rain will be existing areas of southern louisiana.we have pollen near south florida and the ke in the next couple of days. we'll keep an eye on that storm system. most of the country looks really nice on wednesy. watch out new england, rainey, win weather on thursday and friday. if you're watching us on wmaq 5 ichicago, experience the studio at one big art studio during chicago artists month. that's your "early today" event of the day, thas. >> it's a beautiful ty, piec of art. thanks, bill. >>> now here's a look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. he major marriage of popular hollywood couple is coming to an end. courtney cox and david arquette are calling it quit the two remain friends and coparents to their 6-year-old daughter, coco. >>> esquire magazine has named its sexiest woman align. 36-year-old minka kelly stars on "parenthood." kelly's issue of esquire hits the stands november 19th. >>> and be sure to set your vrs for thursday night. you never know what wi happen on a live show. in this week's episode of "30 rock"

. >> reporter: the 12 members of the houma tribe in southern louisiana, b t fer government does not recognizeas an indigenous tribe. they live in the bayou, close to the gulf of mexico, where the oil disaster occurred. r gerio the houma made a living by catching small fish and shrimp. but after the 1930s, oil refinery activities eroded the bayou. their canals changed the water flow, and let sea water get in, ruining the tribe's livelihood. brenda daldarabisho, the principaiedshetre. she wants the u.s. government to formally recognize the houma is an indigenous tribe. this would let them regulate their land and water and help protect it. for over 30 years the houma have titioned t government for recognition, but the authorities neither granted recognition nor formally explained why. >> the oil and gas industry has played a major hole in our federal recognition efforts. they have lobbied against our petition for federal recognion d eye lomore powerful than we are. >> reporter: then in april, the oil spill disaster in the gulf ofexo. the water in which they fish became polluted. all fishing was

we also had strong storms down there in southern portions of louisiana. heavy rain on the coast now. as far as the morning forecast goes, you need the umbrella, be ready for a slow commute around philadelphia, trenton. new york city, just about done with your rain. from philly is where you are seeing the worst of it. d.c. and baltimore look dry. new orleans, showers for you. the heaviest rains are shifting south of interstate 10 leer, down along the coast. gusty winds along with them. forecast for today, we will be wet down in south florida the next couple of days. some of that moisture is being sucked up to miami and the keys. showery weather, boston, new york and philadelphia, even that will improve during the day. the bottom line, we have a hurricane out there. it does not look like this one will head for the u.s. we have been lucky. nine hurricanes, none of them have headed for us. >> all right. let's keep the streak going. >>> wall street ready to wririnn record pay, and who thinks a fling with the boss gets you a promotion? >>> the giants try to fin

good rainfall across southern louisiana. and got a few rain showers right in the middle of the country and across the northern plains. that's about it. some rain across the northeast. not here though. we do have some clouds but we've seen the precipitation we're going to see during the morning, i believe. but we could see more pop up later on today. here is your five-day forecast. today partly sunny, warm, not as warm as yesterday but still above normal. high of 81. and scattered showers this afternoon and evening. tomorrow sunny and cooler, 69 degrees. thursday rain showers on thursday. we don't even have the sun on the five-day for thursday. high of about 61. friday 63. saturday not bad, sunny and 64. >> that's a weird five-day. >> something for everybody. >> a little up and down. >> tony, thank you. >>> let's check in with julie wright. yesterday was your day. >> i know. did you say something for everybody, even the ducks on thursday, 61 and rainy -- yuck. >>> on the roads, the dulles toll road we had the crash tieing up

some rough weather moving across southern louisiana right now.y probably was the record heat in louisville, kentucky, chattanooga, 89, san francisco 86, d.c. saw 86 yesterday, and atlanta, georgia, tied a record of 86 degrees, as well. remember, we are now into the middle of october. and it may very well be 91 in san francisco today, 95 in phoenix, 84 degrees and stormy in new orleans and 82 degrees in d.c. october is still hurricane season. and paula is our ninth hurricane of the season. winds of 75 miles an hour, it's about 200 miles south of cozumel, moving that direction, north/northwest about 10 miles an hour, we do anticipate some strengthening, the waters are really warm here, but the further north it gets, the more westerly wind shear will tear it apart. if this thing becomes stronger than a category one, it will likely go closer to florida, but stays weak, and that's the forecast it stays south and all bets are off at that point. you're up to date weather wise. "american morning" is coming right back. [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus

we've been following the drought monitor and the worst area is louisiana and southern arkansas. that area has been extremely dry. that's expanded to mississippi and alabama. even into the ohio river valley you can see southern and central indiana, southwest ohio and northern kentucky are getting dry. we're starting to see a little bit of dryness creep into the western states as well with continuation of those dry spots out west. we start off with a zonal flow for a change with the past couple of weeks we've been seeing one cool front after another. we've had some warm ups between as well. with this flow, it's going to warm up with the southern two- thirds and stay chilly from the great lakes into new england. you will notice our model is projecting a trough in the plains as we progress through this week and that's off the east coast and we see a bit of a cut off trough. that could start to change things for your folks out west with a little bit of moisture coming from there. this will heat things up all the way into the ohio valley. let's check things out on monday. as we start

louisiana and the u.s. south. madison and jefferson believed the southern economy, with its dependence on slave labor was viable. they both sold slaves as a last resort, yes. but still they did so into their retirement years. jefferson especially envisioned a nation had been racially untainted hughes. on his death in 1836, madison left a considerable sum to the american colonization society, whose design was to remove black people, but to call for colonization was disingenuously couched in terms of philanthropy. even abraham lincoln, the great emancipator saw the merits of a voluntary removal plan to widen america. the point here, as throughout her book is that america's early theaters had few long-term solutions. as all people do, they rationalize inaction. our task is historical investigators is not to insult ourselves in transferring moral judgments to the past, whether it is to glamorize the achievement and imagine a golden age that never existed, or to use their failures to express self-satisfaction about her own motives as a modern more progressive culture. our task is to recover the language, the issues a

they are coming up from southern california, possibility, maybe cloudy high-based showers towards the santa clara valley, salinas valley. low to mid-80s. >> a prominent louisiana real estate broker is in the hospital this morning recovery after being lost for six days in the desert. he was found by sheriffs helicopter. he's an experienced hiker, meant to go on a day hike in joshua tree national park but took a wrong turn. rescue crews found him in a ravene about eight miles from where he left the trail. >>> the big party is back in san francisco this weekend. the 10th annual hardly strictly blue grass festival begins this morning into golden gate park. mc hammer will be among the performers. the admission is always free. >>> police are telling ktvu right now they have new information about the shooting at a uc berkeley frat house. we'll bring more information in the next hour. >>> fire crews are investigating a school fire, it's what crews found inside that building that has them calling it suspicious. stay with us, those stories up next.

southern states are reporting significant progress. harvest season is also progressing nicely in cotton country. as of last week, 19% of the crop had been harvested. 5 points ahead of five-year average. in louisiana, cotton appears to be bouncing back after a number of forgettable years. acreage is up about 250,000 acres this year and yields are coming in strong w. the prices on the upswing, cotton is making a comeback in the bayou state. >> we haven't seen cotton prices like in this a long time. the last three years that the farmers have taken, we need a good yield and a good price. >> crop watchers say high temperatures throughout the summer helped the crop mature early. harvest should be wrapped up by the middle of october. in southern michigan this week, temperatures were perfect for picking potatoes. with operations in ten states, they're used to make lays potato chips. the company also raises sweet potato, green beans and soybeans. now back to john for crop watch. two very different parts >> crop watch this week takes us to different parts of farm country. usda crop watchers in maine report conditions are very good for potato harvest. that's in the extreme tip of maine. grains are all harve

democratic open seats that opened up in louisiana and arkansas, for example, but also jim marshal in georgia. jean taylor in mississippi who we never talk about. these are southerndistricts that have lots of conservative voters, republican voters. in the past these members have been able to personalize their races, localize them. it's about them. they've been moderate enough to hold republican voters. and this cycle those republican voters are saying i don't care. i'm talking about states like illinois, like west virginia, either washington or california. voters who want the change in 2006, 2008 still want change. now the republican party has become the party of change. it's interesting. looking at the package that we opened with, the president is talking do you want to go back? if you look at national polling, first of all people don't blame the president primarily for the current economic circumstances. on the other hand, they think that if they vote republican, they won't be going back. they'll be getting something different. but if they vote democratic, they'll be getting more of barack obama's economic policies. those policies haven't turned things around.

democratic open seats that opened up in louisiana and arkansas, for example, but also jim marshal in georgia. jean taylor in mississippi who we never talk about. these are southern districts that have lots of conservative voters, republican voters. in the past these members have been able to personalize their races, localize them. it's about them. they've been moderate enough to hold republican voters. and this cycle those republican voters are saying i don't care. maybe we like you. maybe we like what you've done in the past but we have to change things. >> ifill: what's... whatever happened to every couple years. polls say i don't like congress but i like my congressman. that used to ensure a safeen dumb bensy. >> it's true except when it doesn't work. it didn't work for republicans in 2006 and 2008. i always point to two great examples i think of republicans who were very popular in their districts but lost. jim leach in 2006 in iowa and chris shays in connecticut in 2008. voters in those districts said, you know, we have to change the leadership of congress. maybe we like you. maybe we think you're a good guy. but re-electing you does not do what we need whi

yesterday in austin, texas, 40s, 30s in louisiana, and this morning record-breaking temperatures in florida, orlando, jacksonville, and daytona beach. the southernwe want to touch on watts going on in the tropics. subtropical storm otto, subtropical because it's intertwined with a low. it's becoming a little bit more tropical. either way, it has a lot of heavy rain across puerto rico, and u.s. and british virgin islands have seen a lot of flooding. this will go away. we are protected by a strong jet stream this time of the year. it will not make it to the u.s. but may make it to europe as a tropical storm or hurricane before the day is done today with winds up close to 70 miles an an hour. we're getting close to the end of hurricane season but it ain't over yet. so far so good as far as getting hit by a hurricane in the united states. >>> right now, a group of veterans getting ready for a march and rally in d.c. on the ninth anniversary of the afghan war. they are saying stop sending wounded soldiers back into war zones. >>> this morning, reminder of the heart-wrenches reality of war. this is the homecoming of sergeant first class lance vogeler