goodday, everyone. i'm contessa brewer. we're covering the big story. coast to coast, the eye of irene targeting the eastern seaboard from the carolinas to new york city to maine. forecasters can't pinpoint exactly where the storm will make landfall, but the u.s. navy is already moving ships out of irene's predictive path. >> the forecast, instead of shifting further to the east, has shifted further to the west. we're no longer looking at a storm that's going to swing and miss. we're looking at a significant impact from hurricane irene from the mid-atlantic right through new england. >> irene's already crashed into cuba, trampled turks and kay koes, and done enough damage in the dominican republic to force 11,000 people out of their homes.

this is what the bahamas looked like yesterday before he irene hit. businesses boarded up, and tourists lined up at the airport. >> i'm lined up at the airport hoping the flight is going to take off. i don't want to stick around for it. >> good decision. >> this is the heaviest storm we've seen in terms of wind and rain, and now we're beginning to get hit by sleep. >> homes on two islands reportedly suffered severe damage. >> we're trying to stay on our feet to keep you informed. >> images show irene barreling over the bahamas packing winds of 115 miles per hour and heading north. there are already tropical storm watches and warnings in the carolinas. >> they said evacuate. so we figured we'd better listen. >> irene could affect 55 million people up and down the eastern seaboard. officials have already ord carolina's outer banks.

>> you come home, and there's no damage, and you say, well, it was a big inconvenience, but at least you have the option of coming back home. people who don't evacuate may not survive. >> we have team coverage up and down the east coast. first, let's bring in nbc's kerry sanders live in atlantic beach, north carolina. a scary place to be when you hear eastern north carolina is directly in the path of this hurricane. >> when you say the eye wall, which is where the strongest winds are, could come right through here. might jog a little bit north, might jog a little bit south. as incredible as these powerful computers are and what the national hurricane center is able to do, nonetheless, there is some imprecision they're forecasting. i'm standing right here atwater's edge because this water is more than 80 tegs. this is the fuel for the hurricane. this warm water is fwraet fgrea

tourists but not for irene as it makes irene even more powerful. i think it's a good opportunity because you've got to understand, folks in north carolina, they've been through this drill before. they understand this. a little further north, maybe they can take tips from the people here about what to do as irene is coming at them. you hear, for instance, the governor of north carolina, bev perdue, she's already declared a state of emergency before the storm arrives. what does that really mean to individuals and folks up in virginia? but even further north, up into maryland and new england, folks who have never been through this, take some tips from the folks down here. first of all, what you don't do, you don't get tape, go to your house, and put tape across your windows. big wives tale, doesn't do anything f you're going to put up shutters, you want to put the shutters up not on one window in the front of your house. the reason you're putting shutters up, and the wind comes

from all different directions, if a tree limb or something smashes through your window and creates a tunnel for the air and wind to get in, it can lift your roof off. if you're going to put up shutters, you have to do every window. otherwise, you're really potentip potentially wasting your time, and you don't want to do that. when you're going to get the bottles of water. there's going to be a lot of people there. it looks like the supplies will be able to handle even the last-minute rush. when you get those bottles, open up the freezer and start putting them in your freezer, and you're probably going to lose electricity. when you need to get those bottles after the storm has passed, open it up, open the door for a few minutes because it's sealed like a cooler, take it out, and you'll have cold water. because after the hurricane, trust me, you're going to want cold water. you still have time to look at the trees around your house and potentially call someone in to prune them. you don't want to hat rack it,

but you've got to prune it. you want the wind to come through the tree so the tree doesn't collapse on your house causing more problems. finally, pay attention to what's going on. this is serious. mother nature is not going to give you a second chance here. you have to be prepared. nobody else is going to take care of you during a hurricane, other than yourself. >> listen, kerry, you've been through a lot of hurricanes, and all of that is very good advice and stuff that i hope people who are in the path of this hurricane will heed. thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience with us. let's get a check now on the forecast and the track here. nbc news meteorologist bill karins is in the studio with me. right now we're looking at some of these effects. i can see from the radar on florida, right? >> correct. florida, little bit of rain, little bit of wind, big show on the coast, little bit of beach erosion. that's the beginnings of this mess. we get updates on the hurricane path four times a day, 5:00 and 11:00 east coast time around the clock. about twice a day we get a lot

of information. i just got done digesting the morning computer runs. if anything, the only thing i've noticed is that the speed is increasing a little bit. maybe instead of an evening landfall, maybe we're talking saturday afternoon. looking at my watch, that gives you 48 hours in eastern north carolina to get all the preps done. that's when the worst is going to arrive, about 48 hours from now. see a little pin needle dot there? just north of the "m" in the bahamas, that's the eye of the hurricane. it was obscured for a while. now we can track it on satellite once again. it's parallel with nassau and the bahamas and heading away from that area. we'll be staring at this the next three or four days. the orange color is the tropical storm force winds, winds between 75 and 105 miles per hour. when you take that orange coloring and you put it right over the top of the mid-atlantic and new jersey, you can tell that that would cover a huge area.

that's why we're not focused just on where the center of the storm is because they have a lot of tropical storm force winds. here's the latest forecast, down the last hour from the hurricane center. the thing that really got my attention was we know that the outer banks, eastern north carolina is going to get hit by a category 3 or 2 hurricane. what was surprising is it's supposed to maintain its strength all the way through ocean city, maryland, coastline of delaware. this is a much worse forecast for you, along with our friends in new jersey. it would track over the top of you possibly as a category 2, maybe a high end category 1. here's a closer view as it comes off the coast of maryland. looks like it will parallel the coastline or maybe go right over the top of it. hurricanes over land, they weaken more. hurricanes over water, they maintain their strength. if it's right along the coast, it's not going to weaken as much as we like. we're talking the possibility of a category 1, 80-mile-per-hour winds over the top of new york city sunday afternoon. eastern north carolina, 48 hours to prepare.

for areas north of there, it looks like you'll have saturday morning, and that will be about it. >> i wanted to point out two things. you and i were talking this morning, because i volunteer for the red cross here in new york city, we got a hurricane briefing about how to prepare. we're very focused on preparedness. one of the things i learned about new york, you have that right angle. it's all bedrock underneath our harbor. >> the new york harbor. >> where in pensacola or new orleans, where we might poo-poo a category one, it doesn't have the same impact. number two, you were telling me this is going to be a tree event. you're expecting a lot of damage. >> there's two sides to this storm. there's the coastal side where, if you live on the coast, you should be prepared for this stuff anyway. even though it hasn't happened in a while. on the coast, it's the storm surblling and the waves. we're at an astronomical high tide because of the new moon. the high tide cycle is saturday afternoon, saturday evening, which is close to when the storm surge is coming in. that is bad. on top of everything, we have

everyone that lives in the suburbs. you're going to be worried about your house and the trees, and it's been so wet from philly to new york to all the surrounding areas, additional six inches of rain, tropical storm force winds, we're going to have huge oak trees down all over the place. when this storm is over with, everyone will go outside and look at their property a little bit differently. those beautiful trees are not your friend anymore. >> and you're not a doom and gloom meteorologist. you're a common sense guy. you've been very serious about this in terms of preparation. we appreciate the heads up. i just wanted to mention hyde county, north carolina, is telling its residents now that the storm surge could potentially be a life-threatening issue here. so they have a state of emergency there. you've got to watch for that stuff, as kerry was saying, out on the ocean's edge. moving on now, tens of thousands of tourists are cutting their vacation short on north carolina's outer banks because they got direct orders to evacuate. local residents boarding up their houses and their businesses just in case. jamie tunnel is with emergency services, as i was just saying, in hyde county, north carolina. is the storm surge right now one

of your bigger concerns? >> that, along with the idea that people aren't listening and they're thinking they can sit this out like they've done other ones in the past. this is not a storm that we've seen anything like. there's nothing to compare it to. >> are you seeing the tourists now heeding the warnings and getting out of dodge? >> we've been pleased with what we've seen. we rode down to the ferry docks, had good numbers of evacuation yesterday. today started the mandatory evacuation for all residents of hyde county. i was listening to what you were saying. a lot of places have 48 hours to decide. on the island, the only transportation off is the state-run ferry, and today is the only day it's going to be a consistent day to count on for travel. if anyone's making decisions, they have to be made today, not until even tomorrow. >> jamie, thank you so much. i know it's a busy day. thank you for spending a couple of minutes with us. instead of the big question today, i just want to hear from

you. tell me about your preparations and share your pictures as the storm starts coming through. you midwesterners and west coasters, go ahead and rub it in how you're having great weather and we should all move to where you are. get me on facebook or twitter, contessa brewer, or e-mail me at contessa@msnbc.com. for the first time in ten years, steve jobs is not running apple. the game changing company he helped launch 30 years ago. jobs has been on medical since february. now he's sent a letter of resignation to the board of directors, entering an unparalleled area in the tech world. 1977, he ushered in the personal computer generation with the apple 2. '84, a break through with the macintosh. he got pushed out in '85 only to return in '97 and save the company from bankruptcy. 1998, we got the i mac. then came the ipod, the iphone, and the ipad, which set the bar very high for the rest of the

world. nice job keeping up with me, guys, over there. i'm joined by rick newman, chief business correspondent for "u.s. news and world report." jobs is going to remain as the chairman but considering significant health problems, his battle with pancreatic cancer, a liver transplant. if he continues to suffer the ill effects of bad health, how effective can he be, even in the chairman role? >> i think a lot of people are asking that question now. some people say steve jobs hasn't been running apple for the last six months. he's been on medical leave. this issue has been popping up for five years. there have been a lot of worries about the so-called succession plan at apple. now we know what the succession plan is. i think there's some relief for apple investors at the moment. >> why is that? >> because we finally know who's taking over after steve jobs. this has been a big toss-up question for five years or so. it's tim cook, who's been at the company for a long time. the real question is apple has a deep bench of talent. they are considered an

operationally excellent company in terms of supply chain and all that kind of stuff. the real question is will apple continue to have the magic touch that nobody can really quantify. this has really been the thing that steve jobs has imbued in apple. >> and a visionary because he developed stuff we never thought we'd need. i never knew i would get addicted to an ipad, and now it rules my world. >> and steve knew you would. it was one of the few companies in america that was totally unscathed by the recession. its sales skyrocketed. and the ipad and the iphone are not products that people have to have, yet people continue to spend money on these things when they were cutting their spending on everything else. that's this unique ability that steve jobs has, to anticipate what will delight consumers. we even know what we want. the question is apple's going to continue to do fine for the next few years because of everything in their pipeline. as you get into a three-year, four-year, ten-year time frame, we'll see how this plays out.

let me get into one factoid. the market has decided the value of steve jobs alone is about $5 billion. when you look at the decline in the apple stock, that's the decline in market capitalization based just on what steve jobs did. wouldn't you love to fw to your boss and say, hey, the market thinks i'm worth $5 billion. >> so show me the money >> thank you, contessa. let's get developing news out of libya. we're just getting what we believe is new audio from moammar gadhafi. in a speech he says there is no safe place for the rebels. he calls his supporters the sweeping majority in libya. we have unconfirmed reports, unconfirmed now, that gadhafi may be trapped in a tripoli apartment coming under heavy rebel fire. but gadhafi spokesman insists that the dictator is leading the fight geps the rebels. he's disputing the associated press report. he says the rebels are in trouble here. william cohen was president bill

clinton's secretary of defense, now the ceo of the cohen group. secretary, good to see you today. >> hello. >> whether he's leading the fight or not, gadhafi's reign in libya appears to be over. if he survives, is there anywhere for him to go? >> i doubt it very much. i think he has sort of made his case that he's going to live and die in libya, and that appears to be the case. i think the ravings we're seeing and calling on his supporters to come forth, they're approaching the mad statements of king lear at this point. i don't know that anyone is going to take him seriously. i think his supporters are seeing the handwriting on the wall, and they're not going to be coming out en masse to support him. i think it's pretty clear the tide has turned substantially and overwhelmingly against him. >> we're getting news now that there's a group of international entities that agree it's time to unfreeze libyan assets. but there's nobody to step into the power vacuum at this point. is it too soon to free up all this libyan money?

>> they're going to need money, a real cash flow in the short term. once they can really eliminate the pockets of resistance, they need stability. they need to consolidate their gains, so to speak. they need to establish some sort of infrastructure redevelopment. they've got to have not only a flow of oil really get started, but they also need the flow of water, desalinization plants. there's a lot to be done. what is good is there doesn't seem a lot of looting taking place, any kind of breakdown of order right now, and that's a very positive sign. unless these social services, these civilian services get instituted right away, then people will start to pan i can. there will be an absence of food, medical supplies, humanitarian interests. so time is going to be of the essence to stabilize things. >> i know it's an unstable, unpredictable situation, but

what's likely to be the impact for american foreign policy in the middle east because of libya, the change happening in libya. >> i don't think i have much of an impact. i think the president frankly has handled this rather well. the so-called charge of leading from behind, i don't think applies here. i think it was a responsible thing to do to take the lead initially, to take down his air defense systems, to really have a crushing blow against his capability of going against the rebels. once that took place, i think it's a fair burden sharing on the part of our nato allies to say over to you now. we've done some of the initial heavy lifting, but we need some help here, and you're in a better position than we are right now. i think it was the right decision by president obama, and i think the charges about leading from behind don't really come into play here. rick perry takes over the top spot for the republican presidential candidates. what does this mean for, say, mitt romney.

plus casey anthony is back in florida reporting for duty -- actually, probation. and first, a look at what's happening on wall street right now. we're having a bit of a down day. the dow jones is off by 126 points. the s&p is down 13. and we're seeing nasdaq slipping by almost 30 points. we'll stay on top of that today as well. have i got a surprise for you! a mouthwatering combination of ingredients... i know you're gonna love. [ barks ] yes, it's new beneful healthy fiesta. made with wholesome grains, real chicken, even accents of tomato and avocado. yeah! come on! [ barking ] gotta love the protein for muscles-- whoo-hoo! and omega-rich nutrition for that shiny coat. ever think healthy could taste so good? [ woman announcing ] new beneful healthy fiesta. another healthful, flavorful beneful.

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texas governor rick perry surging in the polls after one week as a presidential candidate. perry is up 29 points. he's outpacing former front-runner mitt romney. he fell by six points. ron paul picks up three points. and michelle bachmann, who just two weeks ago won the ames, iowa straw poll, drops to fourth place. so far romney's campaign appears to just shrug it off.

in fact, here's the candidate in new hampshire. >> there's a lot going on amongst our group, but you know what, if you're running for president, your focus should be on the person who is president and his failures and how you're going to make america better. >> jose anchors the eepg news at our sister network telemundo. >> contessa, good to see you. >> rick perry, let's talk. is he the new front runner? is this going to be the good showing in the poll and continue in the weeks and months ahead? >> contessa, it's interesting that he's almost reached the 30% threshold, which is pretty significant. you know what, he hasn't been on a debate yet, televised debate yet. he stumbled a little bit coming out of the gate. and the fact is that this shows, i think, more than ever, that the republican group is pretty fluid as far as who people want. also, i think a lot of these polls so early on before people have gotten a chance to see

perry against romney and everybody else, it's kind of like america's got talent kind of polls. you think of perry and he's fresh. and i don't know that these reflect the status of the republican front runners six or eight months from now. >> but he's really shown his ability to turn campaigns around. we've seen it during the lead-up to the gubernatorial races in texas. is he popularity in texas likely to translate to these other states, these battleground states? >> i think it could in this way. if he continues on message, which is that he can bring jobs to the country, and he stays on that message, i think that he's

a very personal kind of candidate. when he's in groups and he arrives, and he reaches out to greet every single person. there's something very human and warm about him in a one-to-one environment. i think it's important down the line because politics has become very prepackaged. people will be happy to see someone they identify with as kind of a regular person that has the priorities they see in their life be that person's priority as well. and we're talking about jobs as number one. >> of course. and the interesting thing here is for whoever wins the hispanic community is going to be a very important voting bloc. republicans lost a lot of latino voters in the last election. he won 38% of the hispanic vote in texas in his 2010 race for governor. could he be instrumental in winning back some spanish speaking voters to the republican party?

>> contessa, that is such a good question. i will tell you he's been a pretty good governor for latinos in texas. he supported the texas version of the d.r.e.a.m. act, which is different than the national version he opposes. and he said that 1070 style laws wouldn't work in texas. he's in the past been much more, let's say, pro latino in some of the issues that latinos worry about other than jobs, which is the number one priority for everybody. but i think that we have to see how he deals with issues of immigration. we at telemundo this week confronted him in a stop and asked him point blank, what are your positions on immigration reform? after dancing around it, he ended up repeating the regular republican talking point, which is you have to first close the border before any immigration talk can begin. bush was able to get 44% of the vote in the election against kerry, and i think, if a

republican can get close to that, he's got a pretty good shot of winning the white house. >> jose, so good to see you, my friend. thank you so much for joining us today. >> it's better to see you, contessa. >> i love the way he says my name, don't you? best ever. all eyes on hurricane irene right now. powerful category 3 storm with winds of 115 miles an hour heading for the east coast. we're tracking the storm's path.

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louisiana. i know all about hurricanes. you don't mess with them. i hope people don't hang around because it can get bad quickly. >> like how his son's saying yeah. the weather channel's mike seidel is in nags head, north carolina. what kind of response are you seeing from the folks in nags head? >> reporter: we're seeing a big response from visitors this morning at 8:00 a.m. they're heading west. the hotel parking lot where we're staying is basically emptying out this morning. i saw people heading out at 5:00 a.m. theyn't waed wanted to beat th. there's plenty of gas. there will be traffic on the bridges as people trying to get out of harm's way. the year round residents are under mandatory evacuation starting tomorrow morning at 8:00. more than a few of those will stay. we've seen that time and time again, even during isabel, which was the last big one to hit many years ago. many folks down on hatteras island, down by the famous lighthouse, stayed put, and they

couldn't get out for about two weeks. during isabel, that beautiful pier rebuilt behind me, jeanette's pier just reopened around memorial day, eight years ago was taken out by isabel. we hope that's not the case. this could be a major hit from irene. our weather starts to go downhill later tomorrow, and by saturday morning we'll feel the fury. saturday is when it comes right toward the outer banks. it may go right over us, off the coast, a little inland. we can't exactly say. all the models are saying it's going to come over eastern north carolina. then it heads up your way to the metro new york city area in a weakened form. with all the rain you've had, with more rain and strong winds, i think the biggest inconvenience and the biggest post-irene issue will be power around the mid-atlantic and northeast away from the coastal issues. if you're inland, no need to

evacua evacuate, but be prepared to be without power and trees coming down. >> nice to point out the tree situation because what we heard from kerry sanders and bill karins, the trees in the northeast are already weakened from so much rain, and they could knock down power lines and taking out windows and that kind of thing. here's pictures from wrightsville beach, north carolina. this is live pictures. again, for instance, hyde county, north carolina, they're saying the storm surge could potentially be life-threatening at this point. you're still seeing people out enjoying the day in north carolina. this is not going to be a place they'll want to be once the storm surge comes in. again, bill karins said new england, the coast of long island, it's going to be a very high tide that coincides with the arrival of the storm. so we're looking at definitely some coastal flooding here. again, this is wrightsville, north carolina. so keep an eye on that. in new jersey, the governor has declared a state of emergency

ahead of hurricane irene. that maenls the state can deploy resources such as the national guard to go out to towns and different counties to prepare for this storm. and he says he's actually considering mandatory evacuations. so he's already saying, look, folks, voluntarily, don't go to the jersey shore this weekend. if you have plans for the jersey shore, cancel them. stay away. because he is considering mandatory evacuations depending on what the news is that he gets. new england bracing for a direct hit from irene. a home depot in nadik, massachusetts, has been busy all week. customers stocking up on batteries and generators. peter judge is with the massachusetts emergency management agency. this has been a tough year for your state in terms of weather disasters, weather emergencies. what are you doing now to prepare for irene? peter, can you hear me? >> oh, yes. we've been doing multiple conference calls with our

partners in the other new england states as well as fema. literally right now we have all the key agencies and organizations in here as we take steps to prepare for the coming storm as well as talking to all of the communities across the state because massachusetts, the entire state is sort of in the cro crosshairs. >> cape cod is typically where the concern is because, again, it hits sort of at that right angle to the atlantic ocean. it provides a real target for storms that are moving through. are you considering mandatory evacuations off of cape cod? >> no. the only evacuations we'll do here in massachusetts would be localized in nature, areas that might have storm surge. we have a cape cod emergency traffic plan to utilize the state police and department of transportation to expedite traffic off of the cape because it's only two that get people

off. folks that want to leave, we'll make every effort to get them off safely, but folks that do want to stay on the cape will be safe on the cape. we've got many shelters, and most people won't be in harm's way if they stay sheltered. >> peter, thanks for pending a couple of minutes with us. casey anthony back in florida dealing with the legal system once again. plus an uphill battle for nut gingrich in his presidential campaign. he gets just 4% in the latest ap poll. does he even have a shot. his daughter, who's also a campaign adviser, weighs in. ncer ]e a where'd you get that idea? how'd you learn to do that? what'd you use? every project we finish comes with a story built-in. it's how our rough ideas become "you did that yourself?" so when we can save more

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the same gallup poll that shows texas governor rick perry leading the republican pack of the presidential field after just a week in the race shows newt fwin grigingrich at the bo the barrel. gingrich first declared his candidacy at the end of may and

since then has had a barrel of troubles. first was an appearance on msnbc in which he criticized ryan's medicare busting plan. >> i don't think a year in which social engineering is any more desirable than left wing social engineering. i don't think imposing anything from the right or left is a way for free society to operate. >> and then just several days later he was saying something different. >> so let me say on the record any ad which quotes what i said on sunday say falsehood. >> jackie cushman is an adviser to her dad's campaign. >> thanks for having me on. >> can i just show where your dad said any ad that quotes him in what he said is a falsehood. how is that even logical? >> he was talking about that specific "meet the press" incident, and i was really hoping -- you always do an intro of video of what's happened recently, and i was really

hoping you'd pull from the last debate, which would be a little more exciting and in line with what's happening. but that's a great one to pull too. >> here's the reality. in this polling, your dad gets 4% in the gallup poll. the top six, you've got perry with 29%, romney in second with 17%. ron paul's moved up to 13% of the support. bachmann falls to 10, and you have herman cain and your dad newt gingrich tied. how does he turn that around if you consider he's campaigning in places like hawaii, last weekend, which isn't exactly a battleground state? >> he's in new hampshire today. he's in manchester, and he'll be in georgia this weekend. big georgia fish fry in perry, georgia, and he'll be in georgia for the weekend for that. he is campaigning in the first state. i think there are a couple things. one, the last poll shows there's still a lot of fluidity. you mingsed perry coming in, romney moving down, bachmann moving around. you're seeing a lot of movement between the people.

a recent cnn poll, if you look at those that are running, dad's at 8%. so a much different number. but we're really in, i think, the kind of fun and games, kind of the entertainment stage in terms of most people aren't really watching the candidates day to day. you and i are, but a lot of people aren't doing that. so we're really looking at what looks interesting, what looks attractive. kind of in that personality phase versus later on they'll get to the experience and knowledge phase. we're going to sew a lot of movement. it's a big field and a wide field. there's a lot of movement. >> he's already had campaign staffers quit reportedly because he launched the campaign and went on a two week cruise to the greek isles. i mentioned the trip to hawaii which coincided with your dad's anniversary. jackie, are you sitting your dad down and saying, look, if you want to do this thing, you've got to go to places like new hampshire and north carolina and show up in iowa at this point. are you having a hard talk with

him about the more exotic campaign stops versus the hard politics we're seeing everybody else do. >> as i said earlier, he's in new hampshire today. he'll be in georgia this weekend. he's going to south carolina for labor day. he is campaigning. we were just at the iowa state fair, took the whole family, did the whole eating the pork chop on the stick. he spent a lot of time in iowa. he is campaigning everywhere. again, i think we're very early on. if you look at the actual experience of the candidates, he's the only candidate that's balanced a federal budget. others have balanced state budgets. he's the only one that's balanced federal budgets. he did it four years in a row. when he was speaker, he created l million jobs in the country. we would love to have that kind of performance today. >> i'm sure that bill clinton would love to share that credit in terms of job creation. >> you know what, when they worked together and they closed the government down because they could not reach an agreement and finally they balanced the budget, you're exactly right. i think dad would say he and clinton finally got to an agreement. >> thank you for joining us,

jackie. it's got to be a great experience working with your dad on a campaign like this. thank you for sharing a little bit with us. >> thanks, contessa. >> we're keeping our eye on the developments coming in on hurricane irene. we know now tough, tough on bahamas. florida already feeling the impact. and now states of emergency being declared up and down the eastern seaboard. we're going to take a quick break here. ♪ i like dat ♪ ♪ i like dat, all right [ male announcer ] mio. a revolutionary water enhancer. add a little...or a lot. for a drink that's just the way you like it. make it yours. make it mio. for a drink that's just the way you like it. host: could switching to geico reon car insurance? or more host: do people use smartphones to do dumb things? man 1: send, that is the weekend.

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. the mayor of new york city is urging people who live in low lying areas is urging people to stay. the category 3 storm now expected to reach the region this weekend. and already new jersey governor chris christie is declaring a state of emergency. he said he's considering mandatory evacuations in some places. >> i will not order evacuation unless it's absolutely necessary. but if i order it, i expect it to be complied with, and we will enforce that order to evacuate

people from areas where we believe they're in potential life-threatening circumstances. >> meanwhile coastal north carolina's dare county has ordered all residents to move inland. she still may be hiding, but casey anthony has started her probation in florida. the 25-year-old was sentenced to one-year probation for check fraud, and nbc's aditi roy is live in orlando. any word on where she is? >> reporter: that's a big question, contessa. good afternoon. the department of corrections officials just wrapped up a news conference a little more than an hour ago, and they said they're not disclosing many details about casey anthony's probation, including her whereabouts or even her probation officer's name. they cited personal safety concerns. as you probably know, casey anthony has received multiple death threats since her acquittal. a judge earlier this week cited a recent poll that called her the most hated person in america. a couple other details about her probation. her lawyer says she's going to be completing online classes as well as she is not required to hold down a job.

all of that is in those personal safety concerns. she did check in with a probation officer, probation office late last night in florida between the hours of 5:00 and 10:00 to begin that probation. >> aditi, thank you so much. we continue to keep our eye on the developing situation with hurricane irene. chloe is 9 months old. she is the greatest thing ever. one little smile, one little laugh. honey bunny. [ babbles ] [ laughs ] we would do anything for her. my name is kim bryant and my husband and i made a will on legalzoom. it was really easy to do. [ spits ] [ both laugh ] [ shapiro ] we created legal zoom to help you take care of the ones you love. go to legalzoom.com today and complete your will in minutes. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side.

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the twitter verse is just blowing up with news that hurricane irene is expected to slam the east coast. a lot of you are writing in talking about your preparations. pat f. writes in here "i wanted to ask if you could remind people not to forget about their pets. they need to make sure they have extra water for their pets plus extra dog food on hand." bill says fill the gas tank and get cash from the atms if possible. they may not be accessible later. get out those boom boxes and get new batteries. it could be your only source of information. if the race to become the country's next presidential

nominee was a beauty contest, jon huntsman's family could give everybody a run for their money. look at this spread in an issue of vogue. but it's not a beauty contest. and a new gallup poll shows huntsman with 1% of the vote. he's trying a take no prisoners strategy, calling out conservatives for their far right views. >> i think, when you find yourself at the extreme end of the republican party, you make yourself unelectable. >> jacob weisberg is editor and chief of "slate." his article on huntsman is in the latest issue of "vogue." so here's the question. is jon huntsman a sort of anti-republican? >> i don't think he's an anti-republican. i think he's a very traditional republican, sort of a george bush 41 or eisenhower republican. he's what used to be the mainstream of the party, the

kind that can win a national election against democrats. for some reason the republican party seems to have been taken over by the tea party movement, by the patriotic anarchishsanar. and someone like huntsman has no chance at the nomination. >> so when he says he believes in science, it makes waves because we're so used to republicans running for office that don't want to embrace any of this. >> when you talk about evolution or climate change or say it would be a bad thing for the united states to default on its debt, that makes news, which is shocking. these should be the common assumptions of a responsible party that wants to compete for the votes in the center. i think huntsman has sort of

realized this. i think he thinks of himself as conservative. he had a strong tax cutting record in utah. he's pro life. he's pro second amendment. in conventional terms, he's pretty down the line conservative, and i think he's been sort of mystified that someone like himself can't get a hearing in today's gop. so i think it's sort of been pushing him to be this kind of outsider gadfly kind of making the point over and over again that the party has to come back to its moorings if it wants to compete. >> why is he sticking to it? if this is his message and he's not even getting -- i think the latest opinion research poll is he was getting somewhere in the neighborhood of 4% of the support. if that's the case, then why does he feel like he can make a dent at all in the republican primary race? >> i think he fairly says it's early days. nobody's voted yet. we're months away from any actual votes. you know, if he's still at 3% or

4% after the new hampshire primary, then i doubt he will stay in. but i think it does -- he's running in a way to make a point. i don't think he has a realistic hope of getting the republican nomination. he's certainly a very slim chance. but eventually the party is going to have to come back to someone like him if it wants to recapture the white house. so whether that happens this time or whether that happens in 2016, i think just by running, he's making that point. >> the pictures of him and his family definitely fit the pages of "vogue." he has a gorgeous family. >> annie liebowitz took the pictures, and they're beautiful. this is the first time i've written a story that starts on page 684 of any magazine. it's the september issue of "vogue." make sure you have your back brace on before you lift it. he has a very appealing family.

seven children. the two youngest are adopted, one from china, one from india. it's clearly a kind of partnership with the whole family. i spent some time with some of them on a trip last month to south carolina, and it's funny. you know, politicians sometimes talk in the first person plural, and you think they're using the royal we, but huntsman uses what i would call the family we. when he says we decided to run for president, i think he really means that his family all like this idea, all supported the idea of him doing it, as they did him going to china as ambassador. and i don't think he'd be doing it otherwise. >> jacob, good to see you. the article is in "vogue" magazine. thank you. >> thank you, contessa. that wraps up this hour from me. i'm contessa brewer. thank you for watching. up next, andrea mitchell reports with much more on the path of irene.

i'm meteorologist bill karins with your business travel update. no effects on business travel today from irene. we don't have to worry about that quite yet. we are going to see a strong cold front coming through new england and the mid-atlantic with storms coming through boston, new york, and d.c. before those storms arrive, it will be pretty warm. talk about heat, dallas up to 107. phoenix up to 114. see if we can "stitch" together a better deal. that's a hint, antoine. ooh! see what anandra did? booking your flight and hotel at the same time gets you prices hotels and airlines won't let expedia show separately. book it. major wow factor! where you book matters. expedia. a living, breathing intelligence that's helping drive the future of business. in here, inventory can be taught to learn. ♪

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