope you're on time. more than 160 people were killed in the bloodiest attacks in baghdad in more than two years. oh, my word. at least 540 people were hurt yesterday when two suicide car bombs targeted government buildings. president obama called the attacks outrageous, but iraq's prime minister said the bombings would not derail the elections in january. he promised to punish those responsible. a texas driver who got a ticket because she could not speak english wants to make sure that it doesn't happen to others. she was also cited for making an illegal u-turn and not having her driver's license. she wants a deeper investigation, and a bigger apology from the police. the woman who is a legal u.s. resident plans to file a complaint this week. >> i basically told my mom that she had gotten a ticket for not speaking english. she was worried that now every

time she drives and she gets pulled over, is she going to get another ticket for not speaking english. >> a police chief apologized for the ticket. he says at least 38 other drivers got the same types of tickets and the officers who issued them will now be investigated. college students went out to a nightclub, but six of them were told they couldn't go inside. one of them was told that his pants were too baggy. so he ran an experimented and traded those pants with the guy on the right. their story, new for you in the next half hour. interesting. they've been called the evil empire, but the yankees are feeling good this morning. they're back to the world series. we now know the equation of who else is going to be in there. we have both teams. >> that's right, broadway versus broad street. you have new york and you have philadelphia. good morning to you, robin. >> good morning. >> somewhere mr. burns is saying excellent. i kid the yankee fans. you guys should be happy. biggest spenders in baseball,

most expensive team in america going to the championship. interestingly, it was exactly at 12:01 eastern that they defeated the cinderella angels, whose $116 million payroll is half of new york's. it all comes full circle for alex rodriguez. he started the year embattled with the steroid scandal, but rose from the ashes to be the hero in the playoffs and now the yankees get the phillies. i'm actually rooting for a. rod to get the world series mvp. we'll see what happens. comeback for the new orleans sta saints. they were down by three, over, finished. the saints' defense marched them back. they're known for their explosive offense. drew brees, definitely reason to celebrate. brett favre was in the middle of leading his team to another fourth quarter comeback, just like every other game, but the super bowl champion steelers stole it from him.

they ran it all the way back for a td. and then the next series, favre's pass is picked off by fox. steelers win a thriller! so, favre looking slightly human even though it wasn't entirely his fault. we won't rail on him. i have to rail on this guy, philippines basketball player attack this is fan. burger king whoppers deliver ace whopper. look at him going after this guy. >> what in the world? >> out of control. suspended the rest of the season without pay. he was saying the fan was insulting him incessantly. oh, poor baby. were you being heckled? >> oh, my god, he like stomped him where it counts. >> he apologized, but wants the league to crack down on bad fan behavior. are you kidding me? >> they're going to crack down on bad player behavior. crazy video from the -- oh, no, sorry, to the coffin races. this was in manatu springs, colorado, named after a 19th

century local woman buried on a local mountain who supposedly still haunts it. in the spirit of halloween, that is sports. >> you go to the story and say i'm going to need one really lightweight coffin. we're hearing from the family of an iraqi girl reportedly run over by her own dad. we'll hear the family explain the attack.

14 americans were killed in two separate helicopter crashes in afghanistan today. one chopper went down in western afghanistan and two others collided in mid air in the southern part of the country. about two dozen other americans and afghans were hurt. nato says that enemy fire was not involved. a young woman who turned up in new york city with amnesia, not knowing who she was, has now been identified. 18-year-old casey elise peterson's father says it's not the first time that she's disappeared and lost her memory. he says she has been living with a friend since her mom died.

it could be months before interstate 40 reopens near the tennessee/north carolina border. it was hit by a massive rock slide over the weekend. troopers say that some of the rocks are the size of a house. traffic is being detoured. the cleanup is already started, but it's expected to take several months to complete. paranormal activity raked in $22 million over the weekend, making it the number one box office activity this weekend, beating out "saw vi," which earned $15 mill. "where the wild things are" was third. "paranormal activity," they made it on the cheap and it still keeps raking in the morning. are you doing all right? i'm robin meade. welcome. our top story today, a federal emergency has been declared to deal with the h1n1 outbreak. federal emergency, richard lui, that is frightening sounding. >> yeah. >> what does it really mean? >> makes you listen. the idea here, robin, is to let doctors bypass the red tape in case they get a surge of h1n1

patients. if there was a large outbreak near you, your local hospital could set up emergency clinics in schools or tents to treat flu patients and normal that requires a lot of paperwork. and this declaration would also make it easier, robin, to transfer patients from one hospital to another. >> so less red tape? >> right. >> why now? is there something that prompted an emergency declaration that we should all know about? >> well, when we really take a look at it, no. the president says this is a preventive measure, robin. he did acknowledge the number of h1n1 patients is rising rapidly. cdc says there's widespread flu activity in every state except connecticut, new jersey and south carolina. every other state you see there in original orange. since april there, more than 1,000 people in the u.s. have died from h1n1 and at least 20,000 have been hospitalized. robin, as you were mentioning earlier, we want to answer folks questions, viewers questions about h1n1. post your comments on our facebook page or send us an

e-mail of the cnn.com/robin. >> maybe it's a question or whatever your thoughts are, we'll take those. richard, thank you. a church janitor is accused of stabbing a priest 32 times with a kitchen knife. jose feliciano killed reverend ed hinds at the church after an argument thursday. a prosecutor says investigators found the cell phone, bloody clothing and bloody towels at the suspect's home and in a park across the street. students from a college in st. louis have filed complaints of racism against a chicago nightclub. nearly 200 students were on a class trip and every african-american was refused admission. they say that they were told that they didn't meet the dress code because their pants were too baggy. that's when the students cooked up an experiment. >> he's actually wearing my pants. he later on went back to the hotel. we did a switch of pants and he put my pants on. keep in mind, this guy is about three inches shorter than me and

probably closer to 40, 50 pounds lighter than me. he went back to the bar later on that evening with the same manager, same bouncer at the door and was able to walk in, while making jokes at the bouncer about not paying for the people behind him. >> a spokesperson for the original mother's bar told "the chicago tribune," the club is taking the issue very seriously and it is doing an internal investigation. washington university will hold a town hall meeting tonight to talk about that incident. new this morning, fda is letting you buy drugs you think is helping you fight deadly diseases but may not actually be. the associated press says it obtained a new report from the government accountability office which lists several drugs that were part of a quick approval process but in follow-up tests didn't live up to their promise oro the tests weren't even done. the fda says it doesn't plan to pull any of those drugs off the market, but says this quick approval process is for drugs which treat the most serious diseases and it helps people get

them faster. in some cases, taking the drugs away would eliminate the only available treatment for people. the white house, score one for gender equality in sports yesterday. here is rafer with more on that story. okay. >> for the first time, the president golfed with a woman while in office. he is a regular golfer but until sunday, it had always been with men. chief domestic policy adviser melody barnes joined the president along with marvin nicholson and dr. eric whitaker from the university of chicago med center. the foursome played a round. the president recently had been criticized by "the new york times" for playing basketball only with men. a spokesman for the white house insists this is not the first time he has ever golfed with women, but it is the first time in office. >> some people would argue that is primo access to the president. >> this is true. >> thank you. 35 minutes past the hour.

okay. so, getting the kids ready for halloween. you know, you have all week. you look at the weather today and you think, do i have to put turtlenecks underneath it? is it going to be this way on saturday? what's it like today? hi, bob. >> rockies, it's going to be cold, shaping up with snow. you're right. you have this great costume -- >> and you put a coat on it. >> that will probably be the case in the northeast, too. here is northern louisiana. here is the shreveport radar. waking up in dallas, heavy rain overnight. stretching into areas close to houston. it's going to get there shortly. look at that houston radar picture coming out of san antonio. decent rain over you. you need it. you'll get a taste of that this morning. the rain spreads to the gulf coast, mainly around galveston and houston this morning. you're dry, see the lightning flashing off to the west. not severe at the moment. it's still a possibility. an area i'm watching closely this morning. little rock, look at that steady stream of rain off to the west.

that rotates into the city later on. give it half an hour or an hour, you'll start to get the heavy rain outside the city. areas in red, warnings thelsz, flood warnings are in light shaded green. we're watching this area for more rain today. as it slides over the next two days, rain will fill in toward mississippi and alabama. red shaded colors there, six inches of rain mostly offshore. some of that will get into house ton. two to three inches of rain just today. that's something we'll be keeping an eye on for flood p potential. rain offshore from the carolinas, moves toward the west. showers coming in across the great lakes, too. it's on the light side, but will slow you down. couple of tower cams i was watching, sun not quite up yet, but it will look good in places like d.c., mid to low 60s, atlanta getting to be around 66. so, all the major areas look like they'll be okay east coast. san francisco, not a bad one. little breezy for you. here's what it looks like. temperatures in the 50s. there's the bay bridge. fog not an issue today. winds will be this afternoon.

25-mile-per-hour winds. rain headed in for mid week. pretty nice, huh? little traffic. >> so pretty. >> little traffic already. there you go, rob. more in a little bit. >> gorgeous. it took firefighters all weekend to get a huge fuel storage fire under control, but it looks like they finally got it out. now the fbi is involved. and get ready for the rallies. what a big political tour hopes to accomplish over the next two weeks.

little reba for you. many children in the united states, apparently, are not getting enough vitamin d. a new study out today in the

journal of pediatrics researched kids ages 1 to 11. lack of vitamin d could have them at risk for weak bones and it also showed 95% of african-american children at that age and 80% of latino kids could be vitamin d defisht. huge fire at a huge fuel storage facility is finially out. they're still keeping watch for flare-ups. it started with an explosion with a force of a 2.8 earthquake. hundreds of people were forced to evacuate. the fbi is investigating graffiti found on two tunnels that refer to the fire. plenty of pink around egypt's great pyramids over the weekend. thousands of people took part in the middle east for international race for the cure saturday to raise awareness about breast cancer. people from all over the world were there. organizers say that breast cancer cases are rising in north africa and the middle east.

a milestone and not the good kind. seven more banks went under this weekend, meaning more than 100 banks have failed so far this year. our money expert, jennifer westhoven, is looking out for you. when you hear about banks failing you immediately get concerned about your own money and your own deposits. >> that is still safe. we still want to tell you about this milestone, right? you heard us talk about the fdic insurance is up to a quarter of a million dollars. banks, though, still failing at the worst level since 1992, and it really tells us that the financial crisis is still on in many ways. sure, the government is backing the big banks, but the small banks are having problems, still sorting through all the wreckage and aftermath of the bad loans, people getting mortgages, car loans that they really could not realistically afford, especially now that a lot of people are losing their jobs.

for you, the fdic has been handling these pretty smoothly. they take your money and will transfer it to a different bank nearby over the weekend. by doing it on a weekend, your checks are fine, your atm card will still work so you shouldn't really have any problems there. gas prices are higher. that's a bit of a problem, though. average price for gas now up to about $2.67. you probably have seen it. it could be different where you live. no matter what, you've probably seen a jump of about 18 cents a gallon in the last two weeks. that's the first really significant jump we've had had since the summer. and it's not yet because we're driving more. it's really because oil prices have shot up. rbin, back to you. >> i think you've got one more. >> all right. let's see if we have that for you. shut down gm factory in wilmington, delaware, might be making cars again. vice president joe biden is expected to say tomorrow that fiskar automotive will build

plug-in hybrid vehicles at the plant in his home state. we've talked about the karma, being built in finland right now, it will go on sale next year. i think it's pretty expensive right now, robin. they're saying give us a little government help and eventually this car will get cheaper and then everybody can afford it. >> a plug-in car, okay. come to mama. police are on a mission to look for criminals before they can strike again. we'll explain their door-to-door search for more than 1,000 registered sex offenders.

the tea party express is back on the road again. the conservatore is holding rallies in 19 cities. they're protesting government programs they say cost too much and take too much control out of people's hands. >> we need to get back to the days when we were responsible and we assumed the responsibility of ourselves and our families and the government

is not a part of my daily life. i really resent the government taking up so much of my time that i'm down here, having to protest right now. >> anti-tea party protesters held their own rally in l.a. one protester says she came out to show her support for a government-run health care option. climbing fences and knocked on doors to find more than 1,000 registered sex offenders. they conducted a massive sweep to make sure they're not violating their probation or patrol. 25 offenders were arrested for not complying to their probation. other 200 could be hauled in for violations. so far, pretty good. it's still early, about 13

minutes to 7:00 eastern time. no delays right now. heavy rain in texas. much needed rain south of houston. you're going to get a lot of it today and tomorrow. here's what it looks like. dallas watching for an hour or more delay to pop up here shortly because of low clouds and rain. houston with showers and thunderstorms developing, watch for an hour or more delay. chicago with the light rain in place already, watch for a 30 minute to an hour delay, midway and o'hare. and seattle, rain all day with snow in the mountain tops. you'll see a lot of that as well. we'll talk about that, robin, in half an hour. >> thank you. the friends and family of a connecticut football player are gathering today in his hometown of miami for his funeral. here is rafer with more on this story. this is a follow-up to an investigation we've been covering. >> which is still ongoing. police are optimistic about that investigation, but still nobody is coming forward with any video, which i can't understand. this whole thing is capping off an extremely emotional week for jasper howard's teammates. they honored howard in saturday's game against west virginia. one teammate carried his jersey,

another his helmet and the team held their hands and bowed their heads in his honor. each team wore a number six on their helmets as well. uconn would lose that game, but it was one heck of a game. for the funeral today, the entire team will travel to florida for the funeral. houston, with the 49ers game, george h.w. bush and george jr. were there for the coin toss. i like seeing these guys out. before the game, golden knight paratroopers came flying in. >> he didn't go with them this time. >> he did not. three women actually parachuted in. found that to be interesting. houston would win it. >> cool. >> jets quarterback mark sanchez was literally hot dogging it. hot dogging it. he played well in the jets 38-0 win. but on the sidelines, he had to apologize. he was eating a hot dog. he has a hot dog there, kids. he put mustard on it and everything.

>> reporter: are you not alloweded to eat on the sidelines? >> you're not supposed to, but he said he felt nauseous because he hadn't eaten. so he had to eat. it's not a big deal. but we're having fun at his expense. watch the new england patriots take on the tampa bay take on the bucs at wembley. the game sold out in minutes, 80,000. sold out. the patriots actually schooled them. there's speculation the league could expand to include a team from london in the future. the nfl would actually have a team in london. >> that be cool! >> if they're selling out 80,000-plus in minutes, that would be cool. >> that's cool. this would be wild. the nfl could have refs wearing helmets. check out this hit right here. >> oh, my word! >> yes, that happened during the vikings' loss to pittsburgh. this guy would leave the game. now, espn is reporting the nfl might give the refs helmets in the future, kind of like baseball helmets, so they can still see, or put them in positions where they're not in harm's way, because this happened a couple times this season. and they're on a mission to visit every nfl stadium in the

country. they were in arrowhead in kansas city, the third stop on their nationwide tour. 3,000 miles in honor of west point classmate and army buddy joe lusk who died in kuwait. they're doing this for him. that's a look at sports. >> that is touching. thank you. balloon boy incident may have been a hoax that richard heene had been working on for a while. heene's former researcher says that what we all saw on tv was almost exactly an idea that heene had for a reality tv show. >> there were 52 in this particular proposal. so, one episode idea per week. and number 16 of it basically said, let's create a fake flying saucer and facilitate a global media hoax with some controversy. it will be a great way to get the heene family's name, you know, nationwide and around the world in the media, and it will be a great way to raise

awareness about the ufo phenomenon, about the heene family, the reality show. >> also in court documents out friday, investigators say that heene's wife mayumi admitted that she and her husband knew that their 6-year-old was hiding the entire time. the parents are facing several charges and have said that it was not a hoax. a little boy ran into the store to ask a stranger for help.