where did the weekend go? welcome to monday. i'm so glad to see you, though. i'm robin meade. morning, sunshine. a hurricane that already made a mess in central america is closing in on the united states this morning. you're going to hear what kind of trouble hurricane ida could bring with it. is there a connection between the ft. hood shooting suspect and 9/11 hijackers? there's no evidence yet. the fbi thinks there is enough reason to look into it. plus a big question today for the supreme court. what punishment is too harsh for kids who commit crimes? first, the u.s. is about to get hit with the season's first atlantic hurricane.

ida is a category 1 storm with 90-mile-an-hour winds. it already made a mess in nicaragua, due to make landfall along the u.s. gulf coast in the morning. louisiana has already declared a state of emergency. all right, so they're not messing around. let's find out where the storm is right now. here's meteorologist bob van dillen. >> morning, robin. satellite video, it's about 375 miles due south of pensacola. watch it ride into the northern part of mexico. doesn't look as good as it has, encountering cooler sea surfaces. winds out of the southwest disrupting that flow a little bit. good news there. buzzed down to a category 1 storm with 90-mile-an-hour-mile-per-hour winds. tonight up to midnight makes landfall somewhere near the alabama/florida border and takes a hard beline through southern georgia. it will throw a lot of rain for georgia, florida, all the way

through louisiana, mississippi and alabama, too. i'll show you that in a couple of minutes, robin. >> thank you. now to the ft. hood shooting. the suspect and shooting, major nidal hasan is off a ventilator this morning. investigators are asking for help from anyone who was there this morning that may have inadvertently left the scene with evidence like firearm residue or shell casings. meanwhile, families are trying to cope as best they can. private joseph foster was shot in the hip. >> you have to get a taste of it. it's like a giant family. when anything like this happens, we just get stronger. >> amid the stories of heroism, there is the grim reality of what happens after the shootings. >> the part that was probably most troubling was in the event

that one of the parents may have been wounded or killed and having a youngster waiting there to get picked up and never getting picked up and not being able to tell the school leadership which ones had been killed and which ones were wounded as we were sorting through that. >> oh, man. meanwhile, the fbi will probably look into whether the suspect, major nidal hasan met with two of the 9/11 hijackers. it said the hijackers attended the same funeral mosque where the funeral for hasan's mother was held in 2001. also, investigators are looking for any ties between hasan and an islamic radical leader who preached at that mosque. taking a closer look at the lives of those killed at ft. hood. you'll hear their stories in 20 minutes. the yeas are 220, the nays

are 215. the bill is passed. >> all right. health care reform took a big step to become reality late saturday night. the house passed its $1.2 trillion bill by five votes. it does include a government-run plan that will compete with private nrninsurers, the so-cal public option. an amendment banning federal funding for abortions. one republican voted for the bill. >> for this decision, even though it was unpopular for my own party, but it was the right decision for my district. i've always been focusing on making the right decisions for the people of my district whether or not it will cost me my political future. >> the senate debate could be much tougher, though. republican senator lindsey graham said the house bill would be dead on arrival in the senate. harry reid refused to give a timetable passing a bill,

signaling he may have trouble getting enough votes. philadelphia's mass transit strike is over. the transit system and its largest union agreed to a new contract overnight, ending the six-day strike. about 5,000 workers walked off the job last tuesday over a dispute about pension benefits. the strike affected philly's subways, buss and trolleys. 11 women were found dead at a house in cleveland. people marched with candles to the house where the women were found. anthony sowell lives there. he is accused of murder and rape. one of seven bodies identified so far is talisha fordson. her mom was there last night. >> as we stand here in front of this home where they found your daughter, what is that like for you? >> it's hard, because i want to burn it down. i really would like to.

it's very hard. that's why i won't look at it. >> reporter: why won't you look at it? >> because i know my baby was in there and she got killed in there, you know. and it's hard. >> indeed. again, the man accused in the case is anthony sowell, a registered sex offender. his dna is being entered into a national database to see if he's connected to any unsolved crimes. his lawyer requested that he be put on suicide watch in jail. where were you 21 years ago today when the berlin wall came down? these scenes symbol iize the beginning of the end of communism in europe. there will be celebrations today in berlin. bon jovi is going to perform. many world leaders will be there as well, including secretary of state hillary clinton. i'm pretty sure i was at my first job in broadcasting.

>> really? >> watching the tape on cnn. i was watching it live, actually, if i remember correctly. i was still in college -- >> i was still in high school. >> you were not. >> i was 17. i was still in high school. >> i was still in college, that's entirely possible. >> hey, can we turn on the tv and watch the berlin wall come down? >> because your voice was changing? >> yeah. it was terrible. hurricane ida, couple of pockets of rain out ahead of that. this is the actual rain from the hurricane. get back to west south of houston, trough of low pressure, western part of the gulf. heavy rain in two spots moving up to the north. rotation with this one. there's your rain with the hurricane, heavy rain around houston. hurricane warnings are out there. pascagoula, mississippi, all the way to indian pass. then it turns into a tropical storm warning for the gulf counties and tropical storm wind warning for the inland counties. you can see a lot of rain out of this, too. a lot of rain out of the south,

rotates into lower parts of louisiana and alabama. next 48 hours, key. a cold front is dropping down through memphis right now, taking effectively the bulk of the rain, throwing it across the northern part of the gulf and drag it is on through alabama, georgia, in towards the western carolinas the next two days. another low off the coast of the carolinas and races to the northeast for the end of the week. a couple of days to watch this thing. no doubt about it. flash flood watches, all the areas in dark green, stretching to the western part of the carolinas. flash flood warnings are out there already for northern parts of louisiana. cold front going through the great lakes stretches in toward ontario, montreal and quebec. you can see it there. you're clear from new york into boss tovenlt as that cold front approaches you, watch for a windy day to shape up for new england. you can see delays at the airport in boston. good to see you on a monday morning. hurricane, november. doesn't happen very often. >> hurricane ida. we'll be following that. thank you. you know what?

we have good news in a bad economy this morning. it's a price war just for movie lovers. and a suspected car jacker thought he was pretty tough until he ran into a cagey 9-year-old kid.

specialist cory gafner from his mom, she says cory has a lot of love in his heart. they miss him and everyone is looking forward to his wedding next september. >> hi, robin. this is angela gafner out of texas, specialist cory gaffner's mom. i'm so proud of my son for representing our country. i just want to tell him to stay strong sbb safe and i want to let him know that i love him very much. >> so sweet. do you have somebody in the service? go to cnn.com/robin. we would be honored to help you

salute them. the government says that the official unemployment rate is now about 10%, but it's actually much higher than that. i'm going to wait to let her run over here. our money expert, jennifer westhoven is out of breath, because she's just sitting down. you know, a lot of people go uncounted in the official number when it comes to unemployment. i guess it's easy to understand. when you think about the biggest count that we have are the first-time unemployment numbers. but what about the people that have run out of benefits? >> that's right. >> that's called the big stretch. >> people right in to say i know 10% doesn't feel right, that it's higher than that. what's going on? people aren't getting counted. that's true, because that's just the official number. there's ways they do it. for example, they don't count you if you've stopped looking for work. are you technically unemployed if you're just staying home and not trying anymore?

when jobs are this scarce, it can be very discouraging to be out there every single day, trying and getting no all the time. some people just give up. you also don't get counted if you're underemployed. that means maybe you want a full-time job, your family needs a full-time job but all you can find is a part-time one. you're taking that for now but really are looking for full-time. those people don't get counted either. if everybody like those people were counted, unemployment would be 17.5%. could you imagine? >> that's huge! >> it is really huge. that's one out of every six workers, according to the labor department. and it probably -- we're probably seeing the unemployment numbers in total since the great depression. it was maybe more like 30% then, we think. first you heard about books, toys. now there's an online price war on dvds.

that's good news in a bad economy. walmart, target and amazon are fighting each other over preorders for the new dvds out there. walmart started it off at 10 bucks, then target was matching that. now walmart says $9.98. you saw it there. one example, "star trek." list price is about $27. so, that is a big savings for a new movie. this is the kind of stuff, robin, that a lot of times hollywood studios don't love this, because they don't necessarily -- >> because they make a lot of their money back on the dvd sales. jen, thanks. not your average babysitter's club. a small company is changing a way that parents find a sitter. stephanie elam has her eye on this story in this "small business success." >> parents adrian and david colwhite got an idea for a business when visiting family

out of town. >> we couldn't find a babysitter. >> they came up with the idea for seeking sitters, online babysitting service that provides parents with child care. >> log in to their local area, see sitters, mark preferences and make a request for the day and time that they need. >> private eye experience also sparked other ideas. >> the biggest part is our background screening. we do investigations more like fbi style investigations versus just online checks to screen our sitters and our families. >> $40 membership fee and the company has expanded into a nationwide franchise. seeking sitters still tries to keep it in the neighborhood. >> we're not just the website business. that's why we went into the franchising, to have that local person and local feel for every one of our offices. >> if you're a small business owner, we would like to see your success story. go to cnn.com/robin.

upload a video of your biz. share your tips. if we like what we see, you could be featured here on "small business success." we'll bring you a closer look at some of the 13 victims of the mass attack at ft. hood.

president obama and the first lady will attend a memorial service tomorrow for the victims of the ft. hood shootings. 13 people were killed. we'll be sharing their stories throughout the morning. richard lui begins with specialist frederick greene. >> friends and family in tennessee called him freddy. they say he grew up in church

and knew the bible like the back of his hand. he joined the military after the company where he worked shut down. >> many of his fellow soldiers told us he was the quiet professional of the unit, never complaining about a job given and often volunteering when needed. >> heartbreaking thing know iin he's gone, the way he had to leave this world. but i'm sure he's in a better place. but i hate -- you know, it's heartbreak. >> specialist greene was remembered at his parents' church yesterday and at a veterans' service in his community, robin. >> every single person we talk about here seems like an amazing person. three women were also among the victims. what were you able to find out about lieutenant colonel juanita warman? >> she was married with two daughters and six children. one of them talked about how he felt when he heard she had been killed. >> i was angry. i think everybody was angry and

confused about what happened and why it happened. but, i mean, now we're just trying to get through it. it's going to take a while. i'm sure it's not going to hit us for weeks or months. right now there's so much going on. it was tough when i found out. it was tough on everybody. >> warman's family told the "pittsburgh post gazette" she had only been at ft. hood for 24 hours, being processed for deployment to iraq. >> only there for a day. richard, thank you. we'll be learning more about these people. a woman's soccer player caught on video getting physical has been suspended indefinitely. do you remember this? this is the video where she pulled the ponytail of an posing player and a lot of people were like, ahh. hi there, rafer. >> this woman has become a national sensation for the wrong reasons. she's been suspended indefinitely by her coach for her broodish actions on the field. the biggest offense was the

ponytail takedown on bsu. however, their season is likely over. as a junior, it could carry over. meanwhile, do you remember this guy? florida's brandon spikes, gouging a player's eyes? he got suspended for half a game and then he was the one who lengthed his own suspension to a full game. is this a double standard? go to cnn.com/robin, click on the facebook icon and leave a comment. we'll read them on air later. hideous creamsicle throwback jerseys. here is the irony. they wore these uniforms from '76 to '96, they stunk. they had 18 losing seasons and were a laughing stock. >> why bring them back out, right? >> they got their first win in 2009. >> it worked. >> and it worked. washington player is still steaming after a sideline squirmish after washington safety landry hit matt ryan.

deangelo hall says mike smith was throwing elbows in the nfl. he's going to file a complaint. nfl might look into it. that's sports. next time you hear a baby cry, take a listen. researchers are finding interesting patterns

the first hurricane to threaten the united states this year, atlantic hurricane season, anyway, is due to hit the gulf coast tomorrow morning. forecasters say hurricane ida could cause flooding, rough surf and tornadoes from eastern mississippi to the florida panhandle. right now it's a category 1 with 90-mile-an-hour winds. no mandatory evacuations have been ordered yet. we'll watch this this morning. two u.s. pilots were killed when their helicopter went down in northern iraq. the military says the army chopper had a hard landing yesterday and the incident is under investigation. separately, a u.s. marine died from noncombat injuries west of

baghdad. now it falls on the united states senate to take the baton and bring this effort to the finish line on behalf of the american people. and i'm absolutely confident that they will. >> that was president obama yesterday, congratulating the house after it narrowoly passed aed 1.2 billion health care reform bill. it calls for a public option, which may not get enough support to survive in the senate version. the senate vote has not been scheduled yet. all right. christmas came early at the box office. you watched, apparently. the new animated version of "a christmas carol," featuring jim carrey as scrooge was number one at the box office, took in $31 million over the weekend. michael jackson's "this is it" fell to second place. quick check of some of our top stories. let me check in on you there. are you going to wake up? it's 31 minutes past the hour already. don't be late.

i'm robin meade. accused ft. hood gunman major nidal hasan is in critical, but stable condition and is breathing on his own. there are sign that is he was embracing extremist ideas about islam. his classmates at a military college say they complained what they believed were his anti-american views, including a presentation that justified suicide bombing. senator joe lieberman says he will start an investigation. >> in the u.s. army, this is not a matter of constitutional freedom of speech. if hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an islamic extremist, the u.s. has zero tolerance. he should have been gone. >> we want to take time today to remember the people killed at ft. hood, 12 soldiers and one civilian. the civilian was michael cahill.

>> he worked as a physician's assistant and before that served in the national guard and army reserves. cahill's children says he was inkred i incredibly smart and loving. one of them choked up when she was asked what she would miss about him. >> i mean, what would you miss about your dad? that. i miss that. that's the thing. there's a lot of people out there that have lost their dads. what would you miss? i miss that. >> just three weeks ago, cahill had a heart attack. he was back to work a week after that, robin. >> the youngest victim was 19-year-old aaron nemelka. his family spoke out. >> he was the youngest of four children. his family says he graduated from utah high school last year and immediately enlisted in the

military. >> aaron was intensely proud to serve under the leadership of the president. aaron felt keenly the responsibility of representing both his country and his family. he is proud to follow in the footsteps of both his grandfathers that serve, two uncles that are in the military currently and one cousin. >> he had history in his family of service. one of nemelka's grandfathers, robin, received a purple heart in the korean war. he was set to deploy to afghanistan in january. so many sad stories to tell. >> you look at that face and it is so, so young. >> so young. exactly. >> life ended way too early. richard, thank you. three women were shot and killed as they sat in a car with kids. st. louis police say the kids are okay and the suspect knew at least one of the women. they say the suspect drove up to the car at a gas pump on saturday, exchanged words with the woman and started shooting. police arrested him yesterday after a manhunt. computer viruses apparently made some innocent people look

like child porn collectors. an associated press investigation found that pedophiles can infect your computer to store their child porn images or people framing you or pulling pranks can make it look like you've been surfing the porn sites. ap spoke to one man who said he spent $250,000 to prove his innocence. 7,000-pound christmas tree is headed to the nation's capital. choir sang as the tree was cut down saturday in arizona. ♪ o christmas tree your branches green ♪ >> it's the first year arizona's provided the capital christmas tree. it will reach the capitol in three weeks. then it's going to take another week to decorate it with 10,000 lights and 5,000 ornaments made by arizona school children. you know what i always wonder? if they cut down these trees now, it takes three weeks to get

there and another week to decorate t why is it when you do it for your house, the pine needles fall in the first week? >> it's a fire hazard. i don't know what they pump in there. here is a little nugget for you. during hurricane season only 5% of all tropical activity happens in november. beating the odds right now. this is hurricane ida right now, category 1 storm. 90-mile-per-hour sustained winds, clouds are sheering off, getting blown apart a little bit. that's good news. that means it will buzz it down further before it finally makes landfall. we're anticipating it overnight tonight, probably after midnight as a category 1 storm. it makes an abrupt turn to the right, though. a cold front off to the west will absorb that, all the moisture and wind and move it through the carolinas, georgia and form as another coastal low off the carolinas coastline, hopefully jets out to the atlantic by the end of the week. here is your cold front, stretching all the way down toward texas. the rain itself from the

hurricane is this shield right here. you can see off the coast of florida, this rain that's off the coast of texas and louisiana, that's all an upper level trough. it's all steering up to the gulf of mexico and it's going to be heavy at times over the next couple of days. hurricane warnings are out there for today. pascagoula mississippi to indian pass. bright shaded areas are tropical storm warnings and inland are tropical storm wind warnings, which means you'll get the wind and rain instead of the heavy stuff. storm surge will come in later this afternoon and tonight. new orleans getting some decent rain. you can see right over here. up to the west a little farther, houston you're dry for the time being. more showers may break way this afternoon. the entire region will see a lot of rain over the next 48 hours. look at that red shade. pink shade is about eight inches of rain. that will be the heaviest we'll find across georgia, northern parts of north carolina, too. that will be the next couple of days. that's where it's headed.

the rest of the country doesn't look that bad at all. the flash flood watches and warnings are all posted for the lower part of the south. we'll talk about that, robin, in half an hour. good monday to you. >> appreciate it. hugo chavez is tell iing hi military to get ready for a possible war with colombia and claims the u.s. is partially to blame. also ahead, the soccer player who made headlines for yanking another player's hair. remember this? she's been suspended. we'll hear what you have to say about whether there's a double standard in sports.

okay. you never get tired of seeing that, right?

that was the implosion of a seven-story hotel in owensboro, kentucky. we don't know what the city plans to do with the 20 acres of land now that it's gone. prepare for a possible war? that's what venezuelan president huchlt hugo chavez told his forces yesterday. rising tension with colombia, he says, might lead to an armed conflict that could spread to the whole continent. he blamed the united states for trying to turn the countries against each other. the colombian government says it never has and never will make an act of war. the days of the mortgage companies hitting you with unexpected closing costs might be coming to an end. jennifer westhoven is looking out for you. good morning. >> good morning. thanks, robin. if you've ever bought a home, you know the big moment to dread is at the close, you're at the table, they're giving you all

the paperwork and then comes the last-minute hit list -- i'm calling it a hit list -- junk fees, sometimes hundred dollars more than the good faith estimate you were given a while back. say good-bye to closing shock. "the washington post" reports on new year's day, neufeld rules are going to kick in. they are meant to make things friendlier for you and not the lender. many of the fees that currently jump, they're going to be locked in to that good faith estimate. and your hud is also going to come with a direct comparison so you can sit there and go, what are you talking about? you told me it was going to be 100 bucks, now it's 800? so, that should make things a little bit nicer. all right this happened on friday, but you know i've promised to keep you up-to-date on all the jobless benefits for everybody out there who is counting on them. that extension is now the law of the land. the house and senate finally agreed. the president signed into law the bill.

that means 20 more weeks of benefits if you live in one of the many states with high unemployment and 14 more weeks of benefits for everybody else throughout the rest of the country. so, that is millions of people who are expected to get a lifeline here that could help them through the holidays. and we know that 7,000 people a day were losing their benefits before this. they didn't get grandfathered in, too. so, it couldn't have come fast enough. >> definitely an emergency. that's for sure. do you know the news? i know that you do, because you watch this show. so, you're like the smartest viewers around. the challenge is the cnn challenge. you can challenge yourself, test your knowledge, see if you were really listening to the news and pick your favorite anchor to be your best friend to walk you through it. >> you know, i would love to be your host. i hope you choose me. not to put any pressure on you, but choose me. pick me. love me. >> now at cnnchallenge.com. people line d up for a free

and early thanksgiving meal from a tv cooking star. how rachel ray is boosting a town hit hard by the recession.

tough sentences for kids committing crimes that do not involve killing? that is what's on the docket for the supreme court today. the justices will hear arguments about whether it is cruel and unusual punishment to lock up a juvenile for life with no chance of parole. four years ago, the supreme court ruled out the death penalty for anybody younger than the age of 18. you know, you might be looking for a safer place to put your money. hln money expert, clark howard, says one popular investment is a bad deal. he tells you how to grow your money with less risk and lower fees. >> one of the hot investment products in the marketplace is something i don't consider to be an investment at all. it's an insurance thing called a variable annuity. it's where you have an insurance-type policy with something kind of like mutual funds in it. why do i dislike these so much?

because the expenses you pay to have one of these are massive, h humungous commissions. on top of it, the amount of your money that stays with you is slunken so much by the fees you have to pay. according to "the wall street journal" it's typical the fees are 3% to 3.5% of your monies each year. by comparison, ultra low-cost index funds, expenses in that are one-thirtieth of that. i want you to keep more money in your wallet. go to cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> he 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. taylor swift, country cutie,

poked fun at kanye west. oh, no she didn't -- on "saturday night live." remember, she won mtv's award for best video and he got himself right on stage -- didn't boot her off but took the mi microphone away and said beyonce deserved the award ♪ you might be expecting me to say something bad about kanye and how he ran up on the stage and ruined my vma monologue ♪ ♪ but there's nothing more to say because everything's okay i've got security lining this stage ♪ >> west, by the way, has apologized for that incident. >> i liked her imitation of kate gosselin on "the view". >> that was good, if you didn't stay up late.

she was very, very good. >> she was. she was funny. good times keep rolling in new orleans as their team, the saints, they are the talk of the nfl. here is rafer with more on why. what's going on? they're just doing so much better than people expected. and the good news for the people in new orleans, they've got something really to cheer about and now the saints are being discussed in the same sentence as super bowl. they're actually saying saints could end up in the super bowl. they're having the best season in the franchise's history. they battled back to win it 34-20. they are unbeaten. saints, by the way, have never been to super bowl. all the fans in new orleans are like, you cursed us. the only other unbeaten team is peyton manning and the indianapolis colts. they, too, won in dramatic fashion. with one second left to houston, texans one last chance to tie it. >> it is no good. he missed it. colts win!

colts win! >> kris brown misses left. colts have won 17 straight regular season games. remember, guys, the ponytail takedown? if you didn't, you need to watch this every day. this is new mexico's soccer player, elizabeth soccer player elizabeth lambert. she was suspended indefinitely. this was one of many things that she did. now, their season is likely over. however, her suspension could carry over next year. the who knows how long it's going to last. meanwhile you were this guy, brandon spikes trying to gouge a player's eyes out. he got suspended for half a game. then he extended his own suspension a game. so the question is, is this a double standard in sports? are women being punished differently than men? what are you saying about it? sharon said in our facebook page it's always been that way since the beginning of time. men can get by with anything! meanwhile anna marie says she, lambert, should be banned from playing again. as for the other individual that was playing football, that being

spikes, he should have gotten far more than a one game suspension. he could have blinded the individual. all right, keep those thoughts coming. i've got some scary video to show you. this might be a little disturbing. california's jobba best is out of the hospital after this fall and the team's loss to orange gone state. look, he was knocked unconscious. >> oh, my gosh that's scary. >> very scary. he suffered a concussion here. he will miss at least one game. hopefully for his safety it's longer if it's a concussion. don't rush him back out on the field. now it is time for our golf highlight of the week. ernie els on the par 3 6th. this is his tee shot and what do you think is going to happen? if it's the golf highlight of the week, it's probably going to be and it is a hole in one. he finished second in the tournament and gets our golf highlight of the week. and that's sports. >> i'm looking forward to see what our viewers say about whether there's a double standard in the way men and women are punished in sports. that's going to be interesting.

powerful memories ies of 9/. we want to show you how the nation