campaign ad that features smoking. better than ya mrnie madoffn open up. >> i felt like my head exploded. i don't think if he told me he was an alien, i could have been more surprised. >> we have more of that interview for you this morning including what the family thinks of madoff today" early, this monday morning, october 31st, 2011. captioning funded by cbs good morning. i'm erica hill. >> i'm jeff glor in for chris wragge this morning. what happened over the weekend? >> i don't know. happy halloween. >> oh, a nice pumpkin. >> as my son said on saturday, a 5-year-old who was very excited about the snow. i love snow, mommy, but it's weird to have snow before halloween. >> it's weird to postpone halloween but that is where we are. the snow has set records in the northeast and some areas got more than two feet of snow. the storm is now blamed for at least 11 deaths, mostly because of car accidents. some travelers experienced horrendous delays. how bad? we are talking 13 hours on an amtrak train and seven hours on one jetblue flight. >> unreal. close to 3 million homes and businesses still have no electricity this morning forcing widespread school closings and a state of emergency has been declared in new jersey, connecticut, massachusetts, and parts of new york state. cbs news national correspondent jim axelrod is in west milford, new jersey, where 19 inches fell. >> reporter: the only surprise is that what happened to megan fitzgerald sunday morning in new york didn't happen to more people. >> this tree wound up falling, breaking, and crushing the whole side of the house where my mother was sleeping. >> reporter: the snow came so early in the year, the trees still had leaves. weighing they will down and snapping branches which, in turn, snapped power lines. >> never saw this before in my life. >> reporter: 750,000 customers are without power this morning in connecticut. a new record. more than 617,000 in new jersey and 200,000 plus in new york and 223,000 in pennsylvania and more than 29,000 outages in western maryland. records were set in new york city where 2.9 of snow fell in central park. they had never measured an inch here on any october day since 1869. concord, new hampshire, got 13.6 inches and broke a 59-year-old record. bristol, connecticut, 17 inches of snow and plainfield, massachusetts, more than 30 inches. 48 amtrak passengers bounded for boston stranded 13 hours overnight. in hartford, connecticut, 126 passengers got stuck on a jetblue plane on the tarmac for more than seven hours with no food, water, or bathrooms. >> they are filled. you have to hold it. >> reporter: one air traffic control begged for assistance when the mood on the plane grew intense. >> i got a problem on the airplane. i need cops on board the airplane. >> we can't seem to get any help from our own company. i apologize for this but is there anything way you can get a tug and tow bar out here to us and get us towed to a gate or something? i don't care. my priority is a tug and a tow bar. if you just give me a welding shop, i'll be willing to make one myself. >> reporter: the chain saws were busy in west milformilford, new jersey, where peter and faith delanie got 19 inches of snow and lost 16 trees. 16 trees down and thousands of dollars in cost to probably get rid of this but are you feeling lucky in some sense? >> absolutely. didn't hit the house. that's all we care about. >> that jim axelrod. the storm was so bad in worcester, massachusetts, the st city has postponed halloween and asking trick-or-treaters to postpone for a few days. sera congi is with us wbz-tv. >> tree limbs and power lines around me, there is so much debris on the sidewalks and streets and neighborhoods here in worcester the neighborhood decided to postpone trick or treating until thursday. a lot of surrounding communities in central massachusetts with doing the same. heavy, wet snow, 15 inches of it fell over the weekend and that brought down a lot of trees, trees that already had a lot of leaves, so it was very, very heavy and that, of course, brought down power lines as well. there are about 20,000 homes without power in the city of worcester. that's about 30% of the city. and power is not expected to be restored until mid week. this is a very tedious operation for the utility company. so, again, the city and many communities, many municipalities decided to hold off on trick or treating because so dangerous for kids to be walking around the street in the darkness trying to dodge all of these tree limbs and power lines. they are waiting until thursday when all of that debris can be cleared away, when power should be back on. temperatures will be a lot warmer. we are expecting to see 60 degrees on thursday afternoon so hopefully a safer and happier halloween for the kids. live in worcester, i'm sera congi for the "the early show." the latest in big weatherys this year. coming up we will ask a scientist what is happening with all of this wild weather. from wild weather to politics. the latest in the presidential race where herman cain's campaign is rejecting a allegation that he was accused of sexual harassment in the 1990s. jan crawford is in washington with the latest. >> reporter: that new poll coincide with cain's appearance this week on "face the nation" now he is a front-runner he is facing increased scrutiny especially when opponents ask if he would support abortion. bob schieffer gave mr. cain yesterday the opportunity to set the record straight. >> pro life from conception, period. i was that -- that piece that was pulled out was taken totally out of context when we were talking about -- >> so, in other words, you would not even believe in abortion if rape, incest, or the health of the mother was involved? >> correct. that is my position. >> that is your position? >> that is my position. >> reporter: a few missteps aside, the des moines register poll shows him edging out mitt romney for first place in iowa. >> my message is connected and people are connecting with me and the specific solutions i'm putting on the table. >> reporter: another reason may be cain's unconventional style. he is not your typical politician because he isn't a politician. he admits when he doesn't know something. states like alabama that aren't part of the early calendar he visits and runs quirky, sometimes controversial, campaign ads. president obama's re-election team doesn't appear to be taking him seriously. on sunday, a top adviser kept his focus on onetime front-runner romney. >> you get the sense with mitt romney if he thought it was good to say the sky was green' grass was blue to win an election, he'd say it. >> reporter: the interesting thing about this iowa poll is how strong cain support appears to be and with some key groups. he has got the strongest backing among people who say they are very conservative, support the tea party or are born-again christians. >> i want to get the latest on this political article which came out last night, allegations of inappropriate behavior antiof herman cain. what exactly are the allegations and how is he responding? >> reporter: well, the cain campaign is pushing back hard against these allegations. a campaign spokesman told me they aren't true and cain is being smeared because of his politics. the al gauges he engaged in improper conduct when he was head of the national restaurant association. we don't know who the accusers are. they say cain used improper language and physical gestures but there was no touching. cain was approached by jonathan martin of politico yesterday and said he would not comment. take a listen to that. >> i'm not going to comment about two -- you won't tell me who they are, okay? that's like negotiating -- i'm not going to -- i'm not going to comment on that. >> reporter: the campaign also released a statement saying, sadly, we have seen this movie played out before, a prominent conservative targeted by liberals simply because they disagree with his politics. from that statement, it's not clear who they are referring to in the similar movie but i got to say, this reminds me of similar allegations that were levied just 20 years ago against justice clarence thomas who, of course, was accused of sexual harassment himself. cain has talked the past few months what he expects in this campaign, what he thinks he is going to encounter. he says he is read ready for the quote, high tech lynching that thomas received from the news media and the left. >> jan crawford, thanks. we bring in host of "face the nation" bob schieffer. nice to have you with us. >> thank you. >> jan said basically what we know this morning. what is the fallout, though, this morning in washington? because it's certainly getting a lot of attention in terms of headlines. >> well, the bottom line here is it's not so much what we know, but what we don't know here. these kinds of things have happened before. we had allegations like this in '88 against gary hart. we had allegations against bill clinton when he ran for president involving paula jones and gennifer flowers. but in those cases, what started out as stories that came from anonymous sources, they were soon flushed out. we had names to go along with allegations. what we don't know here is who made these charges, exactly what the charges were. the cain campaign first said, well, they were just tired, old al gauglegations that had been settled amicably. then they put out statement that did not directly deny the charges but the spokesman for the campaign says, yes, our campaign means it is a denial. at this point, we have anonymous sources who have made certain allegations here. politico is a very reputable news organizations and this is not something that comes off the top of somebody's head. they edit their stories. they don't publish unless they think something is correct. unless we get names and know more about this, i think this story will just sit there. i don't see it moving very much beyond where it is unless we get more details. >> they do say in the politico arguments they have seen documentation of one case. interesting to see if more details from that comes out. jan pointed out the cain campaign is saying it's political and he is being attacked of his conservative politics. you outlined a couple of examples are on the other side of the aisle. does this typically come down to politics or is it the fact when you're a politician you'll get hit with these things when you're running for office, whether or not it is founded? >> well, i always tell journalists and students, where news comes from, news comes out because somebody wants is out. this is not something that politico just made up. somebody has told a reporter from politico about these charges because they are going after herman cain. they want to -- they want to give him a setback. but we don't know who that is. until we find out who these victims are and exactly what the charges are, it's very difficult to see this story going beyond where it is, it seems to me. >> still a lot of unanswered questions this morning. i want to switch now to something that happened yesterday morning on your show when it came to smoking and this video which has gone viral now from herman cain's campaign. we will take a quick look at that and then i want you to tell us about it. >> it is not funny to me. i am a cancer survivor like you. i don't think it serves the country well and this is an editorial opinion here to show somebody smoking a cigarette. you're the front-runner now and it seems to me as front-runner, you would have a responsibility not to take that kind of a tone in -- i would suggest that perhaps as a front-runner you'd want to raise the level of the campaign. have you ever just thought of just saying to young people, don't smoke? 400,000 people in america die every year from smoking-related -- >> i will have no problem of saying that. >> then say it right now. >> young people of america, all people, do not smoke. it is hazardous and it's dangerous to your health. don't smoke. i've never smoked and i have encouraged people not to smoke. >> it's not a cool thing to do. >> it is not a cool thing to do. >> an important message from you there. how did he take it? you were sitting there with him on set. >> well, conversation afward, they sent word the guy who was seen smoking in that commercial doesn't encourage people to smoke. this is him. i just found it so bizarre and in this day and age that someone would be seen smoking. i mean, would you show a teenager, a drunk teenager driving a car? and i think that something like that sends a subliminal message. i don't do that very often. i don't take positions during my interviews very often, but i just thought it was important. young people out there are watching and, you know, i started smoking -- i actually started chewing tobacco, to be quite frank, when i was 16 years old because i wanted to be a baseball player and all of the baseball players chewed tobacco. as a result of that, many years later, i came down with bladder cancer and i just think these candidates have a responsibility not to send that kind of message. he says he wasn't sending a message. the interesting thing was, though, when i said why don't you tell young people not to smoke, he just -- he came right out and said it, you know? i mean, i guess you have to give the man credit, he did answer the question, and i don't know. it's as i say, i don't do that kind of thing very often, but i just thought in this case, i just -- i did it. >> well, a lot of people probably agree with you it was warranted. as we always say, when you ask the question, it gets an answer and it worked in this case, too. bob schieffer, nice to see you this morning. >> i was watching that live as it happened. bob laying down the hammer with herman cain. >> you couldn't turn away from it. >> absolutely! terrell brown is over at the news desk with other headlines. the taliban claiming responsibility for a deadly attack on u.n. offices in afghanistan this morning. a suicide car bomber struck a checkpoint in kandahar. the bomb killed four people. three civilians and a policemen. gunman seized control of several u.n. offices before being shot di dead. 17 people in kabul were killed including ten americans. officials today say the attack may have been carried out by the taliban's pakistan based haqqani network. saturday's bombing was the deadliest ground attack against western troops in ten years. boeing is getting into the spacecraft business. they plan to announce today it's leasing the kennedy space kennedy center that houses space shuttles. the company will rebuild space capsules and they will carry astronauts or supplies to the internet space station. right now, u.s. relies on russia to ferry the crew to the space station. this halloween, millions of americans are facing price hikes for peanut butter. today, the nation's biggest peanut butter producers are raising the prices as much as 40%. the increase is blamed on the hot and dry summer that devastated this year's still ahead this morning, bernie madoff's wife and son say it is not just the money. they can never forgive bernie madoff's portrayal of them. you'll hear more from their explosive "60 minutes" interview, plus why ruth madoff hasn't gdivorced him. will mother nature change the occupy wall street protesters? you're watching "the early show" on cbs. acuvue® oasys for astigmatism. he said it's the only lens of its kind designed to realign naturally with every blink and created with hydraclear® plus. i'm seeing more clearly, crisply, comfortably, all day long. now life doesn't have to be a blur. [ male announcer ] learn more at acuvue.com. acuvue® oasys for astigmatism. [ male announcer ] learn more at acuvue.com. hey babe... oh, hi honey! so i went to the doctor today, then picked up a few extra things for the baby. oh boy... i used our slate card with blueprint. we can design our own plan to avoid interest by paying off diapers and things each month. and for the bigger stuff, we can pay downalance faster to save money on interest. bigger? bigger. chase slate with blueprint helps you save money on life's little surprises. trip...lets... start your path to saving today, call 855-get-slate. with less chronic low back pain. imagine living your life with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is a non-narcotic treatment that's fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing of the skin or eyes. talk with your doctor about your medicines, including those for migraine, or if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles, to address a possible life-threatening condition. tell your doctor about alcohol use, liver disease, and before you reduce or stop taking cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. side effects include nausea, dry mouth, and constipation. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor about cymbalta. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. go to cymbalta.com to learn about a free trial offer. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk. this morning, somewhere the world is reaching a major milestone. the u.n. says global population is hitting 7 billion. >> it's feeling a little crowded in here. mo rocca will break that down for us just ahead. (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. [ cellphone rings ] cut! [ monica ] i have a small part in a big movie. i thought we'd be on location for 3 days, it's been 3 weeks. so, i used my citi simplicity card to pick up a few things. and i don't have to worry about a late fee. which is good... no! bigger! bigger! [ monica ] ...because i don't think we're going anywhere for a while. [ male announcer ] write your story with the new citi simplicity card. no late fees. no penalty rate. no worries. get started at citisimplicity.com. prego?! but i've been buying ragu for years. [ thinking ] i wonder what other questionable choices i've made? [ '80s dance music plays ] [ sighs ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego. ♪ express yourself ♪ [ female announcer ] your favorite holiday flavors are here. with some new ones to love. ♪ ♪ oh, do it ♪ oh, do it ♪ express yourself [ female announcer ] introducing new warm cinnamon sugar cookie and brown sugar maple latte. coffee is like the holidays. it's better when you add your flavor. coffee-mate. from nestle. ♪ welcome back to "the early show." half past the hour. i'm erica hill, along with jeff glor. a beautiful snowy shot of west milford, new jersey. >> a collapsing tree. they are all over the northeast, we see scenes like this. >> even in our backyard from central park and across new york city, a number of trees down. the issue there being across the region, so many leaves still on the trees. this heavy wet snow and that makes for a major mess on a halloween morning. >> yes, indeed. nasty weather out