good morning. why don't we do a time check? it is 6:00 in the morning. if you didn't change your clock like you were supposed to, you're up an hour early. drug companies step up production. today is a plan to raise any red flags about the vaccine's safety. a billion dollar ship built with steel from the world trade center is sailing toward new york city. how first responders and families of the 9/11 victims are paying tribute. plus -- >> you just broke the guiness

world book of records. what are you going to do? >> i'm going home, man. >> the world's largest ball of meat. he he's like, i'm taking a nap now. starting the day, an independent health group will be watching how safe the h1n1 flu vaccine is. they're not expecting problems, but want to reassure people. there's worry because the vaccine seemed like it was made so quickly and because there's reports of some people being paralyzed from a different swine flu vaccine in 1976. one pregnant woman with four kids says she is not taking the risk. >> side effects, its potential down the line. you put something new into your body. people react very differently to different things they put into their body. one person, it might be fine for. another person, it may not. >> right now, five drug companies are really cranking out the vaccine. 10 million more doses are expected by friday. so, the supply may start meeting the demand soon. that's a good thing. backups have been terrible, the

lines, the last few weeks. >> i think you can't protect yourself from everything out there, but i think to a certain degree that it protects you from the worst of the worst. >> so far, there are no reports of any problems with the vaccine other than some sore arms and a fever, and that is routine. police are trying to identify six women, all found dead at a home in cleveland. the coroner says it appears they were strangled and their bodies may have been there for weeks, if not months or years. 50-year-old anthony sowell has lived at the home since 2005, after serving 15 years for rape. police spotted him walking in the neighborhood saturday and arrested him. >> a sigh of relief. i said this street is now safe again. >> i'm glad he's off the street. >> we're just thankful that they got him. >> police found the bodies after they tried to serve a warrant on sowell on a different rape investigation.

a woman says that he assaulted her on october 22nd. people were waiting for their paychecks today, police in pakistan say the explosion killed 35 people. it happened about 18 miles from the capital where secretary of state hillary clinton visited last week. it is going to be an emotional morning for families of the 9/11 attack victims. in two hours, a navy ship built with steel from the world trade center will stop near ground zero. a ceremony for the u.s.s. new york will include a 21-gun salute. the ship will dock later today to prepare for saturday's official commissioning. there's no hope, coast guard says, of rescuing nine people. their ghost guard and marine helicopter collided thursday night. authorities gave up the search and rescue mission after 30 hours with no sign of survivors. >> we looked at the time that

was involved. we looked at the nature of the collision itself. we exhaustively searched the area where we would have found them if there was anybody who could have survived it. you look at the cold water exposure models as far as the time goes and when you put all those pieces together, we no longer believe there's any chance that somebody could still be alive. >> sad to hear. the coast guard will have a memorial for the victims on friday. the u.n. wants $39 billion to fight the number one killer of children, pneumonia. it hopes to save more than 5 million kids by 2015. agencies want to vaccinate kids and work on economic development, because pneumonia deaths amount from malnutrition and poverty. economic change with little success. remember the story about a guy that got a dwi in his motorized la-z-boy? they're selling it on ebay. it, too, could be yours. >> five minutes later they

called me, $20,000. are you kidding me? >> bidding has actually passed $40,000. the man who pleaded guilty to driving the recliner drunk is selling an autograph photo of him sitting in it. so there. those auctions end tomorrow. >> if you could fashion a bunch more, that guy would be set for life. >> those can't be real bids at $40,000. that's like a really brand new luxury car. >> try to collect that, right? >> that's what i think, too. >> i think you're right. >> what are some of the crazy est costumes you saw over the weekend? >> terminator. >> terminator? >> plus they were like 18 years old. >> here, take the candy bar. >> yeah. starting out in november now. no huge weather systems to slow you down. watching a couple of things closely, one is a low off cape

hatteras, north carolina. back into the carolinas, too. a little bit of light rain falling out of that as well. philly, lower parts of jersey, light showers are a possibility this morning, and we'll move on to lower parts of manhattan today, rain a possibility out across long island, too. not a big deal, but enough to slow you down. i'll have those delays in a bit. good chunk of nashville area, including most of tennessee. look at the temperatures right now. low 30s, mid 30s around nashville. we see the blue, below freezing from kentucky through the ohio valley. weak combed front, showers in chicago land, light showers north of you, in towards milwaukee and stretching in towards green basement it's on the light side once again, picking up later on. light rain around bloomington, illinois. rain gets harder in central parts of nebraska. a quick-moving cold front. once this goes by, you'll see more sunshine. all in all, weather looks good

today. major records for october set. they all fell. we'll show you some of those coming up. records in october, cold and rain ones. no kidding, right? >> wet your beek. never heard it. >> from the godfather. godfather ii. >> never watched it. >> there you go. >> too violent for me. one of the largest bankruptcies in u.s. history has just been filed. it means the government and you could use billions collectively. the other huge concern is what it might do to thousands of businesses. a spectacular crash at talladega that takes your breath away. you could not believe how anyone could walkway from this. wow!

time right now to salute our troops. a very enthusiastic shoutout from his mom this morning, shane

is in afghanistan, but was home for a few days last month, for the birth of his son, parker. >> good morning, afghanistan! this salute goes out to my son, specialist shane sorrey. your family and friends miss you tons. and i know that the beer industry misses your money. we're so proud of your service and sacrifice for our country. the pride we have for you tempers the sadness of your absence. i want you to know that everything is squared away here at home and i want to tell you, i think the georgia bulldogs are going to win it for you this year. love you, buddy. >> she got a whole lot of thoughts in there. that was great. if you want to salute somebody you love in the service, we want to help you. go to cnn.com/robin. some morning commutes may be hours longer. san francisco's bay bridge is still closed. there's a lon live picture. it's very pretty. there's no -- hey i just saw a car go over it. the san francisco car reports -- maybe it's workers' cars -- some commuters face up to detours of eight hours or more even.

the bay bridge closed tuesday after 5,000 pounds of metal crashed into rush hour traffic. we don't know when it may reopen. i'll keep checking on that live shot for you. the white house says that president obama will decide in a matter of weeks if more troop also go to afghanistan. new for you in about 30 minutes, the new development that could make the decision even more complicated. people getting sick, maybe from e.coli led to a big recall of ground beef in the northeast you need to know about today. jennifer westhoven has that list. there's possibly even a death connected to this? >> i don't think it's possible. new hampshire had health officials say that's true, one person died after eating contaminated beef. there are reports of other people getting sick that could be connected to this recall. it's something to look out for if you have ground beef in your refrigerator. the company in question is fairbank farms of asheville, new

york. their beef, it won't say fairbank farms on t it was sold as the store brand. so if you're in the northeast, this is where it will affect you. acme, bj's giant, trader joe's. some of the stores involved. go and check if you bought the store ground beef. if you have any of the beef you can take it back for a refund. look for the code est 492. that will be right inside the round usda inspection mark. if you're not writing down all this stuff, can you check out our website, cnn.com/robin and click on looking out for you. all the information is there if you want to double-check. the story robin just mentioned before the bank, cit filing for bankruptcy. huge company. i never heard of cit, but this is the lender behind millions of small and medium-sized businesses who helps them get through when, say, somebody hasn't paid and they have to make their payroll. they had borrowed more than $2

million of your taxpayer money to stay alive. that money is likely mostly gone. this is the biggest firm that's filed bankruptcy after getting a bailout. i want to pint out, in case anybody can't see your boots this morning, for some shot where they can. they're so cool. >> thanks. >> good monday morning boots. >> and they're really business like. >> they're all sparkly and gold. >> thank you. thank you very much. times are tough for the u.s. auto industry. a company in the detroit area with a passion for motorcycles is stepping on the gas. stephanie elam goes along for the ride in this small business succes success. >> dave and james kay have always been motorheads. working on the options exchange in chicago and james was at a custom cycle shop in california. >> i wasn't happy and my brother

wasn't happy in his job. he called me and came up with the name, detroit brothers. i thought it was such a great name and such a great concept. >> the siblings moved back home in 2002 and started making custom parts in their parents' garage. their business moved into the fast lane after they got a call from the "discovery" channel, asking them to appear on biker buildoff. >> at that point, we decided we couldn't very well have them film out of our parents' garage. >> today, they make parts, services bikes and designs and builds custom motorcycles. currently, the guys are hosting a new tv show called "motor city motors". >> an amazing opportunity for us to get another level of exposure for our business. >> looks like a cool company. we would like to see your success story. go to cnn.com/robin, upload a video of your biz and you could

be featured on morni"morning express." your kids start screaming their head off on the plane, but it actually got one mom and her toddler kicked off of a flight. plus a bat crashed an nba game on halloween. a bat. you have to see how one player's quick reflexes took care of the problem. eww.

i do think that song was written about me. yeah, right. the boots. democratic house plan for the health care plan would be taxes on the wealthy. 5.5% for people making over $500,000 a year and couples

making over a million. republicans say that will really hurt small business owners. it doesn't look like the senate would approve those taxes either. southwest airlines has apologized for kicking a mom and her toddler off a flight. the crew booted them because the boy's screams "go, plane, go!" and "i want daddy" interrupted the safety. they called her, offered her a refund and $300 travel voucher. i wish you could see rafer's face because his wife very soon will have a baby and this is a nightmare. >> this is going to be my life. i know it. >> we give you the news. you give us your views. should they have been kicked off the plane? should southwest have offeroed them to give a refund -- or even offered them a refund and voucher? tell us what you think. go to our facebook page and hopefully you can be more succinct in your thoughts than i

was in soliciting your thoughts. there's an f for the facebook on cnn.com/robin. just click there. rent, haircuts and medical visits, massachusetts supreme court will hear an appeal today about it. he started the program in 2002, but a judge struck it down. the sheriff says that fees can teach inmates to accept responsibility and ease taxpayers' burden. inmates' attorneys say it's like an illegal tax. just a few months ago, alex rodriguez was at the center of a doping controversy. now he's at the brink of leading the yankees to a championship. what a year it's been for him. hi. >> complete and total aboutface. good morning to you, robin. phillies are kind of to blame for it. they made him angry and you won't like him when he's angry. this gierks alex rodriguez, did literally nothing in the first two games of the series. phillies started hitting him

with pitches. he gets drilled by a 90-mile-an-hour fastball, the third time he was hit in two games. both benches were issued a warning, play nice. two outs in the ninth inning, score tied, a. rod hit back. they would go on to win, one win away from the championship, kids. this guy, not a kid. return of the 40-year-old viking, brett favre's return to green bay. how would they greet him? those were boos. mostly, they were boos. some stood and cheered for favre. this guy had the last laugh, ripping the hearts of packer fans out, he threw four touchdown passes to lead the vikings to the win. if you have a friend from wisconsin, call them today. they're probably very sad. this was a proud moment for the united states. meb keflezighi became the first american to win the new york city marathon in 27 years. he was a star at ucla, became a

u.s. citizen in '98. there he is, proudly holding up the american flag. >> that's great. >> at 34 years old, ran his best time, two hours and nine minutes. >> he wasn't like the tallest person in the bunch. >> no, he was not. it's been a while since he has had a race that good. a bat got into the at&t center in the spurs game. yes, that's a bat on halloween night. can a oaty shows up with a net and batman shirt. watch this here. ginobli swats the bat and knocks him out. he has a bat in his hand. one more time. knocks the bat to the ground. >> it could have been rabid. you don't know. >> he went and got some hand san advertiser. word is he killed it. he's trying to give it to somebody. i don't want that. no, i don't want that. the bat, officials said was just stunned and flew away. couple of big crashes at talladega speedway, how this driver would fair after flipping

his car upside down. we'll have it in ten. robin? >> my goodness. straight out of a movie. some veterans honor a men who saved their lives and you'll hear about the rescue of the so-called last battalion. y8

an independent health group is watching how safe the h1n1 vaccine is. they're not expecting problems but want to reassure people. there's worry because the vaccine seemed to be made so quickly and there's reports of some people being paralyzed by a different swine flu vaccine in 1976. secretary of state had hillary clinton will meet with several arab foreign ministers today to restart the middle east peace talks. the talks will take place in moroc morocco. palestinian leaders criticized her after she praised israel's

decision to limit but not stop. it's been so many months but i do not know. >> the daughter of a missing woman says she's afraid her mother may be one of six women found dead at a home in cleveland. nancy cobbs lives in the same neighborhood but no one has seen her in six months. convicted rapist anthony sowell was arrested yesterday -- make that saturday. that's just a few of the headlines we're working on. let's do a time check. if you forgot to turn your clocks the way you were supposed to, you are up an hour early. it's 6:30 eastern right now. good morning. i'm robin meade. anything he can to stop a health care bill that include ace public option. yesterday he argued that kind of legislation would be worse than not getting a health care bill at all. a public option is expected on the senate floor soon. democrats need lieberman's support to avoid a filibuster.

he is an independent. >> it's fascinating and troubling that it has suddenly become a litmus test. if you're not for government health insurance company, you're somehow not a good democrat. if you look at the election last year, the presidential election, the public option was never discussed. this was all about how do we control the increasing costs of health insurance and how do we make health insurance available to people who can't afford it now? those are our goals. >> president obama's senior adviser says the public option would achieve those goals, plus cut costs and expand coverage because it would bring competition to private insurers. new this morning, police have arrested a man accused of gunning down four people in north carolina. investigators say they tracked down marcos gonzalez at a motel in virginia, about 40 miles from the crime scene. they say he shot and killed four men yesterday outside a tv shop in mt. aire, north carolina.

they don't think the killings were random. a horrific crash at talladega speedway is making headlines today. you'll know why when you see the video. right, rafer? >> talladega is known for its crashes. nascar is taking steps to crack down on those crashes. drawing criticism. ryan newman, look at his car flip upside down. this is with five laps to go. sputters along the track, would hit the wall and then slide -- but it's not even done yet. he slides down much as he he comes down to the grass, his car flips over. >> again. >> a few more times. >> yeah. >> there it is. this is obviously all in slow motion. it took crews 13 minutes to get this poor guy out as they had to cut open the roof. he said it was like, quote, being in a tomb and not being able to get out. there he is, getting out. there was another big crash at

this race and a surprise winner. we will have that in ten minute. >> can't believe he was able to walk away. i'm glad he was able to walk away. thank you. michael jackson's "this is it" thrilled audiences enough to make it number one at the box office this weekend. it made more than $21 million for its national debut and more than $100 million worldwide. the runner-up was "paranormal activity," it dropped from last week's top spot. it made $16.5 million. we just learned that afghanistan's presidential runoff election has been canceled. that's what an election official tells the associated press. the u.s. is very concerned about what happens with the government there as president obama tries to decide whether to send more troops. >> what the president has said consistently is he is going through a very rigorous process. george, before he puts our men and women in harm's way, he w t

wants to make absolutely sure he has a strategy. this isn't a matter of how many troops are sent over. although that is a very important component. we have to look at what's going on, on the ground, what our allies are do iing, the state o the government in afghanistan. >> allegations of voter fraud in afghanistan have not helped. former afghan minister abdullah abdullah quit before the election was supposed to happen, saying he cannot trust the election process. a haircut you won't want to get if it's halloween. arizona barber dressed up as edward scissorhands. his hands are still steady, despite the out fit, and the customers don't seem to mind. people are so creative. >> level one, yeah. it's easy to do, right? >> yeah, what's your number? >> level one on the razor. >> good morning, bob. records of what? >> rainfall, this one, yeah. starting out. the last couple of days we've been showing you downpour action

after downpour action, lower gulf coast coming out of texas, going toward the coast of florida. october alone, 20.35 inches of rain in shrevport, half a year's total in one month. little rock, 16 1/2 inches of rain. pretty much on the heavy side, no matter how you look at t not only the rain we're watching in october, it was the cold temperatures. cheyenne, wyoming, 37 degrees, the average temperature. coldest october on record, based on your average daily temperature, even around rapid city. 38.7. goodland, kansas, 43.7. record cold spells. the cold now is moving over toward nashville for this morning. that's what it looks like. let me show you the big picture. one north of the great lakes, in toward canada, another one offshore from the carolinas. that one is throwing a little moisture back on shore. down through south carolina. fog out there around charlotte and just south of the atlanta metro. it hasn't slowed you down at the airport yet, which is good.

top side of that, light rain across central jersey, back to philadelphia, spreading to new york city in the form of light showers, giving you a delay at the airplanes there, too. that's something we're watching. frost advisory, all the areas shaded in blue. nashville, temperature in the mid 30s. outside of the heat island, it's colder. temperatures around 32. light rain is, right now, across chicago. we'll talk about that, robin, in about half an hour. >> a bad morning rush for them. >> when it comes to it, yeah. treasury secretary says, sure, the deficit is high. this is not time to worry about it. also ahead, if you have one of those tax-free spending accounts for doctor and dentist bills, the health care proposal could hit you hard. more on that.

former vice president dick cheney reportedly told the fbi i don't recall when asked how cia valerie plame was outed. remember plame's husband was critical of the bush administration. scooter libby was convicted of lying about the leak. president bush commuted his sentence. about 300,000 people converged on atlanta over the weekend for one of the largest -- if i could only say it. gay pride festivals in the country. i have to wake up this morning. it was usually held in the summer, but pushed back to halloween this year. plenty of people showed up in costume for the parade. the grand marshall was the atlanta police department's liaison. >> big wig we saw sacheing by.

>> in person how could you miss it, right? very bright. no time to worry about the enormous budget deficit? the treasury secretary says he has bigger things to worry about. that's worrying me. our money expert jennifer westhoven. it could be anyway. >> good morning. they're trying to explain what's going on. tim geithner is saying, look, of course -- of course we care about the deficit. a record 1.4 trillion dollar deficit is too high. but he's saying we're noth start fighting it right away. the priority is to rescue the economy first. this is on nbc's ""meet the press"," the obama administration is focusing on growth and job creation. that's one economic theory, that when nobody is spending, when businesses aren't spending, when fami families aren't spending, the government has to spend to keep the economy from collapsing. again it's just one philosophy of this. tim geithner says he supports the efforts in congress to extend unemployment benefits and

the home buyer tax credit and i hope if you're watching you know we've been following this so closely. maybe we'll have news on that this week coming out of washington. chrysler is shrinking again, buying out another 23,000 workers. this week, chrysler is going to lay out a five-year plan to try to get back into profitability, to become a successful company. it's out of bankruptcy, but still in a lot of trouble. so, thousands of people who work for chrysler, this is going to be a big week for them. they'll be sitting down at the kitchen table, looking at what they have in their retirement account, trying to make this big choice. what they can't tell is if they say i'm afraid to take the buyout, i'm just going to keep my job, we don't know if they might end up getting laid off down the road. real scary. back to you. >> anything else? >> i think we're out of time. >> okay, great. >> sorry. now they said there is time. it's just that we've got the big unemployment report this week, the big employment report and

it's going to come -- usually friday and we'll see how the stock market does. that was a little -- >> look ahead. >> big rise on thursday, big fall on friday. >> appreciate it. moving ahead here, an airline apologized for not booting the toddler and his mom off the plane. you'll hear what the little boy was skreeping on the plane before the takeoff. an oil rig has been leaking about 400 barrels of oil into the ocean every day. now it's on fire.

southwest airlines has apologized for kicking a mom and her toddler off the flight. the boys screams of "go, plane, go!" drowned out the air safety. the mom says she was confident the boy would have behaved when the plane took off but they never got the chance. southwest called her, offeroing her a refund and $300 travel voucher. we give you the news, you give us your views. should they have been kicked off

or should southwest have even given them a refund or voucher? tell us what you're thinking. james has written us on facebook. if it isn't a safety issue or threat, they should have settled the issue quietly instead of making a scene. brett says i wouldn't want a screaming child on a flight i paid for. caesar says rules are rules. keep them coming. go to cnn.com/robin. click on the face book link. we'll read them this morning. what do you do when that's happening and you're the parent? if you have a flex spending account for medical bills, you could be hit by the health care plan. democrats want to cap those tax free accounts at $2,500 a year. most companies cap them at $5,000. ta the cap would mean more than $13 billion in tax revenue. insurance companies, some unions and others say it's too hard on the middle class. bob, has your kid ever -- you have two children, but i'm saying the older one, has he ever misbehaved on a plane?

>> absolutely. he has thrown up a couple of times, too. yeah, i'm that guy, the one that's dripping by the end of the flight. we haven't gone on a flight in two years because of that. what's up, rob? i feel bad for everyone around you. >> and if you're flying today? >> hopefully you're not next to the van dillen family. short delay, areas around new york city, including newark, back in toward jfk, laguardia, philadelphia, low clouds too. it's detroit in chicago with actual rain. you get about half an hour delay out of that first thing in the morning, rob. pretty good day to travel. >> we're scaring rafer. thank you. brett favre returned to green bay this time, playing for one of the packers biggest rivals. let me point out, rafer, they've already played this year, but it's the first time at lambeau field, right? >> he has played there as a

green bay packer. now he's coming in, in a minnesota vikings uniform. here's how the fans reacted. >> that was mean. >> lots of boos, boos, boos. a couple of people did stand and cheer during warm-ups and the game. favre had the last laugh. 40-year-old viking shredded green bay's defense, ripped the hearts of packer fans out and showed it to them. afterwards he commented on the mixed reception. >> packer fans were there. there was some purple. i saw just a mixture of everything, cheers, couple fingers. >> he means those number one fingers, the foam ones. >> they were the biggest surprise in the nfl. denver broncos were unbeaten until sunday. ravens destroyed them with the most exciting play in the nfl, return for a touchdown. ladarius webb. parody, they call it, in the

nfl. exciting that way. this was not exciting. two of the worst teams in football, st. louis rams and st. louis kittens -- sorry, lions. they finally win. so the coach gets the gatorade sprinkle. wasn't even a shower. that's why the victory shower must go away. and when you're down and demoted, here is how you respond. ted ginn jr. lost his starting job. there he goes, 100 yard return for touchdown. that's exciting. he didn't do it once. he did it twice. first player ever to return two kicks, 100 yards or more in one game in nfl history. so he see, "when you're down and troubled troubled." just after the other crash we showed you ten minutes ago with ryan newman. >> look how many different car. >> 50-year-old mark martin got

the worst of it. this is his dash cam. talk about scary. it is a true testament to nascar that these guys don't get hurt. jamie mcmurray won the race, first win in 86 races. johnson' finish means he'll probably win the sprint cup for the fourth straight year. amazing. this is a very controversial track. they'll be talking about this for a while. that's sports. our money expert, clark howard, serves in the georgia state guard. this weekend you'll see him serving the troops. we teamed up to help soldiers spend more, save less and avoid getting ripped off. >> senior officer jeff torres, you want to talk about investing in a certain plan. let's ask about that. >> since becoming parents in the last year, my wife and i have been concerned about the forecast for higher education. in 17 years they're practicaling $400,000 to shell out. what i've done for the first year is invested in my state's 529 plans. i was wonder what your thoughts

are on state or federal plans. >> 529 plan is a college savings plan. you can put money into it. all the money grows tax-free. as long as the money is used for college, all the earnings are tax-free. so it is the absolute best vehicle to save for college. and so you're doing the right thing. what state plan are you? >> virginia. actually, i made a decision to remain a virginia resident exclusively for their education benefits. >> let me tell you something about virginia. virginia is one of the states that has multiple 529 plans. and there are good 529 plans in virginia and bad ones. so i have a guide on my website, which is clarkhoward.com, where you can do the hyperlink and make sure the virginia plan you're in is the good one, not one of the bad ones. >> so watch "operation clark smart" this weekend at 6:00 a.m., noon and 4:00 p.m. eastern

right here on hln. rush limbaugh just took a major jab at president obama and other democrats. get this? he thinks they may be trying to hurt this country on purpose.