days. last night they found him. gentleman vars crittendon is accused of killing a mother of four in atlanta. the fbi arrested crittendon before he boarded a red-eye flight from orange county, california to atlanta. he was in the news about two years ago when he played for the washington wizards. he and a teammate pulled guns on each other in the locker room. the power is still out for about five million customers courtesy of irene. today a white house team will visit some of the hardest-hit areas, including the state of vermont. floodwaters were still cresting there late last night. waters have damaged more than 200,000 in their communities. intense flooding wrecked the town of pratsville in the new york skill mountains. it took crews four trips and a helicopter to get a man out. a reporter told cnn that she can't get out of prattsville now. >> we'll give you an idea of the flooding so you understand why we were trapped here. if you can follow me over here. can you see where the creek is right now? imagine where i'm standing, that creek flooded to this point and actually a mile out of town even more. so definitely this is flooding that no one has ever seen here before. and yes, all the other smaller roads around this area have been flooded. so we're being told that there's no way for us to get out. >> so the residents got out, but the reporters are now stuck. the storm is blamed for at least 27 deaths in nine states. and some people like those in prattsville and parts of vermont have lost everything. if you'd like to help, check out the impact your world section on our website, that's at cnn.com/impact. warren jeffs is out of prison and is in a hospital, in critical condition. he has no the been eating since his conviction in texas on sexual assault charges. the polygamous leader was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years. he told prison officials that he wasn't on a hunger strike, he was just fasting. august of 2011 is now the deadliest month for u.s. forces in afghanistan. 66 american troops have died this month. that's the most since the war began nearly ten years ago. until now, july of 2010 had been the deadliest when 65 troops died. in other news this morning, just imagine nobody home at the international space station. that might happen for the first time in more than ten years. the crew has to leave in november, but they're not be anyone to replace them. russia has also had problems with its rockets. the rockets that would help bring up a fresh crew. if those problems are not fixed before the astronauts have to leave, the station will be empty. if you ever find yourself having lunch with michael vick, let him pick up the tab. the philadelphia eagles has signed him to a six-year, $100 million contract. not bad for a guy who was in prison and bankrupt just about two years ago. the deal makes vick the highest paid eagle ever. rob marciano, that's an amazing comeback. >> yes it is. and philly recently was hit by a hurricane or at least grazed by one. so i don't know if that was anything to do with michael vick's contract. but congratulations to him and congratulations to nfl fans who have themselves a season. for a while this past summer, it didn't look that great. we are looking at something that has our interest. first off, let's show you what's going on in the tropics. irene is gone, remnants are gone. it's dry and the clean-up effort is under way, which will be painstakingly slow. this is tropical storm at that timia. winds of 40 morps. moving west-southwesterly as 17 miles per hour. >> katia is forecast to become a hurricane fairly quickly as it makes its way across the southern atlantic off towards the west. potentially becoming a major hurricane, category 3 by sunday. but note the trajectory of this path is a little bit farther north than that of irene. which made its way into the caribbean. and then peeled off towards the north. so there is some hope that this thing may be a gutter ball. if it shoots the gap between the u.s. and bermuda. still a long ways off to make that call, obviously. let's take a look at the track of irene. this is some cool imagery showing you the beginnings of irene. making its way across the northern caribbean, the bahamas and northerly right turn. you notice that the cloud canopy doesn't shrink at all. even when it makes interaction of land, even when it gets downgraded from a category 3 to a category 2. the cloud canopy, the size of this thing only expands when it hits north carolina and all the wind and moisture as we've come to see across northern new england where they are the hardest hit there across the state of vermont. still a head-scratcher to think that a hurricane hitting so many miles of coastline, and so many millions of people, the hardest hit, the most impact its had, is the furthest inland it was and the second northernmost point. carol in. >> poor vermont, thank you, rob marciano. to cope, we joke about things that are sometimes tragic. and of course, the comedians had a field day. here's your punch line. >> hurricane irene came whipping through here, 800,000 residents of new jersey still without power. but it's okay, they've hooked them up to governor christie's back-up generator on his refrigerator, everything will be fine. anyway, good news after hurricane irene, wall street is up and running as usual. the bad news, wall street is up and running as usual. and you folks in the balcony, are you here for the show, are you just here looking for high ground? what is going on? time for a brand-new segment, ladies and gentlemen, when we call this hurricane warnings are better in spanish. hurricane warnings are better in spanish. take a look. [ speaking spanish ] >> that was truly strange to watch, new york's mayor bloomberg trying to speak spanish. beyonce and jay-z's baby news is all the talk. and i'm not kidding, it is all the talk. their announcement breaking all kinds of records, we'll explain. but here we go, here is your quote of the day. quote, he's completely out to lunch. coming up in 90 seconds, find out who said that about ron paul and his criticism of fema. it's seven minutes past the hour. [ male announcer ] 95% of all americans aren't getting enough whole grain. but actually, it's never been easier to get the whole grain you want from your favorite big g cereals. from cheerios to lucky charms, there's whole grain in every box. make sure to look for the white check. there's whole grain in every box. naturals from delicious, real ingredients with no artificial flavors or preservatives. naturals from purina cat chow. share a better life. ♪ whoomp, there it is! ♪ whoomp, there it is! ♪ whoomp, there it is! ♪ whoomp, there it is! ♪ can you dig it? ♪ can y'all dig it? ♪ can you dig it? ♪ can y'all dig it? can you dig it? ♪ [ female announcer ] what happens in diapers should stay in diapers. new luvs ultra leakguards with heavy dooty blowout protection. outstanding protection for your little heavy dooty champ. it's nine minutes past the hour, this is your a.m. wakeup call. back to our quote of the day. quote, he's completely out to lunch. that came from vermont senator bernie sanders. who said this about presidential candidate, ron paul. and you said that fema is useless. sanders went on to say quote, we're a nation, we're not 50 individual states. vermont stands with other states when they're in trouble and other states stand with us. that's what being a nation is all about. now you know. let's head to hong kong and christie lou stout. let's talk about apple, it's waging a big battle in china and apparently, it's losing. >> well and it's all being revealed through these new wikileaked cables, apple hired a team to battle fake ipods and iphones. security advisers from pfizer. in these new wikileak cables, apple security director based in hong kong said he was afraid of the volume of apple fakes being made in china. but carol, three years on, after the crackdown the piracy is still a major issue. you may recall last month those five fake apple stores that were uncovered, since then, only two have been ordered to close. carol? >> china is a big country with lots and lots of people, it's tough to track everything down. i want to talk about beyonce and jay-z's baby news. because boy, is it the rage. >> we just keep talking about it. here's a new excuse to talk about it. a new twitter record has been reached, thanks to the beyonce baby news, when she announced her pregnancy at the mtv music awards, her bump gave twitter a big bump. the beyonce baby news birthed a new twitter record. the previous tps record took place during the final moments of the u.s. women's soccer game against japan. but all the twitter talk aside, it's great news for beyonce and jay-z. >> that's amazing, so many people are interested and congratulatory to beyonce and jay-z. christie lou stout, many thanks to you. hillary versus barack, it's so 2008, right? but some are asking whether hillary clinton could face off again barack obama. people told me i wasn't going to do anything. and i just decided i have more to offer than that. i put myself through nursing school, and then i decided to go get a doctorate degree. university of phoenix gave me the knowledge to make a difference in people's lives. my name is dr. kimberly horton. i manage a network of over a thousand nurses, and i am a phoenix. [ male announcer ] find your program at phoenix.edu. [ male announcer ] it's been a good year for the chevy silverado. and not because of the awards or the accolades. no, it was good because you told us so. the chevy model year wrap up. get in on our greatest model year yet. just announced -- celebrate labor day with an additional $500 bonus cash. with all other offers, including the all-star edition discount, that's a total value of $6,500. ♪ our greatest model year yet is wrapping up. if something is simply the color of gold, is it really worth more? we don't think so. chase sapphire preferred is a card of a different color. unlike others, you get twice the points on travel, and twice the points on dining, and no foreign transaction fees. call now or apply at chasesapphire.com/preferred. so, actually let me give you the time check, because i know it's important, it's 13 minutes past the hour. this is your "a.m. wakeup call." have you heard about former vice president dick cheney's new book? he dishes on washington and shares his take on policies. this didn't sit too well with david letterman. your punch line. >> former vice president -- this is great. dick cheney, you all remember, vice president dick, kaboom cheney? he's written a book and in the book he says he would do it all over again, the same way. he would make no changes. he said he really, he would still honestly, he still feels strongly about this, he would still invade the wrong country. he is so confident that -- dick says that the reason he wrote the memoir is because friends encouraged him to do it. what? this guy has friends? what? remember, dick cheney had the, he had the heart attack? and during one of the heart attacks, he was unconscious for two weeks. two weeks. he was clinically dead for two weeks. i know a lot of you are saying, that's not long enough. that's not long enough. >> time now for your political ticker with tim farley, host of morning briefing on sirius podus, live from washington, good morning, tim. >> how are you this morning, carol? >> i'm good. let's not talk dick cheney, because we know how polarizing he is. let's talk about someone else, shall we? texas governor rick perry, his campaign is taking off. a new poll out, a cnn/orc poll shows he leads the field by a lot. over mitt romney. >> double digits, this follows up the gallup poll that showed the kind of the same thing last week. what's interesting from the numbers from the cnn poll, 27%, that's an awful lot. what's more fascinating is when you drill down. this is from republican voters, people who call themselves republicans. this isn't just the general public. is if you take away the numbers, if you include sarah palin and rudy giuliani, you see the numbers there. but if you take away rudy giuliani and sarah palin, you see that the numbers are even better for rick perry. he's like at 32%. i think what you're seeing of course is you and i talk about this, national polls don't mean as much. what it does mean is that mitt romney is going to have to look at that strategy that he's had of playing long and look at iowa, new hampshire and south carolina and figure out where he can do well. i don't think that the typical model of having to win at least one of the first two, either the caucus or the primary, that's usually proven to be a winning ticket, if you will, for the presidential candidate eventually. you have to win one of those two to get the nomination. i'm not sure that's going to hold true this time around. >> i think you have a bit of sound for us, is it from mitt romney or from rick perry? >> yeah, i actually -- i'm not sure. >> well let's skip over that. i think the strategy is, is that his campaign people say that let rick perry dig his own hole. we don't have to work very hard to defeat him. because he's going to make mistakes. >> again, this is something that it may or may not be that rick perry is able to sustain what he's done. there are some people comparing this to what happened to say, wesley clark when he was going for the nomination for the democrats. you remember 2004 and howard dean was the leader at this point, too. so i'm not sure if these national polls are indicative of anything except it makes it a lot more exciting to talk about the back-and-forth between the candidates. >> we do have some sound from white house spokesman jay carney. he was thrown a question about hillary clinton being a primary challenger for barack obama. let's listen. >> he has no -- >> running away from this question. i mean, can you guarantee that, i mean are you sure that -- hillary is not going to run? >> you'd have to ask her. >> i don't think hillary clinton is going to run. do you? >> no. and i think if you look at the two names there, bernie sanders, a senator, not considered a mainstream democrat with the quote and lester skoling, asking the quote. he's considered the kicker story in each briefing each day, because he asks those kinds of questions. it's funny, it's interesting, but there's no way that hillary clinton is running for president in 2012. she's said that and that would be a disaster for the democrats, if even anything like that were to be considered. >> yes, it probably would. it certainly would split the vote. maybe not in a good way for barack obama, but that depends on the economy. if the economy gets better, then maybe barack obama is okay. who knows? >> this is not ted kennedy and jimmy carter in 1980. this is two people who work in the same administration. this is just, this is a little goofiness getting out of hand at the white house briefing room yesterday. >> all right. tim farley, host of morning briefing on sirius podus, thank you so much. a penguin who ended up 2,000 miles from home is heading back to antarctica and hitching a ride. and we're plotting his trip. but before we go, make a campfire and make some s'mores. ♪ [ male announcer ] sitting. waiting. hoping. that's a recipe for failed investing. open an e-trade account and open doors, seize opportunities, take action with some of the most powerful yet easy-to-use trading tools on the planet all built to help you maximize the potential of every dollar you invest. successful investing isn't done by throwing ideas against the wall and hoping. it's done by lowering your costs and raising your expectations by using unbiased research and powerful screeners to build a diversified portfolio with stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and every etf sold. and we'll help you every step of the way. with 5-star research and free education covering everything from the basics to advanced investing strategies. start now and we'll give you up to $500 and let you trade free for 60 days. visit our website, call us, open an account. e-trade. investing unleashed. visit our website, call us, open an account. woman: day care can be so to save some money, i found one that uses robots instead of real people. 'cuz robots work for free. robot 1:good morning... robot 1:...female child. sfx: modem dial-up noise woman: are there flaws? yeah, um, maybe. anncr: there's an easier way to save. anncr: get online. go to geico.com. get a quote. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. ♪ ooh baby, (what) can i do for you today? ♪ [ female announcer ] need help keeping your digestive balance? align can help. only align has bifantis, a patented probiotic that naturally helps maintain your digestive balance. try align to help retain a balanced digestive system. try the #1 gastroenterologist recommended probiotic. align. 21 minutes past the hour. this is your "a.m. wakeup call" here are three things for your radar today. at noon eastern, the president makes a speech before the nation's largest gathering of veterans. and the congressional black caucus hosts a job fair in los angeles. record numbers of people is bee slowing up at previous job fairs in cities like detroit and atlanta. and more details about michael vick's $ 100 million deal with the philadelphia eagles at a news conference at 2:30 eastern this afternoon. moammar gadhafi's family members have reportedly crossed the border out of libya. the wife of the fugitive leader is believed to be in algeria. let's go around the world with zain verjee live in london. moammar gadhafi remaining behind? >> we don't know. and if i knew the answer to that, carol, i'd be, i'd be the most popular person in the world. but nobody knows where moammar gadhafi is right now, whether he's in algeria or still? tripoli. the family, wife, kids, grandkids, all taking an armored convoy across the border into algeria. algeria saying that they allowed them in on humanitarian grounds. the national transitional council in libya that the rebels are basically saying that that was an act of aggression by algeria. against libya and the libyan people. the other thing that the rebel commander, carol, has said is that one of gadhafi's other sons has been killed. now he headed or heads up the 32nd brigade, that's this brutal and feared brigade that was effectively believed to protect the gadhafi regime. we need to take this with a little bit of a grain of salt. we don't really know, this could be just the rebels trying to psych out the gadhafi loyalists to say that kamis is dead. >> let's talk about something good now, shall we? and a little light. there's this emperor penguin named happy feet and apparently he's heading home after getting lost in a big way. >> yeah. happy feet ended up in new zealand, he wasn't supposed to be there. he was sick, weak, he ate sand, thinking it was snow. had to go under a massive operation, he's taken a couple of months to recover. but now the scientists are taking old happy feet on a boat, about 420 miles or so. heading back towards antarctica. they're going to put him there. they've put a tracking device on him as well. just to make sure. happy feet ends up okay. and we maintain our relationship with the penguin. carol? >> that's good, i'm so glad to hear that. you're such a humanitarian. zain verjee, live in london, thanks. >> i am. >> you are, yes. thanks, zain. show up at work, chill out in the break room and then head home, it's a sweet deal for some employees, hear how many millions the postal service is paying for workers to do just that -- nothing. good morning to you, it is tuesday, august 30th, this is your "a.m. wake-up call." i'm carol costello joining you live from new york. hurricane irene's legacy in the northeast, not punishing winds, but gushing water. fema director, craig fu