major blackberry service outage. we're finding out more about what went wrong. good morning to you. it is thursday, october 13th. this is your am "wake-up call." the treasury department has slapped new sanctions against iran's force. the government describes a money trail starting within that iranian organization. but former homeland security secretary tom ridge says think bigger. >> it's a monstrous ly buffet. they are working unilaterally independent of the ayatollah himself. clearly that, is a force under the control of the hierarchy of the mullahs within iran. so i just can't imagine that anybody's been authorized to operate independently of that leadership. >> senator joe leberman tells cnn a military response should be considering saying this behavior by iran cannot go unresponded to. the president as kmapder in chief, our allies and the you saudis including the target here have a lot of options that are both owe ververt and covert. in my opinion, there has to be a response. by the way, a senate hearing today will discuss current sanctions against iran. a mathor surprise on day two in the trial against the accused underwear bomber. he pleaded guilty to all charges against him. his legal adviser anthony chambers spoke outside the courthouse. >> it's a situation where he just simply reflected upon what had occurred and what he thought was the best decision. there's nothing in particular that caused this to happen. it clearly was not opening any piece of evidence by one witness. it's a decision that was against the advice of counsel but his decision he chose to make and he believed to be the right thing to do today based upon his own feelings. >> the knee jeerian native dried to detonate an explosive device on christmas day 2009. a man suspected of going on a killing spree at a southern california beauty salon is in custody this morning. he is 42-year-old scott decray. he was taken into custody without incident but now trying to figure out a motive. wednesday's rampage left eight people dead and a ninth person in critical condition. a warning for the occupy wall street protesters and it's coming from new york city michael bloomberg. the protesters have been using new york's park to hold their anti-wall street demonstrations for the past four weeks. during his visit to the park yesterday, the mayor said the park would be cleaned on friday and cautioned the protesters to obey the rules. at a news conference, the mayor talked about the legality of holding the protests in a public park. >> we believe the law says that they, because of the terms of the park was created, we don't know that we could force them out if we wanted to do that. political news this morning, herman cain is now leading the pack. that's according to an nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. he is the first choice among 27% of republican voters. four-point lead over mitt romney. rick per ji in third. we'll talk more about this new poll and our political ticker in ten minutes much the important thing to remember this about this poll, it was taken before tuesday's debate. shocking video out of florida. a 70-year-old bus monitor is caught on camera beating and biting a 14-year-old student. this happened back in june. the polk county state attorney's office released the video. it happened when the 14-year-old threw a much smaller student over the seat, hitting the bus monitor in the face and chest. the bus monitor now faces child abuse charges. let's head to atlanta and rob marciano. i'm sorry, that story led into you, rob. that was terrible. >> violence. >> wow. >> listen, we'll do a little weather and then show you a more life giving story at the end of the weather cast. first off, video coming into us out of mexico. talked about hurricane jova yesterday. this is the video. you see it disappear rapidly. tremendous amount of rain with this. over a foot of rain in many spots. this is what you get. you know the hills go up in a hurry. so flash flooding with a foot of rain is not out of the question. you get water coming through that particular city. it's still raining there and still raining in the mountains. the winds have since died down. all right. here is the satellite picture as mentioned. there you see it disappearing as far as the infrared satellite imageries go. the eastern half of the country is where we'll see the most unsettled weather today. west of there, windy and hot in the desert southwest. chicago, slicing back through st. louis and new york city and boston. this is relatively light stuff. that will cause some travel delays in the new york metro hubs and in chicago as well. potentially seeing over an hour delay if both of those spots. boston, philadelphia to a lesser extent. atlanta and charlotte seeing showers. still mild side, though. 69 in new york. 67 degrees in chicago. 64 degrees up there in minneapolis. all right. missouri, you know, a lot of people have twins these days. a couple in missouri, carol, had twins. they had one of the babies on october 1st in one city, in bellevue. and parentally the baby number two was not ready to come into the world. so they stopped momma's contractions and let her go home for a couple days. october 6th, five days later, carol, the next baby was born in a completely different city in another hospital. both are said to be doing relatively well. but looks to me like they're on the small side. so maybe they came a little bit early. >> actually, that's good for them. they'll have their own birthday. >> yes, they won't -- yes, they won't be so same person. they get two birthdays, two separate sets of friends. it could be cool to have a twin but you'd have to share your birthday. almost like having your birthday on christmas. >> that's true. >> i always felt bad for those kids. >> i'm sure it will be fine for them. thank you, rob. we appreciate it. >> see you, carol. the occupy wall street movement has taken off across the country which means jokes about it are popping up everywhere. here is jimmy kimmels's take on the protests. >> the protests have been going on for quite some time and they're starting to become a burden on local businesses in the area. there is a notable exception. one business which managed to find a way to actually make some money on all this. >> this holiday season, give a loved one a unique memorable gift that will last a lifetime. now you can name a wall street occupier after that special someone on your gift list. introducing the international wall street occupier registry. the international wall street occupier registry has a limited number of occupiers available for naming. for just $54.99, we'll xlekt a unique occupier and tattoo the name of your loved within on his or her arm. they'll receive a full color photo of their personal occupy area long with certificates of authenticity. and if and when the occupier gets arrested, your loved one's name will appear on the police log. call this number to reserve your occupier now. don't be a douche, call today. >> just that last line got me. you heard it. when blackberry goes down, you feel lost. no you feel really, really angry. millions of customers around the world lost service and they want it back, like now. what's being done to get you back online? we'll have that just ahead. first, here's today's quote of the day. "if you could get another ultra rich american to publish their rernz along with mine, that would be very useful to the tax dialogue and intelligent reform." can you guess who said that? we'll have the answer for you in a couple minutes. a vacation on a budget with expedia. make it work. booking a flight by itself is an uh-oh. see if we can "stitch" together a better deal. that's a hint, antoine. ooh! see what anandra did? booking your flight and hotel at the same time gets you prices hotels and airlines won't let expedia show separately. book it. major wow factor! where you book matters. expedia. ♪ we're centurylink... a new kind of broadband company committed to improving lives with honest, personal service, 5-year price lock guarantees and consistently fast speeds. ♪ consumers er wanchai ferry orange chicken... over p.f. chang's home menu orange chicken women men and uh pandas... elbows mmm [ male announcer ] wanchai ferry, try it yourself. but they also go beyond banking. we installed a ge fleet monitoring system. it tracks every vehicle in their fleet. it cuts fuel use. koch: it enhances customer service. it's pretty amazing when people who loan you money also show you how to save it. not just money, knowledge. it's so much information, it's like i'm right there in every van in the entire fleet. good day overall. yeah, i'm good. come on in. let's go. wow, this is fantastic. ge capital. they're not just bankers. we're builders. they helped build our business. this is your "a.m. wake call." here is the quote are the day. if you could get other ultra rich americans to publish their tax returns along with mine that, would be very useful to tax dialogue and intelligent reform. this is all part of buffet's campaign to get congress to raise taxes on the super rish but th rich and revealed his adjusted gross income was $62.9 million last year. his federal income tax bill was nearly $7 million. another black eye for the company that makes blackberries. millions have seen their service disrupted this week and in and out the problem has spread to the united states. let's head to hong kongment my blackberry service was down most of the day yesterday. it appears to be back now. is that true with all customers? >> there is some progress in some areas because the maker of the blackberry is in damage control mode. research in motion is struggling to restore blackberry service in much of the world. the issue has spread into north america. an update from the company's website announce the a significant increase in service levels in europe, middle east and africa. now stephen baits, the managing director of rim in ireland, he says the company is frantically working on a fix. >> at this stage we understand the frustration our customers have because blackberry is used as a communication vehicle for people to connect with their friends, their family and work colleagues. we understand the importance of that system working in real time. and we do see some improvements. we have seen a marked improvement in the service in business and consumer e-mail through our systems. and we still don't think we're out of the woods yet. our team is working and is going to continue to work night and day until we get to that resolution point. >> not out of the woods yet. rim shares are already down 60% this year. and expected to see more downward pressure on friday with the launch of the apple iphone 4s. >> i smell the purchases of many, many more iphones, just saying. go ahead. >> oh, sorry. well, anyway, again, got a really good next story to tell you about. about nasa exploring balloons for space travel. and this one is straight out of a novel. nasa is testing balloons for space exploration. how exactly would they be used? potential projects include a suborbital spacecraft. a trip to saturn would require a balloon that can withstand tempt negative 292 degrees fahrenheit. they're testing the next generation balloons with a oregon-based company in a world war ii blimp hangar. consider it live but with a little history. >> that is a cool story and a much more positive story than the blackberry story was. thanks as always live from hong kong. who will come out on top for the republican race for the white house? mitt romney is holding steady. but herman cain continues to surge to the top in a brand new poll. what does it all mean? it's 13 minutes past the hour. 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[ male announcer ] new bengay cold therapy. the same technology used by physical therapists. go to bengay.com for a $3 coupon. 16 minutes past the hour. comedians are still joking about the gop debate from tuesday night. jay leno takes issue with the music choices. here's your punch line. >> you have noticed during the debates the more boring the candidates are the more dramatic and exciting the music is? here's the music -- this is the actual music from last night's debate. listen to it. ♪ now see, for that kind of music this is what the candidates should look like. >> you see? there! >> that was really funny. it's time for our political ticker with tim farley. where's your loin cloth? that's what i want to know? >> we're not going to get into. that thank you very much. >> that's probably good. let's talk about this instead. president obama's senior campaign strategist david ark will r axel rod is going after mitt romney calling him a flip-flopper. but he does stop short of labelling romney as the presumptive nominee. ari fleisher calls the move about it obama administration an interesting new development. listen. >> when you're a president and you can't run on what you've done, you attack anybody you can find. and i think they're trying to undermine whoever the eventual nominee is going to be. >> actually recall not right about this time in 2003 when president bush was running for re-election, they telegraphed a strategy in which they would go after the democratic nominee. >> oh, so which line of thought do we believe, tim farley? >> well, you know, this is sort of like watching that movie "war games." at the end a different strategy pops up on the screen and there is destruction in either case. i don't think that will happen here. look, this is a long boxing match. it's anyone who watches boxing will tell you, it's the jabs and body blows that work until you get to eventual lit knockout punch. it does seem that this does signal, if i could use that analogy and beat it to death, that they're trying -- that their telegraphing their punches. they think that mitt romney is the one to beat. they have to do work. the push is to portray him as a flip-flopper and all the other kinds of things. meanwhile, they have to run against their own record which is the biggest challenge for this administration, regardless who have the republican nominee is. but it does seem more and more they're leaning that way. it's not just the white house by the way. the dnc is already sent out e-mails specifically to michigan voters to talk about mitt romney. they see him as somebody who will be competing in the michigan primary. and so the message is spreading right now. it does seem that they're looking at mitt romney as the man. >> with everybody pushing the primaries up, too, maybe they have to act sooner. i don't know. it is strange. new hampshire's primary could be on december 6th. >> yeah. but if they think mitt romney is going to be the one who is going to emerge victorious, regardless of how the schedule works out, they're looking long ball and they see mitt romney as the guy. they need the death of 1,000 cuts starting with the cuts right now. >> you want to weaken them as soon as possible. you know, at least in the voter's mind. let's talk about herman cain. in the new "wall street journal" poll, he leads the pack. one caveat to that poll, of course, it was taken before the republican debate on tuesday. but still, he's ahead of mitt romney in this poll. >> well, he had a pretty good debate on tuesday, too. so you wouldn't see the numbers drop anyway. this is a national poll. that's important to remember much it's also important to remember that people don't win nominations by winning national polls. they win it state by state. herman cain has not done much in iowa. you'll remember also that when mike huckabee who eventually won iowa came out with his cappndidy in 2008, he was pushing a fair tax. the 999 tax and spending plan that herman cain came out with doesn't sell among a lot of conservatives. that may be part of the undoing. it is simple and easy to understand. they like his positive, upbeat message. they like the fact that he's not mitt romney. i think that's one of the key parts of this, carol much it's more of a problem for mitt romney which shows that he hasn't sold anybody yet. the democrats are saying he's the inevitable candidate. and republicans may think he is. but they're not really excited about that now. >> i think roger simon said it best. he said republicans' hearts are with herm an cain and their brains are with mitt romneyment we' romney. we'll see how it works out. thanks tim farley. a four-hour fire fight, one of gadhafi's sons captured. rebels try to take full control of the loyalist's last strong hold. more details straight ahead. st w i want to do it ♪ ♪ changing of my mind ♪ it's just how we're gonna do it ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] turn your world upside down with gillette fusion proglide because you can shave against the grain with comfort. fusion proglide's microcomb guides hair for its thinner blades to cut close effortlessly. get against-the-grain closeness comfortably with gillette fusion proglide. get against-the-grain closeness comfortably can i help you? 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[ male announcer ] michelin knows it's better for xerox to help manage their finance processing. so they can focus on keeping the world moving. with xerox, you're ready for real business. welcome back. rebels say they have captured one of gadhafi's sons. haven't we heard that before? let's head around the world with our reporter love eer live in . is this true or not true? does the council have one of gadhafi's sons in its control? >> i guess the answer for that right now carol is we don't know. word came wednesday that after four-hour fire fight in the battleground city, one of gadhafi's sons had been captured. he was libya's national security adviser and under his father's regime, he had a prominent role in the military and security forces. some reports suggest he was directing operations in gadhafi as hometown. others say dent have a formal role. initially the council who we're quoting field commanders say that his son along with a number of aides were captures and were then taken to the eastern part of libya. but then later a s