zz h zoraida sambolin has the day off. that is awesome. it s caught on camera. i m ashleigh banfield. it s nice to have you with us every morning. it s 5:00 a.m. on the east coast. let s get started with this. go vote for someone else. how about that for a campaign pitch. fighting words for mitt romney after a pretty rough reception at the naacp convention. it was a tough sell to begin with though anyway. governor romney s really trying to convince african-americans that they d be better served with him in the white house than with president obama. president obama has about 95ish percent support among african-americans. he misstepped when he referred to the president s health carrey forms as obama care. i m going to eliminate every non-essential expensive program i can find, that includes obama care, and i m going to work to reform and save yeah, those are the sound of boos. you might say ouch or maybe not. romney is getting beat up by naacp. listen to the president o
violently mauled by two chimps in south africa. ahead, the horrifying details of the attack. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. these numbers just coming in. let s go to the battle for the white house. a brand new cnn o.r.c. poll is just being released right now. take a look at just how tight the race is. among registered voters nationally, nationally. 49% say they are for president obama versus 46% for mitt romney. that s with a 2.5% samplining err error. despite the landmark ruling, there s been no change in the number for either candidate since the last poll that came out in may. look at this, when it comes to voters in the so-called battleground states, about 15 of them, the numbers aren t so close. let s go straight to cnn s joe johns. he s breaking the numbers for us. he s in des moines, iowa, right now. tell our viewers what we re seeing, joe. reporter: wolf, there s certainly a lot more to this than meets the eye. the main takeaway is mitt romney is r
for you. good morning to you, welcome to early start on this monday morning. i m zoraida sambolin. and i m ashlee. it s the kind of heat that makes it hard to breathe and it is still threatening millions of americans all the way from the midwest to the northeast this morning. about 16 people have now died from this heat since thursday when triple-digit temperatures unleashed killer storms that have now left millions of people without power this morning. it s incredible, but look how many states are now dealing with miserable conditions in ohio, 425,000 people are now without power. that s as of 10:00 p.m. last night. it s the same story in virginia and maryland, where hundreds of thousands of people are just waiting for the power to come back on. just a whiff of ac in these extraordinary temperatures. the problem there doesn t seem to be much of a let-up in sight. 20 states are under heat advisory warnings. and now a state of emergency has been declared by the gove
16 people have already died since thursday when triple digit temperatures unleashed the deadly storms leaving millions without power. you see all of these states in yellow? these are the states suffering in ohio, 425,000 customers without power as of 10:00 last night. same story in virginia, same story in maryland, where hundreds of thousands of people are waiting, waiting for that electricity to flip back on. there is still really no let up in sight this morning. 20 states under heat advisories and there s a state of emergency in maryland, ohio, west virginia and virginia. athena jones is live this mother. what s the situation, it sounds dire. reporter: it is, we re standing at an intersection where a traffic signal just got the power back not too long ago. there are several i can see down the road that don t have power. that s a big issue as people head back to work on this monday morning. we did get an update. the utility companies say the workers are out in full force w
jerry sandusky s child rape accusations. one from the university s president says dealing with the sex abuse within the school was, quote, humane. it s a cnn exclusive. plus return to power. the political party that ruled mexico for 70 years is back. you re looking at mexico s projected new president, pena nieto. on his agenda reduce the violence from drug cartels that seem to rule the country, but can he do it? a rematch is on or is it? this photo finish was too close to call so these two runners are duking it out tonight fighting for that olympic dream but now reports suggest one of them might not run. newsroom begins right now. and good morning to you. i m carol costello. thank you so much for joining us on this hot monday. we do begin this hour with the brutal heat smothering millions of americans. for many of you, it is downright dangerous. a massive weekend storm toppled power lines from indiana to maryland. this morning nearly 2 million people still have no way