♪ [ male announcer ] at&t and blackberry have teamed up to keep your business moving. introducing the blackberry torch. at&t. rethink possible.

right now on msnbc, presidents obama and clinton are on the campaign trail as midterms approach. >> these are jobs and the candidates have dramatically different ideas. one will lead you to a brighter future. the other one will lead you to a movie we have seen before. >> a live report from the white house on the latest efforts from the president and the former president. a dramatic car chase in brazil to show you. the driver crashes into car after car. how police finally got him to

stop. plus, an early blast of winter for you. we bring you a live report from the weather channel on where it's looking like a pretty winter wonderland. hi, everybody. good morning. great to have you with us today. i'm to the thomas roberts. alex witt has the day off. 17 days out and the midterm races are heating up and they are heating up coast to coast. president obama will be back on the trail today at a rally and fund razor in massachusetts. he spent time in delaware yesterday stumping for democrat chris coons in that state's high profile race. former president bill clinton was on the other side of the nation speaking to college students in l.a. >> it is not enough to have voted for a new president if you will not help him govern and stick behind the members of congress who stood for him. >> next door in nevada, early voting will begin today. fresh off their first and only debates, harry reid and sharron

angle are locked in a razor close race for the u.s. senate. now, the president meanwhile is back on the attack in his weekly address. he's taken on republicans over the issue of jobs. take a listen. >> the last four years alone, republicans in the house voted 11 times to continue rewarding cooperations to create jobs and profits overseas, a policy that cost taxpayers billions of dollars every year. >> sa sana guthrie, what else does the president have to say today? >> reporter: well, look. there's a tax debate going on between the president's weekly address and the republican response, as you just showed. the president is calling for getting rid of some of these tax loopholes as the white house calls them that in their view encourage business to take jobs overseas. this bill stalled in the senate last month. the democrats still want to push

it, although not all democrats support it. republicans are against it saying it's going to hurt business and when you have businesses doing well internationally, that is good for the economy. the president would rather close those loopholes and use the money to make permanent the research and experimentation tax credit and starting next year, one year only, let businesses write off 100% of their equipment expenses. meanwhile, the republicans talking taxes, mike pence of the house leadership saying nancy pelosi should call congress back right now to extend the bush tax cuts for everyone. as you well know, thomas, this is an issue, an ongoing fight in washington. the president wants to extend the tax cuts for, as they say, 98% of americans, the middle class making less than $250,000 a year. but for the wealthiest taxpayers, they're ready to let those tax cuts expire. so that is the battle, probably

won't be resolved until after the election. >> and savannah, quickly, the president continues on the campaign trail. how much strategy goes into the geography of his visits? >> huge strategy. some of the districts are tough where having the president there isn't necessarily a help. there are a lot of members who do want him there, not only because he's still the most popular member of the democratic party and also because of fund-raising. and for the first time this last quarter, we've seen republicans edge out democrats in the fund-raising and that's all important, particularly in the air wars that go on television ads in these last few weeks of the campaign. >> savannah guthrie at the white house, savannah, that you can. >> sure. the pentagon is bracing for the possibility of a new document, dump, a possibility of wikileaks as early as tomorrow night. nbc news has learned that a

pentagon task force is in the process of reviewing some 400,000 classified documents related to that conflict. most of the 33 miners who were trapped underground in chile are out of the hospital and at home with their families this morning. but two of those miners are still in the hospital. also today, we're learning just how much the miners are looking to get for their story. $20 million. nbc's kerry sanders has more now from chile. >> reporter: well, thomas, they've left the hospital, all but two of them, and boy, the parties have started. thrilled to finally be, after 70 days, out of that mine. now, family members are embracing them. also working with the fact that they have some mental issues, some short-term ones like trying to get into regular sleep cycles and the long-term ones about trying to dooep deal with the aspect of being isolated for so long and, in many ways, establishing a brotherhood with 33 men, all together, and being

separated from the families. so doctors say they are re-establishing their connections to their families, being brought up to speed on some of the personal events that took place while they were away and hopefully taking time. but remarkably, one of the miners, 54-year-old jose endricas was on the phone establishing a new contract at another mine and plans to go back to work. but first, he says, he's going to take a much needed vacation. thomas. >> kerry, thank you. so some very intense moments aboard a disney shuttle bus in florida after a shoving match broke out between the driver and a passenger. this all started when a driver reportedly told the passenger the bus was full. a fight erupted between the driver and the passenger, who was holding his baby at the time. another passenger on that bus took home video of the incident as it all went down. >> i was waiting here and he

tried to block me. and as everyone passes tlooi through before us. >> kind of a mess, huh? well, disney says the driver is on paid leave while it reviews the entire situation. two people are in the hospital with serious injuries today after the driver of this volvo station wagon took the phrase drive through window literally, crashing into a restaurant in portland, oregon, the vehicle smashed through the window and wall of that restaurant after police say the driver mistook the gas pedal or the great lake. the driver was not embarrassed. so the fall's first nor'easter will continue to deliver rain and blustery conditions up the east coast today. the storm won't be as powerful as it was on friday when it knocked out power to tens of thousands of new england residents. a tree in maine, that is, blew in the wind there. win gusts could reach 40 miles per hour from new england to new jersey. bill, good morning. >> good morning to you, thomas. on this saturday, all eyes are still on our fall nor'easter. we had windy conditions in the last 24 hours, even some snow at

the high elevations of vermont and new hampshire. but the storm is finally on the move, now heading through the gulf of maine and over the top of nova scotia. here is a closer look at the radar. for the most part, the view is rain. over vermont and new hampshire, massachusetts and the rest of new england, the rain and the snow has come to an end. this has been a very impressive storm system with the winds gusting at this hour between 20 and 30-mile-per-hour from boston down to philadelphia. once the sun is completely up, it's going to mix the air a little bit more and we will see strong gusts. this is the next wind gust that we've seen in these cities up to this point. the highest gust was in portland, maine, at 48 miles per hour. many of the other locations were between 30 and 45. to get damaging wind and downed trees, most of the wind gusts have to be about 50 or more. it's been on the windy said. and that continues as we go

throughout the day today. as the winds crank, temperatures will be chilly, only in the 50s from albany to boston. and that rain should be ending this morning in areas like portland and in bangor. as we go into sunday, the weather pattern will dramatically improve through all of new england. for that 345er9, much of the country is looking at a very, very beautiful saturday, thomas. it's just in new england that we have to watch and wait for the storm to exist. back to you. >> all right, bill, thanks so much. so a fight between cablevision and newscorp are leaving millions of fans in the darks this season. newscorp, off of cablevision at midnight due to a dispute over how much cablevision should pay for fax programming. the blackout means 3 million cable customers can't watch phillies games on their local station and they won't be able to watch the world series, either, unless this dispute gets resolved. are cell phone users different from people who have landlines in their home?

plus -- >> hi. i'm meteorologist jim corey with the weather channel. we are in stowe, vermont. yesterday, you could enjoy the fall colors. today, it's a winter wonderland here. i'll give you a live report, coming up. and do nice guys really finish last? a new study raising doubts about that. we explore. ♪

[ female announcer ] mousse temptations by jell-o. decadently delicious. 60 calories. it's finally me o'clock. time for jell-o. try new chocolate mint sensation.

so you won't be able to see the leaves changing in certain parts of vermont because the leaves are covered in snow. it's a winter wonderland in some higher elevation areas after an autumn snowstorm on friday. jim cantori is live in stowe, vermont. jim, explain to all of us, the amount of snow we see on the ground there is what? and how long can we expect it to stay on the ground? >> well, it's going fast, my

friend. as you can see behind me, we've probably good about 3 or 4 inches of snow on the ground. but it's still warm under here. i would say the last time we did a shot with you we had 4 inches. now we're down to about 2 3/4. thomas, you made a snow man as a kid, right? >> sure. >> do you want to see the forest attempt? as you get older, a lot of things start to fail, including your ability to make a snowman. i don't know what you want to call this, but there you go, brother. >> it's a perfect snowman for hallow would he know. >> exactly. we're going to have to do some surgical repair on that one. this is great snowman making snow if you could make a snowman. and the wind that came with this has stripped some of the leaves off the trees. we're right here at stowe. it's called the easy mile run. and the chair lifts aren't running. so for those enthusiasts who want to snow -- look at these

pictures from yesterday. that's what happens when the wind is blowing steadily horizontal with the snow. it looked like a christmas wonderland up through here. we had a friend of mine go up this morning and take a couple of runs on these and he said jim, it's quite heavy up there. no doubt about it. unfortunately the chair lift wasn't running, and so that means it was a hike for the to the for most. >> and the ski lift as we see it there were perfectly standing still. they have like a month and a half left until they can take advantage of that run? >> yeah. about a month and a half. they're going to start blowing snow probably in november and sometimes if you get a couple of storms, you can open around thanksgiving or around december. it just depends on what mother nature for us as we go post. >> good looking stuff, jim. thank you. >> you bet. a connecticut man is in trouble with the law because of the punishment he gave his daughter over a bad report kau

card. police say the father beat, slapped and choked his teen daughter because he was angry about her grades. the girl's older brother took her to the hospital for treatment and then took her to the police station. well, the u.s. government st checking out an australian program that could allow internet service providers to alert customers if their computers are taken over by hafkers. the program would limit online access if the problem isn't fixed. and a new study shows obesity is to blame for $168 billion in medical costs in the u.s. the study suggests that the nation's weight problem has about twice the impact on medical costs as previously estimated. so there are new questions this morning about whether political polls might be bias. the findings suggests that surveys may unfairly favor the gop because they rely more heavily on people who use landlines versus those who use cell phones. experts say cell phone users are politically different.

john, explain that. what is the background here? why would they be different if they're cell phone users? >> well, the big problem, of course, is that a quarter of all u.s. adults have cut the cord, are cell phone only. and that's a big problem for pollsters who use only landline phones. we can talk about our surveys and others who do use cell phones, but most at the state level and district level do not. so this new research suggests that those may be bias a little bit. but the issue that those who have cut the cord in the united states look -- are a distinct group. they tend to be younger, they're more likely to be his panic and more likely to live in urban areas. those people dispropossessionatly vote as democrats and that's the potential for bias there. >> research looks at registered voters & conducted by landlines. republicans are at 44% and

democrats have a 47%. but during the same period, voters registered through landlines only give republicans 53% and democrats 41%. could that be enough to swing a competitive election? >> it sure could. it's a big difference. cell phones are only one of the problems in cell phone research these days. the patterns have changed dramatically. cell phones are one way in, but this raises the uncertainty that we have for all the polls that we're seeing across the country, the vast majority of which do not include them. >> so you guys do polling at the washington post, right? >> we do. >> how do you guys handle it? >> ever since 2008, we've been polling parallel only cell phone users. we interview people on both landlines and cell phones just as peer research does, gallup and some others. and so we combine those and so we, you know, are as representative as we possibly can be of the u.s. adult

population that way. 20% of all voters and according to the 2008 election poll are cell only. so this isn't just a problem for the general population. it's also a problem in voter surveys. john, how are these cell phone numbers getting in the hands of pollsters? i'd like to know. >> well, the companies provide lists of these two sample vendors. sample vendors are the same people that we did on turn to when we do residential telephone landlines. we randomly sample from both lists when we look at a clean sample of the american populous. we call people around dinnertime -- >> lovely, lovely. >> and there seem to be no difference on people's willingness to answer on a cell phone or a landline. that helps us somewhat, but we are getting different populations when we call on those different methodologies. and so combining them is important. of course, in our local polling here in washington, d.c., where

25% of all adults have cut the cord among the highest rates in the country, we interview on cell phones all the time. >> john, thanks for joining thus morning. i appreciate it. >> thank you, thomas. a car chase turns violent in brazil. the driver smashing into car after car and then police, without a choice left, have to open fire on the guy. and look, he's taking out motorcycle cops, too.  hey, guys, i know i've been bad at this in the past,

so i've come up with some mnemonic devices to help me learn your names. hello, a "penny" saved is a "penny" earned. oh, that's 'cause fedex ground helps you save money. that's right, penny. do you know ours? heavens to betsy. dwayne the bathtub. magic wanda. yeah! what's mine? uh, you're a dan fool. oh. it's just a device, dan. you can't take it personally. yeah, i suppose. [ male announcer ] we understand. you need a partner who helps you save. fedex ground.

welcome back, everybody. a really crazy car chase in brazil to show you. it started when a man was stopped by an officer for a minor traffic violation. police ran a check on his car and then the check, it came back showing that it was stolen. then they found out the driver was an escaped convict on top of that. the driver took off weaving through traffic until he was blocked. then he backed up at high speed hitting several motor cops. the driver took off again only to crash the car moments later. by the time it was all over, the

driver had hit at least nine different cars and he was shot five times by police. look at that. wild scene. all right. so forget being the biggest and the strongest. new research suggests in the end it's the nice guys who get the girl, right? psychologists in england say women are attracted to selflessness. women look for mates who are all truistic because it indicates they're going to be better fathers. here with me to discuss this is clinical psychologist dr. judy. she's the author of "how to love a nice guy." dr. judy, good to have you here. this is good news for nice guys, right? >> it's great news. and i've been touting this message, thomas, for a really long time. i've been on the radio for so many years. i've heard women say, oh, he treats me so bad, but he's so handsome, he drives that great car and he's so wealthy. and i say, when are you going to get it's the guy who brings you the flowers, that is so sweet,

who is giving just like the research shows who is going to be the best long-term partner, father and lover, even, because men need to be giving, even in bed. >> is it a follow-up with the study in england asking what they find attractive? >> i don't mind that. i've do the done those kinds of research, too. but in the research that i've done, thousands of women over thousands of occasions, they all say what do you find the most attractive? they'll say personality, giving, loving, warm, kind, but secretly they'll say money. >> money. that's always a good attraction. >> so you're right, there's a little bit of a socially acceptable answer there. >> but the selflessness aspect of things that came out of this study, can a bad guy be a little bit bad but have selflessness, too? or is that never going to happen? >> well, they can, but, you know, you have to test them, really.

the best way is to see how do they treat pets and how do they treat their parents? >> how do they do with mama? >> yes, that's right. and how do they treat little children? so how they talk about that also will give you a good sign about whether or not he's going to be giving. it is so important. you can be receiving, too, but manage to be giving in bed and in other situations. >> okay. all right. there's another new study out that has to do with love. a scientist say falling in love can be a potent pain killer. the study found that new romance cause tess brain to release p l dopamine. what happens? >> it's better than drugs. people, get rid of the drugs, just fall in love. there's been a lot of research about how there's powerful chemicals that are released in the brain. dopamine is one of them. another one is adrenaline,

endorphins. people who hit the wall may have a flood in their brain. here is an interesting trick about that. sometimes when you fall out of love, there's a rush of chemicals in your brain, too. and so we have to be careful about that. all of that has to do with really the importance, i think, that study shows that, in fact, good feelings really can heal the body. >> love can be great, but it can be tough, too. >> yes, that's right. make sure you pick well, though. >> the book, again, is how to love a nice guy. dr. judy, great to see you. thanks so much. >> sure. cheap seats at the london olympics. are you wondering how much they're going to cost? organizers are trying to make it possible for all of us that would like to go but not have to sell an arm and a leg. frequent heartburn ?

try zegerid otc. it's the first 24-hour treatment with two active ingredients:

prescription-strength medicine plus a protective ingredient so it's effectively absorbed. for 24-hour relief, try dual-ingredient zegerid otc.

welcome back, everybody. rescuer res battling dangerous levels of gas a as they work to free 17 miners after an explosion in southern china.

20 miners were killed. it's not clear how far underground the miners are or if they're still alive. in chile, 2 of the rescued miners continue to seek medical care. in new orleans, the army corps of engineers are trying to shore up a trouble spot where floodwalls broke during hurricane katrina. they will strengthen the levees and floodwalls along the inner har harbor canal. the search for a missing 10-year-old girl from north carolina is continuing today. authorities fear the worse as the case is now a murder investigation. >> reporter: in the week since zahra baker's father reported her missing, the case took a grim turn as police declared it a homt homicide. >> we don't want to hear words that they found her in those woods. >> and even drained a pond looking for any sign of the 10-year-old girl who beat bone

cancer at such a young age. >> do you think you've been charged with common law offense felony of obstructing justice? >> zahra's stepmother is in jail and a person of interest. police say she admitted to writing a fake ransom note after zahra went missing. cadaver dogs detected human remains on cars belonging to baker and her husband. >> how she was being treated, this was going to happen. >> neighbors claimd claim zahra was abused. >> he thanked the many people involved in the search. >> i just want the public and everyone to know that we're not going to stop looking for zahra and we relate appreciate everything. >> physical evidence has been found t crime scene and their unable to to trace this little girl's whereas for at least the

last two weeks or so come together to convince authorities that unfortunately this little girl lost a battle for her life probably to those around her. >> reporter: authorities say zahra's father is cooperating with the investigation. in one week, they have no official suspects and no trace of this 10-year-old girl. >> that was tom reporting. there is a new report this morning claiming u.s. officials knew about plans for the 2008 mumbai attacks long before they ever happened. "the washington post" reports the federal agents were tipped off three years before the shootings and bombings occurred. we have more from london on this. can you explain what we're hearing and the timetable priority those attacks? >> the u.s. anti-terrorism officials had warned indian counterpart bes a possible attack on mumbai. those warnings included details such as a threat to the taj mahal. according to the wall post, the fbi received a tipoff about that

back in 2005. he's an american who scouted targets for the pakistani group who were behind the plot. this has raised a lot of questions about american intelligence's ability to connect the dots and it all comes down to this man who was an informant for the drug enforcement administration in the 1990s. his wife has made these allegations and she apparently made them after a domestic dispute that they had. she said he had been trained in pakistani campes and he had been active in the group behind those mumbai attacks. david headily plead guilty in march to a dozen u.s. terrorism charges in connection with those attacks. >> and what do we know as you said the wife of hadley is the one that brought up the accusations and brought this to the concerns of authorities. what do we have if any action was taken back then? >> well, basically, i mean, david hadley has played a very clever game. he changed his name to his

mother's name. he was born in washington. his father is a renown pakistani broadcaster. he moved to pakistan as a child and he returned to the u.s. age 17. he married, he got divorced, and he's apparently slid into the criminal underworld. he speaks a number of different languages, and he's been arrested a few times for druggeling and smuggling heroine, which is how he came under the radar. and the washington post says because of all of this, he became a prized informant. in 1999, he traveled to pakistan and he became radicalized and thus raised funds. >> thanks so much. our world view this morning begins in hungary where a plant that flooded towns with toxic sludge is being prepped to resume operations. the plant will resume tuesday. a spill of industrial waste earlier this month killed nine people, injured more than 20 and polluted the tributary of the danube river. the spill is the worst

ecological disaster in hungary's history. in brazil, the amazon region has left riverbanks completely, completely dry. it's a sign of the worst drought to hit the area in 25 years. fishermen and farmers say the lack of rain has ruined their businesses. organizers of the london olympics say they have come up with the ticket pricing plan that will put fans in the seats in 2012. rows of empty seats have been embarrassing to hosts in the last several years and tickets will cost $32 or less. the most expensive seats will cost more than $3,000 apiece. so a wide range there if you're interested. a florida man is $650,000 richer today after a kick to the face by a stripper. michael ireland was awarded the money after filing suit for a 2008 understand at the cheetah club in west palm beach. he claims he suffered double vision and broken bones around his face after a dancer kicked

him in his face with her high heel. the dancer says she did it by accident. the countdown to election day. for a look at the hottest contests, i'm joined now by benjam benjamin, daily reporter for the daily beast. let's get to the oracle. your site is saying chris coons stands a 90% chance of winning. how do you come up with those figures when you have the poll saying he's roughly only about 19% ahead of christine o'donnell? >> polls are weighted very heavily in our election organizel model. and the thing is with polls, the closer you get to the election, the more significant they are. most pollsters would regard any double digit lead as close to a safe bet as you can get.

>> let's talk about nevada. harry reid versus sharron angle. right down the middle. why is that? >> of any race in the country, this is most consistently polled dead even. every poll you look at for months has told the same story. they're split down the middle. but even when you look at our election oracle, it's split down the middle there, too, on almost every issue except the deficit. you see that harry reid and sharron angle are evenly divided about how voters discuss them online. >> does the oracle take in money, that neef all poured in on consideration? >> no. i believe it's mostly polling and online buzz. >> now your overall prediction for the senate and the issues driving the race, what is the oracle going to say? >> the overall prediction, right now we have the republicans narrowly taking the house and we have the democrats holding on to the senate. it looks like the democrats fire wall in the senate, a few key

states that republicans need to win, california, washington, west virginia, seem to be strengthening a bit for the democrats. that's going to make it a little harder for republicans to make a real shot at taking the senate. >> is the oracle something new that the daily beast has on now or -- >> we just launched it recently, yes. >> so we don't have any data. when we have you back on in another two years to talk about this, we'll have some standing reports to go on. >> looking forward to it. >> thank you so much. so a disappearing act, why some astronomers are saying not so fast about a new discovery in space. you're going to love this one. [ female announcer ] does your smooth pass the second day test?

or does frizz make you start all over? get ready for a revolution. the new pantene. frizzy to smooth system. medium to thick hair absorbs up to 40% more moisture. so we customized a pro-v system that in test, outlasts the frizz point. the results? smooth stays into the second day. put it to the test. frizzy to smooth from new pantene. healthy makes it happen. the pantene re-invention is here. introducing the new pantene custom solutions. with options for your unique hair structure. thick, fine, curly or color. to make the hair you love, last and last. put it to the test. find your new pantene.

a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. and celebrex is not a narcotic. when it comes to relieving your arthritis pain, you and your doctor need to balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, including celebrex, may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, including celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions

or stomach and intestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers. do not take celebrex if you've had an asthma attack, hives, or other allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor about your medical history and find an arthritis treatment that works for you. ask your doctor about celebrex. and, go to celebrex.com to learn more about how you can move toward relief. celebrex. for a body in motion.

zahrazahra. a new magazine published by al qaeda is encouraging all types of attacks. "inspire" promotes attacks. it could kill government workers. here now to talk about this is james gordon meek. the magazine includes two articles from a cleric behind the ft. hood shooting. how possible is it that this could lead to more violence here in america? >> we're talking about anwar al

alaki, who is the spiritual guide and the rising star in the al qaeda inspired jihad. he is in yemen and probably had something to do with this so-called magazine. this is a pdf files that jihadys can download and read. it's 74 pages long. and i think, you know, it's clearly targeting a western audience and it's clearly targeting a youthful western audience and an american audience. but, you know, if you were to look at it, i don't know if you've seen it, it looks to me like something the onion would have produced. it almost looks like a satire the. >> it's farcical. >> yeah. build a bottom in your mom's kitchen. it's kind of goofy headlines. it's a slickly produced thing, and that's -- but we have to take it seriously because the danger there is that people who

are young might find this who are -- >> impressionable. >> yeah. there is an ex exert from one of the articles. we strongly encourage to fight jihad on u.s. stoil, in fact, even if traveling to join the fronts of jihad was accessible and easy, we would still encourage them to perform operations in the west. to kill a snake, strike its head. is this a change of kraed strategy or is this keeping in line with what they're trying to do all along? >> well, al qaeda is not an organization that's, you know, while they're -- and many would argue living in the 13th century, as an organization, they adapt very easily and very quickly. so they're adapting to the practical realities and the practical reality is this. in the pakistani tribal areas, the cia is aggressively attacking al qaeda central with drones. they are -- you know, these guys are hunkering down in the pakistani travel areas. so as such, it is more difficult for them to plan 9/11 style spectacular attacks with multiple cells.

they are still trying to do that because al qaeda as an organization would still like to top 9/11. but make no mistake. they are now encouraging the more practical. they're seeing the fact that the media goes just as crazy about a ft. hood or air bomber attack or a times square, almost as we do a more spectacular attack. so they are encouraging that and i think they're encouraged by the fact that alaki, unlike bin laden or even his american spokesman who is al qaeda's spokesman, alaki has had an influence on inspiring people to commit acts of terrorism inside 2 u.s. and so they are capitalizing on that and they are encouraging there to be more major nidal hasans. this is the alleged shooter in ft. hood. >> do you think this could help u.s. forces gain information, much needed information? >> absolutely. as my good friend, peter bergen

who is one of my good friends, if you want to know what al qaeda is going to do or what they're thinking, just listen to what they say. so anytime you have a document like this, it is a rich document. you have a take it as propaganda, but there's a lot of intelligence value to it, absolutely. >> james gordon meek, thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you. so the obama administration says that the federal deficit hit $1.3 trillion for the just completed economic year. the government had to borrow 37 cents out of every dollar it spent as tax revenues continue to lag. the federal judge says the co-founder of countrywide financial and two other execs have agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars to avoid a trial on civil fraud and insider trading charges. and retail sales caused the economy to grow for a third straight month in september. the economists caution that the growth is still slow going. low inflation and high unemployment are keeping the

economy slow to grow. and that's according to the fed chairman ben bernanke. but he also says the federal reserve is ready to take action with more solutions when it meets next month. what can we expect? joining me now is vera gibbons. >> hi, thomas. >> so some much anticipated remarks coming from fed chairman ben bernanke. the take away for consumers? >> the take away is that there's more action coming, right, at some point. people don't have jobs. the unemployment rate has equalled or exceeded 9.5% for 14 consecutive months. the recovery is not happening, so they need to get in there, spur economic growth, get people out there spending again. so action is coming. we just don't know when or how aggressive the money is going to be. it means flooding the system with money. we had $2 trillion in asset purchases. this is a whole other round that's anticipated. >> september, retail, they're coming back saying they're up. this is the third monthly increase.

how does this bode as we launch into the historical holiday spending period? >> already we're talking about the holidays, right? people were out in september and buying the big ticket items, cars, appliances, furniture. great. the stock market was that people had money, they went out and spent it. that's all fine and good. but the overall outlook for holiday sales is very soft with sales coming in flat to growth of 2.3%, which is a bullish estimate from the national retail federation which would be about $450 billion in sales. the bottom line is that the consumer is not in the game about 100%. overall expectations, as i say, pretty soft with a primary influence. 60% of consumers survey say the primary influence of where they shop is going to be still very price conscious. >> and psychologically, for this week alone, the market being up over 11,000. normally 10,000 we all get excited. >> whether or not that's sustainable is questionable. i think the market got ahead of itself.

>> let's go, though, to corn prices. they're on the rise. >> they're up. >> does that mean i'm going be paying more for my corn flakes? >> $5.50 a bushel, that's up a couple prices since june. you are seeing that reflected in higher prices at the grocery store store, not only for things like your corn flakes, but things like soda, chicken and beef. the grocery store stores can't absorb the costs completely themselves. they're going to pass them down. >> great to see you, as always. >> thanks. so the fda has approved treatment of botox for the treatment of chronic migraine necessary adults. patients can count on the anti-wrinkle injection for relief. those botox needs to be used every three months around the heck and the neck. [ water ] hey, it's me water.

so, you want me to be super amazing right from the faucet, but you think home filters can be a pain in the tucus. well check this out... boo-yah! shazam! h2...o! hydrolicious! look what i can do! magic bananas! adios contaminos! introducing the first faucet filter that installs with just one click and removes 99% of lead and microbial cysts. check it out at purwater.com. ♪ [ male announcer ] ever have morning pain slow you down? introducing bayer am, an extra strength pain reliever with alertness aid to fight fatigue. so get up and get goin'! with new bayer am. the morning pain reliever. with new bayer am. exchange traded funds. some firms offer them "commission free." problem is they limit the choice of etfs to what makes financial sense to them. td ameritrade doesn't limit you to one brand of etfs... they offer more than 100... each selected by investment experts

at morningstar associates. only at the etf market center at td ameritrade. before investing, carefully consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. contact td ameritrade for a prospectus containing this and other information. read it carefully before investing. but my allergies put me in a fog. so now, i'm claritin clear! claritin works great on all my allergies like dust, mold, pollen, or pets without making me drowsy, cause i want to be alert around this big guy. live claritin clear. indoors and out.

welcome back, everybody. two weeks ago, u.s. based astronomers discovered a new planet they thought was the perfect size and depth to support life, but now they can't find any trace of the goldilocks planet. so where did it go? >> it's crying in the cereal. >> and richard branson is probably very upset, too. >> right, that he can't buy this planet. >> so why would scientists not be able to find it? >> we're talking about the so-called xo planet. there have been fewer than 500 of these discovered so far. but they're looking at this possible goldilocks planet. that means not too close, not at that too far, not too hot, not too cold. possibly perfect for the

ingredients of life. this is very difficult research we're talking about. this is meticulous and painstaking stuff. they're looking at imagery coming from 20 light years away, trying to pick out these objects. they came across this one object and they weren't too sure. i'll give you a quick demonstration of how hard this stuff is to measure. i have some props. now, this flashlight is meant to illustrate the star. so it's bright. now you have to imagine a fire fly that's circling around this star. you have to spot that fire fly and measure it from 1,000 miles away. that's what they're trying to do in this case. it's very, very difficult work. >> so does that mean that the work that they've done, i guess a false positive? >> it's still up for debate. i wouldn't say this has been totally ruled out. science is full of debate. anytime there's a major discovery like this, is come up for debate. it's peer review. it's not definitively ruled out,

i would say at this point. some folks are pretty excited that they still exist. >> how could they go best to retrack and refine this so they're proving themselves as not having been wrong? >> they're going to have to comb through this data again. they spent more than a decade using at all this data. now they can use something from, say, the kepler space telescope and trying to pick out these teenie patterns. you're not seeing a picture of a planet. you know, this is so far away, it's these tiny hints that we have to try and interpret over time and this is a lot of work to try and confirm. we'll have to wait and see because this does get folks excited. i mean, the idea of a goldilocks planet out there, if you had a treasure map, if the entire universe is a treasure map, you could put an x right there. this is pretty exciting stuff for astronomers. if it's not true, then it's not true, but it's exciting stuff. >> who gets naming rights?

>> that's based on the porridge, not too hot, not too cold kind of thing. >> gotcha. >> naming rights is a big discussion. maybe there will be a thomas roberts star one day. >> i don't know. you never know. great to see you, buddy. >> you bet. breaking down about bullies. a texas official gets really ae emotional when he talks about his own personal fight. that's not really my style honey. weird, i can't find it. ♪ [ female announcer ] new tide with...acti-lift technology helps remove...many dry stains as if they were fresh. hey! you found it. yeah, it must have been hiding in my closet. [ female announcer ] new tide with acti-lift. style is an option. clean is not. get acti-lift in these tide detergents. it's the idea that a car that will never have an accident may be possible. in pursuit of this goal, lexus developed

the world's most advanced driving simulator, where a real driver in a real car can react to real situations without real consequences. the breakthroughs we innovate here may someday make all cars safer. this is the pursuit of tomorrow. this is the pursuit of perfection. [ male announcer ] you're at the age where you don't get thrown by curve balls. ♪ this is the age of knowing how to get things done. ♪ so why would you let something like erectile dysfunction get in your way? isn't it time you talked to your doctor about viagra? 20 million men already have. ♪ with every age comes responsibility. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects may include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision.