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hurricane is prepared to strike mexico a second time. wrongly convicted. vindication could come today for two men who spent the last 30 years in prison for a crime they say they never committed. great to have you with us, everybody. just weeks before the midterm elections both republicans and democrats are trying to figure out whether the tea party movement will help or hurt them. there's so much discontent over the economy and high unemployment that americans are telling us in poll after poll that the status quo just won't work any more. in the politco george washington battleground poll only 28% said the country was headed in the right direction. 63% said it was on the wrong track. a brand-new poll out today gives us insights as to how they're feeling about the tea party. chief washington correspondent nora nor norah o'donnell joins me now. tell me what it gives us as we're heading into november. >> it reflects what we've seen

in our poll, a lot of americans are fed up with the direction of this country. they don't trust washington. they don't trust big institutions. and they want change. and then you see segments of the voting population that not only want change, but they are mad as hell and that is particularly the tea party movement which has really driven and controlled a lot of these primary contests like we just saw this week in delaware electing someone like christine o'donnell who many republicans thinks is unelectable and even karl rove has called her nutty and she was able to win that primary. i was struck by "the new york times" poll today who polled on people's opinions of the tea party and in that they found that close to half of republican voters, 48% say they have a favorable opinion of the movement when nearly all the rest said they have no opinion at all. independents here you see have a double unfavorable over favorable view. that is really more key these independents as you head into the general election and, so, what you might find is that a

majority have no opinion yet of the tea party. that's an opening. that's an opening for the tea party to define themselves more and also an opening for the democrats to define the tea party with some democrats out there. the democrats are painting as very extreme, including christine o'donnell. >> you bring up the independents and they're so important to what's coming up in november because in the politico poll they ask if the election was held today, who would you vote for? 43% said republican and 43% said democrats and we got this split ticket right down the middle. >> that's right. a lot of these general election tests we've seen even the republicans usually outpoll the democrats by a large margin. look, they have to get 39 seats in the house of representatives to win. most good political prognosticators say they are anywhere between 40 and 50 seats close to a pickup. the republicans will likely win the house of representatives when it comes to the senate, they have to get ten seats, the fact that christine o'donnell is now the nominee in the senate makes it less likely that they

will win the ten seats in the majority in the united states senate. i can tell you y spoke with someone today who said there are people inside the white house, including the president's chief of staff rahm emanuel that are telling other democrats they think christine o'donnell could win in delaware. i'm not sure if that the president's chief of staff blowing some smoke, but at the same time, the democrats are worried. we're getting e-mails this morning from the democratic national committee pointing out different things that christine o'donnell wants women out of service schools and coming from the democrats on christine o'donnell about things that they say are extreme views on her. >> are you back in your day shoes? i saw you this morning on "morning joe" and the bipartisan walk. >> i barely had time to change and you can tell i haven't had time to do anything to my hair. i was out running on the maul on the bipartisan challenge with all of them and it was a great event out there and a lot of folks from the white house and even the surgeon general of the united states was there. >> you're a great example for all of us.

thank you. some troubling numbers show home foreclosures surged last month from a year ago. that's a 3% increase from july and a whopping 25% increase from august of 2009. august was also the ninth straight month that foreclosures increased. the states with the highest foreclosure rate, nevada, florida, arizona, california and idaho. the number of properties entering the foreclosure process by receiving initial default notices fell for the seventh straight month. they plunged 30% from a year ago. another positive economic sign the number of new claims for unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly last week. that's a sign employers are cutting fewer jobs. new help could soon be on the way for small businesses. today the senate is expected to pass a bill providing more lending for small businesses and also incentives to hire new workers. meantime, on another issue, a new poll shows plurality of americans, 44%, wants congress

to extend the bush era tax cuts that are due to expire at the end of the year for everyone. 39% say that the tax cuts should expire for those earning over $250,000, which president obama wants. just 15% say the tax cuts should expire for everyone. luke russert joins us live now from capitol hill. luke, explain exactly when we expect the senate to vote on the small business bill. >> that should be between 12:15 and 1:00 today. it is expected to pass, thomas. it was able to break closure on tuesday with george voinovich of ohio and both thought it was necessary for this bill to move forward. democrats tried to bring this up in july and it was filibustered back then because the gop see it as a continuation of a bailout policy. the bill costs about 30 billion and within this bill an aggressive effort by democrats to try to get money to smaller community banks, banks worth $10 million or less to try to have a loan fund which some experts say

could create, leverage $300 billion worth of loans for small businesses. what do they really want small businesses to do? they want them to remodel and they want them to expand and make new hires and also a provision in there which a long-time investor within small businesses would not have to pay capital gains tax and you can deduct from a small business if you're self-employment tax. there is a lot of tax relief and incentive to loan and get money back into the market and democrats say it will help new businesses and a lot of republicans say, no, a continuation of bailout policies but it will pass today. >> we'll expect that vote after noon eastern time. thank you. >> take care. the white house will name consumer advocate and outspoken wall street critic elizabeth warren to a special advisory role to the white house and treasury depart. an announcement is expected to come this week. warren will help set up the new consumer protection agency created by the financial reform bill. it remains it be seen whether she will be actually named to head that agency.

consumer groups and labor unions have been calling for that but opposition from wall street but to say that she could not be confirmed by the senate. well, at this hour, families in mexico and bermuda are preparing for the effects of one of these three powerful storms traveling right now in the atlantic. karl has already battered southeast mexico. residents have sandbagged nearly 30 miles of roads to prevent more flooding in the area this weekend. in cancun, hundreds of people evacuated as heavy rains and winds knocked out power to the rural areas there. bill karins joins me now to talk about this. karl just upgraded recently, correct? >> the storms that form rapidly and don't give people a lot of lead time and this will hit in 36 hours and people in mexico won't have time to prepare and get out of the way. this could be a major hurricane come this time tomorrow. this storm is rapidly forming and whether it's the united states or mexico, rapidly forming storm right before a

landfall, bad news. so, this is carl. hurricane hunters just flew into it and they found it is at hurricane strength. these are the cities in jeopardy. and it looks like poza rica the area at most concern. here's the forecast track from the hurricane center. they take it as we go through friday as a category 2 storm and they say it's not out of the question, this could be a major category 3 hurricane come friday night as it makes landfall. you notice it looks like tampico on the north side of the storm, the smaller side. really the poza rica area and couple resort towns right near there. at this point, veracruz looks to be safely on the south side of the storm. as far as igor, winds of 140 miles per hour and it is moving at a snails pace. this storm with us for another five or six days and it will take a long time to get to bermuda and won't be until late sunday and possibly even monday and it should weaken down to a category 3 or 2 at that time and bermuda have seen a lot of big

storms. this could still do some damage but it will weaken enough that it won't be too devastating. the bigger story is what karl will do in the next 36 hours, thomas. every storm we had that has become a hurricane this year has rapidly formed and gotten stronger than expected. if karl does that tonight, watch out. next week iran's president mahmoud ahmadinejad travels to the u.s. for the u.n. general assembly meeting and that meeting comes at a tense time. american sarah shourd was just released this week from a prison in iran and her compainians are still locked up. also international outrage over iran's nuclear program. nbc's chief foreign affairs andrea mitchell sat down with him for a rare, exclusive interview. >> iran's president pressed for sarah shourd's release partly as a gesture for america right before he travels to new york for america's u.n. meetings.

on other subjects he was confrontational. >> when you take two men on your plane when you go to new york to the united nations, what is your response to that? >> translator: that was a good proposal, but i like, i wish they wouldn't cross our border in order to be forced to get back to new york today. if they have not violated our border, they would have been at their homes for over a year. for more than a year. and we had no problem here. >> and hopefully there would be no violation and no offense and, otherwise, the judiciary has to react. >> let me ask you about a statement from the international atomic agency today. the u.n. agency has sharply criticized iran for interfering with the weapons inspectors and,

in fact, a number of countries, germany, france, great britain said iran's actions are reprehensible, very strong language from the iaea which issued a report saying the inspectors cannot get access to the nuclear sites that they need to see. why is iran not letting the experienced inspectors who know this weapons area so well. why is iran not letting these inspectors in? >> translator: if the iaea does everything according to the law, we will cooperate. if they are going to go beyond the law, it is not acceptable to us. but i'm going to ask a question here, if we, one of the allies of the united states should be treated the same way by the

agency. >> so president ahmadinejad is showing no sign of compromise on the world standoff. andrea mitchell, tehran. a panel of federal health advisors is split over whether the popular weight loss drug meridia should be pulled from the market. want to get the details now from robert bazell. explain to us, what is the fda saying about this and in light of what they're saying, what does it mean for all the people taking this drug. >> the fda has yet to make a decision. it looks to the data and comes to its conclusion and the fda officials make the final determination. this drug has been on the market for 13 years but controversial the entire time because a large study that was just commissioned over a six-year period shows it didn't cause, cause people to lose an average of five pounds and increase their risk of heart attack and stroke by 16%. doesn't really sound like a great drug. so, it's important to point out

that in this panel of experts there are eight people who said take it off the market and there were six who said, leave it on the market, but severely restrict its use. it's not headed in a good direction in terms of what the fda is going to finally decide. >> is it highly prescribed over these last 13 years? >> it has come down quite a bit in the last 13 years as more and more of the health concerns have been raised. more importantly, thomas, getting a diet drug is a really tough challenge. the same panel is considering an application for a new drug today and there will be several more coming because there is a billion, multibillion dollar market out there. but to change the metabolism of the body in a way that doesn't affect something else other than appetite is really, really tough. and this succession of drug bad news that we had about diet drugs over many years. >> no quick fix with these pills is attractive to most of us,

but, unfortunately has those side effect and is dangerous. shocking new numbers out about the number of your neighbors that are using illegal drugs. who is doing them and which one they use the most coming up. we'll talk to the nation's drug czar. also, president obama hitting the campaign trail. does the fund-raiser in chief pack a punch his party needs to win in november. plus, live pictures of the pope. he is traveling through scotland right now. it is the first time that a sitting pope has been there in more than five centuries. so, what brought pope benedict the head of the catholic church to scotland? [ woman ] nine iron, it's almost tee-time... time to face the pollen that used to make me sneeze... my eyes water. but now zyrtec®, the fastest 24-hour allergy relief, comes in a liquid gel.

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welcome back, everybody. a just released government report says that illegal drug use in the u.s. has risen to its

highest level in nearly a decade. an estimated 28.8 million americans use illegal drugs and that's 8.7% of the population. nearly 7 million of those who use illegal drugs say that they have abused marijuana, the most commonly used illegal drug. joining me live to talk about this is gill, director of the offense of national drug controlled policy. gill, i want to ask you first, we are saying this report is just released. what is most striking to you? >> the striking part is the increase across all levels, ecstasy, methamphetamine, marijuana and prescription drugs and particularly among young people. >> all right, let's look over the numbers here when we talk about what's on the rise. marijuana by 8%. methamphetamine 60%. sedatives up 58% and stimulants 43% and ecstasy at 37%. the rise, though, in methamphetamine, fl%. what can you attribute that to? >> those numbers are smaller numbers. when you do have an increase, of

course, the percentage is greater. but there are a couple things that we're looking at one is that in oregon and now most recently in mississippi, they have made pseudo afed rene, we will watch mississippi very closely. >> gill, you have been on record saying you are not surprised by this because of what you call of attitudes towards drug use in this country. what happened to the just say no campaign of nancy reagan and messages that were steent the youth of years gone by? >> well, one, i think we've taken our eye off the ball and also the messages have to be appropriate. we completely revised our national media campaign a little over a year ago and it was just recently released and its messages from young people that really resonate strongly with them and we know that those young people that have been exposed to those anti-drug messages remember that kids are exposed to a huge amount of

messages. when they're exposed to the anti-drug messages it makes a big difference in their attitude towards drugs. >> gil, what is the message. we all know brands. msnbc is news and coca-cola is about having a soda. what is the brand nowadays for keeping the anti-drug message alive and well? >> the media campaign which has been funded in the past by congress and we're really very hopeful that it will be continued to be funded. it's not so much about a brand of a specific drug any more. it's attacking this problem h d holistically and say if we give kids the right information from trusted caregivers and parents they will make the right choice about whether to use drugs. >> thank you for joining us today, sir, we appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up, new video of a connecticut woman's last hours. what prosecutors say it tells about the man accused of killing her and her young daughters.

first, the story of three mississippi men cleared 30 years after that crime. sadly for one man, it came all too late. the story ahead right here on msnbc. some of nature's best ingredients. we created purina one with smartblend. new, delicious shredded morsels and crunchy bites, with real meat, wholesome grains and antioxidants, for strong muscles, vital energy, a healthy immune system, and a real difference in your dog. purina one improved with smartblend. discover what one can do. logistics makes the world work better. ♪ when it's planes in the sky ♪ ♪ for a chain of supply, that's logistics ♪ ♪ when the parts for the line ♪ ♪ come precisely on time ♪ that's logistics ♪ ♪ a continuous link, that is always in sync ♪ ♪ that's logistics ♪

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to keep your business moving. introducing the blackberry torch. at&t. rethink possible. today in mississippi a judge will decide the fate of two men sentenced to life in prison for raping and murdering a woman back in 1979. bobby ray dixon and philip bevens have served 32 years behind bars for crimes they said they never committed a group called the innocence commission called for dna tests that ended up clearing the two men. today's hearing will determine if they will be released. whatever the judge decides, too late for their co-defendant. our affiliate in mississippi explains. >> reporter: it's a bitter sweet gathering for the family of larry ruffin, one 30 years in the making. >> it's been really rough.

>> reporter: he was one of three people charged with a 1979 rape and murder. paterson was attacked in front of her two small children. even her attacker slashed her throat, she ran about 100 yards to a neighbor's home where she went for help. now thanks for dna evidence and a push from the innocence program. >> if he was alive today he would say, i told in 1980 that i did not do this crime. >> reporter: ruffin's sister said his brother maintained his innocence until the day he died. he may not be able to walk away, but the two other men will. they are set to be free men. dixon was already released from prison a few weeks ago to undergo medical treatment for brain cancer and bivens remains

behind bars, but not for much longer which the dna shows this man as the real suspect. he is already in prison for committing a rape two years after paterson's. >> i want to look at him and said, what was holding you from just giving him his freedom? >> reporter: her main concern now is clearing her brother's name. >> i am just glad justice finally came, as my brothers would say, a little too late. i always told them, it is never too late. never too late to free someone's name. and his name is free hp he's free. >> reporter: in hatiesbering, mississippi, mike mcdaniel, nbc news. coming up, california gubernatorial candidate and multi-millionaire meg whitman has a new number. plus, we talk with d.c.

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only when you book at choicehotels.com. in just a few hours, president obama will transform into the fund-raiser in chief as he heads to connecticut in a bid to help local democrats ahead of this november's midterm election. go live to the white house and mike viqueira for the details on. mike, explain who the president is stumping for and the bigger question, will he have the midas touch. >> he does have the midas touch. he still travels across the country and speaks to core democratic groups and a lot of them very heavy hitters, especially in terms of their wallet, thomas. $30,000 a couple at many of these fund-raisers. you see the president traveling around the country. he has two fund-raisers and one starting off in stanford, connecticut. bloom blumenthol replacing the chris dodd in the senate.

now a race there, linda mcmahon she's loaded and she's a wrestling, she and her husband created wwe. so, what we have, pardon me in connecticut now is a smackdown. six points separate the two in the latest poll. this linda mcmahon has spent $21 million of her own considerable fortune and said she will spend $50 million. so, any visit by the president. $1,000 a plate in stanford is going to be welcomed by william blumenthal and the president will go to greenwich, connecticut. he will have a behind-the-scenes fund-raiser before returning to washington tonight, thomas. >> pricier than $30,000 a couple? >> pricier than $1,000 a plate. >> oh, gotcha. >> 30,400 is the limit. it's a quirky upper most limit that you see is the top price for most of these fund-raisers. >> i'm not going to go to any of those.

mike, thanks so much. the california governor's race is getting so expensive that it's shattering new records. meg whitman former ebay executive has spent $119 million of her own money to fund her campaign. that's more money than any other american political candidate has personally spent in a political race. this week alone, the whitman campaign reported that she made another $15 million contribution in her attempt to defeat her democratic opponent jerry brown. whitman says it's necessary to spend that kind of money in a state where there are 2.3 million registered democrats than republicans. that is some serious cash. some frustrated chase customers are now able to access their account online today after computer problems prevented millions from viewing their information on the company's website. maybe this happened to you. chase's website experienced problems for a second day yesterday. even after access was restored, complaints continued as customers rushed to logon to that site. and that, of course, bogged down the company's computers and made the service really spotty.

both consumer and business accounts were affected. in other news today, pope benedict has begun a historic four-day trip to the united kingand right now his motorcade is headed to glasgow, scotland, where he'll celebrate an open air mass in a park. now, this mass is scheduled to begin in just a over half an hour from now. the pope arrived in scotland this morning and was met at the edinburgh airport by prince philip and by scottish clergy. a short time later he was greeted by queen elizabeth by her official residence in scotland. this marks the first time a pope has been invited for a state visit since king henry viii broke with the vatican in the 16th century. now, pope benedict's trip has grown criticism over the cost to the british tax payers and the vatican's handling of the clergy members who sexually abused children. jim maceda joins us now live from london. jim, the pope is being greeted warmly and now traveling to his

mass, but there is strong reaction there. >> well, there is strong reaction and even before he got here that might be the headline of the day. you know, he was speaking to reporters on the plane and he did make an admission of guilt. it wasn't his own guilt, he has. gone that far yet, but of the church's guilt as a whole saying that and i quote, the church failed to act quickly with pedophile priest and the church's top priority now is to help the victims. that's what victim support groups here and across the planet now really have been asking for for a number of months to see concrete action that will prevent such abuse in the future. but, in reaction to the pope's comments, a couple of these groups have come out today saying these are still only words, not deeds and the vatican still keeps all the files under wraps inside vatican secret volts and little cooperation with police investigators so

far. thom thomas? >> jim, is he expected to meet with anyone that will hold his feet to the fire on this or a simple visit that is all pomp and circumstance? >> it is going to be more pomp and circumstance. his attempt, he says, is and the reason for the trip is to bridge the gap that five century history of suspicion and of mistrust. he's going to try to do that here, he says, in the four-day period but controversy always seems to follow this pope wherever he goes. thomas, on the very day he arrived this morning, the british media was pounding on comments made by one of his senior advisors, a german cardinal walter caspar who canceled his trip and didn't come along with the pope. a couple days after a telling german magazine arriving at london's heathrow airport is like "being in a third world country." this from the man in charge of vatican relations. so, it is a gaffe prone papacy

and the pope has to deal with that. no, aside from trying to talk to, meeting with the various groups from england, catholic groups from england and wales and scotland, that is pretty much it. >> jim maceda in london, thank you. michael jackson's mother, katherine, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit. she is suing aeg that the company has responsible for her son's death. aeg was the promoter behind his tour. the lawsuit claims tat aeg was more concerned with its "desire for massive profits than with michael's health. and that aeg failed to monitor the physician they hired. murray has been criminally charged in the death of michael jackson and his trial is due to start next year. the twists and the turns of the housewives reality show takes a serious toll on the life of one of its cast members. she is speaking out about that. want to get the scoop from

courtney hazlett and she is over there with someone who is especially our studio today. courtney? >> i am joined right here by a member of the "real housewives of d.c.." some are calling her the outspoken or some the villian. thank you so much for joining us today. >> pleasure to be here. >> you and i met on the eve of the season premiere or the series premiere in d.c.'s case of housewives and you were really upbeat that day. you said i'm looking forward to this. i'm happy that i did this show. fast forward a few weeks, how are you feeling now that your marriage has dissolved, you have been portrayed as this villain? >> thanks for reminding me. >> you knew i was going to. >> yeah, i was pretty upbeat that day because i was excited about the show because i wasn't imagining to be made out as quite the villain i made out to be and really good editing going

on because even looks weren't actually at me but i was basically hated by everybody to begin with. >> if there's one moment on the show that you wished you hadn't been portrayed in a certain way, what would that moment be? if you could clear the air in one felt swoop -- >> i don't even know where to start. probably i'd take back the tyra banks imitation because, you know, that didn't go down too well at all. >> you have also been one of the few characters on the show that has been outspoken about what you felt needed to be changed in washington. after all, the show was set in washington, we expected some politics. we actually do have a clip of some of your thoughts on health care. let's take a look. >> did i tell you that i'm working on health care and health care reform and i'm -- >> yeah, good luck with that. >> i heard that you were a republican lobbyist for health care can and i thought that sounded like a bit of a oxy moron.

>> don't you just love that expression on her face. more cucumber sandwiches. >> it's interesting, too, you're not from the united states, you're thrust there to the nation's capital right now at such an intense political period of time. do you feel like you were able to impart any sort of opinion that you thought wasn't being represented? >> well, no, i can only speak from my own experience and i got admitted to hospital for 24 hours and it was $23,000. was like, you know, $1,000 an hour and i was really interested what she had to say. >> i don't want to let you leave without talking about the book. you and i spoke about this earlier. the book you were writing when you first started the show. it has to be tweaked a little bit, right? >> i have written over four years three different continents and the ending was supposed to be really happy and now it will have an extreme makeover, obviously. >> when we will expect it? >> before christmas. >> excellent. we still have more real

housewives of d.c. to watch before then. >> yeah, enjoy. >> exactly. thanks. oh, thomas, hi. >> all this beauty in one place, i had to come over and join. just want to remind everybody for entertainment news they can logon scoop.todayshow.com. ladies stay with me for this, there are just some things that make us say -- >> no way! >> -- a surprise ending to "america's n "america's got talent." maybe you were surprised no one was as surprised as the winner himself. that's the soulful singer from mississippi who was shocked when the announcement came down michael grimm. the 10-year-old opera singer jackie evancho was the favorite. >> i totally thought she was going to win. she was sad for herself but happy for michael. >> she had incredible poise.

for a 10-year-old to go through that thing. >> that's sarah brightman, right she got to sing with her opera hero and was amazing last night. very cool. i got to see it. but, anyway, if you didn't, i encourage you to look it up on youtube. >> i was watching the "real housewives of d.c.." >> that's tonight, darling. >> ladies, thank you. still to come, it's not your imagination, it really has been a really hot year. in fact, one of the hottest on record. you're going to find out just how hot coming up. but, first, the horrifying 911 call that came from this bank when a connecticut woman came in. she withdrew $15,000 and then went back home to face the man accused of killing her. more on her story. [ male announcer ] let's throw down some style.

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take you down to baltimore, maryland, where we're following breaking news. a doctor has been shot at the renowned johns hopkins hospital. also on that campus is a

university. but we are learning that baltimore police are saying that one doctor was shot inside the hospital. he's now listed in critical condition. they're also saying that the suspect is still inside the hospital and he barricaded himself in a room or an office there. the hospital is in the process of being evacuated by the police there, as well as johns hopkins security. we know that the people on site there, the staff, they were sent a text message saying shooter and stay in your rooms until an all clear is announced. stay away from windows and wait for instructions. the police are telling us that the suspect is still located inside the hospital right now having barricaded himself in a room or an office there on the property. but the hospital is currently in the process of being safely evacuated. the baltimore police are on the site and, again, the doctor that was injured in all of this is apparently in critical condition. we'll continue to follow this story bring you the latest details right here on msnbc as soon as we get them. this is a case that we have

told you about. moments ago now word from hatiesbering, mississippi, the jumg set aside the guilty plea of two men in the decade's case of rape and murder of a woman. a third man convicted of that case died in prison in 2002. in today's true crime, new evidence released in the case of that brutal home invasion that left a connecticut woman and her two daughters dead. now, this surveillance video that you're looking at now shows jennifer hawke-petit an hour before she was murdered. she was at the bank withdrawing thousands of dollars and she told the tellers there she needed this money for ransom. the bank's manager did call 911 and police released a recording of that call. jeff, i understand that the 911 calls, they're raising a lot of questions because the time of when the call was placed and when police went to the home. >> this is a summer morning and what's so chilling about this,

is just less than an hour after we see jennifer hawke-petit at that bank window she was dead or dying. the thinking of the defense, what this shows you is that police dropped the ball. they had ample opportunity to get officers out to the house. she is in there around 9:17 a.m. by 9:21 a.m. the bank manager goes to a back office after jennifer hawke-petit and said my entire family is being hostage at home and if i give them money they'll leave but if i get the police involved they'll kill my husband and children. a manager goes to the back room and then we'll tell you what happened on the back end. here's that chilling call. >> we have a lady who is in our bank right now who said that her husband and children are being held in their house and the police are told they will kill the children and the husband. she says they are being very nice, they have their faces

covered. she is petrified. they are tied up, she said. she's taking $15,000 out of a credit line. they told her they wouldn't hurt anybody if they got back there with the money. she believes them. i think she's walking out now. >> no equivocation there. she is petrified, the family is being held hostage. police head out to the house but told by the police captain not to go in. 30 minutes go by, 30 full minutes go by and officers are outside the home. remember the petit family is being tortured and tied up inside but the officer os are just standing outside and setting up a perimeter, they're not going in. a second 911 call goes out about 33 minutes after that first one, police still don't go in until they see that giant fireball when the two suspects, steven hayes and joshua komisarjevsky set the house on fire. dr. petit escapes the house and

goes to a neighbor's home and makes that call. a lot of questions if proper protocol was followed here. >> just tragic all >> no matter what happened. >> i want to take you back to the breaking news we're following out of baltimore. johns hopkins confirming they have an ongoing shooting incident on one of the floors of the main hospital. it is not in the emergency room. we do know one doctor has been shot. he's been listed as in critical condition. the suspect is still inside the hospital. according to authorities having barricaded himself in a room or an office on site there. the process of evacuating that hospital is being undertaken by the baltimore police, as well as the hospital security there at johns hopkins hospital in baltimore. we'll continue to follow this story. we're back right after this. i can't even tell you how much it's changed my life. [ male announcer ] only rogaine is proven to regrow hair in 85% of guys. no more hats. [ male announcer ] stop losing. start gaining.

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welcome back. we continue to follow the breaking news coming to us out of baltimore, maryland. these are aerial pictures of johns hopkins hospital in downtown baltimore where we have confirmed with security that there's an ongoing shooting

incident on one of the floors of the main hospital. we understand it not to be the emergency room. according to baltimore police, they have reported that one doctor has been shot. he is now listed in critical condition. and the shooter is still in the hospital. they're saying that he has barricaded himself into a room or an office there on site. but they are currently evacuating that hospital. we will continue to follow that story. moving on, hot enough for you? maybe not today. but there's a new report showing this summer is the second warmest on record for us. and according to the national oceanic and atmospheric administration, 2010 is tied with 1998 for the warmest first eight months of the year. so what does all of that mean? how do we break it down? derrick arnt climate monitoring branch chief of noaa climactic data center joins me. that's quite a title. let's explain. break it down for us, why are we seeing such a shift

temperaturewise for this year? >> sure. well we started the year under a condition called el nino. and that contributes to an even warmer-than trend global temperature and we've seen that, you know, basically for a couple of decades now. this is part of an ongoing long-term trend of warmer global temperatures. this summer is yet another example. >> all right. so let's talk about what we're seeing, though. when it comes to the temperatures, the hottest months, is it august? >> the hottest months in the northern hemisphere is july. >> july? >> but the southern hemisphere is wrapping up their winter right now. so this is a global average temperature, june, july, august is summer up here in the north, winter down there in the south. so that season was the warmest globally when you average those two hemispheres together. >> all right. so for the people that have the jury still out on whether global warming is a real deal or not, what is your opinion on that. >> well, these temperatures support that global warming is

occurring, and it's not just these temperatures, you know. noaa observes a lot of areas. the amount of moisture in the atmosphere. the amount of glaciers that are retreating. the amount of sea ice that we see. the temperature and the level of the sea itself. all of these together support these temperature observations that together support a warming planet. >> okay. but if we go into 2011 we shouldn't expect to see the temperatures go up, because the temperatures could shift back down? >> yeah, there's going to be some noise or some chop. the long-term trend is up. the important thing is not so much -- it's not really what's the warmest. we all get wrapped up in, is this going to break a record. the important thing, you know, this is 306 consecutive months with above-normal temperature. and whether this year or next year is the warmest or the second warmest or the third warmest, you know, you really don't have to go to the worst house, touch the worst house in the neighborhood to know you're in a bad neighborhood. we're in a really warm part of

history. >> helping us break it down. as we've been living through this summer we all know it's been warm across this country. thank you, sir. that's going to do it for me this hour. i'm thomas roberts. contessa brewer is going to pick things up. >> here's what we're hearing right now, the baltimore police are swarming johns hopkins hospital right now. a doctor has been shot. that's the report coming in from police. there may be a gunman now holed up inside the hospital, either in a treatment room or an office, and right now they are telling people, lock your office doors, we have an ongoing situation. we're keeping a close eye on this, we'll bring you the latest that we know. ♪ [ mom ] game time is all about the traditions. it's all about the tackles and the touchdowns... and watching my boys do what they do. but for me, it's even more than that. game time is about our time. together. [ female announcer ] get low prices on all your favorites for the game.

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