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 speaking out for the first time about the child sex abuse scandal that has rocked his world. he's been under fire after witnessing this back in 2002. in an e-mail obtained by the allentown erie, he says, i did stop it. not physically, but made sure that was stopped before i left that locker room. no one can imagine my thoughts or wants to be in my shoes for those 30 to 45 seconds. trust me. the e-mails appears to contradict mcqueary's grand jury testimony. he also made his first public comment since the scandal broke to cbs. >> reporter: do you have any idea when you think you might be ready to talk? >> this process has to play out. i just don't have anything else to say. >> reporter: okay. just one thing. just describing your emotions right now. >> all over, place. just shaken. >> reporter: crazy? >> crazy. >> reporter: you said what? like a -- >> snow blower. >> prime reporter for the "patriot news" covering the scandal from the beginning, sara ganim. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. >> you heard mcqueary. on the defense saying he stopped the sexual abuse. that detail was not included in the grand jury report. right? >> reporter: that's correct. but you have to remember the grand jury report is a summary. it's written by grand jurors and not direct testimony. it's not a transcript. so it's possible that that wasn't included, however, the second part of his e-mail where he says he discussions with police and discussions with the man who is in charge of police, that is not included at all in that grand jury presentment, and there is a sentence in there that specifically states that mcqueary was not interviewed by police at the university. >> sara, i just want to read those two statements. one from the grand jury and one from mcqueary's e-mail to viewers so they completely understand. the grand jury report says never questioned by university police and no other entity conducted and investigation, and this is mcqueary's e-mail which seems to contradict that. he wrote, i did have discussions with police and with the university police in charge of police. if what mcqueary says true, that's a big deal. >> reporter: well, i think it's going to be something people will be talking about, at least until he testifies and attempts to clear it up. you know, i think it's a rush to judgment to say that he's contradicting himself at this point, but it's raising a lot of question. people are talking about it. this is the guy that is the key witness for all three cases. he's a key witness against jerry sandusky, because he was an eyewitness to a sexual assault and he is really the sole witness against two penn state officials charged with perjury and with failure to report. so if his story changes and he loses credibility that could be a detriment to the prosecution's case against those two penn state officials and possibly part of the case against sandusky. >> okay. let's talk about sandusky and his interview on monday's nbc program. sandusky's attorney said he found the second victim. the victim mckeary allegedly witnessed being molested in 200. is this the real victim, too? have prosecutors commented at all on this claim? >> reporter: prosecutors aren't talking about it. i did talk to a legal analyst that set the defense la to go to great lengths to prove this really is victim two, that it's not some other kid who might have had some our contact with jerry sandusky in 2002. this child is now a man, is coming forward and saying, i took a shower with jerry sandusky, but nothing inappropriate ever happened, and that is directly -- directly contradicts what mcqueary says. he says he witnessed an assault in progress and was very specific about that assault. >> and now he says he stopped it apparently. the "new york times" is reporting this that joe paterno, just four months ago, sold his house to his wife for $1. so, you know, this makes you wonder. is this an older man getting ready to get his estate in order or is he trying to protect himself from civil lawsuits? >> reporter: you know, this happened a couple months ago. it certainly happened before this all unfolded, and i think that that -- it's hard to say. i don't think that you could judge that at this point why he did it. what's inside of his head, but like you said, he is 84 years old. these are certainly things that people do when they get older. they get ready to distribute they are estate and get ready for the end of their life, essentially. >> sara ganim, thanks, as always, joining us live from pa this morning. we're getting a clear picture how penn state was able to put up a wall of silence concerning jerry sandusky's alleges child sex abuse. turns out the university is exempt from the state's public disclosure law. don't forget, this is a state university. drew griffin has more in a cnn exclusive. >> reporter: it's the type of information we would normally get in the united states from any public institution, especially a police department. the records, the incident reports. all of the information you rely on to get the facts to know who knew what, when and where, but penn state you will not find that, because penn state got itself an exemption from this state's open records act. at the same time in 2000, 2008, when the legislature was discussing this new law, penn state's president personally went to the legislature and asked to be exempt to make sure the records were kept private. >> what that means in essence is that while every other commonwealth agency, police departments, townships, school districts, are subject to this law and would be required to provide public record, penn state is exempt. that came as a result of a series ever lobbying efforts through the house of representatives that was taking a look at rewriting pennsylvania's right-to-know law, among the worst in the nation, and at that juncture, the president of penn state was weren't of the key lobbyists testifying before the house committee on, i believe it was august 7, 2007, seeking an exemption for penn state. >> reporter: we did try to reach graham spanier at his home. we did not get an answer from the former penn state president, but we know what he told the legislature when he was seeking this exemption. he said he wanted penn state to be exempt from the records because he needed to protect the competitiveness of the university, that he was concerned about the cost of compliance, and that a huge bureaucracy would have to be built to answer questions and open those public records. looking back on it now, it has a whole different look. >> wow. later this hour, at 6:40 eastern we're going to talk with clinical psychologist dr. jeff gardere about why someone might stay silent when witnessing sexual abuse or some other horrible incident. right at this very moment the wall street protesters can once again owl siozuccotti park only temporarily. for now the group no longer has the right to sleep in the park. deb feyerick is live downtown. are protesters going in the park now or sort of spread out around it? >> reporter: they are, as a matter of fact, carol. a handful of demonstrators that you can see behind me, and as you say, they're no longer allowed to occupy the park, per se. they can demonstrate, protest, but they cannot set up any tent or generators. if you look at this park, this was covered with tents. now, actually, somebody remarked you can actually see covered. one person set up umbrellas. that's the only structure we've seen here. a couple of moments ago in was an altercation between some of the demonstrators and police lined up, but really, no more than a couple of dozen protesters who are here. yesterday far different scene when this park was completely cleared out. police in riot gear facing off against to the demonstrators, against the protesters, removing the tents and generators and everything they accumulated over the course of two months in order to clean this park. that park is now, in fact, clean, and you do see some people who have gathered, who are eating. every now and again somebody yells out somebody about a paycheck. again, this occupation about the austerity in the united states. in new york they ruled in favor of the owners of the park saying the first amendment does not give people the right to take over a public space. you have to remember, this is a very sort of -- right in the middle of wall street. a lot of people come here fo lunch. it's right near the world trade center site, when the buildings are going up there and is usually a very active site. right now it's quiet. interesting to see around lunchtime if people come back, slowly, slowly. probably not because of the barricades that have been set up here. again, very much a sign that this park belongs, at least for now to the folks here demonstrating, and you see the people in yellow, that yellow security guard, those, in fact, are private security guards who were hired by the company who runs this, and at one point earlier this morning they actually outnumbered the number of demonstrators. nearby community church, they've actually said that the demonstrators can go there and hold their public meetings, which they do, and they're loaning that space to them, carol and christine. >> deb feyerick, reporting live from zuccotti park this morning. thanks. after cancelling two previously scheduled trip, president obama kept his promise to visit australia. there just over a day announcing a new agreement to expand america's military presence in that country all with an eye on china. cnn white house correspondent brianna keilar traveling with the president joins us live this morning. good morning, brianna. >> reporter: good morning there, christine. president obama and australian prime minister julia gillard announcing a significant new partnership between australia's defense force and the u.s. air force and u.s. marines. 200 to 250 u.s. marines we will be seeing by the middle of next year permanently stationed in the northern territory of australia. so the part of australia that borders -- that really looks on to asia, and those troops would come in and out in six-month deployments, and you will see that force increased over a few years. up to 2,500 u.s. marines. in addition, the u.s. air force seeing more access to this northern military base of darwin, u.s. military aircraft that would have more access along with the australian air force doing training. the question, of course, is why. when you heard president obama and the prime minister talk about this, the first thing they used to explain this move is to better be able to respond to humanitarian crises, like natural disasters, like what we saw with the indonesian tsunami and earth wake in japan. of course, an obvious question, what about china? it's military star very much on the rise? here's as far as president obama would go when asked that question. >> the main message in a i've said not only publicly but also privately to the chinese is that with their rise comes increased responsibilities. it's important for them to play by the rules of the road. there are going to be times where they're not, and we will send a clear message that them that we think that they need to -- they need to be on track in terms of accepting the rules and responsibilities that come with being a world power. >> reporter: but there's a subtext here can you not ignore. that's cha china is flexing not only its economic muscle but military muscle. it launched military all of the south chine nap sea a move that threat threatened a number of allies. and already we're seeing reaction from the chinese government to this move. imports. saying this may not be quite appropriate but a spokesperson for the white house, carol and christine, responding right back saying this is appropriate and it's necessary. >> all right, brianna keilar in australia. thanks. we always hear from the chinese after a move like this where they say the united states is seeing shadows, or that it controls its part of the world. the u.s. does not and they don't really like our advice about staying on track. >> seems like it's becoming a turf war in that part of the world between the united states and china. a lot of people say it may do more harm than good. >> we'll have to see. they certainly are building up their military might with american dollars we borrow from china every day. >> you'll talk more about that later. just ahead on "american morning," the secret service trying to explain hue bullet hit a window at the white house. we'll have the latest on their investigati investigation. and a new poll has iowa up for grabs, but can rick perry and herman cain resurrect their campaigns and compete in the hawkeye state? 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they're the ones that believe government is too big, but i would say that most voters in the united states complain that congress doesn't work enough. >> reporter: that's true. in fact, if you look at the favorable, unfavorable ratings of congress, they are terribly low. why should we be surprised? unemployment is over 9% nationally and all you hear out of washington nowadays is gridlock, gridlock, gridlock. quite frankly the other story out of washington is corruption, corruption, corruption. no surprise rick perry is trying to seize upon this and you're absolutely right. trying to get the tea party folks to support his candidacy. >> thanks. join us tuesday night november 22nd for the cnn republican debate. wolf blitzer will be the moderator. the focus on national security. live at 8:00 p.m. eastern tuesday night right here on cnn. ahead on "american morning," newt gingrich now in the worse place he could possibly be in the gop race. right behind mitt romney. just ask bachmann, perry or cain. he talks to our jim acosta about why this time it's for real. and good news when it comes to bank fees. find out which bank is actually getting rid of them instead of adding them. it's 23 minutes past the hour.oc acuvue® oasys for astigmatism. t he said it's the only lens of its kind designed to realign naturally with every blink so now, i'm seeing more clearly. 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