Transcripts For CNN American Morning 20111024

-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good morning. good morning. >> good morning to you, alina. >> it's monday, october 24th. >> there's definitely something wrong with my seat. see this? >> yes, there is. >> right. >> christina and carol are off this morning. welcome to "american morning." his is a very strange seating situation but we have a lot of news to cover. we will fix that momentarily. a mounting situation in eastern tuck u turkey. a devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake, worst to hit the country in a decade killed 260 people, 1,300 hurt and cold temperatures making it hard to find those when the ground began to shake yesterday. diana magnay is with us. >> reporter: hi, ali. as you shared, freezing temperatures overnight made the search and rescue efforts extremely difficult. we've just been to hospital across the road and the problem there is, of course, that that building was, it is pretty much impossible to use anymore. they were having to treat all the injured outside yet in the courtyard, and around the back of the hospital today you have a horrific sight, relatives comes to identify the corporations, people in body bags and a lot of people in desperate situations there right now. so the injured who are still being pulled out, those who are alive, are having to be transported to larger hospitals across the van province and further afield. this is where the difficulties lie right now as well as restoring water and electricity to this region. generally houses are safe for people to return to given the earthquakes continue to happen there, ali. >> diana, you're talking about the tents coming in, giving shelter from immediate exposure. you've taken off your vest you had on earlier. it gets very cold at night. apparently when the sun goes down the temperature drops precipitously and that is another problem they're going to have to deal with. >> reporter: absolutely. it is freezing at night. but people here are very scared, and they don't want to return to their houses for obvious reasons. during the day, as you say, it is quite warm, but at night temperatures drop a great deal, but people here are used to it. they do have the clothing required. there are a lot of those drawn into the region, abouter er be johnjohn said they can cope with the situation on their own. you see machinery here. a large number of search and rescue teams. they're all out here in force helping with this massive effort and of course, the red cross bringing in 6,000 tents for the villagers in a nearby area in this town tonight so they can have shelter. of course, the cold is a factor. ali? >> diana, thanks very much. we're stay on top of the story with you in turkey. diana magnay. the story we're following very closely this morning, libyans are free at last from the one-man rule of moammar gadhafi. the national transitional council which formerly declared the country's celebration set off the wild celebrations across libya. people firing guns, waving flags to mark the historic day. a two-year transition to democracy was announced. meantime, new questions about exactly how moammar gadhafi died. video of his final moments showing a bloody gadhafi roughed up by his captors and showing congratulating men they say shot gadhafi. it not clear if he was killed in the cross fire or shot execution style. history is also being made right next door to libya in tunisia where the so-called arab spring began. a big turnout in tunisia's national election. more than 90% of national voters went to the polls, they are saying. erecting an assembly to write a new constitution. this is the first this the longtime d longtime dictator was tossed out. a warning from hillary clinton, don't get bold ideas about iraq. virtually all u.s. troops will be leaving iraq by the end of the year. there is mounting concern that iran will try to exploit that and expand its reach in the region. that would be a serious miscalculation, according to the secretary of state. >> in addition to a very significant diplomatic presence in iraq, which will tear much of the responsibility for dealing with an independent sovereign democratic iraq, we have bases in neighboring countries. we have our nato ally in turkey. we have a lot of presence in that region. so no one, most particularly iran, should miscalculate about our continuing commitment to and with the iraqis going forward. >> no surprise the plan for a rapid withdrawal for troops from iraq has republicans up in arms. listen to senators john mccain and lindsay graham, both served on the senate armed committees and insist the obama administration is making a big mistake. >> there was never really serious negotiations between the administration and the iraqis. they could have clearly made an arrangement for u.s. troops. yes, i'm here in the region, and, yes, it is viewed in the region as victory for the iranians. >> not being able to close the deal in iraq is a very serious mistake. celebrating leaving with no troops behind is a serious mistake. ended iraq poorly, fumbled the ball inside definite, i hope i'm wrong about what happened in iraq, but they're dancing in the streets in tehran. >> the fact we have many military bases in the region will not deter iran trying to detain iraq. an attack isn't linked to one group but it comes a day after the u.s. embassy in kenya warned of an eminent terror threat. islamic militants said they would retaliate after others were sent into somalia to fight them. stay away from kenya. violence escalated in recent week. and iranian plotting the murder of the saudi ambassador to the united states will be extradited to the united states. a second plan in the plot is still at large. new questions about whether the pilot behind the controls in a deadly 2009 plane crash near buffalo, new york, could handle the plane he was flying. lawyers for the victims' families released e-mails fr sc air that they call question the pilot's ability. more on the story, deb feyerick. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. you have to remember this plane crash actually was moments from landing. some of the families were waiting at the airport for the plane to arrive, but we're learning now that six months before the crash, supervisors for colgan air were reviewing pilots they felt were ready to fly colgan's new flight of q-400 planes and when the captain's name came up, the e-mails show up, serious misgivings. how about renslow? there's something in the back of my mind. yes, you're correct. renslow had a problem upgrading. then the vice president of operations complies, anyone who does not reach the mins, mini m minimums, is not ready to handle the q400. it was revealed the captain never received hands-on experience with the safety system in the q400 called a stick psher activating to prevent the plane in strawing. he was certified but failed five pilot tests three before he got to colgan though he did not disclose that to the airlines. colgan's parent company says only after being fully satisfied that captain renslow was ready to transition to the q400 aircraft was he allowed to begin q400 training. the ntsb ultimately found that the crash was pilot error, and so captain renslow was at fault. families, some of whom were waiting at the airport, say the e-mail suggests, supports their allegations that colgan air did not adequate he train renslow. again, they were so close, and because of icy conditions, it appears that renslow had the plane on automatic. it should have been on manual, and rather than push back on the stick in order to right the plane, he was supposed to actually push forward. he did not do that, and that's when it went into a spin. >> and that exacerbated the situation and doomed the airliner. deb feyerick. thank you. we will be speaking to a lawyer for five of the victims' families that filed a lawsuit later on this morning. deb feyerick, thank you so much. also, major election calendar drama settled. nevada voted to shift the date of its republican caucus to february 4th. this after threats of candidates boycotting the state. nevada initially moved its contest to mid-january in hopes to play a big early role in choosing the nominee. that jumbled the entire caucus calendar and risked violating national party rule. we'll talk about that later in the show. meanwhile, president obama heads to las vegas pushing new rules for underwater homeowners to refinance and avoid foreclosure and holding three fund-raisers during a three-state tour of the west, dropping by los angeles and on wednesday announce changes to make it easier tore college students to repay their loans. world series tied at two games apiece. the texas rangers beat the st. louis cardinals 4-0. the catcher for the rangers the star, a three-run homer in the sixth inning. derrick holland pitched for eight-plus innings. game five in st. louis. and crossing the streets before last night's game, the rangers josh hamilton and cards lance berkman went across the street in full uniform to cowboys stadium to help with the coin toss during the dallas cowboys and st. louis ramses game. both st. louis teams were losers yesterday. coming up, new surveillance captures a mystery person coming out of the woods. could be a break in the search for baby lisa. the missouri girl who went missing earlier in the month. and gabrielle giffords is taking another big step's in her recovery. more in the next phase a potentially grueling one, in her miraculous recovery. we're back after this. life insurance companies treat you like a policy, not a person. instead of getting to know you they simply assign you a number. aviva is here to change all that. we're bringing humanity back to insurance and putting people before policies. aviva life insurance and annuities. we are building insurance around you. [♪...] >> announcer: now get a $250 airfare credit, plus save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. certain restrictions apply. welcome back to "american morning." a possible break this morning in the search for baby lisa. new surveillance tape captures a mysterious person could hold a clue about her disappearance. 11-month-old lisa irwin went missing from her missouri home almost three weeks ago. joining us live, sandra endo. >> reporter: cnn ob deigned surveillance individual grow a gas station less than a mile and a half from lisa irwin's home showing an unidentified person walking down the street at 2:15 in the morning of october 4th, the day baby lisa irwin disappeared from her home. authorities, fbi and police are not commenting specifically on this piece of video but have all surveillance video from around the area. the investigation is ongoing. sheer where the speculation sets in, ali. this video could possibly match witness testimony saying that some people saw a man walking in the dark carrying a baby in a diaper that morning she disappeared. so clearly, some circumstances that investigators want to look into, and the owner of the gas station says it is definitely very unusual to see somebody walking around that time of hour at night around his gas station. so that's certainly something they're going to be looking into. now, yesterday evening we saw an emotional deborah bradley, the mother of lisa irwin, appear here at the home for a very solemn prayer vigil, joined by the baby's fare, jeremy irwin as well as other family member, neighbors and friends. this is the first time we've seen the couple return back to their home. they're staying at relatives homes, about six minutes from here. so this was a very important vigil for the family, and the message was that they are optimistic. they want baby lisa to return home. ali? >> sandra, thanks. sandra endo following the story for cnn in kansas city. the prosecution is expected to rest in the manslaughter trial of michael jackson's dr. conrad murray. then the defense will have its say trying to convince jurors that jackson was responsible for his own death. jury deliberations could begin by the end of the week. congresswoman gabrielle giffords continues her recovery in north carolina. she arrived in asheville yesterday. that's where she'll undergo two weeks of intensive rehab after being shot in the head during the tucson rampage in january. giffords will work with a therapist who also treated her in houston. the mass shooting left six people dead and 12 others wounded. bobby jindal wins a second term at louisiana's governor. he won widespread support for his handles of the oil spill by bp. jindal fell off the short list of presidential hopefuls after making the republican response to the state of the union address in 2009. coming up on "american morning," a second deadly shark attack off the coast of australia in a dozen days. the victim, an american man, killed by what authorities believe was a great white. we'll hear from his family just ahead. plus, could google take over yahoo!? talks intensifying this morning. we're "minding your business" next. yeah. how many tires does ford buy every year? over 3 million. you say you can beat any advertised price on tires? correct. anywhere? yes. like this price? yes. riously? yes what about this one? i'll beat it. this one? s we will. right, i only have one more question for you...this one? 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( announcer ) fly without putting your life on pause. be yourself nonstop. american airlines. you can't change the way banking works. just accept it, man. free ? doesn't close at five ? try nature. it's a bank. what do you want, a hug ? just accept it. hidden fees, fine print, or they'll stick it to you some other way. stay with the herd, son. accept it. just accept it. accept it. just accept it. accept it. if we miss this movie, you're dead. if you're stuck accepting banking nonsense, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. 28 mithts aftnutes after th 264 people are dead after a 7.2 earthquake hit turkey overnight. still not exactly clear how moammar gadhafi died but we know what killed hill. a gunshot to the head. his body now on display in misrata. the doctor that performed the autopsy isn't say whether it was in cross fire or at close fire. suspicion he may have been killed that way by his captor. hillary clinton warning iran to stay out of iraq after u.s. troops withdraw by the end of the year saying there are plenty of bases in the area and it would be a big mistake for iran to try to expand its influence there. and a great white shark that may have killed an american. he died while scuba diving saturday. his friends first spotted blood in the area he was diving in and then saw waynewright's body. his sisters say he was a skilled diver. >> i think it was just wrong place, wrong time, because he was very wise. i would trust him with anything to do with being on the water. always had complete confidence in his skills. >> he was an extraordinary person, one of a kind, and like my sister said, he's more than just a quick news spot. he was our brother, and we loved him, and he will be missed. >> this is the second fatal shark attack in western australia in two weeks. floodwaters are rising in bangkok even chasing people from the city's flood command center at the airport. a huge portion of the thai capital is under water, including one of the major airports and an evacuation shelter, which now has to be evacuated itself. and after water was diverted through city canals, flooding covered the surrounding suburbs. nationwided flooding has already killed 356 people with nearly 9 million others affected in thailand. an ocean current of couches, refrigerators, cars, trucks, floating wood, even a helicopter and and airplane heading straight for hawaii. experts predict that up to 20 million tons of debris from japan's march tsunami will hit the u.s. islands in two years, much faster than originally thought. a russian ship came across the sea garbage including a fishing boat near the midway islands last month. >> incredible. rob marciano in the severe weather center watching things for us. good morning. >> good morning. start you off with thunderstorms over the weekend in oklahoma. earlier, north texas near dallas, tease just over the river, and baseball-sized hail in some cases reported. roll that footage. yeah. get that car and windshield into cover when this sort of stuff rolls through here. severe weather saturday night into sunday morning. this stuff does cause you a headache in a hurry. get the ice pack out. some of the storms had rotation and were threatening to drop some tornadoes. we don't expect tornadoes out of this particular system that's moving across the great lakes now but thunderstorms exiting detroit getting into cleveland and weakening somewhat. this is part of a couple of storm systems that are going to roll across the nation's two-thirds of the eastern part of country. some warm temperatures start to cook into the southern plains, but veeneventually getting thro tuesday, wednesday and thursday of this week, cold air infiltrates from canada and temperatures in places like denver will go from maybe 81 degrees today, might not get out of the 30s by the time wednesday rolls around and snow is in the forecast for parts of wyoming, colorado and maybe in through the plains and the midwest. 18 to 24 inches of snow expected in this area. still hurricane season even though snow is falling in the mountains. this is tropical storm rina formed overnight and looking healthy this morning with winds right now at 40 miles an hour. so a very weak tropical storm but i bet by the time the next advisory comes along it will be a little stronger than that. we expect it to intensify. a very, very warm area ever the caribbean. there's not getting in the way of this. north-northwestern movement at about six miles an hour pap slow mover giving it time to intensify. by the time it gets towards cancun, the national weather center is thinking it will be a category 1 hurricane by that time, maybe scraping the yucatan. the beginning of next week rolls around, think back to six years ago, by the way, rina replaced rita back in 2005. also in 2005 we had hurricane wilma which developed right around this time of year in the very same spot. took a very similar path and then went right into parts of southwest florida as a category 3 storm. we don't expect that intensity but can't rule it out at this point. it potentially will threaten the u.s. towards the beginning of next week. right now, the yucatan peninsula and mexico is under the gun. rob? >> you've been a busy man. thank you very much. ahead on "american morning," the republican primary calendar finally coming into focus. how new hampshire just managed to secure its traditional spot in the leadoff position. we'll tell you about that. and the gob field is now ganging up on herman cain, even calling him names. 34 after the hour. you are watching "american morning." welcome back to "american morning." time to go in-depth now. the so-called arab spring reaching a historic level. joyous celebrations across the country. look at that. in tunisia, millions of people turning out to vote in the first-ever free elections. we have two live reports this morning. cnn's dan rivers is in tripoli and ivan watson in tunisia. we want to start with dan live in the libyan capital. dan, good morning to you. >> reporter: yeah, good morning. some more questions being raised about the death of colonel gadhafi here. his body remains on public show in misrata at a storage facility, at a market on the edge of the city. people still coming to see it, even though the ought tops hey taken place, they put it back on public display, the autopsy concluded he was killed way gunshot wound to the head but no detail whether that was at close range or as the agency is maintaining that he was hit in the cross fire as they tried to evacuate him, and it is slightly overshadowing the declaration of liberation that happened here yesterday with critics saying, this is tainted. the beginning of this effort to transform this country into a democracy, and tainted the agency as well. >> unbelievable that that transition could take place in just two years, dan, and to see the pictures in the streets, it's really remarkable. meanwhile, we are getting early reports about some apparent gadhafi supporters found dead inside of a hotel. what can you tell us about that? >> reporter: this is flagged by human rights watch, which says there are 53 bodies that they've counted in a hotel near district 2 in sirte, which was where the last stand of gadhafi loyalists took place. there are clearly concerns around the circumstances of these deaths and others in sirte. they don't have anymore certain information yet, but it, again, is another kind of instance of concerns about human rights abuses taking place in the middle of that fight for the final area of sirte. amnesty as well voices concerns about the killing of moammar gadhafi, describing it as a possible war crime. these are pretty serious allegations leveled by two human rights groups, and allegations that the ntc, the new government here, has yet to fully address. >> cnn's dan rivers live in the libyan capital with that report. dan, thank you. now to history being made in tunisia. for that we turn to ivan watson live in tunisia for us. ivan, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, alina. fabulous. that's the single word that the head of tunisia's election head used around midnight to describe the unexpectedly high turnout in sunday's historic elections. tunisians telling me for decades basically it was single-party rule. only one box to check, really, when they went to the pollsance and n , and now some had up to 90 choices tunisians could pick from, and it's hard for me to capture in words how excited people were. i saw people tearing up, they were so emotional. i saw a man run out after voting waving a tunisian flag. it was a festive atmosphere. people very excited at the chance at the empowerment that comes with finally being able to say yes or no to whoever would rule their country next. a really historic feel-good moment in a turbulent part of the world. the official results haven't come out yet. even 16 hours after polls closed. we're expecting to hear something with the next 24 hours. we do believe that the moderate islamist party probably did quite well. they were predicted, according to the polls to win big in his election. >> ivan watson, thank you for that update. appreciate it. live in tunisia. time to talk politic. he may score high on the likability indecember but fellow republicans are treating herman cain like a pinata. that is life as a front-runner. getting you caught up with the wp "washington post" national political reporter and maggie, senior political reporter for politico. good morning to both of you. nia, herman cain has run into trouble over abortion. doing damage control after something he says to piers morgan here on cnn. what he told piers and then a freedom coalition on saturday. >> it's not the government's role or anybody else's role to make that decision. it all miltly gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make. >> i would strengthen all of our current laws that prevent abortion. i believe that abortion should be clearly stated and illegal across this country. >> all right. michele bachmann calmed that a flip-flop. rick perry called it a liberal kennard. what do you think? >> reporter: and rick santorum piling on, obviously trying to tear into what is cain's support among republicans. looks like that could erode. he articulate add pro-choice view with piers morgan and now trying to have a mulligan, a do-over mohammed. it's going to be tough to recover. he had a tough week last week in general. he had that talk over in iowa obviously this weekend. trying to make up some ground. i think conservative are looking at him to find a way to support him. find a reason to support him, in fact. he's doing so well in these poll. he's about 37% in iowa, but we'll have to look next week, over the next couple of weeks, in fact, to see if this holds. >> maggie, this takes us into very unusual ground we haven't been in so much with this republican race, because it's really been about the economy, attacking the president, talking about taxes, which we'll talk about in a second. now it's coming back to romney on one side with economic strength and a lot of social conservatives who don't believe he's all that socially conservative anyway and everybody else on the other hide r side and herman cain pushed into this. he did say he's personally against abortion but doesn't think the government has a role in that. >> that's the kennard. here's how i personally feel but i can't have government dictate what people do. short of saying he would work aggressively to repeal roe v. wade and saying it in that way i don't think he'll get social conservatives to feel good about him. they're going to play more of a role in deciding who is going to be the nominee or who will be the mitt romney alternative that will challenge the nominee going through the primaries. >> talk about the caucus and primary calendar which is remarkably interesting for all of our political junkies waging this morning. remarkably uninteresting for everybody else. so let's talk about how iowa is back to being in the number one spot on january 3rd. tell me why it matters and why it matters particularly to herman cain, because, really, this is a rick perry/mitt romney race except for herman cain. >> and michele bachmann is trying to make noise in iowa as well. about 4%, 5% in the poll. it had an implosion after her iowa straw poll win back in august. yes, this is going to kick everything off january 3rd. social conservatives make up about 60% of those who go to the polls that day and following probably around i think it's january 10th or something like that. haven't set the date for the new hampshire primary, but that will be obviously important, too. romney is, i think, the conventional wisdom is correct in the sense he's got a real shot here because he's got all the other candidates there who are clearly going to split the social conservative vote. rick santorum, newt gingrich, michele bachmann. perry and cain. they are going to be the not romney vote and split a lot of that social conservative home schooling vote, and so i think romney, he got about 23%, 24%, 25% last go-round and in a pretty good position to get that at least, if not more. >> maggie, what happens after this? four primaries and caucuses in january. after that, do the also rans start to fall off? if michele bachmann doesn't have traction, newt gingrich doesn't seem to have a trajectory and same with ron paul and santorum stuck in the single low digits. sdp this become a race between romney and whoever is left? >> absolutely. if that. a theory it will ge on to super tuesday and a theerpy pretty clarified. bite time we get to south carolina you are going to see people dropping out even before the end of january. i think florida is going to be the major test, january 31st. you are going to have a clear sense after that of where this race is headed. >> the part that frustrates me as a business journalist. taxation is an albatross a difficult problem, complex, and republicans seem to be scoring points right now with answers that appeal to people who want simplicity and ease. whether it's 9-9-9 or rick perry where we're going to hear tomorrow about his flat tax plan, these are very -- these sound very appealing. if it were that easy, someone would have solved it already. >> that's right. obviously, cain shot to the top of the polls with this slogan, 9-9-9 plan, that would simplify everything and everything, face it, taxes -- during your own taxes, thinking about the tax code is a daunting thing. people are looking for simplicity. we'll see rick perry come out tomorrow in south carolina ker and talk about this black tax plan he has. the tea party crowd love this. i've gone to several rallies, they talk about the flat tax, passing out brochures. he'll probably firm up support among that crowd. as we've seen with herman cain's plan, 9-9-9, the devil is in the details, to quote michele bachmann, and as you look at some of these plans, it looks like at least for middle class people, lower income people, at least for herman cain's plan it would be a tax increase. >> that tends to be the case with flat taxes, maggie, in general, because they tend to emphasize consumption and lower income earners use more for total consumption than higher income earners. we're not seeing a democratic alternative. there's a hunger for simplicity, lower taxes but simplicity and democrats haven't come up with something that competes with that. why not? >> herman cain is trying to explain 9-9-9 what is correctly described as slogan actually means. when you pick it apart they don't work. the democrats don't want to end up being in a race to the bottom in terms of details and having a plan kind of melt away. this is a big test for rick perry tomorrow, by the way. not just about his tax plan. it's about can he deliver a cohesive policy message. he's been off his key message, was supposed to be jobs. interesting to see if he can get back on it. >> great discussion. maggie, senior political writer with politico and nia with "the washington post." 48 after the hour. back in a moment. companies you're just a policy. at aviva, we're bringing humanity back to insurance and putting people before policies. aviva life insurance and annuities. we are building insurance around you. delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet they're closing thousands of offices, slashing service, and want to lay off over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it. 51 minutes past the hour. what you need to know to start your day. the death toll in turkey climbing to 264 overnight. 1,300 more injured and the government says both numbers are almost certain to rise after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake knocked down dozens of building in the eastern part of the knt yesterday. libyans are celebrating freedom as the country's transition to democracy begins. the national council officially declared the liberation from four decades of rule under moammar gadhafi. a better than 90% turnout in tunisia's first national elections since its independence 55 year ago. the country that launched the arab spring movement is eelecteding an assembly that will write a new constitution. a meeting set today between u.s. official and a north korean delegation in switzerland. the state department says it stems from discussions between north and south korea. the last full round of six-party talk was back in 2008. in the world series, the texas rangers beat the st. louis cardinals 4-0 to eastern the series at two games apiece. napoli's opener and holland's eight shutdown innings led the rangers. game tfive tonight in texas. that's the news you need to start your day. "american morning" is back after this. ♪ ♪ ♪ when the things that you need ♪ ♪ come at just the right speed, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ medicine that can't wait legal briefs there by eight, ♪ ♪ that's logistics. ♪ ♪ freight for you, box for me box that keeps you healthy, ♪ ♪ that's logistics. ♪ ♪ saving time, cutting stress, when you use ups ♪ ♪ that's logistics. ♪ we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. i tell you what i can spend. i do my best to make it work. i'm back on the road safely. and i saved you money on brakes. that's personal pricing. . 6 minutes after the hour. welcome back to "american morning." in the end, steve jobs maverick approach to life may have actually hastened his death. according to jobs biographer, the late apple ceo did everything he could to avoid traditional surgery were he first learned he had pancreatic cancer. the book hits book stores today. in an interview last night on "60 minutes" isaacson talked about the most important decision jobless to make and ultimately regretted. >> he tries to treat it with diet. goes to spiritualists, goes through various ways of doing it macrobionically and doesn't get an operation. >> why doesn't he get it operated on? >> i've asked him that. he said, i didn't want my body to be open. soon everybody is telling him, quit trying to treat it with all of these roots and vegetables and thing, jut get operated on, but does it nine months later. i think that he kind of felt that, if you ignore something, if you don't want something to exist, you can have magical thinking, and it had worked for him in the past. he regretted some of the decisions he made and certainly i think he felt he should have been operated on sooner. >> isaacson says jobs was very aware of his mortality in the last few years on his life and focused him more intensely on his work and led to some of his finist inventions. and game four in the world series. former president bush throwing out the first pish to nolan ryan who knows about throwing heat but not catching it. so the pitch goes off ryan's glove. oh, too bad. thankfully, no runners on base. rangers' manager ron washington in a very good mood. president bush and ryan laughed it off, too, thank goodness, and the rangers were all smiling last night. they went on to shutout the cardinals. i think the score was 4-0. >> i know ryan had a lot to do with bringing that team back pap good moment. feel-good moment at in the l. green bay packers charles woodson second interception of the game. look what happened. what after this that's good. hands the ball to a little girl in the front row. take a look, when you see her -- look at that. look at her face. smiling ear to ear. waving ultimately, waving like she's miss america. there we go. she is -- there in minnesota. she's a packer fan. probably for life now. >> lucky girl. possible break in the case of missing baby lisa who is the mysterious person who wandered out of the woods on the night she vanished? a new surveillance tape and lots of new questions. more in a moment. bitterly cold temperatures hampering search and rescue efforts in turkey. 264 people confirmed dead following the worst earthquake to hit that country in a decade. a report up ahead. a crash that claimed 50 lives including a pregnant woman and one person on the ground. today e-mail reveal that the pilot may not have been ready to fly. about the a mysterious person coming out of the woods in missouri. the figure caught on surveillance tape. could there be a link in the ditz appearance of baby lisa. and the hollywood industry, some of the biggest stars talking. president obama isn't the leading man some of them hope for on this "american morning." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good morning to you. it is monday, october 24th. welcome to "american morning." i'm ali velshi. >> and i'm alina cho. christine and care are off today. up first, a devastating 24 hours in eastern turkey. the body count and misery on the rise following yesterday's powerful 7.2 magnitude earthquake. dozens of buildings collapsed. at least 264 people confirmed dead. search teams are hampered by bitter cold temperatures as they try to find survivors under t s tonsen ctons of concrete. at the scene of the worst earthquake to hit turkey in the situation. diana mag nnay joins us. >> reporter: this country is used to earthquake. but 7.2 is a huge quake affecting this rural area of southeastern turkey, and i'm in a down here you can see search and rescuers are trying to find people in the wreckage. they've been using dogs, trying to hear knocking or screams, no one out of here alive at this point. of course, the red crescent and various other organizations are putting on huge efforts to try to get aid and relief to this part of turkey. particularly as you said because the evenings get so cold here. so tonight they're going to be sending 7,000 tents in for people who were made homeless by the quake and the hundred, thousands of others, who scared to go back to their own homes for fear of the fact that the foundations are unsolid now and the continued aftershocks that hit the region. there will be blankets in these two tent cities set up. tents for the specially designed for warm weather. mobile kitchens being brought in. huge cargo planes full of aid coming in from ankara to the region. efforts made to a country that understands how to deal with relief on this kind of front. you remember, ali, in 1999 there was a massive earthquake in a region in which 17,000 people died. again, a country that does understand the seismic fault line on which it stands, but as always, you know it is a struggle to deal with these situations. >> as you say, the turkish government saying they do have things under control. it's difficult, they feel they have the resources to deal with it. diana magnay in turkey. expecting a formal decision from 245nato when its military operation in libya will end. meantime, libyans may be experiencing liberation hangover so to speak this morning. wild celebrations across the country following yesterday's formal declaration of an end to 40 years of dictatorship under moammar gadhafi. there's also new video surfacing of gadhafi's final moments alive. it shows him being roughed up by his captors. autopsy results confirm that gadhafi died from a gunshot wound to the head. increasing speculation he may have been killed execution style rather than in the cross fire. a warning from hillary clinton to iran. don't even think about meddling in iraq. you u. all u.s. trooples will leave by the end of the year. republican senator john mccain insists it's the white house that isn't talking straight. >> it is viewed in the region as a victory for the iranians, and i don't think there's any doubt there is. >> we have a lot of presence in that region. so no one, most particularly iran, should miscalculate about our continuing commitment to and with the iraqis going forward. >> in an interview released saturday, iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad said his country has a very good relationship with iraq and he looks forward to seeing that relationship grow. president obama is rolling out a new plan as he begin as trip out west. the president's first stop, las vegas, ground zero for the housing crisis. no coincidence he's expected to announce new help for underwater homeowners today. at the white house with what else is in store, good morning, athena. >> reporter: good morning, ali. you know that nevada is ground zero for the housing crisis, and the housing market hasn't recovered. until it does it's going to continue to weigh down the economy, and so we don't have all the details of the plan, of course, but expect it to involve allowing feel refinance their mortgages. federally guaranteed loans allowing them to refinance no matter how fall in value their home has fallen. they may be deeply under water, places like arizona, nevada, other places hard-hit. the idea by the white house, one of the new strategy of trying to highlight what they call inaction. congressional inaction, republicans in congress, who have blocked the measures that they've tried to put forward to stimulate the economy. the job bill in particular, ali. >> all right. athena, we'll be watching closely to see what the president proposes an houd likely to get traction. weren't of the issues, the president is coming forward with proposals that are not likely to get traction in congress, as we saw with his jobs plan. that's got republicans, i guess, a little concerned as to whether or not this is campaigning for policy. >> reporter: certainly. the idea, these are executive actions. actions the federal government can take, that don't involve congress. of course, in many way, the kinds of things the federal government can do in terms of federally guaranteed loans, for instance, are going to be the kind of things that may tinker along the edges. action by congress would be a lot bigger, broader, go a lot further, but the white house says we can't wait. we're not going to stand by and do nothing. that's the idea, ali. >> good distinction. athena jones from washington. possibly break in the case of missing baby lisa in missouri. new surveillance video surfaced showing a mysterious person coming out of the woods on the night she disappeared. 11-month-old lisa irwin last seen three weeks ago. sandra endo joins us live this morning. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, al a alina. cnn ob deigned that surveillance video. it shows an unidentified person walking as 2:15 in the morning of october 4th. the day baby lisa irwin disappeared from her home and it's taken from a gas station less than a mile and a half away from her home, and so far authorities have not been commenting specifically on this video, but they say they are looking at all surveillance video from the surrounding area. now, this could be key, because speculation here is that this video could match witness testimony saying people saw a man walking in the dark carrying a baby in a diaper the morning of her disappearance. so clearly investigators are going to be looking at all the evidence here in this case. now, yesterday, alina, we saw an emotional deborah bradley, the mother of baby lisa, return here to their home, also with father jeremy irwin. family member, friends, neighbors, came out for a candlelight prayer vigil. this is the first time eawe've seen the couple in some time. therapy staying away from the spotlight. emotional outpouring from the community and surrounding area. everyone staying optimistic that baby lisa will return. >> sandra endo live this morning, thank you. a grenade going off in a night club in nairobi, kenya injuring at least a dozen people. authorities haven't linked the attack to any one group but comes a day after retaliation was warned by islamist militants in somalia now targeted by kenyan troops. kenya sent groups into somalia. in retaliation, they will attack kenyan targets. the kenyan embassy warned americans to be vigilant if visiting. a public memorial service for dan wheldon who died last week in a fiery 15-car crash at the las vegas speedway. fellow indycar drivers repped wheldon for his devotion to family and his practical joke. the series, best of three. cardinals beaten last night. the pivotal game tonight in arlington, texas. >> don't tell that to rob marciano. a big fan. >> baseball a couple months ago. hey, rob, good morning. what are you watching this morning? >> tell you, you can't ignore good baseball. even though the yanks are out of it, an exciting postseason. good morning. want to talk about what is not quite -- i guess you could consider this postseason for hurricane season, and we have had about six weeks maybe more of zilch in the way of axction. now we've got some. this is what is now tropical storm rina, developed off the coast of hon doduras. so we're expecting this to continue to strengthen and drift its way slowly towards the yucatan peninsula and cancun potentially becoming a category 1 storm not by tomorrow but day after tomorrow, by the time it gets there by saturday and likely into the gulf of mexico. some computer models bring it to south florida as we get towards the beginning of next week. tracking this very, very closely. same spot that wilma developed six years ago and maybe will have the same track. this storm, cluster of storms heading through detroit. a couple of fronts moving off towards the east. this second one is going to be, well, kind of cranking up a little snow as we get towards the rockies and wyoming. tuesday and wednesday, winter storm watches posted over a foot of snow expected about 7,000 or 8,000 feet. that's wednesday. how about today? 81 degrees expected in denver, colorado today. by the time we get to wednesday, temperatures won't get out of the 30s. it's that time of year. 61 degrees expected in new york city. 72 degrees in atlanta after a chilly start. gorgeous fall weather for a lot of folk over the weekend, and that trend continues looks like today. >> put on a jacket this morning. >> feels good. >> yeah. >> fall is here. thank you, rob. >> all right. still to come this morning, she no longer an a-lister in hollywood. the president has more critics there than when he first took office. we'll tell you who's not likely to contribute to his re-election campaign when we come back. plus, an autobiography of steve jobs hits stores this week. and icon of american country music cancels part of her tour. an update on the health of loretta lynn. you're watching "american morning." it is 12 minutes after the hour. . and that means you're ready for whatever the day brings. unlike ordinary toothpaste, you feel a 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[ woman on radio, indistinct ] on every purchase, every day. ♪ bum-bum ♪ bum-bum, bum-bum, bum-bum ♪ ♪ ai, ai, ai ♪ bum-bum ♪ bum-bum, bum-bum ♪ [ ice rattles rhythmically ] ♪ [ imitates guitar noise ] the redesigned, 8-passenger pilot. smarter thinking. from honda. welcome back to "american morning." there are new questions today about whether the pilot behind the controls in a deadly 2009 plane crash near buffalo, new york, could handle the plane that he was flying. lawyers for the victims' families released e-mails from colgan air that they call a smoking gun that showed the airline had concerns about the pilot's ability. 50 people died in the fiery crash. our deb feyerick is live in atlanta with more on the story. deb, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, alina. six months before this terrible crash, supervisors at colgan air were actually going over a list of pilots they considered ready to fly this new fleet of q400 turbo problem planes. when the capital renslow's name came up. how about renslow. there's something in the back of my mind, writes the vp of operations. the chief pilot answers, yes, you're correct. renslow had a problem upgrading. that means moving to the next level. the vp replies, anyone that does not mean the mines, the minimum requirements is not ready to handle the q400. the chief pilot writes back, he's already off the list. several families are suing the air line saying pilot renslow was unqualified to fly the plane. it is their lawyer who released these e-mails. the investigation by the ntsb as the time did find that captain renslow never received hands-on experience with the safety system in the q400 calmed a stick psher, which activates to prevent the plane from stalling. when the plane began slowing too quickly, the safety board found the pilot reacts fld a way suggesting he was startled and confused, pulled back on the column rather than press forward essentially dooming that plane. now, pinnacle airlines, colgan's parent company, defends its pilot saying only after fully satisfied captain renslow was ready to transition to the q400 aircraft was he allowed to begin q400 training. renslow was faa qualified but failed five tests that he did not disclose his employer. the ntsb blamed this terrible crash that claimed the lives of 50 people, blamed the cash on pilot error. >> deb feyerick. thank you. an attorney representing five families of the victims joins us. thank you for joining us. you heard deb's report there. these e-mails that have come out were exchanged months before the crash. colgan air says that ultimately the pilot was certified, that he had more than 172 hours of formal training on the aircraft. are these e-mails really the smoki smoking gun that you say they are? >> well, i don't like the metaphor particularly, because 50 people died, the e-mails are incredibly significant. they show us two things. first, they show us that just months before the crash, the highest levels of colgan management knew that the captain was not qualified to fly this plane, and yet they put him in the plane anyway. the other thing they show us more generally is that colgan, as part of its regular business practices, sacrificed safety for profit. >> so, mr. ross, what more could colgan air have done, if they say that the pilot was trained and ready to fly this q400 aircraft, you know, what could they have done differently? they retested him. he was trained. what would you have changed? >> there are a couple of things i would have changed. one, i would have changed his training, and we would request and i know the families have lobbied to enact legislation that would require more training. the analogy i sometimes use is, you can't learn to drive a car by watching a video. essentially, they showed him a video on how to recover from stalls. you need active hands-on training where you practice stalls. the airlines did not do that. the other thing i would say is that just because you pass a test once doesn't make you qualified. you can -- the airlines take the position that you could fail a test five, six, any number of time. pass it on one good day and you're qualified. that's just wrong. >> the ntsb, i must say, you know this very well, did cite pilot error. did say the decision that the pilot renslow made in a moment of crisis ultimately doomed the aircraft. even the president and ceo of pinnacle airlines which owns colgan air came out with a statement, actually spoke to a senate hearing back in 2009 saying in part, "had we known what we know now, no, he would not have been in that pilot's seat." having said all of this, you know, releasing e-mails in this manner is something that the airline calls a trial by media. how do you respond to that? >> i would respond to that by saying the goal of the families in these cases is not simply to embarrass colgan or continental, its regional partner. the goal is to change airline safety so that flights are safe. the goal of the families is to avoid this kind of crash ever happening again. only by bringing these e-mails to the light of day can we meet that goal. >> the attorney of family of the crash victims of the colgan flight. >> thank you for having me. just when things were looking good, gas prices are going up again. what's costing more? we'll tell you after the break. and the guarantee that may have the north pole shaking. what's that about? we'll tell you. it's 21 minutes after the hour. you can't change the way banking works. just accept it, man. free ? doesn't close at five ? try nature. it's a bank. what do you want, a hug ? just accept it. hidden fees, fine print, or they'll stick it to you some other way. stay with the herd, son. accept it. just accept it. accept it. just accept it. accept it. if we miss this movie, you're dead. if you're stuck accepting banking nonsense, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet they're closing thousands of offices, slashing service, and want to lay off over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it. 2 after the hour. "minding your business" this morning. u.s. markets poised to open flat this morning. this week it's all about the eurozone debt crisis, another big batch of corporate earnings reports and that closely watched u.s. third quarter gdp report. that comes out thursday. a fresh look at how fast the economy is growing here in the united states. on wednesday, europe's top leaders are expected to announce a final agreement on a plan to fix that region's financial problems. all 27 heads of eu countries met over the weekend to hash out a deal. investors were feeling optimistic about the deal and progress is being made in europe. that helped fuel a 267 point rally on the dow friday. gas prices jumping 5 cents in the past week. down 25 cents in the earlier part of the month. analysts are blaming the jump on a slight increase in oil prices as well as a big spike in the cost of ethanol. a component of the gas you buy at the pump. walmart getting more competitive with holiday shopping. the retail giant launched a christmas price guarantee program this morning. 2 works like this -- if you buy something at walmart find it cheaper somewhere else you wet get a gift card for the difference if you can prove it. and a new survey of customer service reps shows employees who started the day in a good mood were more productive at the office. those who started off the day if a bad mood were 10% less protective throughout the day. don't forget, for the latest news about your money check out all-new cnnmoney.com. "american morning" back right after the break. sun life financialrating should be famous.d bad, we're working on it. so you're seriously proposing we change our name to sun life valley. do we still get to go skiing? sooner or later, you'll know our name. sun life financial. it's true. you never forget your first subaru. 29 minutes after hour. time for your top stories -- just revealed e-mail, just released e-mails, revealed the pilot ever a colgan plane that crashed near buffalo two years ago wasn't qualified to fly that type of plane. 50 people died in the crash. e-mails released showed the airlines had concern about the pilot's ability well before the crash. and a 7.2 magnitude earthquake devastated the eastern part of turkey yesterday. rescue efforts hampered by freezing temperatures. the search groups tried to reach thousands of buildings that collapsed. and in response to a credible threat against the ambassador to syria. no word when he'll be able to return to syria. floods may force the command center to move out. some in temporary shelters are being told to move again. meantime, officials sandbagging and using dams to avert the water, or try to. costs, up to $6 billion. nationwide the flooding killed 3 3 366 people. and conrad murray's defense team goes on the attack trying to prove michael jackson was responsible for his own death. and congresswoman gabrielle giffords continues her recovery in north carolina. she i rive e arrived in ashevil yesterday. she was shot in the head in january in tucson. country music legend loretta lynn is in the hospital with pneumonia, forced to cancel a portion of her tour. best known for the song "coal miner's daughter." reports say she is doing well and will be ready for upcoming concerts next month. and is president obama's star in hollywood falling faster than lindsay lohan's? some of the president's latest reviews. ♪ >> reporter: in 2008 hollywood stars firmly embraced barack obama. lately, they've been loosening their grip, disillusioned by his actions in the office. >> i no longer hope for audacity. >> reporter: matt damon once a big backer has become one of his most vocal critics telling cnn piers morgan. >> he's a brill yept guy, but i definitely wanted more and i believed in was more there. >> reporter: dame ain cueses him of bowing to corporate america. so does singer melissa etheridge. >> mr. obama, good luck to you. i still know who he answers to, some powerful corporations. >> reporter: harry belafonte finds much to fault in the president's leadership. >> only listened to the voices -- and the reckless right wing forces. it's almost criminal. >> reporter: now some stars are telling the obama bashers to back off. on hln joy behar show, martin sheen had a couple of words for the president's critics. >> steady. steady. >> reporter: sheen argued the president deserves hollywood's full support. >> you're talking about very special man. i adore him and i think he's done a great job. >> reporter: ditto kris kristofferson. >> the best thing since kennedy. >> reporter: some celebs put their support in written form, as in a check. in recent months the obama re-election campaign got 10 grand from steven spielberg and wife kate capshaw. tom hanks and wife rita wilson equalled that, michael douglas chipped in 2 grand. >> why are you taking a picture? >> reporter: and will ferrell, 10 k and may help the president carry hollywood, the only democrat in the race. >> he's going to probably run against a very conservative republican, who's just not going to be that palatable to the vast majority of people in the entertainment business. >> reporter: so while some stars may voice complaints about obama -- >> i for one would like to see him be a little bolder. be a little more outspoken about the eschews that we voted him in for. >> reporter: come election time, they may return to the fold. kareen wynter, cnn, hollywood. in the current that gave birth to the arab spring, think back. history in the making. voters in tunisia turning out for a national election. more than 90% of registered voters went to the polls. next door in libya, declaring liberation from gadhafi and the beginning of the transition to democracy. joining us now from tunis where she helped monitor the election is former california congresswoman jane harmon, now director, president and ceo of the woodrow wilson center. good to see you. good morning. thank you for joining us. >> good morning. >> let's talk about this. we were just talking to ivan watson earlier. he said people seemed very excited about this election. it's the first in a very long time in tunisia. i have to say, when we hear about 90% of voter turnout, that's happened in new democracies, it certainly does give us pause and makes wonder how do you feel about how fair this election has been? >> well, let's understand first that bloody libya is just next door. the death of gadhafi was days ago, and that transition was totally violent. this transition, aside from the sad immolation from a fruit vendor which started everything, has been totally peaceful. no compulsory voting. look at the headlines. a local paper, this was yesterday. [ speaking in foreign language ] that means i vote, therefore i am. and today's headline -- the people that voted democracy triumphed. people wanted to come out to this election. people believed the procedures were fair and they were fair. i've observed -- this is my fifth election before and after my career in congress, and i saw these long line. i saw these ballot boxes which were clear, which were shut tight with little tabs in my presence, and were opened in the presence of observers and the ballots counted on site. they weren't transported in black vans. nobody -- nothing disappeared. nothing was lost. there were no ghost voters. the voters were the actual people who showed up and who voted around the world. people from my hometown of los angeles voted last week and their votes were counted, too. this is probably, the elections i've seen in latin america and central europe and now here, probably the best aren't elections with a result that will be widely accepted, and it's important to understand that the islamist party, which may take a plurality offy votes played by these rules and claims that it will participate in a plurality and help govern by consensus. a very different message than we've heard anywhere else in the world. >> we're hoping by the examples set in tunisia, you point the out at the beginning are examples that will follow through. others saw a great more violence and loss of life in the arab spring and we're still seeing that happening. is it possible, can this move on? some sense the optimism and now the embrace of democracies that is taking hold in tunisia can spread to neighboring libya? >> well, let's hope so. the libyan elections are eight months from now, or the beginning of the elections. eight months from now, and it's been a bloody transition. the economy is stalled. there's a lot that libya has to do in eight months. the first egyptian election is at the end of november. i'm headed to egypt today and will know a lot more about that in the next couple of days, but tunisia has set a marker here pap marker for what you do from a standing start. they had nothing going on here except two decades of autocratic corrupt rule. nine months ago. nine months ago. this is how you do a fair election. this is how people participate, and this is how you open if to the world to see it while its happening. >> back when we were talking about u.s. involvement in libya you wrote in march that, tunisia is a different story. other than setting off the arab spring, most people didn't know anything about tunisia before this. we did know about libya, about syria, about iran, about pakistan. you had written back then that the president, when he first addressed libya, did not put it into the context of a larger transformation taking place in the united states, include, by the way, yemen. places that really pose strategic threats to the safety of the world and there's still instability going on there. there are criticisms the president was leading from behind. what's onsense of u.s. policy in the middle east? greater consistenty? should there be greater assistanty to it? -- consistency to it? >> i would argue there should be greater consistency to it. one size does not fit all. tunisia has no history of tribal government and it was a fairly successful economy, and women have more modern receipts than anywhere else in the arab world. someone said this morning, they have feminism without feminists, but -- and they have the right to divorce and custody of their children and there's even a right to abortion in this country, which is unprecedented in this part of the world. what i was talking about is the u.s. -- you know, there are two sets of interests we have. one are moral interests and the others, our strategic interests. tunisia and libya do not threaten u.s. strategic interests the way yemen and syria do, and i was concerned we were spending too many resources and too much time on the libya transition which did, i have to say, turn out well with the assistance of nato, which we participated in, and too little time on yemen and syria. i think now that the libya transition is over in part, the goal will be to have fair elections in libya and egypt, but to work on stability in yemen, which still has the old leader, saleh still in power, though he says had will transition, and syria which i think is responsible for a brutal crackdown on its people and where the government is digging in even harder. the message from tunisia to the whole arab world has to be, we know how to do this. democracy can work here. now this fledgling government obviously has to be stood up and governed, and that's the challenge, too, but if an islamist party, which will get a plurality of the votes here, can build a, help build a democratic society, playing by the rules, this is something we have never seen, and this is something that i hope our government is watching closely, and will welcome to the extent that it really is a democracy here and that the rules of government are transparent and it's tolerant of all the people who live here. >> representative jane harmon. good to. see speak to you. your enthusiasm is infectious. let's hope this is infectious in the best sense of the world. president of the woodrow wilson center, former democratic represent from california. >> good for her. still to come, a rare look inside the life of steve jobs. you will hear from a hand-picked biographer on what he gleaned from some 40 interviews with a man who many say changed the world. what's more torrent to you? saving for your kids' college education or your retirement? a new way to save for both. we will tell you coming up. you are watching "american morning." cut! 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[ male announcer ] write your story with the new citi simplicity card. no late fees. no penalty rate. no worries. get started at citisimplicity.com. welcome back to "american morning." we're getting a rare inside look at the life of the late apple ceo steve jobs. according to biographer walter isaacson jobs was incredibly demanding, a work ethic unparalleled. his authorized biography hits bookstores today. he shed light on what made jobs weren't of the greatest in our generation of innovation. >> steve taught his son steve how to make great things. and he -- once they were building a fence. he said, you've got to make the back of the fence that nobody will see just as good looking at the front of the fence. even though nobody will see it, you will know, and that will show that you're dedicated to making something perfect. he talked a lot to me about what happened when he got sick, and how it focused him. he said he no longer wanted to go out, travel the world. he would focus on the products. he knew the couple of things he wanted to do, which was the iphone and then the ipad. he had a few other ideas i think whoa have loved to have conquered television. make an easy to uses television set. he had those things but he started focusing on his family again as well. and it was a painful, brutal struggle, and he would talk often to me about the pain. >> isaacson's book is based on more than 40 interviews with jobs and over 100 interviewers with friends, family members and colleague. jobs authorized book but asked for month control over what was written in it. this book was rushed out. it was done. >> it was. and it's coming out 2 1/2 or so week after his death. interesting is that in one of the final interviews apparently he said to walter isaacson the anger, he said, am i going it like this book? all parts of it? he said probably parts you won't like. >> you heard some of those. >> and he said, i'm not going to read it right away. maybe six months or a year from now. interesting now. >> walter isaacson captured the idea he was demanding and demanding of everybody else, and that didn't come across well people. said, he's a human being. we're not all perfect and certainly he wasn't, but, boy, did he change the world. >> yeah. saving for your retirement or your child's college tuition is a tough decision many parents are forced to make. what do you do? it doesn't have to be that difficult. our christine romans shows us the trick in this week's "smart is the new rich." >> most aren't saving enough for college or starting early enough. easy to see why. you're already spending $227,000 to raise a kid from birth to 18. this, according to the usda. up 40% since 2000. that doesn't include the cost of college. that's another $21,000 for a private four-year college room and board every year. the debate shouldn't be, is college worth it. it should be, how are you going to pay for it in a smart way? a according to the government, a worker with a college degree makes more than $1 million more than a high school graduate over the course of their lifetime. the average rate of graduation, 4.3%. >> like a lie school degree, you really absolutely need the degree, but what are you going to do with it and how are you going to pay for it is really, the important question. >> time is your best friend. eve's saving a little when your kid is in diaper, is better than taking out boatloads of loans later. 529 plans help you do thiss with tax break in some states. you don't have to save for all of the college and you shouldn't. you should save for your retirement, too, don't forget. recommending saving one-third, borrowing one-third with student loans and getting stollerships ap grants for the final third. the research fine dot org has this rule of thumb. don't borough more in loans than the graduate is expected to earn in the first year of working. an engineer can tolerate more than a social worker paid let's. choose the right school for finances and ambition. community college, state school or private liberal arts college only if you can afford it. for more on how to save for college and retirement at the very same time, check out the new book "smart is the new rich," christine romans, new york. >> good seeing christine, even when she's not here. the effect of epa comes long before baby bottles. we'll tell you the new risks connected to a chemical. it's 48 after the hour. in america, we believe in a future that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one. together, for your future. ♪ here's what you need to know to start your day. the death toll in turkey is rising to 264 overnight and is almost certain to rise again. after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake caused dozens of buildings to collapse on sunday. libyans are celebrating their freedom as the count radioey's transition to democracy begins. the national transitional council officially declared the country's liberation from four decades of rule under moammar gadhafi. new emails released in a lawsuit suggests that colorado began airli -- colgan airlines was concerned about the pilot well before a crash that killed a number of passengers. a search for a missouri girl for three weeks. new video shows a person coming out of a wooded area on the same night that lisa irwin disappeared. and a steady stream of accolades for actor will ferrell, who was honored at the kennedy center in washington yesterday, with a mark twain prize. that's america's top humor award. ferrell accepted the honor after performances by conan o'brien and tina fey. you're caught up on the day's headlines. "american morning" is back in 60 seconds. welcome back to "american morning" on this monday, october 24. bpa is a chemical that can be found in everything from water bottles to cans of peas, and it could be causing behavioral problems in kids. a study in the journal "pediatrics" found that toddlers exposed to higher bpa levels before they were born had worse behavior at age 3 than the kids that didn't. >> our senior medical correspondent is here now. where does one get exposed? how does a toddler, somebody who's not even born, get exposed to bpa? >> ali, if you tested any of us, we would most likely have bpa in our system. so what happens is pregnant women get bpa. and i'll show you in a minute the products. and then that goes to their unborn child. those fetuses are so small that the concentrations can be quite large and can affect that child later on. let's take a look at what bpa is in. bpa is a chemical that is in a lot of plastics. so for example, it's in like a food plastic, like this. or a plastic like this. now it's also in the lining of many tin cans. so you can't see it, but inside this tin can is a plastic lining, and often those linings have bpa in them. bpa is also sometimes found in water bottles like these. it is very, very hard to avoid. and some people get more of it than others. >> so, elizabeth, you know, i would say that eating fresh fruits and vegetables is probably one solution. but what else can mothers do to try to avoid this? >> ok. let's talk first about why they should avoid it. what this study found is that the moms who had the most bpa in their system were much more likely to give birth to girls who by age 3 had behavior problems. again, it was just girls, probably because bpa affects a woman -- affects the hormones, and maybe that's why it affects girls more. but the moms who got the most bpa when they were pregnant, those little girls by the time they were 3 were much more likely to have things like autism, adhd, anxiety, and depression. so let's go over a couple of things that you can do in order to try to avoid bpa. as i said, it's actually pretty hard to do. the first thing you want to do is flip over that plastic, and what you're going to find -- what you should find is a number. you want to avoid a 3 or a 7 on plastics. also, if you can, avoid canned food. i know that's really hard to do. but if you want to really be an empowered patient and do what you can, avoid canned food when you're pregnant. also, dispose of bpa plastic that has scratches. so for example, if you've been drinking out of a bottle of water, try not to re-use that bottle of water if you think that there are scratches on the inside. the scratches make it easier for the bpa to leach out and get into your system. and also, don't microwave plastics that have bpa in them because that also makes it easier for the bpa to leach out. now i don't want anyone to think that, you know, one swig out of a bolt of water, if that bottle has bpa in it, is going to condemn your child to having some terrible problem. it's a cumulative thing. it's sort of the little things you do every day. >> does this matter for adults? >> you know, there are some studies that do show that it matters for adults, ali, but it's much more of a concern for children and it's even more of a concern for fetuses, because basically we're just talking about size. the smaller you are, the more it's going to affect you. >> all right, elizabeth. thank you. still to come this morning, the manslaughter trial for dr. conrad murray is about to enter a crucial phase. will there be more fireworks? also, hertz terminates more than two dozen muslim drivers after they refuse to clock out during daily prayer breaks. we'll speak to the union rep. you're watching "american morning." it's 57 minutes after the hour. when you have diabetes... your doctor will say get smart about your weight. i tried weight loss plans... but their shakes aren't always made for people with diabetes. that's why there's new glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. and they have 6 grams of sugars. with 15 grams of protein to help manage hunger... look who's getting smart about her weight. 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odds on this "american morning." good morning. it's 8:00 in the east. monday, october 24. welcome to "american morning." i'm ali veshi. >> good morning. christine and carol have the day off. up first, a horrible day in eastern turkey where the death count is on the rise following yesterday's devastating 7.2 earthquake. dozens of buildings have collapsed. at least 264 people are confirmed dead with search teams hampered by bitter cold temperatures as they try to find survivors under concrete and rubble. now the hardest-hit area is the town of ercis. let's go there. >> reporter: this is a country that is used to earthquakes. but as you say, 7.2 magnitude, this was a huge quake affecting this quite poor area, rural area, of southeastern turkey. and i'm in the town of ercis. here behind me you can see one of the sites where search and rescue workers are continuing to try and find people in the rubble. but today, so far no one has been brought out of there alive. they have been using dogs. they have been using sound checks to see if they can hear any knocking or any screams. but as i said, no one out of here alive at this point. and of course, the red crescent and various other aid organizations are putting on a huge effort to try and get aid and relief to this part of turkey. particularly as you have said because the evenings get so cold here. so tonight, they are going to be sending 7,000 tents in for people who were made homeless by the quake. also for the hundreds and thousands of other people who are too scared to go back to their own homes for fear of the fact that the foundations are unsolid now, and the continued aftershocks that hit the region. there will be blankets in these two tent cities that are being set up. there are tents that are ecially designed for warm weather. mobile kitchens being brought in. huge cargo planes full of aid coming in to the region. so huge efforts being made for a country that understands how to deal with relief on this kind of front. because you remember, ali, in 1999 there was a massive earthquake in which 17,000 people died. so again, this is a country that does understand the seismic fault lines on which it stands. but as always, you know it is a struggle to deal with these kinds of situations. libya is taking its first big step toward democracy. the new leaders officially declaring the country's liberation just days after the death of moammar gadhafi. the official announcement came in benghazi, where the revolution began. meantime, there are new questions about gadhafi's death. an autopsy says he was killed by a gunshot wound to the head. but there are no details on just how it happened. >> cnn's dan rivers is going to be with us in just a moment. but a warning from hillary clinton to iran, don't even think about meddling in iraq, now that president obama has announced that all u.s. troops will be leaving iraq by the end of the year, there's growing concern that iran will try to exploit a void and expand its reach there. that would be a mistake, according to the secretary of state. but republican senator john mccain insists that the white house isn't thinking straight. >> it is viewed in the region as a victory for the iranians. and i don't think there's any doubt there is. >> we have a lot of presence in that region. so no one, most particularly iran, should miscalculate about our continuing commitment to and with the iraqis going forward. in an interview released saturday, iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad said his country has a very good relationship with iraq, and he looks forward to seeing that relationship grow. want to get an update now from the libyan capital. dan rivers is there on really what is an historic time in libya. in the days following the death of moammar gadhafi. and they have just declared that they are moving toward democracy in the next two years. dan, what is the latest from where you are? >> looks like we just lost the connection to dan on the phone. but we will be on that -- all right. we'll come back to that story in a moment. also new this morning, a grenade explodes in a nightclub in nairobi, kenya. about a dozen people were hurt. authorities haven't linked the attack to any one group, but it comes a day after the u.s. embassy in kenya warned of retaliation by islamist militants in somalia, who are now being targeted by kenyan troops. an iranian man accused of plotting the murder of the saudi ambassador to the united states will be arraigned today. police say he tried to hire hitmen to bomb a restaurant that the saudi ambassador would be dining in. and this could be the final week of testimony in the manslaughter trial of michael jackson's doctor, conrad murray. court will be back in session in just a few minutes. ted rolands will tell us what we can expect today and later this week. when court resumes, steven shafer will still be on the stand. he testified last week for the prots cushion. this is the prosecution's most important witness. they are just finishing up with him. what he has been able to do is establish for the jury what the prosecution believes happened the night michael jackson died. after he's off the stand, the defense will start its case in chief, and we expect to hear among others from some character witnesses. these are going to be dr. murray's patients from las vegas and houston. they will come in and tell the jury that he's not such a bad guy, in fact he's been a fantastic doctor for them. then the most important witness will take the stand for the defense. dr. paul white. he is basically the counter to the prosecution's expert on propofol. white and dr. steven shafer are actually colleagues, and white is going to be paramount for the defense. he will have to answer the questions that were raised by shafer and the prosecution. we expect he'll take the stand either wednesday or thursday, and we expect that he will be the defense's last witness, unless -- and we don't expect it -- they bring dr. conrad murray to the stand. bottom line, the case should end up if murray doesn't take the stand at the end of the week. ted rowlands, cnn, los angeles. police arrested 130 people over the weekend at an occupy chicago protest. protesters were taken into custody for being in grant park after hours. more than 1,000 demonstrators packed the park until police ordered everyone to leave. those who didn't were taken into custody. a public memorial everything is to celebrate the life of two-time indy 500 winner dan wheldon who died last week in a fiery 15-car crash at the las vegas speedway. fellow indycar drivers remembered wheldon for his devotion to family and also his practical jokes. and the world series now a best of three. the texas rangers beat the st. louis cardinals 4-0 last night to even the series at two games apiece. the pivotal game five tonight in arlington, texas. and it's a girl. french first lady carla bruni sarkozy heads home with the newest family addition. her name is julia. she gave birth on wednesday, and was released from the hospital over the weekend. president nicolas sarkozy was in brussels for a summit of european leaders. little julia is the first baby born to a sitting french president. >> huh. you would have thought there would have been another one, but there you go. hertz is terminating more than two dozen muslim drivers for refusing to clock out for prayer breaks. now the drivers union is fighting back. we'll speak to them after this break. never goes out ♪ ♪ and the sky is deep and blue ♪ ♪ won't you take me american flight 280 to miami is now ready for boarding. ♪ there with you fly without putting your life on pause. be yourself. nonstop. american airlines. up first, new questions about whether the pilot of a doomed flight was fit to be in charge of that aircraft. new emails suggests the pilot of the colgan airlines commuter jet that crash the near buffalo two years ago may not have been ready to fly that type of plane. the crash claimed 50 lives. 49 people on the plane and one person in the house it crashed into. emails reveal that the airline had concerns about the pilot's ability months before the crash. earlier on "american morning," we talked to hugh russ, who represents five of the families. >> they show us two things. first, they show us that just months before the crash, the highest levels of colgan management knew that the captain was not qualified to fly this plane, and yet they put him in the plane anyway. the other thing they show us more generally, is that colgan as part of its regular business practices sacrificed safety for profit. essentially, they showed him a video on how to recover from stalls. you need active hands-on training where you practice stalls. the airlines did not do that. >> the ntsb determined that the crash was caused by pilot error. russ says their intent isn't to embarrass the airline but to improve airline safety. a possible break in the case of missing baby lisa in missouri. there's new video surfacing showing a mysterious person coming out of the woods on the night she disappeared. 11-month-old lisa irwin was last seen nearly three weeks ago. sandra endo is following the story for us and joins us live from kansas city with more on that. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. that's right. cnn has obtained that surveillance video from a gas station less than a mile and a half from baby lisa's home, and it shows an unidentified person walking down the street at around 2:15 a.m. on october 4. that is the day she went missing. now authorities, the fbi and police, are not commenting specifically on this video, but they say they have all of the surveillance video from this surrounding area. and of course the investigation is ongoing. but the speculative part around this video is that it could match witness testimony saying that people saw a man walking in the dark carrying a baby in diapers the morning of her disappearance. of course, they are finding a lot of leads in this case, and are investigating every possible scenario. now yesterday we saw an emotional deborah bradley, the mother of lisa irwin, arrive here to the home, especially in the arms of friends, family members, and neighbors, breaking down for a special prayer vigil held in front of their home. and this is the first time we've seen her in quite some time because the parents have been staying just a short drive from here with relatives. and the message yesterday evening at this vigil was they are remaining hopeful that baby lisa will return. >> sandra, you know, what is the latest on the search for her? i heard that there was some cadaver dogs in the area that were searching, and picked up a human scent or something of that nature. what are you hearing about that? >> reporter: yeah. that was according to a police affidavit for a search warrant. last monday, that is when they say a cadaver dog made a positive hit on the scent of a dead body inside the bedroom of deborah bradley. so police went ahead, got a search warrant. they had an extensive 17-hour search inside the home on wednesday. inside the home and around the area, actually. but a lawyer for the parents says that when she went back inside the home later in the week, they didn't find a lot missing. and police did take some of the baby's clothing, blankets, and toys. obviously, the investigation is ongoing. they're going to look at that evidence for forensic and also perhaps use it to further their search. >> sandra, thanks so much. in kansas city following that search for us. it is 15 minutes after the hour. rob marsian oh watching the weather situation for us. good morning. looking at our next tropical storm. it's been about two months since we've had any action in the trops. right now winds of 40 miles an hour. this is 8:00 this morning. tropical storm rina. we do expect it to intensify. waters are really toasty. this is the favorite spot to see these things development. and right now we're thinking it will go towards cancun as we get towards the weekend potentially as a category 1 storm or greater. and some of the other models bring it into the gulf of mexico beyond that, potentially very wilma like track, which is what we had about six years ago heading into south florida. obviously, we're still far off from that. but just want to keep you informed on that, if you live in south florida. keep it tuned right here. buffalo back to cleveland, a weak front coming across the great lakes. one of two fronts. and this one will kind of bring in some cold air to interact with this guy. and we'll see temperatures that will kind of flip flop in a hurry out across parts of the central planes. temperatures today in denver 81 degrees. by the time wednesday rolls around, we'll likely be down into the 30s with the potential of seeing some snow. as a matter of fact, winter storm watches have been posted, and they do include denver proper. could see a few inches of snow there. obviously, higher amounts as you go up in elevations. six to 12 inches expected above the 7,000 foot mark. game five tonight, that series all tied up. 73 degrees in arlington. shouldn't see any problems with weather. should be perfect. clear skies with a light north wind. and as far as that satellite, the second of two that have come crashing down to the earth in the past couple of months, it came crashing down late saturday and early sunday morning. and it was over southeast asia. we think parts of it hit in the indian ocean, potentially some of it in mainland china. but it hit anybody or anything within civilization, we would have heard about it by now. so right now, we're thinking all is clear until further notice from our second satellite. and guess what, guys? no more satellites scheduled to come crashing back to earth until further notice. >> nice. it's enough. >> good to know. >> i don't pay a lot of attention as to whether i should dress a certain way the next morning, i walk out and say, it's raining or it's cold. i don't want to find out that way about a satellite coming down. i'm going to start listening to you more so than i already do. >> snow coming in the denver area. i smell a ski trip, rob. >> at least some investigative reporting. >> that's exactly what i meant. >> see you later, rob. thank you. still to come this morning, banks have an image problem. a new survey showing the extreme level of distrust in the financial system right now. and wal-mart's new holiday shopping guarantee that may have the north pole shaking. what's that about? we will tell you. it is 19 minutes after the hour. so if i didn't know better i'd say you're having some sort of big tire sale. yes we are. yeah. how many tires does ford buy every year? over 3 million. you say you can beat any advertised price on tires? correct. anywhere? yes. like this price? yes. riously? yes what about this one? i'll beat it. this one? s we will. right, i only have one more question for you...this one? (laughing) yeah. get $100 rebate when you buy four tires. 100 bucks! only at your ford dealer. 3 million tires. 11 major brands, fiona's kind-of-nice. i don't know why you're not here. fortunately... there's senokot-s® tablets. senokot-s®. for occasional constipation associated with certain medications. now you can save big on senokot-s® tablets! go to senokot-s.com. consumers er wanchai ferry orange chicken... over p.f. chang's home menu orange chicken women men and uh pandas... elbows mmm [ male announcer ] wanchai ferry, try it yourself. fore! no matter what small business you are in, managing expenses seems to... get in the way. not anymore. ink, the small business card from chase introduces jot an on-the-go expense app made exclusively for ink customers. custom categorize your expenses anywhere. save time and get back to what you love. the latest innovation. only for ink customers. learn more at chase.com/ink 21 minutes after the hour. u.s. markets are poised to open flat this morning, up only slightly. this week, it will be all about the eurozone debt. and that closely watched u.s. third quarter gdp report. that comes out on thursday. economists are forecasting that the economy in the third quarter, the third three months of this year, grew at a rate of 2.2%. that's better than the previous quarter when it grew at 1.3%. and on wednesday, europe's top leaders are expected to announce a final agreement on a plan to fix that region's financial problems. all 27 heads of the eu met over the weekend to hash out a deal. investors feel optimistic about this deal and that progress is being made. that helped fuel a more than 2% rally on the dow on friday. a new survey shows only 23% of americans say they trust a country's financial system. that's down by a few percentage points since june. also, nearly 60% said they are angry or very angry about the current economic climate. a level of outrage not seen since the financial crisis in 2008. gas prices jumped five cents in the past week. they were down 25 cents in the earlier part of the month. analysts are blaming the jump on a slight increase in oil prices as well as a big spike in the cost of ethanol. and wal-mart getting more competitive with holiday shopping much the retail giant launched a christmas price guarantee program this morning. how it works? if you buy something at wal-mart and find it cheaper somewhere else, you get a gift card for the difference if you can prove it. start your day off with a smile, because it could help you out at work. a new survey of customer service reps shows that employees who started the day in a good mood were more productive at the office. those who started off the day in a bad mood were 10% less productive throughout the day. don't forget for the latest news about your money, check out the all new cnnmoney.com. "american morning" is back right after the break. ♪ it's true. you never forget your first subaru. welcome back to "american morning." saving for retirement or your child's college tuition? what do you do? it's a tough decision many parents are forced to make. but it doesn't have to be that difficult. christine romans shows us the trick in this week's "smart is the new rich." most of us aren't saving enough for college or starting early enough. it's easy to see why. you are already spending $227,000 to raise a kid from birth to 18, up 40% since 2000. and that doesn't include the cost of college. that's another $21,000 for a private four-year college, room and board every year. the debate shouldn't be is college worth it, it should be how are you going to pay for it and in a smart way. a worker with a college degree will make more than $1 million more than a high school graduate over their lifetime. and the unemployment rate for college graduates is only 1.4%. >> this country will require that college degree like a high school degree. you really absolutely need the degree. but what are you going to do with it, and how are you going to pay for it, is the important question. >> time is your best friend. even saving a built when your kid is in diapers is better than taking out boatloads of loans now. there are tax breaks for the investments in some states. but you don't have to save for all of the college, and you shouldn't. you should save for your retirement too, don't forget. it's recommended to save 1/3, borrowing 1/3 in student loans, and then getting scholarships and grants for the final 1/3. the resource fini.org has this rule of thumb. don't borrow more in loans than the graduate is expected to earn in the first year of working. so an engineering major can tolerate more looks than, say, a social worker eor education worker who will make less. community college, state school, or private liberal arts college only if you can find it. for more on how you can save on retirement and college at the same time, check out more in the book "smart is the new rich." christine romans, cnn, new york. here are your top stories. the official death toll from sunday's 7.2 magnitude earthquake in turkey now stands at 264. at least 1,300 others are injured. as rescue teams struggle with near freezing temperatures to reach potential victims in dozens of collapsed buildings. the state department has recalled the u.s. ambassador to syria, robert ford. we are told it's in response to a credible threat against him. but we have no word on the nature of that threat. the state department also accusing the syrian regime of incitement against the ambassador. just last month, some vehicles in ambassador ford's motorcade was damaged by supporters of president assad. ford was not hurt. new leaders in libya officially declaring the country's liberation from four decades of rule by moammar gadhafi. an autopsy has revealed that gadhafi died from a gunshot wound to the head. his body is now on public display in a meat locker. in tunisia, right next door where the arab spring started, they are counting votes. more than 90,000 went to the polls in tunisia's first free national election in 200 years. they will elect an assembly which will elect a new government and draft a new constitution. nevada has voted to shift the date of its republican caucus to february 4. this after threats of candidates boycotting the state. nevada initially moved its contest to mid january because it wanted to play a big early role in choosing the nominee. but of course new hampshire wasn't happy about that. that change jumbled the caucus calendar, and risked violating national party rules. and president obama heads to nevada today in las vegas. he'll push new rules for underwater homeowners to refinance and avoid foreclosure. he'll hold two fundraisers. on wednesday, he'll announce changes to make it easier for college students to repay their loans. and as part of that west coast tour, the president stops in los angeles this week, but is his star in hollywood falling faster than lindsay lohan? careen winter has a look at some of the president's latest reviews. >> reporter: in 2008, hollywood stars firmly embraced barack obama. lately, they have been loosening their grip. disillusioned by his actions in the office. >> i no longer hope for audacity. >> reporter: matt damon, once a big backer of the president, has become one of his most vocal critics. he told cnn's piers morgan -- >> he is a brilliant guy, but i definitely wanted more, and i believe that there was more there. >> reporter: he accuses him of bowing to corporate america. so does melissa etheridge. >> mr. obama, good luck to you. i still know who he answers to, who his boss is, and those are some pretty powerful corporations. >> reporter: harry belafonte finds much to fault in the president's leadership. >> he has only listened to the voices that shout the loudest, and it's all of those reckless right-wing voices. it's almost criminal. >> reporter: now some stars are telling the obama bashers to back off. on hln's "joy behar" show, martin sheen had a couple of words for the critics. >> steady, steady. >> reporter: sheen argued that the president deserves hollywood's full support. >> you are talking about a very special man. i adore him. and i think he's done a great job. >> reporter: ditto did this celebrity. some celebs are putting their support in written form, as in a check. in recent months, the re-election campaign got $10,000 from steven spielberg and wife kate cap shaw. tom hanks and rita wilson equalled that. michael douglas chipped in $4,000. will ferrell has anted up 5 k. >> he's going to probably run against a very conservative republican, who's just not going to be that palatable to the vast majority of people in the entertainment business. >> reporter: so while some stars may voice complaints about obama -- >> i for one would like to see him be a little bolder, be a little more outspoken about the issues that we voted him in for. >> reporter: come election time, they may return to the fold. corrine winter, cnn, hollywood. coming up on "american morning" -- hertz terminates more than two dozen muslim drivers after they refuse to clock out for daily prayer breaks. but the union says they were targeted because of religion. we're going to speak to a union rep in just a moment. plus, ditch your bank for a new one. we'll tell you about a movement in congress to make that easier for you to do. you're watching "american morning." look, every day we're using more and more energy. the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪ it's a smart way to go. for fastidious librarian emily skinner, each day was fueled by thorough preparation for events to come. well somewhere along the way, emily went right on living. but you see, with the help of her raymond james financial advisor, she had planned for every eventuality. ...which meant she continued to have the means to live on... ...even at the ripe old age of 187. life well planned. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. okay... uhh. the bad news, it's probably totaled. the good news is, you don't have to pay your deductible. with vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance, you got $100 off for every year of safe driving, so now your deductible is zero. the other good news ? i held on to your coffee. wow. ♪ nationwide is on your side ( laughing ) it's actually a pretty good day when you consider. that's great. good morning. in new york, 62 degrees this afternoon. welcome back to "american morning." a heated battle between hertz and some of its drivers. the company fired more than two dozen muslim workers after they refused to clock out for daily breaks when they normally pray. hertz says it's a policy that promotes fairness. the muslim drivers says it tramples their religious freedom. joining us from seattle washington, tracy thompson, secretary treasurer of the teamsters local 117. explain to me exactly how these prayer breaks worked, and why in your estimation do you think these workers were fired. >> well, muslims pray up to five times a day. and for these workers, in an eight-hour shift, they might be praying two or three different times. but typically they are short breaks, four to five minutes. and we negotiated with this employer that these workers would have the right to take these intermittent breaks without clocking out. hertz unilaterally implemented a new policy requiring them to clock out, and that's what's created this dispute. >> but is it -- am i understanding this correctly that the workers were not formally notified, there was just a sign posted or something like that, and you're saying that the workers did not know about having to clock out? is that what the issue is here? >> no. the issue is bigger than that, in that we have a contract with this employer, with hertz. we have a labor agreement in which we specifically bargained the right for workers to take these intermittent breaks in order to be able to pray at the appropriate times that their religion dictates. hertz violated that contract. they violated the law by not notifying us of a change in policy. and these workers were exercising their rights when they did not clock out for prayer break. and rather than -- go ahead. >> you say that this was never a problem before, that many workers were often leave without clocking out. they would go to starbucks, get a coffee, be gone more than 10 minutes. and it was only when these muslim drivers decided to take prayer breaks that it became a problem. so in essence, you're saying this is about religious freedom. >> it is about religious freedom. but to be clear, these workers were for the last 15 years they have been taking prayer breaks without clocking in and out for them. what hertz did is implement a policy -- and unilaterally and then apply it only to the workers who were exercising their religious freedom. and they aren't applying it to the workers who were taking smoke breaks and the coffee breaks. that's really what made this about religion. >> the hertz spokesperson said in a statement to cnn, this has never been about religious tolerance. for over 15 years, we have accommodated and supported our muslim employees in our seattle location. all we've asked is that all employees abide by the requirement that they clock for breaks. that doesn't really sound unreasonable. how do you respond to that? >> you know, you have to look at it in the context of the rights that were bargained for these individuals at the negotiating table. and we bargained the right for them to take these intermittent breaks, these prayer breaks, without clocking out. hertz violated that agreement. and they did not give us notice of this new policy, and they're not applying it uniformly. >> but ms. thompson, with all due respect, why wouldn't these workers just clock out and keep their jobs? i mean, what's the problem here? >> this is about -- for these workers, their right to take these intermittent breaks to pray, the right that was bargained, is a fundamental issue to them. this is about their human dignity. this is what we negotiated for. it would be like when we negotiate contracts, we negotiate about schedules that would prevent people from having to work on sundays because they -- christians observe their religion on sundays. and if an employer were all of a sudden to say, we want everybody to work on sundays after we bargained something different, that would be a problem. and that's what we've got right here. >> ok. >> we bargained a condition of employment that this employer has violated. >> 25 hertz employees of muslim dissent were given termination notices. another one resigned as a result. what are they doing now? what is their recourse? do they want their jobs back? and is that even possible? >> of course they want their jobs back. what we had asked hertz to do is just suspend application of this policy for a short period of time while we get before an arbitrator and get our dispute resolved. and hertz refused to do that. so we've got a grievance in arbitration process under our contract we're following. we had charges filed with the national labor relations board. and these workers will be filing religious discrimination complaints with the eeoc as well. >> tracy thompson, thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you very much. all right. minding your business this morning. switching banks may soon be like switching cell phones. there's a new bill in congress that would make it easier for you to switch banks by allowing you to keep your bank account number when you make the change. it's something a lot of people have thought about doing with so many banks announcing new fees. nearly 1/3 of you are passing up free money, according to a new survey, that says that 30% of employees are not contributing enough to their 401(k) to get the full match from their employer. so make sure you look at the matching terms at your company. you might want to think about rebalancing your 401(k) while you're at it. a record-breaking debut for paranormal activity 3, the latest installment of the horror movie franchise made $54 million at the box office this weekend. that is the best october opening ever. and the best horror debut ever. not bad for a film that cost $5 million to make. >> not my kind of thing. i'm more of a "when harry met sally" kind of a gal. just saying. coming up, it's the chemical that's become a huge buzz word for moms and dads. bpa is what it's called. what is it? we're going to tell you. and about the serious health problems that could be ahead for kids exposed to it, even before they're born. and how steve jobs' unorthodox approach to life may have contributed to his death. it's 43 minutes after the hour. you're watching "american morning." 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[ male announcer ] as you wish, business pro. as you wish. go national. go like a pro. now through january earn a free day with every two rentals. find out more at nationalcar.com. ♪ ♪ co-signed her credit card -- "buy books, not beer!" ♪ but the second that she shut the door ♪ ♪ girl started blowing up their credit score ♪ ♪ she bought a pizza party for her whole dorm floor ♪ ♪ hundred pounds of makeup at the makeup store ♪ ♪ and a ticket down to spring break in mexico ♪ ♪ but her folks didn't know 'cause her folks didn't go ♪ ♪ to free-credit-score-dot-com hard times for daddy and mom. ♪ offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. 45 minutes after the hour. right now, u.s. stock futures are up. the dow, nasdaq, and s&p 500 all poised to open higher this morning. the death toll in turkey rising to 264 overnight. almost certain to rise again after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake caused dozens of buildings to collapse on sunday. it's still not clear exactly how moammar gadhafi died, but we know what killed him. a gunshot to the head. gadhafi's body is now on public display. the doctor who performed the autopsy isn't saying whether gadhafi's fatal wound came in cross fire or at close range. robert ford, the u.s. ambassador to syria, has been brought back to washington. the state department says it's in response to a credible threat against the diplomat. no word on the nature of threat or when ford might be allowed to return. president obama is on a quick tour of the west. today he'll arrive in las vegas, where he'll discuss his plans to get the nation's economy back on track. he'll also drop by los angeles and end the tour in denver on wednesday. the texas rangers and the st. louis cardinals all even now in the world series. the rangers 4-0 shutout of the cards last night tied the series at two games apiece. mike napoli had the big blow for texas, a three-run homer. big game tonight in arlington. "american morning" is back right after this break. good morning, atlanta. wake up. time to get to work. 55 degrees now. 72 later in the day. this is when atlanta just makes so much sense. >> exactly. >> welcome back to "american morning." time now for an a.m. house call. bpa, you probably have heard of it, is the chemical that can be found in water bottles and cans of peas, which surprised me, and could be causing behavioral problems in kids. toddlers exposed to higher bpa before they were born had worse behavior at age 3 than kids that didn't have that exposure, according to a new study. >> it may be surprising to some people. elizabeth cohen is here to break it down for us. so, elizabeth, everywhere you look in the store, you see this label about bpa. what exactly is it, and why is it so dangerous? >> right. bpa is a chemical found in a lot of plastics. it's been used for decades and decades. in the past couple of years, researchers have gotten concerned about whether bpa can cause problems especially for children and even more so for fetuses because they are even smaller. so what this study did is it looked at about 250 moms in cincinnati. and what they found is that when women took in a lot of bpa while they were pregnant, they were much more likely to have girls who would later on have behavior problems. and the reason they think it was girls and not boys is that bpa can affect a person's hormones. so maybe it just affected the girls. now you asked about what bpa is in. it's in a lot of things. most of us probably have it somewhere in our bodies. and that's because it's in things like this kind of plastic here. it's in this kind of plastic. it's in water bottles. again, not all products but some. and what a lot of people don't know is that tin cans are lined with plastic, because of course you don't want your food to taste like metal. and that plastic often has bpa in it. >> so what are pregnant moms supposed to do, given this information? >> right. i definitely fear that pregnant women will hear this and will freak out. all you can do is if you want to try to limit the amount of bpa that you get as much as possible. so the first thing you want to do is you want to take any kind of plastic that you might be eating or drinking out of and flip it over and see if there's a number on it. there's often a recycling number on the bottom of plastics. and so look for a 7. something with a 7 on the bottom is often going to have bpa in it. and so is something with a 3. something with a 3 will sometimes have bpa in it as well. and so here are some other tips you can use to try to avoid bpa if you're pregnant. first of all, you can as i said avoid 3 or 7 on plastics. avoid canned foods. dispose of anything with bpa in it that has scratches because that will make it easier for the bpa to get into the food. and also go to cnn.com/thechart and we have many more specifics about how you can avoid bpa. again, that's cnn.com/thechart. >> and i'm sure that will be really helpful for expectant mothers. meanwhile, elizabeth, there's been so much talk about its effect on younger children, younger girls in particular. what about for that expectant mother? just how dangerous is it for her? >> you know, the concerns are much more for fetuses and children than for adults. there haven't been a lot of great studies on any of this. and in fact, the american chemicals council, the folks who make plastics, say these studies that -- any study that finds a problem is flawed. they say there's nothing wrong with bpa. but the concern among many researchers is first of all for fetuses, second of all for children, third for adults because the bigger you get, the less of a concern there is. >> all right. elizabeth cohen, thank you very much. >> thanks. we are getting a rare look inside the life of the late apple ceo steve jobs. according to biographer walter isaacson, jobs was incredibly demanding and had a work ethic that was unparalleled. isaacson's authorized biography "steve jobs" hits the bookstores today. left night on "60 minutes" he shared some insight on the passion that made jobs one of the greatest inventors of our generation. >> he taught his son how to make great things. and once they were building a fence. and he said you've got to make the back of the fence that nobody will see just as good looking as the front of the fence. even though nobody will see it, you will know and that will show that you're dedicated to making something perfect. he talked a lot to me about what happened when he got sick and how it focused him. he said he no longer wanted to go out and travel the world. he would focus on the products. he knew the couple of things he wanted to do, which was the iphone and then the ipad. he had a few other visions. i think he would have loved to have conquered television. he would have loved to make an easy to use television set. but he started focusing on his family again as well. and it was a painful, brutal struggle. and he would talk often to me about the pain. >> isaacson's book is based on more than 40 interviews with jobs and other -- 100 interviews with friends, family members, and colleagues. jobs authorized the book but asked for no control over what was written. it's incredible. just yesterday was the 10-year anniversary of the ipod. hard to believe. >> unbelievable, right? >> i feel like it was introduced yesterday. but when you think about it, everything that he has done to change the way we do things technologically it is really wonderful. >> he is one of those. and we have been struggling for weeks to come up with people who have that kind of influence on society. you think of henry ford. you think of walt disney perhaps. you know, there aren't a lot of them. i think bill gates sort of goes into that category. but we're not -- we don't have an over abundance of people who really fully change the world that way. >> what is remarkable about this biography is walter isaacson talks about when he was asked to do it, he thought it was a bit audacious for steve jobs to be asking him at such a young age. what he did not know is just how sick he was. >> jobs thought he was going to die. yeah. gabrielle giffords is continuing her recovery in asheville, north carolina, where she'll undergo two weeks of intensive rehabilitation after being shot in the head in january on tucson. the mass shooting left six people dead and 12 others wounded. giffords will work with a therapist who also treated her while she was in houston. still to come on "american morning," when sports worlds collide. find out what two baseball stars were doing on the football field just hours before they were supposed to play in the world series. 55 minutes after the hour. we're back after this. cal gum protection. it helps eliminate plaque at the gum line, helping prevent gingivitis. it's even clinically proven to help reverse it in just 4 weeks. crest pro-health clinical gum protection. at aviva, we wonder why other life insurance companies treat you like a policy, not a person. instead of getting to know you they simply assign you a number. aviva is here to change all that. we're bringing humanity back to insurance and putting people before policies. aviva life insurance and annuities. we are building insurance around you. good morning, washington, d.c. 51 degrees right now. that cool start pretty much everywhere in the east. 67 degrees later. won't get too much warmer later on today. fun moment before game four of the world series in texas last night. former president george w. bush throwing out the ceremonial first pitch to hall of famer nolan ryan, who knows a thing or two about throwing heat. apparently not as much about catching it. the pitch goes off ryan's glove. watch this. thankfully no runners were on base. but rangers manager ron washington, as you can see there, very good mood. president bush and ryan laugh it off too, and the rangers were smiling all night. they went on to shut out the cardinals making tonight a very important game in arlington, texas. >> nice pitch by the former president, by the way. >> yeah. >> meanwhile, hours before last night's first pitch in arlington, the rangers josh hamilton and the cards lance berkman went across the street in full uniform to cowboys stadium to help with the coin toss prior to the dallas cowboys/st. louis rams nfl game. how often does that happen? two texas teams and two st. louis teams playing on the same night, different sports. berkman and the rams won the toss, but both st. louis teams were losers yesterday. >> the cards are hoping to change that tonight. and green bay packers defensive back charles woodson with his second interception of the game. but look what he does next which has everyone talking. he hands the ball to a little girl in the front row who is super excited by the whole thing. she is smiling ear to ear. the whole family will be fans for life. >> good for her. we're not going to quite let you off the hook, ali. you may have noticed if you were watching earlier this morning that ali velshi has been getting taller and taller and taller throughout the morning. well, that's because his chair, i think it was your chair, right, it definitely wasn't you, wasn't cooperating. watch.

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