♪ new this morning, the penn state board says it's outraged and planning to investigate the allegations of child sex abuse involving former assistant coach jerry sandusky. meantime, students are showing their support for head coach joe paterno. developing a short time ago, italian prime minister silvio berlusconi says he will not take part in the next election. and it was one of the most watched votes around the country. in the end mississippi voters said no to the personhood initiative. good morning, it is wednesday, november 9th. this is your "a.m. wake-up call." i'm carol costello joining you live from new york. herman cain and his rivals for the republican nomination lock horns tonight in a debate in michigan. one thing cain probably will count on, more questions about the sexual harassment allegations that have engulfed his campaign since the story first broke more than a week ago. cain held a nationally televised news conference yesterday once again denying all of the accusations. >> the charges and the accusations ai absolutely rejec. they simply didn't happen. they simply did not happen. >> despite cain's strong denials, another one of his accusers went public. this is one of the woman who made accusations against cain in the 1990s whil cain headed the national restaurant association. speaking to cnn, she called cain a serial denier and says she'd like to hold a joint news conference with some of his other accusers. in an interview she said, quote, when you are being sexually harassed in the work mace, you are extremely vulnerable. you do whatever you can to quickly get yourself into a job someplace else safe. that's what i thought i had achieved when i left. she says she received a $46,000 sexual harassment settlement with the national restaurant association, not a severance agreement as cain has described it. democrats in several states are all smiles after scoring impressive victories in yesterday's elections. cnn projects that voters in ohio overwhelmingly struck down a law restricting collective bargaining rights of public workers. the result is a stinging defeat for republican governor john kasic who pushed the measure as a way for cities to cut costs. h in mississippi, the so-called personhood amendment. russell pierce who wrote a controversial law widely viewed as tough measures against illegal immigrants. the european debt crisis, italy's prime minister, silvio berlusconi vowed to resign after italy's government passed a budget that demands austerity measures demanded by the european union. berlusconi has been under pressure to step aside. he says he's making the move to prove to international investors that italy can reform its finances. he tells an italian newspaper that he thinks there will be early elections in february and that he will not be a candidate. berlusconi's announcement comes just days after the greek prime minister, george papandreou, also engulfed in a debt crisis agreed to resign in favor of a unity government. papandreou and the main opposition leader are still locked in talks over just who will head the new government. an announcement could come as early as today. air force investigators say there were serious misconduct in the handling of the remains of the nation's war debt at the dover air force base mortuary in delaware. the findings come after a year-long probe into allegations of wrongdoing made by bh whistleblowers. cases that were confirmed included several instances in which some remains were lost or unaccounted for. the air force says it's improving procedures at dover, but it says the mortuary staff failed to maintain accountability while processing remains for three service members. also this morning, hip-hop fans are remembering rap icon heavy d. the self-proclaimed overweight lover died yesterday after collapsing at his beverly hills home. he shot to fame in the late '80s with his group heavy d and the boys. in recent years he focused more on tv and movie appearances. he makes a cameo in the new film "power heist." heavy d was just 44 years old. no word on what caused his death. you probably heard it on your radio or tv. this is a test. this is only a test. for the frs tiirst time ever, a of the emergency alert system will be made nationwide at 2:00 p.m. eastern time today. previously the tests have been conducted by states and local communities. the system has its roots of the cold war and allows the president to address the nation within ten minutes from any location at any time. federal officials say a national test is needed in order to fix possible glitches. let's head to atlanta now and check in with rob marciano. good morning. >> good morning. a decent storm going to cause problems for people if chicago and also bring snow. here it is on the radar. take a look at it, stretching all the way from canada down to the gulf of mexico. this brought severe weather to the arklatex region yesterday. ten reports of tornadoes. no injuries, thankfully. but some structures down. and now it's kind of winding itself up. and the backside of it at least across the northern part of it, some accumulating snow. heavy wet snow from waterloo through parts of northwestern wisconsin. could see four to nine inches of snow in some spots there. and winds gusting 25 to 30 miles an hour. so in chicago, with that rain and wind, you will see some delays. some morning fog. a mild day in new york and philadelphia. another day of indian summer. some rain in detroit may slow you down there as well as cincinnati. so ahead of this system, another warm day across the east coast. temperatures in the 60s, in some cases the 70s. as far north as the northeast. enjoy that because behind the system, it's going to be on the chilly side. temperature, 67 degrees expected in d.c. 66 in new york city. all right. we don't usually show you salgt satellite pictures out of alaska. you get the idea there. we've got a beast of a storm. one that they haven't seen in decades. and this one could go down in the history books as the worst on record. noam, this has winds right now gusting to 85 miles an hour or so. it's kind of a combination of a hurricane and a blizzard in some spots. worst-case scenario for our friends in alaska and those who are staying up late with us and getting the signal, you know what i'm talking about. we'll talk more about that plus the asteroid, by the way, it missed us, as predicted. so we can all go about our daily lives and wait for the next 20 years. >> we're all safe. 2018, right? thank you so much, rob. the herman cain sexual harassment scandal is a classic case of he said/she said. and late-night comedians can't get enough. here's your punch line. >> cain's press conference was opened by his lawyer who made a lengthy introduction. then finally cain took the podium, admittedly without asking podium whether it wanted to be taken. >> have you considered hiring gloria allred as your attorney? >> you almost made me say something that my handlers say you should not say. let me put it to you this way. i can't think of anything that i would hire her to do, okay? i can't think of a thing. >> and that looks as though he thinks of things for women to do. still ahead, facebook takes down pages where people are joking about rape. but the offense everybody conversations could show up again on the network and stay there. we will explain that to you. but first, our quote of the day. quote, i can't bear netanyahu. he's a liar. we'll tell you what world leader said that after a break. it's nine minutes past. 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[ male announcer ] the new htc vivid. stay a step ahead with at&t 4g lte, with speeds up to 10x faster than 3g. ♪ it is ten minutes past the hour. this is your "a.m. wake-up call." now back to our quote of the day. quote, i can't bear netanyahu. he's a liar. who said that? that was french president nicolas sarkozy, blasting the israeli prime minister during a talk with president obama. that's according to published reports. to which president obama responded, "you're tired of him? what about me? i have to deal with him every day." their private conversation was captured by open microphones before a news conference at the g-20 summit last week. facebook recently removed several pages from its network that involved jokes about rape. but some victims advocates say that is not nearly enough. so let's head to hopping kong a kristi lu stout to find out more. facebook removed these pages, but not really? >> yep. they removed the pages, but with an additional condition on top. and advocacy groups, they want facebook to give more information about why it removed the pages. the company says this, that there was no place on facebook for content that is hateful, threatening or incites violence. that's why it removed several rape joke pages from its social network. but these pages may remain if there is a tag saying that they are works of humor or satire. advocacy groups, they were first relieved with these pages were taken down, but now they're saying it's not enough. they say they need to know face bock has revised its position. and carol, i had no idea that these rape joke pages were out there on facebook. some of these pages attracted more than 190,000 likes from facebook users. very disturbing indeed. back to you. >> well, they have the problem with first amendments rights, too. you can say anything you want in this country, right? so facebook has caught -- >> that's right. yeah. >> go ahead. >> yeah. and it's an issue that other i.t. companies have been facing as well. google with its relationship in china, but that's something analysts are saying, but for the time being, the facebook policy is that they have removed these pages, but if the pages are labeled clearly as works of satire, they can remain. >> wacky. let's talk about the asteroid because it flew by last night. and it didn't really knit anything, at least that we know of. what's nasa saying this morning? >> no. well, they are absolutely thrilled. now, nasa researcher was on cnn. she said that a lot was learned from this rare event. and scientists plan to reconstruct the shape of the asteroid with data that was collected from the goldstone radar antennaes in the row mauvevy desert. the asteroid with the catchy name, it flew by last night, 6:28 p.m. eastern time. the size of an aircraft carrier. it passed within the moon's orb orbit. it was the closest approach by an object that big in more than 30 years. and it flew by with, as rob mentioned just now, no threat of a collision. but if it had crashed into earth, it could have caused a 4,000 megaton blast and a magnitude seven quake. and if it fell into the ocean, it could have caused a 70-foot-high tsunami. the next similar encounter will take place in the year 2028. but let's not fret for now, carol. nasa researchers, they will still have their eyes in the skies. back to you. >> i'm sure they will. kristi lu stout, many thanks to you, live from hong kong this morning. another accuser steps forward. but herman cain is holding strong to his word that he didn't sexually harass anyone. just how will it all play out when he faces his republican rivals tonight? that's right. there's a debate. we'll break it down after a break. but with advair, i'm breathing better so now i can take the lead on a science adventure. advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator, working together to help improve your lung function all day. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than twice a day. people with copd taking advair may have a higher chance of pneumonia. advair may increase your risk of osteoporosis and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking advair. if you're still having difficulty breathing, take the lead. ask your doctor if including advair could help improve your lung function. get your first full prescription free and save on refills at advaircopd.com. 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. 16 minutes past the hour. welcome back. time now for your "political ticker" with tim farley live from washington. good morning, tim. >> good morning, carol. >> we're talking about herman cain again only because another one of herman cain's accusers has come out publicly, while the gop presidential hopeful is telling the media once again he did absolutely nothing wrong. listen. >> i have never acted inappropriately with anyone, period. >> i mean, it's just a complete denial. and now this latest woman to come forward and make her name public, she now works in the treasury department. she's a communications person there. she wants to get all of herman cain's accusers together, and maybe all of those women will hold a press conference. if that happens, i mean, what will happen with the herman cain's candidacy? >> you made the most important point of all, these faces and names attached. we've got sharon bialek and karen. they'll join that latest group of people say things. when cain says that i've never done anything inappropriately ever, that really raises him to a pretty high standard, almost saintly in some ways. i think even manager would say well, i might have done something inappropriate somewhere in my many years as a manager. that said, he's also raised the spector of specifics. that is, there are hotel bills. there are restaurant bills. there are the kinds of things that could be checked on. it's no longer whether or not you believe him or believe them. and when it comes to believing people, if it is just a he said/she said, if it's he said versus she and she and even another she or she, then it becomes much more difficult for him. i really see very, very little hope for him to disentangle himself from this and get on to message which is something he said they were going to be doing after the weekends. and look where we are here on wednesday. >> no, it just keeps going on and on. it makes you wonder who will benefit because a lot of people are saying that newt gingrich, keep your eye on newt gingrich because he's poised to jump way ahead in the polls. >> yeah. it's going to be interesting to see how this plays at the debate tonight. mitt romney yesterday said that these are troubling, these allegations, they're serious. and he's not going to attack cain outright, but he probably doesn't mind seeing him getting battered a bit. it's interesting to be interesting if jon huntsman goes after mitt romney because he's been after him a lot saying what the democrats have been saying, that he's a flip-flopper. i don't think you'll see any of the republicans attacking cain, but you know questions will come up tonight. we'll see how he answers it. >> yeah, but i really don't see a need for cain's fellow republicans to attack him. they should just, like, sit back and watch. >> yeah. you're right. and that's exactly rye i think they're not going to be doing much. although what michele bachmann has been saying on the campaign trail, and she may do it sort of in a subtle way by saying that we don't need semi surprises in our canned dates. that's the way she's been putting it. so we may see alt more of that tonight. but i agree, there's no reason to go after him specifically on that because for some people it's a cheap shot. for others, it's like let other people do the dirty work for me. i don't have to do that during the debate. >> it's always good to take the high road, even in politics sometimes. tim farley. >> a road less traveled. >> exactly. tim farley, thanks so much. he survived a sex scandal and allegations of corruption, but ultimately it's italy's debt crisis that's about to push its prime minister, silvio berlusconi, out of office. more details on that for you ahead. first, it's only 5:19 eastern in the morning. but there are things already shaping up to be a bit hectic for you. so today is designed for you. it is november 9th, national day of chaos never dies day. it's a day to celebrate the chaos in your life. why do we have aflac... aflac... and major medical? 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[ beatboxing ] [ male announcer ] help protect your family at aflac.com. when you're a sports photographer, things can get out of control pretty quickly. so i like control in the rest of my life... especially my finances. that's why i have slate, with blueprint. i can create my own plan to pay down large purchases faster... or avoid interest on everyday items. that saves me money. with slate from chase, i'm always in control. financially, anyway. get slate with blueprint and save money. call 855-get-slate today. ♪ we're centurylink ... we're committed to improving lives and linking americans to what matters most with honest, personal service... 5-year price-lock guarantees... consistently fast speeds ... and more ways to customize your technology. ♪ 22 minutes past the hour. it is the end of an era as the italian prime minister says he'll step down after parliament passes critical budget reforms. let's head to rome with matthew chance. good morning, matthew. >> reporter: carol, good morning to you. that's right. silvio berlusconi, the end of an era for this country. after a parliamentary vote yesterday that didn't go his way. he came out of that meeting late last night as saying that he would resign, but only after one condition was met, that the budget law for next year which contains very deep austerity measures would be passed. let me read you the statement he made earlier on today. he said, i will resign as soon as the budget law is passed. and since i believe there is no majority possible, i see elections being held at the beginning of member, and i will not be a candidate. so that's his preferred option. he wants elections as soon as possible, the beginning of next year. he says he won't be a candidate. it truly is the end of an era for him. i think it's important to remember, he doesn't get to decide whether there's an election or not. that responsibility lies with the italian president. those discussions are still very much under way. certainly, carol, there's been a huge reaction on the financial markets today for this news. that they're not liking it at all. this scenario with elections sets the scene for the possibility of berlusconi staying as prime minister as a caretaker up until possibly march or april next year. and the prices on the markets, the bond deals, italy has to pay for its enormous $2.6 trillion debt has gone up to over 7%, which is a sort of crisis-type interest rate f