good morning, sunshine. it's thursday already. connected to friday. love to say that for you. i'm robin meade. this is what's going on today. it was like rapids coming right through here, right up to the sandbags. >> people across the northeast are dealing with flood damage but now there are new evacuations all because of one bridge. there are new allegations in the tiger woods sex scandal. did he have help arranging and covering up his affairs? you know what? you could see more drive-through service, a look at an experiment

that might save the hassle of getting out of your car at the big box retailer. i'm all about it, baby. brand new, a sign of hope for people looking for work. in the new survey from career builder and "usa today," more companies plan to hire more full time workers in the next three months. 8% plan to downsize. both numbers are big improvements over last year at this time. the government's unemployment report for march is going to come out tomorrow but sounded like good news in a bad economy getting it there. the rain is finally stopped in the northeast. flooding rivers are a major threat in a lot of areas. the bridge in coventry, rhode island, this one is in danger of collapsing. i'll say, wow. the floodwaters washed away the supports that hold it up. some people downstream were forced to evacuate. >> in the event that the bridge does let go, it may be catastrophic to the other dams

down the pawtuxet toward west warwick. homeland security secretary janet gentleman poll ta know will go to rhode island tomorrow to get a look at the flood damage. president obama declared much of that state a disaster area. in new york a dozen families in riverhead, long island, had to evacuate. some had nothing to go to. >> just floating, the bed is floating. went in to get personal stuff but -- >> it's all lost? >> it's a total loss. >> we're getting incredible flooding video from you and your fellow i-reporters, your fellow viewers. 16-year-old i-reporter beau o'brien sent us, mystic, connecticut, where the movie was filmed. people lived there for 40 years have not seen flooding like this, so the flooding in some parts is the worst that it's been in centuries actually, forget 40 years.

meteorologist bob van dillen. >> record flooding in cranston, rhode island, the pawtuxet river, the bridge was almost getting washed away. it crested yesterday about 20 feet, a little bit above that. now it's coming on down. the clouds no problem, that's actually just some warmer air trying to work its way into the northeast. it will be dry but we still have the flood warnings, not as many as they had yesterday. the green shaded areas around a flood warning, includes a good chunk of massachusetts, connecticut and rhode island. all of the rivers, robin, seem to be dropping right now and no rain for the next four to five days. where is the rain, where is the snow? coming up in a couple of minutes. >> don't talk about snow. >> it's coming down hard. >> it's easter weekend. >> i know. did people close to tiger woods know about his affairs? a new "vanity fair" article says yes, some of them did. ray d'alessio an old friend of the show is in this morning for rafer to explain the story. doesn't sound good. >> no, it does not.

since the first public comments tiger said it's the blame on me and nobody else. remember tiger's public apology back in february? >> i was unfaithful. i had affairs. i cheated. what i did is not acceptable. and i am the only person to blame. >> you heard it right there, "i was the only person to blame." now an article in the may issue of "vanity fair" raises questions about whether people who worked for tiger helped him arrange and cover up those extramarital affairs. the article gives graphic details about alleged encounters between woods and several women. jai belle is president of tiger woods' design and involved with the foundation. "vanity fair" reporting mark steinberg helped cover up at least one alleged affair. the magazine says steinberg turned down its request for an interview for the article.

hln contacted b brian belle and img for a comment and we have yet to receive a response from them. hln the place to be monday for the most comprehensive coverage of tiger's masters return. robin, back to you. >> this story does not seem to end. thank you. we know for certain that the seaworld train ear tacked by a whale died from drowning injuries. the autopsy reports came out yesterday, the medical examiner says that dawn brancheau had blunt force trauma to her head, neck and ribs. an old letter may show that the vatican knew about clergy abuse in the united states nearly 50 years ago. the associated press got a copy yesterday. the 1963 letter from a new mexico priest urged pope paul vi to remove pedophile priests from

active ministry and defrock repeat offenders. it appears that he wrote the letter at the pope's request. the ap was not able to reach a vatican official for comment. taxing soda a little bit apparently doesn't help prevent childhood obesity according to brand new research out today. some states tax about five cents a dollar on soda. the american beverage association says that there's no evidence that a larger tax would work, but that diet and exercise do. the government and health care group paid for that study. i feel like i climbed into the hot tub time machine here. >> i know. it's like what are we, 2004? what's going on around here. >> if you're just tuning in this morning, bob said that he was going to talk about not only rain but snow coming up for the weekend. i know it's only thursday, puh-lease. >> two shots.

one across the rocky mountains, one california and oregon tomorrow night. big area of low pressure streaming out of the rockies, going to get into the plains later today. look at the clouds wrapped up with that, rain and thunderstorms possible for l.a. and san diego today, winter storm warnings all of the spots put in red, wyoming, colorado, parts of utah and call for as much as 12 to 18 inches of snow and high altitudes. grand junction it's basically rain in the valley, snow on the hilltops, where it's going to be for the next couple of hours. watching the snow piling up, west of denver in towards casper, wyoming. lots of snow, dark shaded purple over a foot over the next two days. more on that in a little bit. >> thank you very much. some of the accused militia members made threatening remarks that were caught on tape. you have to hear what they said about starting a revolution. plus, some very tough gas mileage standards may be just around the corner for new cars and trucks, and that has carmakers shifting gears.

in our salute to the troops today, it is for sergeant jana trujillo from her boyfriend. jana is serving in afghanistan, gone for about three weeks now. >> my name is adam donahue from denver, colorado. my girlfriend jana is deployed in afghanistan. hi, jana. i wish i was coming with you. i'll hold it down here while you're back. i got your flag up and your ribbon. can't wait for you to come back. you're doing big things. i love you. >> i love his strong voice, don't you? thank you, adam. if you have somebody in the service and want to issalute th

go to cnn.com/robin. eight of nine members have pleaded not guilty of planning violent attacks against against the government. new details came out in court yesterday and wait until you hear the stuff. correspondent richard lui most of the evidence was caught by an undercover agent. >> right inside the group. the defense attorneys were angry here because he wasn't in court yesterday for some cross-examination, but it sounds like he really gained the trust of the hutaree. he rode last month on a trip to the other militias. when a snowstorm forced them to turn back, they say the alleged ringleader, david stone sr., read a speech he planned to give at the meeting. the agent recorded that and it was played in court yesterday. here's a little bit of that, "our goal is a free nation without tyranny. the time to strike has come. welcome to the new revolution." >> kind of like what kind of talk is that? we've heard a lot of threatening

talk from this group. do you prosecutors think they were capable of more than that? was it just talk or were they really capable of pulling off attacks? >> that's the concern. you and i were talking about wmds yesterday. that's more questionable according to yesterday's testimony that was heard. prosecutors say the undercover agent had to help them build explosives, because they didn't seem to know how to do it themselves. there also seemed to be in-fighting in the group. the alleged ringleader told his wife that his son did not need a job because he was "preparing for war." they say she responded here, robin, "while i'm preparing for war but i still have a job" that's what was said. >> seems like every day we have new information about the group. thanks for following up. >> you bet. talk about going green. one area is using goats as the lawnmowers and it could prevent some california wildfires. new for you in about 30 minutes. happening today, new cars and trucks are going to have to get better gas mileage.

it will be the law. the white house says tough new fuel-efficiency standards could save 2 billion barrels of oil and our money expert jennifer westhoven, more specifically it's going to save from us having to buy it. >> thanks, robin. in 2016, by then, u.s. built cars and trucks will have to get a lot more miles to the gallon, 35 miles a gallon on average, ten more miles a gallon than they get now. it will be signed by the obama administration. you might say is that going to cost me? it might mean the sticker price goes up. one estimate is by about $1,000, but they're also estimating you'd save about $3,000 over the life of the car, so maybe a little bit more up front, but you'll get a lot more mileage out of it. president obama says the plan will cut the country's dependence on foreign oil, and one of the stats that we throw around a lot, robin, is that when you look at cars that were built like in 1922, like the model "t" the old fords, they got about 20 miles a gallon.

>> people say oh, my gosh, haven't we improved upon our technology since then in. >> exactly. it's like what's going on here? you can get a big mac or a coffee at the drive-through. how about a coffee pot or power tools? some big-name retailers are trying out drive-throughs. they don't want to you skip them. >> this is my favorite story of the day. where i come from, rural ohio, we have these drive-throughs everywhere, like some are called the brew-through. you drive in, it's cold, you sit your butt in your car and someone else runs around and gets you the stuff. i love it! of course, it's hard when you're a country boy with your car jacked up so high. >> yeah. >> look, the whole point is that walmart and sears, though, are going to try this, according to the "chicago tribune" because they want to make sure you don't just order online. they want new the store? why? so you don't get the thing you want, you buy other stuff, too.

>> especially at the checkout. some republican leaders support president obama's plan to promote more offshore drilling. these folks say the plan will cost them their jobs. find out what a jury had to say about this dancing video. yikes!

♪ a texas baby born with a

heart defect will now get medical insurance after being denied because of a preexisting condition. a baby! according to local reports, baby houston had to have emergency surgery ten days after he was born. blue cross/blue shield of texas denied the claim but after media reports and pleas from lawmakers, baby houston is now insured. >> it went national thursday afternoon. by friday, blue cross/blue shield was tired of the phone calls, tired of all the e-mails. it's been the best news i've had, you know, besides the fact houston's going home soon. >> look at that little face on that baby. a spokesperson from blue cross/blue shield says the company was happy that it was able to find a solution for the family and for that little one. what are the odds? a mom watching her son play a spring training baseball game gets hit by a foul ball that he

hit? >> yeah. >> only thing would make it worse if it was mother's day. >> gratitude, all of the support i've given you over the years and this is how you pay me back? thank you, son, i appreciate it. >> hi, ray. >> good to see you, robin. he didn't know exactly where his mom was sitting until he heard her scream, against the yankees wednesday. denard span strikes mom in the chest. what did i just do? play was halted for about five minutes. fortunately she was fine. span was so upset he eventually pulled himself out of the game, mom was more upset for that than for hitting her with the foul ball. word out of philadelphia is that the eagle's quarterback is making a difference in busting up dog fighting rings. all of the attention on vick and all of his psas against dogfighting have led to more investigations and arrests. in 2009 over 900 investigations

in dog fighting rings compared to just 85 in 2004. what's the best thing to do on a snowy day? have a snowball fight, of course, or something you don't see every day, how about play soccer in it? u.s. women's soccer team took advantage of the snowy conditions to beat arch rival mexico and you can't have fun in the snow without making snow angels. this was against mexico. >> where was this played? >> unbelievable all that snow. robin, remember the story from yesterday, dallas area deejay terry dorsey mulling over a $100,000 offer to change his name to texasmotorspeedway.com. it was an april fool's day joke early. it was a radio promotional idea that got out of control. media outlets around the world ran with the story so we all got duped. a spokesman for the speed way apologized for any inconvenience

it may have caused. >> whatever. just fork over the $100,000 you promised. coming up a new "vanity fair" article questions tiger's claim that no one else knew about the extramarital affairs. >> in other words, did somebody know about it and help him out? >> maybe. >> wow. ray, thank you. do you need a little bit help getting out of bed during the week? sign up right now for my free wake-up call. dial 1-800-robin-hln, and it will be me on the other end of the line, monday through friday, because i don't want to bug you on the weekends. go ahead, it is free. the rain may have finally stopped in parts of the northeast. the flooding say major threat and people are starting to evacuate. look at that.

good news for many people if you're looking for work. a new survey by career builder and "usa today" says that nearly a quarter of companies asked plan to hire more full time workers in the next three months. only 8% plan to downsize. both numbers are improvements over last year at this time. it looks like the accused ft. hood shooter is being moved from a hospital to a jail, an attorney for army officer nadal hasan says that doctors in an army medical center dpaf him a final physical exam yesterday,

charged with killing 13 people and injuring 32 others. he was shot and left paralyzed. today is national census day, remind you to mail in your census forms. a new poll finds 80% say yeah, census is useful. 20% of the people say it's a waste of money. the u.s. census helps determine how more than $400 billion is spent. good morning, early bird. glad to see you're part of our club here. i'm robin meade and here's what's going on today. it could be awhile before many people in the northeast can dry out. the rain has stopped but look at all of the flooding that's left behind. this is rhode island, some tried to stick it out but the rising rivers are too much. >> that's when i lost everything, once i shut the pumps off, my furnace is underwater, hot water, everything. >> the poor man. despite everything that he has lost, that man says he is staying put. you are sending us great

video from the storms, incredible video i should say. look at this flood at little league baseball field in richmond, reporter. kendall moore says that flooding cut off the roads to his house for awhile as well. the prescription drug avodart may lower men's risk of prostate cancer but also increase risk of heart failure. the results were released because the drug is being tested as a new way to prevent prostate cancer. currently used to prevent urinary problems. the drugmaker says many who developed heart failure in the study were also taking other medications. we'll find out if the judge will set bail for the hue tarrie christian members. the prosecutors revealed new details what they say is the evidence against this group. >> the government looked into

hutaree in 2000 when they were first investigating an arms dealer it says the groups was using and it appears they were well-armed at the time. prosecutors saying they seized 37 guns in this week's raids, plus more than 200 other pieces of evidence, like explosives, bomb components and shrapnel, and undercover agents said one of the defendants also had what appeared, robin, to be a hit list of judges and school leaders as well. >> so frightening. >> very. >> what do the defense attorneys have to say about that? >> in defense of the group, they'd like to make this case about free speech. they plan to argue that the hutaree had a lot of bark but no bite. >> it's legal to speak out in america. it's legal to have opinions in america. it's legal to assemble with people in america. nobody here threw any bricks through any windows or attacked a congressman or called anybody any foul names pause they had a

different opinion. they talked. you're allowed to talk. >> they also plan to prove all of the guns we were just mentioning, robin, were legally obtained. >> richard, thank you so much. appreciate it. he's going to talk a little bit more about what we've learned about this group. the u.s. has won key support for its push for new sanctions against iran. china has agreed to negotiate possible sanctions over iran's nuclear program, from the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. china previously opposed new sanctions. it is one of iran's biggest trading partners. now iran's top nuclear negotiator is in china today. iran insists that its nuclear program is for energy, not weapons. a charter school in philadelphia is no longer going to double as a nightclub. ♪ that's my nightclub music. city officials toured it to make sure there are no traces of the club like alcohol on school premises. the nightclub operated at night and on weekends for years.

the charter school is also under investigation for questionable use of public funds. >> i've noticed that your nightclub music is very similar to your adult film music. >> i only have so many sound effects. ♪ chick-a-bow-wow >> like you're going out to the clubs? >> i go there at 6:00 p.m., woo-hoo. more rain but the flooding threat is not. >> exactly, we saw so much over the last couple of days, it ended yesterday but now the flood warnings are still out there. an i-report we've got coming right out of rhode island, the submerges cars here, this is smithfield. you can see what it looks like. flood warnings. looks as if the rivers crested overnight and beginning to ebb and go down so that's good news. let me show you the flood warnings, good sections of massachusetts, slerm vermovermo connecticut and maine. rhode island under a flood warning. rivers running above the flood stage, some of them are major

flooding but coming down and over the next five day it is ought to be dry so the new jersey floods are going to start going down, too. out to the west, look at this developing low pressure center around colorado and wyoming, another one around nebraska, too. a lot of clouds one this and the wind is going to develop later this afternoon. winds gusting to about 60 miles per hour for a good chunk of new mexico. winter storm warnings, all of the spots in red, calling for a lot of snow over the next 24 hours or so, 12 to 18 inches of snow. what about the worst weather in the country? spotty haven't talked about yet, bismarck, north dakota, how about rain for you guys, 44 degrees this afternoon, and then the temperatures bottom out, all that rain changes into heavy snow overnight tonight. winter storm bismarck, 3 to 5 inches of snow. congratulations, you have the worst weather today, tonight and probably tomorrow morning, too. more on that in a half hour. a florida woman panicked when her husband started choking on a sandwich. she told the 911 dispatcher she can't do the heimlich maneuver

because she has a broken arm. >> turned real blue and i says to her, "he's turning dark" and then i said, oh, my god, he fell out of his chair, and i had already kissed him and told him i loved him, because i just knew he was gone. >> oh, my goodness. hear how the dispatcher helped the woman save her husband's life, that story is next.

♪ lucky i'm in love with my best friend ♪ so back to the woman desperately trying to save her choking husband, she could not do the heimlich maneuver because she had a broken arm. a 911 dispatcher told her to sit

on her husband and push with her good arm above his belly button. >> 911, where is your emergency? >> my husband's choking to death. >> use your weight and push quickly on his stomach, okay? >> she was my angel. i don't know who she is. i'd love to meet her one day but she deserves this award. she's good. >> isn't that sweet? the 911 dispatcher is getting a life saver award. so you ask what becomes of the broken hearted? we may never know why in the world didi chose that song pour "american idol," got her the boot. here's usher performing last night. ♪ babe i can break you down ♪ there's so many ways to love you ♪ ♪ got me like oh, my gosh, i'm so in love ♪ >> he sang the single "omg" off of his new album.

next week contestants take on songs like paul mccartney and john len none. jennifer, why are you laughing? >> i would have booted him. >> i can only imagine it must be intimidating because when you watch that show your brain is trained to judge these people instead of being entertained. >> yeah. >> when they're entertaining it's to entertain you not to be judged. exactly. you've seen the commercials but guess what? some of the free credit reports websites are not free. jennifer's been harping on this for awhile and seems the government says the same thing. >> it says free and they say it over and over. got a little tune. it's technically free but free shouldn't come with an asterisk. free shouldn't be a footnote but you would have to sign up for getting your credit monitored, you had to put in your credit card number. you know if you put in your credit card number it's because they want to charge you. you have to remember canceling it. so many people ended up paying

for something that was supposed to be free. companies like freecreditreport.com are going to be required by law to talk about all the strings that are attached. they don't actually have to change the silly pirate tv and radio ads until september but if you look now they've changed some of the websites at freecreditreport.com. listing some of the fees on top there. there really is a free credit report but of course, it got stuck with the tougher name, it's annualcreditreport.com. if you can remember that, you can get a free credit report once a year by law. >> annual. >> yes, annual, once a year, free credit report, annualcreditreport.com. back to you. >> okay, very good. thank you. >> oh. >> yes time, no? >> okay. >> ronald mcdonald. should he hang up his clown wig? >> not ronald! >> we got pictures, they had a retirement party so that's

obviously not the real ronald. but some health advocates say it is high time that the clown retired. they say he's a bad influence on kids who shouldn't be eating so much fast food. >> mcdonald's is really skirting on treacherous legal ground when they target children as young as 3 years old as ronald the clown clearly does. >> ridicule them and say it's time for it to go or him to go, does much more whoert while, there's much more worthwhile causes so be pursuing. >> mcdonald's says that ronald delivers a positive message and the symbol of the ronald mcdonald house charities. >> he's not going anywhere. >> that imposter ronald is cracking me up. >> he's an icon, he's not going anywhere. thank you. sandra bullock is no stranger to the same treatment facility where her husband is now. find out why she has been there. and tiger woods said that he was the only person to blame, but new allegations that he may have had help covering up or

setting up his affairs.

♪ i'm a little more country than that ♪ so, sandra bullock reportedly has some history with the rehab facility that's treating her husband now. media reports say it is the same place that bullock visited to prepare for her role as an alcoholic in the movie "28 days." jesse james reportedly checked in for treatment of a sexual addiction. the debate is still raging on whether that is a real condition. >> a really good way to understand sex addiction, there are people who enjoy alcohol and there are alcoholics. you don't want to be an alcoholic but might want to be someone who enjoys alcohol. it's the same with sex. >> this man doesn't renege on the contract, signs a contract on walmart, but when he signs the marriage contract suddenly he has a psychological problem. b.s. >> you want to start a conversation or a little argument?

that's the way to go. james reportedly had affairs with several women. he checked into the facility because "he realized that this time was crucial to help himself, help his family, and help save his marriage." a woman suing casey anthony for defamation will get her day in court. anthony damaged her reputation by telling police that a nanny with her same name kidnapped her daughter, caylee. detectives cleared the woman in anthony's murder case. anthony denies killing her daughter, caylee. a fire department in california is bringing in new types of recruits to help battle the brush fires. they are bringing in the goats! i was waiting for a sound effect. the goats are being used to help eat their way through some brush that could be dangerous during the wildfire season. and it's saving taxpayers some money. >> good maintained fuel breaks give us the ability to stand in front of a community and fight a

wall of flames, reduces the number of manhours we have to spend on the breaks. >> the county is hoping to add another 200 goats by next year. >> great idea. i should send my dog out there. that son of a gun, he kills my lawn by september every year. >> i was going to say, then we need a scooper. >> not because he eats it, but you know, anyway. let me show you what's happening. the east coast looks fine today. a little bit of a breeze going away for new new england. the rest of the region, cities that will be affected chr eed c windy conditions. mid-70s. denver, windy and colder, snow off to the west in colorado, dallas, windy also, 30-minute delays. los angeles, rain in the morning, thunderstorms in the afternoon. more on the delays in a little bit. >> thank you. do you remember tiger woods saying he did not have help hiding his extramarital affairs? a new "vanity fair" article

suggests his inner circle may have been involved after all. here's ray d'alessio, an old friend of the show, back with us today with more on these details. >> i'm going to be completely honest, robin, if this guy did have the alleged 12 or 14 mistresses, how was he able to keep them all together and hide everything. >> there's a question a lot of people have. >> absolutely and tiger was like it was me. of course remember his big public apology back in february? >> i was unfaithful. i had affairs. i cheated. what i did is not acceptable. and i am the only person to blame. >> and you heard him say it, he was the only person to blame. well, now an article in the may issue of "vanity fair" raises questions about whether people who worked for tiger helped him arrange and cover up those extramarital affairs. the article gives graphic details about alleged encounters between woods and several women in the article, jamie junger says brian bell helped

facilitate her meeting with woods. bell and woods have been friends since childhood. bell is president of tiger woods design and involved with the tiger woods foundation. foundat. vanity fair reporting marc stein berg helped cover up at least one alleged affair. the magazine says steinberg turned down its request for an interview with the article. hln contacted brian bell and have not gotten responses. lindsay vonn, could an emmy about in her future? she'll guest star in the season fin alley of "law and order" play an office assistance. she calls it her favorite tv show. it airs may 24th. a mom watching her son play a baseball game gets a scare she may not soon forget. we'll have that in the next half

hour. >> she's not going to let him forget it. >> thank you so much. i know, i need to get a personal facebook page. we have a show facebook page. everybody is on it, whether they like it or not. ♪ ♪ >> this is by an l.a. comedy troop that goes bit name of blood of tiger cat. it has racked up a million views making it a viral video. we found it on youtube. you have to live the 80s hair band look. >> that's my era. >> when a mother went to the hospital no deliver twins, only one came. and she had to wait a week for the second baby to arrive.

good morning, sunshine. i'm robin meade. look at you ready for the day on thursday. here's what's going on today newswise. >> it was like rapids coming through here right up to the sand bags. >> people across the northeast are dealing with flood damage. but now there are new evacuations because of a bridge. there are new allegations in the tiger woods sex scandal. did he have help arranging and covering up his affairs? also -- [ bleep ] how the

democrats are using the vice president's recent f-bomb to raise money. first though, the rain has finally stopped in the northeast. we're working to get you a live picture of some of the flooding and this is out of new jersey. in the northeast, the flooding rivers are a major threat. homeland security secretary is going to go to rhode island tomorrow to get a look at the flood damage. there's a bridge in coventry, rhode island in big danger of collapsing. the floodwaters washed away the support to hold it up. some people downstream were forced to evacuate. >> in the event that the bridge does let go, it may be catastrophic to the other dams down the pawtuxet. >> we are getting incredible flooding video from you and your fellow viewers. this is what 16-year-old sent

in, mystic, connecticut. even the people that have lived here more than 40 years, they have not seen flooding like this. the flooding in some parts is the west it's been in centuries. meteorologist bob van dillen is here with what i call the flood cast. >> this is morris county, new jersey. wayne, towards lincoln park, flooded out. flood warnings, all of the areas shaded in green. it extends way out towards dover, randolph, all under flood warnings. full picture out further, up to the north, heavy rain from the last couple of days, still getting flood warnings going from massachusetts, parts of maine and entire state of rhode island. if you look at the satellite picture we're watching warm up come up from the south and it will remain dry for next several days. rivers have crested and they will continue to come down and

dry until monday. still riding high this morning though. brand-new this morning, a sign of hope if you're looking for hope this morning. please, right? a new survey from career builder and "usa today" a quarter of companies are planning to hire more full-time workers in the next three months. both numbers are improvements over last year at this time. do people close to tiger woods know about his affair? a new "vanity fair" says yes. ray d'alessio is in with more. >> remember, ever since he came out of hiding, tiger has never been about this guy, this guy. always pointed the fingers back at himself. case in point, his public apology back in february. >> i was unfaithful. i had affairs and i cheated.

what i did not acceptable. and i am the only person to blame. >> so you heard him say it. he was the only person to blame. now an article in the may issue of vanity fair raises questions about whether people who worked for tiger helped him arrange and cover up the extra marital affairs. the article gives graphic details about woods and several other women in the article. jamie junger says brian bell helped facilitate her meeting with woods. bell had been friends since childhood and president of tiger woods design and involved with the tiger woods foundation. "vanity fair" reporting marc steinberg covered up one alleged affair. steenberg turned down a request for the article. and hln contacted both for a comment and have no received a response. on monday for the most

comprehensive coverage of tiger's press conference. rafer will be live. getting under way at 2:00 p.m. eastern. can you imagine the questions thrown tiger woods way. >> if the caddie doesn't kick the person out asking. an old letter may show the vatican knew about clergy abuse in the united states almost 50 years ago. the associated press got a copy yesterday, 1963 letter from a new mexico priest urged pope paul vi, the priest oversaw the treatment of pedophile priests and wrote the letter at the request. president obama will allow more offshore oil drilling and says it's necessary to break america's dependency on foreign oil. >> there will be those who strongly disagree with this decision, including those who say we should not open any new

areas to drilling. what i want to emphasize, this announcement is part of a broader strategy that will move us from an economy that runs on fossil fuels and foreign oil to one that relies more on home grown fuels and clean energy. >> some people are upset about the president's plan and they don't like former speaker of the house newt gingrich's plan which includes drilling in the eastern gulf of mexico. they protested at a town hall meeting yesterday in florida where he was talking about that. >> we had the possibility of very small spills to large spills that can be picked up by the current and find their way back to the everglades to the coral reefs and florida keys. >> the fact is that ships coming in from the middle east or from venezuela carrying oil are more likely to have a spill than offshore platforms. >> gingrich says expanding oil drilling into the eastern gulf

of mexico will produce new jobs right away. you might be in for a shock when you log on to google. it changed its name to topeka. for april fool's day. maybe it's because i get up so early, maybe a spoil sport but -- it aggravates me when people do april fool's jokes. maybe it aggravates me i fall for them. >> i haven't done one in eight years. >> robin, there's something on your sleeve and i look down and -- >> that's a clever one. that's exactly how i feel. >> we were talking about the flood warnings going on across new jersey and rhode island and massachusetts. we have pictures from northern new jersey. you talk about widespread flooding. we've had and seen about five to ten inches of rain. drying out now, which is good

news. western parts of colorado, and utah and into wyoming, winter storm warnings all around the rmg. we'll see one round come in today, another one across the pacific northwest sometime friday through saturday. but darkest shade of purple, 10 to 18 inches of snow. rain in north dakota and south dakota. that will switch into snow tonight. then i wanted to show you this. here's l.a. and san diego. look at the line of showers and thunderstorms rolling in ahead of an upper level low that's crashing into southern parts of california. here's san diego, the bright red shaded area is xreelly heavy rain. that pulls into the city with a next half hour. if you're getting out early, heavy rain in store, san diego over the next couple of hours. up the line farther, here is l.a. you see scattered showers and

more of aaction later this afternoon. more in just a bit. some accused militia members made threatening remarks caught on tape. you have to hear what they allegedly said about a revolution. plus, you could see more drive tlu service but it could be from the big box retailers.

from her boyfriend. janet is serving in afghanistan and been gone for about three weeks. >> hi, robin, my name is adam donahue, i'm from denver, colorado. my girlfriend jenna is deployed to afghanistan. i'd like to send her a salute. hi, hurry home. i'll hold things up here when you're gone.

you're doing big things. i love you. go to cnn.com/robin. eight of the nine alleged members of a christian militia group have pleaded not guilty to planning violent attacks against the government. new details also came out in court yesterday including evidence collected by ap undercover agent. somebody infiltrated this group. >> infiltrated them. could be key testimony. the defense attorneys, but they were angry that the agent was not in court yesterday for cross-examination. but it sounds like he gained the trust of the hutaree group. prosecutors say this eight rode with them on a trip to meet other militias when a snowstorm forced nem to turn back. the ring leader, david stone, read a speech he planned to give at the meeting. he recorded that and it was played in court yesterday. part of this said this, our goal is a free name without tier ranny, the time to strike has

come. welcome to the new revolution. testimony also threw into question the ability to create weapons of mass destruction. the prosecutors saying at one point hutaree member told the undercover agent he was going to make a c-4 explosive, strong explosive, incorrectly describe how to do that. as for this group being full of hardened killers, at another point one told the agent he was going to kill a cat with a high caliber hand gun to see if he could kill something he had feelings for. >> next half hour, we'll tell you how defense attorneys are planning to dispute all of this evidence. the big box stores, they are looking at copying the brew th rmt u strategy. >> i'll show you a picture in a second. stick around. you probably know, get a big mac or coffee at the drive through. if you drive up to walmart and

get a could haffee pot or power. it works for beer. there you go. this is one in north carolina. but, you know, put a little fun in your morning here. that's a brew thru. >> i have been to one. i didn't know that's what it was called in michigan. >> this is a new concept for me, city girl. sears and walmart are testing the idea, not for beer but just for major products. does seem to be an interesting strategy. the idea is they want to make it easy for you so you don't head to the internet and shop there. u.s. built cars and trucks are going to have to get better mileage, about 35 miles a gallon. that's 10 more than they do. the white house is going to sign final rules today. the new cars may cost you more.

sticker price may be higher. one estimate may be $1,000 more but the estimate is also you would save about $3,000 over the car's lifetime in gas. this is an idea that the automakers lobbied against and others say the time has come. you can go to 1920 and looking at u.s. cars that got 20 miles to the gallon and things haven't changed that much. >> democrats are turping the tables, how they are using joe biden's recent f-bomb to raise money? and this video of students dancing got a high school teacher in big trouble. find out what a jury had to say about it.

the vice president used choice words to describe health care reform and now it's going to be on a t-shirt. when he introduced president obama last year, he leaned in. so for a $25 donation, can you get that quote on a t-shirt. in less than three hours, t the activist convicted of killing a doctor will be sentenced. he says he did it to save unborn children. roeder's conviction carries a mandatory life sentence but the

judge can make him eligible for parole after 25 or 50 years. a dog named buster took a bullet for his owner and ran away scared and was gone for months. >> i knew it all along. i told leon, we can't give up. the lord is so good. we've got to find him. >> new for you, you'll hear how the dog and its family were reunited. what are the odds, a mom watching her son playing a spring training baseball game gets hit by a foul ball that he hit? are we talking pros? >> yes, robin. the story gets better. he had 20 family members sitting together watching the game. ball hit mom. he didn't know exactly where his mom was sitting until he heard her scream. this was against the yankees,

striking mom right in the chest, the collar bone to be exact. the play was halted for about five minutes. fortunately she was fine. span was so upset he pulled himself out of the game. he said mom was more upset at him for that than for hitting her with the foul ball. say what you want about michael vick, word out of philadelphia is that the eagles quarterback is making a difference in busting up dogfighting rings. law officials say all of the attention on vick have led to more investigations and arrests. records show in 2009 there were over 900 investigations in the dogfighting rings compared to just 85 back in 2004. here's a question for you. what's the best thing to do on a snowy day? have a snow ball fight obviously or do might go you don't see every day. play soccer. the u.s. women's soccer team took advantage of the conditions. you can't have fun in the snow without making snow angels,

which they did after the game. robin, we did this storevy yesterday, teri dorsey muling over a change to his name to texasmotorspeedway.com. we're told dorsey accepted but the whole thing was rn april fool's joke. it was a radio promotion idea that got out of control. media outlet's ran with the story. a spokesman for the speedway apologized for any inconvenience. >> after they got the worldwide promotion. >> exactly. >> jesse james has checked into a rehab clinic. wait until you hear about sandra bullock's past connection with the same clinic.

good news if you're looking for work. a quarter of companies asked plan to hire more workers in the next three months. only 8% plan to down size. both numbers are improvement over last year at this time. the accused ft. hood shooter is being moved from a hospital to a jail. an attorney for has san said they gave him a final physical exam yesterday and he's charged with killing 13 people and injuring 32 hours.

he was shot and left parlized. >> we know that the sea world trainer attacked by a whale died from drowning and injuries. the autopsy report said she had blunt force trauma to her head, neck and ribs. it is the third death linked to the whale. it is 30 minutes past the hour. kind of rubbing the sleep out of your eyes. good morning, sunshine, i'm robin meade. it could be a while before many people in the northeast can dry out. the rain has stopped but look at the flooding its left behind. some tried to stick it out but the rising rivers were too much. >> that's when i lost everything. once i shut the pumps off. my furnace is under hot water, everything. >> poor man. despite everything he's lost, he says he is staying put. you are sending us incredible video from the storms too. these people are rescuing a man from a stranded car in richmond,

rhode island. ireporter kendall moore shot this for us. bob van dillen will tell you which areas are under flood warnings this morning. we'll find out if the judge will set bail for the alleged members of the hutaree militia. all but one pleaded not guilty for plotting to kill police officers. the prosecutors also revealed new details about evidence against them. very interesting. >> wait until you hear this, robin. according to what we're hear from the government, the alleged ring leader planned to create his own country out of four counties in michigan and believed he was stock piling weapons to protect it. they seized 37 guns in this week's raid, plus more than 200 other pieces of evidence like explosives, and bomb components and shrapnel. appeared to have a hit list of judges and school leaders too. >> crazy sounding.

what do the defense attorneys have to say about the evidence when you talk about an alleged hit list? >> to the hit list and what has been made in terms of statements in the testimony, they would like to make the case that this is all about free speech. what they plan to argue is that the hutaree had a lot of bark but little bite. >> it's legal to speak out in america. it's legal to have opinions in america. it's legal to assemble with people in america. nobody here through any bricks through windows or attacked congressman or called anybody any foul names because they had a different opinion. they talk. you're allowed to talk. >> they say that they also plan here to prove that all of guns we were listing earlier were legally obtained. >> richard, very, interesting. thanks for the follow-up. families and neighbors return to the site where four people were gunned down in a drive by shooting. they promised to come together to take back their community.

the suspected driver behind it, was 14 years old. two other suspects were charged and police are looking for a fourth person. police believe the shootings started over an argument about a bracelet of all things. >> today is national census day, a day set aside to remind you to send in census forms. a new poll finds, 80% say the census is useful. 20% say it's a big waste of money. the u.s. census helps determine how more than $400 billion is spent. meanwhile, president obama filled out his census form on monday. sandra bullock has history with the rehab facility, the same one treating her husband. media reports say it is the same place she visited to prep for her role as an alcoholic in the movie 28 days. jesse james checked in for a reported sex addiction. the debate still rages on whether that's a real condition or not. >> really good way to understand sex addiction, people that enjoy

alcohol and there are alcoholics. you don't want to be a alcoholic but you want to enjoy alcohol. it's the same thing with sex. >> this is a man who signs a contract with a network and doesn't reneg on that and when he signs the marriage contract, suddenly he's got a psychological problem. bs is what i say. >> a lot of people agree with her and agree with him on both sides. james has reportedly had affairs with several women. the spokesman says he checked into the facility because he realized this time was crucial to help himself and help his family and help save his marriage. >> you want to start a fight at work, you ask that question. you probably shouldn't talk about it at work. how about at the dinner table? >> do it. he didn't reneg on the overall contract either? >> good morning, this weather brought to you by zyrtec.

when you get across the northeast, we've got pictures coming in a half hour ago. this is the lincoln park, new jersey area. floodwaters still running high. usually this area is prone to flooding but it's been pro livic over the last several days. waters are trying to go down right now. and more good news, no rain for the next four to five days. that's near wayne where we had the video yesterday. this is nearby lincoln park. this is the area of concern, new york not in flood warnings, but you get back across morris and he essex county. flood warnings, look at the weather though, it looks good. the storm is well off the coast. just some high clouds rolling through. that's a sign of warm air trying to get up and it is already being felt in chicago. let me take you live to chicagoland. not an april fool's joke. 80 degrees the high in chick

km chicago today. usually temperatures 20 degrees cooler than that. today and tomorrow, looking very nice in chicago. right around the four corner fz you're trying to travel to denver, it will be breezy. zero in towards the area, winter storm warpgz from wyoming down to colorado. utah as well. maybe a foot, foot and a half of snow in the highest elevations. even salt lake city, 1 to 3. where's the worst weather in the nation today? my pick, bismarck, north dakota. 44 degrees this afternoon. heavy rain off and on. half inch to an inch of rain possible. then the cold air comes cracking down behind it after midnight. 3 to 5 inches of snow tomorrow morning. more on that in just a bit. >> poor people. >> i feel bad for them but they've got the worst weather so they've got that going for hem.

>> they get free dough nuts? >>. >> a civil suit against casey anthony is moving forward. one woman's claim against the mother accused of killing her toddler. there are new allegations tiger woods may have had help setting up his affairs.

♪ a charter school in philadelphia says, okay, it's no longer going to double as a nightclub. city officials toured it

yesterday making sure there are no traces of the club, you know, like alcohol on the school premises. the nightclub operated there at night and on the weekends for years. charter school is under investigation for questionable use of public funds. the story still boggles my mind. you've seen the commercials but some of those free credit report websites are not free. the government is cracking down. it's almost like he heard jennifer west oven. >> so many people have been caught. they heard the jingle, free -- and thought free. technically it's free but i say free shouldn't come with a footnote. it should be free. in this case, you had to sign up for a service. they were going to monitor your credit card and you had to remember to cancel it. any time they ask for a credit card number, you could get an inkling it was not free. starting tomorrow, companies

like freecreditreport.com, they are going to be required by law to talk about all of strings that are attacked. they don't have to change their -- i'm wondering how you'll make a jingle to make all that rhyme. >> they don't have to change the tv and radio ads until september. that's not even his real voice when he sings because he's french canadian and the accent was too thick. >> millie van nilly. the fees will be listed on the internet. they already updated their website there. there really is a free credit report for you. it's just not free credit report.com. it's annualcredit report.com. that is something that was set up by the government. they require by law once a year for you to be able to get a free credit report to look at your own credit. we've got a link to all of that to cnn.com/robin, under looking out for you. all right, maybe the most

famous clown besides bozo, ronald, do you think he should retire? we've been talking about it this week. a retirement party for the clown. >> ronald mcdonald. >> held by protesters. you can tell they are protesters that's not the real ronald. some health advocates say they think it's time the clown retire because they believe he's a bad influence on kids and shouldn't be eating so much fast food. >> mcdonald's is realing skirting on treacherous ground when they target children as young as 3 years old. >> ridicule them and say it's time for it to go or him to go, there's much more worth while causes to be pursuing. >> you get two sides there. >> what about the ham burglar? >> mcdonald's say he is a positive symbol and a symbol of the ronald mcdonald charity

houses. it's a company icon. come on, it's not going away. why would they want that to go away? i don't mean the people, the company. >> mcdonald's would never want it to go away. >> it's a kid magnet they think. >> i see their point. i'm just saying, ain't going to happen. >> what becomes of the broken hearted. we may never know why it was she chose to sing that song. it's down to nine contestants. here's usher performing. ♪ baby i can break you down ♪ so many ways to love you ♪ got me like oh, my gosh >> next week the contestants take on the song by paul mccartney and john lennone. >> i'm a little afraid they will butcher those.

a dog named buster took a bullet for his owner and disappeared for months.

a former teacher accused of letting students to a striptease has been found not guilty. the video showed male students taking off shirts and simulating sex acts in his class. the teacher says he stopped the dance as soon as he figured out what was happening. >> so the first thing i thought was thank you lord for delivering me from this situation. you have to understand as a teacher, you cannot see everything all the time. >> the teacher says he wants his job back now that he's been clear. the school district says it's not going to happen. >> a woman suing casey anthony for defamation will get her day in court. telling police a nanny with her same name kidnapped her daughter caylee. anthony is trying to get the case delayed.

detectives cleared the woman in anthony's murder case. anthony denies killing her caught caylee. back in january, buster's owner was held at gun point at a convenience store and buster jumped in front and got shot and ran away. the family put up an ad on craigslist and they got a call about buster and now he's home. >> he recognized me right away. i had my door open and he jumped straight into the truck and sat right there where he was originally at like nothing had happened at all. >> look at him, i want to go home now. >> buster is fine apparently. tiger woods has said that he did not have any help hiding his extra marital affairs, but a new "vanity fair" article suggests his inner circle was involved.

ray d'alessio has more details t just keeps coming. >> monday's press conference will be very interesting, all this time tiger said it was me, nobody else. let's take you back to february and tiger's public apology. >> i was unfaithful. i had affairs, i cheated. what i did is not acceptable. and i am the only person to blame. like the old saying goes, the videotape never lies. he was the only person to blame. now an article in the may issue of "vanity fair" raises question about whether people who worked for tiger helped him arrange and cover up the extramarital affairs. it gives graphic details about alleged encounters between woods and several women in the article. jamie jungers says brian bell helped facilitate her meeting with woods. bell also president of tiger woods design and is involved with the tiger woods foundation.

also alleging marc steinberg helped cover up oneaffair. steinberg turned down his request for an interview. well, for olympic gold medalist lindsey vonn could an emmy be in her future. she'll play an office assistant on "law & order." kind of a dream for vonn who calls it her favorite show. >> a lot of time people who have expoesher to the media do a good job. thank you. >> okay. all right, you would probably love to have a care-free flight today. it's almost like we have two countries going on. over on this side, bob says good. over on that side, bob says no. >> the ridge of high pressure

building across the east, which is good. trough digging right down through the west coast and into the rocky mountains and spells bad problems for you. especially if you try to get chicago westward today. chicago, i think o'hare you'll get a delay because of the wind, 30 minute, that's it. denver, it's going to be windy also. low pressure beginning to develop right around your city that moves over to the east, otherwise a windy day for you. more on that in about a half hour, rob. new details about a case involved a teen who killed herself after classmates allegedly bouleied her. parents say school leaders are not being held accountable and they did not stop bullying on campus. 

good morning. thursday connected to friday. how are you doing, huh? you're a little tired, i can see that. it's 8:00 eastern, i'm robin meade. here's what's going on, sunshine. people across the northeast are dealing with flood damage, but now new evacuations all because of one bridge. this, stunning new allegations in the tiger woods sex scandal. some say tiger may have gotten help to arrange and cover up his affa affairs. the case of the incredible vanishing python. florida had oep on season on the

pythons but why can't anyone find them? a sign of hope if you're looking for work. nearly a quarter of the companies are saying, here you go, they plan to hire more full timers in the next three months. only 8% plan to downsize. now the government's unemployment report for march is coming out tomorrow. we'll monitor that. all right, the rain has finally stopped in the northeast, but flooding rivers are a major threat. homeland security vaerkt janet nepal tanno will go to get a look at the flood damage there. this is flooding in new york. about a dozen families in riverhead, had to evacuate. >> we went in to get personal stuff, but it's -- >> it's all lost. >> it's a total lost. >> incredible video from you and

your fellow viewers, as well. this is what 16-year-old reporter beau o'brien sent in. more than 40 years have not seen flooding like this. coming up, meteorologist bob van dillen will tell you which areas are still under flood warnings. did people close to tiger woods know about his alleged affairs? a new "vanity fair" article said, yes, they did. ray d'alessio, an old friend of the show. >> tiger said i am the only one to blame for all this. here's what tiger woods said during an interview with the golf channel last month. >> its it was all me. i am the one who acted the way i acted. no one knew what was going on when it was going on. i am sure if more people in the inner circle knew about it, they would put a stop to it. i kept it all to myself.

>> you heard him say it, no one knew what was going on. now an article in the may issue of "vanity fair" raises questions if people who worked for tiger helped him arrange and cover up alleged affairs. in the article alleged mystery jamie jugger said bell helped facilitate their meetings. also president of tiger woods design and involved with the tiger woods foundation. mark steinberg and wood's agent helped cover up at least one alleged affair. the magazine going on to say that steinberg turned down their request for an interview. we have yet to receive a response from either of them. hln is the place to be on monday for the most comprehensive coverage of tiger's press conference. rafer live from augusta all

morning long. oh, robin, i tell you what, this press conference is going to be very interesting. even more interesting than it was before. >> yeah, the caddie can't help him there. >> might just want to step aside and go, you're on your own, chief. an old letter may show that the vatican showed about clergy abuse in the united states almost 50 years ago. the associated press got a copy yesterday. the 1963 letter from a new mexico priest urged pope paul vi to remove pedophile priest from active ministry. the priest oversaw treatment of pedophile priest. it appears he wrote the letter at the pope's request. the ap was not able to reach a vatican official for comment. ll cool j has been taken out of sarah palin's show. on twitter ll said he used an old interview to promote the show. a spokesperson for toby keith

tells "the new york times" that the show is using an old interview with him, as well. four minutes past the hour. the rain has stopped, we still have flooding problems, but i do not want to be the one to tell you about snow issues for the weekend. easter weekend? where? >> that. it is going to be heavy, too, robin. the first shot of heavy snow right around the four corners today and later tomorrow night, more snow evolve into the pacific northwest. a big time weather pattern changes. big trough digs down to the south and out ahead of that it warms up quickly. places east of the mississippi today. 80 degrees through chicago. through the rockies, snow coming in, mainly the western part of colorado, parts of utah stretching in towards wyoming. let me take you live to denver. no real cold air cranking in today, your high today 60 degrees. clear skies right now but the winds pick up as the low center

moves away from you. winds in denver 30 to 35 miles per hour. going to bounce you around if you're going to the mile high city. that's a live wake-up look at you. salt lake city winter weather advisory for the city itself. one to three inches of snow for you. here's shot number one and here's shot number two. right across idaho. the dark shaded areas a foot to a foot and a half of snow. vail, aspen, more snow for you tonight. then away from here, rain coming on through and that's grand junction turning over to snow and more heavy rain for north dakota and we'll talk more about that in just a little bit. robin? >> thank you. you can use drive throughs to buy your fast food, prescription drugs and alcohol in some cases. some people are thinking about a drive through concept. some say it looks like chip

and dales or something. a dance done in a high school classroom.

in our salute to the troops. today's salute for sergeant janna. this is for her boyfriend. she is serving in afghanistan. she has been gone for about three weeks. my girlfriend jana is deployed to afghanistan and i would like to sent her a salute. hi, jana. hurry home, i wish i was coming with you. i'll hold it down here why you adjust your flag up and your ribbons. you're doing big things, thank you. >> adam, thank you. if you have somebody in the service, go to cnn.com/robin. that was awesome. >> wasn't that nice? >> yeah. >> i am going to say this is my favorite story of the day. the big box stores are looking

at copying the brew through strategy. do you have a beer barn in your town? how about a wall administer drive through -- big town girl jennifer doesn't know what i'm talking about. you drive in this place and you go i want that, that and that. you never leave the car. brilliant! >> it is brilliant in so many ways. for all of you watching, just so you know, this really, when i came in this morning at 4:00 a.m., robin was like, i love this story! do you know you can get beer. but not just beer, we were talking about everything, how much you can get. i didn't know, apparently, there are some of these near me. maybe you know about drive up liquor or a big mac or a coffee. you never thought about driving up to a walmart and getting

coffee pot or power tools, but that is what big name retailers are testing out. why not? it works for places like the brew crew. >> i've never seen a country boy with his truck jacked umthat high. >> this is in north carolina. isn't it funny? this doesn't look like a drive up, it looks like he's driving through the aisles of the stores. they're trying out. sears and walmart testing this idea according to this morning "chicago tribune." what they want to do is make it easier because some people are thinking, oh, the store is a lot, maybe they're buying on the internet and they're thinking of different ways to capture the shoper. >> we as a country do not like to get out of our cars. i'll admit it, right? we're lazy! >> i say get out of your car. anyway, you're going to do what you want to do. if you're thinking about buying a new car, here is something

that is going to be happening in about 20 minutes, i'm sorry, that is later they're going to pick car of the year. later on at noon we're going to find out or get the official signing of new rules that mean that all cars built in this country are going to have to get much better gas mileage, not only is that good for you at the pump, that's good for our country, right, in terms of oil dependence. by 2016, cars and trucks built in the u.s. will have to get about 35 miles a gallon on average. that's ten more miles a gallon than they get now. that signing coming later today. cars could have higher stickers and one estimate is $30,000 more. but there's also an estimate that you'd save about $3,000 over the life of the car and you'd have to spend a lot more on gas. go further on the same amount. back to you. >> wait till you try the brew thru. some people are glad they put their eggs all in one

basket. as dan simon reports, loyal customers banded together to keep a certain chicken farm from going under. >> reporter: apparently green eggs just aren't found in the dr. seuss classic. you almost don't want to eat it because it's so pretty. at the organic soul food chicken farm an hour from san francisco. a business that stirs such passion that loyal customers refuse quite literally to let it go down in flames. after a fire killed 1,200 chicks and destroyed their coops last september, alexa and her husband thought the struggling farm they started three years ago was finished. >> i was convinced we were done. we already were skating by. >> reporter: starting the farm wasn't easy. they had no farming experience, she was in marketing and he was a structural engineer. yet, as soon as they began selling their chicken eggs, many chefs from the finest local restaurants, including alice

waters said they were among the best they ever tasted. >> i said you grow something that is really tasty. >> reporter: this is what those chefs like so much, what you're seeing right here. the chickens roam the fields freely and eat the natural grass and that makes for a higher quality egg. eggs they aapparently could not live without because when the fire seemingly destroyed the business, the customers got together and said we're not going to let that happen. bonnie raised $30,000 to keep the farm and business. >> kind of amazing how many people just felt touched by this. like, no, we can't let the farm die. >> reporter: the farm still struggles to make money, but alexis loves her land and loves her way of life. you could say she's just fine putting all her eggs in one basket. dan simon, cnn, california. a baseball player had better start saving now for a mother's

day present. wait till you hear what he accidentally did to his mom during a game. what some militia members allegedly said about starting a revolution.

what are the odds a mom watching her son play professional baseball, a spring training baseball game gets hit by a foul ball that her son hit. here comes the guilt factor. ray's in for rafer this morning. >> i tell you what, robin, i realize he's a professional baseball player, but he better clean his room, take out the garbage and whatever his mom asks. >> what is the line? >> fans say he didn't know exactly where his mom was sitting until he heard her scream. this was against the yankees wednesday. span at the plate and, yes, he jacks one off into the seats striking mom in the chest and

he's like, oh, my gosh, what did i do? play was halted for about five minutes and, fortunately, she was fine. she refused to go to the hospital to get checked out. span was so upset he pulled himself out of the game and he said mom was more upset at him for that than hitting her with the foul ball. say what you want about michael vick, but word out of philadelphia that the qb is making a huge difference breaking up dog fighting rings there. they have led to investigations and arrests. records show in 2009 there were over 900 investigations into dog fighting rings compared to 2004 where there were just 85 investigations. what is the question? what is the best thing to do on a snowy day? have a snowball fight, obviously, or do something you don't see something every day. play soccer in it. and, of course, afterwards, you can't have fun in the snow without making snow angels,

which is what they did. all right, robin, we did the story yesterday. remember this one, terry dorsy going over an offer to change his name to texasmotorspeedway.com. the whole thing was an april fools' gag. >> he was in on it, too? >> it was a radio promotion idea that got out of control. yeah, way out of control. media outlets around the world ran the story so we all got duped. a spokesman for the speedway has since apologized for any inconvenience. >> after they got worldwide promotion out of it. >> they should give us the $100,000 and be done with it and we'll forgive them forever. a new "vanity fair" article questions tiger woods' claim that no one else knew about his extra marital affairs. we'll have that coming up in the next half hour. >> in other words, who else did?

taxing soda a little bit, apparently, does not help prevent childhood oobesity. what about a larger tax? well, some states tax about 5 cents a dollar for soda. now, the american beverage association says there is no evidence that a larger tax would work, but that diet and exercise do. the government and health care group paid for that study. we now know for certain that the seaworld trainer who was attacked by a whale died from drowning and injuries. the autopsy report came out yesterday. the medical examiner said that dawn brancheau had blunt force trauma to her neck and ribs. sandra bullock, reportedly, is no stranger to the treatment facility where her husband has checked into.

flood waters are slowly receding in the northeast, but people there face a long recovery. some schools are shut down today and roads in a lot of places are closed because of flooding. the u.s. is picking up more support for new sanctions against iran. iran's trading partner, china, has reversed its position saying it is now open to more sanctions over iran's nuclear program. now, that's from the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. iran's top nuclear negotiator in china today and iran insists it nuclear program is peaceful. today is nation al census

day. a day set aside to remind you to mail in your sensing poll. a new poll finds that 80% say the census is useful and 20% say it's a big old waste of money but the u.s. census helps determine how more than $400 billion is spent. it's a quick check of our headlines. how is the coffee going down this morning? i'm robin meade, morning, subtion. some people are upset about president obama's plan, but these folks showed up in florida to voice their concern about drilling in the eastern gulf of mexico. that's an idea backed by former house speaker newt gingrich in his job's plan and they were at his town hall meeting yesterday. >> all you had to do as an example look at the texas shoreline and see how it will deplete our area. tourism being the number one industry in the area, we're just trying to save our jobs. >> as long as it's done far enough off shore that you can't

see it and done with sufficient safeguards that protects the fishing industry. >> gingrich says that expanding oil drilling into the eastern gulf of mexico will produce new jobs right away. we could find out today if a judge will set bail for the alleged members of the hataree christian militia from michigan. all but one pleaded not guilty from michigan of plotting to kill police officers. correspondent richard lui joins us now. some new details about the evidence against this group that they wanted to create their own country out of a few counties. >> their own country. the alleged ringleader here wanted to take over four counties of michigan and create his own country. and they believe he was stockpiling weapons to try to protect it. prosecutors seized 37 guns in this week's rage. and other evidence like bomb component and shrapnel.

one of the defendants also had, what appeared here, robin, to be a hit list of judges and school leaders, as well. >> so, if there is this supposed hit list, i mean, what do you say if you're a defense attorney? what do they have to say about these folks? >> they say all the guns were legally obtained, but they would like to make this case about free speech. the hataree had a lot of bark but no bite. >> it's legal to speak out in america and have opinions in america and it's legal to assemble here in america. no one threw bricks threw windows or called anybody any foul names because they had a different opinion. they talked. you're allowed to talk. >> another defense attorney predicted here, robin, that this case kill be a mega trial that will take a couple years to unfold. certainly more details come out, as well. >> richard, thank you.

a charter school in philly, okay, it's no longer going to double as a nightclub. city officials toured it yesterday to make sure that there are no traces of the club, you know, like alcohol on the school premsis. the nightclub operated there at night and on weekends for years. well, the charter school is under investigation for questionable use of public funds. i don't know. 34 minutes past the hour. >> nothing but the best top shelf milk. $2 milk shots. >> what are you thinking? all right, let's talk about your weather today. the rain has stopped in the northeast, still have flooding problems, though, right, bob? >> it will warm up pretty nicely. this weather brought to you by cheerios. the tale of two countries. east coast looks really nice, the west coast not so nice. you have cold air digging down through the rockies and that will set the stage for heavy snow around the rockies, but

warm temperatures across the midwest. let me take you live to st. louis. here's a prime example. you talk about the gateway to the west. how about a high temperature today of 86 degrees. that's st. louis. see the mississippi river right there. warm today, warm tomorrow but then in the weekend the cold front comes crashing on through and drop your temperatures on saturday and sunday of 20 to 25 degrees. get a good taste of summer over the next couple days. what about the snow . winter storm warnings around colorado and utah pile up tonight and tomorrow. another shot comes in for the weekend. right down i-70 right by grand junction. 12 to 16 inches of snow possible there and also looking at salt lake city, one to three inches of snow for you. winter weather advisories. all snow coming down right now. grand junction radar picture picking up very well. everything moving to the east. denver high today 60 degrees and basically cloudy skies by the afternoon, but it is going to be

windy. rain stretches through north dakota and south dakota. look at this powerful wave of storms just off shore south of california. san diego radar picture. i don't use it very often because hardly you don't see rain like this this much. the oranges and yellows all moving in and delays in san diego and l.a. how about this story? this is one we all love this morning. we thought it was kind of cool anyway. good news out of the cold weather through florida and no more pythons in that state. they were destroying the native wildlife, but not any more. >> we are thrilled that the weather was so cold in south florida this year that it may have killed 40% to 50% of the reptiles of concern. >> unbelievable. they apparently froze to death and florida had introduced a special python hunting season earlier this year but the hunters aren't finding any snakes. benefits to the cold air, drives

up the prices of strawberries -- >> but the pythons are gone. >> so, there you go. good stuff. >> a real problem. >> alligator alley, apparently over the summertime, just overrun. good news. >> i like that story. a florida woman panicked when her husband started choking on a sandwich. she couldn't do the heimlich maneuver because she had a broken arm. >> i said to her, he's turning dark and then i said, oh, my god, he just fell out of his chair. i already kissed him and told him i loved him because i just knew he was gone. >> how awful. hear how the dispatcher helped the woman save her husband's looif.

so, back to the woman desperately trying to save her choking husband. she couldn't do the heimlich maneuver because she had a broken arm. so, the 911 dispatcher told her to sit on her husband and push with her good arm right above his belly button. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> my husband's choking to death. >> use your weight and push on his stomach. >> i don't know who she is, i would love to meet her one day. she deserves the award she's getting. >> thank goodness. the 911 dispatcher is getting a life saver award, but thank goodness the man was saved. a woman suing casey anthony

for defamation is going to get her day in court. the woman says that anthony damaged her reputation by telling police a nanny with her same name kidnapped her daughter, caylee. hearing is set for may. anthony is trying to get the case delayed. detectives cleared the woman in anthony's murder case. remember, anthony denies killing her daughter, caylee. you've seen the commercials, but guess what, some of those free credit report websites are not free. so, now the government is cracking down and jennifer westhoven is looking out for you. she actually told you that they were not free a long time ago. now we're getting some action. >> and so many people got caught by this that they complained because technically it's true. technically, it is free. but there were so many bells and whistles and catches and footnotes and things in there that a lot of people ended up having to pay and they complained about it. by the way that freecreditreport.com you have to

sign up for credit monitoring and then you have to remember to cancel the credit monitoring and a lot of people ended up paying. they asked you for your credit card number. what do you think they're asking that for? it's not so free. that is about to change. starting tomorrow, companies like freecreditreport.com they're going it be required by law to just let you know about all the strings attached because they're offering really a service is what they're trying to sell you. a monthly service. you won't have to change their tv or radio ads until september. even if you look at the website they changed it to clearly disclose at the top some of the charges out there. just so you know there is, there is a free credit report, just not called that. exactly. it is annual creditreport.com. by law you are entitled to see your credit for free, no strings at least once a year. we have a link to that on our webpage. cnn.com/robin. here's a quick one for

everybody job seeking. the latest up to the minute, how does the job market look? just about 13 minutes ago the labor department told us how it is when they look at the weekly jobless claims. it's good news but that kind of small chinese water torture news. they came down 6,000 to 439,000 but that is still a lot of people 439,000 people that signed for benefits for the first time. those are people who just lost their jobs and just entering the out of work force. the big unemployment report bill will come tomorrow and we are hoping, there is some betting that there will be good news in there. you know the clown, you have been seeing him for years. maybe on saturday mornings in the ads he was in the ads. is it time for ronald to retire? we have been talking about this story this week. these are pictures of a retirement party that was held by protesters.

some health advocates say it's time that the clown was retired because he's such a draw for kids. and they say that that, in itself, is a bad influence. kids shouldn't be eating so much fast food. >> when they target childrens as young as 3 years old as ronald the clown really does. >> ridicule them and say it's time for it to go or for him to go, there are much more worthwhile causes out there. >> one guy saying, really, this is what we're spending our time on? >> i like that, really. >> mcdonald's says ronald is positive and a symbol of their ronald mcdonald's charities. >> you have wendy, the little pigtails. who does burger king have? they have the burger king. >> he's kind of creepy, the new king. all right, tiger woods says he was the only person to blame,

but allegations he may have had help big time setting up his affairs.

sandra bullock reportedly has some history with the same rehab facility where her husband is now. media reports say it is the same place that bullock visited to prepare for her role in "28 days." the debate is still raging on whether that is a real condition. >> a sex addiction to say that people enjoy alcohol and then there are alcoholics. you don't want to be an alcoholic, but you might want to be someone who enjoys alcohol. it is the same thing with sex. >> this man signs a contract with, doesn't renege on that. suddenly he has a psychological

problem. bs is what i say. >> she just stuck it to him. james had reportedly had affairs with several women and the spokeswoman said he checked into the facility because he realized this time was crucial to help himself, help his family and help save his marriage. now, i know, makes you think of this case, tiger woods has said that he did not have any help hiding his extra marital affairs, but a new "vanity fair" article suggests that his inner circle may have helped. ray d'alessio, an old friend of the show is in. good morning. >> my rendition of a possible cover up. if this is true, the biggest cover up in sports history. tiger always said the blame has been on him. here's what tiger said in an interview with the golf channel just last month. >> it's all me. i'm the one who did it. i acted the way i acted. no one knew what was going on when it was going on.

i'm sure if more people would have known in the inner circle, they would have tried to stop it, but i kept it all to myself. >> there you heard it. no one knew what was going on. now an article in the may issue of "vanity fair" raises questions whether people who worked for tiger helped him arrange and cover up those extra marital affairs. the article gives graphic details between woods and several women. helped facilitate her meetings with woods. bell and williams have been friends since childhood. bell also tiger woods design and involved in the tiger woods foundation. mark steinberg his agent helped cover up at least one alleged affair. steinberg turned down its request for an interview and hln also contacted byron bell and steinberg for a comment and we have not received a comment from either just yet. fortunately for tiger he won't

have to answer awkward questions. fred couples announcing he will practice with woods on monday. couples saying, "this is not going to be to be strictly golf, end quote. later that afternoon woods should get more pressing questions when he faces members of the media from around the globe. well, she's already won a gold medal. could an emmy be next for olympic downhill skier lindsey vonn. she is set to guest star in the season finale of "law & order." she's going to play an office assistant. she calls it her favorite tv show. the episode airs may 24th. you've got to particular around for this one. a mom watching her son play a spring baseball game gets a scare she will never forget. we'll have that for you coming up in the next hour. another idol contestant left broken-hearted. >> the person in danger of going

home tonight after the nationwide vote is didi. >> ryan seacrest tried to get didi to say if there was a reason she chose the song this week but she kept her lips sealed. now it's down in nine contestants. next week they take on songs pie paul mccartney and john lennon. when a mother went to the hospital to deliver twins, only one baby was delivered at first. she had to wait a week for the second one to arrive. dddddd

good morning. how are you? it's thursday, connected to friday. i'm robin meade. here's what's going on at this hour for you. >> it was like rapids coming right through here, right up to the sandbags. >> people across the northeast are dealing with flood damage, but now there are new evacuations all because of a bridge. and then there are new allegations in the tiger woods' scandal. did he have help arranging his affairs? first, though, new this morning, good news if you are looking for work. nearly a quarter of the companies asked plan to hire more full-time workers in the

next three months. so says a new survey by career builder and usa today. only 8% plan to downsize. both numbers are improvements over last year at this time. the government's unemployment report for march comes out tomorrow, by the way. the rain has finally stopped in the northeast, but flooding rivers are a major threat. roads and schools in some areas are closed today because of the flooding. take a look at the water in new york state. about a dozen families in river head, long island, had to evacuate because of the high waters. >> we got couches floating, the bed is floating. you know, we went in to get personal stuff, but it's a total loss. >> we're getting incredible flooding video from you and your fellow viewers. this is what 16-year-old ireporter beau o'brien sent from connecticut. his mom says even people who have lived there more than 40 years have not seen flooding like this. coming up, meteorologist bob van

dillen will tell you which areas are under flood warnings this morning. did people close to tiger woods know about his affairs? well, a new "vanity fair" article says yeah, some did. and the bigger question was did they help him? >> i think i speak for a lot of people who say how was tiger managing these 12 to 14 affairs without any help. here's what tiger said during an interview with the golf channel just last month. take a listen. >> it was all me. i'm the one who did it. i'm the one who acted the way i acted. no one knew what was going on when it was going on. i'm sure if more people would have known in my inner circle, they would have stopped it or tried to put a stop to it. but kept it all to myself. >> you heard him say he was the only one that knew what was going on. now an article in the may issue of "vanity fair" raises questions about whether people who worked for tiger helped him arrange and cover up those extramarital affairs.

the article gives graphic details about alleged encounters between woods and several women. in the article alleged mistress jamie junger said bryon bell helped facilitate meetings with woods. bell and woods long-time fends since childhood. he is also president of tiger woods design and head of the foundation. mark steinberg, woods' agent, helped cover up at least one alleged affair. the magazine said steinberg turned down its request for an interview for the article. also hln contacted both bryon bell and img for a comment and have yet to receive a response from either person. hln is the place to be on monday for the most comprehensive coverage of tiger's masters press conference. rafer will be at augusta leading up to that press conference which gets under way at 2:00 p.m. eastern. do you think he's regretting to do this press conference? >> if anyone is going to shout out a question, it's going to be rafer. an old letter may show that

the vatican may have known about clergy abuse in the united states. almost 50 years ago. now, the associated press got a copy yesterday. the 1963 letter from a new mexico priest urged pope paul vi to remove pedophile priests from active duty and defrock repeat offenders. the priest oversaw treatment of pedophile priests. it appears that he wrote the letter at the pope's request. the ap was not able to reach a vatican official for comment. ll cool j has been taken out of sarah palin's new show on fox news because the rapper said he never planned to be on the show. on twitter ll claims fox used an old interview to promote the show. a spokesperson for toby keith tells nil"the new york times" t show is using an old interview with him as well. for our folks who are waking up on the west coast, you're up very bright and early at four minutes past the hour. do rainy days and thursdays get you down? that's what we have.

>> it doesn't happen very often in san diego but look at this heavy rain mass just over the city itself. moderate rainfall, but look at the heavy rain just offshore. that's all rotating in. not a lot of thunder, not much lightning striking but the oranges and yellows is extremely heavy rain in the pacific. that rotates into san diego, tijuana, the lower parts of california over the next couple of hours so heavy rain right there the get up to the north and it's just scattered showers over l.a. nothing overhead right now. with that energy still back off to the west watch for rain to redevelop and a couple of thunderstorms for the lower half of california. then the wind is a big factor for you today. the areas in yellow, winds gusting to 60 miles per hour. the high wind warning new for you, central new mexico, that's for later today. you can see winds gusting over 60 miles per hour to near 70, so that's something we're watching. as for the flooding going on across the northeast, here's what it looks like. most of the flood warnings are beginning to expire, which is great news, but they're still up for most of new jersey, most of rhode island. in fact all of rhode island, most of connecticut, parts of

massachusetts, vermont and new hampshire and also parts of maine too with flood warnings. all of the rivers seem to have crested and are slowly coming down. the good news, no rain in the forecast for the next four or five days. you can see the clouds coming up from the south. that's just warm air trying to move to the northeast, getting things a little unsettled. no rain out of this, no thunderstorms. if you get back to the west it's not only rain, it's thunderstorms but it's clouds coming on through. here's denver. notice the light cloud cover to your west. not much over the city. let me show you a cool time lapse from denver from the mile high city just about an hour ago. here's the way it looks, sunrise coming on up. the high today 59 degrees. what a gorgeous-looking city right here. this is just fantastic. that's denver today. 59 degrees. a chance of a shower later this afternoon. more rain chances coming in overnight tonight, but the snow really piles up to the west. i'll show you that in about a half hour. >> it's too late for snow. >> well, let's see, april 1st, right? not an april fools' joke because another one comes in on the

weekend. you can use drive-throughs to buy fast food, pick up prescriptions, even buy alcohol. some companies plan to give the drive-through concept a try. we're talking big bucks retailers. some of the accused michigan militia members made threatening remarks caught on tape. you'll hear what they said about starting a new revolution.

time for our salute to the troops. today's salute is for sergeant jana trujillo. she is serving in afghanistan. she's been gone about three weeks, but listen to this man. >> high, robin. my name is adam donna hugh, i'm from denver, colorado. my girlfriend, jana, is deployed to afghanistan and i'd like to send her a salute. hi, jana. hurry home. i wish i was coming with you. i've got your flag up and your ribbon. can't wait for you to come back. you're doing big things.

i love you. >> i love his conviction. adam, thank you. if you have somebody in the service go to cnn.com/robin. just in, the new york auto show, the car of the year has been announced and our money expert, jennifer westhoven, is here. this is supposed to be a great value, a great operating car, what's it mean to us? >> you got me, honey. it's the winner of the world car of the year, that's what i know. it's the volkswagen polo, so who it beat or what it beat is the toyota prius, the mercedes e class and winner for world performance car, so that's probably performance car, it's the audi rv-10. that's probably if you were on a racetrack or really into feeling not necessarily the value. best green car, volkswagen's passat and the polo. i'll try to get more on exactly what they're looking for there.

you probably know if you go to a drive-through, you can get a big mac, a coffee, you can get a beer if you're so inclined. what about driving up to a walmart and getting a coffee pot or power tools. some big-name retailers are trying out drive-throughs because they tried it in things like the brew through in north carolina. let me tell you, that had robin giggling this morning. pictures like that. but now there are stores like sears and walmart that are testing out the idea. that's in this morning's "chicago tribune" and that's because they're trying to make it easy on you so if you want to pull up and order your vacuum, maybe you don't want to go in the store and look at all of them, you can do that. happening today, if you're going to buy a new car in the next few years, it's likely going to have much better gas mileage. and that's good not just for you but maybe for the country overall in terms of our dependence on foreign oil. by 2016 cars and trucks built in the u.s. are going to by law have to get about 35 miles a

gallon. ten more than they do now. the white house is going to sign some final rules on that today. now, the sticker price of the cars might go up, so there is a trade-off. one estimate is by about a thousand dollars per vehicle. but the idea is the estimate is also that you would save $3,000 over the lifetime of the car because you'd be paying less in gas. all right. it's not your average baby-sitters club. a little company is changing the way that parents find a baby-sitter. stephanie elam has our small business success. >> reporter: parents adrian and david crafted an idea for a business during a trip to visit family out of town. >> we tried to go out with her brother and sister and we couldn't find a baby-sitter. >> reporter: the people came up with the idea for seeking sitters, an online baby-sitting service that provides parents with child care. >> they can log into their local area, see the sisters, mark

preferences and even make a request for the day and time that they need. >> reporter: adrian's private eye experience also sparked other ideas. >> the biggest part of seeking sitters is our background screening. we do investigations more like fbi style investigations versus just online checks and we screen our sitters and our families. >> there's a $40 membership fee and the company has expanded into a nationwide franchise. despite the growth, seeking sitters still tries to keep it in the neighborhood. >> we're not just the website business and that's why we went into the franchising that have to local person and that local feel for every one of our offices. >> if you've got a small business and you think, hey, that one was good but my small business is better, go ahead, take a video ireport of that, upload it to us, cnn.com/robin, send some tips in. you could be on "morning express."

you know, some people are upset about president obama's plan to reverse a ban on drilling in the atlantic. many don't like the idea of drilling in the eastern gulf of mexico. now, former speaker of the house newt gingrich is pushing that in his jobs plan. they protested at his town hall meeting yesterday in florida. >> we have the possibility of very small spills to large spills that can be picked up by the luke current and find their way back to the everglades, to the coral reefs, the florida keys. >> the fact is that ships coming in from the middle east or from venezuela carrying oil are more likely to have a spill than offshore platforms. >> well, gingrich says that expanding oil drilling into the eastern gulf of mexico will produce new jobs right away. president obama has said that limited offshore drilling will help the united states be more energy independent while protecting natural resources. let me ask you something, what are the odds?

a mom watching her son play a spring training baseball game for professional baseball gets hit by a foul ball that he hit. ray is in for rafer this morning. he had better get a nice mom's day present. >> you know the ring kobe got his wife after all that stuff happened? this guy better get his mom a ring four times -- he's got to feel horrible. denard span is an outfielder for the minnesota twins. he didn't know where his mom was sitting until he heard her scream. this was against the yankees on wednesday. span at the plate and, yes, he collects one off into the seats, striking his mom in the chest. actually hit her right in the collarbone. play was halted about five minutes. fortunately she was fine. span on the other hand he was so upset he pulled himself out of the game and couldn't continue. mom was more upset with him for that than hitting her with the ball. say what you want about michael vick but word out of philadelphia is that the eagles

quarterback is making a huge difference in busting up dog fighting rings there. all the attention on vick and all of his psas against dog fighting have led to more investigations and arrests. records show that in 2009 there were over 900 investigations into dog fighting rings compared to just 85 back in 2004. what's the best thing to do on a snowy day? you have a snowball fight, obviously, or you do something you don't see every day, you play soccer in it. u.s. women's soccer team took advantage of the snowy conditions in sandy, utah, to beat arch rival mexico. after they won the game, well, they dropped down and made snow angels. there we go. just love the snow. >> in your shorts. >> in their shorts, no less. robin, we all like a good joke now and then. remember the story we did yesterday? a dallas area dj mulling over a $100,000 offer to change his name to texasmotorspeedway.com. >> i was like do it. just for one year. >> absolutely. we were told he accepted.

get, this the whole thing was an april fools' joke. speedway president made the apparent offer but says it was a radio promotion idea that got out of control. now, we just did some checking and learned that dorsey himself had no idea it was a prank. so how mad is he? he's out $100,000. >> yeah, since he decided to agree to do it. >> media outlets around the world are also furious. they ran with the story. so we all got duped. a spokesman for the speedway has since apologized for any inconvenience it may have caused. great. thanks a lot. coming up, a new "vanity fair" article questions tiger woods' claim that no one else knew about his extramarital affairs. we'll have that for you coming up in the next half hour. >> interesting. thank you, ray. you may be in for a shock this morning when you go to the computer because google has changed its name to topeka. for today anyway. it's their annual april fools' day prank. this is a play on recent news of cities like topeka, kansas

changing its name to try to get google broadband service. how about these past pranks. the atlanta journal constitution once said the cover of its living section was scratch and sniff so you could get a whiff of atlanta. burger king once look out an ad for its left-handed whopper. taco bell once said it bought the liberty bell and was renaming it the taco liberty bell. taco bell liberty bell. yeah, right, those ares good ones. democrats are turning the tables. how they're using vice president joe biden's recent f bomb to raise money. sandra bullock is reportedly no stranger to the treatment facility where they are husband checked into. why has he been there before? dd

all right. the new york stock exchange has just opened for business and wall street is expected to start on a high note. the investors may credit that to gains in the foreign market, so we'll track the numbers in a live report in a second. first, though, let's talk about you. good news if you're looking for work. nearly a quarter of companies asked plan to hire more full-time workers in the next three months. so says a new survey by career builder and usa today. only 8% plan to downsize. both numbers are improvements over last year at this time. it looks like the accused ft. hood shooter is being moved from a hospital to a jail.

an attorney for army officer nidal hasan said hasan got his final physical exam at an army medical center yesterday. he's charged with killing 13 people and injuring 32 others. hasan was shot and left paralyzed. the u.s. is picking up more support for new sanctions against iran. now, iran's training partner, china, has reversed its position saying it is now open to more sanctions over iran's nuclear program. that's from the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. iran's top nuclear negotiator is in china today. iran insists that its nuclear program is peaceful. how are you doing today? it's thursday, connected to friday as we like to say. i'm robin meade. welcome back, sunshine. we need sunshine in some areas. it could be a while before many people in the northeast dry out. the rain has stopped, but look at the flooding that's left behind. this is in rhode island. some tried to stick it out, but the rising rivers were too much. >> that's where i lost everything, once they shut the

pumps off. my furnace is under water. everything. >> i feel so badly for that man. despite everything that he's lost, he says he is staying put. you are sending incredible video from the storms. look at these people rescuing a man from a stranded car in richmond, rhode island. ireporter kendall moore shot that for us. coming up, meteorologist bob van dillen will tell you which areas are under flood warnings this morning. we could find out today if a judge will set bail for the alleged members of the hutaree christian militia from michigan. all but one pleaded not guilty yesterday to plotting to kill police officers. correspondent richard lui joins us now. prosecutors also revealed some new details about the evidence against this group, that they wanted to create their own country out of a few counties. >> that's right, their own country. the government says that the alleged ring leader wanted to take over four counties of michigan and then create his own

country. don't know what it's going na d named, though. and they believe that he was stockpiling weapons to try to protect it. prosecutors got 37 guns in this week's raids plus other evidence like explosives, bomb components and shrapnel. an undercover agent saying one of the defendants also had what and here, robin, to be a hit list of judges and school leaders as well. >> so if there is this supposed hit list, what do you say if you're a defense attorney? what do they have to say about these folks? >> for their nine defendants. well, they say all the guns were legally obtained but they'd like to make this case about free speech. they plan to argue that the hutaree had a lot of bark, but no bite. >> it's legal to speak out in america, it's legal to have opinions in america, it's legal to assemble with people in america. nobody here threw any bricks through any windows or attacked any congressmen or called anybody any foul names because

they had a different opinion. they talk. you're allowed to talk. >> all right. so richard, thank you very much. we'll keep you updated on that story as they develop that story and we get more information about these people, what they allegedly wanted to do and what the defense attorneys are doing to try to protect them and defend them. a charter school in philadelphia says it will no longer double as a nightclub, a nightclub. city officials toured it yesterday to make sure that there are no traces of the club, you know, like alcohol on the school premises. the nightclub operated there at night and on weekends. for years the charter school was under investigation for questionable use of public funds. jay leno expects conan o'brien to return to late night tv and go head-to-head against him and "the tonight show." he told hln's joy behar he

doesn't take the jokes about him getting "the tonight show" back personally and thinks nbc was wrong in the way it handled the situation. >> conan was treated terribly, and i was treated terribly. and guys make a decision. i think conan will come back and he'll be strong and we'll all compete against one another. it should be me against letterman, against conan, against kimmel and you see who wins. you know how that works. >> they were backstage before joy behar's appearance on "the tonight show." . . it is 35 minutes past the hour and we have to talk about snow that is apparently coming for the weekend. it's a holiday weekend. i guess what's easter if you don't have to put your winter dress -- you know, your winter coat over your dress. >> coming right from an ohio girl. hey, good morning, robin. i want to show you what's shaping up for the rocky mountains and into the plains. it's a low pressure center. you can see it's right around the denver metro. this will form into a major storm right around nebraska and lower parts of kansas by late this afternoon.

for the time being it's all cloud cover, it's all snow and rain across the region. here's what it looks like, winter storm warnings all the spots in red. right now salt lake city in a winter weather advisory, 1 to 2 to 3 inches of snow on the ground this afternoon. i think the heaviest snow is western colorado. you'll get 8 to 12, maybe 16 inches of snow. heavy snow by grand junction. zero in towards the radar and all the blue is all snow. right by i-70 very heavy. green-shaded area snow coming down very quickly. up to the north, the worst weather is somewhere around here, you know it is, because the rain is there, the snow is there and it looks like temperatures will come crashing down. so where is the worst weather in the nation today? tough call. going with bismarck, north dakota. how about that one. haven't done bismarck in a while. look at that, 44 degrees the temperature this afternoon. heavy rain this afternoon and then that switches over to snow after midnight tonight. 3 to 5 inches of snow for you in bismarck by tomorrow afternoon. hey, congratulations, you've got the worst weather in the country

today. what about the other country areas? we're looking at the southern part of california. it's not so great in san diego either. heavy rain overhead right now that turns into snow across the higher elevations in san diego county. you get up to the north a little farther and most of the rain is sliding away from you in l.a. more is in store later this afternoon so it's something we're watching. but then you get away from this region and it's going to be extremely windy for the lower part of the country. you start seeing red shades pop up in new mexico and that's winds over 60 miles per hour. of course we had flood warnings but it's going to warm up for you. it's going to be warmer for everybody the east half of the nation. take you live to atlanta. how about low 80s for a high today? those 80-degree temperatures carry all the way through to about saturday afternoon. blue skies, finally good traveling for the world's busiest airport in atlanta and we'll have air travel delays in just a bit. >> but the skies look good. >> for once. i'm getting rid of the rickets, we're starting to see sunshine. >> a little vitamin d. >> it's great. more in just a bit.

so wall street has closed the book on the first quarter and, you know, maybe you can check your 401(k) because the numbers are likely to be better. hi, stephanie. >> reporter: hi, robin. that's true. all the major averages rose at least 4% last quarter and it was the dow's best first quarter since 1999. today we're expecting the second quarter to bust out the gates with a gain and that's what we're seeing. new jobless claims fell more than expected last week dropping to 439,000. new claims have fallen in four of the past five weeks signalling that layoffs are slowing down. we're also keeping an eye on the auto industry. automakers are expected to report march sales figures throughout the day. wall street has high hopes because of the economic recovery and big incentives from toyota. toyota has already indicated that its sales jumped 35 to 40%. separately, a reading on the manufacturering sector will be released at the top of the hour and we are expecting to see expansion. and finally, robin, today is national census day. sotheby's announced it plans to auction off the first u.s.

census. it's from 1791 and it's signed by thomas jefferson. it's expected to fetch 50 to $70,000. in case you just want to know what kind of data it has, it lists state populations according t five categories. free white males under 16, free white females, all other persons and slaves. so interesting data that will be out there to be auctioned off today, robin. >> today being census day, it's kind of a ploy to get you to turn back in your secensus formo be counted. >> reporter: if you haven't done that already. a florida woman panicked when her husband started choking on a sandwich. she told the dispatcher she could not do the heimlich maneuver because she had a broken arm. >> turned real blue and i says to her, he's turning dark. and then i said oh, my god, he's fell out of his chair. and i had already kissed him and told him i loved him. because i just knew he was gone. >> isn't that awful? but hear how the dispatcher

helped save the man's life.

so back to the woman desperately trying to save her choking husband. she could not do the heimlich maneuver because she had a broken arm. well, a 911 dispatcher told her to sit on her husband and push with her good arm above his belly button. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> my husband is choking to death. >> use your weight and push quickly on his stomach, okay. >> she was my angel. i don't know who she is. i'd like to meet her one day.

but she deserves this award she's getting. >> well, the 911 dispatcher is getting a life saver award. sandra bullock reportedly has some history with the same rehab facility treating her husband. media reports say it is the same place that she visited to prep for her role as an alcoholic in the movie "28 days." jesse james checked in for a reported sex addiction. the debate is still raging on whether that's a real condition or not. >> a really good way to understand sex addiction is to say there are people who enjoy alcohol and then there are alcoholics. you don't want to be an alcoholic but you might be someone that enjoys alcohol. it's the same way with sex. >> this is a man who signs a contract with the network, doesn't renege on that. signs a contract with walmart, doesn't renege on that. but when he signs the marriage contract, suddenly he's got a psychological problem. bs is what i say. >> well, james has reportedly had affairs with several women. his spokesperson says that he checked into the facility because, quote, he realized that this time was crucial to help

himself, help his family and help save his marriage. families and neighbors returned to the site where four people were gunned down in a drive-by shooting. they held a vigil in washington and promised to come together to take their community back. the suspected driver behind the wheel was just 14 years old. two other suspects were charged. police are now looking for a fourth person. police believe the shooting started over an argument about a bracelet. there are new details in the case of a teen reportedly bullied so badly at school that she killed herself. it is just one of the stories that richard lui is working on in the next hour. richard. >> good morning to you, robin. yes, some parents of students at that school say the principal did nothing to stop the bullies. so what do we do? we go to the school, knock on the door, guess who answers the door? the principal himself. we'll tell you what he says. then a training exercise turned into a homicide investigation when human bones were found in a submerged van. we'll tell you about this mysterious case coming out of

florida. plus a couple dug up a real diamond in the rough at a state park. not bad for first-timers. it's not the first time this park has paid off. we are talking about carats here, robin. tiger woods said that he was the only person to blame, but now there are allegations that he may have had help setting up his affairs.

hey, i just wanted to say every single one of our viewers, we think that you are a vip. if you would like to take the vip tour here on "morning express with robin meade" here's the folks who do it. they took it by going to cnn.com/robin. there's a way you can sign up. hi, guys. looking forward to meeting you. it's every thursday. you know, a woman is suing casey anthony for defamation will get her day in court. the woman says that anthony damaged her reputation by telling police that a nanny with her same name kidnapped her daughter, caylee. a hearing is set for may. anthony has tried to get the

case delayed. detectives cleared the woman in anthony's murder case. remember anthony denies killing her daughter, caylee. tiger woods said that he did not have any help hiding his extramarital affairs, but a new "vanity fair" article suggests that his inner circle may have been involved. ray d'alessio is in for rafer this morning with more on these details. if there are so many women, how did he get around without anybody knowing. >> tiger was good but a lot of people think this guy wasn't that good he could shuffle all these women at once without having anybody know about it. tiger from day one has said it was only me, i'm the only one to blame. keep in mind this is what tiger said during an interview with the golf channel just last month. >> it was all me. i'm the one who did it. i'm the one who acted the way i acted. no one knew what was going on when it was going on. i'm sure if more people would have known in my inner circle, they would have stopped it or tried to put a stop to it. but i kept it all to myself.

>> things that make you go hmm. you heard him say it. no one knew what was going on. now an article in the may issue of "vanity fair" raises questions about whether people who worked for tiger helped him arrange and cover up those extramarital affairs. the article gives graphic details about alleged encounters between woods and several women. in the article alleged mistress jamie junger says bryon bell helped facilitate her meetings with woods. bell and woods have been friends since childhood. bell also president of the tiger woods design and is involved with the tiger woods foundation. "vanity fair" also reports mierk steinberg, woods' agents at img, helped cover up at least one alleged affair. the magazine said steinberg turned down its request for an interview for the article. we should point out hln contacted both bryon bell and img for a comment and have not received a response from either party yet. fortunately for woods, he won't have to answer awkward questions from the first golfer he tees up with at the masters. fred couples announcing that he will practice with tiger on

monday. couples saying, quote, this is not going to be questions and answers, it's strictly going to be golf, end quote. later that afternoon, of course, woods should definitely get more pressing questions when he faces members of the media from around the globe. around the globe. she has won a gold medal could an emmy be next for lindsey vonn? she is expected to guest star in "law & order." she will play an office assistant sort of a dream come true, her favorite tv show. the episodes air on may 24th. a mom watching her son play a spring baseball game gets a scare. she will never forget. we'll have that for you coming up in the next half hour. >> the poor thing! and her son, too. . thank you. 10 minutes to the hour. good flying on one side of the country and not so good on the other side so says bob. >> exactly. the west coast getting slammed

today. i want to show you the reason why. it's going to be wind, rain, snow as well. we're calling for chicago, we're going to see half-hour delays and spol at o'hare and denver watching for gusty winds later this afternoon. a passing shower or two not that big of a deal but the wind will give you. same with dallas and los angeles light morning rain in the predawn hours and thunderstorms in the forecast for this afternoon and same for san diego and some could be rainmakers. what mom went to the hospital to deliver twins one came immediately and she had to wait a week for the second baby to arrive. now, that's a long delivery! ♪ dddddddddddddddd