good morning! gosh, the weekend really went fast, didn't it? glad to have you as part of your monday routine. i'm robin meade. a major development in the case of a missing little 5-year-old girl. investigators now believe that her mother has something to do with her disappearance. this plane hit some birds right after takeoff. you'll hear what the passengers saw from inside the cabin. plus -- >> you don't go to a funeral and like, go, oops, there's no body. >> you heard right. a veteran's ashes disappeared

right before his funeral. what the family is trying to do to get it back. first, the search is about to resume for a missing 5-year-old north carolina girl after police got a tip yesterday. her mother is charged with human trafficking and child abuse involving prostitution. now, we're not going to show the little girl's picture because she may be the victim of a sex crime. the man scene carrying her into a hotel turned himself in. he admits taking her, but says he doesn't know where she is. he plans to plead not guilty when that man turned himself in, police dropped charges against the mother's boyfriend. he said he was at home when the girl was taken. a passenger plane hit a flock of birds right after takeoff this weekend. the frontier airlines jet hit him at above 4,000 feet above kansas city saturday. the birds hit both engines but one lost power. >> heard this rumble, bang, boom

boom and kind of saw a flash and then you saw smoke and then, you know, we started decreasing in altitude. >> well the plane still landed safely. remember a bird strike forced another plane to land in the hudson river. the house in cleveland where 11 bodies were found. that makes something that we could see more digging this week at anthdany sowell's house and next store. the search has expanded four houses down now. one woman says her niece found something behind a boarded up house. >> they found bones about this long. they come running in the house bringing them in the house where their bare hands talking about, look at what we found. >> police aren't saying if they found anything. anthony sowell's attorney hasn't commented on the murder charges he is facing. he pleaded not guilty on friday.

the families of 9/11 victims are reacting to a big decision by the obama administration the self-proclaimed mastermind behind the worst terror attack in u.s. history and four other attacks will be tried in a civilian courtroom. for the victims' family it is reigniting fierce debate. >> for me, my feelings, it's tasteless, it's sensitive and those scars, which have never been healed are just going to be open again. so, i am not comfortable with this call. >> new yorkers are certainly more than capable of handling it and i think, again, it speaks to the very heart of who we are, not only as new yorkers, but as american citizens. you know, if a crime is committed on our soil, you're going to be given a trial. you will be given access to an attorney and you will be

innocent until proven guilty. >> will illinois be the new guantanamo? a government task force will visit a nearly empty prison in thompson, illinois. the town two hours west of chicago could be the new home for suspected terrorists. correspondent richard lui will have more on that in about 25 minutes. a college football player spoke for the first time since his neck was crushed in a weight lifting accident and rafer has more on this. this had to be, really, well, just inspiring, i would think, for his teammates that he was able to speak a little bit. >> absolutely, robin. for his entire family. but doctors say even that was a miracle. johnson dropped a 270 pound weight on his throat crushing his larynx and that could have killed him and for a while he was eating through a tube. because of a gladiator-like

mentality he can swallow and repeated the last words of his late grandfather. >> god has a plan. run, stephon, run. >> whether he plays football again it isn't clear. when asked about it, he just shrugged. >> to hear him speak in those words, no less. thank you. now, i got to ask, rafer just walked off. did a similar thing happened to somebody in professional football or am i making him who we're talking about? >> this is the same guy, yes. >> he ran into the locker room? he ran into the locker room and he was kind of making gestures because he couldn't speak and it pumped up his team members. >> he run to come visit his teammates. >> same guy. weather wise, some big weather concerns that we had maybe late last night into today, do i see winter and where is that? >> two major storms now across the country one in the midal and

one affecting the pacific northwest. we'll start with the people awake right now and all the rain coming in through memphis and stretching down into houston and really heavy at times. one thunderstorm line as it moves all the way down to arkansas through southern parts of texas. severe weather we don't have it right now, but the houston radar picture is picking up a squall line headed into your city, that line goes towards arkansas and upper parts of louisiana, too. that's shreveport and heavy rain right over the city itself and moving over to the the east, not very fast. you can see a lot of rain over the next couple hours. memphis showers still on the other side of the river. that moves in for you later. back side upper level low and cold air in the upper midlevels and now switching the rain over to snow. the snow is all the white right there. this will pile up quickly for you. four to ten inches of snow for northern parts of kansas and two to four outside that box. more on that coming up in about a half hour. so, we have a new book from

an actual old friend of the show here. stephen king's new book is called "under the dome" and he talked about that and a couple other things when me came to visit here. "under the dome" set in chester mill and this bubble comes down and, boom, people are locked inside. this becomes a problem how so on so many different levels? >> it becomes a problem because nobody can get in and nobody can get out and the food supplies that are there are the food supplies and no electricity because when the dome comes down and cuts all the lines, the government cuts the phones. they do have some internet and some tv. one thing i had fun with, a lot of news people in this because an event like that would pull everybody off all their beats and, so, i had a chance to put in all my cnn people. >> you know what i asked him, too, why was there something scary about wolf blitzer and anderson cooper? you can hear what he says to that and i asked him about

rumors he was going to retire and the answer to that in 30 minutes. if you can't wait, you can see the interview at cnn.com/robin. lately owning a home has been a losing investment, right, but your house might start earning you money sooner than you might think. the new "twilight" movie will hit theaters on friday.

all right. salute our troops now. wendy lun dean sent us a salute for her father. he is retired, but his daughter wants him to know how much they appreciate all he's done for them and the country. >> hi, robin. we want to leave a message for our dad thanking him for being so brave in world war ii when he

was captured at age 20 and we want to thank him for his contribution to all the freedoms we enjoy in this great country and we just want to tell him that we're so proud of him and that we love him. >> thank you so much. great old picture, too. if you have somebody in the service you want to salute them go to cnn.com/robin. i'm assuming that one is from veterans day and didn't get to run it and wanted to get to it. the decision to try five of t 9/11 suspects has created a heated debate in washington. correspondent richard lui, what are the two camps here? >> the democrats are backing up the president's decision. as of right now they say the trial will show the world how fair the u.s. judicial system is but republicans say it will give undeserved rights to people like khalid shaikh mohammed the allege mastermind behind 9/11.

>> when we shouldn't close guantanamo for these types of terrorists. we are living here with people who committed acts of war against us. they shouldn't be tried in our criminal justice system, they should be tried in our military justice system. that's why we have such a system. >> if somebody murders americans and they murder americans in america, they ought to be prosecuted in america and hopefully convicted in america. >> robin, republicans are saying a civilian trial will also give these alleged terrorists the public platform that they want. >> aside from the political debate, a civilian trial will also have some, i would imagine, major security implications. >> rudy giuliani who was new york's mayor on 9/11 says holding this trial there would cost too much and put unnecessary stress on police. take a listen. >> anyone that tells you this doesn't create additional security problems, of course, isn't telling you the truth.

the best indication of it is look at the additional security that will be employed when this happens. that also happens to cost millions and millions of dollars. all of which will be worth it if there was no other choice. >> force prosecutors to reveal sensitive information about sensitive information that they could use to their advantage. dozens of suspects were tried in civilian court during the bush administration. robin? >> thank you. jennifer is off today, so let's talk money news for you. gm will announce this morning that it will start paying back more than 6 billion of your tax dollars by the end of this year. that's according to several reports and will be much earlier than expected. stronger than expected sales are the reason. now, the government, though, will still own a majority stake in the company. if you want to sell your home, next year might be a good time. home prices are expected to rise

about 4%. so, let's call that good news in a bad economy. the group says that the extension of the home buyer tax credit should boost sales and prices this year are projected to drop 13%p. you don't need to be a mover and shaker in hollywood to be a movie mogul, not if you're a master of won fu. stephanie elum has this in the small business success. ♪ dance like michael jackson >> reporter: they started making short films in 2003 while going to college in california. the buzz they created inspired them to form wong fu productions. thousands watch their work on the web. >> not only asian americans but also producing really good stories and showing that asian americans can become something more than just like a side character. >> reporter: the free online films and music videos provide

an emotional connection with their core audience. fans then buy clothing and other merchandise. >> we've been able to develop a following that really supports us as individuals and us as a group and they want to see us succeed. >> reporter: they know they have the web to thank for reaching an audience often neglected by main stream media. ♪ what happened after last summer ♪ >> really leveling the playing field so everyday people like us can get huge fan followings and fan bases based solely on personalities. >> cool story. if you are a small business owner, we'd like to see your success story. go to cnn.com/robin and upload a video i report about your business and you could be featured right here on "morning express." the coach of the patriots may have made one of the worst moves of his career. this morning the call that

nobody can understand. and you're not going to believe how much people were willing to spend to get a piece of history, even if it had bernie madoff's name all over it.

president obama is in beijing right now. part of his eight-day trip to asia. he is scheduled to meet with china's president hu jintao. he pushed for greater freedoms in china. >> we do not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation. but we also don't believe that the principals that we stand for

are unique to our nation. these freedoms of expression and worship of access to information and political participation we believe are universal rights. they should be available to all people, including ethnic and religious minorities, whether they are in the united states, china or any nation. >> president obama will also visit china's great wall today. so, a marquise matchup between two of nfl's biggest stars tom brady and peyton manning went right down to the wire, that's the way the fans like it. except for the heart attack thing. >> as you said earlier the call that this coach made that people will be talking about it at the water cooler. bill belichick. now, the fireworks went off and caught fire on the turf. this was the call that has people fuming. colts were up with two minutes left and they go for it and do not make it, so that means indy

gets the ball left with 13 seconds left peyton manning hits reggie wane for the score. why didn't they punt? chargers runningback ludeignian tomlinson cried tears of joy. when l.t. got to the stadium he found a little box in his locker from his wife in it a pregnancy stick that read positive. she knew she was pregnant on tuesday but kept it a surprise. he went on to have the best game of the season for him scoring two tds. >> is that their first child? >> they have been having trouble conceiving in the past, so he's really happy. nascar driver jimmie johnson is on the verge of making history. he dominated the track at phoenix race way. a fourth straight time and he has a 108-point lead over his teammate 50-year-old mark martin. he just needs to finish 25th or

better in the last race to win it all. lastly, a little wackiness. they bring this guy out and siyou're going to jump rope. he's not jumping rope. >> that's terrible. >> what happens then he finally stops and takes off the thing and realizes and look at his reaction. he's mad. he is genuinely upset. >> i don't blame him either. he didn't win anything? >> he was just humiliated and he's running off. the stands don't even give him any kind of reaction. give him applause. >> nat is not right. >> they should have at least laughed with him. >> a free hot dog or something. >> give him something. all right, las vegas hotel casinos are offering big bargains trying to get you back. the vegas visitors' bureau told "usa today" hotel rates are down 25% from a year ago. you could pay $125 for two nights and get $100 back for

food and drinks. some rooms at the mirage go for 86 bucks and 69 bucks at treasure island.

the mother of a missing 5-year-old north carolina girl is charged with human trafficking and child abuse involving prostitution. now, she will be in court today. people are starting to search, again, for the little girl this morning. police say that a man seen with the child in a hotel admits taking her, but says he doesn't know where she is. six people were killed in a suicide attack at a police station. it is the sixth attack in this area of pakistan in about a week. taliban leaders claimed responsibility for most of those, but they're denying being involved in some of the deadliest attacks. they say pakistani intelligence agencies and u.s. security

contractors were behind those. secretary of state hillary clinton said she would be happy to chat with sarah palin over a cup of coffee. clinton was responding to passage in palin's new book where she writes that if she and clinton ever met for coffee they would disagree on many issues but she respects clinton's 2008 campaign. first, let me check in on you, head bed. i'm robin meade. great to have you here. the funerals were held across the country on saturday for some of the victims of the ft. hood shootings. one was held in san diego for john gaffaney. a former co-worker remembered him for being very personal. >> i think john's gift was that particularly when we were seeing veterans, he could talk the talk with them. and had a way of working with those people, in particular, that really needed services. >> major nidal hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated

murder in the ft. hood shootings. different views on abortion are rattling the health care reform debate. a white house aide suggests that president obama may not support a provision in the house bill that would change the restricks for federal funding for abortions. >> well, president has said repeatedly and he said in his speech to congress that he doesn't believe that this bill should change the status quo as it relates to the issue of abortion. this shouldn't be a debate about abortion and he's going to work with the senate and the house to try and ensure that at the end of the day the status quo is not changed. >> now, he refused to say whether president obama would veto a final health care bill that restricts abortion funding. house dems were split on the controversial amendment. the bernie madoff auction brought in more than $900,000

for an auction. it sold for 20 times more than what they expected. diamond earrings, $70,000. one buyer explain eed her fascination with madoff stuff. >> it's like getting a plate of china from the titantic and bernie madoff may have even been a bigger ship wreck. >> just about everything up for auction sold far more than the auctioneneers expected. the pace shuttle "atlantis" should be on its way to the international space station some time this afternoon. nasa plans to launch it from the kennedy space center at 2:25 eastern. they'll see the launch close up so they can tweet about it. they will reach 150,000 twitter followers. so you got this really old program from the '80s, the space shuttle program and new media, twitter, people following it. >> what's going on, robin? forecast for them right now.

you saw the low deck of clouds hanging in there and i think it will break up. what is it about 2:30 or so, the cloud cover. the wind shouldn't be that bad. it should not rain at all, no thunderstorms in the forecast. not the same is true for you around southern parts of louisiana and texas and moving in towards mississippi and basically tennessee. here's that line right around houston and coming out of college station stretching down to the south. not severe but a line of thunderstorms that will move up to the northwest, too. rain around northern louisiana and northern arkansas and stretching into western parts of tennessee and find that there later on this morning and here's the mississippi river all moving over towards the east. watch for the heavier downpours and really concentrating itself on in the st. louis area later itself today. upper level snow and all snow coming down and lower parts of nebraska and winter storm warnings in effect for day through night and all the areas

shaded in red including manhattan and four to ten inches of snow this afternoon and down to the southwest a little bit farther, a little bit less in the way of snowfall, but two to four. tough go for you on i-70. look at the snow piling up with that bullseye right around northern parts and eastern parts of kansas, that is about eight inches of snow. so, i think maybe four to ten is a good bet. get away from that and looks like things will be on the wet side for you ft. wayne into toledo. heavier rain back later today right across central areas of illinois and missouri. flash flood watches and warnings. the warnings are all the areas shaded in green and you can see them there and the pacific northwest. you're getting slammed again today. a lot of wind and a lot of rain and a lot of snow. we'll talk about that in the next couple hours. >> look at the cloud cover there. >> there is a cold front blowing it ashore and it is heavy at times. >> all right, thank you. the u.s. and russia could reach a deal by the end of the year to begin reducing their

nuclear weapons stockpiles. that came out of president obama's meeting with dmitry medvedev. a dog so disabled that it moved on its wrists is finally learning to walk and she's been adopted. a georgia veterinarian operated on spirit and gave her months of therapy after somebody dumped her on the side of the road. her new owner says she's doing fine. >> i don't want people to feel pity. what i want people to feel is look what can happen to a dog that somebody thought was useless. she's definitely not useless any more. she's beautiful. >> she sure is. spirit still has some discomfort when she walks, but it does not stop her from playing, apparently. she's just a love bug, isn't she? brand-new details on the alleged ft. hood shooter.

you'll hear what a muslim cleric reportedly says about nidal hasan.

today federal officials will tour an illinois prison that could house dozens of detainees from guantanamo bay. thompson correctional center is about 150 miles west of chicago. the town has a population of 600 people. correspondent richard lui, wow. so, if you're a resident there, not sure what you would think about that. what do they think about the proposal? >> you might have a reaction, 600 people. a lot of people in thompson had one thing on their mind, jobs. the prison there sat empty for five years because the state simply didn't have the resources

to keep it open. it's still almost empty, but state officials say this plant could pump up to $1 billion into the area and create up to 2,000 jobs. >> got this big, expensive building sitting over there empty, or practically. they put some people to work. that's what they need here. >> we need jobs in our area. very depressed. both economically and emotionally. people are looking for these jobs. >> robin, the mayor here, the village mayor estimating the move would cut the county's unemployment in half. >> one move like that would cut the whole county's unemployment in half. job is a plus. what about security? is anyone concerned about terror suspects are housed in our community, what happens if -- >> one congressman is circulating a letter addressed to president obama saying, we should not invite al qaeda to

make illinois its number one target. senator dick durbin took with that saying dozens of illinois prisoners are held in illinois prisons. >> currently 35 people serving in the prisons of illinois convicted of terrorism. we also have people who are part of columbian drug gangs, mexican drug cartels, the toughest, meanest, dirtiest gangs in chicago. they're all in our prisons and they're all held safely. >> an obama official even saying the security measures at the prison in thompson would exceed super max standards. >> richard, appreciate it. that is the latest we have on that. a new book by stephen king "under the dome" is one of the best selling books on amazon.com. because he's a friend of the show, that's right, he gets up early with you i got to ask him about the book and personal questions, too. he cleared up a rumor that comes around now and then. this book, this big, there's a claim already, oh, gosh, i don't

know how many days it has been number one on amazon and else where. will it start the retirement rumors again. >> when i talked about retirement a guy came along with his van and broke a lot of stuff on the right side of my body and i was miserable a lot of the time and i thought, this is just too much work and the miracle is, i started to get better and feel better and i wanted to work again. i enjoy what i do. >> no retirement coming any time soon. how do you feel by the way? >> i feel terrific. >> a fun look at stephen king. but he's a horror writer. what do you mean fun? you can see it right now at cnn.com/rob cnn.com/robin. another new record high for the price of gold this morning, an ounce of gold was trading for

more than $1,130 due in part to the weakness of the dollar. stocks are set to open higher this morning. the good news when the october sales data comes out. the sales probably rose by 1% after a drop the previous month. it's important because the sooner consumers start spending, the sooner the economy recovers. the dow begins today at 10270 after a 73-point gain on friday. brand-new details on the alleged ft. hood shooter. an american cleric tells "the washington post" he did not order or pressure nidal hasan to hurt americans. the cleric says that he saw hasan's growing discomfort with the u.s. military in the e-mails they exchanged. hasan is accused of shooting and killing 13 people at ft. hood. he is still in the hospital. no, no, no, that is a direct quote from the secretary of state hillary clinton. the rumor that she is putting to rest. an out of control, a college house party came to an early end

when the police showed up. you won't believe what they found.

a 105 undergrads were arrested for drinking at a house party. police in new london, new hampshire, say they were at the station on friday night when they heard yelling and cheering down the road from the police station. >> i got out of my cruiser and walked up i could see numerous people walking with backpacks and 12 packs of beer. as i walked up to the front door we had the typical, the police are here. >> half the student were held until they could be released to their parents. a perfect cow is worth more than 1 million bucks. missy the cow is considered to be as perfect as cows get. she lives in canada where she was just sold for $1.2 million. what makes her so special? >> missy has a combination of a deep pedigree, a great family behind her.

she has a great milk production and she also has a high genetic index and also one of the best show cows in the breed. >> missy is only one of five cows ever sold for a million bucks. i know what you're thinking, i don't have an answer to it. what happens to missy now? >> a little stiff, right? >> her walk. i would think that she would be bred. it is for breeding because she was the perfect specimen. >> hopefully it doesn't go to her head. >> hi, bob. >> he is so bad. >> let me show you what's happening now. no delays, still early. chicago, the winds will start picking up and hour or more delay there and also windy in new york city today. and also looking at some wind when you get in towards the dallas metro area and we'll find that at dfw. if you're headed out west seattle with more wind, rain and possibility of snow. we'll talk about that, rob, in

the next couple hours. this will give you a whole new meaning on the phrase domino effect. here you go. >> five, four, three, two, one. >> wow! look at that. those people set up and knocked down more than 4 million dominos in the netherlands yesterday. that's a new world record. to spice things up the organizers used pictures of different places around the world including new york. the new record built the old one by more than 140,000 dominos. an nfl owner is caught on video making an obscene gesture during his team's win! rafer, come on! >> i couldn't believe it when i saw it, robin. this is right from the file of, e, no, he didn't. we blurred out the video so not to offend anyone. no mistaking what he is doing. during the titans win over

buffalo there he is giving the gesture. i think they call it the bird in some parts of the country. a fan caught him on iphone video and that is an 86-year-old man. the nashville, tennessee report he was sitting with nfl commissioner roger goodell for part of the game. >> after the age of 75 you just get a pass. >> just do whatever you want. other controversy in the nfl. marquise matchup between peyton manning and tom brady. they don't make it, they were ahead by six with two minutes left. why didn't they punt the ball? the colts get the ball back and with 13 seconds left they win it when peyton manning throws to reggie wayne and people will be talking about it. the jagger withes were down by

one and jones-drew takes a knee. they wanted to run the clock out and they didn't want to give new york any time left which is what they wanted to do but he apologized to his fantasy owners after that. the veteran against the rookie and the vet got the best. brett favre continues to shut our mouths for criticizing his return. threw a season high 344 yards. meanwhile, the lions matthew stafford who was 3 when favre played his first game. they made him look like a rookie. poor kid. vikings win it easy. most hyped woman golfer in years, michelle wie won her first tournament. her first tournament win since she was 13. a big endorsement deal and she said some tears after the win, as well. >> good for her. the lights went out during the l.a. galaxy and the home

depot center went dark. hey, who didn't pay the bill? soccer star david beckham's team won. our reports is the failure was in the southern california power grid that caused it. and now it is time for our golf highlight of the week. who else, tiger woods brought out record crowds in australia. his first time playing down under in 11 years and he did not disappoint. he nearly holds it out for the eagle here on 16 as it rolls over the cup and tiger goes on to the win. his seventh win of the year and australia becomes the 13th different country that he has won a tournament and he gets the highlight. >> gosh, a lot going on. >> yes. when you hit the road this morning, take a look around and you might notice something. there's an interesting police trend that's being reported in many places around the country. @