and a very good wednesday, october 28th, to you. i'm richard lui in for robin meade this hour for you. attackers in suicide vests killed a group of u.n. workers at a guest house in afghanistan. what this could mean for tens of thousands of men and women in the u.s. military. and then get ready for airline tickets as low as $25. who has the outrageous travel deals and how you can get them. jen westhoven fills us in. and then to andre agassi. he admits to using illegal drugs. why the tennis champion says he did that. our top story right thousand. we're seeing waves of violent attacks in afghanistan many against u.s. troops and it begs the question would you be willing to send your son or daughter there right now? president obama is sending 40,000 more gis. it's a brutal situation in the country. taliban militants stormed the guest house being used by the u.n. at least six staffers were killed in that. the associated press reporting one is a u.s. citizen. >> i have to see when we know the full situation what this means for our work here in afghanistan. at the moment we continue as normal. we obviously have to adjust our security in light of this. but this is a very serious incident. it's also tragic. these are civilians working for afghanistan. this is a totally senseless thing that's happened here. it's an outrage and it's a tragedy. >> let's step back now for some context. this comes after two straight days of heavy losses for the united states. yesterday eight u.s. soldiers were killed by two roadside bombs in afghanistan. those locations are marked by red stars on the map you see there and then on monday 14 u.s. troops and civilians died in a pair of helicopter crashes. the war in afghanistan is now eight years old and october now the deadliest month yet. president obama will sign a law today making it a federal crime to assault someone for their sexual orientation, civility or gender identity. it is named for matthew shepard who died after being beaten in 1998 and names after james byrd jr., an african-american man dragged to his death in texas that very same year. now to fans and celebs that got their first glimpse at michael jackson's final months. "this is it" debuted last night including at a star-studded premiere in los angeles. it shows jackson's exhausting rehearsals for a comeback concert series that never happened. his brother jermaine spoke from the red carpet. >> i think he would have loved it only because it shows that there's a person in him throughout all the rehearsals and everything. you see when he's focused and he's concentrating on the band. the band sees there's a humane side to him as opposed to him being on stage all the time and the glitz and the glamour. >> all right. that was the scene outside the premiere in london. some fans who saw the movie say they can't believe be how jackson kept up with backup dancers that were just half his age. we take to you beijing where impersonators showcase the moves that made jackson a censors ha approve it. >> a lot of practice. >> some cheap airfares but you have to act fast for some of the great deals. as you heard jen westhoven is here to tell us about that. we're looking forward to good news, jen. southwest started it, tickets as low as $25 for flights one way this winter. now, right, when you hear one way you have to do the math. so it comes out to taxes and fees about a $90 ticket. that's pretty good. that's some good news in a bad economy for a lot of people who maybe haven't been travel so much. now it's not for the holidays, of course, and it's going to be more depending on how long the flight is. you have to buy the tickets by tomorrow night. very good prices. a lot of the other airlines are also trying to match them or are offering other flights under $100. richard? >> so that's what you and i are going to be doing during the breaks, right, looking for cheap fares? thanks so much. the public health insurance option faces a major hurdle. independent senator joe lieberman says he'll oppose any bill that includes government run health insurance, saying it is too expensive and too risky. >> we ought to wait three or four years to see how the tremendous reforms that we have the chance to put into effect now work and then if for some reason people think we need a publicly owned health insurance company, we'll come back and discuss that. >> now lieberman typically votes with the democrats and the democrats need every vote they can get to reach that magic 60 votes. that is needed to overcome a filibuster. this is another one. the pilots who overshot the minneapolis airport have had their licenses revoked. in a harsh letter the faa said the captain and first said they were on a personal frolic in the cockpit. the pilots said they lost track of time while working on their lab top computers. the decision is effective immediately but the pilots have ten days to appeal. you have to hear this story. a car crashed into a house and landed on a couple's bed trapping them there for almost an hour. this picture taken shortly after the crash. as you can see here motor fluid sprayed their faces and their bodies were numb from the weight of the car. they got out with minor injuries, if you can believe that. >> as each day goes by you think about it more and more and you see more photos and you're just like how did we get out of there alive? if he would have been going 40, 80, how did it land perfectly on top of us? and we just, you know, definitely think we had some help definitely and we just feel like there's more of a purpose, we're meant to live to do something. >> the driver faces multiple charges including drunk driving and police say he crashed into the house on purpose. he thought his ex-girlfriend was living there with a new boyfriend, but it was the wrong house. over to bob van dillen. i think it's tough to get up in the morning but try to get pinned by a one-ton car. >> even the guitar was safe. unscathed. >> motor fluid on the face, that's it. so the northeast, huh? >> it's the same storm that plowed on through the deep south and getting into the mid-atlantic yesterday afternoon, too. now it's rolling into northeast pennsylvania, back into the mid-atlantic. a couple areas of low pressure. one is still inland, another one up the shore of basically delaware that will combine often the shore of long island overnight tonight. as that happens you can see the rain drawn out to the atlantic. look at the heavy downpours. basically across western new york state and into pennsylvania, too. new york city had a big batch of rain go by about an hour ago. now showers into the yankees/phillies game tonight. looks like a breeze with drizzle. i think the heaviest rain is gone. might see a couple of showers develop later this afternoon but drizzle for the game. light rain approaching to boston. heavier rain down to the south. and you get away from there, cleveland, the back side of the storm is right over you with rain getting into lake erie, in to erie, pennsylvania, buffalo, too, for the morning. that rotates out by later this afternoon. big conditions down in the south. of all the heavy rain we had, though, let me take you live to atlanta. the clouds are in. the low clouds. over two inches of rain reported. here's the fog. you're going to see some delays at the airport at atlanta especially in the morning. more details on that plus video of the dust storm in california coming up in about a half hour. >> i can't believe you're not wearing pinstripes today for the yanks. >> i did the other day when they made it. >> thanks, bob. when you're out of work a little bit of help can go a long way. whether congress is likely to extend jobless ben fets and just for how long. a hardware store worker got canned over a button. now he's talking to a lawyer about this. president obama is expected to decide whether he'll send as many as 40,000 more u.s. troops to fight in afghanistan and just this week 24 families learn their sons or daughters will not be coming home alive. and one of those brave marines was captain eric jones. the 29-year-old was in a helicopter that crashed in southern afghanistan on monday. his best friend says jones' parents are devastated by the loss of their only child. >> i can't even imagine what it's like for them. they loved him so much and he loved them. he died doing something so much more honorable than most of us will ever get to do. >> captain jones was on his third tour of duty and was scheduled to come home in just a few weeks. we're also learning more about another marine killed in the same chopper crash, captain kyle van de giesen played quarterback in new hampshire but one of his professors remembered him best as a man committed to service. >> every once in a while someone really does truly stand out in terms of their ability to really lead other people and inspire other people. i think that's what i'll remember most. >> he was supposed to come home in the next few days to see the birth of his second child. we'll have more on the story throughout the morning. we've got video now of three u.s. jailed in iran and having fun. why did their families think this footage could help them get released? we'll have this in 20 minutes for you. an extension to unemployment benefits moves a big step forward in congress. our money expert jen westhoven is here. jen, this can't come soon enough for many jobless people as they watch that clock tick on the benefits, right? >> i'm always smiling because i can't figure out how the dancing video gets them off. i'll stick around for that. this is serious stuff and this is just a big step forward. it's still not action yet. no reason to call your unemployment office yet. we'll keep watching, give you all the updates. every week 7,000 people lose their benefits -- i'm sorry, every day according to some of the estimates out there. so these are families that are counting on this money in what's still a very tough job market. yesterday senators voted overwhelmingly to bring the bill to the floor for a full vote. so we're getting a lot closer to some action here. instead of it being stuck in committee. if approved it would mean an extra 14 weeks of unemployment for everyone and in states where unemployment is high, six more weeks on top of that. we will keep watching that one. and some of the government stimulus money is going to closely watch how we use energy. what that means, you could get a new electricity meter in your home. the energy department says 18 million homes will get smart meters. they hope in the future that will be 40 million homes and the idea if you have more information about how and when you use electricity you can take more steps to save it. back to you, richard. >> smart meters. >> yeah, we'll see. >> okay. maybe folks don't need to be peering through the window in the gaj or walking around the side of the building to check it anymore, smart meters. thanks, jen. a little girl died of cancer, wanted to let her mom and dad know she loved them. >> it was just her way of letting us know that everything would be okay. >> her gift to them that may now some day help other cancer victims. secretary of state hillary clinton got a violent reminder of the threat from taliban insurgents. secretary clinton is meeting in pakistan's capital right now as the nuclear equipped country fights a bloody war afghanistan militants in its own country. less than a three-hour drive away a car bomb exploded while people were shopping at a crowded market killing at least 70 people. a man fired by home depot is ready to sue the company over a button. now the button says one nation under god indivisible. he says he wore it all the time and no one said anything until he started bringing a bible to work to read during breaks. home depot has a policy against wearing any noncompany buttons. last week he says he was fired when he would not take that button off. >> i think that that was the pretense they used to fire him was, oh, by the way, your button isn't home depot issues so, therefore, we're going to fire you because it was -- it's not as easy to say we don't like the fact you have a bible with you. >> she calls it religious discrimination. home depot says its nonbutton company policy is a way to respect everyone's beliefs. now the latest on a story that shocked not only a university but also a tounl. police have arrested three men in connection with the murder of connecticut football player jasper howard. rafer weigel with the latest on this. hey, rafer. shocked a lot of people even beyond that town. police say they have got the ones responsible for this heinous crime. they are not uconn students. 21-year-old john lomax, john william lomax iii is being held on a $2 million bond. jasper howard was stabbed in the stomach outside the student union during a dance. lomax's lawyer says he was trying to break up a fight and not involved in the stabbing. cops have arrested two others in connection to the case, all three are expected in court today. chiefs running back larry johnson issued an apology, and he was told to stay away from the team while it investigates his use of gay slurs. a guy rights advocacy group was pleased with the policy but wants more disciplinary action. it was reported johnson used the slur attacking a twitter follower and again with the media on monday. you like jewelry? you like bling? get a look at this. the lakers started their nba season getting their championship rings. oh, my goodness. that thing is not going to make it through a metal detector. look at that. their 15th championship. their newest laker ron artest sporting a new do. the chinese symbol on one side and the lakers "l" on the other. they beat the clippers. and this is a crazy story. philadelphia police say a woman posted an ad on craigslist allegedly offering sex for tickets. the ad said desperate blonde needs world series tickets. maybe we can help each other. two undercover agents say they met her in a bar where she offered to take care of both of them. she was charged with a misdemeanor count of prostitution. she was not available for comment. and in ten minutes a stunning admission from andre agassi. he admits to using illegal drugs. why the tennis champion says he did it. and why is he admitting it? coming clean. richard? >> thanks, rafer. the parents of a little girl who died never intended to write a book about their daughter but after she passed away from brain cancer they started finding love notes all around the house. >> we started to collect the letters and they would all say i love you, mom, dad and grace. and we kept finding them and, you know, still to this day we keep finding them and literally there's hundreds of notes that we found. >> wow. the parents decided a book containing the notes would be a good way to raise money for cancer. it's out right now and it's called notes left behind. an elderly bank robber is on the loose in san diego. the fbi says he's between 60 and 70 years old and has hit four california banks in about one month. this time he pulled out a gun and got away with a bunch of cash. a nearby school was even put on lockdown. the suspect apparently carried an oxygen tank during one of the robberies. we get all the good ones, bob. >> if i remember from "jaws" you don't want to get in a shoot-out with an oxygen tank. >> those things can explode. how does air travel look today? i'm guessing the northeast is a concern of yours. >> it is. it's a major one now. you have heavy rain pulling away from new york but the low clouds are still there and now the rain is moving into boston. so here's what it looks like on the safer flight explorer. i put the new york/new jersey and connecticut there, too. you see jfk, the new york metro, more rain to come. so far no delays, though. not a lot of air traffic either. here's what we have for the day. watching for an hour, boston, new york, philadelphia. low clouds, an hour or more. denver, snow. heavy at times. winter storm warning looking at almost a foot of snow by tomorrow afternoon. so you have an hour long delay as that develops. las vegas another windy day, one hour or more. looking at showers around d.c. in the morning. atlanta, charlotte, morning fog. chicago, morning fog, too. and then it's going to be wind out in las vegas. more on that in a bit, richard. >> better than yesterday but still a little bit better. >> the winds in the bay area close to 40 miles an hour. it's not good. >> thanks, bob. it's a bit like a hollywood disaster movie come true. a piece of the bay bridge in san francisco fell off. and officials say what happened next could have been a whole lot worse. before your kids go in search of sugar this halloween, don't be tricked by what you hear about candy treats. we're seeing some of the worst violence in afghanistan sips the war started. at least six were killed by militants. the ap says a u.s. citizen is among the dead. rockets were fired at the presidential palace and a luxury hotel. no one was hurt in those atta s attacks. the michael jackson documentary "this is it"" was shown all around the world last night showing jackson's exhausting rehearsals for a comeback series. and "this is it" will only be in theaters for two weeks. and u.s. troops will be getting a raise. it's part of a massive defense bill that president obama will sign today. now this bill increases military pay by 3.4%. that raises a half percent more than the president asked congress for and it exceeds inflation. there's still no decision about filing charges against the balloon boy's parents. prosecutors are still reviewing the case against the heenes. the sheriff says the mother has admitted the whole thing was a publicity stunt and they knew all along their 6-year-old boy was not on the runaway balloon. those are some of the stories we're following and the headlines we're watching this morning. welcome back. i'm richard lou gli for robin meade. new video of the three u.s. hikers who have been in custody in iran for almost three months. their friends shot it two days before they were detained, showing them goofing around while visiting. one hiker's mom says this should prove to iran they're just innocent kids. iran charged them with illegally crossing the border from iraq. their families say they did it by mistake. and now live pictures as we look at ares. tell me if you feel like we've been here before. nasa is getting ready to try again to launch its brand-new ares rocket, the world's largest rocket. yesterday's attempt was wiped out because of the weather. if all goes well liftoff could be in about 90 minutes. there's more rain in the forecast so it's wait and see at kennedy space center. we'll be watching the live pictures and tapping into bob van dillen to find out how the weather situation is in that part of the country. tennis legend andre agassi made a stunning confession that he once did crystal meth during the heyday of his career. rafer weigel with more on that. he was quite successful trat. oh, yeah. absolutely, richard. this is a guy with pretty much a squeaky clean image. it will be interesting to see how it affects it. agassi's confession comes in a new autobiography. portions have already been released. in it agassi says in 1997 when his game was slightly declining and he was having doubts about his impending marriage to brooke shields, he and his assistant did crystal meth in his home. agassi says that he later failed a drug test and he describes the fear he felt hearing about that, that he stood to lose everything. well, he told tennis officials he accidentally ingested the drug by drinking a soda laced with it and officials swallowed it, so to speak. richard? >> shocking that he's admitting this right now. >> it is a little shocking that he would risk so much of his image by releasing this in a book.