good morning. right in the middle of the week. you can keep going. come on now. we have so far to go that we've already come. i'm robin meade. the nation is about to honor its service members who put their lives on the line for the country. you're going to hear what celebrations are planned for veterans day today. an airline pilot had one too many before he showed up for work. was he trying to go bottle to throttle? hmm. plus, a court has just decided whether michael jackson's father can have a piece of the singer's estate even after he was left out of the will. all right. first, though, what matters the most is that today is veterans day. it's a day for honoring the members of our military who have risked or sacrificed even their lives fighting for the country. if you have a veteran in your life, here's your chance and your reminder to say thank you. at 11:00 a.m. eastern there will be a yearly tribute to the u.s. war dead at arlington national cemetery. there might also be events in your neighborhood. a u.s. pilot, get a load of this, was pulled off an international flight just before takeoff after a co-worker thought he was drunk. irwin vermont washington was set to fly a united jet from london all the way to chicago on monday. his blood alcohol level was over the legal limit. washington's been removed from duty and airline spokesperson says united's policy is among the strictest in the industry. we have no tolerance for violation of this well-established policy. the mastermind behind the sniper attacks that terrorized the nation in 2002 said nothing before his execution last night. john allen muhammad died by lethal injection. this is the last photo taken of him. an a.mbulance took away the remains. some victims' relatives witnessed the execution, so did the prosecutor who won the death penalty conviction. >> he died very peacefully, much more than most of his victims. i felt a sense of closure and hope they did, too. i think they can look forward to that and i hope they have solace by virtue of his execution. >> muhammad got the death sentence for the shooting death of dean harold myers but actually the d.c.-area attacks left ten people dead. the suspect and the ft. hood shootings army major nidal malik hasan is refusing to answer questions. he isn't talking about the attack. he's under guard in intensive care. investigators are trying to figure out what provoked the attack. yesterday the city sized army post put its war preps on pause. a memorial for the soldiers shot to death at ft. hood thursday. president obama promised family -- promised their families justice. >> your loved ones endure through the life of our nation. their memory will be honored in the places they lived and by the people they touched. >> the president and first lady placed presidential coins in front of the victims' battlefield crosses. the tributes met with an eerie silence. >> specialist hunt. >> especially when they started calling the names of the soldiers, you know, someone answered and someone being answered, that was a very sad moment. >> i bet. the shooting left 42 people wounded, many at the army post have faced multiple deployments. if you want to see some amazing video, bring your coffee over here and take a look. oh, my gosh. it just keeps coming. a local news crew was covering one rock slide and here comes the second one, so they caught it on tape. get this, a geologist had warned people there might be a second slide and moved everyone out of the way. u.s. highway 64 may be closed for a week. this is in polk county, tennessee. man. comments made toward a woman apparently sparked a fight that led to the death of connecticut football player. that's according to police affidavits. this is the story we have extensively. this is the latest turn in this, larry. >> robin, good morning. accused of murdering jasper howard, the 21-page document reveals one of his teammates disrespected someone at a school sponsored dance and that's what they believe sparked a fight. a second fight started outside the building and that's when howard was stabbed. three other people face lesser charges. none of the football players involved in the fight have been charged. robin? >> thank you. president obama is considering four options for the future of the war in afghanistan. sources tell us that he is expected to talk about them at a meeting with his war council today including a possible deployment of about 34,000 more u.s. troops. and a new cnn/opinion research poll, 42% of americans support sending more troops. 32% think that afghanistan will eventually have a stable democratic government. some days you just want a break from the news and thank goodness there's weather to talk about. >> yeah, and there's a lot, too. >> some of us want a break from the weather, bob. >> it's been raining nonstop in places like georgia and the carolinas for the last 24 hours and, robin, four inches of rain fell yesterday at the airport down in atlanta so the heavy rain is out there. it's still raining now to get to northern georgia but the remnants of ida are getting absorbed in the cold front up to the north. it's all pushing that rain over to the east. now the heaviest rain by far now in towards south carolina and north carolina, too, zero in on the charleston radar. we also have that wave of energy coming on through sparking a line of thundershowers. you can see that right around the barnwell area stretching down past statesboro. watch out for this. a lot of heavy rain. it's not severe. the occasional lightning strike is out there, too. then up further to the raleigh area and see the heavy shield of rain still out there. that actually goes all the way through virginia in to the nation's capital with light rain recorded here but then it falls apart not reaching the ground in to philadelphia. still, the rain is going to be off and on for most of the day. areas like washington, d.c., down into northern parts of florida we have flash flood watches and warnings. the watches are all the area that are shaded in dark green. the warnings are in bright shaded green, charlotte and the atlanta metro. again, four inches of rain fell yesterday in atlanta. watch for another additional one to two when you get in towards central north carolina but then over the next two days that low developments often the coastline. look at all the rain. purple shade is going for about eight inches of rain. i think that might be overdone a little bit but even if they only get half of this, that's four to five inches in the next two days for the mid-atlantic states. we'll talk about that again in just a bit. >> all right, thank you. the black friday frenzy is just around the corner. walmart is making some major changes you're going to want to know about for your big day there and new information on the suspect in the ft. hood shootings, what he said in a controversial power point presentation. it's time for our "salute to the troops." today we're doing more than the usual because it's veterans day. so we're just going to fill the show full of our salutes. our first shoutout is for captain jamie burlino to his wife of three weeks and all the spouses who are at home while their loved ones are serving the country. >> i'd like to thank my wife, most of all, because the wives back here make so many sacrifices that so many people -- it never makes the news, so i hope this does. wives make many more sacrifices than us out there. >> i love the sentiment. so true. sometimes we don't hear about the families who really have to deal with things at home. so do you have somebody in the service to salute? go to cnn.com/robin. senators planned a hearing next week to see if the tragedy at ft. hood could have been prevented. and new information is coming out about the alleged shooter major nidal hasan. apparently he didn't hide his beliefs from the military. no, he didn't. we go back to 2007 for this, robin. that's what hasan spoke to army doctors as part of a final project for his residency in psychiatrist. instead of a medical lecture hasan talked about islam. you see here the power point presentation on your screen which was published in "the washington post" frequently citing the koran and explaining concepts like islam. he represented in this presentation muslims be allowed to claim conscientious objector status so they did not have to fight other muslims and the military could avoid adverse events as it said in the presentation, robin. >> interesting. we've also heard that he was communicating with a radical muslim cleric but the defense department, how is it responding to those findings? >> robin, a senior department official says they didn't know about it but a federal law enforcement official says last year a joint terrorism task force intercepted communications between hasan and anwar al awlaki. the cleric is known for encouraging muslims to kill u.s. troops. two government officials say that information was then turned over to a defense department investigator but they say they determined it was for a research paper hasan was writing and it appears the information never went any farther up that chain. >> so when they look at these -- this correspondence they didn't find anything threatening in it? >> at the time, that's what they're saying. >> richard, thank you. do you remember about a year ago -- well, almost exactly a year ago during the black friday shopping, the walmart employee who was trampled to death by a huge crowd when the store opened for the friday after thanksgiving for shopping? well, new protections may keep you safer this year. walmart has some big changes planned for crowd management on that friday morning/thursday night. our money expert, jennifer westhoven, has this for you. and of course walmart wants to make sure that the headlines about black friday are great, that you want to go, but it never happens again so that you can safely get some of those crazy deals on black friday. "the new york times" writes that walmart hired crowd control experts who have even handled mega events like the olympics and the super bowl. the biggest change is for those hot, hot door busters, tvs, pcs, instead of waiting outside and everybody stampeding in all at once, that's when it can be dangerous on that friday morning, instead they're going to be open on thanksgiving and overnight on thanksgiving so you can come into the store whenever you want. you can get on a supervised line that's inside. you know what that means. no cutting in line because that was happening outside. and you know when there's cutting everybody gets really aggressive and angry at each other. so then at 5:00 a.m. when the big sales start, everybody's already inside, everybody's already on a calm, supervised line. there's no need to run anywhere. >> the running is the big thing because people want to storm the door to get to the big items. they're already standing in front of it. >> also, i think when you're outside all night and you have people in front of you, you get that sense of outrage going on, and that can just be part of it. speaking of outrage, a lot of americans would like to throw many wall streeters in jail who might have contributed somehow to the economic meltdown, taking too many risks. well, in the first major criminal case related to the collapse, a new york jury found these two men who were formally bear stearns hedge managers -- found them not guilty on all charges, so that's a case that will be watched. surprised a lot of people in new york, robin. >> all right, jennifer, thank you. it could be the final chapter of the bizarre love triangle between star-crossed astronauts. what's ahead for lisa nowak after she pled guilty to attacking a rival lover. plus, sammy sosa insists he is not trying to lighten his skin. why some say he looks completely different. a former astronaut is getting probation for her attack on a romantic rival. lisa nowak pled guilty to reduced charges for confronting a woman in an airport parking lot. police say she drove from houston to orlando and followed colleen shipman to her car. shipman says she is haunted by what happened. >> i knew in my heart when lisa nowak attacked me that she was going to kill me. it was in her eyes. a blood-chilling expression of limitless rage and glee. >> lisa nowak was sentenced to a year probation by pleading guilty to the lesser charge. she avoided the possibility of some serious jail time if she had been convicted. an artist is honoring the troops with an exhibit of replicas featuring the name of every service member killed in iraq. the piece called 3,000 and counting has the name, rank and age of every fallen service member. artist gene price hopes that her work will provoke thought. >> this isn't sculpture and you can't walk around it and get into the middle of it. >> well, in honor of veterans day the artist will update the piece with homemade foil dog tags. ♪ take me somewhere we can be alone ♪ ♪ i'll be waiting ♪ all that's les to do is run ♪ you be the prince and i'll be the princess ♪ ♪ it's a love story ♪ baby just say yes >> taylor swift grabbed her second straight song of the year award last night at the bmi country awards. she won for this song "love story" and is up for entertainer of the year at tonight's country music association awards. okay, so what's the deal with sammy sosa? have you seen a picture of him lately? some people think that he looks completely different than when he played ball. larry smith is here. now to be fair many people look a lot different once they stop playing ball. to be fair. >> kind of like michael jackson before and after? i mean, he keeps saying that he's really not doing that, trying to deny he is lightening his skin like jackson did. you take a look. look at this. the soon-to-be 41-year-old is looking dramatically different than just six months ago. look at the difference. he said it's a cosmetic cream he has used for years that combined with the bright tv lights where he was photographed in vegas, it made his skin look lighter. sosa wouldn't given the name of the cream he used when he was asked for it. hmm. well from a college dropout to a multimillionaire, 21-year-old joe cada made all those hours playing poker play off becoming the youngest winner of the world series of poker and getting a purse worth more than $8.5 million. the tournament began back in july with nearly 6,500 participants. cada's parents weren't happy with his college decision initial initially but they have softened their stance after this. a special veterans day salute. the blackhawks will wear special camouflaged jerseys during warm-ups. the jerseys will be auctioned online with proceeds going to the uso of illinois. the team will also host 50 military members and their guests this evening at the game versus colorado. great for them. >> thank you for being up early, by the way. bob, you had no choice in the matter. >> yeah. larry got the short straw. we deal with it every morning. what's up, robin? >> and our viewers, too, because they're up just as early. >> and if you are trying to catch a flight on this veterans day, idea road in on the real trouble spot, the carolinas and georgia. so charlotte, greenville, spartanburg, atlanta anticipate delays and it's all the leftover moisture from the slow moving tropical depression ida from yesterday. now it's just the remnants of that storm but the rain is heavy at times. atlanta, charlotte, one hour or more especially this morning. a new york city metro, philadelphia, cincinnati looking at wind today. 30-minute to one-hour delays. washington, d.c., orlando, low clouds, rain, thunderstorms for you around orlando and tampa. the same with miami, seattle, san francisco, low clouds. 30-minute to one-hour delays. so far it's still early. we have more on those in about a half hour. >> thank you. what in the world was going on? it there was a major blackout for two hours affecting millions. one of the world's largest hydroelectric dams had problems in brazil. the power was out in paraguay and rio de janeiro came to a virtual standstill. some people there are concerned because you know the olympics and the world cup are coming there. it was an incident that caused major diplomatic problems between the united states and iraq. a shoot-out that killed 17 iraqi civilians. now startling new reports about what an american company alleged ly did after the shootings. the nation is honoring its military members past and present on veterans day today. president obama will take part in the wreath laying ceremony at arlington national cemetery. many other countries are honoring their veterans as well. for them the holiday primarily marks the signing of a truce to end world one. vaccines have arrived at guantanamo bay military prison. no detainees will be getting them until the facility's high-priority troops and health care workers have been vaccinated. but so far there aren't even enough doses available to do that. good morning, sunshine. i'm robin meade. so glad you're with us today. 30 minutes past the hour. let's move ahead now to some of our other stories that we're talking about. thousands of people gathered yesterday to remember the victims of the ft. hood shootings but there are new developments in the investigation. correspondent richard lui joins us with more on that. good morning. >> good morning to you, robin. fbi agents showed up at the texas mosque where the alleged shooter major nadal hasan worshipped. they would not say what they were looking for, but they did search through a trash bin outside the islamic community center of greater killeeen. the mosque's president had to leave to sign what appeared to be a search warrant. leaders at the mosque have c condemned the attack. >> you know, the fbi has said they believe that this guy acted alone and his attendance at the mosque is part of that reasoning. help me connect the dots here. >> yeah, well, terrorism experts say jihadists usually try to blend in so they don't attract attention. hasan often wore traditional muslim clothing like you see in this video and attended prayers daily. one criminal profiler agrees with this fbi theory. >> a lot of people are jumping to the conclusion because this man spouted islamic -- violent islamic ideology that this is a terrorist attack. he escalated to the point he wanted to get back at society and took it out on his co-workers like most of them do. >> he was a loner. they say he had few if any friends and they were unable to match him with a wife. >> thank you. throughout the morning we'll have new he will enters of the investigation. appreciate it. new laws to protect gays and lesbians in salt lake city got support that might surprise some. the mormon church is making it illegal to discriminate. church leaders say the laws passed by the city council won't impose on traditional marriage. last year the church came under fire for its support to pass the california initiative banning gay marriage. a polygamist sex member accused of assaulting a 10-year-old girl. raymond jessop heard that sentence yesterday, the first sect member put on trial since authorities raided the yearning for zion ranch. the girl became his so-called spiritual wife when she was 15. 11 other sect members are waiting for trials. well, you might want a break from the weather. it's getting very chilly in some of our viewers' back yards and very rainy. here is meteorologist bob van dillen. is this the remnants of what used to be ida? >> it is and it's slow moving, too. now it's getting mixed up with the cold front, getting absorbed in that moving to the northeast. some of the rainfall totals around georgia, because those are the ones coming in now, columbus, georgia, 4.6 inches of rain. atlanta 4.25 inches of rain. that's storm total. the rain continues to fall in north georgia and sliding into south carolina. very heavy at times near charlotte, north carolina. here is that radar picture coming out. you see a couple feeder bans off the atlantic ocean beginning to channel warm moisture in there. we're going to see the rain off and on all day with that solid shield moving through virginia no maryland, too. here is the way it goes. this is coming out of charleston. here's the hilton head. this is beaufort, south carolina. savannah is here, the thunderstorms moving to the west. not severe. just real heavy rainmakers currently heading into i-95. so something you're watching earlier this morning and a solid deck of rain when you get into charlotte through raleigh and stretching through norfolk into the nation's capital. with that in mind and this area of low pressure sitting out across the coast the next couple of days we have flash flood watches up there. those are the areas shaded in green. the light shade of green are the warm areas because of all the rain we saw yesterday and last night that includes atlanta, c macon, in towards attention, gastonia and charlotte, greenville, spartanburg all looking at flash flood warnings because everything is riding high with all that rain. the next 48 hours looks like the rain will shift up to the north. here is your low. right off cape hatteras by friday afternoon. rain coming in often the ocean. even if you see about half this much, you're going to get four to five inches even on this computer model painting in some areas of ten inches or more near washington, d.c. i don't think you get that much, looking for about three to five for washington, d.c. it's really going to start coming down. down to florida where we're watching for showers and thunderstorms raking up through that city. when you get to miami, basically off in the gulf, rising on through the keys this morning. we'll have more details on that in a bit plus the snowstorm out across the northwest. >> snowstorm? >> skiers are loving it, though. >> okay, thank you. last night on "the joy behar show" she whacked carrie fisher who was candid about her failed marriages. >> your second husband left you for another man. of course you're bi-polar. no wouldn't be? >> what's great about being bi-polar, all of that would feel bad for just anybody. but i get it dialed up. >> i know you do. and you turn all of that into comedy which is the greatest gift that you can give yourself in my opinion. >> it's the best kind of alkchey there is. what do i want to feel bad? >> catch "the joy behar show" at 9:00 p.m. eastern here on hln. a teenager spent two nights trapped on a floating chunk of ice and rescuers were able to reach him but not before something went dangerously wrong for them. also ahead, what some children had to do to escape a fire at school. all right. time for our "salute to the troops." today we're doing more than usual because it is veterans day. for example, specialist alexander conley saluting his family and all of our nation's veterans. >> happy veterans day to all the veterans out there, all the active duty. god bless you and your families serving overseas right now and i just want to say thank you to my wife and my family that support me every day. >> absolutely. if you have somebody in the service we are so honored to salute them gmt to cnn.c cnn.com/robin. what a survival story for one teenager. he spent two nights trapped on an ice flo in the arctic and was forced to shoot a polar bear that got too close. rescuers found him monday but then got trapped when the ice shipped in. they have been dragging their boat about 2 1/2 miles across the ice. that's a nightmare. a senator came out swinging with a sweeping plan to keep your money safe with much tougher regulations. senate banking committee chairman christopher dodd said it's been a long time coming. our money expert jennifer westhoven has more on this proposal, what it will mean for your savings. good morning. good morning. thanks, robin. you know, you can guess his side of the back story here, right? his side is, hey, based on what happened, economic collapse, the bailout, the fed clearly didn't live up to its responsibilities in the past, so he believes that it can't do the job well of overseeing banks and consumer protections so he says forget it. you're done. he wants to strip the fed of all those powers and instead give that job to the government with a raft of new agencies. hmm. that's according to this morning's "washington post." but dodd says in his view it's necessary to protect the economy. >> we will end for all time, i hope, too big to fail. those words should only be used again in historical context. we cannot allow the collapse of a few firms to threaten the entire economy of our own nation and others around the globe for that matter. >> remember, the fed -- i think a lot of people think of it as the government but it's not. ben bernanke, the chief of it, he is appointed by the government but it's really a body of bankers essentially. so dodd is saying, look, bankers aren't going to split up big banks. maybe we have to get the government to do that. i'll tell you, though, the white house still trusts the fed so this plan puts him at odds with the white house. they have not said let's shift everything to the government. they're okay with the fed just stepping it up. if you've got a home, listen to this. you're going to like it. home prices may be bottoming out. look, we've had a lot of little signs here about housing. this one looks pretty good the relentless march to the bottom could be almost over. that's some good news in a bad economy. a realtor's group says two quarters in a row now so for six months home price have is been rising. coming up out of the bottom for a single family home, the median price is now about $180,000 so it's up $7,000. used to be more than $200,000 but still coming up, right? right directed. and even in some of the worst hit markets, ft. lauderdale, phoenix, there have been signs of life. back to you. >> bottoming out sounds rough but, you're right, it means upwards from here. jen, thank you. >> it's not your average babysitter club. a small company is changing the way parents find a sitter. stephanie elam has her eye on this story in "small business success." parents adrian and david crafted an idea for a business during a trip to visit family out of town. >> we tried to go out with her brother and sister and we couldn't find a babysitter. >> the couple came up with an idea for seeking sitters, an online babysitting service that provides parents with child care. >> they can log into their area and make a request for the day and time that they need. >> reporter: her private eye experience sparked other ideas. >> the biggest part of seeking sitters is our background screening. we do investigations more like fbi style versus just online checks. we screen our sitters and families. >> reporter: there's a $40 membership fee and the company has expanded into a nationwide franchise. despite the growth, seeking sitters still tries to keep it in the neighborhood. >> we're not just the website business. that's why we went on the franchise behalf, that local person, that local field for every one of our offices. >> interesting idea. if you are a small business owner and would like to see your success story, go to cnn.com/robin. upload a video i-report about your business, share your inbe foe. you might be featured right here on "morning express." another fraternity is in trouble for alleged hazing. this time for dangerous alcohol overdose. you won't believe how the alleged victim got help. more than 400 children were able to escape a dangerous fire at their school. this was near portland, oregon, yesterday. fire officials say it started in an area used for science projects. >> my class had to actually get on our knees somewhat and crawl because we were so close to it. >> well, all the teachers and the administrators got out as well. the classes are canceled at that elementary school for the rest of the week. a private u.s. security firm allegedly wanted to bribe its way out of a controversy after its guards shot 17 iraqi civilians. "the new york times" quotes former black water execs saying that black water had $1 million to buy silence from iraqi officials. the times story says it's unclear whether anybody got paid. the firm now called xe services calls the report baseless. a number of veterans day events are in the "morning express planner" for you. at 1:00 p.m. janet napolitano joins the coast guard commander at the coast guard world war i memorial. later this afternoon retired navy kathleen martin will speak at the annual women's ceremony. rescuers had to be called in to free a kitty cat in a sticky situation. she had somehow managed to get her head stuck in a drain pipe. the kids who found her tried their best to get her out. >> he was really, really hurt and we had to pour oil on it to try to get it out but it couldn't really get out. >> well, animal control officers gave it a try and they did get the kitty cat out. they say it was not hurt. michael vick gets a win in court. larry smith is here to tell you about that. now what was this issue over? >> this was over bonus money the falcons paid him before the dogfighting charges. now a judge had already ruled vick could keep the more than $60 million paid but now an appellate -- an appeals judge has bagged that decision much to the chagrin of the nfl and the falcons. the ruling says vick could earn the money before his conviction on charges in 2007. an nfl spokesman says the decision will likely change the way the league writes bonuses into player contracts. not the first time this has happened and the player has won in almost every case. they're off, they're on, no, they're off again. o'neal has filed divorce from center shaquille o'neal. the couple was married just shy of seven years and they have four children together. shaq filed for divorce in 2007. the two apparently had reconciled. i guess that is no longer the case. when will guys learn? league officials read blogs, too. dwight howard, the orlando magic center, he's been fined $15,000 for his comments on officiating on his blog. didn't like the things they were calling on him. the all-star center and olympic gold medalist was complaining after he fouled out of a game in detroit after playing 16 minutes. and just think a few words cost him 15,000 grand. let's call them air jordans for the ladies. look at this. the famous sneakers are an inspiration for these colorful high heels. we can try to find something to color coordinate. >> how much are these? >> $65. just a fraction of the real air jordan sneakers. where would you wear these things? to a ball game? >> i don't care how much cushion, that doesn't look comfortable. all right. thank you. some are letting the customer spend as much as they want but money expert clark howard warns it may cost you way more in fees than you're willing to pay. >> a lot of people because they've been burned by credit cards have switched to debit cards. that's where it has a it has a mastercard logo on it. when you use it, it takes money directly from your checking account. get this, do you know that most banks will allow you to use your debit card even when it cause you to overdraw your account. why would they do that? because they want you to overdraw your account so they can hit you with massive overage charges. what should you do? ask your bank or credit union to not permit overages, where you can't get hit with an overage if you would overdraw your account. the other thing, if you can't track your balance, do everything with cash instead. i'm clark howard for more ways for to you keep your wallet shipshape, go to cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> clark will teach you to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. catch him at noon on saturday and sundays. two are facing criminals charges after frat hazing. he was hospitalized with a blood alcohol level of.5%. he was a new member of phi betta university. in text messages he said he was being forced to drink. investigators have not confirmed that. the fraternity has suspended three of its members. you probably saw the video of the woman who fell under the tracks of the train. i know you saw it if you were watching this show yesterday. so close. now we hear from the operator of the train what it was like for her. ♪ who says you can't go home ♪