good morning. rise and shine. thursday is connected to friday. you love that, don't you? i'm robin meade. president obama wants to make a move in afghanistan but doesn't like any of the options. he asked his top advisers for help and even that option is not getting results. >> i went to the temple bar district of dublin and drank alcohol there like any normal adult would. >> pictures of her drinking may have cost her her job. why she was fired over her facebook page. >> ♪ when you are 15 and somebody

told you they love you ♪ ♪ you will believe them ♪ >> she got her moment and then some. the big joke that nobody could pass up. our stop story, the number of americans that died from the swine flu may have been four times higher than first thought. the h1n1 may have killed 4,000 people in the united states since april. the cdc is now counting lab confirmed cases and deaths complicated from h1n1. president obama got four options from advisers about afghanistan, and he turned them all down. a white house official says the president has growing doubts about the afghan government, and he wants an exit strategy before sending extra troops. so he sent all his staff recommendations back to the drawing board. former secretary of state colin powell supports the president's

cautious approach. >> this is a very difficult one for him, and it isn't just a one-time decision. this is a decision that will have consequences for the better part of his administration. so, mr. president, don't get pushed by the left to do nothing. don't get pushed by the right to do everything. you take your time to figure it out. you're the commander in chief and this is what you were elected for. well, part of what's making this decision so hard is the president's two top men in afghanistan completely disagree about bringing in more gis. richard lui has more on that coming up. heavy rain from what is left of tropical storm ida is now battering the mid-atlantic. virginia's governor declared a state of emergency and there are coastal flood warnings in some areas. the storm has moved out of georgia finally but not before flooding several neighborhoods. some are still recovering from the massive flooding back in september. bob has more on the storm and the rest of your forecast in your backyard in just a couple of minutes.

mike tyson is accused of hitting a hot dog. >> yeah, the paparazzi like to camp out at lax and there are conflicting reports of what happened. there was a scuffle at lax and a paparazzi, and both men were booked on a suspicion of misdemeanor battery. the photog says tyson hit him once and was treated for a cut on the forehead. police say tyson was cooperative. right now, robin, they are combing through surveillance video. have you to believe that there is surveillance video that showed exactly what happened. >> you would think so. maybe time will tell. thanks. new this morning, no noerd the ft. hood shooting suspect

that major nidal malik hasan formally requested to leave the military. meanwhile his attorney has concerns about his case. >> not only do i have concerns about it, i can tell you, i have been approached on the street by many folks in the vicinity that expressed the same concern. sit possible for him to get a fair trial, they ask me. and i shake my head and i say i guess we have to wait and see. >> 13 people died in the shooting at ft. hood and dozens more wounded. if hasan is convicted of capital murder it would be up to the president to decide if a death sentence could be carried out. there was a little bit of drama with former miss california usa prejean when she

was on "larry king live." >> larry, it's completely confidential, and you are being inappropriate. >> okay, "larry king live" continues. detroit, hello. >> translator: i am calling from detroit, and i am sure you and carrie has great advice if they wanted to get married. >> did she hear the question? >> awkward. prejean continues with the show after the commercial break. larry apologized and said she

was told there would be no calls. she made several tapes is what one guy says. >> i want to attribute that. okay, yeah, tmz. okay. awkward. >> can you hear me now? i just love that. and she is being nice to the camera guy, i am just going to leave, okay? good tv. always has good tv, that larry king. we are talking about the low pressure storm. for the last couple days now, it's old ida but reform lating stronger now. you couple that low pressure with the high pressure building in new england, and you also have a lot of rain. look at the greens and yellios. that's an indication of the

heaviest rainfall. and the wind advisories are posted, too. and winds are gusting to 50 miles per hour today and that goes all the way up to the jersey shore. and then look at the wind warnings around parts of virginia and delaware and maryland, too. you are looking at gusting about 60 miles per hour. extremely fast-moving winds along the coastline. that's something we are watching. look at the rain around the outer banks there, and that's blasting northward and through virginia and the rest of the state there. and then it wraps back around for you to the western half of the state. and it moves all the way into the northeast today. also, light rainfall in the areas of light blue. philadelphia light scattered showers. most of the rainfall is shy of long island in new york, can you see it there. the wind will be up and the day lays will be there because of this. and we will see an additional,

four maybe five inches of rain in the next 24 to 48 hours. full details coming up on that in a bit. out west, more snow. we will get to that shortly as well. >> thank you. there is some good news for the housing market. the number of foreclosures are dropping again, and there is still a risk things could get worse. check this out, a hockey coach loses it!

time now to salute our troops. today's salute is for larry walker johnson from his fiancee. larry's in the navy and is now home. they have five kids between them and they're glad that he's home. >> hi, robin.

my name is sawrese. i am larry walker johnson's fiancee sharisse and i wanted to send this salute out to my wonderful, loving fiance. i really am very, very grateful for all you have done for your country and for us. we are just so, so proud of you for all of the things you have done for serving your country. you're known as eo-2 johnson. to us you are daddy, son, brother, friend and husband. thank you so much. i love you. >> adorable. if you have somebody in the military we'd be happy to help you salute them, so go to cnn.com/robin. we'll help you. president obama spent two hours debating the strategy in afghanistan yesterday. but he's getting drastically different advice about whether to send more troops. talk about a tough place toeb. we are talking about two generals that know each other well. >> yeah, you have the top general, mcchrystal, and then

you have karl eikenberry, the required general that had mcchrystal's job for months. a this disagreement, by the way, surprises some. >> having two generals on the ground. general karl eikenberry and then mcchrystal on the ground feuding with each other in public like this and it's nearly unprecedented. we talk about a team of rivals. we never imagined it would be the two generals. >> the president's decision about troop levels, it has a lot to do, i would imagine with the afghan government. is there not concern about the leadership there? why is that? >> without the cooperation, no amount of additional troops can help that is what is said. and president obama publicly suggested that afghan president,

karzai, do more to crack down on corruption and the huge illegal drug trade that helps to fund terrorists activity. but some say he is skeptical that karzai will follow-through on his promises and the white house is considering shifting money from the national government to local afghan leaders that cooperate with u.s. objectives. now over to jen westhoven. >> we are talking about states in serious trouble. this affects all americans not just the people in those states. many states falling dramatically behind in their budgets, and are looking to cut jobs and services and raise taxes to try and balance the budgets. check it out. the states under red. you see them clustered in the west and midwest and florida and

new jersey. now some of the states cut their budgets by as much as 30%. that's a huge deal. imagine the company changing by 30%. but it's not just the red states affected, it's all of us. when they cut those jobs, and there could be 900,000 jobs. that is a big drag on the economy. and now, some states are turning up and doing better because their housing markets are doing stable and because of the farms. relatively high prices for some farm products are helping. better news. another sign the housing market could be healing, right. maybe still in intensive care but the healing is still on. the foreclosure rate came down in october again. there is still a lot of risk out there says the study's author, but a sign to show that things

may be doing better. new this morning. and there is a new study from spending, and they track all kinds of spending by americans. they found americans seem to be sticking to spending less, and maybe it's becoming a habit for us. americans cut their spending and held it to the lower levels at three months now. that's good news for your personal budget, but it could be holding the economy back though. a high school teacher wanted to share her vacation photos on facebook, but lost her job doing something grown-ups are allowed to do.

this morning a jury starts considering whether to give the death penalty to the a man that killed a tv anchor.

he shouted as he was taken from the courthouse. >> it's a corrupted system. >> nobody is more grateful than the parents, and all of her friends. >> two options, death or life without parole. if they cannot decide, the judge will impose a life sentence. a former high school teacher says that she was forced to resign over her facebook page. ashley payne was a teacher in north georgia. she says that her principal recommended she quit because of a curse word that appeared on her facebook page and pictures from her european vacation. >> i visited the guinness brewery, i went to italy and had wine. i went to the temple bar district of dublin and drank some alcohol there like any normal adult would. >> well, payne is suing to get her job back. the school system is not commenting on the situation. country music fans witnessed history last night at the cmas.

♪ >> 19-year-old taylor swift became the youngest ever to win entertainer of the year award. >> i will never forget this moment because in this moment everything that i have ever wanted has just happened to me. >> and fortunately no one interrupted her as she made her speeches last night. yeah, people don't -- apparently don't think people forgot about what kanye west did to her at the mtv awards. we'll show you all the spoofs, multiple spoofs across the show regarding kanye west interrupting her last time. and remember hootie and the

blowfish? congratulations to him and everybody. he is doing great. a minor league hockey coach lost it on camera. good morning to you. >>ets, this guy was the coach and the general manager of the louisiana ice skaters. not the coach anymore. he does not like a call. there goes -- hey, coach, i needed that! okay, i will get a new stick. this is the second time he lost his cool. he was actually suspended for coaching indefinitely and the team's website says they hired a new coach. part of the southern professional hockey league. falcon's player and his wife

posed at part of peta's message. and this is believed to be the fastest soccer goal ever. the whistle blows and the game starts and the ball is kicked. it goes in. two seconds is how long it took to score this goal from mid field. >> wow, very nice. thank you. i have to run. our travelers are waiting. >> the rain and wind will be out there. the sabre system shows the rain is here and the wind is here, too. watch for delays. boston, shorter delay. wind-related delays. and then out west a little bit

of range changing to snow for salt lake city. more "morning express" in just a couple minutes.

president obama leaves today for his first visit to asia has president. he will start in tokyo and make starts in singapore, shanghai and seoul. he will talk to leaders about the economy and trade with china and plans for afghanistan among other things. the husband of sandra day o'connor died from alzheimer's complications. she served as the courts' first female justice. colleagues say when he got worse she started to bring him to work. the bay bridge is going to be shut down again for more

repairs. crews have more work to do on the same 80-foot long steel bar that cracked earlier this year. it's not clear yet when the work will happen. lou dobbs is leaving cnn. at the end of last night's show he said and announced he is leaving the network immediately. over the past few years he has taken a stand over hot topics like immigration, and wants to look for other ways to play an activist role on those issues. it's 31 minutes past the hour. i am robin meade, and you are that close to getting to friday. president obama is not ready to sign off on any of the four proposals for a troop increase in afghanistan. yesterday he asked his war council to revise them. a senior administration official says the president wants an exit strategy, how to get out if they increase forces

there. this means clarifying how and when the u.s. troops will hand over responsibility to the afghan government. and even with a time line on this, this still could stretch on for years. >> if you send troops tomorrow you are still not getting the troops there until the end of the following year. so decisions made today actually play out over a very long time. if you delay the decision by several months while you are waiting for the afghan government to become less corrupt you suddenly look at troops arriving in 2012. >> really the theme here, robin, is administration officials are saying obama wants to make it clear that the united states commitment in afghan tan is not open-ended. >> the republicans have criticized the president for spending months on this debate. and a study shows americans are

evenly split on his decision to take his time. >> a version that calls for 34,000 troops is a favorite right now at the pentagon. this one plan has been described as a half and half approach, half of the troops would be fighting and the other half would be holding grounds so the afghans can regroup. that's only one of the four options. administration officials say the other three options, robin, are different mixes of the components you and i have been talking about. >> sounds like we have a while to go yet. thank you, richard. and every year 11 u.s. american pilots try to show under the influence of alcohol. that has been happening since 1997. and officials are reviewing the case of a pilot arrested on monday suspected to be drunk on

the job. and now the woman that was attacked by a chimpanzee had an interview with oprah. during most of the interview she kept her face hidden under the veil. >> was this your job to take care of him, because this was your boss? >> no, it was her pet that she wanted, and she has had to rush out a few times or could not come home that night. there was only a few times that i fed him. >> so you were familiar with him. were you afraid of him? >> yeah, always. >> during an interview with the associated press, she said she warned the owner the animal was violent. it once pounded on the bars so hard it's hands bled. and now, a couple threw

rings away, and three workers shifted through 10 tons of crash and found the garbage bag and the rings. >> bless her heart. thank goodness. that's tough. have you ever lost your wedding ring before? i have twice. >> i wanted to say no i haven't. >> that's good. i have done it twice and found it twice. once on the beach and once throwing snow balls at my son in the street. >> you need to get it fitted better. >> yeah, a couple pounds will do it. what is happening now? let me show you the radar. outer banks, the heavy rain and the winds sustained there 22-mile-per-hour, gusting to over 30. that rain stretches all the way through virginia. the winds pick up too off the coast.

33 miles per hour. when you get around virginia beach, you are looking at 36 miles per hour. when you get on in towards the lower part of virginia, that's what it looks like there. rain stretches all the way back into western sports of virginia and northern parts of north carolina, too. and then the rain falls short of the philadelphia metro area. and heavier downpours around baltimore and in towards d.c. just off the jersey shore, 34-mile-per-hour sustained winds. it will gust today near 50, and it's already happening. watch for beach erosion. and it's going to be a rough couple days. the low will sit off the carolina coast and gradually shift to the east over the next couple days. look at the flash flood watches and warnings, and that's in the green. anticipating three to four inches of rain in the next 24 to 48 hours and that's in the red shade in northern parts of virginia. more of that in a bit. and it's a big day for local ski

resorts. mt. hood meadows are officially open in oregon. getting blasted with snow for the last couple days. an early start. cannot beat that. it's not even thanksgiving yet. more details in a bit. >> if you have snow, let's do something with it. >> yeah. can you imagine buying expired medicine and food and baby food at a store. one major claim is paying a lot of money because of claims like that against it. and taylor swift made history.

so at the country music association awards last night didn't take them long to start joking about kanye west. remember he interrupted taylor swift at the mtv awards. and brad paisley and carrie underwood opened the show like this. ♪ ♪ mamas don't let your babies ♪ grow up to be kanye ♪ they have a right to get their digs in. >> he did say he was sorry, but that show was littered with kanye comments. our money expert, jen westhoven has more on this. >> they are saying higher taxes and that makes people go, who,

me? and they are saying on the rich. this is the top senate democrat, majority leader harry reid, and he is considering higher taxes on the rich to help pay for the health care legislation. and by rich, though, they mean if you make more than $250,000 a year. democrats kind of stuck to that as their definition of rich over the past year or so. one option would be to raise the payroll taxes that go to medicare. right now you are paying 1.4% of your income for that. and this is what they tell you as they try to get some kind of legislation together. stocks hit a fresh high coming off the bottom last night. that's good news in a bad economy, right. at one point we were in the 6,000s, and starts off this morning from 10,291. enough to log a new high for the year. that's six days in a row of march get gains. we will see what happens this

morning. we have the new up-to-the minute jobless report coming out in about 45 minutes. you go to the pharmacy and pick up medicine and maybe snacks while you are there. are you picking up the products and looking at the expiration date? >> no, you think the store will do it. >> well, maybe you should be. cvs is going to settle claims in new york that claim the shelves were filled with old products. we don't know if this is something that happened across the country only in new york. state investigators say they found egregious amounts of expired targets, some more than two years old. >> two years? crazy. >> now, this is what they say, a settlement doesn't mean they admitted anything. they are paying money and that makes this go away. they say they will strengthen

monitoring and put up signs to remind you to check the dates. >> remind you, the customer? >> yes. >> okay. let's just say i hope it's a group effort. i am not the only one checking at the store. last night joy welcomed tennis star, serena williams. she talked about her outburst -- you remember this story. it costs her the winning point. >> what do you call them in tennis? >> she was the line judge. >> the line judge. i am a sports moron. >> i relate it to a car accident sometimes. you get in an accident and you hit something or somebody and somebody hits you and you get out and you are shocked and angry, but then, you know, you just deal with it and you move on. well, catch the "joy behar

show." that's here on headline news.

investing in the stock market could be a gamble, but money expert clark howard says if you play your cards right you can weather the ups and downs. >> it seems we are such pack animals we follow the herd when we should not. i will give you an example. a lot of people were shell shocked by the huge decline in the shock market that went on for about a year and a half. you saw your account volumes just evaporate right before your eyes and your 401(k)s or iras or whatever. what did so many people do? where people said when things were in the toilet they said i cannot take this any more and put their money in safe things.

now the stock market had a big run up that may be running out of steam, don't know, but people are pushing money back into stocks after they have already recovered big value. doesn't work. you are working against yourself. put money in study as you go. i am clark howard. for more ways for you to invest wisely go to cnn.com/clark howard. >> did you know clark howard serves in the georgia state guard so this weekend you will see him serving the troops. catch us in a special presentation at 6:00 a.m., noon, and 4:00 p.m. eastern on saturday and sunday here on hln. and if you would like to help the victims and the families of the ft. hood shootings. you can click on impact your world. the wife of the dodgers' owner is speaking out for the

first time about the couple's messy divorce everybody is talking about. >> as you know, we have been talking about this a lot. and we have only heard from the man, frank's allegations where he said she had an affair with her chauffeur, and she told the "los angeles times," that he lies. she was just as much behind the success of the dodgers, and that's why she wants her job back even though the court denied it. now they are battling out who owns the team. she signed a post -- as opposed to a pre-nup. why? and tyson was said to have hit a paparazzi.

he says mike hit him and he fell and had to be treated for a cut at his forehead. tyson's spokesperson said he was trying to protect his child. and then a true champion of ours had his life made into a movie called "blind side." and that will be at 5:00 p.m. eastern. >> i need to see the movie, too. it looks really endearing and charming. >> yeah, well put together. this guy is amazing. a 60-year-old graduate student saying put me in, coach. tom thompson has not played since high school, but they are hoping to get him in this weekend for their season finality against trinity. >> is that not like every man's fantasy, to go back and play football?

>> oh, yeah. >> i got one year of eligibility left. >> yeah, he works out hard and they treat him like one of the guys even though he is 40 years. can he go back and play again. my husband is, like, laying in bed, i got one more year eligibility. don't mean to laugh. listen to this. cnn has learned tomorrow morning the parents of the so-called balloon boy will plead guilty to the charges related to the case. richard heene's attorneys say he will plead guilty to attempted to influence a public servant. that's aa felony. and his wife will plead guilty to falsely reporting to authorities. that's a misdemeanor. they said their boy had flew away in a balloon. they could get jail time. we have not heard from the d.a. we go from them saying, it's not a hoax to this. a man is okay after doctors

removed a pound and a half of metal from his stomach. they thought it was appendicitis, but surgeons in peru found nails, coins, copper wire and scrap metal inside of him. no word on why he ate it, but i've got to tell you doctors are looking at his mental health. the man says he may keep eating metal for sport. okay. you know, they play a lot of soccer in peru. he knows that, right? you could do something else beside making your stomach look like a football. how are our travelers? only one delay due to the wind, laguardia. about an hour delay right now. mao get lengther when the winds pick up. about an hour or more for new york. laguardia is the first casualty, philadelphia in the same boat. winds out of the northeast-east, gusting near 40 miles per hour. hour or more delay. same with d.c. and atlanta. shorter delays but the same

thing, the wind. a 12-year-old girl cannot stop sneezing. the poor little thing, a mysterious chronic disorder has her sneezing 12,000 times a day.

good morning. thursday connected to friday, just a little rhyme eminder. maybe something to help you have a good day. president obama is considering making a move about afghanistan, but he doesn't like his options so far. so he's asked his top advisors for help. why even that option isn't getting results. police say that one punch landed boxer mike tyson in the back of a police car. he says the whole thing is a matter of self-defense. you may know him from his days in rock 'n' roll. but last night day yus rucker made country history. people love him.

new this morning, the balloon boy's parents have agreed to a plea deal for their attention grabbing hoax. richard heene will plead guilty to a felony. he could get up to three months in jail. his wife could have been deported to japan if she had been convicted of a felony. she will plead guilty to a misdemeanor and could get 60 days in jail. now, the prosecutors have recommended that the couple get probation. our top story, other than that, the number of americans who have died from swine flu may be four times higher than we first thought. the "new york times" says that the cdc estimates h1n1 may have killed 4,000 people in the united states just since april. now, the virus itself isn't getting more dangerous, but the cdc is now counting lab-confirmed cases and deaths from complications related to h1n1. heavy rain from what is left of tropical storm ida is now battering the mid-atlantic. virginia's governor declared a state of emergency, and there are coastal flood warnings in some areas. that storm has moved out of

georgia but not before leaving some flooding. some of these neighborhoods were still recovering from the massive flooding back in september. bob has more on the storm and the rest of your forecast in your own backyard in just a couple of minutes here. president obama got four options from his advisors for the war in afghanistan and he's turned them all down. a white house official says the president has growing doubts about the afghan government and he wants an exit strategy before sending more troops. so yesterday he sent all of his staff recommendations back to the drawing board. former secretary of state colin powell supports the president's cautious approach. >> part of what's making this

decision so difficult is that the president's two top men in afghanistan completely disagree themselves about bringing in more gis. talk about a problem. richard lui has more on that coming up. mike tyson is in trouble for an incident at the airport. rafer, he's accused of hitting a photographer. >> yeah, robin. now cops are investigating his account. they're also investigating the photographer's account. they're both conflicting. now, we do know that mike tyson and a paparazzi got into a scuffle at l.a.x. both men were booked and released on suspicion of misdemeanor battery. the photog says iron mike hit him and he fell and was treated for a cut on his forehead. a spokewoman for tyson said he was trying to protect h his-month-old child because the paparazzi was too aggressive. they're checking to see if there's surveillance video. it's an airport. i've got to believe there's going to be some video of it somewhere. we'll find out and let you know. >> that should help clear things

up for sure. rafer, thanks. new this morning, there is no record that the ft. hood shooting suspect ever complained to his supervisors about his claims of being ha hassed over religion. two senior military officials also tell the associated press there's no indication that major nidal hasan formally requested to leave the military. his family said he was seeking legal advice about it. meanwhile, his attorney has concerns about the case. >> not only do i have concerns about it, i can tell you i've been approached on the street by many folks in this vicinity who have expressed the same concern. is it possible for him to get a fair trial, they ask me. and i just simply shake my head and say, i guess we'll have to wait and see. >> well, 13 people died in the shooting at ft. hood. dozens more were wounded. if hasan is convicted of capital murder in a military trial, it would be up to the president to decide whether a death sentence could be carried out. the military justice system has not executed anyone in nearly

half a century. there was a little bit of drama with former miss california usa carrie prejean when she appeared on "larry king live" she." she was there talking about her book. when larry asked about a sex tape, looked like she was ready to bolt. >> in mediation it was discussed why you were with mediating. >> larry, it's completely confidential and you're being inappropriate. okay? you're being inappropriate. >> inappropriate king live continues. >> yes. >> detroit, hello. >> caller: hi. i'm calling from detroit. i'm a gay man and i love pageants. i'm sure that you carrie have great gay friends that helped you possibly win. what would you give them as advice if they wanted to get marrie married. >> larry: did you hear the question, carrie? did you hear the question? >> awkward! prejean continued with the show,

though, after there was a commercial break. larry apologized and said that prejean had insisted that there wouldn't be any phone calls from viewers. new this morning, we are learning that prejean's ex-boyfriend is claiming that she 20 years old when she made the controversial sex tape that i believe larry was asking about. he tells tmz she had asked him to lie about it and say she was 17. prejean said the tape was a youthful mistake and the controversy is an attempt to embarrass her. >> oh, that was just cringe worthy. >> is was just embarrassed watching that. >> yes. the only way if it would have been worse if she would have snapped his suspenders. that's the only way it would have been worse. >> they appeared to be in different studios. >> yes. that's the only reason it didn't happen. that's an inappropriate question. she even did the almost finger wag at larry. this is larry king. >> it seemed like it got under his skin a little bit. yeah, we'll be right back with inappropriate larry king. >> that's good tv.

what's going on, rob? let me take you to the east coast. the major weather impact is going to really affect millions of people because of the air travel. it's right around here. you can see the low pressure region south of cape hatteras, north carolina. high pressure to the north, difference in pressureses get the winds right off the ocean today and they're going to be strong. under the clouds, look at the heavy rain pouring it on. the outer banks, northern north carolina, most of virginia right now. just swallowed up with heavy rain. gets on in towards delaware, maryland. delaware just getting decent rain now. it falls shy of the philadelphia metro, getting light showers there. that's about all you'll get, off and on light showers. wind advisories from the jersey shore all the way to interior north carolina, including the charlotte metro region, winds gusting to nearly 50 miles per hour, especially around the coast. beach erosion we'll have it, high wind warnings, the counties shaded in red. those winds will gust to about 60 miles per hour before it begins to loosen up this afternoon. look at the rain, coming on

strong. these are all winds in miles per hour and all sustained. the outer banks, 22 miles per hour sustained winds right now, up the line farther, 36 miles per hours. then a little farther to the north still, the rain just outside of new york. live to nyc, here's what it looks like. the winds will be out there, laguardia currently a 56-minute delay because of the gusty winds. i think most of the leaves you see around central park, gorgeous now, probably not that great by monday because they'll all be blown off. more in a little bit, rob. >> they are pretty. bobby, check this out. a hockey coach losing it. started throwing everything but the kitchen sink. what in the world is the problem? plus -- it's got nothing to do with shoes, shirts or bags. what the newest trend in holiday shopping is. we've got you covered.

it is time right now for our salute to the troops. today's salute is for larry

walker johnson from his fiancee. he's in the navy, home right now. they have five kids between them and they're all glad that he's home. >> hi, robin. i am larry walker johnson's fiancee, and i just wanted to send this salute out to my wonderful long loving fiance. i really am very, very grateful for all that you have done for your country and fors us. we are just so, so proud of you for all the things that you have done for serving your country. you're known in the military as eo 2 johnson but to us you're daddy, brother, friend and husband. thank you so much. i love you. >> what a beautiful message, sha reese. thank you. if you have somebody in the service, go to cnn.com/robin. president obama spent two hours debating the strategy in afghanistan yesterday, but two of his top advisors can't agree with each other on whether to send more troops. correspondent richard lui, it doesn't sound like he's getting much help on that front. >> it's difficult. on one side you've got the current top commander in

afghanistan, stanley mcchrystal. he wants 40,000 more troops and has said so over the recent weeks. on the other side you've got karl eikenberry, the retired general who had mcchrystal's job for 18 months, now the u.s. a.m. dor to afghanistan. he says more troops would only make afghan ston more reliant on the u.s. this disagreement surprises some. >> having two generals on the ground, general eikenberry as ambassador and general mcchrystal on the ground openly feuding with each other in public like this is nearly unprecedented. we useded to talk about a team of rivals. we never imagined it would be the two generals. >> administration officials tell eikenberry told president obama his concerns right before yesterday's eighth war council meeting. >> so the president's decision about troop levels has a lot to do also with the afghan government. there seems to be concern about the leadership there. >> right, robin.

without their cooperation, no amount of additional troops can help, obviously. president obama has publicly suggested that afghan president hamid karzai do more to crack down on corruption and the huge illegal drug trade that funds terrorist activity there. but enjuror administration officials say he's very skeptical that karzai will follow through on his promises. now, if he does not, the "new york times" reports the white house is considering shifting money from the national government to local afghan leaders, robin, where they cooperate with u.s. objectives. >> different way to do it. richard, thank you. you know, your state may have huge money problems. a new report finds that the same economic pressures that led to california to the brink of insolvency are threatening a lot more states. jennifer westhoven, that could affect all americans not just the people in that state. how's that? >> that's right, rob nl. this is the new report showing that all these states are in peril. they're falling dramatically behind in their budgets.

you you can see them in the red here. in those states, people are facing higher taxes, they're also massive job cuts. that's what affects all of us because, as they cut all of these jobs and it could be 900,000 jobs, according to pough, that's going to be a big drag on the rest of the economy. now, we're going to change a little bit because we're mostly talking about the states in peril. but there's really some good news in a bad economy in this report when you look behind the numbers. they were also looking at some of states that are doing the best. you see them there in blue. you'll notice many of them are farm states and moody says that iowa and north dakota are actually turning up and out of recession. a lot of it because of the stability in the housing market and because of the farms. because right now prices for farm products are pretty good. so that's helping them. finding a silver lining behind a report that is mostly a warning but there's still some good news in there. also new this morning, frugal may be the new norm.

a new study from spending poles part of mastercard found americans do seem to be settling into spending less, that we're making a habit of it. americans, we've cut our spending for about the last three months it's stayed at these relatively low levels. now, that is good news for your personal budget, right? for your money, you've got to keep your own house in order. you're responsible. it does mean bigger picture, it could hold the economy back a bit. robin? >> so it's sticking with us. thank you. a high school teacher just wanted to share her vacation photos she says on facebook, but now she says she lost her job for doing something that grownups are allowed to do. plus, taylor swift made history at last year's country music association awards and there's nothing kanye west could do about it.

a former high school teacher says that she was forced to resign over her facebook page. ashley payne was a teacher in north georgia. now, she says that her principal recommended she quit because of a curse wored that appeared on her facebook page and some of the pjts you're seeing from her european vacation. >> i visited the guinness brewery. i went to italy and had wine. i went to the temple bar district of dublin and drank some alcohol there. like any normal adult would. >> payne is suing to get her job back. the school system is not commenting on the situation. country music fans witnessed history last night at the cmas. ♪

19-year-old taylor swift became the youngest ever to win entertainer of the year. >> i will never forget this moment because in this moment everything that i have ever wanted has just happened to me. >> and fortunately nobody interrupted her on stage last night. yeah, don't think that anybody there had forgotten about what kanye west did to swift at the mtv awards. we'll show you the many spoofs coming up. she beat two-time winner carrie underwood to win female vocalist of the year. ♪ so that's carrie underwood performing her latest song on the radio, "cowboy cass nova." she co-hosted the awards with brad paisley. a minor league hockey coach is making major league waves

after he lost it on camera. losing his cool. >> very nice use of verbiage there. yes, there it is, robin. once again we have a case of somebody behaving badly. a man-trum if you will. the louisiana ice skaters in their first year in the southern professional hockey league, their coach i introduce to you. he does not like a penalty call on one of his players so he does throw a man-trum. grabs anything not nailed down out on the ice there. this was only his second game coaching. coach, that's my stick. i need that. they do have a lot of hockey sticks back there. >> he lost his cool in his first game, too, right? >> yes. now he's been suspended indefinite limit the team's website says they've hired a new coach. tony gonzalez and his wife got naked for peta. they posed as part of her

anti-fur campaign. we'd rather go naked than wear fur. gonzalez's teammates had a laugh about it but they say they're passion about it. he insists they're not entirely naked. they're both wearing shorts. that's all i've got. >> and with the nakedness. thank you. i found it interesting that her name is october. interesting. not miss. but october. >> she's very lovely. >> hi, bob. >> good morning. we have one delay, laguardia. 35-mile-per-hour winds gusting out of the northeast. that's slowing you down about an hour. let me show you the rest of the region in detail. saber flight explorer picking it up well. the rain here, new jersey, new york. not quite raining in new york, but through philadelphia, d.c., all the way down as far south as near charlotte. we'll get the activity out there with delays mainly due to wind. laguardia, about an hour right now, probably goes up up. philadelphia, d.c. metros, boston, charlotte, atlanta,

minneapolis, all windy. more on that in about a half hour. >> so people are wondering, 2012 because of this movie called "2012," is earth's doomsday right around the corner? >> gone, gone, gone. still here just bigger. @@@@@

all right. president obama leaves today for his first visit to asia as president. he will start in tokyo and make stops in singapore, shanghai, beijing and seoul. he's going to talk to asian leaders about the u.s. economy, the trade deficit with china, and his plans for afghanistan, among other things. the husband of retired supreme court justice sandra day o'connor has died from alzheimer's complications. john o'connor was 79. he and his wife became a washington power couple when she served as the court's first female justice. colleagues say when his disease got worse she started bringing him to court. lou dobbs is leaving cnn at the end of last night's show he

said he's leaving the network effective immediately. over the past few years he's taken a stand on hot topics. he's going to look for more ways to take a more active role in the issues facing the nation. how are you doing today? i'm robin meade. welcome. new this morning, cnn has learned that tomorrow morning the parents of the so-called balloon boy will plead guilty to charges related to that case. now, richard heene's attorney says he'll plead guilty to attempting to influence a public servant, a felony. and his wife will plead guilty to false reporting to authorities, a misdemeanor. remember, they told authorities that their son had floated away in this large balloon thing. well, heene's attorney says that the prosecutor recommended probation for both of them, but they could get jail time. we have not heard from the d.a. no kidding. all right. every year an average of 11 u.s. commercial pilots try to fly under the influence of alcohol.

"usa today" says that faa records show it's been happening since 1977. no. '97. the agency is currently reviewing the case of a united airlines pilot arrested in london p monday suspected of being drunk on the job. this morning a jury starts considering whether to give the death penalty to the man who killed a tv news anchor in arkansas. curtis la very well vance was found guilty yesterday of beating abeat ing anne pressly to death last year. he shouted as he was taken from the courthouse. >> this is a corrupted system! >> today was justice for anne and it's taken a year to get to it. i know nobody is more grateful than the parents and all of us as friends. >> well, the jury has two sentencing options, death or life without parole. if they can't decide, the judge you will impose a life sentence. president obama isn't ready to sign off on any of the four proposals for troop increase in afghanistan p. yesterday he asked his war council to revise them.

richard lui joins us. what changes have to be made for the president to maybe be satisfied? >> well, what we're hearing rob is that a senior administration official says the president wants more clarity on an exit strategy. what that means is clarifying exactly how and when with u.s. troops will hand over responsibility to the afghan government. but analysts say even with a timeline the u.s. commitment in afghanistan could stretch on for years. >> even if you send troops tomorrow, you still are not getting all the troops in theater until the end of the following year. so, you know, decisions made today actually play out over a very long time. if you delay this decision, say, by several months while you're waiting for the afghan government to become less corrupt or whatever it is you want, you're looking at suddenly at troops arriving in 2012. >> what administration officials say obama wants to make it clear that the u.s. commitment in afghanistan is not open-ended,

robin. >> you know, some republicans have criticized the president for spending months on this debate. there's also a new cnn opinion research poll out about how americans are about evenly split on whether the president is taking too long to make a decision. do we at least have an idea of maybe what he's lean toward? >> an official saying that a version that calls for about 34,000 more troops is a favorite right now at the pentagon. this one plan has been described as a half and half approach, about half the troops would be fighting, the other half would be holding ground so the afghans can regroup. but, again, this is only one of the four options that have been discussed. administration officials say the other three options, robin, are different mixes of those components we've been talking about. >> richard, thank you. parents in north carolina are furious after three african-american students were a asked to portray slaves during a field trip to a plantation. local media report that most of the kids in the report were

white. it says that the african-american children were asked to pick cotton during a history lesson. "prime news" talked with the president of the local naacp chapter about this. >> i understand that the gentleman probably had no intentions of malice or attempt to hurt the children, but the danger was what happened that next day with the children on the bus. if you only use the black students to be a slave, then that can make them feel like that's the only role that they play in this country. >> local media reports that the tour guide who chose the children is also african-american. a plantation spokesperson said that they usually choose both white and black students to play the roles. get the latest on "prime news" starting at 5:00 p.m. eastern right here on hln. a specially trained military dog has been found alive and well a year after she disappeared in afghanistan. this is sabi. a u.s. soldier found her last week. she belongs to the australian

special forces. but she's been missing since a fire fight in 2008. her handler says that her rescue has been a fantastic morale booster for the whole unit. i think she was like a bomb sniffing dog so they thought maybe something happeneded to her during you an explosion or something. >> wow. excellent. >> poor thing. look at her. where you been for a year, little girl? she's, like, i don't care. i got the tennis ball. >> i'm kbak. i found the ball. i'm back. >> she looks like she's been well taken care of. >> absolutely happy. >> so sweet. there's something to make you smile. bob, weather, not so much. >> no. especially if you live around north carolina through virginia, delaware, maryland. now in towards jersey, pennsylvania, too. here's what it looks like on the radar shot. your low pressure center, the actual surface low, is just moving offshore just below cape hatteras. to the north a little farther, high pressure building in, the difference in pressures, a real

stiff wind off the ocean today, will last through friday, saturday, even sunday morning before the winds finally die down a touch. how many much rain will fall out of the system? a lot. let me show you exactly what we're talking about, especially around eastern parts of virginia, eastern, north parts of north carolina. see what it looks like, the white shaded areas about ten inches of rain, mostly offshore. inland, three to four today and then a little bit overnight tonight and tomorrow. that's the red-shaded areas in central virginia, about three to four inches of rain. it will continue to come down, heavy at times. not only the rain, we're looking at the wind. wind advisories and wind warnings out there. winds gusting to 60 miles per hour for the areas shaded in red, about 50-mile-per-hour wind gusts. you can see they go into charlotte. that will be this afternoon. the wind delays are already here, including laguardia. we'll talk thabout that in a bi. wind across eastern north carolina with winds sustained at about 21 miles per hour, up the line a little bit farther, winds a little stronger, 34-mile-per-hour winds just offshore from virginia and virginia beach about

32-mile-per-hour winds. the rain is going to be solid for the next couple of hours. thauk about that in a bit. out to the west, the space needle in washington state in seattle, look at this. space needle because of an electrical fire in the area, you can see right here it's only running on emergency power. power was knocked out to the space needle because of the fire nearby. yeah, not as bright as it should be. emergency generators on for the space needle. also, robin, the olympic mountains, cascades in washington, winter storm watch tonight through tomorrow. we'll talk about that coming up in the next half hour. >> at least there's some light on it. >> emergency power. interesting. >> thank you for that. can you imagine buying expired medicine, food, even baby formula at a store? one major chain is paying a lot of money because of claims just like that.

well, that wasn't country music you're listening to, but at the country music association awards last night, it didn't take long for people to start referencing kanye west. remember when he interrupted taylor swift at the mtv awards? co-host bad paisley and carrie underwood opened and had a little medley. ♪ mamas don't let your babies grow up to be kanye ♪ ♪ let 'em pick guitars and drive them old trucks ♪ ♪ cuz cowboys have manners they don't interrupt ♪ i'm shoe the audience loved that. another big moment last night, the guy who used to be the head of the hootty and the blowfish rock band, pop band, darius

rucker, is now named new best country artist, the second time an african-american has ever won a major cma. congrats. ♪ wait. what's driving you crazy? >> all right. all right is two words. >> it was on the screen? >> they did the one word, one "l". >> it's probably the way he spelled it when he wrote the song. >> then he misspelled it when he wrote the song. >> darius, she would like to talk to you. >> the spelling queen. if you're looking for a job, brand new information, jobless claims fell last week. >> a little bit. it's good news. this just came out in the past 12 minute frz the labor department. your latest look at how the job market is doing. yeah, the claims fell to 502 with,000 in the latest week. that means still more than half a million americans every week losing their jobs basically

because they're going to the unemployment office for the first time. so week after week after week you hear me tell you this noub. it gets better, but so slowly, right? painfully slow for the millions of americans trying to find a job because it's getting better, but just by such a little bit every time. now, here's the good news. we are at least at the lowest level since january so maybe next week we'll see the number go below 500,000. that's going to be a psychological boost for markets, but at the rate it's moving it's still very slow. a lot of people still looking hard. now, are stocks going to be able to make it seven days in a row in gains after the job numbers? the dow starts off this morning from 10,291, up 44 points last night, nailed another new high coming off of the bottom. so we'll watch. you go to the pharmacy, maybe you're getting some medicine, some snacks. are you looking at the expiration dates? cvs is going to pay $875,000

settling claims with new york state that its shelves were full of expired products like eggs, milk, over-the-counter drugs, baby formula. that's what state investigators say they found. they say they found egregious amounts of expired products, some more than two years old, on the cvs shelves. they were looking across new york. cvs says, hey, just remember, when you settle something, that does not mean that they pled guilty or anything. they're just paying to end the lawsuit. they say they will strengthen monitoring and put up notices around the stores to remind you to check the date. >> that's interesting to me that instead of putting up -- instead of putting up the signs, have somebody check it. >> they check everything we buy. they can't say, that batch -- >> apparently it's a team effort. by the way, you're apparently a purist when it comes to spelling. we checked dictionary.com and

alright can be one word. it is it a one-word version of the phrase all right. >> in slang they got into it. it's only in the dictionary because everybody misused it for so many years. >> boxing champ mike tyson got into another fight and this one was not in the ring. we're still sorting out what happened here.

merriam-webster. senate majority leader harry reid may propose payingor for health care by raising the medicare payroll tax on the wealthy. that's from a democratic source. you're talking about people who make more than 250,000 a year. there's no worded on how much of an increase is being looked at. right now the tax is 1.4% of your income. the wife of the dodgers owner is steek spooeking out for

the first time about their messy divorce. you know, the one you that's been a rumor for so long and people are, like, oh, my gosh, she did not. he did not. >> that's right. good morning. finally she's had enough. she needs to speak out because we've been talking about this poor woman. where am i supposed to look? so far we've only heard frank mccourt's allegations through the courts. now she is firing back after he fired her at team ceo for allegedly having an affair, she told "the l.a. times," you lie! she never had an affair during their 30 years of marriage. never. and she deserves her job back because she helped make the team a success. being a married man, i won't argue with that. they are still battling over who owns the team. court papers say jamie signed a pos post-nuptial agreement that would weaken her argument. mike tyson is in trouble with police again. this is sad. he was arrested and released at l.a.x. on suspicion of misdemeanor assault. rough year for this guy. a paparazzi, also arrested, says tyson hit him and he fell and had to be treated at the

hospital for a cut on his forehead. a tyson spokeswoman says that mike was trying to protect his 10-month-old child and was acting in self-defense at the top of the show where police think the truth could lie. this is a great story from homeless to nfl star, ravens offenser lineman michael oher. his life has been made into a movie called "the blind side" starring sandra bullock. it looks like a really good movie. tonight mike galanos as an interview with oher. it will be on 5:00 p.m. eastern. if that's not impressive enough, how about this guy? a 61-year-old graduate studented is saying, put me in, coach. that's right, 61 years old. look at tom thompson, a full-time student and kicker for division iii austin college. >> i love this story. >> he hasn't played this season yet. >> he's 61! will. >> the season finale is against trinity on saturday and his coach thinks they'll get him in.

61 years old, you can't let him kick an extra point? let the man kick. >> can't you get hit as a kicker? >> yes. but then they throw a penalty and make a big stink yes, but t penalty and make a big stink over it. >> that's every men's fantasy. i have one more year of eligibility. >> investing in the stock market can be a gamble. clark howard says if you play your cards right, you can weather the ups and downs. >> it seems that we are such pack animal that's we follow the herd when we shouldn't. and i'm going to give you an example. a lot of people really were shell shocked by the huge decline in the stock market that went on for about a year and a half, saw your account values just evaporate right before your eyes and 401(k)s or whatever. what did so many people?

they did what's called ka pit lags. people said, i can't take this any more, sold out their positions and put their money into ultrasafe things. now the stock market has had a big runup that may be running out of steam but people are pushing money back in the stocks after they recovered big values. doesn't work. working against yourself. put money in steady as you go. i'm clark howard, for more ways to invest wisely, go to cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> did you know clark howard serves in the georgia state gored. this weekend you'll see him serving our troops. helping you save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. catch us at 6:00 a.m., noon and 4:00 p.m. eastern on saturday and sunday right here on hln. if you like to help victims of

the ft. hood shootings or their family, go to cnn.com/robin. where you can impact your world. 8

good morning, thursday, you're this close to friday, right? here's what's going on today in the news. president obama wants to make a move in afghanistan but doesn't like any of his options. he's asked his top advisers for help, why even that option isn't getting results. one punch landed boxer mike tyson in the back of a squad car. he says it is a matter of self-defense. >> i went to the temple bar district of dublin and drank some alcohol there like any normal adult would -- >> her pictures of that drinking may have cost her her job. why a former teacher says she

was fired over facebook. first this hour, president obama leaves the white house for a week-long trip to meet with asian leaders. while he's gone top aides will be working on how to move forward with afghanistan war planning. that's after he turned down all four of the options they proposed yesterday. a white house official says that the president has growing doubts about the afghan got and wants an exit strategy before sending extra troops. colin powell supports the president's cautious approach. >> this is very difficult one for him and it isn't just a one time decision. this is the decision that will have consequences for the best part of his administration. mr. president, don't get pushed by the left to do nothing and don't get pushed by the right to do everything. you take your time and figure it out. you're the commander in chief and this is what you were elected for. >> the president's top two men in afghanistan completely disagree about bringing in more

gis, rich will have more on that coming up. the number of americans who have dried from the swine flu may be four times higher than first thought. h1n1 may have killed 4,000 people in the united states since april. now, the virus isn't getting more dangerous but the cdc is counting lab confirmed cases and deaths from complications related to h1n1. >> cnn has learned that tomorrow morning the parents of the so-called balloon boy will plead guilty to charges related to that case. rich and heeneny's attorney says he'll plead guilty for attempting to influence a public servient. remember, they told authorities that their son had flown away in a large balloon. hooen's attorney says they recommended probation for both of them but they could get jail time. we have heard not heard from the da. mike tyson is in trouble for

an incident at the airport. do tell, rafer. >> a case of he said, he said. the paparazzi likes to camp out at lax, well, reportedly tyson and a photographer got into a scuffle. they were booked and released on suspicion of misdemeanor battery. he says iron mike hit him and he fell and was treat ford a cut on the forehead. a spokes person for tyson says he was acting in self-defense trying to protect his 10-month-old child. it is an airport, i've got to believe there is some kind of surveillance video somewhere that could tell the truth. >> i would agree with you. we're hearing from someone who not only witnessed the shootings at ft. hood but barely survived. logan burnett spoke with sanjay group at a about what happened.

>> stood up and screamed and then started shooting. >> top of his lungs. >> god is great? >> yeah. it was like he had been in the room for a while preparing. nobody was really paying attention. he stood up and began firing on all of us. >> burnett said he somehow managed to crawl outside where another soldier pulled him to safety. 13 people died in the shooting. country music fans witnessed history. ♪ where we said forever and always ♪ >> 19-year-old taylor swift became the youngest ever to win entertainer of the year. >> i'll never forget this moment, because in this moment, everything that i have ever wanted has just happened to me. >> and fortunately nobody interrupted her when it happened last night of the yeah, don't think that anybody forgot about the kanye west interruption.

they were plenty of spoofs and you'll see those coming up. >> and the crowd loved that. >> good for her. real heartfelt. >> i think she was up there like four times. >> wow. >> some was heartfelt, some was cute. this is her band i think she called up there by name. >> awesome. >> all right. >> at 19 i was working in a warehouse, you know. >> exactly. >> she's accomplished a lot. >> summer help at the factory. >> good for you. >> let's show you real quick the winds we're looking at the nor'easter that is developing across coastal north carolina. look at the winds, all sustained winds coming in offshore, 27-mile-per-hour sustained winds right around virginia, northern part of the state. look at the winds and rain pulling in towards basically the appalachians where it's falling shy -- you get in the rain

towards roanoke too. up north a little farther, we'll get the beach erosion from the jersey shore towards cape hatteras. winds at 36 miles per hour, just outside the laugh let area. the next 24 to 72 hours, next two to three days we'll see rain pile up. look at the flash flood watches and warnings. middle of the country looks pretty good. you have an impulse riding through the rockies, little snow in montana too. turns into rain for you in north dakota. to the pacific northwest we're getting rain and wind and snow too. it's going to be above the higher elevations today. notice the winter storm watch that we have for both the olympics and the cascades for tonight and tomorrow. another cold front dropping on down. we'll see about six inches of snow above 2,000 feet. so the snow elevation is coming down. >> here's a video you don't see all the time. a huge iceberg was spotted in

the waters between antarctica and australia. 160 feet high and 1600 feet long. scientists suspect it may be a piece of the ice shelf that snapped off seven years ago. remember, rob birobin, you only 10%. the other 90% is under water. ships really steer away from it. >> some states are on the verge of a financial crisis because of the recession and could have an impact on you even if you don't live in those states. a hockey coach loses it.

this is for larry johnson, they have five kids and all kids are glad that he's home. >> high robin, my name is sharixts sse, i wanted to send

the salute out to my wonderful loving fee ons say, i'm grateful you have done for your country and for us. we're proud of you for serving your country, known to the military as eo 2 johnson but to us your daddy, son, brother and husband. thank you so much. i love you. >> a great heartfelt message. if you have somebody in the service and you want to salute them go to cnn.com/robin. >> if you are looking for a job, here's brand-new information, jobless claims fell last week. jennifer has more details. >> good morning. every week we're saying, things got better, things got better. but so so slowly. it's painfully slow. the latest numbers from the labor department show 502,000 people filed for unemployment benefits for the first time. it's down but still more than

half a million americans losing their jobs. again painfully slow. in a few minutes president obama is expected to make a statement about the economy. he'll be at the white house before leaving for alaska. we'll keep you up to date on that. your state may be having huge money problems. many states are in peril and may be close to following california on the way to fiscal insolvency. you can see them clustered in the west and midwest and florida, new jersey, rhode island, facing higher taxes and big job cuts. all of the job cuts, which could be 900,000 could be a drag on the entire economy. behind the scary headline, here's some of the good news, also looked at the states doing better. you see them here in blue. some of them are even seeing their economies turn up and out of recession. iowa, north dakota are doing better. a lot of them in the midwest

partially doing better because of the farms. stock market, is it going to make it seven days in a row of gains after the job numbers? the dow does start from almost 10,300 after a 44 point gain last night. it hit another new high coming up and out of the bottom. it's not your average baby sitter's club. changing the way parents find a sitter. stephanie has our small business success. >> reporter: parents adrian and david cracked in an idea for a business during a trip to visit family out of town. >> tried to go out with her brother and sister and couldn't find a baby sitter. >> reporter: they came up with the idea for seeking sitters, job line baby sitting service. >> they could log in, see the sitters and make a request for the day and time they need.

>> reporter: her private eye experience sparked other ideas. >> the biggest part is the background screening, we do fbi style investigations versus just online checks. screen our sitters and families. >> reporter: there's a $40 membership fee and it has expanded into a nationwide franchise. seeking sitters still tries to keep it in the neighborhood. >> we're not just the website business, we went in the franchise behalf, that local field for everyone of our offices. >> i wonder if teenagers would be more careful about what they posted on facebook if they knew they could get jobs. maybe you've got a small business and think my small business is cooler than that small business. come on, we want to see your success story. take a video and upload it to us, cnn.com/robin. you could be next on morning express.

president obama spent two hours debating the strategy in afghanistan. his top advisers can't agree with each other on whether to spend more troops. doesn't sound like he's getting help from that front. >> on one side you have the current top commander in afghanistan, general mcchrystal wants 40,000 more troops and said so over the past recent weeks. on the other side you have carl eikenberry, who had mcchrystal's job for 18 months, now the u.s. ambassador to afghanistan, eikenberry says more troops would make afghanistan more reliant on the u.s. this disagreement surprises

some. >> having two generals on the ground, general eikenberry as ambassador and mcchrystal as commander on the ground feuding with each other in public like this is nearly unprecedented. we talk about a team of rivals. >> administration official says eikenberry told president obama his concerns right before yesterday's eighth war council meeting. >> so the president's decision about troop levels has a lot to do also with the afghan government. and they are things to be concerned about the leadership there. >> without their cooperation, no amounts of additional troops can help obviously. president obama has publicly suggested that hamid karzai do more to crack down on corruption and the huge illegal drug trade that funds terrorist activity. officials say he's skeptical that karzai will follow through on promises. if he does not, "the new york times" reports the white house

is considering shifting money from the national government to local afghan leaders where they cooperate with u.s. objectives. >> different way to do it. richard, thank you. a minor league hockey coach making some major league ways for losing it on camera. and i mean losing it. hi, rafer. >> this is like a man-trum like i've never seen. the louisiana ice skaters, they are first season, they had to fire the man as their coach. he did not like a penalty call on one of his players and only his second game coaching. grabbing anything that's not nailed down like the scene on naked gun. how many sticks do they have there? the first game he coached he also lost his cool in. he's as you say spendsed indefinitely. kicked out to a cascade of boos. they have hired a new coach.

hopefully somebody who's a little calmer. falcons tight end and his wife, october, posed as part of pet a's anti-fur campaign. the teammates had a good laugh about it. but gonzalez says this is something they are passionate about. this is believed to be the fastest soccer goal ever. the whistle blows and game starts and guy kicks it and look what happens? it's in. are you kidding me? kicked from midfield. two seconds is how long it took for this guy to score. it's going to be up to soccer officials to verify if it's the fastest ever. that's sports. like whoa. >> good morning, bob. >> you know what the funny thing

is, that game was followed by 89 minutes and 58 seconds of nothing -- >> the first two seconds of the game, i'm not kidding. >> followed by 89 minutes of nothing going on. >> i get you. >> this travel update brought to you by orbitz. the only main delay we have due to weather is a long one. laguardia, 56 minutes. here's the new york city metro, in towards the mason dixon stretching down to virginia, ultimately north carolina too. the heavy rain will be a factor for you today so is the gusty winds, new york city metro including newark, watch for an hour or more delay. philadelphia you'll see the same thing. washington, d.c. and baltimore, haven't seen a delay yet but it mostly will occur and looking at gusty winds out west as well. las vegas, san francisco, light rain around the bay area. 30 minute delays.

salt lake city, mixing in with snow later this afternoon, half hour to one hour delay. otherwise a decent start from texas through the great lakes, the only place that won't be affected by weather today. let's take a better look in about a half hour from now. >> when you tune in -- don't go anywhere bob. if you're tuning in at this time, this is like the fourth hour of our show. >> seen these stories before. >> we start early for people getting up earlier than you. and this story, i don't care how many times we played it, gets the same reaction out of you, out of people here in the studio, here it goes. former miss california usa prejean got a little upset or dramatic on our sister network cnn last night. threatened to walk off the set with larry king. a bomb sniffing dog got caught in a fire fight and was never seen again until last week?

where have you been?

the new york stock xhafrpg just opened for business. stocks have been booming recently. will the trend continue? we have a live report from wall street in a few minutes here. bad news for drivers in the san francisco bay area. the bay bridge is going to have to be shut down again for more repairs. crews have more work to do on the same 80-foot long steel bar that cracked earlier this year. it's not clear when that work will happen. lou dobbs is leaving cnn. on last night's show he said he's leaving the network effective immediately. over the past few years he has taken a stand on hot topics like immigration. he's going to look for other ways to play a more active role

on the issues facing the nation. good morning, come on in. sit down. take a little break if you can. if you have to scar sturry around and get ready. there is no record that the ft. hood shooting suspect ever complained to supervisors about the claims of being harassed over religion. two seen overofficials tell the associated press there was no indication that he formally requested to leave the military. his family said he was seeking legal advice about it. his attorney has concerns about the case. >> not only do i have concerns about it. i can tell you i've been approached on the street by many folks in this vicinity who have expressed the same concern. is it possible for him to get a fair trial they ask me? and i just simply shake my head and say, i guess we'll have to wait and see. >> 13 people died in the shooting at ft. hood. dozens more were wounded.

if hasan is convicted of capital murder, it would be up to the president to decide whether a death sentence could be carried out. the military justice system hasn't executed anyone in nearly half a century. every year an average of 11 u.s. commercial pilots try to fly under the influence of alcohol. faa records show it's been happening since 1997. the agency is currently reviewing the case of a united airlines pilot arrested in london on monday suspected of being drunk on the job. a former high school teacher says she was forced to resign over her facebook page. she was a teacher in north georgia and her principal recommended she quit because of a curse word that appeared on her facebook page and pictures from her european vacation. >> i visited the brewery, went to italy and had wine. i went to the temple bar district of dublin and drank some alcohol there, like any

normal adult would. >> well, she is suing to get her job back now. the school system isn't commenting on the situation. hundreds of angry people tried to get kidnapping suspects inside a town hall building. watch this. oh, my goodness, mexican police say the protesters believe the suspects tried to kidnap a local businessman. police fired tear gas to disburse the crowd and rush the suspects out of the area. a journalist was hit in the head with a rock but no serious injuries were reported. charges have been dropped against a american man who tried to take his kids back from his ex-wife in japan. christopher savoy was arrested after allegedly abducting the children as his ex-wife walked them to school. he spoke to cnn this morning about what happened. >> had a custody agreement. there is a custody agreement

that was agreed to in the united states that my ex-wife ignored completely and broke federal and state laws in order to ignore. and i think we have to come back to that stance first and say, okay, this -- the jurisdiction can't be just moved by an individual to japan or whatever country just because they like it. >> he was released from jail last month on the condition he wouldn't try to get his kids back in the same manner as before. there was a little bit of drama with former miss california usa carrie prejean. when larry asked about a lawsuit in a sex tape that she made, a solo sex tape, she got ready to bolt. >> in mediation it was discussed while you were mediating? >> it is confidential and you're being inappropriate. okay? you're being inappropriate. >> inappropriate king lives

continues. detroit, hello. >> i'm calling from detroit -- i'm a gay man and i love path ents. i'm sure, you, carrie have great gay friends that help you possibly win. what would you give them as advice if they wanted to get married? >> did you hear the question, carrie? did she hear the question? >> oh, my gosh, so uncomfortable. prejean continued with the show. they took a commercial break and larry apologized and said prejean had insisted there would be no phone calls from viewers. but she said it all nicely, we're leaving, thank you. >> you could ask the question a different way. i understand you have a new dvd coming out, no? answer this question. what's your favorite color? will you answer that please? >> inappropriate larry king live. >> that should be a new segment,

inappropriate larry king hour. >> i love it. >> the one thing we're watching across the east coast affecting millions of people of travel and on the roads and air too, it's the rain. you can see it goes up i-95 through washington, d.c. into philadelphia, on the out skirts of new york city too. low pressure down to the south generating the rain. the difference of pressures, a lot of wind coming off the ocean. winds gusting to near 40 miles per hour around the jersey shore. that picks up to 50 later today. wind advisories through new jersey. high wind gusts and you'll see the high wind warnings to near 60 miles per hour. this is a 48-hour mess, cumulative total, that's about 8 inches, white is about 10 inches. when you get into northern parts of virginia, red shading is 4 to 5 inches of rain over the next several days. the wind will pick up and stay there through the weekend.

we'll see delays out of that through most of the time. here's what it looks like when you get right around virginia beach, 32 miles per hour sustained gusting to almost 50. that's going to be a problem. we'll look at this storm plus the one out west in just a bit. >> thank you. like a modeling moment. >> good morning. >> on wall street, the dow is riding a sixth session winning streak but could be in jeopardy today. what's the deal today? >> reporter: well, robin we are looking at a weaker opening today coming as you get good news. we found out that jobless claims fell more than expected to 502,000, the lowest level since january. the number of people who continue to collect benefits, that number also fell. we're also robin, keeping an eye on gold prices. hit a record high overnight of $1100 an ounce.

investors had been moving money into gold against protection against the falling dollar. walmart reporting a slight increase in third quarter profit, but what wall street is focusing on is sales. sales fell for the second straight quarter. overall it's really not a good sign for other retailers going to be forced to offer big discounts to compete with walmart or face dwindling market share. here's an update of a story we covered earlier this week. act vision blizzard sold 4.6 million copies of call of duty on the very first day on the shelves. a one-day sales record for video games. it beats the previous mark head by grand theft auto by almost a million copies. analysts expect it will sell a total of up to 13 million copies by the end of the year. that could be good news for the video game industry where the revenue is down 13%. >> i see -- that what the graphics preelly look like when

you play the game? >> it is. i understand it's extremely realistic. >> every video game gets better and better. >> reporter: feels like you're there. >> thank you. one school is in hot water for trying to trade extra credit for cash. come here, little kid, want some extra credit. give me money. the woman from the chimp attack is not angry but gave warnings about the chimp before she was attacked.

the woman attacked by a 200-pound chimp finally revealed her damaged face on oprah.

even though she is blind and has to eat through a straw she is no angry about the attack. during most of the video she kept her face hidden underneath a veil. >> was it your job to help take care of him because this was your boss? >> no, it was her pet that she wanted or companion and she had to rush out a few times or couldn't come home that night. only a few times i fed him. >> you were familiar with him. were you afraid of him? >> yeah, always. >> during an interview with the associated press, nash said she warned about the chimp saying it was violent and once pounded his bars so violently its hands bled. investing in the stock market can be a real gamble. if you play your cards right you can weather the ups and downs. >> it seems that we are such pack animals that we follow the

herd when we shouldn't. and i'm going to give you an example. a lot of people really were shellshocked by the huge decline in the stock market that went on for about a year and a half, saw your account values just evaporate right before your eyes and 401(k)s or irss or whatever. what did so many people do, at the worst possible moment with things were in the toilet, people sold out their positions and put their money into ultrasafe things. now the stock market has had a big run-up that may be running out of steam, don't know. but people are pushing money back into stocks after they've already recovered big values. doesn't work. you're working against yourself. put money in steady as you go. i'm clark howard, for more ways to invest wisely, go to

cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> did you know clark howard serves in the georgia state guard. clark and i teamed up to help the soldiers and you save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. catch us at 6:00 a.m., noon and 4:00 p.m. eastern on saturday and sunday right here on hln. if you'd like to help the victims of the ft. hood shootings or their families, go to cnn doi.com/robin and click impact your world. mike tyson got into another fight and this one was not in the ring. we're still sorting through what happened.

we think all of our viewers are vips. today these are vips that took the tour. it's only on thursdays. have you guys liked it so far? >> yes. >> excellent. >> president obama is holding a news conference at this moment. those are live pictures. just announced that the white house jobs forum is going to happen next month.

the purpose he says for this white house jobs forum is to find ways to put america back to work. the unemployment hit a 26-year high of 10.2% in october. later on today, president obama leaves for a trip to asia. a school in north carolina is ending a fundraiser that allowed the kids to get extra credit when they donated money. who thought this was okay? in the fundraiser, every 20 bucks donated by a student would earn them 20 extra credit points they could use on tests no less. the school board stopped the fundraiser is returning the money and saying no extra credit will be given. i hear people laughing. it sounds crazy. if the airline industry is broken, some say a meeting today could be the first step toward fixing it. a lot of airlines are on shaky financial grounds. transportation secretary ray la hood wants to talk about the state of the industry and find ways the government can help it

get financial stability back. the forum is closed to the public. some of the stories we're watching for you already in the "morning express" planner. a hearing will take place in boston for mehanna for an alleged terror plot to shoot people in a mall and kill two politicians. they will be hosting the christmas tree in rockefeller center in new york. former president george w. bush will announce plans to include a think tank in connection with his library in 2010. the wife a dodgers owner is speaking out about the messy divorce. >> good morning, this poor woman's name has been dragged through the mud a little bit because we've only been hearing from the man. now she has said enough, here's my side of the story. she's firing back at frank mccourt.

mccourt, as you may remember fired her as team ceo after he alleged she had an affair with her driver. jamie mccourt says that is a lie. never had an affair with anybody during their 30 years of marriage. >> she said, you lie. >> and she said she is the co-owner and deserves credit for their success. she did sue to get her job back and did not get it back. reportedly she signed a post-nuptial agreement. mike tyson is in trouble with police again. he was arrested and released at lax, a paparazzo, who was also arrested says tyson hit him and he fell had and had to be treated for a cut on his forehead. tyson spokeswoman says iron mike was trying to protect his 10-month-old child. this guy's story is great, from homeless to nfl store. ravens offensive lineman miker

oher, had his life made into a movie called "the blind side" sg sandra bullock. tonight he has an exclusive interview on at 5:00 p.m. eastern tonight. also a great story. a 61-year-old graduate student is saying put me in, coach. 61. tom thompson, a father of four and a full-time student is a kicker for a division iii austin college. he's not played all year. he actually hasn't even played since high school. he's got some good kicks. there he is. he hopes to get in this weekend. >> i wish him a lot of luck. he's 61. please, nobody hit him. >> he is a kicker. so he should be okay. but they've got to put him in this weekend. you got to put him in. that's sports. >> all right. thanks. they need to give him the old school helmet, too, with the one bar. you know? >> he is literally kicking it old school. >> he looks good doing it, too.

i love that. let me show you a live look at the nation's capital right now. the wind is in. the rain will be off and on for most of the day. there's the white house. you guys groing to see a stiff wind out of the northeast all day long. anticipate delays at your airports. here's what we have. hour delay at laguardia. that's the current one. new york st new york metros, the rest of you whereby hour or more. d.c. metros including baltimore, also atlanta with the wind coming in this afternoon, but not quite as long of a delay, rob. more on that in a little bit. aerosmith might be losing the front man, steven tyler temporarily. the associated press says he wants a couple years off from the band. tyler says without tyler the band's future sup in the ais up.

what would aerosmith be without steven tyler. a 12-year-old girl, poor little thing, just cannot stop sneezing. a mysterious chronic disorder has her sneezing 12,000 times a day.