good morning, tuesday, how are you? i'm better now that i know you've tuned in. good morning, sunshine. i'm robin meade. you moe the northwest pilots whose planes overshot the destination by more than 100 miles say they were working on their laptops but experts disagree over whether their passengers' lives were in danger. the world's largest rocket is about an hour away from taking space exploration to the next level. live picture. wow, wow! and it will only take a couple of minutes and fly through 100 million bucks. and then get this, a convicted killer is taking a man on that

he once held hostage to court. why he's suing his former victim for $18,000. first, though, we now know what the northwest pilots say that they were doing when they overshot the minneapolis airport. they say they lost the laptops and lost track of time. they were focused on a new computer program. they say they did not monitor the airplane during their talk. >> these pilots were simply not paying attention for a period of time. and is that a serious offense? it is, but it's not one that i think put the lives of those people in jeopardy. >> you're always supposed to maintain situational awareness, and somebody is always supposed to be watching the airplane and flying the airplane. that's your first order of duty. that's your first priority. so there really is no excuse, no reason to allow it to go to this

point. should not have happened. >> delta air lines which owns northwest suspended the pilots. it says the offense violates airline policy and may cost them their jobs. they sent passengers a $500 travel voucher for the inconvenience. senator majority leader harry reid announced yesterday that a public option will be in the senate bill though states could opt out. reid admits he's not sure he has enough vote and jokes the senators would all hug together and see where they come out. but he feels it's the best way to fix the system. >> i believe that a public option can achieve the goal of bringing meaningful reform to our broken system, it will protect consumers, keep insurers honest, ensure competition. that's why we intend to include it in the bill that will be submitted to the senate. >> so even if the senate can get the votes for a public option, it may never be an option for

you. in about ten minutes, correspondent richard lui will explain why people with employer-based coverage still would not have a choice. l woman who could not remember her name when she turned up in new york city apparently left everything behind when she left home. police say casey peterson emptied her bank account but left her wallet, i.d., cell phone, clothes, bike. authorities have no idea how she got from washington state all the way every o to the east coast. here's her high school principal. >> she was a very bright girl, very intelligent, smart. we enjoyed having her here. she didn't act out against anything we had here. she was a good girl. i hope she gets her health. i hope that she gets safe and kind of gets her life straightened out and the best for her. >> well, her father says that she has disappeared before. five months ago she was found lying near a creek on the family farm and then couldn't remember her name as well. and once she was found unconscious on her bedroom

floor. t-minus 57 minutes, if the weather holds anyway. nasa is about to take a big step into the future of space exploration. a new ares rocket which you are staring at live there is scheduled to lift off from the kennedy space center for a test flight. we're watching the forecast because there are clouds, there's a chance of rain. eventually, though, nasa hopes to use ares to launch missions to the moon and mars. i know it's a completely different shape than you're used to seeing with the space shuttle program. we'll have to see if the weather is a problem. want to know if you're walking into an h1n1 hot bed? there is an app for that. harvard medical just released an application with real updates including video, animation and texts about how to avoid it, plus it shows you ways to protect your home and work from outbreaks. there's an interactive guide to h1n1 symptoms. at least one south carolina lawmaker could bring up impeaching the governor during a

special session about employment benefits today. lawmakers adjourned in june, just before governor mark sanford secretly went to argentina to be with his mistress. one said he would have been impeached sooner if they were in session when he got back. a police officer accused of pulling a gun on a chain saw wielding character, an actor. police say the actor chased the off-duty officer and others into the parking lot, trying to get an extra scream out of them. that's when they say the officer pointed a gun at the actor. the police report says, hmm, alcohol may have been a factor. >> about three to four feet apart and he held his arm out like this with a gun in his hand. and the whole time, his child was pulling on his arm. >> callers said he seemed to be very intoxicated. in fact the people inside the house of screams noted that. when he was again being processed, two of the officers

noted his speech was slurred, there was a moderate odor of alcohol from his breath. he didn't seem to be taking it quite as seriously. >> the officer is charged with assault and reckless endangerment. he'll find out this morning if he's suspended without pay. no response so far from him or his attorney. this is a big day in the music world. the sound track to the michael jackson film "this is it" hits stores today, one day before the movie comes out. the sound track includes new takes on some of his classics, including "the way you make me feel." ♪ sound good. i don't really hear anything new on that track. the only tracks that are new here are the two versions of the title track and jackson recites a poem that he wrote called "planet earth." critics say fans will want this

as a keep sake but it's mostly a greatest hits collection. six minutes after the hour. okay. so today maybe you're thinking when you get home from work that you've got to help the kids carve the pumpkin. we'll see if the weather is conducive to that. maybe i should start around florida. we're watching to see if the liftoff from nasa is going to happen. >> good morning. just looking at the cape canaveral observation. as of 7:00, there's a live look, just a few clouds reported, 79 degrees the temperature. dew point up there, about 75. so really humid but a few cloud, variable wind at 6 miles per hour. they'll probably get this thing off. i don't see any problems. looking at the radar, no rain in the vicinity. i think that will be a go. heavy rain to the west of cape canaveral and it's coming down right now. florida in towards florida, alabama, mississippi, stretching to georgia. atlanta, more flooding concerns, probably pick up three to four inches of rain here.

some areas might pick up as much as five by the carolina mountains. we'll be watching that closely especially over the next day, day and a half. watching one area of rain off the coast of new jersey, stretching to philadelphia. lower part of the susquehanna valley, close to new york city, too. nyc, the rain looks like it's right over you. you get away from there and it's all snow for you in the highest elevation of the rocky mountains. look at this area of low pressure. it's beginning to develop now. it will strengthen over colorado over the next day and a half. light rain around salt lake city. that turns to all snow. winter storm warnings posted up there for denver, 8 to 14 inches of snow for the city itself. above the higher elevations, you can see as much as one to two feet of snow today today basically through thursday. we'll talk about that over the next couple of hours. >> okay, thank you. not really okay. >> the skiers are loving it. kind of early, it's great. just in time for the holidays, speaking of holiday weather, you could be seeing

something different from your credit cards. we're looking out for you. things get a little crazy at health clinics. what some people are doing to make sure that they get the h1n1 vaccination.

we always salute our troops. private first class daniel ruiz gets the spotlight. the father of a 2-year-old daughter and 2-week-old son. he was home for the birth but left for afghanistan two weeks later. his wife salutes him and his brother rafael also serving in afghanistan. maybe you have a loved one in

the service. you want to salute them. go to cnn.com/robin. a few years ago a man was held hostage at gun point. now he's being sued by the convict who did it. you won't believe why. new for you in 20 minutes. more details on a major turnaround in health care reform efforts. senate majority leader harry reid put the public option back in with a caveat that states could opt out. correspondent richard lui joins us now. will that help him get the 60 votes he needs to pass that bill? >> even senator reid admits he's not sure about that. he has to persuade three key moderate democrats to back the plan. ben nelson of nebraska, blanch lincoln of arkansas and mary landrieu of louisiana on the right. if reid cannot get those three votes, he may lose votes from other democrats. making sure health care reform is simply passed this year. >> i am for any version that gets us to 60. my goal is to get on the floor and to pass it off the floor.

that's my goal. and public option may or may not be part of that. >> 4. >> so for argument's sake, let's say that the version becomes law. what would it mean for the average viewer here, their health care coverage? >> yeah. what about me? if you already have health insurance through your job, absolutely nothing. people with employer-based coverage, if you're out there, you are actually blocked from switching to the public option. oregon democrat ron wyden says many people pushing for this do not realize that. >> when i was having my town meetings, people would stand up at rallies and say public option or bust. and then i would say, folks, i really appreciate your activism. are you aware the way these public option bills are written, more than 0% of you wouldn't even get to choose them? and people were practically falling out of the bleachers. >> there are still tens of millions of folks across the united states without health insurance who would be able to

buy into this public option if it does pass, unless of course, their state decides to opt out. we want to know what you think. post comments on our facebook page and we'll share some of your comments right here on "morning express" with robin meade. so looks like you're going to get another chance to cash in on the old home buyer tax credit. money expert jennifer westhoven joins us right now. jen, the government is going to extend this, i guess, right? >> that's what it looks like we're shaping up. there are two plans out there and one of them could see action today in washington. a key test vote could come as early as today to keep it alive. the $8,000 tax credit to buy your first home. this is from democrats. they're looking at legislation that would keep it alive next year, but they want to gradually phase it out. so first a thousand dollars, then a few months later six thousand, then four thousand. you get the idea down to zero. that plan is a lot less expensive than another plan out there that would extend the full credit, the full $8,000 and also

make it available to a lot more people. it wouldn't have to be your first home to get it under that version. we'll see what happens. as of right now, though, the clock runs out on november 30th but there should be some action this week. we'll keep you posted along with, by the way, action on jobless benefits, whether they'll be extended, too. the recession may be over? there's a report that's dew thursday that's expected to show the economy grew over the summer months. yeah, i said grew. that is some good news in a bad economy. it's the gross domestic product. it would likely confirm that the recession theoretically ended in june or july. it is the biggest gauge of what we've got with the whole economy. so everything we manufacture, every service that's performed. you may be thinking, yeah, but i see the jobs market and it's not getting any better. unemployment is near 10%. the hope is the job market tends to lag gdp. so if the gdp is getting better the hope is the job market will

follow. a million dollars here, a million dollars there, pretty soon you talk about a lot of money. that's what one former nba player found out after taking home $110 million, get this, he's still broke.

we just got a new video of iraq's deadliest bombing in more than two years, and it's incredible. it's a horrific blast. two bombs went off in baghdad on sunday and killed at least 160 people. 540 people were wounded. today, an iraqi group affiliated with al qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack. the group is called the islamic state of iraq. however, we could not independently verify its claim. this is new video we wanted to share with you. man, the devastation. the bernie madoff investor found dead in a swimming pool had a heart attack before he drowned according to an ought

sip done on jeffry picower. he was accused of making about $7 billion in the ponzi scheme. attorneys for people who lost money say the death will not stop their efforts to get some of his money. motivated by the loss of his father, an nfl star led his team to victory on "monday night football." rafer has that tape. >> it's an inspiring story albeit a sad one. deshon jackson of the eagles is small by nfl standard, 5'7", 175 but his father encouraged him to think big. last night, he led the eagles in a win over washington with two scores, this reversed for a td and caught a long pass for a touchdown later. this season he's playing for his dad who died of pancreatic cancer in may. he said his dad was his number one coach and his number one fan. friends, family and teammates of slain connecticut

football player jasper howard bid final farewells at his funeral on monday. the entire uconn football team attended. the head coach praised him saying he was on track for greatness. police have still made no arrests in the killing. the last time you saw this man he was in a congressional steroid hearing. now home run slugger mark mcgwire back with the st. louis cardinals, back as a hitting coach. mcgwire famously refumesed to answer steroids questions but the team says they're not going to shield him from the media. most feel he deserves a second chance as do i. a former nba star may have squandered away $110 million. friends of former celtics star antwan walker say he lost almost everything he made. facing three felony counts for passing bad checks to las vegas casinos. court documents show he owes more than 4 million bucks. a former teammate said walk her a good time but learned a tough lesson about responsibility in making that much money.

$110 million. take half for taxes, 10% to the agent, you still got $50 million. >> i wonder where it all went. i'm sure he's asking the same thing. >> he enjoyed gambling apparently. all new sports in the next half hour. >> thank you. so you're in las vegas and i know we have a strong viewership right there and you walk by a high roller table and you go, i wonder who goes in there. >> basketball player, celtics. that's nice. vegas is a see ducter, robin. >> is that from a movie? >> no a caricature. so far so good delay-wise p zero in philadelphia and new york city. you have rain coming in, heavy at times. new jersey, new york city right here, philadelphia right here. planes going in and out, so far no problem but the rain is heavy. an hour delay. new york city metros here are the hour ones. philadelphia also looking at las vegas and san francisco, robin, with gusty winds. more on that in a little bit.

>> he breaks into -- ♪ let luck be a lady tonight a man says he was drunk when he said threats against president obama.

two northwest pilots say that they were using flair personal laptops when they overshot the minneapolis airport by 150 miles last week. the pilots tell the ntsb that they were focused on a new computer program that arranges crew schedules. delta, which owns northwest, suspended the pilots. but this could cost them their jobs. we're getting close to the first test launch of nasa's ares rocket. this is a live picture. they are just a few minutes behind schedule, apparently. so we're looking a little after 8:00 a.m. eastern if they're going to go ahead and launch it. nasa hopes to use the ares rocket for flights to the moon

and mars. it's kind of a forerunner for what will eventually do that. a turning point in the health care debate. yesterday senate majority leader harry reid announced he's including a public option in the senate bill though states will be able to opt out. it could be a week before the congressional budget office figures out how much it will cost. that's a quick check of the stories. i just wanted to say good morning, sunshine as the alarm clock rings on you. this is robin meade. more details about that shift in the health care debate. for months if you remember here the senate appeared to be steering away from a public option so that they could try to get bipartisan support. correspondent richard lui joins us now. why would senator reid change course now? >> when he announced his plan yesterday, senator reid pointed to national polls that show strong support for a public option. but multiple democratic sources say he also has some personal politics in mind here. the liberals he needs to win re-election from are already running a critical ad in his home state of nevada.

>> i'm watching to see if harry reid is strong and effective enough as a leader to pass a public health insurance option. >> all right. the white house is backing reid, although they have said, robin, a public option is not a must for health care reform right now. >> you know, there are always strong opinions on both sides of this debate. what are our viewers saying right now on our facebook page. viewers, by the way, if you haven't gone there, we welcome your comments. >> sounding off, lynn says -- then there's mickey, who writes on our facebook page -- all right. thank you both for piping in. keep letting us know what you think. as robin was saying cnn.com/robin. our facebook link is there. more students are expected to stay home from a chicago

school after an honor student was beaten to death. parents and leaders are encouraging the boycott, which started yesterday. they want chicago officials to stop the growing violence at christian fenger academy high school. 16-year-old derrion albert was killed during an after-school fight last month. >> they need to get that school under control, and it's not under control at all. >> it's not even a safe haven, nor is it an educational tool for learning. >> three teens have been charged with first degree murder in albert's death. just last week, five other students were arrested and charged for fighting in the school's lunch room. president obama says that he won't rush his decision about sending troops to afghanistan. now, some republicans have been pressuring him to decide quickly about deploying up to 40,000 more troops. but he says that he's not ready. obama spoke at the naval air station in jacksonville yesterday. >> i will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way.

i won't risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary. >> well, he spoke on the deadliest day in that country in more than four years. 14 u.s. troops died on monday. come here, look at this tape. a man walks into a sandwich stand with a gun demanding cash. look at the gun being pointed at the worker. but the guy just stands there, hands on the hip, kind of like, yeah, what's your problem? so you got a gun, big deal. he says that he thought the gun was a fake. so the suspect did nothing. left empty-handed, thank goodness. police say that later another quiznos was robbed and they're looking for the guy. i could swear that i read in some of the wire copy he not only demanded cash, but he wanted food, too. >> so the owner thought it was a joke. >> you want a sandwich? >> i'm serious. this is in fact a robbery. >> but i'm hungry, too.

>> he could have come with a slingshot, i would say. what you want on your sandwich? you want mayo? lots of weather to get through. this weather brought to you by u.p.s. let me show you what's happening because we have a great deal of energy now across the in gulf coast now coming ashore, more heavy rain. lake charles, louisiana, yesterday, over five inches of rain and the rain continues to the east. look at new orleans radar picture. lots of rain coming up out of the gulf all moving up north and east at a pretty good clip. here's the atlanta metro radar. a pocket of dryness here but down to the south, a heavy batch of rain all moving to the north. it will get right across basically the airport in the next hour or so. that will slow us down at the airport. in fact, we already have a ground stoppage in atlanta till 8:30. the heaviest rain around the pan hachbd l of florida, atlanta out of birmingham, those yellows and reds over the next four to eight hours, three to four inches of rain, possibility of five and get to the carolina mountains,

too. here's an area of low pressure off the had coast of the delmarva peninsula. it's weak but enough to generate instability. rain in philadelphia. rain coming this through new york. we see that through the morning. it gets out of here and more rain had tomorrow as the southern system works its way into the system. you can see the new york city radar popping up with a lot of rain. the metro city itself not much rain. just a little on the light h. side. northern parts of new jersey it's coming down. it's a tough morning commute and there for the better part of the morning. out west, it's a major snowmaker developing and a lot of wind. winds today around the bay area, san francisco 55 miles per hour. high wind warning there. also in towards vegas, about 60-mile-per-hour gusts. it will cost some problems. >> i guess so. a credit card freeze isn't usually a good thing, but this time you're probably going to welcome it. then fan is short for fanatic and here is a woman who is a fanatical fan. not even a broken hip could make her stop watching her team.

an iowa woman broke her hip while watching her favorite team, but she refused to go to the hospital until that game was over. here's rafer with more on that story. >> yeah, call this woman a super fan, robin. 71-year-old carol walden says she can't remember the last iowa football game that she missed. she almost missed this one in their game against wisconsin. she slipped and broke her hip during a commercial break. but instead of going to the

hospital, she asked her husband to carry her to her chair so she could watch the rest of the game. now, the team heard her story and the coach sent her a card. >> to carol, get well soon. go hawks! kirk ference. and it's just -- how neat! who would ever expect anything? i didn't expect anything, no. >> the good news is, robin, doctors say she didn't do additional damage by not rushing to the hospital. by the way, she's never been to the team stadium to see a game. the university president has invited her to watch one last month from the sky box. >> i love that. she's going to love that experience. look at her. she's so cute. >> 71. >> thank you. she's a fan! a new jersey man definitely did not work hard for the money. he pleaded guilty to cashing more than $470,000 in paychecks for a job that he never did. the man accepted a position in 2002 and then changed his mind, but nobody caught on until like two years ago!

prosecutors are asking for a six-year sentence. and, yes, they want him to pay back the money. ♪ you got to move all right. if you've got a credit card, this could directly affect you. a freeze in credit card rates is being proposed. our money expert jennifer westhoven is here. good morning. >> good morning, thanks, robin. we've heard a lot of stories about how credit card companies are trying to jack up rates or impose new fees before the new rules go into effect. well, senator chris dodd proposed a plan to immediately freeze your interest rates, your fees, so whatever terms you have right now, those would stay in effect until those rules come supposedly maybe early next year. we'll watch. there are roughly 700 million credit cards in the u.s., so it would affect all of them. that's two, by the way, for every man, woman and child. we'll see what happens. dodd is facing a tough re-election bid. so some people say they're not sure it will get done in washington but make him more

popular in connecticut, his state. across the country, fewer had americans are reading the actual physical newspaper. the latest number shows circulation fell nearly 11%. that's 379 papers from april through september compared to the same time last year according to the audit bureau of circulations. the two biggest reasons of course, newspapers raised prices to survive because so many advertisers are pulling out. and of course so many of the articles you could read for online. they're trying to figure that out. >> yes, i would imagine it's all about the advertisements that you see, whether reading it physically or seeing it online. >> yeah. levi johnston may let it all hang out. you're going to hear the latest reports about johnston's planned photo shoot with play girl.

you know, we just got new video of iraq's deadliest bombing in more than two years. did you see that? i mean, it's just horrific. horrific. two bombs went off in baghdad on sunday and killed at least 160 people. 540 were wounded. today an iraqi group affiliated

with al qaeda claim responsibility for the attack. the group is called the islamic state of iraq. however, we could not independently verify its claim. once again, this is new video. we wanted to share it with you to show the extent of the blast. we're close to the first test launch of nasa's ares rocket but we have to wait a little longer. this is a live picture. that's a shape you haven't seen for a long time. don't know if you've ever seen this shape on the launch pad because we're so used to seeing the shuttles. nasa says it will be closer, the launch of this rocket, to 8:30 instead of 8:00 a.m. eastern. i'm not sure if the weather is what's delaying it. they've been watching the weather. nasa hopes to use it for flights to the moon and mars and actually the launch window is 8:00 a.m. up to noon. watch with us. we'll show you if it goes off or when it goes off. new details in the balloon boy saga. hln's nancy grace talked to richard heene's ex-wife. she says she divorced him out of

fear for her kids. >> they watched him verbally throw fits and throw things at us. he was like a master of mental warfare. he put us down, hollered at us a lot. >> well, heene and his current wife are accused of an elaborate hoax involving their son in a hot air balloon. his attorney says the sheriff is overreaching with the charges. "nancy grace" airs monday through friday 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. eastern here on hln. tomorrow a convicted killer is taking the man that he once held hostage to court. he is serving 30 years for killing ron chambers' friend over a refund for an ice cream truck. here's the deal. chambers used to build the trucks and durham wanted an $18,000 re fund. that led to the killing and holding him hostage over it and now durham still wants his money back. >> i lost my abilities to function. and that's what makes me, i

think, most angry on my side of this, is that one of these days he's going to sit there and get that triumphant feeling that he won somehow over me. >> so far, durham, the convicted killer, has one ruling in his favor. you may remember he got international attention when he pleaded guilty in 2006 in exchange for some kfc and haagen-dazs ice cream. an nfl player is now charged with assault for allegedly punching a friend of nba star lebron james. here's rafer with the update on this story. >> yeah, robin. and this alleged punch is what drove the cleveland browns to trade this man to the jets. it really upset james. cleveland city prosecutors have charged former browns receiver braylon edwards with misdemeanor assault for allegedly punching this friend of james outside a nightclub. it carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail and $1,000

fine. james said his friend is about a foot shorter and weighs 90 pounds less than edwards. edwards's attorney says he will plead not guilty. kansas city running back larry johnson, first he rips his coach on his twitter page after they lost to san diego. then attacked one of his twitter followers using gay slurs according to the "kansas city star." then when the media asked about his relationship with coach todd haley, he cussed them out using another gay slur, saying, get your bleeping bleep out of here. he didn't say bleeping bleep but i can't say what he said. how about some levitt? vikings head coach brad childress told espn he dressed up like a female flight attendant during the team's flight to pittsburgh. he said he wanted to re mind his players to block out pressure and it's just a game. he wore a wig, wlu nylons and lipstick and reportedly the players enjoyed the gag but did lose the game. he'll be hearing about this for

a long time to come. all new sports in the next half hour. >> wonder whose blue nylons. >> how random is that? >> he thinks. the irs advises you to keep your tax returns for up to seven years, but hln money expert clark howard tells you why you should keep them forever. >> what's the last year's tax return you can lay your hands on? if you're like most people, it's maybe, oh, four, five, six years ago. not good enough. as states are scrounging for every penny they can get their hand on, they're reaching way, way, way, way back. in fact, i saw a story in the "chicago tribune" about them beating somebody up for state taxes from 1983. now, who's going to be able to produce a return from 1983? well, actually, i can, because i've kept all my returns going back to the '70s. and you should, moving forward, save, if you have a state income tax, save your state tax return.

always save your federal. after six years, you can dump the supporting material, but keep the return so that there's some proof that you properly filed your return. why? because there's no statute generally if they say you failed to file.there's no statute generally if they say you failed to file. i'm clark howard. for your ways for you to stay out of trouble, go to my website, cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> clark will teach you to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. catch him noon eastern right here. levi johnston may be very close to bearing it all. you know what? just temper your excitement here. media reports say his manager is pretty sure that johnston's photo shoot with "playgirl" will include the full monty, the frontal nudity. he hired a trainer so he could look buff. i'm sorry, but a trainer is not going to change that. remember johnston is the father of former alaska governor sarah

palin's grandchild. you m you know what? i wish you could hear jennifer shouting from the background. >> i guess if she's good looking enough. >> he's not good looking enough. >> i mean his trainer. >> he may be good looking, but he can't speak. >> i understand. a daddy with quadruplets made a video of the four babies cracking up. look at today's viral video. >> daddy's going to make you laugh now. >> i have to listen to more. give me more. if that doesn't make you smile, there's something wrong. that's on youtube. bobby, is that not adorable? >> it's the best.

atlanta has hey ground stop because of rain. philadelphia reporting ice. be obviously not, it's 60 degrees. more in a bit. new developments in the baggy pants controversy we told you about yet. african-american students turned away from a bar. we have what's happening now.

all right. good morning. as the alarmor clock goes off, it's tuesday. morning sunshine. we're busy. let's jump right no. you know the two pilots who overshot their destination are finally saying what they were doing in the cockpit. did they put passengers in danger? federal agents busted child prostitution rings all over the nation. you'll hear why selling children for sex is more profitable than ever for pimples. how do you avoid places where you're likely to get the swine flu? i'll tell you how. your iphone can apparently tell you now. we have brand new reaction

to the northwest pie lot t lots who say they were using their personal laptops when they overshot the minneapolis airport by 150 miles last week. the two pilots said that they lost track of time. they told the ntsb they were focused on a new computer program that arranges crew schedules. they say they did not monitor the airplane during their talk. >> i don't really know that we can say that passenger safety was threatened because our system has a lot of safe guards in it. in other words, there's something there to keep them from running into another airplane, a collision avoidance system, air traffic controllers separating aircraft. the airplane was flying under control, the auto pilot on course. so the passengers' lives i wouldn't say would be threatened in this circumstances. >> just because we have backup systems in place does not excuse their negligence. when you miss an airport by 150 miles and fail to contact atc, in my personal opinion, you're endangering the lives of those passengers.

>> delta airlines, which owns northwest suspended the pilots and says they violated the rules. nasa is close to taking a big step into the future of space exploration. leer at this live book. this is a new rocket sitting on the launchpad ready for liftoff maybe from this hour. we with were expecting it to happen at 8:00. for some reason, it was pushed back to 8:30 a.m. eastern. eventually nasa hopes to use "ares" to launch missions to the moon and mars. look how different it looks from the space shuttle. there's a live look right now. we just got new video -- oh, that's from the the kennedy space center, right? we can see the media is ready for it, anyway. to me the clouds, it looks to be a pretty sizeable cloud cover.

we shall see. they halted the countdown clock. >> the low clouds are out there, rob. i was looking at the satellite picture. there's one break in the clouds rotating in. i think they'll get it up at 8:29 exactly. >> we'll see. we just got a new video of iraq's deadliest bombing in more than two years and it is horrific. two bombs went off in baghdad sunday and killed at least 160 people. 540 were wounded. today an iraqi group affiliated with al qaeda claim responsibility for the attack. the group is called the islamic state of iraq. however, we could not independently verify its claim. the health care reform roller coaster takes another turn. senate majority leader harry reid announced yesterday a government-run insurance plan will be in the senate bill. states would be allowed to opt out. it's not clear if conservative democrats will support the bill, but olympia snowe, the one

republican backing the plan, says reid's decision was disappointing. >> it's regrettable because i certainly have worked in good faith all of these months on a bipartisan basis and as you know have been standing alone at this point as a republican in order to do so because i believe in good public policy. >> i believe that a public option can achieve the goal of bringing meaningful reform to our broken system. it will protect consumers, keep insurers honest and ensure competition. that's why we intend to include it in the bill that will be submitted to the senate. >> now, even if the senate can get votes for a public option, it may never be an option for you. in about ten minutes, correspondent richard lui explains why people with bo employer-based coverage still would not have a choice. 52 children have been rescued from alleged prostitution rings. the fbi says that nearly 700 people arrested over the past three days in a nationwide

effort started in twoi 3 to end sex trafficking of children in the united states. >> the money involved in prostituting children is much higher than just regular prostitution so they get them, the desire by the johns, if you will, is for younger an younger girls. we're seeing them as young as 11 years old. >> the fbi says that almost 900 children have been saved from sex trafficking since that initiative started and there have been more than 500 convictions. the woman who couldn't remember her own name when she turned up in new york city apparently left everything behind when she left home. police say that casey elyse peterson emptied her bank account but left behind her wallet, i.d., cell phone clothes and her bike. authorities have no idea how she got from washington state all the way over to the east coast. here's her high school principal. >> she was a very bright girl, very intelligent, smart, we enjoyed having her here. she was a model student, didn't

act out against anything we did here. she was a good girl. i hope she gets her health, gets safe, and kind of gets her life vaitenned out an the best for her. >> her father says that she's disappeared before. five months ago she was found lying near a creek on the family farm and then couldn't remember her own name. once she was found unconscious on her bedroom floor. bruce springsteen has canceled a kan concert in st. louis after a death in his family. his cousin was found dead in a hotel hours before last night's show. police say they don't suspect foul play. tickets are expected to be refu refunded. six minutes after the hour. that's him, right? >> that's too bad. >> let's think about -- okay. let's show you exactly -- we might show you the picture right now of a rocket sitting at the kennedy space center. bob will will show you the cloud cover. >> showing the cloud cover kb

beginning to evoed. there's the live look at the rocket. let me show you what it looks like from above, we've had low clouds in and out of of the region. i pinpointed cape canaveral. notice the gray shade, this is a three-hour loop. it's not moving very fast. they ought to be getting this thing up by 8:29 without clouds in the way. as the rest of the region goes, heavy rain just to the west and coming into the north. it is heavy at times through mississippi and alabama, with that big stretch of rain across lower parts of the panhandle in towards the atlanta metro area later today. extremely heavy rain once again, areas that got flooded out last month will get more. new orleans radar, heaviest rain to the east, now stretching in towards georgia and the carolinas. flash flood warnings and watches, watches for northern georgia, western carolinas. look at the stripe of rain, three to four inches of rain

today with a possibility of more overnight. it's going to be very heavy at times. get up to the north farther, we have one weak low pressure region just south of the del r delmarva peninsula over the jersey coast, too. it's an expansive low pressure but really not that tight. it enough to generate rain. delaware bay, in towards philadelphia, it stretches in toward new york right now, too. now that rain is beginning to pick up through staten island into the city, into the lower part of the hudson valley. live to nyc, tough commute in and out. look at the rain drops on that camera. delays at the airport. robin, tomorrow game one of the world series. my yankees against the philadelphia phillies. guess what? rain and wind in the forecast. don't know if they'll get it in. the rain should get out by the evening hours but the wind will still be there. 50/50 i give it. >> they play in the rain. >> it got canceled on saturday. yankee stadium because of that. hopefully they'll get it in. we'll see. >> kind of a cool picture there. if you're going to buy a

house in the next few months you could get some good news as early as today. a test vote in congress could tell us if it will extend the tax credit for the firsttime home buyers. what are your kids doing right now? a new survey tells us about how much time your kids spend in front of the screen. smoo .

in our salute to the troops, private first class daniel ruiz gets the spotlight today. he is the daughter of a 2-year-old daughter and 2-week-old son. he was home for the birth but had to leave for afghanistan two days later. his wife salutes him an his brother rafael also serving in afghanistan. you've got a loved one in the military? let us help you salute them,

cnn.com/robin. now being i don't want to jump the gun here, but you could get another chance to cash in on the home buyer tax credit if you haven't yet. that's a big could. money expert jennifer westhoven is going to tell you that the government is looking at whether to extend it. good morning. >> it looks like they'll take some action, but we don't know what it will look like. the latest proposal could have a key test vote today. it would keep the tax credit alive, the $8,000 to buy your first home, but democrats are looking to keep it not quite so costly. they want to keep it alive but gradually phrase it out. it would be $8,000, then three months later, $6,000, then $4,000. it would be less expensive than the other plan floating around the senate. it would extend the full 8,000 tdz kritd. not only that, it would make it available for a lot more home buyers, not necessarily your first home to take advantage of

that one. as of right now, the clock runs out on november 30th. we'll keep you posted. the recession may be over? look, i'm just telling you what the reports due to say. it's due thursday, expected to show that the economy grew in the summer months, grew. i guess that would be good news in a bad economy. this is the gross domestic product we're talking about. it's likely going to confirm that the recession theoretically even in june or july, the biggest gauge we've got of the whole economy. everything manufacture, every service, it may be improving. but we all know that the job market is still a mess, right? unemployment still nearly 10%. frequently the job market can take a long time to catch up so i guess what you can say is, well, you can hope that maybe as the gdp gets better, which none of us may really feel, the job market willi eventually follow.

>> that would be great if the recession was over. yes. let's check in with bob van dillen for our flyers. >> a heavy batch of rain from the mid-atlantic through new york city. put the planes on top of the radar, check out all the action going up through jersey into new york, out of philadelphia. philly in a ground stop until 8:20. that rain is moving away from the nation's capital. live to the capitol dome, here's what it looks like, gray clouds still out there, low hanging clouds. really not slowing you down. we will see a couple of scattered showers possibility this morning being the heaviest delays to the north. here's what we're calling for, ground stop until 8:20 in philadelphia, new york so far delay-free. that will change with the heavy rain. atlanta, grown stop until 8:30. that will get extended. las vegas, san francisco, gusty winds, 55-mile-per-hour good gusts code. boston, d.c., charlotte, memphis and chicago, light rain showers, enough to slow you down about a half hour.

phoenix, las vegas and los angeles again with the gusty winds, salt lake city rain to snow. bad day to travel. starting with delays early. more in a half hour. listen to this story. a real-life fright at a halloween haunted house gets a police officer into trouble and things are getting a little crazy. then things getting crazy at the h1n1 vaccination spots. what some people are doing to make sure they get the vaccination.

you know what? we just got an update from nasa. we're watching right now to see when they're going to launch this, an ares rocket, really different from what you're used to seeing, a shuttle on the launchp launchpad. this is going to basically -- i don't know if we call it an experimental rocket, but it could help them move toward their goal of future manned expeditions to places like mars or the moon. now the latest word is they're not going to launch it until about 9:00 a.m. because of what you're seeing, the clouds. more details now on a major turnaround in health care reform efforts. harry reid put the public option back in with a caveat that states could opt out. richard lui joins us now. with will that help him get the 60 votes he would need if he wants to pass it? >> even senator reid admits he's not sure about this. he had to persuade at least

three democratic moderates to back his plan. ben neal son is one of arkansas, blanch mrin convict and harry landrieu on the right-hand side. if reid cannot get their votes he may lose support from others who want to make sure health care reform is passed this year. >> i am for any version that gets us to 60. my goal is to get on the floor and to pass it off the floor. that's my goal. public option may or may not be part of that. >> senators baucus and lincoln have both voted against a public option in the past. >> for argument's sake, let's say this is the version that becomes law. would it mean -- what would it mean for our average viewers' health care coverage? >> if you already have health insurance through your job, absolutely nothing. people with employer-based coverage are actually blocked from sbich switching to the public option. oregon democrat ron widen says many people who are pushing for it just don't realize that part. >> when i was having my town

meetings people would stand up and rattle l rallies and say, p option or bust. i would say, folks, i really appreciate your activism. are you ware that with these public option bills, 90% of you wouldn't even get to choose them. people were practically falling out of the bleachers. >> there are still tens of millions of americans without health insurance who would be able to buy into the public option unless, of course, their state decided to opt out. >> richard, thank you. motivated by the loss of his father, an nfl star led his team to victory monday night. because it was monday night, the nation was watching. >> bittersweet by the fact that he is now having the best season of his young career. deshawn jackson of the eagles is small by nfl standards, 5'10", 175. his dad encouraged him to think big. he's been big since being drafted last year. last night he led the eagles with two scores.

his dad unfortunately died of pancreatic cancer in may. he says he was his number one coach and fan. here's the second of his touchdowns from last night. friends, family and teammates of slain connecticut football player jasper howard bid final farewells on monday. the entire uconn team taened. his coach praised him. no arrests na the killing. the last time you saw this man he was in a congressional steroid hearing. now he's back with the cardinals as a hitting coach. most believe he deserves a second chance. last night, a star may have squandered away $110 million. antoine walker lost everything, looking for felony counts for passing bad checks in las vegas. court dokz say he owes 4 million

bucks. all new sports in the next half hour. a lot of money, robin. a 5-year-old boy has a sick classmate whose hospital bills are piling up so he and his trusty wagon are taking to the streets to raise money to help a family in need.

pilots say they were using their personal laptops when they overshot the minneapolis airport by 150 miles last week fblgt the pilots told the ntsb they were focused on a new program that creates schedules. the pilots were suspended and this could cost them their jobs. a wildfire that threats dozens of homes in california is expected to be contained today. the fire in the santa cruz mountains was 55% contained last night and burned almost 500 acres and forced some people to evacua evacuate. they were allowed to return home yesterday. the bernie madoff investor found dead in a swimming pool

had a heart attack before he drowned, according to an autopsy done. he was accused of making about $7 billion in the ponzi scheme. quick check of the headlines. let me check in on you. all right. going to get up and at 'em today? be on time? morning sunshine. we're just getting close to the first test-launch of the nasa ares rocket. this is the rocket. we'll have to wait a little longer. we just got word it will be at 9:24 a.m. eastern. they've apparently got a big launch window. this is the concern. it's cloud cover. nasa is hoping to use the -- what they learn from the ares test launch in future nights they hope to maybe the moon, maybe mars. it's a test rocket so can i tell you that all the parts are fake in the upper portion of the rocket. isn't that interesting? president obama says that he won't rush his decision about sending troops to afghanistan.

some republicans have been pressuring him to decide quickly about deploying up to 40,000 more troops, but he says he's not ready. obama spoke at the naval air station in jacksonville yesterday. >> i will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way. i won't risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary. >> well, he spoke on the deadliest day in that country in more than four careers. 14 u.s. troops died monday. the faa is investigating a close call at the los angeles international airport. a witness tells "the l.a. times" that two planes came within 15 feet of each other on sunday. well, an faa spokesperson says it was more like 100 feet. a commuter jet had just landed and did not stop where it was supposed to. it came close to a runway where another plane was taking off. a turning point in the health care debate. harry reid has decided to

include a public insurance option in the senate bill, but states would be able to opt out. richard lui joins us. what happened? they're trying to get bipartisan support, remember? >> that's right. this time around, senator reid pointing to national polls that show strong support for a public option so that could question the bi-part son support. multiple sources saying he also has personal politics in mind. the liberals he needs for reelection are running a critical ad in his home state of nevada. >> i'm watching to see if harry reid is strong and effective enough as a leader to pass a public health insurance option. >> now the white house is backing reid although they have said a public option, robin, is not a must for health care reform this time around. >> there are always strong opinions on both sides of the debate. let's talk about our viewers, what they're saying on our facebook page. >> doing well as usual. kelly posted and said they should include a public option. goal is to cover all americans

so without that, how will everyone be covered? then there's amy, if you think insurance is expensive now, just wait to see how expensive it is when it's free. the government should not run a government health insurance plan because they have yet to run a successful business themselves. keep letting us know what you think. whether you agree or not, we look forward to see what you have to say. >> rich, thank you. negotiationses are under way after complaints of racism at a chicago nightclub. student leaders at washington university in st. louis say that they have been talking with lawyers from the club. they did not reveal details but complaints were filed with state and federal officials after six african-american students were turned away from the bar supposedly because their pants were too baggy. >> no one should have to encounter that, particularly students who are just going to have a good time. >> well, the students believe the decision had nothing to do with baggy pants, especially they say after a white student

wore the same jeans and was admitted to the nightclub. all right. tloufr minu 34 minutes past the hour. we hear from nasa they'll launch 9:24 a.m. i wonder if cloud cover will have something to do with it. bob will show you where the clouds are. >> clouds in and out of cape kan after ral throughout the morning. they have a long window, until about noontime today, 9:20 is when we'll start countdown again. 9:24 hopefully liftoff. look at the heavy rain out of the gulf of mexico, heavy rain here. here we go again. let me show you how much rain we're anticipating over the next 48 hours. it's going to be a heck of a lot. look at the yellows popping up when you get off the gulf of mexico, pan haend elle of florida, three to four inches of

rain. check out atlanta as well. looking at more flood watches for northern georgia, reds, yellows, three to four inches of rain, maybe five isolated to the mountains. flooding a concern. let me show you the northeast. rain around the delmarva peninsula, delaware getting rain, same with baltimore an washington, stretching into pennsylvania, philadelphia getting some decent rain. then a whole rain shield is pulling out of that area, towards new york city. it's a tough travel day no matter how you look at it, by road, air. it will be slowed down because of the heavy rain for the morning and more scattered showers developing later this afternoon. out across the west it's a different scenario. look at this big low pressure up across canada and one developing across lower sections of nevada. that really tightens up over the next couple of days, a lot of wind for las vegas, the bay area, all the way through phoenix. heavy snow a possibility as well. we also have those warnings out there for winter weather. denver, 8 to 14 inches of snow, maybe two feet across the higher

elevations, winds up the mountains. that's what it looks like out there. mid-atlantic, live to the white house, a giant ribbon was raised monday in front of the white house to honor breast cancer awareness month. >> wow, that is giant. >> couple of light showers out there, visibility five miles at d.c., anticipating delays. look at the wind. >> i'm going to go out on a limb and say i've never seen the breast cancer awareness month as widely appreciated and viewed as i have this year. >> right. the nfl wearing all kinds of pink gear. absolutely. >> i think certainly it has brought a lot of awareness. levi johnston may be very close to baring it all. say it ain't so! media reports say his manager is sure his photo shoot will include the full monty. you know what i mean. >> come on, dude. >> his manager says he hired a

trainer to look buff. nothing you can do. >> move along. >> johnston is the father of former alaska governor's grandchild i'm sorry. i don't want to see that. >> you don't find him attractive because you don't find him to be that bright. i'm going to speak for you. if you can't put your finger on it, that's not why. >> you don't need to speak for me, but somebody needs to speak for him. he's not good at it. a credit card freeze isn't usually a good thing, but i think you'll welcome this. fan short for fanatic and not even a broken hip could keep this fan from watching her team win. a broken hip?

a hotel owner is causing an uproar in taos, new mexico, after buying a hotel there he started making hispanic workers speak english around him and then he is also accused of making some of the workers anglo size their name, changing it from marcos to mark. on cnn the owner says it was a misunderstanding. >> it would be idiotic for me to purposely offend the great culture of the spanish to -- you could really call me stupid. but i'm not a racist. no intention has ever been done purposely to insult anyone. it was a matter of procedure and it hasn't been good and if i could take it all back i'd snap my finger. >> whiten says his roles have

nothing to do with racism. he was trying to make it easier for guests to communicate. an iowa woman broke her hip while watching her favorite team but refused to go to the hospital until the game was done. here's rafer with more. let mer heart. >> it's an amusing story but slightly disturbing. you've got to love this woman. the 71-year-old says she can't remember the last time she missed an iowa football game. in the iowa game against wisconsin the poor woman slipped and broke her hip during a commercial break but instead of going to the hospital asked her husband to carry her to her favorite chair to watch the rest of the game. now, the team got wind of her story and the coach sent her some well wishes. >> carol, get well soon. go hawks! it's just -- i mean, how neat? who would ever expect anything? i didn't expect anything. no. >> now, get this. carol has never been to the team stadium to actually see a game in person. the university president is going to fix that.

she invited her to watch one next month from the skybox. robin? >> i love that. she should have a great time. hope she's feeling better very soon. you know, if you've got a credit card, this could affect you directly. a freeze in credit card rates is being sproezed anyway. our money expert jennifer westhoven is here. what you got? >> this is a new proposal by senator chris dodd to immediately freeze interest rates and fees so whatever you've got you would keep until the tough new credit card rules go into effect. of course, a lot of you have already seen, some of you writing in to say, too late. they already hiked mine. but it's happening. there are roughly 700 million credit cards in the u.s., more than two for every man, woman and child. i don't know. we'll see. by the way, people are writing in to say, what's with the huge bills there? can you see that? what's with the $1 million bill. >> certainly they're not real. >> i don't know what that is. i think we may have to rethink

that because it's got a lot of people's attention. i thought, oh, i'm going to look. dodd is facing a tough reelection bid in connecticut so it's possible that this is something that will really help him in connecticut, shall we say, even if it doesn't happen, make him more popular with voters even if it doesn't pass. but we'll watch. one of the first services that would let you set up your own website is now closed. kind of a sad milestone. millions of folks first tried designing websites at geocities when the web was so young, the third most visited site on the internet. this is saying it's no more. yahoo bought it at the peak of the tech bubble. they paid top dollar. interest waned since there. a lot of people are sharing fond and not so fond memories. if you drink bottled water, new york charging a 5 cent refundable deposit for all of those bottles. it's starting this saturday. a 24-pack of bottled water would

be about $1.20 more. the whole idea is to encourage you to recycle if you take them back and get the money. it could mean less plastic in landfills. a lot of this ends up in the trash or by the side of the road. there are people who are like an army of people who spend their lives collecting cans and bottles, refundables. they leave those, now they might pick them up too. >> where do you take them back to get the 5 cent refund? >> they have recycling centers. >> it's not like, i'm going to date myself, when there were pop bottleses, i'm from ohio. they're called pop bottles and you would take them back to the store and you would get money at the store? >> i don't know if it's the store or like the dump. it might be the store, though. but it's one with of many states so i'm thinking this could -- you might see this more nationally if the states are making money off of it. >> thanks. it is a quarter to the hour. remember joe the plumber? oh, i know you do. he's talking about the tea party

express and what he believes the movement represents. here's what he told joy behar last night. >> the tea party movement isn't against obama. it's against government and how they overstepped their boundaries. >> bush is who spent us into oblivion. >> right. it's not just because of this position. fannie mae, freddie mac, there's a lot of reasons we're in this position. it all has to do with the r and the d. they're not truly representing the american people. >> catch "the joy behar show". the cia reportedly had an inside track to get the castro brothers. a new book said the agency had a mole as close as you could get to the cuban leaders.

take two. let me try it again.

want to know if you're walking into an h1n1 hotbed? there's an app for that. an iphone application has realtime updates. here's a youtube video on how it works. it includes video, animation and text about how to avoid the virus, plus it shows you ways to protect your home and work from the outbreaks. >> that was my fault for talking to you off camera earlier anyway. >> oh, that's all right. an nfl player is now charged with assault for allegedly punching a friend of lebron james. >> start a little bit of a feud. >> what gives? >> it's got lebron james very upset and apparently it's got cleveland prosecutors upset. this is the incident that more or less got braillen edwards traded to the jets. now cleveland city prosecutors have charged the former browns receiver with misdemeanor assault. that carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail. now, edwards allegedly attacked a smaller friend of lebron's outside a nightclub. bra lon said the guy he punched

weighed about 130 pounds. james called edwards childish. his attorney says he'll plead not guilty. speaking of childish, this takes the cake. larry johnson is a train wreck. first he rips his coach on twitter after a train wreck. let's add this to it. he then attacked one of his followers using a gay slur. let's make it worse. he cussed out reporters using any gay slur when he was asked about the sweet saying get your bleeping bleep out of here. only he didn't say bleeping bleep. vikings head coach brad childress, they may need to cut him some slack. he's getting a little bit of slack because he said he dressed up like a female flight attendant during the flight to pittsburgh. he wanted to remind his players to block out the pressure and it's just a game. so he put on a wig, balloon nylons, and wore lipstick.

reportedly they got a kick out of it. although they did lose the game. all new sports in the next half hour. >> are you going to help us not feel any stress? >> that would be an e-mail from the ep so fast. a little girl had a kidney transplant and had to fight off infections and now cancer. but emily is getting unexpected help. she attended kindergarten for just a day and a half where she must have made an impression on a little guy named peter. now her classroom sells produce and baked goods out of his little red wagon to help. >> because i love her. >> what do you love about her? >> that she's nice to me and she used to sit by me and i really like her. >> he's got the little smile on. we call him sweety petey around the house. it's touching to see just a little guy on his own decide, hey, i want to go out and help a

friend. >> i think that little boy's going to grow up to be someone special. >> so far pete has raised more than $340 to help his new friend, emily. most people would be scared if a man pulled a gun during a robbery. why one worker didn't even blink!

good morning! so great to have you with us. as the alarm clark rolls and you think i want to coffee right now. i'm robin meade. here are some of the stories making the headlines today. the northwest pilots whose plane overshot its destination by, like, 150 miles say they were working on their laptops. what they say they were looking at. also in about 20 minutes, we're expecting a big step for the space program. why the "ares" rocket launch is such a big deal for future missions. we're going to watch it live happen right here. and an actor at a haunted house decides to spook some of his customers a little bit more. then a cop pulls a gun.

so who was more afraid? that's the question. two northwest pilots say that they were using their personal laptops when they overshot the minneapolis airport by 150 miles last week. experts disagree on whether the pilots put passengers' lives in danger. the pilot said that they lost track of time. they told the ntsb that they were focused on a new computer screen, a new computer program that arranges crew schedules. they say they did not monitor the airplane during their talk. >> i don't really know that we can say that passenger safety was threatened. because our system has a lot of safeguards in it. yor in other words, there's something there to keep them from running into another airplane, there's collision avoidance system, air traffic controllers. the passengers' lives i wouldn't say would have been threatened in this circumstance. >> just because we have backup systems in place does not excuse

their negligence. and when you miss an airport by 150 miles and fail to contact atc, in my personal opinion, you're endangering the living of those passengers. >> delta air lines which owns northwest suspended the pilots. it says the offense violates airline policy and may cost them their jobs. delta sense passengers a $500 travel. it's supposed to be at about 9:24 a.m. eastern. the flight will last for just two minutes. all that money for two minutes. the top part of the "ares" rocket is just all fake parts. it's just a test. they're going to fall and crash in the ocean when the test is over. nobody's in the rocket. it's unmanned. eventually nasa hopes to use what they learn to launch missions to the moon, maybe

mars. harry reid announced yesterday he's decided to include a public option in the senate bill. it's not clear if con sebtive democrats will support the bill. olympia snowe, the one republican senator who's backed the democrats' overhaul plans says that reid's decision was disappointing. >> it's regrettable. because i certainly have worked in good faith all of these months on a bipartisan basis. as you know have been standing alone at this point as a republican in order to do so because i believe in good public policy. >> i believe that a public option can achieve the goal of bringing meaningful reform to our broken system. it will protect consumers, keep insurers honest and ensure competition. and that's why we intend to include it in the bill that will be submitted to the senate. >> eve fn the senate can get the votes for a public option it may never be an option for you. in less than 15 minutes

correspondent richard lui is going to explain why people with an employer based coverage still wouldn't have a choice. new video this morning of iraq's deadliest bombing in more than two years. it's so horrific to watch here. two bombs killed at least 160 people and caused heavy damage in baghdad on sunday. 540 people were wounded. today an iraqi group affiliated with al qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack. the group is called the islamic state of iraq. however, we could not independently verify its claim. just incredible video. at least one south carolina lawmaker could bring up impeaching the governor during the special session that's actually about employee benefits or employment benefits today. lawmakers adjourned in june just before governor mark sanford secretly went to argentina to be with his mistress. one south carolina republican says an impeachment would have been explored sooner if the lawmakers had been in session when sanford returned. the woman who could not remember her own name, who she was when she returned up in new

york city, apparently left everything behind when she left home. police say she emptied her bank account but left behind her wallet, id, cell phone, clothes and her bike. authorities have no idea how she got from washington state all the way to the east coast. this is her high school principal. >> she was a very bright girl. very intelligent. smart. we enjoyed having her here. she didn't act out against anything we did here. she was a good girl. i hope she gets her health. i hope she gets safe. and kind of gets her life straightened out and the best for her. >> her father says she has disappeared before. five months ago she was found lying near a creek on the family farm and couldn't remember her name then. she was once found unconscious on her bedroom floor. you want to know if you're walking into an h1n1 hot bed? there is an application for that. harvard medical school just released an iphone app with realtime updates. here's youtube video about how it works.

it includes video, animation and text about how to avoid the h1n1 virus. plus, it shows you ways to protect your home and your work from any outbreaks. so do you want to see what $445 million for two minutes looks like? you're like what's that going to get me? it's going to get you this rocket, if we have it up. we're waiting on -- this is the "ares" rocket. we're waiting for that thing to blast off at about 9:24 a.m. eastern. there's nobody inside it. it's a test rocket. the top part's all fake. $445 million. >> $445 million for two minutes of flight. for two minutes. >> i guess they're supposed to learn a lot and apply that to future missions to the moon. >> i don't think eliot spitzer spent is that much on two minutes. out west a big area of low pressure. this thing tightens up over the next couple hours and

regenerates over colorado. rain and snow out there. snow coming pretty well toward the olympic mountains of washington state. a shower of snow thatlessens in a bit. salt lake city the snow is beginning to change over. elevation is going to drop down. winter storm warnings out there for most of western colorado. those are the red shaded counties. white shaded counties under a winter storm watch. 18 inches of snow for denver today. the wind comes up the mountain. cold wint. temperatures drop down. high 31. 8 to 14 around denver. one to two feet towards northern utah. more winter storm warnings towards northern idaho, western washington state, too. we're watching for that. look how much snow over the next two days. the purple shaded area over denver is about two feet. mostly around the wyoming and colorado border. also for today watching the wind. it's going to be very, very strong. winds gusting to 60 miles per hour by vegas. same with san francisco.

those are all high wind warnings. we'll talk about that coming up again in just about a half hour. that's for today. this just in, u.s. home prices rose again in august. according to a survey that was just released this morning home prices are now at levels not seen since august of 2003. our money expert jennifer westhoven's crunching those numbers. we're going to have more details for you in a few minutes. remember the 13-year-old boy with cancer whose parents refused traditional medical treatments? you're going to hear how he's doing now after chemo and what the judge says he'll do if the boy continues his treatments. plus, if you're looking to buy a home you might get a little bit more time to use that key tax credit.

private first class d danielruiz gets the spotlight today. his wife salutes him and his brother rafael whose serving in afghanistan. cnn.com/robin. remember the 13-year-old boy with cancer who took off with his mom to avoid chemo. an attorney for his parents says that a judge says he will close the case as long as a boy completes 12 radiation treatments. he finished chemotherapy last month. his father says there is no sign of cancer. now it looks like you could get another chance to catch in on the home buyer tax credit. money expert jennifer westhoven is joining us. the government is looking at the possibility of extending it. on the screen i just want to flash free money. more of it. >> that's actually part of the problem, though, right? it's expensive. i mean, that's money that the government doesn't get to take

in. so then they've got a deficit to deal with. but a key test vote could be coming maybe as early as today to get the $8,000 tax credit alive buying your first home. democrats are trying to look at legislation to make it cost maybe a little bit less. they're hoping to gradually faze it out so it would start at $8,000 then a few months later become $6,000 then $4,000, $2,000, you get the idea. that's less expensive than a competing plan going around. that's the one the realtor ls like. that would extend the full $8,000 credit and also make it available for a lot more home buyers. one of the problems, though, is they're getting a lot of fraud associated with this. they'll be watching it very closely. the clock runs out november 30th as of now. the very latest on home prices. just a few minutes ago we got this latest report that shows that home prices rose in august. a few months in a row where they've been ticking higher. s&p case-shiller says they are still down compared to last year, though. about 11%. but still they're heading slowly

up in the right direction. the recession? over? well, there's a report due thursday that's expected to show the economy grew in the summer months. i know. i said grew. good news in a bad economy if it's true. and if the job market follows it. i know a lot of you aren't feeling that. the gross domestic product due thursday could confirm that the recession theoretically ended in june or july. bob, i've been joking it's like a pointy headed piece of news. it's an economist piece of news. a lot of people writing in to say, are you kidding me? >> 10% unploilt. how can you say it's over? if you're trying to get in or out of the big cities across the northeast, mid atlantic, you got some problems. live tower cam of new york city, the clouds are in. the rain is there. fog is there as well. if you can believe it, i don't see any delaying being reported

by the faa currently. that's the way it looks on top of columbus circle. here's what it looks like on saber flight explorer. here's what we have for the day, for the morning especially. over an hour for new york, philly and atlanta. las vegas and san francisco, gusty winds. those are the longest one. when you got to a haunted house, you expect to get scared. now a guy is accused of pulling a gun on a chainsaw wielding actor. and he wears a badge.

senate majority leader harry reid put the public option back in with a caveat that says could opt out. correspondent richard lui joins us. would that help him get the 60 votes he would need if he wapts to pass this thing? >> even senator reid admits he's not sure about this. he still had to purr suede at least three moderate democrats to back his plan. ben nelson's one of them of nebraska. there's blanch lincoln of arkansas and mary landru of louisiana. if he can't get their votes he may lose support from other democrats who want to make sure health care reform is passed this year. >> i am for any version that gets us to 60. my goal is to get on the floor and to pass it off the floor. that's my goal. public option may or may not be part of that. >> senators baucus and lincoln have both voted, robin, against a public option in the past. >> for argument's sake let's just say this is the version that becomes law.

what would it mean for our average viewers' health care coverage? >> if you already have health insurance through your job, absolutely nothing here. people with employer-based coverage are actually blocked from switching to the public option. oregon democrat ron wyden says many people who are pushing for it just don't realize that part. >> when i was having my town meetings people would stand up at rallies and say public option or bust. then i would say, folks, i really appreciate your activism. are you aware that the way these public option bills are written more than 90% of you wouldn't even get to choose them? and people were practically falling out of the bleachers. >> there are still tens of millions of americans without health insurance, robin, who would be able to buy into the public option unless, of course, their state decided to opt out. >> all right, richard. thank you. a police officer is accused of pulling a gun on a chainsaw wielding haunted house character. police say the actor chased the off-duty cop and others into the parking lot, you know, to get an

extra scream out of them. that's when they say that the officer turned and pointed his gun at the actor. the police report says the officer could have been drinking. >> we were about three to four feet apart. and he held his -- his arm out like this with a gun in his hand. and the whole time his child was pulling on his arm. >> callers said he seemed to be very intoxicated. in fact the people inside the house of screams noted that. when he was again being processed, two of the officers noted that his speech was slurred, there was a moderate odor of alcohol coming from his breath. he didn't seem to be taking this quite as seriously as he should have been taking it. >> you don't know me. the officer is charged with assault and reckless endangerment. he'll find out this morning if he'll be suspended without pay. no response so far from him or his attorney. >> i was wondering if you were going to do that. that's such a funnyivated by ths

father a star led his team to victory on monday night. >> this poor young man, desean jackson lost his father to cancer back in may. he says this whole season he's been playing for his dad jackson in his second year with the team has been playing incredibly well all year. last night he led his team to a win over washington with two long touchdowns. he credits his dad. he's only 5'10", 175. his dad was his number one fan and coach. too bad he wasn't there to see it. friends, family and teammates of slain connecticut football player jasper howard said their final farewells at his funeral. the entire uconn football team was in attendance. head coach said some very nice things about howard including he was on track for greatness when his life was tragically taken. police have still made no arrests in the killing. the last time you saw this

man he was sitting in front of congress in a steroid hearing. now home run slugger mark mcguire is back with the st. louis cardinals as a hitting coach. the taech seam says he will not shielded from the media now. it was cheat ing ifhe did what he did, but it wasn't against the law. i say give him a second chance. a former nbc star may have squandered away $110 million. that's right. friends and former teammates say former celtics star antwan walker lost everything. now he's facing three felony counts for passing bad checks to las vegas casinos. court documents show he owes more than 4 million duckbucks. take half of it for taxes. 10% to an agent. that still leaves you with $50 million. he likes gambling, apparently. >> thank you. french authorities say that the church of scientology in paris got loads of money from its members.

new for you in about 15 minutes, now a court says it's time for the church leaders to pay up.

good morning. the new york stock exchange opened for business. investors are hoping stocks may rebound today after back to back losses. an up beat report about home sales may be the key to boosting the market. live report in a second here. first, though, two northwest pilots say that they were using their personal laptops when they overshot the minneapolis airport by 150 miles last week. the pilots tell the ntsb they were focused on a new computer program that arranges crew schedules. delta which owns northwest suspended the pilots. but this could cost them their jobs. we are still waiting.

i'm waiting. for nasa's new "ares" rocket to launch this morning. there's a live picture. the unmanned rocket, man does it look different from the shuttle program. it's set to blast off now in about 15 minutes. the top section, get this, is all fake parts. that'll crash into the ocean after the test. but they're hoping to learn a whole lot from all this. a turning point in the health care debate. yesterday senate majority leader harry reid announced he's including a public option in the senate bill. states would be able to opt out. it could be a week before the congressional budget office figures out how much it'll cost. wake up. it's 31 minutes past the hour. good morning. you're part of the early bird club if you're up right now watching tv. i'm robin meade. here's what else is going on. we have been sharing your thoughts this morning about the health care public option bill. for example, jeffrey wrote on our facebook page, about time. get this deal done! mike sent us an e-mail from florida saying he's a small business owner. he says that as soon as the

public option becomes available, i plan on giving my employees a raise equal to half what their health care now costs me and letting them sign up for the public option. this is not a surprise to congressmen. it follows their long term plan for a single payer system. what do you think, though? type away on our facebook page. you can get there by going to cnn.com/robin. there's an icon for facebook. president obama says that he won't rush his decision about sending troops to afghanistan. some republicans have been pressuring him to decide quickly about deploying up to 40,000 more troops. but he says that he's not ready. mr. obama spoke to the naval air station -- at the naval air station in jacksonville yesterday. >> i will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way. i won't risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary. >> he spoke on the deadliest day, though, in that country in more than four years. 14 u.s. troops died on monday.

the faa is investigating a close call at los angeles international airport. a witness tells the "l.a. times" that two planes came within 15 feet of each other on sunday. an faa spokesperson says it was more like 100 feet. a commuter jet had just landed and did not stop where it was supposed to. it came close to a runway where another plane was taking off. scary. i know. a church of scientology in france has been convicted of fraud and ordered to pay a $900,000 fine. investigators in paris say that its leaders pressured members to pay lots of money for questionable financial gain. today four leaders were given suspended sentences of ten months to two years. two other leaders were fined. the church plans to appeal. tomorrow a convicted killer is taking the man that he once held hostage to court. durham is serving 30 years for killing rob chamber's friend over a refund for an ice cream

truck. here's the deal. chambers used to build the trucks. durham wanted an $18,000 refund. that led to the killing and durham holding chambers hostage ov over it. now durham still wants his money back. >> i lost my abilities to -- to function. and that's what makes me, i think, most angry on my side of this. is that one of these days he's going to sit there and get that triumphant feeling that he won somehow over me. >> so far durham has one ruling in his favor. you may remember he got international attention when he pleaded guilty in 2006 in exchange for some kfc and ice cream. levi johnston may be very close to baring it all. oh, please. media reports say his manager is pretty sure that johnston's photo shoot with "playgirl" will

include full frontal nudity. remember, johnston is the governor of former alaska governor agovern er sarah palin's grandchild. >> does he have any other job besides not talking in front of cameras? >> which is way better than him talking in front of cameras. let me start out with the west coast. we have a lot of wind available out there today. it's an area of low pressure. it's really going to tighten up today over the rocky mountains. winds are going to come screaming up out of the north later today. here's what it looks like right now. we have wind warnings. all the areas shaded in red. it includes las vegas, mountains of lar of l.a. and the bay area. yellow shaded areas, all of arizona, 45 mile per hour gusts. that includes phoenix, too. live to phoenix. here's what it looks like. actually in glendale, right around there. university of phoenix stadium. you can see how beautiful it looks right now. winds only east at 10. that's going to change today. wind today 45 miles per hour. blowing dust is going to be out

there. watch for that. we're also going to see delays at the airport. more in 15 minutes. beautiful start. high today, 88 degrees. the east coast, it's a cold front. drops all the way down to the gulf of mexico. a lot of energy. a lot of moisture available out there. notice the new red watch box. new tornado watch for the western part of florida. the panhandle. lower sections of georgia and extreme southern parts of alabama. we don't have any tornado warnings right now. as the energy coming ashore, a little twisting, a little sheer, we might see a tornado drop briefly and pick back up. something to watch for the next couple hours. look at the heavy shield of rain towards atlanta. flash flood watches for northern parts of georgia into the carolinas. a good shield of rain out of philadelphia into new york on the way to boston later today. full details on that coming up in just about a half hour. >> all right. thank you. on wall street, let's see. the stocks will try to rebound from back to back triple digit losses. susan lisovicz is in new york. good morning.

>> good morning. so far we are seeing a rebound. we have higher stock prices and we have higher housing prices. although you have to put a footnote next to the housing prices. the newest s&p case-shiller report says home prices rose for the third straight month in august compared to last year. however, prices in the 20 biggest cities are still down nearly 11.5%. but the month to month increase is paring the overall decline. expected to say consumer confidence rose this month. gas prices, we're spending more on that. they continue their upward climb. aaa says the national average is now $2.68 a gallon. gas has jumped 19 cents in the past two weeks. oil is getting close to $80 a barrel. finally, iceland is saying good-bye to the big mac.

the country's three mcdonald's franchises will close next week. iceland's economic crisis has driven import prices higher to a point where the big mac would have cost more than $6. the most expensive big mac in the world. if you're going to pay 6 bucks for a big mac you might as well get wait service and a table cloth with it, right, robin? >> i'm with you. we're still waiting for nasa's new "ares" rocket to launch. here's the live picture. let's see. the unmanned rocket was supposed to blast off in about 15 minutes. but right now we're getting word from nasa that they're calling it off for right now because there is a shift in the area where the debris is expected to land. the top section of that, that's fake parts. because this is a test, basically. and other stuff will crash into the ocean after the test. they hope to learn a lot for maybe future missions to the moon. right now somebody has driven

their ship right into the landing area. problem. so it's postponed. i don't know if they're going to keep trying it for today. do we know that? or they're just going to try to get the ship out of the way? last thing i read was there was a big launch window. they got to move that ship! all right. there has been even more violence at a chicago school after a 16-year-old boy was killed last month. now parents are taking a drastic step to get officials to do something.

52 children have been rescued from alleged prostitution rings. if fbi says nearly 700 people were arrested over the past two days in a nationwide effort.

it started in 2003 to end sex trafficking of children in the united states. >> the money involved in prosecuting children is much higher than just regular prostitution. so they get them, the desire by the johns if you will is for younger and younger girls. we're seeing them as young as 11 years old. >> unbelievable. the fbi says that almost 900 children have been saved from sex trafficking since the initiative started. and there have been more than 500 convictions. a muslim woman wearing a veil wasn't allowed to shop at a market in texas. it was one of the stories that richard lui's working on for the next hour. stay tuned. richard, it's confusing. because the store has a lot of muslim shoppers. >> that's right. the woman says when she walked in, the owner yelled get out over and over again. and now another muslim shopper says there's nothing wrong with what the owner did in that. we'll give you the details. plus this story is scaring a lot of medical experts. young women, even twe,ns are

starting to get breast cancer more often. why? answers are hard to come by. we're following the latest on the northwest flight that zoom bid the airport before making that u turn. were the passengers ever in danger? we'll talk about that in 15. more students are expected to stay home from chicago school where an honor student was beaten to death. parents and leaders are encouraging the boycott which started yesterday. they want chicago officials to stop the growing violence at vis chan fanger academy high school. 16-year-old dearon albert was killed during an afterschool fight last month. >> they need to get that school under control. it is not under control at all. >> it's not even a safe haven, nor is it an educational tool for learning. >> three teens have been charged with first-degree murder in albert's death. just last week five other students were arrested and charged for fighting in the school's lunchroom.

the irs advises you to keep your tax returns for up to seven years. but hln money expert clark howard tells you why you should keep them forever. >> what's the last year's tax return you can lay your hands on? if you're like most people, it's maybe, oh, four, five, six years ago. not good enough. as states are scrounging for every penny they can get their hands on, they're reaching way, way, way, way back. in fact, i saw a story in the "chicago tribune" about them beating something up for state taxes from 1983. now, who's going to be able to produce a return from 1983? well, actually, i can. because i've kept all my returns going back to the '70s. and you should moving forward save, if you have a state income tax, save your state tax return. always save your federal. after six years, you can dump the supporting material. but keep the return so that

there's some proof that you properly filed your return. why? because there's no statute generally if they say you failed to file. i'm clark howard. for more ways for you to stay out of trouble, go to my website. 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. an iowa woman broke her hip while watching her favorite team and refused to go to the hospital until the game was over. she is a fan, rafer. >> robin, you got to love this woman's enthusiasm. 71-year-old carol walden says she cannot remember the last iowa football game she's missed. well, she came pretty close recently in the hawkeye's game against wisconsin. she lslipped and the poor woman broke her leg during a commercial break. instead of going to the hospital she asked her husband to carry her to her favorite chair so she could watch the rest of the game. the team heard about her story. the coach personally sent her a card.

>> carol, get well soon. go hawks! it's just -- how neat. who would ever expect anything. i didn't expect anything. no. >> look how much her face lights up. get this. carol has never been to the team stadium to see a game. so the university president after learning about her story has now invited her to watch one next month from the sky box. and can i just point out how great she looks for 71? >> she really does. good energy. she is a team fan. all right. let's see. i wanted to tell you that we're still watching for this rocket to blast off today. it is -- it's huge. they say it's going to happen in about three minutes here. this thing's expensive, too. $445 million it's going to cost for about two minutes of flight before what remains of it crashes into the ocean. they had to stop for a second because a ship was in the landing area!

negotiations are under way after complaints of racism at a chicago nightclub. student leaders at washington university in st. lou igs say

they've been talking with lawyers for the club. they did not reveal details. complaints were filed with state and federal officials after six african-american students were turn aid way from the bar supposedly because their pants were too baggy. >> particularly students who were just going to have a good time. >> the students believe the decision had nothing to do with baggy pants. especially, they say, after a white student wore the same jeans and was admitted to the nightclub. now, i might have to interrupt you. we're waiting for this big rocket launch. it's a kind of rocket we've never seen launched before. >> we don't want to miss it. >> all right. first, though, an nfl player is now charged with assault for allegedly punching a friend of lebron james. >> that's right. and don't mess with lebron james. he's big. 6'8". 260. supposedly the guy who was punched is very, very small. we'll see what happens. but this is no small incident to a lot of people. it got the man we're talking

about more or less traded to the jets. we're talking about braillen edwards. cleveland city prosecutors have charged the former browns receiver edwards with min demeanor assault. months in jail. he attacked a smaller friend of lebron's outside of a nightclub. james was so upset he called edwards childish. speaking of childish, kansas city running back larry johnson takes the cake. first he rips his coach on twitter after they lose to san diego. then attacked one of his followers using gay slurs butkused out reporters using nir gay slur bh asked about the tweet getting your bleeping bleeping out of here. childress is giving us an idea for a new halloween costume. he said he wanted to remind his players to block out the

pressure. worry a wig, blue nylons and lipstick, but they didn't lose the game. that is what i'm wearing for halloween. nobody will know what the heck i'm doing. >> i love it. >> blue nylons. >> that would distract the northwest pilots if you wore something like that, you know? >> what? northwest pilots? >> the one that overshot minneapolis st. paul for 150 miles. >> excuse me. my turn to talk now. hello, bob. we'll show you what's happening now. the heavy rain up through the eastern "showbiz" in philadelphia. you'll have a 73 minute delay in philadelphia through the entire afternoon because of the rain. new york city metro will get delays of over an hour. philadelphia you have it now. atlanta anticipated it with heavy rain moving in. san francisco with strong winds, and 55-mile-per-hour gusts. wait for it. wait for it. we're still waiting for nasa new

aries rocket to launch. it was set to blast off a few minutes ago. we're still waiting for it, but they stopped the the clock this time because of weather problems. 15 minutes ago it was because there was a ship in the area where the debris is supposed to land. on and on it goes today. the top section is fake parts so it crashes into the ocean. we're watching.