> good morning, alina. >> good morning, everybody. welcome to "american morning."> > good morning, alina. >> good morning, everybody. welcome to "american morning." property="og:description"> > good morning, alina. >> good morning, everybody. welcome to "american morning.">
morning." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good morning. >> good morning, alina. >> good morning, everybody. welcome to "american morning." it is tuesday october 25th. i'm alina cho along with carol costello. ali and christine are off today. >> up first this morning, presidential politics as texas governor rick perry trying to one-up herman cain's 9-9-9 plan and get back the good graces of gop voters. this morning perry will unveil his economic growth plan that includes a flat tax. cnn deputy political director paul steinhauser joins us from washington with more details. he has this 20% flat tax, but taxpayers is actually opt out if they like their tax rate better? >> reporter: yeah, and banking on most americans not liking the way they have their taxes right now and hoping for some of that 9-9-9 that boosted herman cain from an afterthought to a front-runner in the gop nomination. yes, basically this morning the texas governor rick perry unvams his plan. cut, balance and grow, that's the name of it. what he's proposing. americans get a choice. most earning under $120 million, and exemptions for families makingeneder that $500,000 per year making standard deductions $5,000 for individuals and dependents. abolish the death tax and low are corporate tax, lower it to about 20%. put in an op-ed and he'll make his announce mitt later this morning in south carolina. >> who helped craft this plan? >> a guy named steve forbes. the man behind "forbes" magazine. he ran back in 1996, his big plan, a flat tax. rick perry saying, guess what? my simple 20% tax cut will allow americans to file taxes on a postcard. steve forbes said something similar he was running for the white house. >> no wonder he endorsed him. rick perry will make his formal announcement in south carolina. i suspect i know why. tell us. >> south carolina, guess what, the first southern state to vote in the battle for the white house in the gop presidential nomination battle. and one of the things we've learned, while down in south carolina today, perry will meet with senator jim demint, yes, location, location, location, carol. >> paul steinhauser. many thanks this morning. >> thank you. president obama says he is tired of waiting for a dysfunctional congress. so, well, he's going to change the rules himself. in las vegas, ground zero for the housing collapse, the president announced changes to a government program that's designed to ease the nation's foreclosure crisis. the president says his new plan makes it easier for responsible homeowners to refinance their mortgages. >> if you meet certain requirements you will have the chance to refinance at lower rates, which would save you hundreds of dollars a month, and thousands of dollars a year on mortgage payments. >> today the president continues his west coast swing. this afternoon he's going to sit down with jay leno. his fourth appearance on "the tonight show" by the way, his second as president. will obama will then head to colorado for two final fund-raising events. last night on "john king usa," it's not a quick fix to the ailing housing market. >> why should this plan prove to be the difference? >> we've taken a housing market literally falling off a cliff and stabilized it, but it's also true that we haven't done enough and we haven't gone far enough and we're going to keep pushing, keep expanding these efforts to make sure that we do get to a point where the housing market isn't just stabilized but it's recovering and recovering in a way that homeowners again have a light at the end of the tunnel and can see themselves getting back above water. so we're continuing to push. today's announcement is part of a broader strategy to keep making a difference in the housing market, and those are the facts. >> coming up, in a little more than 30 minutes, we will talk to paul jackson. the founder and publisher of housing wire, one of the first people to write about foreclosure prices. we'll talk about whether he believes the president's plan will actually increase housing prices. carol? immigration reform could become a big eschew on capitol hill come december. democratic sources telling cnn there are discussions taking place now that could retroupe the dream act. the dream act would allow children of illegal immigrants to are in the country or serve in the military to become citizens. contrasting this decision with republicans who favor tougher security along the u.s./mexico border. and we have breaking news out of turkey this hour. a 14-day old baby was reportedly been rescued alive from the earthquake zone in southeast turkey. incredible news. reuters is reporting that the baby was pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building earlier today. much more on the baby's rescue as soon as we get more detail. meanwhile, rescue workers in tshgy have been using shovels, even their bare hands to look for survivors. the death toll from sunday's 7.2 magnitude quake stands at 279. the area has been hit by several aftershocks. some as strong as 6.0. 970 buildings were reported droied. the body of moammar gadhafi has finally been buried acco according to the national council, laid to rest at an undisclosesed locationed. happened today at dawn. he was on display since killed in his hometown of sirte. dan rivers joins us live from tripoli. so they buried moammar gadhafi somewhere in the middle of a desert somewhere? >> reporter: that's right, yeah. the whole idea was to keep it secret. all we know is that he was buried along with his son, the defense minister abu bakr, they were allowed to pray over his body before a convoy took it way away into the desert and buried him at an unmarked grave far away from anyone to avoid his grave becoming a shrine to any gadhafi loyalists left in the country. hoping to draw a line under this whole affair, but there are still lots of questions asked about how he died, how they treated his body. how his son died, and also questions about an apparent massacre in sirte of what appears to be pro-gadhafi supporters a at hotel. human rights watches discovered 53 bodies there. there's lots of difficulty questions for the ntc going forward. >> when might we know the autopsy on moammar gadhafi's body? >> reporter: well, we know the headline, head that he was shot in the head. details about what range and so on, that bullet was fired, we don't know. we may get those results from the attorney general's office over the next couple of days. it may be that they never choose to reveal those details. the agency said that he set up a committee to look into his death, but, you know i think it's going to be questioned as to how independent and how thorough that committee will be, and there is still international pressure for them to explain exactly what happened. >> dan rivers live in tripoli this morning. thank you. also new this morning, an explosion at a crowded bus station in downtown nairobi, kenya killed at least one person. it happened yesterday just blocked away from the nightclub where a blast went off earlier that morning. 12 people were hurt in that blast. so far no one has claimed responsibility for either attack. the explosions came just two days of a the u.s. embassy in kenya warned of an imminent terror attack. wikileaks founder julian asau asaudi arabia -- assange, the site is shutting down. it accomplished a number of u.s. diplomatic cables last year. the nba season still on hold and about to get even shorter. don't tell that to basketball fans. the "new york daily news" reports the league will announce the cancellation of at least two more weeks of games today. nba spokesman told us he wasn't focusing on that. talks collapsed last week after 30 hours way federal mediator and no new talks are scheduled. oh, let's talk about something good now. hope for texas rangers fans. one win away from their first-ever world series title. came from behind to beat the cardinals in game five, 4-2. napoli, insane, broke a 2-2 tie. the rangers can clinch game six in st. louis. >> you been watching? paying attention, ever since your team -- well, i don't want to bring up a sore subject. >> i am not a sore loser, as many yankees fans are. people out there, yankees fans. i can still watch other teams and root for them, except for the new york yankees. president obama bypassing congress and using what executive powers he has to try and get the economy moving again. so what do you think about the president's plan to run around the lawmakers? we'll tell you about that. plus, look up in the sky. the northern lights make a rare southern appearance. wow. and putting the pedal to the metal. a man and his car celebrating 1 million miles together. it's love. it's 11 minutes past. ♪ [ sighs ] [ bird chirps ] [ bird squawks ] ♪ [ bird screeching ] ♪ [ elevator bell dings ] [ sighs ] how mad is she? she kicked me out. but i took the best stuff. i'll get the wrench. ♪ [ male announcer ] kohler's tresham collection. life. with a twist. ♪ [ male announcer ] how could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the aerospace industry in the u.s.? 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[♪...] >> announcer: now get a $250 airfare credit, plus save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. certain restrictions apply. welcome back to "american morning." police in the dallas area this morning are hunting for a suspected serial rapist who has attacked at least four members of the same sorority. the victims our african-american women in their mid-50s to early 60s are alumni of delta sigma theta. all assaulted in their homes the past couple of months. the most recent, 11 days ago in the town of cornith. they're mystified by the so-called sorority link to the case. >> we don't understand how he's obtaining the information, if he by chance has a list of members or if he's just simply looking for members that may be out there sporting different paraphernalia, t-shirts, jewelry, license plate placards, things of that nature, so we put out to the members to not show affiliation of that sorority for right now for their safety. >> police believe this is the man shown in the surveillance video of the attacks. authorities are asking members not to show their affiliation. >> we'll get that individual glow a few moments. sorry about that. special fire crews called in after an oil rig blowout in texas. firefighters say it is contained, not posing a threat to the surrounding area, but could take a week to put the thing out. officials say 11 workers at the site all okay this morning. and they threw a parade for a man and his car in maine. this is joe loscacero just passed the 1 million mile mark. the car had miles on it already when he bought the car in 1996. he says there's no real secret to keeping it on the road. regular oil changes. >> he's a mechanic. >> and the parade, well, he was presented with a new 2012 honda accord. you know, if i still had my volkswagen jetta, i might have made the million mark, too. >> jacqui spilled it earlier. the guy's a mechanic. >> that helps. doesn't hurt. >> you've got to take care of your car. right? change that oil every 3,000 m e mimes. >> i never do that. >> have somebody do it for you. >> that's why we get married. >> love that about my husband. i'll tell you. if you're out there driving this morning or going by the airways, a couple of trouble spots we're watching here. most of the rain already starting to pull out of the northeast. good news for you, but the roadways are getting a little wet across the western great lakes. that's where the rain is moving on in. this is very light for the most part. so not much more than sprinkle, but you've got the low overcast conditions. at least it's rain and not snow, right, from green bay down towards milwaukee. a little mixing in towards the u.p. of michigan. speak of snow, we're definitely going to see that across the rocky mountain states and we are expecting to see quite a bit into the higher elevations. this is really our main storm system across the nation's midsection. rain on the northern tier. cooler condition on the back side and we're going to see snow in places like denver. yeah, denver, colorado. you haven't seen much of that this year. winter storm watches are in effect after a record high yesterday in denver of 80 degrees. we'll be lucky to get about, just shy of 68 and probably down into the upper 30s for tomorrow. a couple of flakes possible in the high country. thinking about that skiing, and some of the resorts opened up a couple weeks ago. the south side of the system, staying extremely warm. look at this. 87 in dallas today. 86 in houston. 83 into kansas city. there you see that cold air behind it. minneapolis looking for 52 degrees today. we're also keeping our eye on the tropics. right? hurricane rina, inten fisifying since sunday. the forecast track of this thing is bringing in closer over the yucatan peninsula, possibly making landfall over cozumel. kni this is going to happen sometime thursday before we get there it will continue to get stronger and forecast to be a major hurricane. we haven't seen a major hurricane make landfall in this area since hurricane wilma. remember that back in 2005. the other thing i want to mention, in the cone of uncertainty down the line for the weekend, you can see the florida keys in here. we'll watch it closely. it's much more likely it will stay south of that. so cross your fingers for that. spectacular video to show you out of michigan from last night. the aurora borealis put on quite the display. look at those reds and the greens and the purples. geomagnetic storm on saturday night, takes about 40 hours for that energy to get here into the earth's atmosphere and, boy, look at those waves are curtains of light. people got to see it from kancaa down into the deep south. >> that's something you don't see every day. >> it doesn't look real. >> i could watch that all day. >> me, too. jacqui, thanks. now is your chance to "talk back" on one of the big stories of the day. this morning's question, should the president bypass congress to help the economy? president obama has gone from yes, we can, to, we can't wait, since congress hasn't been exactly eager to discuss any part of the president's jobs bill, the president is going rogue. instead of waiting for congress to act he's implementing a series of executive actions, like new rules aimed at making it easier for homeowners to refinance. >> we can't wait for an increasingly dysfunctional congress to do its job. where they won't act, i will. a barrier will be lifted that prohibits responsible homeowners from refinancing, if their home values have fallen so low that what they owe on their mortgage is 25% higher than the current value of their home. >> some economists say it won't be enough to solve the housing crisis. republicans say it won't solve anything. the president is simply using the excuse of political gainsmanship to get around congress. >> they're a shame to mention any of the things that they do as republicans because it steps on their story line. their story line is that there must be have villain out there keeping this administration from succeeding. >> what's clear is the economy won't be greatly helped unless congress does act in some way, and congress is not likely to act on the president's jobs proposal. so president obama is moving forward on his own. monday the home mortgage plan, tomorrow, a plan to help with student loans. the president's intent, to show americans he's doing some. and to shame congress into acting. the "talk back" question today, should the president bypass congress to help the economy? facebook.com/americanmorning. facebook.com/americanmorning. i'll read your responses later on in the hour. still to come, first michele bachmann new hampshire staff quit. this morning thamp letting everyone know why, and we're going to share those kernels of information with you when we come back. it's 22 after the hour. i've been eating progresso and now my favorite old jeans...fit. okay is there a woman i can talk to? [ male announcer ] progresso. 40 soups 100 calories or less. each day was fueled by thorough preparation for events to come. well somewhere along the way, emily went right on living. but you see, with the help of her raymond james financial advisor, she had planned for every eventuality. which meant she continued to have the means to live on... even at the ripe old age of 187. life well planned. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. welcome back. "minding your business" this morning, u.s. stock futures are pointing to a flat open this morning. markets got a boost yesterday from strong quarterly earnings reports and a few merger announcements. we're one day away from finding out details of the grand plan to save the european union and the announcement could not come soon enough. recession fears are on the rise after a new survey shows business activity stalled. france in particular showing major weakness in that sector. more bad news for netflix. the company announced it lost 800,000 subscribers in the third quarter. customers had been jumping ship ever since the company announced price hikes this summer. then the whole flixster debacle. stack is down in pre-market trading. novartis announcing new job cuts. losing their jobs in the next three to five year. the company says the cuts are part of its $300 million restructuring plan. fedex is gearing up for the holiday shipping frenz any a major way. the global shipping giant says december 12th is set to be the bittiest day its ever had expecting more than 7 billion packages shipped this year and it's adding 20,000 temporary workers to help handle this holiday rush. and it's time to literally pig out again. mcdonald's is bringing back the classic mcrib sandwich and going all willy wonka on us. mcdonald's launched the quest for the golden mcrib. it's a social media game. 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