rise and shine there, sunshine. it is 7:00 in the morning tuesday, i'm robin meade. welcome, here's what's going on. >> i don't think there's an age limit on something as valuable as a life. >> to get a mammogram or not to get a mammogram. today that is the question. a teacher is accused of threatening a student with death but his attorney says it was a joke. and a plan to close hundreds of medical marijuana centers could go up in smoke. marijuana advocates are getting lots of support in l.a. okay, so new and conflicting info. women in their 40s don't need routine mammograms, at least that's what a government panel

of doctors and scientists says. it totally goes against what you and i have been told for years by the american cancer society to get screenings started at the age of 40. but the u.s. preventative services task force warns that frequent screenings can cause false alarms. some women worry that these new guidelines could influence how insurance covers mammograms. >> for the time being, probably nothing is going to change, but they do concede two points. one that is in the past they have taken these task force recommendations and, you know, adopted some of their own policies regarding insurance based on those. two is who knows how this is going to translate a year or a few years down the road. could this become -- make it more difficult for women to get the routine mammography around age 40 covered. and so it's real i a valid concern. i don't think we have the answer to that as of right now. this is just happening. >> the task force also says that breast cell self exams have no

value. a north carolina community is devastated the morning. the body of a 5-year-old girl was found yesterday and all signs point to it being shaniya davis. dozens attended a vigil last night. police say they got a tip that helped them find the body. they say everyone involved in the search is torn up. >> it's crazy. it was crazy when it first happened. nothing is making any sense. nothing is making any sense. nothing. none of the stories, nothing. nothing is making any sense from day one. >> shaniya's mother is accused of selling her daughter for sex. the girl's father says that davis hadn't even been involved in shaniya's life at all until last month. another man, mario mcneill is facing kidnapping charges. nancy grace is following and has the latest at 8 and 10:00 eastern. you may be one of 15 million people who could have to give back hundreds of dollars in

stimulus money to the government. jennifer westhoven is here. it's a big mess-up. are we seeing this in our paychecks? >> some are. millions got more they were supposed to. they got the tax credit and then some because too late was taken out of their paychecks throughout the year. basically you got a pump in your paycheck and it was a little too high of a bump for the people involved here. treasury says the calculations just weren't right, mostly for -- if you've got a family, for example, but there's more than one job in the family, so it could be a single person with two jobs, a married couple where both spouses work. if you got a teenager who got a job or social security with a job. basically they got more than they were entitled to. we were all supposed to get about $400 if you're single, $800 if you're married. now, we're likely not talking about a huge amount here, but it's something that could mean a lower refund for people or just a headache when it comes to the paperwork at the end of the year when you're trying to do your

taxes. >> so someone will let us know about that, right? >> you would just end up paying more. your tax bill would be a little different. >> thank you. sarah palin says that she never had any doubts that she was ready to run for vice president of the united states. her interview with oprah aired yesterday and the former republican veep candidate says that mccain advisors didn't let her speak her mind or be who she is. she was on the show to promote her book called "going rogue" which is out today. >> when i got the call, not such a shocking phone call to me. >> what did they say? >> they said would you be interested in running for vice president of the united states of america? and i said yes, i would love to. yes, i would be honored to be able to help contribute to the campaign if we were so blessed as to win, to the country. >> but there's no part of you that thinks, well, i wonder if i'm really up for that job. >> no, no. i didn't blink. i felt quite confident in my abilities and my executive

experience knowing that this is an executive administrative job, happy to get in there and contribute. >> well, palin also saidly jie johnston has an open invitation to thanksgiving dinner. he's the father of her grandson and has publicly criticized her. in a few minutes you'll hear what palin said about a possible presidential run. a georgia teacher is accused of trying to put a hit on a student. the student's attorney tells local media that randolph forde asked the 16-year-old if he was gay and threatened to hit him. police say that he asked another student to kill the teen. >> the teacher held a piece of paper up with the victim's name on it advising that he was going t.o. a hit on that student. >> people say that they do something in this day an time, they just might do it, so we're pretty scared. >> forde is out on bond and on paid leave. his attorney says that he's known to joke with his students and everyone knows he's just kidding.

five minutes past the hour. bob is going to show you a winter storm, but right now he's going to start with the folks who are probably up this early. hello, east coasters. >> yeah, that's what we're looking at right now. another warm start if you live anywhere right around grownvi e greenville, spartanburg and northern sections of florida. this cold front is sliding down to the south so it's going to be a cooler day for you in areas like charlotte, back through raleigh. then you get across the real cold stuff and it's right around kansas right now and missouri. here is all the snow coming down, beginning to wind up just a little bit less, which is good news for you for the morning commute. we still have advisories out there. notice the snow shield itself beginning to switch over to rain a little as well. let me show you some video coming out from that video from yesterday afternoon. this is right around that nebraska-kansas state line. you saw about eight inches of snow yesterday afternoon. it was coming down early this morning and now is winding down just a bit for you.

it's not going to stick around too much longer as that cold air will recede back to the north. we still have advisories for snow for kansas city until 8:00 this morning. that's because of the rain-snow mix coming on down. look at the temperature too, it's right around freezing and a little above, so the streets right now basically wet. bridges and overpasses may be a little tricky so watch for that. 36 in topeka. when you get across the missouri line it's about 40, so here's your rain. kansas city itself, a rain-snow mix off and on. look at heavy rain getting in towards illinois and indiana, but east of there it's pretty nice. traveling up here at nyc, la guardia has a 12-mile-per-hour out of the north. no big deal, no rain for you today. winds a little gusty out of the north, maybe 15, 20 miles per hour at times. that will slow you down at the airports. but a beautiful start, into the 40s right now. up to 56. what are you popping over there? >> my caffeinated diet beverage. >> i was like whoa, are we at the bar? >> my caffeinated diet beverage.

i don't drink caffeine during the show but during the show. it's that or an i.v. there is a big change for people who use and give away gift cards. why gift cards may soon have a longer shelf life. plus should people profit from selling medical marijuana. a fierce debate could end tomorrow.

in our salute to the troops, army sergeant ebony johnson is in the spotlight today. her birthday is friday and this is from her husband and their 3-year-old son. >> hi, robin. this is james johnson sr. i'm saluting my wonderful wife, sergeant ebony johnson. eb, i love you with all my heart

and i thank you for

an overwhelming majority of independents and demmc$qìc% disagreed with that.h okay. over to jen westhoven.

who isç not aggravated when yo go to use a gift card and find out you've been socked with all kinds of fees. bout to change for many folks. jen what you had for $50 might be down to 40. >> yeah, thank yu' these are rules from the federal reserve. they're not the toughest rules but they would protect you from some of the worst practices of some of the gift cards. you should know they won't take effect for this holiday season. eliminate many of the junk fees. right now just oneç example is you could go to look up the balance on your card and get charged just for looking it çu. that's just one of the many junk fees that will be eliminated. also dormancy fees won't beç allowed to kick in for at least a year after the card is bought and the card will not be able to expire for at least fiveç year. sometimes they get cards that expire really quickly. you put them in a ç"rawer, the next thing you know it's worth nothing. that company got to keep all the money, you got zip.

longer get mail if the post office has its way. the post office is struggling to at leastç stop losing taxpayer money. it lost almost $4 billion in the latest year, even though there wasç a lot of cost-cutting at e post office, but it says it is planning to ask congress to end% saturday's service. an nfl owner found out how much two birds are going to cost himç and it's a lot of money. was it too much? was it worth it? we want to know your thought.

medical marijuana supporters came out in full force at a debate in l.a. last night.çç the city attorney wants to regulate and close hundreds of clinics. now, the issue, determining if clinics that make a profit are illegal.ç >> we cannot have a policy in the city of los angeles thatç bans the sale of all kt(jájtuj

whether you call foez sales, reimbursements or not for profit sales. >> twoç city council committee voted to keep the clinics open. a final vote is expected tomorrow. one of elizabeth$çsmart's accused kidnappers is expected to plead guilty today. we don't haveç details on the plea deal for wanda barzee. she and brian mitchellç are accused from taking smart from her home at knife point seven years ago when she was ç14. smart says mitchell repeatedly raped her. she was found nine months laterç you know what, a little piece of video will bring a smile to your face. aç smolder comes home -- a soldier comes home from afghanistan and watch as his dog recognizes him.çç >> oh, my gosh.

>> iç told you. >> gracie, you remember cad? >> gracie starts to really cry loud.ç is that not sweet? people have clicked onç this o nearly 800,000 times. i think gracie really knows who that is. weç found today's video on youn liveleak.com. ç you know what, that's wha the person who was holding the camera says, it's bringing a tear to my çeye. >> brought a tear to my eye. the nfl owner caught flipping off the other teamç wh both hands now has to pay for it. >> good morning, robin. definitely. $250,000. yes, tennessee owner bud adams is probably crying a few tears because that's what he's going? to have to pay after being caught on cell phone video flipping the flightedç animal several times apparently to the bills sideline. he did apologize saying he got

caught up in theç excitement o the game but 250 grand is a lot compared to others. michael vick was findç $10,000 for making the gesture in '06. you are posting on!óur facebook page and let's show what you're saying. tony p. says a little too harsh. the old man is happy. thereç isn't much to be happy about in tennessee football this year. meanwhile tony b. says bud can and pay a lot less. who celebrates by flipping someone çoff? it was just plain stupid. tell us what you think. go to çcnn.com/robin and clickn the facebook link. meanwhile the misery continues in cleveland. the brownsç had another horrid loss. shut out by baltimore 16-0 and the fans showing their displeasure with theç signs. this was one of the worst games on monday night football ever and that is not highç personal. on the last play of the game, last best player, joshç cribs,

gets leveled and he was hurt and taken to a hospital as a precautionary measure. just a bad downç to be a brown fan. lastly, some college soccer. watch the goalie thereç doing some cart wheels. this is stonybrook versus hartford. you can see here he's gettingç ready, he's warming up and stony brook makes the goal and watch as the guy watches. here you go, here's your cartwheel. all new sports in the next half hour. >> serves kou right. i love it. hey, it's better than fighting. thanks. travellers,ç thinking abou you right now, here's bob. >> so far so good. a little deicing going on in kansas city becauae of cold temperatures. a little rain turning over to ice. if you're traveling out there, here's o'hare and çmidway. look terrain. the winds will be out of the east just like yesterday justing toç near 25 to 35 miles per ho at times so count on delays in chicago. chicagoan hour orç more, those will be the longest. also new york and detroit with

wind and some showers around kansas city. you'llç also find them around memphis too. more morning express coming up in a couple minutes.

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signs point to it being shaniya davis although there's no confirmed i.d. yet. police got a tip that led them to the body. a wildfire burning near a major highway in southern california should be fully contained today. firefighters say that it burned more than 250 acres but is a couple of miles away from any buildings. they say that it started after a tractor hit a power line. there are no reports of serious injuries. in about 45 minutes the astronauts will start looking for any damage on the space shuttle atlantis. they'll check whether debris hit it during launch yesterday. wasn't it pretty?

atlantis is on track to link up with the international space station tomorrow. it is bringing spare parts to the station. that was a check of some of our headlines but that's not all. there's plenty more. i just wanted to stop and say good morning, hope you're on top, it's 30 minutes past the hour, i'm robin meade. sarah palin's new book hit the stores today. in an interview with oprah yesterday, she dished about controversy during her vice presidential campaign. correspondent richard louie joins us and that includes the interview with katie couric. >> her book that you're talking about is called "going rogue" and palin describes couric as condescending, biassed and badgering. she said she did not respond well to some of the questions because she was annoyed by couric's constant presence. take a listen. >> my friend opens the curtain for me to get backstage and there's the perky one again with the microphone and the camera is rolling. i'm like dang, give me just a

couple of minutes. with all due respect, yeah, nicely. you're pretty perky too. >> a lot of perkiness. cbs's news president says the quality of the interview and the questions speak for themselves there. >> perky one. palin also claims in her book that she was basically tricked into doing the interview in the first place. let's explain that. >> palin says she was driven to do the interview by a campaign adviser named nicole wallace who used to work with couric. she said wallace told her, quote, katie really likes you. she admires you as a working mom and just relates to you. she said katie really needed a career boost and had low self-esteem. nicole wallace, who you see here, says palin is lying. she said she would never say any of those things, robin, in a million years. >> something is just not matching up there. all right, thank you. military police arrested a single mom with a baby son for refusing to deploy to afghanistan. specialist alexis hutchinson

said that her mom was supposed to take care of the baby but was too busy caring for sick family members. an army spokesperson said hutchinson would not have been deployed if the army knew about this so they're investigating. so far she's not been charged. a new kia motors plant that created thousands of jobs in georgia has opened its doors. the first car rolled off the assembly line yesterday. well, local officials say the plant could pump 6.5 billion into the area's economy and mean 20,000 more jobs in the state. >> the impact has been staggering. the small business development that is associated with these manufacturing jobs is really gaining momentum here. >> the area where the korean automaker is located actually had an up employment rate of more than 18% in october. so let's hope it means a lot more jobs. more americans are going hungry. the agricultural department says about one in seven u.s. households struggle to put food

on the table last year. it is a record high. president obama says the report is unsettling. he's urging congress to pass a strong child nutrition bill to help hungry american kids. the agricultural department says that poverty is the main cause of hunger. winds as powerful as 95 miles an hour, well, they're pounding oregon's coast. sustained winds of 55 miles an hour are expected before the storm is over. power is out in some places. at one point a foot of water covered u.s. highway 101. time for our ireport of the day. top architectural firms build structures out of canned foods. those are cans. the sculptures will be judged and after the exhibit all the cans go to a food bank. thanks to julio ortiz for spending in the pix. you give the news but you give your views. learn to be an ireporter, you'd

be great. five men have been arrested after allegedly using a fake search warrant to try to rob a bank. nevada authorities say that the men showed what they said was a federal warrant and then demanded money. the fbi says that they handcuffed and threatened the bank manager when he refused to turn over cash. the men were arrested when they left the bank, so there. it is 35 minutes past the hour. there's a storm system that has a little spring and a little winter and some where in between. hi, bob. >> good morning, robin. that's the one right around kansas city. the latest observation, 34 degrees, light snow but it's a little impact for your morning commute. this weather brought to you by ups. so let me show you what i'm talking about. you have the upper level low still sitting right over missouri. remember this is a main power system that's really generating all the rain at the surface but it's only going to sit here a couple more days so it's a slow mover, no doubt about it. look at kansas city, all the white is all snow, the blue is all rain. it's mixing in and out with you

but you still have a winter weather advisory until 8:00 this morning central time. so all of kc and the surrounding areas because of the snow on the road. a little on the tricky side, especially on those bridges and overpasses. take it a little easy out there. look at the temperature slowly riding up. 37 in topeka, kc 34. it's all snow coming down. a little leafly texture to it is a good indication of the snowflakes. this is pure liquid right around central parts of indiana and towards illinois. it's dry in chicago for the time being. you'll get rain breaking away and also wind up around chicago. wind in milwaukee too but the heaviest rain is just north of champaign drifting over towards the west on the upper side of that low. behind that you can see rain coming out of the louisville area in toward central indiana and a little streamer of rain in central georgia, in towards alabama and florida. it's on the weak side. no big deal with this. but the clouds are out there. probably catch a few delays out

there as well. you showed the video of all the wind right around the pacific northwest. there's the cold front. a lot of action coming ashore again today. an additional 2 to 3 inches of rain for washington state down through oregon. more on that coming up in a half hour from now. >> all right, thank you. a marine made a video diary basically of his life in iraq and his parents got the videos, but after he was killed. you're going to hear emotional reaction from his father upon seeing that. plus former basketball star dennis rodman allegedly skipped out on a party tab. we're not talking about change here.

all righty, checking in on some of the other stories at 21 minutes to the hour. a marine made a video diary for his parents but they didn't get to see the videos until after he was killed in action. this video shows lance corporate billy spencer leaving for iraq at the age of 19. >> we're flying direct. i love you, mom. >> his parents say that it's like he's talking directly to them now. >> i could look at those videos, every one of them, and say that's my kid. >> lance corporal billy spencer was posthumously awarded the silver star. are you one of the folks angry about big corporate

bonuses that other people are getting? you know, at a time when people are still losing their homes. dozens took their protests straight to one company, goldman sachs. jennifer westhoven is here. what was the deal? >> well, these people, their belief is that the goldman sachs bankers should just give up their bonuses and i guess put them into a pool to help people who are in foreclosures. one of the reasons that they are upset is goldman got some of the bailout money. take a listen. >> break them up, break them up. >> that was about 150 people gathered outside goldman headquarters in washington, d.c. the building they have there, their headquarters is in new york. goldman did get about $10 billion in bailout money. sips then it has paid all that money back so it is a different situation than aig where they were giving out bonuses but haven't paid the money back. don't go looking to get cases of coca-cola at costco for a little while. the two companies are having a fight over prices, so you won't

see many coke products at the costco warehouses. the two sides are still talking to see if they can agree, but basically costco said in one quote that coke isn't giving them low enough prices that they can then pass on a good deal. obviously costco's name is all about cost, so if they can't get a low one, they don't necessarily want to put knit there. yeah. you want your christmas gifts under the tree in time for the big morning? ups says the busiest day of the year, december 21st. you may want to ship before then or else your package is going to be competing with a sea of about 22 million small packages handled that day. that's just by ups. if you must wait until the last minute, you can wait but you will pay extra. you can ship as late as december 23rd for christmas eve delivery. >> yeah, i think that's risking it. even if they are reliable. i mean woo. a police chief accused of

scheming to sell items from the surrogate mother for sarah jessica parker's twin is now on trial. he said he joked with the paparazzi about taking items from the woman. his lawyer said his client went into the home but didn't take anything. another police chief is also accused in the case. both have pleaded not guilty. the u.n. is worried that iran could be hiding other nuclear plants. in september iran revealed a secret facility and now in a new report, the international atomic energy agency says that it's concerned that other enrichment facilities are being built for possible military use. iran says there are no other facilities under construction and that any future plans will be disclosed. last night on the joy behar show she welcomed paris hilton and he talked about carrie prejean. >> she did answer the question honestly. she believes marriage is between a man and a woman. i don't happen to go along with that. i think people in love want to get married, let them get

married but that's how she believed. shouldn't she get some credit for that? >> absolutely. she gave the politically incorrect answer in her words. and even watching her interviews recently, she's like i didn't want to be politically correct but i flip that back to her and say, you know, do you want a politically insensitive miss usa? no! you've got to know what you're running for. >> catch the joy behar show here on hln. there's something new popping up on police officers' uniforms. why they're trying out a dash cam you can wear.

an overseas plane was diverted to remove a passenger. yeah, a u.s. airways pilot made an unscheduled stop in boston yesterday to ditch a 50-year-old scottish man. the airline says he was removed in the interest of safety before the plane crossed the atlantic. now, a spokesperson for boston's logan airport says the man was arrested for interfering with a flight crew. they call it the silent witness. well, police officers in idaho are wearing tiny cameras now. the sheriff says that they are a lot cheaper than dash cams and they're already paying off. he says that someone accused a cop of something illegal. they went back to the video and the officer was cleared. what word do you think sums up 2009? well, it's a word that you use to boot somebody off of your facebook page. it's called unfriend. this word is unfriend. it is the 2009 word of the year. i've never once used it. well, the oxford american dictionary says it's going to be

the new word of the year. it chooses a word that best reflects the mood of the year. the word sexting was runner up, sending racy text and photos through your cell phone. >> but you're just so friendly, that's why you don't know unfriending. >> you mean i can unfriend someone? in my world i call it purging. it's like when you go to your day book and you go okay, not you, not you, not you. you do it too. a young boxer made history when he became a world champion. he has another goal, to, to become a rabbi. good morning. as far as we know there has never been a world champion boxer who was also a ranee but yuri foreman already became the first israeli boxer to be a world champion when he beat daniel santos for the werlt weight title. he trains on kosher food. he grew up very poor and start

boxing when he was 8 because he was bullied. two tennessee football players accused of attempted armed robbery were kicked off theteam. they were dismissed after they allegedly tried to rob some other students in a car at a convenience store, though they have not been found guilty yet. a third player, jansen jackson, his status remains on hold. tennessee titans owner bud adams got fined $250,000 for flipping the bird one, two, three times and the double barrel. this was during their win over buffa buffalo. what are you saying about it? >> that's a lot of money. >> quarter of a million books. >> she says i think it's an eye opener for those who think they can get away with whatever. the fine should have been doubled, you know, for the double-barrel bird. love it, abigail. don m. wrote if i was fined $250,000 every time i flipped off my co-workers or someone i came in contact with, well, i

would owe a lot of money. >> at least don is honest. >> kids, we're not condoning this behavior. tell us what you think, go to cnn.com/robin. click on the facebook link. we'll read them lastly, former nba character dennis rodman detaened in germany for allegedly skipping out on a $5,000 bar tab. a german official says rodman was playing in an exhibition organizers asaid they would pick up his hotel bill but not the bar tab. dennis, save your mp! >> what is he doing now? exhibition games? >> this is what he's doing for money. then he spends $7500 allegedly? more sports in the next half hour. here are a couple of stories we're keeping an eye on you this morning. a hearing is going to be held at 2:30 eastern in washington to

talk about how to get the h1n1 vaccine to the places it's needed. the senate, homeland security and government affairs committee will be holding that. at 3:00 p.m., the senate foreign relations committee takes a closer look at the u.s.'s role in the international economy. tim geithner will be one of the witnesses. rafer, it sounded like you were going to say something real awful. >> i thought he was going to get fined. >> his wife is due with his first child any second. >> he's not sleeping and she's not sleeping. >> got my pager on. >> good morning, everyone. the so far the only delay is ground stoppage in atlanta, poor visibility, low clouds. chicago, an hour or more because of the wind. new york city metros, north wind again. short delays out of that. atlanta, again, a morning ground stop until 8:30. san francisco, showers later this afternoon.

more in jst a bit. >> thank you. sarah palin is clobbering some pormer mccain staffers. you'll hear the new details that is out today. a little boy who had trouble walking got help from a new buddy.

good morning. is the sun just peeking in the room? morning, sunshine. here's what's going on today. i don't think there's an age limit on something as valuable as life. >> to get a ma'mmogram or not? today that is the question. and people in north carolina community are devastated this morning. what led police to the body of a small child and who they're afraid that it might be. and a teacher is accused of threatening a student with death. but his attorney says he was just joking. first, new and conflicting information.

if you're a woman in your 40s you don't need a routine ma'am graph gram. huh? at least that is what a government panel of doctors and scientists is saying and it flies in the face of everything you've been told prior to this. the u.s. preventative services task force says that most women can now wait until they're 50. but the american cancer society still recommends annual mammograms starting at the age of 40. many women say they're going to follow that advice. >> i want to know what's going on with my body, and i want to be sure if anything is happening i can nip it in the bud. >> i work with women, and have a lot of friends who have had cancer discovered prior to age 50. >> i don't think there's an age limit on something as valuable as life. >> so we're going to talk about how anxiety and false positives kind of vet into this decision. dr. sanjay gupta and i will talk about why these new guidelines are causing new concerns.

a north carolina community is devastated this morning. a body of a 5-year-old body was found yesterday. all signs point to it being that of shaniya davis. dozens attended a vigil, police say they got a tip that helped them find the body. they say everyone involved in the search is torn up. >> crazy. it was crazy when it first happened. nothing is making any sense. none of the stories, nothing. nothing is making any sense from day one. >> the little girl's mother is accused of selling her daughter for sex. the little girl's father said davis hadn't even been involved in shania's life until last month. another man, mario mcneil is facing kidnapping charge. a sarah palin is giving tough love to her daughter's ex-fiancee. the former veep candidate was on the show promoting her new book and she talked about levi

johnston, the father of her grands grandson, and his photo shoot for "playgirl". >> by the way, i don't know if we call him levi. i hear he goes by the name of ricky hollywooded, this aspiring porn, some of the things he's doing. it's kind of heartbreaking. >> the "playgirl" centerfold. >> yes. i call it porn. a bit heartbreaking to see the road he's on. >> palin also says johnston has an open invitation to thanksgiving dinner. in a few minutes you'll hear what she says about a possible presidential run. you may be one of 15 million people who could have to give back hundreds of dollars in stimulus money to the government? some people are, like, out of my cold dead hands! jennifer westhoven, what's the deal here? p it's really a mistake. you were supposed to get that tax rebate, $400 or $800 depending on your situation. but a lot of people got that tax

rebate and then some. so it's not that the government wants more from you. it's just that basically every week or every two weeks in your paycheck you got a little bit extra that you weren't supposed to. we don't really know who it is. we don't know if they'll send out a letter to you. it will just show up when you do your taxes that you may owe more than you expected. the treasury says they didn't quite calculate for these people. you can see the groupings right there. mostly what it boils down to is if you have a bunch of people on one tax return but you have more than one job, those people kind of double dipped, got the extra benefits. like a teen in the house or if both the husband and wife work, for example, it's not a huge amount. maybe around $250, but it could just mean a headache when you do your taxes or it could mean if you get a refund your refund will be a little lower. >> thanks for the hedz-up. president obama is in china

trying to bring the countries closer. he did some sightseeing. after a closed meeting with hu jintao. >> on the issue of nonproliferati nonproliferation. we started our joint consideration of trying to stop the nuclear weapons. i told him i enjoyed china's support. >> he also encouraged china to resume talks with the dalai lama's representative. five minutes after the hour. a little spring and a little winter combined and in between is where you have the problem spots. >> we'll start around kansas city metro. it's been a tough morning commute, a winter weather advisory for the next 55 minutes, until about 8:00 your time. an upper level low. a lot of cold air wrapped up in

that, going to gradually warm up and move to the north. right now it's all snow when you get into the north. the green shaded, blue shaded, all rain. that red spot probably some sleet, bride banding. we'll see this off and on this morning. later this afternoon should be all rain for you as it moves to the north. that winter weather advisory still in effect until 8:00 central this morning because of the snow currently coming down with a temperature of 34 degrees right now in kansas city. having a tough time sticking on the road but getting on some of the bridges and overpasses. heavy rain around central will indiana, illinois, down the line a little farther, the cold front in alabama getting a little light rain activity around central georgia, stretching into western north carolina and eastern tennessee. but if you want real bona fide rain, the heavy stuff right now slamming toward seattle, portland, looks like you're getting blasted off the pacific turn you into snow. the rain will be heavy at times specifically around portland at

least over the next couple of hours. winds down later this afternoon and gets smacked down on thursday with another storm coming in. let me show you shots coming out of northern oregon, heavy winds whipped up the surf and sand. you can see it right there. right on the northern coast reported an 89-mile-per-hour wind gust yesterday afternoon at 4:00. that is category 1 strength hurricane, almost category 2. that will wind down just a bit for you, but the wind and rain comes back thursday. more on that in a bit, rob. >> i am surprised by the worded that they've chosen to sum up 2009. it's a word that you use to boot someone off of your facebook page. "unfriend" is the 2009 word of the year. >> we need to get facebook pages. >> according to the new oxford american dictionary. well, you silly goose, we just don't unfriend anybody. the runner-up is sexting.

that if you don't know is sending racy texts and photos through your cell phone. there's a big change. if you use a lot of gift cards, the cards will soon have a longer shelf life.

all right. it's time to salute our troops. come here, watch this one. army sergeant ebony johnson is in the spotlight. this salute is from her husband and 3-year-old son. >> hi, robin. this is james johnson sr. i'm saluting my wonderful wife, sergeant ebony job son. ebb, i just want to tell you i love you with all of my hard and i thank you for being brain enough to join the military to serve your country. i appreciate your sacrifice. i just want you to know that you will always be my angel. >> i love you, mommy.

thank you. >> is that not the best or what? if you you have somebody in the service, go to cnn.com/robin. more quotes, more topics, more sarah. sarah palin answered questions about her political future yesterday on the oprah show. richard l youui is here. >> withe big question. will she run for president in 2012? here's what she said about her political plans and leaving the governor's office. >> she's not retreating. she's reloading. >> reloading. >> she's able to get out there and fight for what is right. >> does that mean you're reloading for 2012? >> i'm concentrating on 2010, and making sure that we have issues tackled as americans to make sure that we're on the right road. >> would you even tell me if you were thinking about it? >> no, i wouldn't. >> she went on to say she was looking forward to her son trig starting kindergarten in 2012

but she didn't know what she would be doing beyond that. >> if she decided to run for the president, would it look like she had a shot? >> a new poll says no. it found just 28% of people think palin is qualified to be president. 7 in 10 shays she is not. one analyst saying she can't have a significant impact, though, on elections. >> she's going to be helpful to people in 2010 on the republican side. she'll choose some candidate. i think she's going to have a significant voice among conservatives in the next few years. i do not think she'll be the republican candidate for president and i doubt she'll run. >> in those poll results, more than half of republicans thought palin was qualified to run the country but on the flip side an overwhelming majority of independents and democrats disagreed with that. >> thank you. who isn't aggravated when you go to use a gift card that

somebody gave you and you find out there's been all kinds of fees on it? that is about to change, though. our money expert jennifer westhoven is talking about this. a lot of people use the gift cards, but if you fess up, how many of us actually use them, like, years down the road? i have a few sitting right now in my billfold that i have not used. so, jennifer, is that going to help people like me who are la tharnlg ick about using them? >> yes, especially if you're somebody who forgets them for a long time and maybe you think, i'll save these all up. like maybe you got tiffany. you can't get much for 50 bucks there, but if you saved them up. these rules will protect you from some of the worst -- i know that's my opinion -- gift pol card policies. many of the junk fees will be eliminated. a lot of junk fees out there, one is if you even check your

balance they can charge you a fee. also, no dormancy fees for at least one year after the card is bought. and the cards kntd expire for at least five years. these would go into effect this august. keep in mind none of these rules apply to any gift cards you buy for this holiday season. don't get up on a saturday and check your mailbox for any christmas cards. maybe next year. we'll see. if the post office has its way, it is looking to eliminate saturday service. the post office lost almost $4 billion in the latest year, even though it had cut $10 billion in costs. they were really looking to cut but still didn't help so much. the post office plans to propose the plan to congress next year. robin? >> thank you. you know, it's simple will. you go to the e.r. you expect you're going to get better. a new study finds that some people are twice as likely to die when they go. an nfl owner will pay a hefty price for two free birds.

is it too much, though? your thoughts coming up.

for as long as we can remember, women have been told to start getting yearly mammograms at the age of forward. now this new set of government guidelines says you can wait until you're 50. so it's a little confusing. our chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta, is joining us here. okay, the new guidelines say wait until 50 basically. what's the deal? >> it's confusing and it caused

shockwaves through the medical community as well. they looked at the exact same data when they recommended 40 and now they came to a different confusion. it gives you the underbelly of medicine here. >> are any of them oncologists? >> no. this is a government organization that has sort of dictated how other organizations make their policy and organizations. so they are influential, but it's exactly what you said. back in 2002 they said between ages 40 and 49 women should get mammograms one to two years. now the task force recommends against ma'am okay ravy for women 40 to 49. they say the operative word is routine. they say talk to your doctors about the risks and benefits. risks if there's a false positive, you would have more anxiety, concern. you may get a biopsy that wasn't necessary. 0 positives are it could find cancer early. they say talk to your doctors. i think most of them won't make

any differences in what they recommend as a result of all of this. >> when i first heard these recommendations, the patient side of me got suspicious and said, oh, is this about insurance? because if the government doesn't recommend these, then maybe the insurance will say, i don't have to pay for it now. >> you are not alone in that. in fact, some other medical organizations have come out very strongly, some sort of citing what you're saying. the american cancer society had a pretty strong statement, with this new recommendation the task force is essentially telling women that mammograms at age 40 to 49 saves lives, just not enough of them. this is public health versus individual risk battle we constantly have. robin, as you know, in my own family i've had a member who caught breast cancer on a routine mammogram, no risk factors to speak of. she is 1 of the 15% women who find their cancer that way. american college of radiology breast imaging response said this, these new recommendations

seem like a conscious decision to ration care. will it lead to decreased costs? say some say yes, others say no. >> doctor, thank you so much. you said basically the bottom line is you have to talk to your doctor and decide what you're going to do. >> correct. i think most americans will stick with the older recommendations as far as we're hearing. >> appreciate it. thanks. i'm rafer weigel with sports. the nfl owner caught flipping off the other team, now has to pay for it. $250,000, that is the check that tennessee titans owner bud adams has to write after being caught on cell phone video flipping the bird many times in their win over buffalo. now, he did apologize saying he got caught up in the excitement of the game. so what are you saying about it on our facebook? 250 grand, the punishment does it fit the crime? janeane posted, he should lose ownership. it wasn't harsh enough. the leader of a team shouldn't

be expressing such rudeness. dave wrote, well, i did think it was a bit excessive at first, but when he gave the double bird he just went over the top. how much is the fine for one bird? michael vick did it in '06 and got fined 10 grand. go to cnn.com/robin, tell us what you think. we'll be reading them all morning long. in other news, the misery continues in cleveland, the browns had another horrid loss, fans showing their displeasure with these somewhat hilarious signs unless you're a browns fan. one of the worst games on monday night football. adding insult to injury, their best player gets hurt on the last play of the game, taken to the hospital as a precaution. lastly, very quickly, this video humorous. college soccer, watch the goalie doing some cartwheels? stony brook makes the goal and then watch as he does it? and rubs it in his face.

doing cartwheels. that's a look at sports. a picture-perfect takeoff. why is the space shuttle crew getting ready for a big cleanup? >> liftoff of space shuttle "atlantis."

a vigil was held last night in north carolina after a little girl's body was found. it is believed to be that of missing 5-year-old shaniya davis though there is no confirmed i.d. police say they got a tip that led them to the body. a wildfire burning near a major highway in southern california should be fully contained today. firefighters say that it's burned more than 250 acres, but it's a couple miles away from any buildings. it started after a tractor hit a power line. no reports of serious injury. astronauts are going to be looking for my damage on the space shuttle "atlantis," but wasn't this a pretty liftoff. ?

"atlantis" is on line to link up with the international space station tomorrow. those are some of the headlines we are working on today. how are you? tuesday, that's how you are. 30 minutes past the hour. i'm robin meade. morning. sarah palin's new book is in the stores today. in an interview with oprah yesterday, she dished about controversy during her vice presidential campaign. correspondent richard lui is taking that angle today. for example, she talks about the interview with katie couric and what she thought about it. >> she does. in her book "going rogue," she describes couric as condescending and biased and badgering. she said she didn't respond well to the questions because she was ignored by couric's constant presence. she described one after a rally. >> my friend opens the curtain for me to get backstage and there's the perky one again with the microphone and the cameras rolling. i'm, like, dang, give me just a

couple of minutes. >> the perky one, you mean katie? >> with all due respect, yes. nicely. >> you're pretty perky, too. >> having a little fun there. cbs' news president said the quality of the interview speak for itself. >> palin claims in her book she was basically tricked into doing this interview in the first place. what gives? >> she says she was driven to do the interview by nicole wallace who used to work with couric. in the book she said wallace told her, "katie really likes you. she likes you. she kmiers you as a working mom. she just relates to you. nicole went on to explain that katie really needed a career boost. she just has such a low self-esteem." nicole said palin is lying and she would never say that in a million years. more americans are going hungry. the agriculture department says about one?

seven u.s. households struggled to put footd on the table, a record high. president obama says the report is unsettling. he is urging congress to pass a child nutrition bill to help kids. the agriculture department says poverty is the main cause of hunger. a tragic collision over the hudson has led to new rules. nine people died when a plane and helicopter collided. to make the air space more orderly, the faa is splitting it into zones for local traffic and longer distance zones. sustained winds of 55 miles an hour and gusts of 90-mile-an-hour are pounding the oregon coast. power is out in some places and at one point a foot of water covered u.s. highway 101. some of our west coasters are just waking up, the early birds. where is that storm now?

>> good morning, robin. it's a cold front moving inland across central washington state, through oregon but off the coast of northern california. a lot of rain today being not as much as yet but this is shot number one. this moves inland later today, get a little bit of breather on wednesday. thursday, you get blasted again by more winds and rain. how much over the next few days? here is a computer model. they really pinpoint exactly where the most rainfall will be. the seattle metro area, three or four inches of rain, pink shading is the olympic mountains, eight to ten inches of rain starting today. lasting through thursday evening. so the rain is definitely going to be out there. the wind will pick up again tomorrow toward thursday as well. how about the wind from yesterday? wallport, oregon, 95-mile-per-hour wind gusts, incredible. gair bald di, 89, tillamook, 82

miles per hour. these are all over hurricane strength. hurricane strength is right about 75 miles per hour. that's what you have. look' rain northern california, western oregon, that gets into washington state, too. it's all snow across the highest elevations. you're looking at heavy rain portland stretching up i-5 into seattle. then you'll see the flash flood watches and warnings in place for the next couple of days. here's seattle, all the green counties, those are the flash flood warned areas. we'll look at that, plus the midwest snowstorm, now winding up, nor more in a half hour. here is a piece of video that will make you smile. you'll see a soldier coming home from afghanistan. watch as his dog recognizes him. >> oh, my god! >> i told you! >> listen.

people have clicked on this literally 800,000 times. grace is a happy girl. we found today's viral video today on liveleak.com. well, a marine made a video diary of his life in iraq, and his parents got the videos only after he was killed. you're going to hear from him, what he said on the tapes, and the emotion al reaction from his father. plus, former bafblgt ball star dennis rodman allegedly skipped out on a party tab.

fixing to fly into iraq and kuwait. i love you you, mom! >> so sweet. his parents say that it's like he's talking directly to them now. >> i can look at those videos, every one of them, and say, that's my kid. >> lance corporal billy spencer was posthumously awarded the silver star of. an atlanta woman went to work and found a note on the door. her job of 12 years and her company were kaput. she was shocked to learn that the country's largest publisher of gay and lesbian newspapers shut down yesterday. no comment from the parent companies which filed for

bankruptcy. you may be passing some fake 20s and not know it. the secret service says they're seeing a spike in counterfeiting meaning some innocent people are getting duped. >> here i'm thinking, i've never done anything to put in jail for. >> agents say the recession may be a factor but it's really something that happens during the holiday shopping season every year. the counterfeiters count on the clerks dealing with the long lines, getting distracted and feeling rushed. last night on "the joy behar show," joy welcomed texas politici politician, the gubernatorial candidate. gave his thoughts about sarah palin. >> do you think, since you're reason running for governor of texas -- >> i think so, yes. >> you have to know service things. do you think it's legitimate that a future vice president should know supreme court cases? am am i just being picky? >> no. i don't think you're being

picky. i'm a musician at heart. it's a giant step down from musician to politician. i might blurt out the truth. it's possible. >> go right ahead. >> these politicians are, they're a very sorry lot. mark twain was not wrong about them. all i'm saying is the word is veneer, i guess. she doesn't have the veneer that these other guys and gals have. >> which is what? >> it's a phoniness, a career -- >> she doesn't have that? >> no, no. she is raw and brittle. that's why i think she irritates me. >> catch "the joy behar show" at 9:00 p.m. eastern here on hln. >> did he decide he liked her or not? he was kind of gives her a thumbs-up. but then he said she irritates him. >> exactly. you're right. bad news from the man who oversees the company, ben bernanke said the bad weather in the jobs market will stay with us for a while.

the housing was looking up, gdp was looking up. but not what matters most in our households. >> yeah. and they still are doing ook. he's not taking i away from that. you know how we talk about the jobs market taking a longer time to heel heal? he's saying, yeah, they don't see any turn-up yet. pretty gloomy speech. this is the state of things. he was speaking to lots of financial executives at the economic club of new york. bernanke says that unemployment is likely to remain quite high through 2010. he said it's partly because banks right now, we know they're still in trouble. we've been talking about banks failing and how they can't lend irresponsibly anymore. they're not lending to small businesses, traditionally where a lot of mechanic's job growth comes from. if start-ups can't start up, they can't generate new jobs. we'll keep watching for signs of goodness. for now, he's saying we may be stuck for a while. don't go looking to get

cases of coke on sale at costco for a while. it's no longer carrying coke products. it's having a pricing dispute with coke. coke says it's working to resolve this, but costco has said in some reports that basically if they're not getting a good enough deal from coke to pass on, they're you not going to have something with high prices in the store. >> because you need incentive to buy the 400 cans that you have to buy. >> yeah. you know, when you go to costco, right, if you see a high price, you don't think, oh, that's coke, for example. you think, hey, costco, this isn't a low price. >> you're right. >> you can see why they may not want to stock it. christmas, coming soon. you may want the gifts under the tree in time for the big morning. u.p.s. says the busiest day of the year is probably going to be december 21st. so you may want to ship before then or else your box will be competing with about one of 22 million small packages handled

that day. robin, back to you. >> can you imagine? thank you you. don't make a call or dext on your deal until you hear about a price war. for a guy who wants to be a rabbi, he really packs a punch. hear about the boxer making history.

's new music tuesday. chris allen is out with a self-titled debut. his first single off the album is "live like we're dyining". >> so the album isn't exactly what allen gave you during the show, catchy and mellow pop songs. critics saying considering how much help he got putting the album together, it should be better. it it sounds good to me. however, it sounds exactly, at least the writing, live like you were dying, like a very popular

country song i know. >> oh, really? >> yeah. "live like you were dying" by tim you mcgraw. >> so tim mcgraw might be mad. >> or the guy who wrote it. >> you know so much about music of i do. i'm a nerd. a new kia motors plant this georgia has opened its doors. local officials say it could pump $6.5 billion into the area's economy and bring 20,000 more jobs to the state. >> the impact has just been stag heing. the small business development that is associated with these manufacturing jobs is really gaining momentum here. >> well, the area where the korean automaker is located had an unemployment rate of more than 18% in october. the only reason i knew the writer of "live like you were dying" is i've actually written a song with him. >> which is even more impressive. >> maybe. i still am a nerd.

a boxer made history when with became a champion and now has another goal, to become a rabbi. the boxing rabbi. >> good morning. as far as we know, robin, there has never been a world champion boxer who is also a rabbi. this man already made history without the tattoos. he became the first israeli boxer to be a world champion when he won the welterweight title. he intends to complete his rabbi studies in a year. he grew up so poor he started boxing when he was 8 because he was bullied in the streets. in other news, two tennessee freshmen football players were kicked off the team because they were accused of armed robbery. they were dismissed after trying to rob other students at a convenience store. >> i thought three were accused. >> yes. three of them have been charged. they have not been found guilty.

this third guy allegedly in the car, this is jansen jackson, during the attempt, his status remains on hold. he is not officially kicked off the team yet because they say he didn't actually go up to the car during the robbery attempt. that's what they're alleging. tennessee titans owner bud adams was fined $250,000 for this obscene gesture during their win over buffalo. he was flipping the byrd. i can say it. >> free bird! >> that's a lot of money. does the punishment fit the crime? here's what you're saying about it. danny wrote, i think the punishment should be more of community service. something teaching kmirn that that type of behavior is disrespectful and uncalled for. interesting. >> embarrass him. >> joy yoet wrote, the only thing worse than a sore loser is a sore winnerer. too hash harsh? no way. they did win the game. go to cnn.com/robin, tell us what you think. we'll read them all morning

long. there are some great posts. lastly, one of my favorite former players, dennis rodman, was temporarily detained in germany for allegedly skipping out on a on a $5,000 bar tab. that's a lot of booze. german officials say robin was playing in an exhibition game there, and organizers agreed to pay for his hotel bill, but not the extra 5,000 bucks for drinks consumed at an after party. so they say he was pulled over, he paid the $5,000 tab and then threw another 2500 bucks to avoid legal proceedings. dennis, save your money, please. >> that's the card they take for incidentals. >> exactly. the big wireless providers, did you know, are locked in a fierce price war? well now walmart is getting in on the action. hln money expert clark howard explains what it means for you in the wallet. >> okay. i get a kick when i travel and i'm sitting next to a corporate type on an airplane, and he or

she is there busy working with their smart phone, blackberry, iphone, whatever. i'll say, hey, how much do you pay a month for cell phone service? already knowing the answer. and it's like, oh, i don't know, my company pays for it. well, although there are the corporate overprivilege types that get stuff just handed to them, most of us, normal earth lings pay for our cell phone service. and never has there been a time more important than right now for you to reshop your cell phone service. there is brutal price competition going on, and especially now that walmart has jumped into the cell phone business with both feet. with their plan offering you 1,000 minutes a month, and 1,000 text messages for 30 bucks a month, or you want unlimited stuff? $45 a month. generally, their rates are half what the competition is. check it out. i'm clark howard. check me out at cnn.com/clarkhoward. clark will teach you to save more, spend less, and avoid

getting ripped off. so catch him at noon eastern on saturdays and sundays here on hln. . there is something new popping up on police uniforms. and it's not just to help them catch bad guys. why they're trying out the dash cam that you wear! y8

good morning. starting your day early, huh? i'm glad for that. morning sunshine, i'm robin meade. here's what's going on today. >> i don't think there is an age limit on something as valuable as life. >> to get a mammogram or not to get a mammogram? today that is the question. and people in a north carolina community are devastated this morning. what led police to the body of a small child and who they're afraid it might be. sarah palin's new book hits the shelves today. hear what she told oprah about running for president in 2012. first, though, you want to talk about new and conflicting information. women in their 40s don't need

routine mammograms? that's what a government panel of doctors and scientists says. but it flies in the face of everything you've been told beforehand. the group warns, though, that frequent screenings can cause false alarms about breast cancer. none of the doctors on the panel is cancer specialists, but 40 minutes ago, they're talking with doctor sanjay gupta and say they still have a strong influence on the guidelines. >> it's confusing, and it's caused some shock waves, frankly, through the medical community as well. they looked at the exact same data as they did before when they recommended 40, and this time they came to a different conclusion. so gives you a little bit of the underbelly of medicine here. >> are any of them oncologists? >> no, none are oncologists, but this is a government organization that sort of has dictated how other government organizations make their apologies and recommendations, so they are influential still. >> the task force also says that breast self exams have no value, and the benefits of breast exams by doctors are unknown. well, the american cancer society u they're the ones recommending you start getting

annual mammograms at the age of 40. they still recommend that. but the task force says that you should talk to your doctor first about the risks. i know. confusing, right? a north carolina community is devastated this morning. the body of a 5-year-old girl was found yesterday, and all signs point to it being that of shaniya davis. dozens attended a vigil last night. police said they got a tip that helped them find the body, and say everyone involved in the search is torn up. >> it was crazy when it first happened. nothing is making any sense. nothing is making any sense. nothing. none of the stories. nothing. nothing is making any sense from day one. >> well, shaniya's mother, antoinette davis is accused of selling her daughter for sex. the girl's father says davis hblt been involved in the child's life at all until last month. another man, mario mcneill is facing kidnapping charges. nancy grace has the latest each

night at 8:00 and 10:00 eastern. president obama is in china, and can d some sight-seeing after a closed door meeting with hu jintao. china said the u.s. should not close its door to trade. and there was another big issue on the table. >> on the issue of nonproliferation, president hu and i discussed our shared commitment to stop the bred of nuclear weapons, and i told him how appreciative i am of china's support for the global nonproliferation regime, as well as the verifiable elimination of north korea's nuclear weapons program. >> he also encouraged china to resume talks with the dalai lama's representatives. you may be one of 15 million people who could have to give back hundreds of dollars of stimulus money to the government? you've got to be kidding? our money expert jennifer westhoven is here. so who messed up? >> i think when you hear it, it sounds like you're going to owe more money somehow. >> that's exactly what it sounds like. >> except for the other side is

you might have gotten that money and you weren't supposed to, and you didn't realize it. millions of people got more money than they were entitled to. we're talking about that tax credit, was supposed to be 4 or $800. people got that and then some. basically, every week, a lot of people got a little extra in their paycheck that they weren't supposed to. treasury says the calculations were just right. now, likely, if you're in had a category where there was more than one job for a tax return. so, for example, a single person with two jobs or more or two marrieds working together, or if you have a teenager and the teenager also has a job. so it's not a huge amount. about $250, but that's a lot of dough. it could mean a lower refund or just maybe a headache come april when you do your taxes. robin. >> all right, thank you. sarah palin is giving some tough love to her daughter's former fiance. her interview with oprah aired yesterday. the former republican vp candidate talked about her new

book, and levi johnston and his photo shoot for "play girl." >> and i don't know if you call him levi, i hear he goes by the name "ricky hollywood" now. so if that's the case, we don't want to mess up his gig he has got going. it's aspiring porn. some the things he is doing. it's kind of heart breaking. >> the play girl -- >> i call that porn, yes. a bit heartbreaking to see the road he is on right now. >> but palin also said that johnston has an open invitation to thanksgiving dinner. in had a little bit, you're going to hear what she had to say about a possible presidential run. by her. not levi. >> yeah, not johnston. gotcha, he's too young. five minutes after the hour. let's talk about the storm systems. two at least. >> yeah, two. another one dropping in on thursday across the pacific northwest. we'll get to that one in a little bit. but last half hour, i showed you the powerful rain maker for the

northwest. let me show you the snow maker going on across central kansas, an upper level low, circulate to go upper levels, drifting to the north. so it will be here for the next few days. ahead of that, all rain. all well above freezing for you, chicago, all the way towards kentucky and stretching to the gulf of mexico. but the cold air is still out there, so that blue and pink shade -- the blue is a rain, the pink shade is a rain/snow mix, looks like everybody is beginning to switch over from from snow this morning to the rain as things get warmer during the morning hours. look at the heavy rain, a swath of it over central illinois in towards indiana, goes towards kentucky and light scattered showers for tennessee. here is the chicago metro radar, and it's moving up towards the city. you're going to see some of the rain off in the afternoon, wind will be out there, milwaukee might get a piece of the rain, but a better look at it is what you will find, wind up there. and it will slow you down at the airport, no matter how you look at it. >> look at the light rain moving

toward north, scattered light showers stretching down in towards the gulf of mexico. this stuff is on the light side. most of the force for the heavy rain will be north of this region. scattered showers, a lot of clouds is really all you're going to get down south. here is a look at the storm across the pacific northwest, details of this in a half hour. some video coming out of north cans from yesterday, right by the nebraska state line. you saw about 8 to 12 inches of snow. now it's beginning to taper off. it's turning into rain for most areas, too. up to the north, that is a big-time snow maker for mid november. 8 to 12 inches for northern kansas and lower parts of nebraska. more in a half hour. all right. there is a big change if you use and give gift cards. they're still going to have a longer shelf life.

in our salute to the troops, army sergeant ebony johnson is in the spotlight today. her birthday is friday, and the salute is from her husband and

their 3-year-old son. >> hi, robin. this is james johnson senior. i'm saluting my wonderful wife, sergeant ebony johnson. eb, i just want to tell you i love you with all of my heart, and i thank you for being brave enough to join the military to serve your country. i appreciate your sacrifice. i just want you to know that you will always be my angel. >> i love you, mommy. thank you. >> oh, that is so sweet, james. thank you. if you have somebody in the service, go to cnn.com/robin. even academy award winners are not safe from this economy. an a-list actor has two houses in foreclosure. a family would rather move than give up their 300-pound pig. an owner has 30 days to remove the pet, strawberry, from his home. but he and his wife say, no, strawberry is like one of the

kids. >> she was bought for my daughter, and my daughter has -- used to sleep in the bed with her. you know, takes full care of her. and she is just a part of the family. >> town officials -- look at this tight shot. town officials actually allow one vietnamese pot belly pig per household, but this isn't one of those. this is a yorkshire. not the cute kind. she's still cute. >> yeah. >> is that mud on her or her markings, i wonder? >> i think those are her markings, yeah. i want one. i do. an overseas plane was diverted to remove a passenger. a us airways pilot made an unscheduled stop in boston yesterday to ditch a 50-year-old scottish man. the airline says he was removed in the interest of safety before the plane crossed the atlantic. a spokesperson for boston's logan airport says that the man was arrested for interfering with a flight crew. so, of course you're aggravated when you go to use a

gift card that someone got you and you find out, oh, it's a lot less than they gave me, because there are all kinds of fees on here. that's about to change. our money expert, jennifer westhoven -- well, it could be about to change, right? >> yeah, it can feel like a rip-off. say somebody in your family pays 50 bucks for a dwift card for you, and by the time you take it in it's only worth $30 and change, because of all of the fees? well, there are some new rules that could change all that. they're not the toughest rules out there, but they would protect you from are some of the worst of the gift card policies. so that is some good news in a bad economy. now, the new rules would eliminate many of the junk fees, and there are a lot of them out there. i'm just going to give you one example. for you to look up how much is on the gift card, maybe the person didn't write it down, you can be charged for that. there's also going to be no dorm nancy fees for at least a year after the card is bought. a lot of people just stick these in drawers and forget about them. and by the time you take them to the store, half the value could be gone, and your cards cannot expire for at least five years.

now, these go into effect in august. so they will not help you this holiday season. but it is one of those things, i think buying a gift card for someone is really easy, but be careful. if that's not a store that they love, you might as well throw your money out. saturday morning. you get the paper and the mail. well, you may no longer get mail on saturdays. the post office has its way. it's really just trying to be efficient. it lost almost $4 billion in the latest year. despite $10 billion worth of cost cuts. the post office plans to propose its plan to congress next year to drop the mail on saturday. there's something new popping up on police officers' uniforms, and it is not just to help them catch the bad guys. why they're trying out a dash cam that you wear! plus a real warning about phony money.

more quotes, more topics, more sarah palin. she answered questions about her political future on the oprah show. and correspondent richard lui is here with some of the best sounds bites. good morning. >> that's right. oprah asked palin if she was thinking of running for president in 2012. and here's what palin said to that. >> trig is heading into kindergarten in 2012. i'm looking forward to that. i'm looking forward to affecting positive change between now and then. i don't know what i'm going to be doing in 2012. >> palin admitted to oprah that she probably would not say if she was thinking about a presidential bid, but she quoted something her father said when she left the governor's office in alaska. quote, she's not retreating, she's reloading. there you go, robin. >> you know, if she decided to run for president, what ado the

latest polls say about how people feel about that? >> one poll says she doesn't have a good chance, according to the cnn research poll, 28% of people think palin is qualified to be president. 7 in 10 said she is not. one political analyst says that does not mean she could not have a significant impact on elections, though. >> she is going to be helpful to people in 2010 on the republican side. she'll choose some candidates -- and i think she will have a significant voice among conservatives. i do not think she will be the republican candidate for president, and i doubt she will run. >> it is important to note, in those poll results that more than half of the republicans thought palin was qualified to run the country, but an overwhelming majority of independents said democrats disagreed with that. >> all right, richard, thank you. the nfl owner caught flipping off the other team now is going to pay for it, big-time. hi, rafer. >> yeah, good morning to you,

robin. $250,000. that is the check that tennessee titans owner bud adams has to write we showed you this video yesterday of him being caught on a cell phone cam flipping the bird, one, two, three, and the double-barrel in their win over buffalo. we're laughing at adams, because we probably don't have $250,000 to spend. to his credit, he did apologize and said he got caught up in the excitement of the game. but this is huge. when michael vick did it in '06, he was fine $10,000. so does the efficient fpunishme crime? nathan w. says, that is crazy! my life insurance policy doesn't even pay me that much per finger if i lost it. meanwhile, nidia wrote, i totally agree with the fine. i think he was happy, but that was not the way of celebrating. poor sportsmanship. you tell us what you think. go to cnn.com/robin, click on the facebook link.

we'll read them all morning long and there's a lot of good ones there. the misery continues for cleveland brown fans, 16-0. fans showing their displeasure with some humorous signs. and this was one of the worst games ever on monday night football. and that's not an overstatement. and then literally, adding insult to injury, this poor guy, the browns' best player, josh cribs, gets hurt on the last play of the game. the poor guy was taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure. no word on his condition. lastly, this video is rather humorous. some college soccer. hartford versus stony brook. look at the goalie doing ca cartwheels as he is getting ready for the shootout. here is the player as he makes the shot, rubbing it in. here's your cartwheels right here. as susan, our vp said, at least he doesn't pull him down by his hair. things may get safer for you on ntsb bus routes.

they want to require safer seat belts. the plan also bans drivers from texting and tries to prevent driver fatigue. the american bus association says it welcomes this, but objects to some of the proposals. what word in your opinion would sum up 2009? well, apparently it's a word you use to boot someone off of your facebook page. unfriend. unfriend me. it is the 2009 word of the year says the new oxford american dictionary. well, don't unfriend me. but it chooses a word that best reflects the mood of the year. the word sexting was runner up. notify we have had a tun of stories, unfortunately, where i've had to use the word sexting. but never unfriend. i use the word purge. let me purge you from my list of friends. >> thank you, robin. this travel update brought to you by orbits.

let's me take you live to new york. here is what it looks like. the clouds basically gone, lots of sunshine for central park. the winds pick up out of the north today, 15 to 20 miles per hour. probably half hour delay there. how about flight explorer? let me show you the rain showers to chicago. midway, the air travel getting in fine so far. but notice the heavy swath of rain, central illinois toward indiana will be a problem later today. watch for an hour or more delay around chicago metro. this will be the longest. also new york and detroit with wind. currently, there is a 15 to 30 minute delay in atlanta because of lower clouds. that is with the showers, too. san francisco, seattle, you'll get that, as well. more in a half hour. it was a bank robbery like one we never heard. the alleged robbers came with guns and way a warrant? >> some people are twice as likely to die when they go.

the new york stock exchange just opened for business, and wall street is not expected to maintain yesterday's rally. investors just aren't really reacting to a lower than expected inflation report. we shall see. a vigil was held last night in north carolina after a girl's body was found. it is believed to be that of missing 5-year-old shaniya da s davis, although there is no confirmation on the i.d. yet. police say they got a tip that led them to the body. a wild fire burning near a major highway in southern california should be fully contained today. firefighters say it's burned more than 50 acres, but is a couple miles away from any they say it started after a

tractor hit a power line. no reports of serious injuries. astronauts have to check for any damage on the space shuttle "atlantis" today. ooh, live pictures. this is the check they're doing. making sure debris didn't hit it during yesterday's launch, so we'll check along with them. "atlantis" is on track to link up with the international space station tomorrow, bringing spare parts to the station. cool live look for you. those are the top stories. good morning, welcome back, morning sunshine. i'm robin meade. sarah palin's new book has some harsh words for katie couric. in it "going rogue" sarah palin writes that the cbs anchor was condescending, biassed and badgering during their interview. she also told oprah yesterday that she didn't respond well to some questions because she was annoyed by couric's constant presence. palin described one instance after she had just finished a rally. >> my friend betsy, she opens the curtain for me to get back stage, and there is the perky one again, with the microphone

and the camera is rolling, and i'm like, dang, you know, give me just a couple minutes -- >> you mean katie. >> with all due respect, yeah. nice nicely. yeah. >> because you're pretty perky, too. >> well, the president of cbs news says that the quality of the interview and the questions speak for themselves. . more americans are going hungry. the agricultural department says that about one in seven u.s. households struggled to put food on the table last year. it is a record high. president obama says the report is unsettling, and he is urging congress to pass a strong child nutrition bill to help hungry american kids. the agricultural department says poverty is the main cause of hung hunger. military police arrested a single mom with a baby son for refusing to deploy to afghanistan. specialist alexis hutchinson says her mom was going to take care of the baby while she was away, but was too busy caring for sick family members. >> i know she signed up for that. but to me, it should be some

type of circumstances. i don't really think they should deploy anybody with an infant child. >> specialist hutchinson claimed that her family care plan was no longer viable, and that her command was not giving her adequate time to find a new care provider for her child. however, the army did give her a 30-day extension, and like all soldiers, was given plenty of time to work out another care plan. >> that was the spokesperson for hutchinson's army post and says so far hutchinson has not been charged. they are still investigating. five men have been arrested after allegedly using a fake search warrant trying to rob a bank. that after authorities say the men showed what they said was a federal warrant and demanded money. they handcuffed and threatened the bank manager when he refused to turn over the cash. the men were arrested as they left the bank. so it didn't work. i've got a search warrant here that says give me your money. >> so it backfired.

>> 33 minutes past the hour. storms -- let's start with the west coast where our folks are waking up right now. >> indeed, rob. and i want to show you this because it's a powerful cold front now slamming ashore across middle part of washington state and through oregon, too. that's round number one. a little debris this afternoon and tomorrow. but then on thursday, a new round of wind and rain comes in ahead of a cold front, so it looks like it will pick up the wind, and the rain action again later on this week. look at the rain right now in port land stretching toward northern california and up toward washington state. how much rain over the next two days? i to show you this map, because it looks like it could be another problem for you. you've already seen as much as 5 to 6 inches of rain in some locales. we start seeing the yellows and reds pop up near western parts of washington state, that's 3 to 5 inches. where the s is in seattle, that's the olympic mountains, 8 to 10 inches of rain, and i think that's pretty accurate, too, as the rain gets condensed. so a heavy couple days for you in with rain and wind starting today.

again, a breather on wednesday and picking back up on thursday. as for the winds from yesterday, remarkable. 95 miles an hour wind gusts, that was in waldport, oregon. winds, all these i'm showing you here, hurricane strength. they're going to be about half that later this morning and then really beginning to fall apart later this evening. so good news there, wind beginning to die out. the rain has not lessened one bit. you can see the heavy downpours in northern california. the portland radar picture picking this up well. the greens, audiologist across the higher elevations right now and all training in the same spot. additional 3 or 4 inches today, and coming into thursday. flash flood warnings for audiology areas in bright green. they're out there lasting through the end of the week. all this sliding ashore, looks like it will be a rough couple days. to the east coast, it should be okay. high pressure building in through the capital, temperatures today only in the mid 50s. but it's going to feel nice, crisp and consideratable for you. a beautiful shot.

had to show it to you. more details coming up, rob, in this about a half hour. >> i thank ya. the dow jumped more than 100 points yesterday after a new report showed the retail sales rebounded last week. last month, make that. okay, let's find out what the deal is today. susan lisovicz, how are you? >> well, just fine. well, some retailers may be not so fine. we got those great numbers that came yesterday and the increase came largely on the back of auto sales. other sectors still struggling. today's example, home depot reporting lower quarterly earnings and sales. lows yesterday. like lowe's, depot sees signs of stabilization in the housing market. but it's having still a tough time selling lots of other big project type of items. meanwhile, discounter target posted an 18% jump in property due mostly to cost cutting. sax had a profit most will he by

cost tut cutting, and simmons bedding, bankruptcy. it expects to emerge from chapter 11 in about two months. finally, robin, costco parting ways with coca-cola. the wholesaler will no longer carry coke products because of a pricing dispute. and coke products, there are a lot of them. in addition to coca-cola, well, there's also sprite, dasani water, full throttle energy drinks, minute maid. try going online and try looking at a coke product, costco, your search will produce zero results. >> is that a done deal or an ongoing -- how can i say -- not arbitration, but negotiation? >> right now, you can't get it there. so you're going to have to stock up if you're a big, bulk buyer. but hopefully, that will be resolved, because i think they both could benefit from a partnership. >> it's a big account, i would imagine. hey, thank you. a marine made his video

diary of his life in iraq, but his parents got the videos after he was killed. you're going to hear what he was saying on them, and the reaction from his father. plus, former basketball star dennis rodman allegedly skipped out on a party tab, and you're not talking change.

a tragic collision over the hudson river has led to new air traffic control rules there. in august, nine people died when a small plane in a sight-seeing helicopter collided. some pilots have said the air space there is like the wild west. so the faa is splitting it into separate zones for local traffic

and longer distance flights. a helicopter industry group says that they support this. a marine made a video diary for his parents, but they didn't get the videos until after he was killed in action. well, this video shows lance corporal billy spencer leaving for iraq at the age of 19. >> we're on a c-130, vic vickssonberg, flying to iraq. >> i love you, mom. >> his parents say he is talking directly to them. >> i can look at those videos, every one of them, and say, that's my kid. >> lance corporal billy spencer was posthumously awarded the silver star. a pedophile convicted of having sex with young boys has been sentenced. richard lui is working on that story and more in the next hour. so we're hearing this from interpoll? is.

>> that's right. wayne corelist was the subject of an international man hunt last year, and is now headed to jail for a very long time. i'll tell you about the sentencing and what will happen if he ever gets out. plus, it latest on an amazing marathon operation to help conjoined twins. their status after 25 hours of surgery. and a big step for helping poor people around the world. one of the world's biggest shoe companies is about to offering some kicks for a very small price. we're talking about under $2, robin. >> and there are so many countries where this is still a lot of money, but it's very much needed. the big wireless providers are locked in a fierce price war and now walmart is getting in on the action. so hln money expert clark howard explains what it means for your wallet. >> okay. i get a kick when i travel and i'm sitting next to a corporate type on an airplane, and he or she is there busy working with

their smart phone, blackberry, iphone, whatever, and i say, hey, how much do you pay a month for cell phone service, already knowing the answer. and it's like, oh, i don't know, my company pays for it. well, although there are the corporate overprivilege types that get stuff just handed to them, most of us, as normal earth lings, pay for our cell phone service. and never has there been a time it's more important than right now for you to reshop your cell phone service. there is brutal price competition going on, and especially now that walmart has jumped into the cell phone business with both feet. with their plan offering you a thousand minutes a month and a thousand text messages for 30 bucks a month, or you want unlimited stuff? $45 a month. generally, their rates are half what the competition is. check it out. i'm clark howard. check me out at cnn.com/clarkhoward. clark will teach you to save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off. catch him at noon eastern on saturday and sundays right here

on hln. here's a piece of video that will bring a smile to your face. it's a soldier coming home from afghanistan. but watch as this dog recognizes him! >> jim! who is it! >> gracie! oh, my god! >> see, she is crying! >> gracie. >> i told you. >> people have clicked on this thing nearly 800,000 times. we found today's viral video for you on livelink.com. >> oh, you're going to make me cry! >> i love seeing this video. that's one happy gracie. a new survey shows just how much teenagers may be picking up the cell phone while they're driving, and the numbers will not make you happy. ♪

♪ >> an atlanta woman went to work and found the note on the door. her job of 12 years, and is her company, were kaput. she was shocked to learn that the nation's largest publisher of gay and lesbian newspapers shut down yesterday. it had papers in atlanta, houston, washington, d.c. and florida. no comment from the parent companies, which filed for bankruptcy. we're getting some startling news about distracted teenagers. what they're doing while they're driving. well, a new survey by q research center says one in three kids between the ages of 16 and 17 say, yeah, they've been texting. half say they talk on their cell phone while they drive. the poll results appeared in "usa today."

but listen, many of the teens said their parents are doing the same thing when they are driving. >> so take that. >> a boxer made history when he became a champion, and now has another goal to become a rabbi. hi, rafer. >> good morning, robin. yeah, he wants to travel, you know, and teach judaism and pugetlism, just a complicated guy. as far as we know, there has never been a world champion boxer who is also a rabbi. foreman already became known when he became the first israeli boxer to win when he beat santos, and expects to complete his rabbi studies in a year. great story. this guy grew up extremely poor, and then started boxing at age 8 because he was bullied. nobody bullying him now. two freshman players accused of attempted armed robbery kicked off the team. richardson and edwards were dismissed after the alleged

attempt. their only charge right now. a third player, jackson, is just suspended, as police say he was with the other two men, but did not participate in the attempted armed robbery. and sticking with that, tennessee, i promise i'm not picking on tennessee, tennessee titans' owner bud ryan was fined $250,000 after he was videotaped giving the bird to buffalo. 250 grabbed. what do you guys think? does the punishment fit the crime? you're posting away on our facebook page. paul wrote, the bigger the pocket, the bigger the fine. he can afford it. he does have a lot of money. chris v. wrote, doesn't this fall under freedom of speech? he should be allowed to express his feelings freely. jason wrote, he's 80-something. so what? my grandpa gives the bird all of the time. what do you do? kids, we're not condoning this behavior, but i found that very humorous, and tell us what you

think. go to cnn.com/robin and click on the facebook link and we'll continue to read them all morning long. >> and lastly -- >> we have the best viewers. >> we do. you guys are great. guys have b great. dennis rodman was temporarily detained in germany for skipping out on a 5,000 bar tab. rodman was playing in an exhibition game. the hotel agreed to pay for the hotel room but not the party afterwards. oh, dennis, save your money, stop partying. >> i wonertravelers do not reac doorknob until you listen to bob. >> we is a couple of delays we're watching, right now it's about a 15-20-minute play.

newark, you're looking at liberty airport right now because of a half-hour delay because of volume. an hour or more delays a bottom. watch for a half-hour delay, in atlanta, we have the half-hour delay. then when you get out towards san francisco, bay area showers. more in about a half hour. academy award winner nicholas cage lost two homes in noms because of a recent foreclosure offer. a city official says that cage owed over $5.5 million in mortgage payments and property taxes. it's about six weeks until we say goodbye to twine. so what one world would sum up the whole year? here's a hint, think about

facebook. ♪ don't throw me away ♪ there's no way out ♪ snot i got to held you somehow ♪ ♪. i want to touch you, you want to touch me too ♪