last sunday. dozens of families have lost their homes to wildfires. in oklahoma city alone, fires destroyed 25 homes just this week. and in texas, crews are still battling 14 separate wildfires. they have been making some progress, but a weather system is expected to bring high winds to texas to tomorrow. and that could turn the embers back into flames. politics and sarah palin s latest appearance in the critical early voting state of iowa. the former alaska governor and former vp candidate was a keynote speaker at a tea party rally. she didn t use the rally to declare her presidential bid but she definitely sounded like a candidate. watch. candidate obama didn t have a record while he was in office, but president obama sure does and that s why we re here today. candidate obama, he pledged to fundamentally transform america and for all the failures and broken promises, that s the one thing he delivered on. we have transformed from a country of hope, to one of anxiety. t
i want you to see. one of them, a nascar superstar who will be racing next week in honor of the 9/11 pentagon victims. ryan newman will join me live from the atlanta motor speedway. also this morning, an exclusive. another comedian saying something he now has to policies for. katt williams is who we re talking about, joining us live here on cnn, just minutes away, asking him about his controversial remark made about mexicans during a stand-up performance in phoenix. those comments have him apologizing. from the cnn center in atlanta, georgia, this is your cnn saturday morning. i m t.j. holmes. glad you could spend part of your holiday weekend here with us. labor day often means politics. specifically this morning, though, sarah palin and the tea party. she is the main attraction at a rally in iowa today, even though she s not an official candidate, at least not yet. cnn political reporter peter hamby is in iowa for us. peter, help people understand this. it s iowa, it s labor
and this boat, no match for the rough waves slamming into the mississippi overnight, despite efforts to wrangle the boat here, it was a lost cause, ta digging a huge hole in the hull and capsizing, you are in the cnn newsroom, i m susan hendricks. this massive storm is stalled just off the coast of the new orleans. it promptses to bring high winds, heavy rains and flooding. the governors have declared states of emergency. already power has been knocked out to thousands in the southern part of mississippi, the mayor of new orleans held a news conference a short time ago warning residents not to be complacent. we expect stormy conditions for the next 36 hours, so please do not be lulled into sleep by the breaks in rain. we have to stay alettrt. as all of us who have been through this know, it s not how much we get, but it s how much we get in a short period of time and should that come with unexpected rain bands, we can expect to get what we got last night, which was some flo
it s important to say they are not saying there is a specific threat, but what they are saying is there is a continued threat. certainly from al qaeda and affiliate organizations, and it notes that briefly al qaeda and the terrorists groups have linked their attacks to significant dates, and of course 9/11, there couldn t be anymore specific or significant dates than that. you know, i was just talking with a friend that said is this something that we should really, really be worried about. the state department issues these, randy, on a regular basis. in fact, this supplements another caution that was issued. it s the responsibility of the state department to warn americans who are abroad about this. that said, it is, of course, 9/11, very significant and the state department is saying there s a continuing threat out there. but it s not a travel alert for those here at home, it s for those who are traveling abroad or residing abroad? yes, that s what the state department d
a week after irene hit the east coast, the central gulf coast is getting ready for storm with flooding rains. louisiana governor bobby jindal already declared a state of emergency. oil companies are pulling workers off the rigs in the gulf. some places including new orleans could get as much as 20 inches of rain. texas could really use some of that rain from the tropical system. it doesn t look promising. 14 big wildfires are burning in that state. just one of them west of dallas. firefighters are finally making some progress. they ve got about the fire half contained or so. we can do all the work by air we want, but as my instructors told me a long time ago, it s boots on the ground that gets it taken care of. employers added no jobs during august. the unemployment rate is unchanged at 9.1%. a couple things we should point out. the report was distorted because it counted thousands of verizon workers who went on strike but that were now back on the job. the numbers also i