good morning to you. it is tuesday, august 23rd. this is "am: wake up call." i'm carol costello live in new york. let's get started with that big storm crashing through the atlantic ocean right now. irene is getting ever more powerful and may be heading toward the united states. people in south carolina already getting ready for irene. the hurricane is near the dominican republic right now. take a look at the storm from the international space station. irene is now a category 2 hurricane, but jacqui jeras says it could become an enormous category 4 later this week as it gets closer to the southeastern united states. it's already left about half of puerto rico without power. cnn will take a closer look at the storm's path in a few minutes. how is the battle for tripoli going anyway this morning? >> that depends on whom you ask. rebel leaders say they have control over most of the city. there's still some fierce fighting in some neighborhoods. moammar gadhafi's son saif, the one wanted for war crimes, showed up at a hotel in tripoli last night even though rebels said earlier they had arrested him. saif claims loyal troops have broken the back of rebels and told cnn that his father, moammar gadhafi, is safe in tripoli. we've learned that a missile was fired from gadhafi's hometown and it landed in the rebel controlled city of misrata. nato says there's no reports of damage or injuries but worries about gadhafi's weapons. >> based on all the information that i have, he has a lot of weapons and we're very concerned that he does have those weapons and we were surprised he didn't use those weapons throughout this whole exercise. >> a big change is coming at the top of standard & poor's. its president is stepping down. devon sharle will give up his post but will remain with the company until the end of the year. lots of interesting things have been happening at s&p lately. they downgraded the u.s. credit rating this month and "the new york times" reported the justice department was investigating whether s&p gave high ratings to mortgage bonds. doug peterson will take over next month. there's been another protest in san francisco complete with riot gear, chapting and arrests. >> no peace. >> police closed and then reopened b.a.r.t. train stations downtown to keep demonstrations from getting out of hand. at least three protesters were arrested. they're upset with recent shootings that involved b.a.r.t. police officers and they don't like b.a.r.t.'s decision to cut cell phone signals at some stations. the board will revisit that decision tomorrow. the bad news for billionaire mogul richard branson fire from a lightning strike destroyed the big house on his private caribbean island. the good news, the guy has his own island in the caribbean anyw anyway. here's what he had to say about the fire. >> woke up just to see a gigantic 100-foot flames in the sky. it ripped through the house unbelievably quickly. >> branson had several guests staying at the house including actress kate winslet. all of them got out okay, and get this, branson said winslet picked up his 90-year-old mother and carried her outside. way to go, kate. and there's a hearing at 11:30 eastern in the dominique strauss-kahn case. now that prosecutors say that charges against the former imf chief should be dropped. a hotel maid claims strauss-kahn sexually assaulted her, but the d.a.'s office says she has credibility issues and that evidence just does not back up her story. how to see -- now to see how the world's money is doing. let's go to kristie lu stout from hong kong. i'm always afraid to ask you this question. how are the world markets doing today? >> do you know what, carol, good morning, it's looking pretty good. we're seeing optimism out there, optimism that the fed will serve up more stimulus measures, perhaps this week, and that gave a strong start to the european trading day. in fact, all the main indices trading higher are here in asia, signs of improvement in the chinese economy are lifting shares. we're seeing the shanghai composite enjoying a lift, energy related stocks help hong kong and australia higher and japan's nikkei ended up 1.2%. good news so far. lot of lost ground being made up from last week. >> that makes me feel much better about life, at least temporarily. now i want to talk about libya, though. we're starting to get an idea of what this war is actually costing u.s. taxpayers. give us an idea. >> yeah. we have a solid figure for you. the cost to u.s. taxpayers for america's share of the libyan mission is approaching $1 billion. now this is according to a report. it was released monday by the pentagon. the cost comes from the number of u.s. air strikes on gadhafi targets. the average number of u.s. strikes from april 1st to august 10th were about 1.7 a day. since then it's risen to about 3.1 a day. the pentagon has sent about $12.5 million in nonlethal aid, but again, carol, total price tag so far, $1 billion. >> kristie lu stout live in hong kong, many thanks to you. an earthquake shaking things up overnight in colorado. i'll tell you how strong it was. but first, here is the quote of the day. quote, ben bernanke's not the tooth fairy. find out who said that coming up in 90 seconds. stick around. up, smart? 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[ male announcer ] glucerna. delicious shakes and bars. discover customersl are getting five percent cashback bonus at the pump... and at many of the places their summer plans take them. it pays to switch, it pays to discover. moig. nine minutes past the hour. this is your "am: wake up call." good morning to you. our quote of the day, ben bernanke's not the tooth fairy. who said that? why, it was dallas federal reserve president richard fisher, said this about the federal reserve chair on fox business monday. it was in response to a question about what bernanke will say at friday's central bank conference. he went on to say, quote, his job is not to leave presents under the pillow of people who have desires that may not be easily fulfilled. hurricane irene is moving through the atlantic and could reach the united states by the weekend. people in south carolina already stocking up on water, gas, and generators. irene could become a category 3 major hurricane today. so let's head to atlanta and jacqui jeras. really? it could be a category 4 by the time it hits south carolina? >> well, it might weaken a little bit before that. i think the official forecast is for a cat 3 at landfall but the intensity forecast always a little trickier than the actual track. but all signs are pointing to a strengthening hurricane in the next 24 to 48 hours. the main reason for this is that eye has managed to stay off shore. it's to the north of the dominican republic. and haiti. it stays over that warm energy source, that warm water, to help this thing stay on the strong side. right now it's a category 2 hurricane with maximum winds around 100 miles per hour. it's moving west/northwest early and lashing the dominican republic with strong winds and also that heavy rainfall. they could see anywhere between three and six inches of rain and flash flooding and mudslides a big concern. even though we're not looking at the potential for a u.s. landfall until the weekend, carol, something to keep in mind, this is a huge storm. we're talking about those winds exit tending out about 200 miles from the center of the storm. south florida is going to start to feel the impacts of this already by late wednesday into thursday morning, and there you can see that cone of uncertainty. it's looking more and more like it's heading towards the carolinas. back here at home today, though, we're going to be dealing with thunderstorms and expected airport delays in minneapolis, chicago, some of the florida airports, as well as san francisco due to some low clouds and fog. so a busy day and irene, it's going to be getting stronger today. it has to be 111 to be what we call that major hurricane or category 3. >> okay. well at least people are already getting ready in south carolina. that's a good thing. never too early. >> absolutely. >> jacqui jeras, thanks. a late night jolt for parts of colorado and new mexico. a magnitude 5.3 earthquake hit about 190 miles south of denver near the new mexico border. happened just before midnight local time. it is the strongest quake to hit that area in almost 40 years. there are reports of rock slides and some structural damage around the area. there is a new astronaut working at the international space station. actually, it's a robonot. a joint venture between nasa and general motors and in true high tech fashion, it has its own web page and on facebook and it's also tweeting. if video killed the radio star, smartphones may be killing text messaging or some of the billions of dollars cell phone companies make from the expensive text messaging plans. seems many of the smartphones include free texting services leaving the cell phone companies to scream a collective oh, my god, or omg. osama bin laden's capture, now libyan dictator moammar gadhafi's grip loosening, will this translate into a re-election victory. a poll matching the president against top republican candidates. the president doesn't fair so well. it's 13 minutes after the hour. . major medical. ...but it helps pay the doctors. pays the doctors, boyyy! 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[ bleep ]. that's the guy. >> oh, no. >> state department authorities are looking into this. they're looking into it. they're questioning their interrogating, there's an electronic trail. but everybody knows it's leno. >> what better way to cue our political ticker with tim farley, host of "morning briefing" on sirius live from washington. hi, tim. >> good morning. no threats here, by the way. >> where are you? what? >> yeah. no death threats. none of those. none of those for this. so here we sit, carol -- >> before you begin, we want to look at this new gallup poll so we can chat about it. >> please. >> this is a new gallup poll. matches president obama against the four top presidential candidates. mitt romney leads the president by two percentage points while texas governor rick perry and the president are tied by 47%. edges out michele bachmann by four percentage points. tim, i don't know what exactly this poll means because it's so early in the game. does it mean that the president is just weakened by a bad economy or does it mean everything's sort of in flux? i know many republicans aren't satisfied with the republican field. >> you make the point this is so far away from the election, 441 days away in the election next year. key takeaways, number one, that most of the republican candidates are within the margin of error or the top candidates within the margin of error of being ahead of the president. that doesn't strike well for the campaign the president's trying to paint these republican candidates as extreme, maybe not mitt romney, but rick perry, ron paul and michele bachmann. they have a lot of work to do. number one. number two, dig down into the numbers, independent voters, rick perry defeats president obama, ron paul beats president obama, and also mitt romney does. only michele bachmann loses out. independent voters will be the key here. minds can change, but this is certainly not a good sign. it says, by the way, that the republican candidates pretty much neck and neck at this point. no preferred candidate among those who are participating in this poll. >> yeah. people are still clamoring for paul ryan but he said yesterday i'm not running, sorry. i feel good you want me to run but i'm not going to. talk about jon huntsman he was on piers morgan last night and coming out fighting against his republican opponents saying that there's nobody really electable in the field, although he did say that he would consider serving as michele bachmann's running mate. what do you make of that? actually, let's listen to him before you talk about it. >> okay. >> if you love this country you serve her. if you're in a position to better the country, to bring whatever background you have to bear, whatever experiences to use in fine tuning our future, i'll be the first person to sign up, absolutely. >> that's an unusual admission i would say. i think it's to your credit you've done it. it will get headlines and people will pick up and say jon huntsman says yeah, i would happily serve under michele bachmann. >> okay. go, what do you make of that? >> come on. we're worried about vice president. we haven't picked a presidential candidate yet. the question has to be asked, here's the one thing about that i take away, is that jon huntsman trying to present himself as the thinking candidate in the more reasonable and rationale candidate, forgets rule number one, hey, i'm running for president, we'll worry about vice presidency later. i'm running for president. he didn't say that. but i think we can worry about the vice presidential nomination some time down the road here. >> some time way, way, way down the road. >> yeah. >> let's figure out who the nominee is first. >> exactly. tim farley on sirius xm, thanks so much. soon you will be able to hop a southwest flight into and out of atlanta. the airline will start service to hartsfield jackson in february with 15 daily flights from five cities. they would be baltimore, chicago, denver, houston and austin. just some of them. introductory tickets start at $79 one way. atlanta is the biggest city not served by southwest but it has its foot in the door when it bought air tran which has a hub in atlanta. rivals ford and toyota making nice joining forces to develop a hybrid system for pick-up trucks and suvs. they will share development costs to make the technology affordable for you but both companies say their cars will remain unique, fords still fords and toyotas still toyotas. this curvy 1957 ferrari broke the record for the most expensive car ever sold at auction. see, somebody has money somewhere. the winning bid for the first 250, $16.4 million. you could buy more than 1,000 brand new hondasi civics. the buyer is listed as a collector for italian automobile. the worst neighbor ever after he slapped a disabled man with a fish. the latest on a long list of neighborly complaints against this guy. we'll run through them for you after this. if something is simply the color of gold, is it really worth more? 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[ kimberly ] and university of phoenix made it possible. learn more at phoenix.edu. 22 minutes past the hour. rebels in libya trying to consolidate their hold on tripoli but gadhafi forces will not back down without a fight apparently. right now we still don't know where the leader is but one of his sons say gadhafi is safe. let's go around the world with fred pleitgen, live in benghazi. i got to say, fred, that when saif gadhafi turned up riding around tripoli, that's just confusing. >> yeah, carol, it is absolutely confusing. quite shocking, quite frankly, to a lot of people here. this city is the main one within the rebel held territory. there were rumors which were confirmed last night by the transitional national council which is the head of the rebels, saying that saif gadhafi, moammar gadhafi's by far most prominent son, had been captured by them and was in their custody along with two other of moammar gadhafi's sons. so it now turns out late last night that, in fact, saif gadhafi is not and apparently has not ever been in the custody of the rebels and that one of the other sons of moammar gadhafi called mohammed, gadhafi, his eldest son, managed to escape from rebel custody. this is something that somewhat undermines their credibility when they make statements like these. we've not been able to get any reaction from the transitional national council as to why they put out these reports and to what exactly might have happened, whether or not he might have been in custody, but they are saying that this by no means undermines the momentum they have in the town of tripoli, that they're pushing forward. at this point in time, carol, they're even talking about moving the wing of their political movement from here in benghazi to tripoli, quite soon. they say when the situation allows them to do that, when it is safe enough. of course, it's anyone's guess at this point in time when that might be. carol? >> well, you talk about a credibility issue as far as these opposition forces are concerned. saif was essentially running the country in place of his father. so if he's running around town, you know, given the two fingers up signal, what can we really believe about who is in control of tripoli? >> well, certainly seems at this point in time that no one is in control of all of tr