we'll have more on the latest mess in a year that's been full of incredible moments. and bernie madoff's wife and son open up to "60 minutes" about the moment he revealed his $50 billion ponzi scheme. >> i felt like my head exploded. i mean, i don't think if he had told me he was an alien i could have been more surprised. >> we have more of that interview this morning, including what the family thinks of madoff today. early this monday morning, october 31, 2011. good monday morning to you. it is 7:00 a.m. on the west coast. i'm erica hill. >> be happy you're on the west coast. here on the east coast, what happened over the weekend, it may be the worst october snowstorm ever recorded here. some parts of new england got more than two feet of snow. nearly 3 million customers have no power. and the effects on air travel are still rippling across the country this morning. we'll have more on the snow and all the headaches it's causing in just a few minutes here. >> that's right. by the way, happy halloween. >> thank you very much. mini pumpkin. >> some places they are putting trick or treating on hold. we'll have more on that in just a moment. first, the latest from the presidential race where herman cain's campaign is rejecting a report that he was accused of sexual harassment several years ago. that story overshadowing a new poll in the key state of iowa which shows cain leading the republican pack. jan crawford has the latest for us this morning. >> that new poll is coinciding with cain's appearance this weekend on "face the nation." he is facing increased scrutiny especially when he was questioned on whether he supported abortion in some cases such as rape or incest. >> pro-life from conception, period. i was -- that piece that was pulled out was taken totally out of context when we were talking about -- >> ok. so in other words, you don't -- would not even believe in abortion if rape incest or the health of the mother is involved? >> correct. that's my position. >> that is now your position? >> that's my position, yes. >> a few missteps aside, cain's message is resonating. he is edging out former massachusetts romney for first place in iowa. >> my message is connecting and people are connecting with me. and the specific solutions i'm putting on the table. >> reporter: another reason may be cain's unconventional style. he's not your typical politician because he isn't a politician. he admits when he doesn't know something. visits states like alabama that aren't part of the early calendar. and runs quirky, sometimes controversial campaign ads. despite cain's standing in the polls, president obama's re-election team doesn't appear to be taking him seriously. on sunday a top adviser put his focus on one-time front-runner romney. >> you get the sense with mitt romney that if he thought it was goed good to say the sky was green to win an election he would say it. cain has the strongesting baaing among people who say he is very conservative. parts of the tea party are born again christians. but whether this will have any impact on these numbers, it's too soon to say. >> jan, we know that the cain campaign is speaking out about the allegations. walk us through what we know right now. >> mr. cain is actually speaking right now at a think tank here in washington. he is just talking about matters of fiscal policy. he said he will address these allegations later. his chief of staff was on msnbc this morning flatly denying them. they are pushing back hard against these allegations. the allegations are that he engaged in improper conduct when he was head of the national restaurant association. we don't know who the accusers are. they are anonymous in this piece that was published this morning on politico, a website. they say that the women say that cain used improper language and made some physical gestures, but there was no touching. now cain was approached by politico's jonathan martin yesterday right here in front of cbs, and he said he would not comment. take a listen to that. >> i'm not going to comment about two people that you won't tell me who they are. ok? i'm not going to -- i'm not going to talk about it. >> now the campaign has also released a statement. and again, emphasizing what they say we've seen this movie played out before. a prominent conservative targeted by liberals simply because they disagree with his politics. from that statement, it's not clear who they're referring to they have seen it played out before. but it reminds me of similar allegations levied 20 years ago against justice clarence thomas and cain has spoke in the past about what he expects to encounter in this campaign and says he's ready for the same quote, high-tech lynching that justice thomas said he received from the news media and the left. >> jan crawford in washington this morning. jan, thank you. we want to bring in now chief washington correspondent, host of "face the nation" bob schieffer. it's always nice to have you with us. what is the fallout this morning in washington? because it's certainly getting a lot of attention in terms of headlines. >> well the bottom line here is it's not so much what we know but what we don't know here. these kinds of things have happened before. we had allegations like this in '88 against gary hart. we had allegations against bill clinton when he ran for president involving paula jones and gennifer flowers. but in those cases what, started out as anonymous stories that came from anonymous sources they were soon fleshed out. we had names to go along with the allegations. what we don't know here is who exactly made these charges, exactly what the charges were. the cain campaign first said well, they were just tired old allegations that had been settled amicably. what does that mean? and then they later put out the statement that did not directly deny the charges, but then the spokesman for the campaign said yes, our statement means it is a denial. at this point, we just have anonymous sources who have made certain allegations here. now, politico is a very reputable website and news organization. they vet their stories. this is not something that just comes off the top of somebody's head. they edit their stories. they don't publish unless they think things are correct. but unless we get some names, unless we know more about this erica, i think that this story will just sit there. i don't see it moving very much beyond where it is unless we get more details. >> they do say in that article they have seen documentation of at least one case. it will be interesting if more details from that comes out. the cain campaign is saying this is political, he being attacked because of his conservative politics. you outlined a couple of examples, though, that are on the other side of the aisle. does this typically come down to politics or is it simply the fact that when you're a politician you're going to get hit with these things when you're running for office, whether or not it is found said? >> well i always tell journalist students that where news comes from news comes out because somebody wants it out. this is not something that politico just made up. somebody has told a reporter from politico about these charges because they are going after herman cain. they want to give him a setback. but we don't know who that is. and we still -- until we find out who these victims are, and exactly what the charges are, it's very difficult to see this story going beyond where it is, it seems to me. >> still a lot of unanswered questions this morning. i want to switch to something that happened yesterday morning on your show when it came to smoking and this video which has gone viral from herman cain's campaign. we'll take a quick look and then i want you to tell us about it. >> it's not funny to me. i am a cancer survivor like you. >> i am also. >> i had cancer that's smoking related. i don't think if serves the country well and this is an editorial opinion here to be showing someone smoking a cigarette. and you're the front-runner now. and it seems to me as front-runner you would have a responsibility not to take that kind of a tone in this campaign. i would suggest that perhaps as the runfront-runner you'd want to raise the level of the campaign. have you ever just thought to say to young people don't smoke? 400,000 people die in america every year because of smoking related -- >> i will have no problem saying that. >> well, say it right now. >> young people of america, all people, do not smoke. it is hazardous, and it's dangerous to your health. don't smoke. i never smoked. and i have encouraged people not to smoke. >> it's not a cool thing to do. >> it is not a cool thing to do. >> bob, an incredibly important message from you there. how did he take it? you were sitting there with him onset. >> well, afterward, they sent word that the guy who was seen in that commercial smoking also wanted me to know that he doesn't encourage young people to smoke. this is him. and i just found it so bizarre. and in this day and age, that someone would be seen smoking. i mean would you show a drunk teenager driving a car? and i think that something like that sends a sub liminal message. and i did -- i don't do that very often. i don't take positions during my interviews very often. but i just thought it was important. young people out there are watching. and, you know, i started smoking -- i actually started chewing tobacco to be quite frank when i was 16 years old because i wanted to be a baseball player and all the baseball players chewed tobacco. as a result of that many years later, i came down with bladder cancer. and i just think that these candidates have a responsibility not to send that kind of message. he says he wasn't sending a message. the interesting thing was, though, when i said why don't you tell young people not to smoke, he just -- he came right out and said it, you know. and i guess you have to give the man credit. he did answer the question. and i don't know. it's -- you know as i say, i don't do that kind of thing very often. but i just thought in this case, i just -- i did it. >> well a lot of people probably agree with you that it was warranted. and as we always say, when you ask the question you get an answer. and it worked in this case too. bob schieffer, nice to see you this morning. we'll move now to the latest on the storm that is setting records here in the northeast as some areas got more than two feet of snow. the storm is blamed for at least 11 deaths, mostly because of car accidents. and some travellers had horrendous delays. 13 hours on an amtrak train. seven hours on one jetblue flight. close to 3 million homes and businesses still have no electricity this morning, forcing widespread school closings. and a state of emergency has been declared in new jersey, connecticut, massachusetts, and parts of new york state. national correspondent jim axelrod is in west milford, new jersey, where more than a foot and a half of snow fell. jim, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, jeff. here in new jersey it could be the end of the week before power is restored to all those who are without it. and it is the same story in many places throughout the northeast. the only surprise is that what happened to meaghan fitzgerald sunday morning didn't happen to more people. >> this tree wound up falling, breaking, and crushing the side of the house where my mother was sleeping. >> reporter: the snow came so early in the year the tree still had leaves weighing them down and snapping branches, which in turn snapped power lines. >> never saw this before in my life. >> reporter: 800,000 customers are without power in connecticut. that's a new record. more than 400,000 in new jersey. 200,000 plus in new york. 250,000 in pennsylvania. and there are more than 11,000 outages in western maryland. records were set in new york city where 2.9 inches of snow fell in central park. they had never measured even an inch here on any october day since 1869. concord, new hampshire, got 13.6 inches. that broke a 59-year-old record. bristol, connecticut, got 17 inches of snow. and plainfield, massachusetts, more than 30 inches. 48 amtrak passengers bound for boston ended up stranded for 13 hours overnight. in hartford connecticut, 126 passengers were stuck on a jetblue plane on the tarmac for more than seven hours with no food, water, or bathrooms. >> no. they are totally filled. nobody can go in them anymore. you just have to hold it. >> reporter: even a pilot begged air traffic control for assistance when the mood on the plane grew intense. >> i've got a problem here on the airplane. i need to have the cops brought onboard the airplane. you know, we can't seem to get any help from our own company. i apologize for this. but is there any way you can get a tug and a tow bar out here to us and get us towed somewhere? to a gate or something? i don't care. my priority right now is a tug and a tow bar. just give me a welding shop, i'll be willing to make one myself. >> reporter: the chain saws were busy in west milford new jersey, where peter and faith delaney got 19 inches of snow and lost 16 trees. 16 trees down. thousands of dollars in costs to probably get rid of this. but are you feeling lucky in some sense? >> it didn't hit the house. that's all we care about. >> reporter: and folks in the northeast as they dig out, they will do so haunted by the calendar. take a look at this. we're still 52 days away from the official start of winter. jeff? >> fun thought. jim, thank you very much in northern new jersey this morning. >> 52 days. >> yeah. and then we have all winter as well. >> oh, thanks for putting that in perspective. we should point out that jetblue is apologizing for what happened. they have more information on their website. and what happened over the weekend is just the latest in a year full of big weather stories here, everything from killer tornados to crushing drought. we're going to ask a scientist what is happening on all of this. >> wacky weather. >> a little la nina action. >> could be. terrell brown has a check of the other headlines for out this halloween morning. good morning. good to see you. good morning, everyone. boeing is getting into the spacecraft business. boeing announced this morning that it's leasing the kennedy space center hangar. it will use the space to rebuild or reuse space capsules that will be able to carry astronauts or supplies to the international space station. right now, the u.s. relies on russia to ferry crews to the first nation. the abdulmutallabtaliban are claiming responsibility for a suicide car bomber that struck a checkpoint in casnd darrnada har. -- kandahar. the u.n. confirmed this morning that three of its employees are among those killed. the attack comes two days after the taliban struck a nato convoy in kabul. 17 people were killed, including 10 americans. officials today say the attack may have been carried out by the taliban's pakistan based network. it's suspected in a series of attacks in afghanistan. saturday's bombing still ahead this morning, still ahead, bernie madoff's wife and son says it is not just the money. they can never forgive bernie madoff's rebetrayal of them. you'll hear more including why ruth madoff hasn't divorced him. and the cold facts of winter weather. will mother nature change their plans? 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