good morning, sunshine. tuesday. all right. a rainy start for a lot of you. we will have the latest on what was hurricane ida. i'm robin meade. people on the gulf coast are getting slammed by strong winds and heavy rains. who's in the path of tropical storm ida and what you can expect. president obama will meet with the grieving families at ft. hood today. also, we're looking at the connection between the shooting suspect and a moslem cleric linked to the 9/11 attacks and why there was no follow-up. and look at this. a woman who fell in front of a speeding train was inches away from death and an unbelievable

close call caught on tape. first, though, tropical storm ida is getting weaker as it closes in on the gulf coast, but the storm could drench the region with as much as 8 inches of rain. ida is expected to make landfall near the mississippi/alabama state line soon but florida and louisiana wiare taking precautis as well declaring states of emergency. >> usually when we have hurricanes, it's so muggy out, we can come out in our shorts. it's not brr out here down at the beach. >> oh, yeah, it's a little weird in november. you don't see it that much. it happens and we just have to roll with it. well, let's go to bob van dillen now for the latest on ida. okay. so right now the concern is about the wind and the rain mostly. >> yeah, it really is all we're concerned about. we're not looking at a huge storm surge. the tropical storm still offshore but if you look at the satellite presentation, it's stretching out just a bit with the big thunderstorms that develop across the middle of

circulation getting blown inland so it's been raining heavily and steadily the last couple of hours really when you get as far north as georgia. what about the path? it will continue to move up to the north to pensacola and wrap itself around and then form as another low off the carolina coastline, so something we'll be watching the next couple of days, robin. here's the path as it moves to the east. that is what it looks like. what about the rain? i'll show you the radar. at ft. hood president obama joins grieving families and a shaken community in looking for answers to last week's deadly shooting spree. he's going to meet privately with the relatives of those killed and then he will attend a memorial service at the army base. the fbi is starting a new internal review to see if it missed any red flags about the suspect. major nidal hasan. >> i guess they missed the signs with him. can you imagine if they missed the signs with someone else? it's ridiculous. >> i think there were probably a

lot of connections that should have been made that weren't made but we're at war and we're under a lot of fresh be you're and maybe that's what happened. >> major hasan is still in intensive care at an army hospital in san antonio. investigators believe that he acted alone and wasn't part of a terror plot. sources say that he was never put on a watch list even after they found e-mails between him and a moslem cleric linked to two of the 9/11 hijack eers. investigators say there was no mention of threats or violence. if you own an umbrella stroller, stop using it immediately. jennifer westhoven is looking out for you. you're talking about a recall of a million of these strollers. yeah, and this is really dangerous, robin. 12 kids have lost a fingertip. they've had to have them amputated. >> that's awful. >> yeah. it's the umbrella stroller. it's nine models of the maclaren that sold in the last 2e7b years

so they're common. the consumer products safety commission says it's a real easy fix. there's a little hinge and what they'll do is put a plastic cover right over the hinge. if you need more information get that free from the company, by the way, go to our webpage cnn.com/robin. we have all the links for you. >> where are these sold? >> all over the place. these are one of the most common brands of strollers out there. >> thank you. one of the d.c. snipers' ex-wives believes she was his ultimate target. john allen muhammad's execution is set for tonight. the supreme court rejected his final appeal but virginia's governor could step in. ten people died. muhammad's accomplice, malvo got life. we'll have what his son says. former president bill clinton will try to get senate democrats to support health care reform. two democratic sources say that he'll meet with senators during their weekly caucus tomorrow.

democratic leaders have said if democrats fail on health care they'll pay for it on election day. that happened when clinton failed in 1994, and republicans took congress. you may have growing doubts about the government's ability to ward off an h1n1 epidemic. that's according to a new survey that's out this morning. the poll finds since august 8% more americans have lost confidence that h1n1 prevention will happen. but 53% are actually hopeful the government and private companies can produce enough of the vaccine. come here and look at this tape, would you? a woman fell on the train tracks moments before the train arrives. here's the video. it happened friday in boston. she lost her balance putting out a cigarette and fell. transit police say she was intoxicated. people were frantically waving at the oncoming train and the driver was able to stop it just in time. so the woman's okay.

but do you -- look how close she was. the train driver was honored yesterday. so i give you a re-enactment from god, she was putting out a cigarette, intoxicated. >> what did she do it on the heel? oh, my gosh. she's all right, though, right? >> she is all right. even the crew woke up for that one. teasing. >> crazy. boston "t." what's going on? a better look at what's going to happen the next couple of days. this is ida. tropical storm now, 50-mile-per-hour sustained winds. that's where it's located, the northern part of the gulf. look at this batch of clouds. that's another disturbance we're watching for perhaps tropical activity. right now looks like this may merge with that right here so what that means we're going to see another low off the coast of the carolinas and a stiff east wind developing by tomorrow afternoon from the outer banks all the way up to new england.

so we might be watching for a big-time dw ale, something we're keeping our eyes on. look at the rain shield stretching all the way in towards northern alabama and southern tennessee. tropical storm warnings, inland warnings, of course, away from the gulf. the tropical storm warnings themselves right there across the far panhandle, down to new orleans, including lake pontchartrain. back to the east you see the rain showers coming in and around tampa. the rain is wrapping all the way into areas like alabama. let me show what you it looks like now in alabama. here are the waves, still offshore by about 80 miles. moving up to the north 9 miles an hour. the center of circulation should be sometime later this morning into the early afternoon but no big deal because the rain is already there. the wave action is there. the heavy winds are there, too. >> the rain is the big deal for places that normally wouldn't have to worry about the oncoming hurricane. >> northern alabama, georgia, too. this is atlanta radar. put the wind up there, not that big of a deal.

only 12 miles an hour. you see the rain shield through georgia and into alabama. look how heavy that is. that red shaded area, that's like 2, 2 1/2 inches of rain per hour. flood watches are up. we'll talk about those in just about a half hour. thank you. flying during the holidays is expensive enough but while you're stuck at the airport at least riding along the information superhighway, i haven't heard that term since, what, 1990? anyway, it's going to be fast and free. kareem abdul-jabbar says that he's sick and he wants everybody to know about it.

as part of military appreciation monday a free meal at golden corral. in our "salute to the troops" private 1st class aaron william oxenford from his mom.

she missed his birthday and he's missed at home as well. hi, robin. i'm robin gregory and my salute is going out to my wonderful son, private 1st class. i am going to cry. b but, aaron, we're all very proud of you. we want you to be safe. please know that we love you, and we can't wait for you to come home. i might not understand why you've joined the army fully but i'm very proud of what you're doing. >> robin, thank you. if you have somebody in the service and you want to salute them go to cnn.com/robin. the man known as the d.c. sniper is scheduled to be put to death tonight. john allen muhammad and his accomplice gunned down ten people in 2002 but one of his ex-wives says that she knows the real reason for the killing spree and correspondent richard lui joins us with more on that angle this morning.

good morning. >> she is saying he wanted to kill her so he could back his three kids they had together. she says he told her he would kill her when she filed for divorce. she moved her family to maryland to hide but shortly after the sni sniper shootings began. mildred muhammad said she felt guilty when she first heard what he was accused of. >> i felt that way initially because i had done everything that i knew how to do in order to bring attention to how dangerous john was for me. i had no idea that his anger would extend beyond me to include other people in his muh doesn't believe he is ill as his attorneys have been arguing. >> she and her teenaged children are not going to go visit with him today apparently but his other ex-wife -- there are two here in this story. >> and this is the second one

we're talking about. >> she and her son say they will go see him. >> that's right. john muhammad's oldest son from the second marriage says he's had seven years to come to terms with what will happen to his father. last night he told larry king from our sister network cnn what today's meeting might be like. >> probably a hug but more so a conference. we need to get some things out in the open. i haven't talked to him in years. i have some questions i need to ask him. >> muhammad wrote letters to his second ex-wife mostly talking about how much he loved his kids. they won't attend the execution but plan to take the body home for a private burial. >> that has to be difficult. richard, thank you very much. a family of eight started losing home of being found alive after they got stuck in a snowstorm. can you imagine? but a phone call led to an amazing rescue. that story is new for you in about 30 minutes. if you have any money in the stock market you probably did

pretty well yesterday. the stock soared. our money expert jennifer westhoven is more with how they did. >> good morning. even if you don't own stocks yourself but you're in a pension plan, this probably helps you, too. a powerful rally lifted the dow to its best level in a year. stocks have rallied for a few days now. this is all started after the fed said that rates will stay low and then world leaders pledged that they would keep pumping billions into their economies to help the recovery. it's not just the united states doing that. there are many countries doing it. there is this concerted effort to help the world economy. at the closing bell the dow up more than 200 points closing out the day 10,226. powerful rallies with the nasdaq and s&p 500, too. if you are traveling for the holidays, bring your laptop because google is playing santa. you can get free wi-fi at theth 47 of the nation's airports.

the list includes miami, orlando, houston and pittsburgh. what google is hoping is that when you get the free wi-fi you'll set the google page as the home page on your browser and you'll try some of their other products. it's not just because they're nice. and we're going to have the whole list. we do have it now, the whole list of the airports participating on cnn.com/robin. so maybe if you get delayed or something it could be a saver. >> it's like 47 airports. i think you'll be hard pressed to find one that doesn't participate in it. >> it's the major ones. >> thanks. i know you remember the former astronaut accused of trying to kidnap romantic rival. lisa nowak is due in court today. you'll hear about a plea deal on the table plus michael jackson's father is challenging his son's will. he says the executors of his son's will made a big mistake.

the former astronaut accused of attacking another woman, lisa nowak will be in court in florida. the deal has some conditions. they're not giving details, though. nowak pled not guilty to attempted kidnapping and other charges. the woman she allegedly attacked is expected to be there today as well. new this morning, basketball legend kareem abdul ba ja bar has revealed he has cancer. here is rafer with more on the

story. it just caused a ripple of reaction in the newsroom. >> because he's a young guy and such a well known guy. kareem abdul-jabbar is only 62 years old, one of the greatest of all time. now he says he has a rare form of blood cancer called chronic myeloid leukemia. his doctor told him it is not a death sentence. he is trying to raise awareness and give hope to others who may have the disease. he approached a pharmaceutical company to launch an educational campaign and is now working as a paid spokesperson for them. in other news remember oregon running back blunt punched a boise state player? this was the beginning of the season. you might have been on the book tour when this happened. he did the horrible thing right here. that was not good, right? he was suspended for the entire year. now he will be back on the field this weekend in the ducks' game against oregon state. he was suspended and missed eight games but then the school

asked the pac-10 to reinstate him and they did. all is forgiven, i suppose. a little "monday night football" action. the steelers traveled to denver. saluting the troops, as it were, saying thank you to the veterans. the steelers got a come-from-behind win. they trailed at the half but big ben throws this pass to hines ward. look at him leap over champ bailey. he finds somebody in the stands wearing his jersey and says, here, have the ball. you're wearing my jersey, you get the ball. >> that's great. >> now ward was voted the dirtiest player according to "sports illustrated" and the reason i'm saying that, this leads me to the next story. meet 44-year-old scott smith from new jersey who has almost every "sports illustrated" ever printed. he started collecting them as a kid. he got a lot of them signed by those who were on the cover, mike tyson there. he says he spent between $300,000 and $400,000 on expenses to get the signatures so he's now selling the whole thing on ebay.

starting bid, $2 million. >> $2 million? >> for the whole thing. $2 million. >> all that work and he's saying bye-bye. >> i don't know why. >> okay. money. thanks. do you think he looked at any of them? no, because that would dirty the pages or something. >> he's selling them because he can't take them to florida. once you get older in jersey, you automatically move to florida. i know. that's what happens. let's show you what's happening. if you're doing any traveling, tropical storm ida we have our eyes on now. i put it on safer flight explorer with the planes on top of it. you see that going all the way through alabama and georgia, atlanta, right now heavy rain and we're going to see the delays pop up shortly. right now still early but you can see the radar and how expansive it is. what do we have? atlanta, new orleans or more. morning 0 fog, 30 minutes to an hour. charlotte, orlando, be rain and wind. 30-minute to one-hour delays. if you're trying to travel around florida, tampa, jacksonville, maybe even miami into orlando, i think you're going to get a half hour to hour

long delays. out west, low clouds. robin, more on that in a little bit. thanks. well, more news. @@@@@@@@

heavy rains and strong winds are already whipping the southeast as tropical storm ida creeps towards the gulf coast. it is expected to make landfall this morning nerp the mississippi/alabama border. ida has gotten weaker but there is still a major concern that it could cause flooding. the white house is slamming reports that suggest president obama already decided to send more troops to afghanistan. national security adviser general jim jones says the reports are false. senior administration officials suggest pentagon sources leaked the misinfo. he will meet with the national security team tomorrow.

the man accused of trying to blackmail david letterman is expected to ask the judge to drop the case today. a lawyer for robert halderman plans to challenge the evidence. the case made letterman admit on his own show that he had sex with women who worked for him. north and south korean warships clashed near their disputed sea border this morning exchanging fire. south korea claims that a north korean ship was damaged after it deliberately crossed the border. an official says this may have been just an accident that got out of control. that's a quick check of what we're talking about, definitely not all. let's check in on you this morning, sleepy head. i'm robin meade. welcome. during wartime u.s. troops know the risk that they're facing but today in ft. hood a memorial for 13 soldiers killed in the kind of attack no one expected. a shooting rampage on the base and a fellow soldier as the suspect. the president will attend the service and meet with families. some witnesses are still stunned by what they saw. >> people started running and we could see people throwing chairs

and stuff at the windows and at first we didn't know what was going on because we couldn't hear the gunshots. doors were closed. as people started running out, you saw people drenched in blood and stuff and people yelling, he's shooting, he's shooting. >> well, the fbi is starting a new internal review to see if it missed any red flags about the suspect. major nidal hasan. sources say he was never put on a watch list even after they found e-mails from him and another linked to two of 9/11 hijackers. they still believe he acted alone and was not part of a terror plot. drivers may see some changes to a stretch of san francisco bay's bridge after a truck driver went over the side of it yesterday. sadly he died. highway patrol says that he was going too fast on a curve which is a temporary detour. there have been more than 40 crashes there, though, since september. officials plan to add more warning signs and reflective paint to that railing. new this morning, basketball legend kareem abdul-jabbar has

made a stunning announcement that he has cancer. here's rafer with more on the prognosis. good morning. yeah, good morning to you. we also learned kareem actually has a history of cancer in his family. his grandfather, uncle and father all died from the disease. this morning the 62-year-old former los angeles laker said he was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer called myeloid leukemia. the good news is his doctor tells him it's not a death se n sentence and is treatable. he wants to get the message out to others who have the disease. kareem not only was a great basketball player but he was in movies like "airplane." he is partnering with a drug company who treats those with the disease. he approached them about working together. robin? >> well, certainly wish him well. that's for sure. thank you. brand-new details about the sex offender suspected of strangling at least 11 women and hiding their bodies around his house in cleveland, ohio. yesterday the niece of cleveland's mayor said that she had a relationship with anthony

sowell two years ago. she tells woio that he took good care of her and she never thought that the smells in his house might be bodies. meanwhile, two more families learned that their loved ones were in sowell's home. >> just told me that her body was intact. that's all. >> but it's still devastating nevertheless that she died in this manner and was found in a backyard. >> well, the fbi now says that it's investigating whether suspect anthony sowell might be responsible for unsolved killings and rapes as far away as japan. sowell spent time there as a marine. he faces five counts of aggravated murder. hey, i'm not in that person's shoes but i'm like, what did you think the smell was? >> apparently it doesn't smell like anything else. i've never smelled it. >> but that goes for everybody in the neighborhood. >> they just lived with it.

our concern today is about what was hurricane ida. here comes -- it's coming ashore. the main concern, though, isn't the storm surge. what is the concern? >> it's the rain, robin. you're right. another eight inches of rain on what has already fallen. i was looking at the doppler radar estimates. radar can actually dedeuce how much rain has fallen. around western parts of alabama, five inches have fallen since yesterday. the center of circulation is still offshore, pensacola by about 80 miles moving up to the north but the heavy rain is already up there. tower cams, we have them all over the gulf of mexico. pop one of them up and you can see that the waves are out there. the rain showers are out there, too. it will be breezy especially along the coast. 50-mile-per-hour. around the beaches about 30 to 40 miles per hour so that's what it looks like in alabama. let me show you what it looks like with the tropical storm warnings because they're out there from new orleans including lake pontchartrain over to the

florida pan hahandle. tropical storm wind warnings for lower parts of alabama and mississippi. so you're going to get slammed over here the next couple of hours. some of the winds i'm watching right now green point, florida, sustained winds, not the gusts. sustained. to hollywood, beach. it's about 20. but look at the rain squall coming in. that's where you get the strongest winds as they come on through. look at the heavy rain shield in to atlanta, back to birmingham with the heaviest rain by far falling. that is into eastern parts of mississippi where the winds picking up to about 19 miles an hour. eight inches, the purple shading by birmingham north of atlanta and back to the carolinas. that's over the next two days. >> what i find amazing is the storm is not that strong. but yet look how far inland people are going to get 8 inches of rain. >> it's because there's a cold front here. that's going to drag it up kind of like a conveyor belt and

throw it across the entire mid-atlantic. that's the reason why you see rain that far inland today. >> all right. thank you. >> you've got it. >> i know you know the news because you watch the show and we just fill your brain with it. well, prove it. challenge your friends. challenge yourself. text your knowledge of the news. you can pick your favorite anchor. no pressure but i am one of them. at least i hope i am. cnnchallenge.com. good luck. if you have plans to fly for the holiday season, we have good news about the airlines. also ahead, just because you're 106 years old doesn't mean you can't do the shuffle. see how a veteran celebrated his birthday.

okay. here's what's making headlines in some of the papers. the "l.a. times" reports that in mexico growing numbers of women are being recruited by the drug cartels. why? apparently women can more easily pass through the military checkpoints along the drug trafficking routes. in "the washington post," a

new york republican's last name is now a verb. scozzafava threw her support behind a democrat. now there's talk about other political figures getting scozzfava'd. the creators of the got milk campaign are getting ready to make a big push to keep chocolate milk on school kids' lunches, the men use. health activists say kids get too much sugar heighten iing th owes obesity problem. a quick check of the papers. so you don't have to stumble outside in your robe. the number one cause of death and disease among women between the ages of 15 and 44 is aids? that's from the world health organization's first global study about women's health. the report says that unsafe sex leads to one in five deaths for women that age. the u.n. agency blames discrimination and poverty for keeping women in the dark about the prevention and the best

treatments. okay. if you see one of those hot new toys for christmas, grab it, grab it now. toy shortages are starting early this year. what gives? now why would that be. >> you have to be on your toes this year. >> sorry. >> it's because of the recession. yeah, i'm looking over at you. the retailers are worried that a lot of people aren't going to spend as much. they're also having a credit crunch. they can't afford to get stuck with a lot of leftovers so they don't want to order a huge batch and have all these toys on markdown. they've been ordering in smaller batches. this is the mechanical hampster. i tell you, robin -- >> i do not even know about this. >> i looked on the website and it's running around a maze but it's fake. when it goes to the bathroom there's a fake flushing sound. it brushes its teeth. >> it sounds cute. no wonder they're popular. >> they say it will be hard to find them on the shelves this year and other toys getting hard

to find is the mattel mindflex and barbie fashionista, the bohemian barbie, like mary kate. if you're traveling anytime for the holidays, this could be good if it sticks. airlines had their best on-time rate in six years in september. it's good if you don't like a lot of delays. the reason is there were 10% fewer flights in september than august so it helps with some of the congestion. if you want the best chance of landing on time, alaska, southwest, continental. if you want to have an excuse for missing that meeting, the airline that fared the worst was delta. back to you. >> thank you. 82%, huh? a freak snowstorm turned a family camping trip into a struggle to survive. how a dad and seven kids finally got rescued after being trapped in their van for days.

plus, we've seen brawls like this at the pro soccer games but these are girls in high school. what is with the girls and the soccer games?

♪ lenny kravitz is cool. a 106-year-old veteran is celebrating life and i mean celebrating. dr. louis stein danced at a surprise birthday party yesterday near miami, hugging the ladies. he says joining the military was one of the most outstanding events much of his life. >> being a soldier boy for 27 years, i loved it. >> he loved the military. >> what's kept him going for 106 years so strong? he says women, brandy and dancing. got to love him. today a judge could extend an

order keeping jennifer lopez's first husband from selling a sex tape from their 1997 honeymoon. that is noah. she sued him for $10 million claiming that he broke a confidentiality agreement. yesterday he was barred from making the video public until today's hearing. they were married 11 months. our i-report of the day, shot this video of the beaches in destin, florida, getting hammered by ida. the water is already rising. ida hadn't even made landfall. it still hasn't yet. we give you the news. you give us your views. head to cnn.com/robin and how you could be an i-reporter. we welcome you. what is it about -- when it rains it pours? all after sudden we have video of female soccer players behaving badly.

a fight broke out on the field after high school girls soccer game and it carried over to the stands. here is rafer. >> i mean, when i saw this, i first thought it was a joke. i thought somebody was joking with me because, no, it couldn't possibly be but, yes, the state championship in rhode island is one they're going to want to forget. it was in the fourth and final game and in the last minute, look at it right here as these two girls go at it and watch the hair pulling right here. look at that. >> that's rough. >> that is rough. those are high school kids. officials tried to break it up. then during the trophy presentation in the stands the fans started brawling as well. and just what a way -- look at the video when you see these girls' faces, they're children. >> so young. >> and this is how they're going to have to remember the year. >> this is high school or junior high? >> high school. they look younger to us now, robin. the kansas city chiefs cut larry johnson after he was suspended from the team for using gay slurs and attacking his coach on his twitter

account. he wasn't playing that well either. he's had a history of other off-the-field issues. a woman sued him for allegedly throwing a drink in her face in a bar. i told them to fire him and they did it. i'm not saying they did it because of me a. spoof on nba.com of all those '80s compilation albums. here are some of the players singing and i use the term loosely. ♪ funky town >> that's derek rose. ♪ i wish that i had jesse's girl ♪ >> this is my favorite, luol deng. why is he wearing a blond wig? ♪ i want to learn how to fly >> and now kirk hinrick. >> these are awesome. this is an attempt to endear themselves to the community. >> they're not actually selling anything. if they were selling that, i'd buy it.

>> just for fun. that's cute. seven years after he terrorized the washington, d.c., area, john al muhammad is set to be executed tonight. a look back at the d.c. sniper shootings. when i looked back at the time line it's hard to believe how many days, how many weeks people were terrorized by where is this coming from. >> it seemed like forever for many of these people, too, talking october 2nd, 2002, when this all started. one man was gunned down that might. five more the following day. all people just going about their daily personal business. now over the next few weeks there were several more shootings including a 13-year-old boy. he survived, but the final death toll was ten people. people in the d.c. area were panicked until police caught john muhammad and lee boyd malvo on october 24th. >> i was already anchoring the show then and i remember that sometimes you would have -- it would seem like two, three different shootings in a morning

during the show. most of these murders at that time happened in maryland, but the attorney general tried muhammad in virginia because the death penalty is usually carried out quickly there. some people who think he should not die tonight. >> let's look at that part. the reverend archer met muhammad and his kids in 2001 when they stayed at a homeless shelter he ran in washington state. he believes muhammad was motivated by mental illness. >> i think that john muhammad is a typical case of untreated mental problems and i'm very opposed to mentally die fishts people being executed. >> defense attorneys say muhammad suffered post traumatic stress disorder during his service in the first gulf war and they released a scan of his brain, robin, which they claim show signs of damage consistent with schizophrenia.

>> that part is interesting. richard, thank you. once again that is set to happen tonight. a family of eight spent two nights in a van trapped in a heavy snowstorm. they were camping in oregon when the storm started but they couldn't call for help, they had no cell phone. >> i told dad that i wasn't going to make it another night because i couldn't stand sleeping upright. >> that is so sad. the kids' uncle got the search started after he called police saying the family was missing. now they're found and okay thankfully. a guy driving a fork lift at a russian liquor warehouse may have been sampling the product. check out the disaster when it slides into reverse. oh, no. look at all the boxes crash on the floor. reminds you of a tv commercial where the boy says, want to get away. we found that on youtube. a woman staggered and fell on to

a train track and the ongoing train was seconds away. that's incredible video. you can't miss to see what happened there. y8