heavy rain, potential tornado conditions, a lot of ruined travel plans along the east coast from hartsfield to laguardia. the spectacular public train wreck involving charlie sheen continued today with an interview that aired this morning on "today" during which sheen insisted he is now clean of alcohol and drugs. also in the interview with nbc's jeff rossen, he says he's underpaid for his show "two and a half men" which cbs canceled last week for the rest of the season after sheen's rant against the show's creator and executive producer. >> i'm a man of my word. so i will finish the tv show, i'll even do season ten. but it's at this point because of psychological distress, it's 3 mill an episode. take it or leave it. >> you want a raise? >> well, yeah. look at what they put me through. >> sheen described himself as being at war with the executives who made the decision to shut down production. there's even more to this. jeff rossen will have it tomorrow morning on "today." >>> when we come back here tonight, our special series on the american economy, at the crossroads, can the u.s. do it

woman: when i was running for office, i met someone who knew mayor hartsfield, who, in the late 1960s, said, "i don't know who the next mayor will be, "but i know they'll have to fix the water and sewer infrastructure." woman: the city had chronic sewage overflows into the chattahoochee and its tributaries. fecal coliform bacteria levels were in the millions of colonies per hundred milliliter, which was a significant public health threat. and this had been occurring for decades. but neither the federal epa nor the epd back in the '90s were willing to take action under the clean water act to make the city fix its plumbing. so in 1994, we started upper chattahoochee river keeper. we filed a clean water act lawsuit. in 1997, we won. and so for the past decade, the city has embarked on a program to clean up the river. now, with 1,800 miles of sewer system, three sewage plants and combined sewer overflows, it took a number of years to figure out what would be the solution. we are facing a crisis in infrastructure. bethea: a huge change came about when mayor shirley franklin became the mayo

the action plans to submit wit -- the agency plans to submit written testimony. >>> atlanta's hartsfield- jackson international held onto the title for the world's busiest airport. at least for a while. beijing, china was second. by the way, chicago's o'hare ranked third, pulling ahead of london's heathrow airport. >>> 8:35. let's check in again with sal castanedo, keeping a close eye on all of the problems. >> atlanta, huge. >> yeah. >> it's big. >>> good morning, everyone. sanfrancisco airport not reporting any delays right now -- right now. we should check with your carrier always. if you are a prudent traveler, no problems getting there. let's take a look at highway 101 as you drive down through 580, that commute is improving. this morning's commute at the tacoma is getting -- toll plaza is getting better. there is a small delay there. let's go to steve. >>> thank you, sal. some of this cool air moving in could provide enough lift here to give us some scattered showers but the front went by. pretty good rain. north bay tell you about totals in a second. today, morning rain, fog. uppe

in atlanta, lightning and torrential rain caused a full ground stop at hartsfield-jackson, the nation's biggest airport. crews tried to restore electricity to tens of thousands in four states who lost power. it could have been much worse. the tornado bounced over a school nearby here, taking out the trees behind it. >> heavy rain and storms through a good part of the country. we have flooding in about 26 river gauges. major to moderate flooding in illinois, missouri, indiana, ohio, kentucky and tennessee. that's expected to spread. as it gets warmer in the plains, into the dakotas area, as well. flooding going to be a real problem over the next month of spring, we believe. here's some of the numbers today. this is much drier and calmer in the area. louisville, 53. washington, d.c. at 49 degrees. storm after storm after storm, moving into the northwest coast. we'll talk about that later this morning. >> next half hour, how milder air moves in and means more flooding. george? >> oh, man. sam, thanks very much. >>> now, let's go to juju with more of the headlines. >>> good morning, george

hartsfield airport. we talk southeast, this is our first concern. the world's busiest airport.eavy rain move through. there's not much in delays. we believe there will be. this low rolls up the coastline. it's going to be heavy rain that passes through atlanta and through the mid atlantic as well. d.c. will probably kick in the evening hours. for new york city, later on tonight, after midnight, in this new jersey, connecticut, probably new york state area, that you'll see into pennsylvania, very heavy rain. we're talking in some cases of more than three inches of additional rain. you've already had a lot of problems this week with flooding. particularly in the northeast. it's likely that will return probably late after midnight tonight, throughout the day with heavy rain on thursdayng >>> here's a look at what's ahead on "the gma morning menu." we all have them. the friends that can squeeze the last mile out of a gallon of gasoline. i coast down the hill and get 100 miles per hour. is that true? >>> plus, dr. oz on a controversial pregnancy hormone diet. is this real? or a dang