and good morning to you. it is wednesday november 16th. only two days until friday. ali velshi has the day off. i m carol costello along with christine romans. welcome to american morning. first up a severe weather warning right now for the new orleans area. jacqui jeras is in the extreme weather center. a rote taiting thunderstorm that could produce a thunderstorm any time. jefferson and including the city of new orleans. probably 15 minutes away. get to your safe place right now this morning. this is in effect until 5:30 local time. a radar indicated tornado that could drop down. the threat stretches from louisiana through parts of mississippi on into alabama, and we think that line will intensify as it heads towards the east today. so we ll continue to track the storm. any new information we ll bring it along to you. a tornado warning possible right now for the city of new orleans. back to you guys. thanks, jacqui. now to penn state assistant coach mike mcqueary sp
captions by vitac www.vitac.com good morning. it is wednesday, october 19th. welcome to american morning. craziest story ever. this thing you just said about wild animals on the prowl. just spoke to an affiliate reporter in zanesville, ohio. there are some 24 animal, things like tigers, cheetahs, cougars, giraffe, on the loose right now in ohio. they ve closed schools. they have highway signs saying, if you see wild animal, please, stay in your car and call 911. they found the owner of this wild animal preserve dead, a hole in the fengs ace and cages open. unbelievable situation. we re on top of it. a whole bunch of parents worse nightmare. also that debate last night. a lot of fighting there. that s not a way to bring up your kids. carol costello, live from las vegas. the good u.news, too late for t kill kiddies to watch that. 20 years aworked in that market near zanesville, ohio. the exotic animals laws were laxed way back then. i ll be interested to hear
a week after irene hit the east coast, the central gulf coast is getting ready for storm with flooding rains. louisiana governor bobby jindal already declared a state of emergency. oil companies are pulling workers off the rigs in the gulf. some places including new orleans could get as much as 20 inches of rain. texas could really use some of that rain from the tropical system. it doesn t look promising. 14 big wildfires are burning in that state. just one of them west of dallas. firefighters are finally making some progress. they ve got about the fire half contained or so. we can do all the work by air we want, but as my instructors told me a long time ago, it s boots on the ground that gets it taken care of. employers added no jobs during august. the unemployment rate is unchanged at 9.1%. a couple things we should point out. the report was distorted because it counted thousands of verizon workers who went on strike but that were now back on the job. the numbers also i
9:00 am on the east coast, 6:00 am out west. marathon talks lead to a new debt deal. at least in theory. the president backs it. so do leaders of both parties. still, no reason to celebrate just yet. in syria, a violent crackdown on anti-government protests. more than 7 0 people killed and counting. and new this morning, a big change to health coverage. the federal government will require insurers who provide birth control without co-payments. now, in just a few hours, we could see the beginning of the end of the debt crisis. it s been the issue in washington for weeks. and you re probably tired of the finger pointing and doomsday predictions. today, that could all come to an end if the house and senate approve a compromised plan. the deal identifies about $1 trillion in spending cuts over ten years and raises the debt ceiling by about the same amount. bipartisan committee must find ways to trim another trillion a, a so-called deficit posse. the president and house spea
we re just getting the information in. that means that the players vote will happen later today in more of a formal setting. training camp could start as early as wednesday now, we ve been told. david mattingly has been following this for us. he has been live out of atlanta every day, at least he was last week when those negotiations were taking place. david, did you just get word that something came forward just moments ago? reporter: reading and finding out now is that the nfl players and the owners did come to an agreement in the wee hours of the morning. and, bottom line, they re going to play some football. exactly what the owners were asking for last week when they came out of their meeting and had a 31-0 vote in favor of this agreement. and players still have to vote on this. it s largely looked at as a formality, that it is going to go through. and the fans will only miss, so far, one game this season. the first game of the preseason, which was going to be in canton