making news in america this morning, game over. >> in a late-night decision, penn state fires joe paterno, ending a half-century-long career for his handling of sexual abuse allegations. the response of students was quick. flooding the streets in protest. also, a disastrous night for rick perry. his latest campaign performance could end his campaign. and some of the biggest stars in music took the cma stage. but who took home the night's top prize? good morning, everyone. i'm rob nelson. >> and i'm sunny hostin. we begin with breaking news we've been tracking throughout the night from pennsylvania. >> huge story. 2,000 penn state students flooded streets near campus, after that announcement that joe paterno was no longer the head football coach there. one of the acts of violence in

all this, the overturning of a tv station news truck. students also threw rocks at reporters and police. >> it's calm now. but police remain on the scene. abc's aaron katersky phones in this report from downtown state college. >> reporter: thousands of penn state students poured into the street here in downtown state college, pennsylvania, reacting angrily, many of them, at the decision to oust long-time football coach, joe paterno. >> i think it's really saying, joe paterno's a figure. and that overshadows the issues going on involving sandusky. >> sandusky is the man who did all this. it's not the full-on blame on joepa. >> reporter: paterno earlier said he wanted to retire, on his own terms, at the end of the season. but university trustees made clear that was not going to happen. >> joe paterno is no longer the head football coach, effective immediately. >> reporter: as soon as

university trustees made that decision, that's when the students came pouring into the streets here downtown, in protest. many carrying signs saying, we love joepa. he was a beloved figure here on this campus for more than six decades. and many students said it was unfair that he simply received a phone call telling him that career was coming to an end. in a statement, joe paterno said he's disappointed with the board of trustees' decision. but he will comply with it. for the first time, when the nittany lions play nebraska, he will not be on the sideline. >> that game saturday, will be the last home game of the season. you can imagine the scene that will be this weekend. a small crowd of students did gather out of paterno's house. they chanted his name. >> and the coach, along with hi wife, eventually emerged and spoke briefly to reporters. >> get a good night's sleep. study, all right? we still got things to do.

all right. that phone call put me ahead of it. but we'll go from there. okay? good luck, everybody. >> thank you. >> one thing, thanks. and pray for those victims. >> defensive coordinator, tom bradley, will serve as interim coach when penn state hosts nebraska in its final home game of the season on saturday. obviously, there's a lot of reaction to the end of paterno's six-decade career. we'll get into that later on "good morning america." and the other big story this morning, a disastrous debate performance for rick perry. some say the cringe-inducing moment was so bad, it could actually derail the perry campaign. >> it started when perry forcefully said he would eliminate three federal agencies. and then, he tried to list those agencies. >> it's three agencies of government when i get there that are gone.

commerce, education, and the -- >> epa? >> epa. there you go. >> seriously? the epa one you were talking about? you can't name the third one? >> i would do away with education, the -- i can't. the third one, i can't. sorry. oops. >> later, perry said it was the energy department he was trying to think of. after the debate, the governor admitted he was embarrassed by that apparent brain freeze. he will be on "good morning america" later this morning for a little damage control. meanwhile, front-runner, herman cain, got a mostly free pass during the debate. a crowd of gop activist booed when a reporter asked about the sexual allegations against him. cain repeat head had done nothing wrong. and his closest rival, mitt romney, did not press the issue. president obama may have a partial victory in the senate today. the measure would help veterans

find employment. if approved, it would be the first piece of the jobs bill passed in congress. and would not be financed by taxing the wealthy. and there's a new revelation about the mishandling of dead soldiers' remains at dover air force base. we now know that cremated portions of remains were buried in a landfill. it's a practice that was halted three years ago. even so, it could make some difficult questions today when the air force's chief appears before the senate arms services committee. the federal government is sending off criticism after a test that was supposed to make history didn't exactly go off without a hitch. it was a nationwide test of the broadcast system to warn americans in an emergency. some are calling it a total failure. abc's ron claiborne explains. >> reporter: all across america, the countdown was on. >> the first-ever nationwide test of the emergency alert system. >> reporter: the government planned to send out a test alert to every radio and television

station and cable system in the country. then, the big moment. at 2:00 eastern time, instead of a coordinated national warning -- this. on hbo, the movie, "knight and day" went uninterrupted. >> there a problem, eduardo? >> reporter: some folks saw a warning picture but heard nothing. and perhaps most bizarre of all, anyone watching directv saw the emergency alert slate on the screen. but instead of the voice of the government official, they heard this -- ♪ lady gaga singing her hit "paparazzi." the signal was supposed to go to relay points in every state and then cascade to radio and television stations. although many stations did transmit the alert as planned, clearly something, somewhere, went badly awry. >> i'll take the criticisms. i know people weren't happy. but we need to test things to find out what works and what doesn't work, or we're never going to know the answers to fix the system and make sure it's ready when we need it. >> reporter: unlike the civil defense warnings from the 1960s, this alert is intended for the very rare national emergency.

but many people we spoke to said they would not have seen or heard it anyway because they weren't watching television or listening to radio. the government plans to expand the alert system so that people can sign up to get the warnings as text messages. but that will now have to wait until they get this first step right. ron claiborne, abc news, new york. >> not exactly crisis. just a little gaga in the middle of the afternoon. now, to this morning's weather from around the country. a wet day along the east coast, with showers from the carolinas, all the way up to northern new england. also some rain from detroit to cleveland. a cold blast in the midwest, with lingering snowshowers in the upper peninsula of michigan. and up to ten degrees cooler than normal along the gulf coast. >> 60ed in new orleans and dallas. just 57 in atlanta. 55 in baltimore. and 62 here in new york. 40s from indianapolis to kansas city. minneapolis only gets up to 49. phoenix hits 75. sacramento, 63. and seattle, 54. and coming up after the break this morning, we'll check overseas markets after the dow's

nearly 400-point plunge yesterday. and more from the breaking news overnight. our reporter in the middle of those protests at penn state.

there have been some massive sell-offs overnight on the asian markets. thanks to fears about italy. tokyo's nikkei average plunged 255 points today. hong kong's hang seng lost more than 1,000. in london, meanwhile, the ftse opened lower. and on wall street, the dow

dropped 389 points yesterday. the nasdaq index fell more than 6. yesterday, the average 401(k) account lost $400,000. hard to hear that news. with the escalating debt crisis in italy, the world's seventh-biggest economy, investors are likely to put their money in safe, u.s. banks. that would drive interest rates lower but make it harder to get a loan. markets will be on a rollercoaster pretty much, with big swings, depending on every development in italy. and foreclosures are up, hitting a seven-month high last month. reality track says fault notices were up 10%. overall, activity rose 7%. the number of homeowners two months or more behind on their mortgages is increasing, as well. an internet sales tax is more likely. a group of senators have introduced the bill with federal rules. amazon supports the bill. ebay and others do not.

retailers with less than $500,000 in sales, like many of the vendors on ebay. would be exempt. and a federal tax on christmas trees has godden the ax. the christmas tree industry says the 15% fee on fresh-cut trees would be paid by growers, not consumers. but that fee was blasted by conservative media and is now on hold, probably forever. next on this thursday, we'll update our top story. overnight riots at penn state. plus, a strange story we're tracking as well, this morning. a pro baseball player kidnapped. details on that and more when we come back. ♪ [ female announcer ] have you ever seen a glacier while sunbathing? why not? have you ever climbed a rock wall in the middle of the ocean? or tried something really wild? why not? it's all possible in the nation of why not. royal caribbean's floating nation

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area. look for some icy roads around the northern great lakes, especially in michigan's upper peninsula. >> and if you're flying, airport delays are possible in boston, washington, d.c., new york and charlotte. we return, now, to the morning's top story. that is the usaer of legendary football coach, joe paterno. the headline in this morning's "philadelphia daily news" says this, "end of the lion." also, looking at another pennsylvania paper this morning, "the patriot-news" has this one, fired by phone. it has a picture of paterno at yesterday's practice, which, as it ended up, was his last as head coach. >> and the university president was fired from his job, one he held for 16 years. both men under heavy criticism for not telling police about the child sex abuse allegations on campus. >> word of paterno's firing sent thousands of angry students into the streets around the university last night. they blame the news media, in part, for the firing.

a news station's transmission truck was overturned in that melee. abc's dan harris was there, right there, in the middle of the crowd. >> reporter: they're spraying tear gas towards the crowd. they're very liberal use of tear gas. >> dan is okay. the protests appeared to be dying down as the morning wore on. we'll have the latest from penn state coming up on "good morning america." news of paterno's firing exploded on twitter. but one of the most prolific tweeters is regretting the decision. without knowing about the alleged child rape, ashton kutcher tweeted this, how do you fire joepa? within seconds, some of his 8 million followers unleashed on him, causing him to tweet an apology. saying he felt awful and he would stop tweeting. >> it's interesting to hear kuch

enaerohis wife, demi moore, have a foundation to fight child sex slavery. you wonder why he would tweet about it. now, a bizarre story. washington nationals catcher, wilson ramos, have been kidnapped by gunmen in his native, venezuela. he was at home with his father and brothers last night, when several armed men took him away. as of now, there's been no contact between the kidnappers and ramos' family. wealthy athletes are sometimes targeted in latin america, in hopes of receiving a hefty ransom. meanwhile, here in new york, the nba players and owners will be back at the bargaining table today. they met for 12 hours yesterday, in an effort to hammer out a new labor deal. and everyone ignored league commissioner david stern's deadline. he said the players needed to approve a proposal or face another one that favors the owners. >> tense situation in the nba. it's a good thing that

college basketball has started this year. some of last night's highlights now, from espn news. >> hello there. i'm lindsay czarniak with your espn news update. we start you out with college hoops. shawn miller and arizona hosting the duquesne dukes. jordan may shooting from well behind the arc, to say the least. the game tied at 36-36. arizona up by one. mays hesitates. then, takes the three on net. later in the second, a assist up 54-48. mays in the corner. he was in a zone, to say. 19 points for mays. shot four of seven. duquesne trying to come back. arizona in control. kyle fogg gets it to jesse perry. arizona goes on to win, 67-59. lehigh and st. john's. final seconds, jordan hamilton, with the three.

second half, st. john's cut the lead to three. mo hartcliff in the wing. ensuing lehigh procession, nude he gets the foul and the dunk. later in the second, st. john's down by one. the pointer and the lieup. st. john's takes the lead. time running out for lehigh. breaks the alley-oop. st. john's wins it 78-73. that's it for your espn news update. i'm lindsay czarniak, have a great day. it was a big night for women, as music city handed out top honors at the cma awards. the band perry took home trophy for new artist and single of the year. >> but artist of the year, went to sister perry if i die young.

and taylor swift looked stunned when she was named entertainer of the year for a second time. >> i'm so happy right now. this is thanks to all the fans who filled up those stadiums and arenas all over the world in year. thank you so much. i am -- this is amazing. >> also a big hit, lionel richie, as he took the stage with rascal flatts and others to perform duets from his new country album. and one especially touching moment, a superstar tribute to country icon, glen campbell, who suffers from alzheimer's. >> very cool to see that. coming up next, "the pulse," and photos of gabrielle giffords that we're seeing for the very first time. also, some mystery video, showing what many believe to be a creature like the loch ness monster.

and now, time for "the pulse," and some images this morning you have to see. >> we start with some rarely-seen photos of congresswoman gabrielle giffords and her husband, mark kelly. the remarkable couple showed the pictures to diane sawyer, showing the path of her amazing recovery. >> tonight on "world news," we will hear from gabby for the first time, leading up to the special at 10:00, 9:00 eastern

time. a bizarre sighting is now making waves in canada, adding some fresh fuel to longstanding rumors about a certain legendary sea creatures. >> a british columbia man claims the ripples he videotaped in this lake is canada's version of the loch ness monster. the 50-foot seaer is pant has reportedly been spotted thousands of times. >> some say it's standing waves. others say it's a couple of logs. we'll let you decide this morning. for some of you, your local news is next. >> for everyone else, a bic shakeup at the academy awards. eddie murphy stepping down from his hosting duties. we'll tell you more when we come right back. don't go far. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back.

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and finally from us this morning, the show must go on. but it will have to go on without eddie murphy. the actor has abruptly bowed out as host of the upcoming oscars. >> eddie murphy announced his departure just a day after his producer's exit. now, the academy is scrambling to find a new emcee. more from kabc's rob hayes.

>> reporter: you may need a score card for oscar's next telecast. producer bred out. brian grazer in. oscar host, eddie murphy, out. now, the world is left wondering, who will be the next host announced by the academy awards. >> i can tell you for certainty, there are people sitting around a table at the academy right now. there are phone calls being made. and a lot of hollywood reporters waiting to break the news. >> reporter: murphy bowed out after ratner, his friend and director of his latest film, "tower heist," stepped down from his position following controversy about an anti-gay comment he made. the gay and lesbian alliance against defamation, gladd, says they're moving on to bigger and better things. >> america is tolerant of people who make mistakes and own it. that seems to be what's going on here. >> reporter: as for murphy, the

popular comedian issued a brief statement, choosing not to explain his decision to step down. quote, i completely understand and support each party's decision with regard to a change of producers. i'm sure that the new production team and host will do an equally great job. grazer's assertion may quell one star about the academy awards. but it leaves fans and hollywood insiders who will be next named to take the oscar stage. >> it's a huge deal. the audience at home doesn't pay much attention to who produces the oscars. but in this town, the oscars is the ultimate. it's the coronation. >> reporter: from hollywood, rob hayes, nbc 9 news. >> we can take care of it. that's what's making news in america this morning. >> stay with us for "good morning america." thanks for watching, everybody. have a gre