Im fredricka whitfield. And we begin this hour with Tropical Storm ophelia. Just hours after making land fall in north carolina, heavy rain, coastal flooding, and high winds, are hitting much of the Eastern Seaboard today. North carolina, maryland, and var are all under a State Of Emergency right now. And the storm is already knocked out power to more than 50,000 homes. And businesses. With those outages expected to grow. Allison chinchar is Tracking Ophelia from the cnn Weather Center and Polo Sandoval is in pelican island, new jersey, watching the impact and feeling it there. Lets begin with you, allison. The National Hurricane center issued a new advisory moments ago. The biggest change that we noted is the sustained winds have calmed down ever so slightly, dropping down now to 50 miles an hour. Still gusting up to 65. Look at the scope of this storm. You have so many of these Outer Rain Bands far away from that center point. And the center is still over north carolina, and you have rain bands across pennsylvania, new york, even massachusetts, so again, places far away are still dealing with some of the impacts from the storm. Albeit the heaviest rain at the moment is still focused over virginia and north carolina. Its also where were seeing some of the gustiest winds. Youre still getting some of those in the 40 to 60 mileanhour range and that is enough to bring down some trees, and trigger some Power Outages. Flooding is also going to be a concern. Youve got the flood watches, but also several flash flood warnings. Where they already had two, even three inches of rain that is already fallen. And now youre looking into an additional one to three inches of additional rain, and it is likely to come down in the next 24 hours. This system itself is basically going to slide up the east coast. Taking all of that heavy rain with it, so by tonight, the focus is more over the mid atlantic, and then by sunday morning, the focus is really over more the northeast. Especially the coastal regions. So flooding potential for today, mainly across north carolina, and virginia, and as we transition to sunday, now the focus becomes a little farther north, states like pennsylvania, new york, and even into new jersey, because thats where the system is headed, even though, fred, it is going to gradually weaken in the coming hours. All right, well keep an eye on that, as will you. And of course, our Polo Sandoval, thank you so much, allison, Polo Sandoval is following it right now. What you are and everybody else experiencing there, polo . Reporter fred, this part of new jersey, folks are waking up to the National WeatherService Reporting that they still are slowing down slightly but not minimizing the real threat that allison just touched on here which is the risk of flooding, not just the inland pockets but coastal areas, where pelican island, new jersey, as we look south over the bay side of the new jersey shore, which is only about a mile and a half away from where we are, well eventually take you there throughout the day to check out conditions, but really the result has been choppy waters out here, and folks for the most part certainly are deciding to stay in, certainly something that is recommended by officials as we continue to see this storm make its way closer north. But far from what our friends to the south here are likely experiencing. Were well over 500 miles north of where this storm made landfall. But as allison just mentioned, the effects of it are being felt as far as new england, because of these outer bands. We felt one actually make its way through here just a little while ago. But those winds, that is the other element at play as weve already seen one downed power line here, and that is creating a potential for Power Outages, so again, for folks in new jersey, and north, it really has become less of a rainmaker, there will be a soggy day today, for so many, and really more worried about the coastal threat and the winds 50 to 60 miles an hour, depending where youre in the coastal area, or perhaps the inland pockets, fred. Still very potentially dangerous. Appreciate it. Polo sandoval and allison chinchar. Right now, we are in the ninth day of United Auto Workers strike. And the union is dramatically expanding its job action. Workers are now striking at all Parts Distribution centers owned by gm and stellantis. Ford is being spared by the union after negotiations between the two appeared to make progress there, and it comes as President Biden is preparing to make an historic trip to michigan next week, where he will visit striking workers on the picket line. The auto workers say that after years of sacrifice, they want a share in profits being made by the big three car makers. Theyre demanding better benefits, and a pay raise, equal to about 40 over four years. And the Companies Say those demands could put them out of business. Lets bring in a Business Reporter for npr, good to see you, so the uaw is targeting these Parts Distribution centers. Does that mean people who need their cars repaired will have a hard time getting parts . Yes, thats definitely a likely consequence here. I will note a lot of dealerships did know that this was coming, and theyve been stockpiling parts in anticipation that at least this might happen, right . But when they run through stockpiles that they have locally, they may not be able to get the parts that they need to do repairs from the company. One interesting question is what gm and stellantis might be able to do to keep these warehouses running without uaw workers. They have plans to evaluate and deciding whether to put into action. Stellantis didnt comment. Before, Auto Companies did things like send white collar Salary Workers to try to pull parts off shelves and send them to dealerships. The parts are important for companies. Theyre very profitable for automakers. Thats one reason the unions are targeting these warehouses. And they are important for customer satisfaction, which the companies also care a great deal about it. We will have to see what they do to see if they can keep the parts moving but certainly there is the very real risk that this strike goes on for weeks more, people might have trouble at their local dealerships and body shops, getting their repairs done as quickly as they otherwise might expect. That is how consumers might be directly impacted by what is going on. Lets zero in on the strategy of the striking uaw workers. Right now, theyre targeting gm and stellantis, but not necessarily ford, saying they had some encouraging talks with ford directly. So help us understand how theyre parsing out, now targeting these other two automakers, and what is behind that strategy. Yes, this is really different than how the union has approached negotiations with these three companies for decades now. Theyve typically picked one company to negotiate with. And then expected the other two companies to more or less match that and in that process. This time around, they said they want to do it differently. They negotiated with all three companies simultaneously, and now were seeing as these strikes unfold, they are playing the companies against each other and saying, look, ford gave us a lot of what we asked for on things like pay tiers, equalizing pay between different workers and different places and gave us a lot of what were asking for in terms of job security and the ability to strike over plant closures and the big things that they are pushing for that gm and stellantis apparently are pushing and apparentlyford did and ford gets to keep selling highly profitable pars and gm and stellantis are feeling more pain. That is obviously a big part of the strategy, to divide the big three, and another thing that is happening is these strikes are very unpredictable, so the first three plants that went out on strike were Assembly Plants and now these are the Parts Distribution centers. A lot of Assembly Plants and a lot of the Transition Plants that are hugely important to the entire ecosystem of the auto supply chain, theyre still running and the union could take them out, really at any time. So theyre also very unpredictable. That speaks to the potential of how long this really could go on. So next week, President Biden is scheduled to visit the picket line on tuesday. How might this visit play into bidens strategy of helping to cement his image as a prounion president , and also how might that play into, i guess, straight into the hand of the unions worker, strengthen can the hand of the Union Workers . This is clearly something very important for the Biden Administration, to have this pro labor replication. There is also a very interesting dynamic playing out in the background of all of these talks which is the Biden Administrations big push toward electric vehicles. The United Auto Workers union has been pushing the administration to basically attach more strings or restrictions to all of the money that is going out from the federal government to support this transition. And theyve been really pushing biden, withholding an endorsement of biden for reelection, until he gives more support to them on the line, like hes doing, but also they really want to see the administration use that money going to electric vehicles as more of a lever to give more strength to the labor movement. Interesting. All right, thank you so much. Thanks, fred. Coming up, the government is just days away from potentially shutting down, and theres no deal in sight. How a shutdown could affect you, next. Plus, democratic senator bob menendez indicted on Bribery Charges and refusing to resign. Calls within the party grow for him to step down amid accusations that he and his wife accepted gold bars, cash, and a luxury car in exchange for the senators influence. 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Cnns Jasmine Wright joining us now from the white house, so jasmine, whats the Biden Administration doing to prepare for a possible shutdown . The white house has begun directing federal agencies to in effect get ready for a potential shutdown. You know that guidance went out on friday. As you saw, many House Republicans leaving washington, d. C. , without a clear path forward. So the white houses office of management and budget, sending a formal notice to the federal agencies, asking them to put their plans together, for a potential shutdown, and now this is important, because every agency has different types of plans and procedures that they put in place. And they outlined things like how many of those employees will be furloughed, and how many of those employees will be deemed essential, and thus have to work through the shutdown, without pay, until the government turns back on and then they get back pay, so those are really important things. But it is not just jobs that are at risk here, of folks not being paid, it is also other Essential Services that the frol government pays for, that are essential to every day American Life and that includes pay for the military, and Law Enforcement personnel, and food safety, and food aid programs, and parts of medical research funding, and as well as travel processing, and other things that have very important to the Biden Administration, so we heard from the white house yesterday, at the podium, just next to me, talking about why House Republicans should not put these vital issues at risk. Take a listen. The republicans shutdown does not have to happen. They can do their job, and keep these vital programs continuing, and keeping the government open, and our message is, this should not be happening. We should not be putting American Families lives in turmoil. Now, that is what we heard from the white house on friday, but we also know on friday the House Rules Committee began preparing a series of longterm individual bills, that would go to funding the government. At least in some pieces. And that process continues over the weekend. Now, the hope from House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy after he abandoned his first wish to pass a shortterm spending bill, now his hope is that if they pass those smaller leaner individual longterm spending bills, that that would go to the house floor on tuesday. But there are a couple of problems here, fred. We dont know if there are enough gop votes to pass those leaner bills, pass the house, on tuesday, and if it does pass, we know that when it heads to the senate, it is basically dead on arrival, because they have no democratic support, putting House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy in a very precarious situation. So as i stand here, on saturday, it is basically unclear whether or not were any closer to avoiding a shutdown on the house side, the senate side, and of course here at the white house. Jasmine wright at the white house, thank you so much. U. S. Customs and Border Protection has resumed operations at the International Railway crossing bridge, in eagle pass, texas. The agency had shut down all vehicle traffic, on wednesday, and this comes as Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is set to visit the Rio Grande Valley in southeast texas. And amid a surge of migrant crossings there this week. In response to the influx, the mayor of eagle pass, texas, is declaring a State Of Emergency, saying he is pleading for more federal help, and that the city feels abandoned by the Biden Ad