Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Rahm Emanuel Leaving White House; Oprah's Next Chapter: Speaks about Fears of Starting New Network; "A Soldier's Story": The Real Band of Brothers; No Friends of Facebook; Empowered Patient
Aired October 01, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. Thanks so much for joining us on this Friday, October the 1st. We'd like to say TGIF, but unfortunately, it's not going to be any kind of a Friday to be thankful for today. I'm John Roberts.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans in for Kiran. We're going to have the latest on the East Coast storms in a moment, but first, here are the morning's top stories.
New details possibly new charges in connection with the Rutgers University student who jumped off the George Washington bridge after his same-sex encounter was secretly broadcast live on the internet. The latest on the cyber bullying that allegedly drove 18-year-old Tyler Clemente to his death.
ROBERTS: Rahm-bo out. Sources tell CNN that Rahm Emanuel will step down as the White House chief of staff today. He's eyeing a bid for mayor of Chicago. So, where does this leave the White House and Democrats who are trying to keep the majority that he helped them win? Our Ed Henry breaks it all down for us this morning.
ROMANS: And they're no friends of Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg. Twin brothers claim, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss claim Zuckerberg stole the idea right out from under their noses. They sued, settled for millions and they're now looking for more. The Winklevoss twins will be here to talk about that and tell us about their portrayal in the movie "The Social Network" which opens today.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to that.
We begin this morning with the destructive power of extreme weather up and down the east coast. Downpours and devastating winds killing at least five people and leaving entire neighborhoods under water.
ROMANS: Here's the picture from above. Too dangerous. Two different dangerous weather systems join together forming an enormous wall of wind and rain slamming one state after another. North Carolina reeling right now. People is getting from street to street by boat. Five people were killed after being swept off roads and into ditches and raging rivers.
ROBERTS: And the storm is turning right now. Up to 10 inches of rain could fall today from Virginia all the way up into Maine. The system poses a tornado threat too. High winds could take out trees and power lines.
And in coastal areas, flood watches in effect this morning as far north as Maine as that low pressure system is piling up a lot of water along the coastline.
Rob Marciano starts off our coverage this morning in the weather center in Atlanta. And the storms are moving quickly but leaving behind a trail of destruction.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Finally it's moving quickly. It's been a slow go the past couple of days, as you know, John. Here it is on the radar screen. From Philadelphia to New York we've seen heavy rain, actually starting to dry out a little bit.
All the way up the Hudson Valley up by i-87, the throughway, heavy rain, but it is making some progress to the east. There is some hope here. But, of course, folks who live in eastern New England, you're going to get hammered over the next couple of hours and we'll see delays not only in the air but also on the ground, it'll be a slow go.
An additional one to three inches on top of what you've seen in these warning areas and watches. Flash flood warning out for parts of the New York City metropolitan area, including parts of southwestern Connecticut for this heavy rain band that's moving through.
How much rainfall has come down since 8:00 a.m. Tuesday morning? Six inches in Baltimore, 11 inches in Norfolk, 16 inches in Wilmington. But in the past four days they've seen over 20 inches of rainfall. They've never seen that, and you'll have to go back to the hurricane season in 1999 to even compare what happened with this system. And we haven't had a hurricane come onshore, just that little bit of tropical moisture.
And 1.36, up until 4:00 this morning. Since 4:00, you've gotten an inch and a half in the past three hours. So we'll watch for the system to move off to the east and things will get a little bit more tranquil here over the next day. This weekend looks to be great. But people would be certainly cleaning up and mopping up and it'll be a slow go this rush hour from New York to Boston.
ROMANS: You know, the massive storm, no doubt having an effect on airports, as well this morning. Here's a look at the major airports along the mid-Atlantic. Boston looking at delays over an hour. Same story in New York where a ground stop was in effect earlier this morning. We get ground stops in New York when there's not weather.
ROBERTS: All somebody has to do is sneeze.
ROMANS: Philadelphia and Washington airport, D.C. looking at delays of I think 30 to 60 minutes each.
ROBERTS: It's going to be a slow go today. So be sure to check with your airline otherwise you'll spend a frustrating morning at the airport. Our CNN iReporters are checking in this morning helping us bring you an even better perspective on the extreme weather. In upstate New York there is severe flooding in Endicott, just outside of Binghamton. IReporter CJ Adams 84 sending this picture of his street with a river running through it.
And from Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Vicki sent us this picture of Hunter Street. No cars getting through the mess right now.
We want to show the world your iReport. Shoot it and send it to us at iReport.com. But never put yourself in harm's way when taking pictures or shooting video.
ROMANS: Right now in Baltimore, emergency officials are hoping to get streets reopen as flood waters begin to recede there. Joining us on the phone from Baltimore, Bob Maloney, director of the mayor's office of emergency management. Welcome to the program.
First off, you saw this coming. So yesterday you were doing an awful lot of preparation. You didn't want to have to go in there and rescue people today. How is that working out?
BOB MALONEY, DIRECTOR, BALTIMORE MAYOR'S OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Well, we think we did well. We actually made residents themselves in our lowest-lying area move their cars. And we think that we avoided a lot of damage. We were dealing the tidal storm surge and all the tremendous amount of rain coming downstream.
It was just a whole lot of rain for a long period of time. And we're in the process now of cleaning up some streets and cutting down -- or cutting up trees that have fallen and repairing power lines. So we're getting back on our feet. But it was quite a storm.
ROBERTS: Bob, many of us remember back to hurricane Floyd when it came through our area. It pushed all that water up the top of the Chesapeake and flooded out neighborhoods in Baltimore. How bad was the tidal surge this time around, and what was the bigger problem, the surge or the rain?
MALONEY: Well, this time the bigger problem was the rain because we had a lot of localized flooding. We had a lot of streets closed early on. The storm surge so to speak was not as bad. We think it came in around five feet. The harbor where most people who visit Boston would be familiar with did come out of the banks somewhat. But it was definitely the rain this time.
It didn't seem like we got a lot of wind, what was forecast. But I keep saying the word "rain" because it seems like it didn't stop. It was very, very remarkable.
ROMANS: All right, thanks, Bob. Best of luck to you today as you wait for those flood waters recede and start the clean-up.
MALONEY: Thank you so much.
ROMANS: Also developing this morning, a country plunging into chaos. A week long state of emergency in effect in Ecuador after the military forced to rescue its president. Hundreds of officers angry over a law that would cut their benefits took the streets yesterday. The Red Cross says two officers were killed in a gunfight with troops at the hospital where the president was being held.
MALONEY: Choking on supplies for coalition troops -- police in southern Pakistan say militants torched 25 fuel supply trucks today that were headed for Ahmadinejad. The convoy was held up after the Pakistan government shut down the gate, the border gate there over the deaths of three soldiers. Pakistan claims they were killed in Pakistani territory during a fight between NATO troops and militants.
ROMANS: Now to the death of a Rutgers University student -- 18- year-old Tyler Clemente's body was pulled from the Hudson River yesterday. He took his own life jumping off the George Washington Bridge after a same-sex encounter was secretly recorded and streamed live over the Internet.
ROBERTS: Two of Rutgers students, including Clementi's roommate, are charged with invasion of privacy at this point and could face additional charges. Our Stephanie Elam is following developments for us this morning. And really, there are few words to really describe what happened.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, it's a terrible, terrible story. And we finally got this I.D. yesterday that this was, in fact, the body of Tyler Clementi pulled from the river two days ago. And it's really heartbreaking to hear what happened.
And let's tell you exactly what is new here. CNN has obtained a statement from the prosecutor's office, and it says here, quote, "Now that two individuals have been charged with invasion of privacy, we will be making every effort to assess whether bias played a role in the incident. And if so, we will bring appropriate charges."
That has to do with the fact that whether or not they were going after him to film him because he was a gay man or whether it didn't matter at all.
Also new this morning, the New York medical examiner's office telling us this body in the Hudson River they were able to find that it is Tyler Clementi. The 18-year-old took his own life. The cause of death has been ruled drowning and blunt injuries from the impact of the jump.
Also, a third item new this morning too. A chain on a message board that closely resembles that have occurred at Rutgers. The post reads, quote, "So the other night I had a guy over. I had talked to my roommate that afternoon and he said it would be fine with him. I checked his Twitter today. He tweeted that I was using the room, which is obnoxious enough, and that he went into somebody else's room, remotely turned on a web cam, and saw me making out with a guy."
Obviously, when you take a listen to that, it doesn't sound like a post from someone distraught enough to kill himself. And this is one reason we're working to confirm these posts are, in fact, from Tyler Clementi.
However, CNN has learned that the IP address associated with this post does trace back to Rutgers.
And the two 18-year-olds accused in the story, Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, they went to high school together. They grew up in the same town, and it just happened they ended up living on the same floor in campus.
So at this point, what we're trying to figure out, was Molly really an accessory here because he used her computer to get on and turn his web cam on? That's one of the things. And really is the issue here that Ravi was the one invading privacy.
ROBERTS: Stephanie Elam this morning, thanks.
ROMANS: The Rutgers case just one of several stories of bullying that have made national headlines just this week alone. So all next week, "AMERICAN MORNING" putting together a series of special reports to address the problem of bullying in our schools. We're looking at the growing problem of possible solutions. We've talked to teachers, parents, across the country about what they face on a daily basis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Is it worse with words, do you think?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it is because when I was little -- like people always said I was like really ugly. And that I never knew it affected me so much. And people would ask if I was a boy or a girl, and I was hurt. I never wanted that to happen. It lowered my self-esteem really bad. And I never wanted to go to school.
COSTELLO: It's the kind of pain that affects so many children. One in three kids are bullied or bully every year. So how do you stop it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.
ROBERTS: Oh, but they sure do.
ROMANS: We're calling our series "Does back to school mean back to bullies?" It airs all next week. Look for reports all next week here on "AMERICAN MORNING."
ROBERTS: Hollywood's take on the creation of Facebook, "The Social Network" opens across the country today along with 500 million friends. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg made his share of enemies along the way. Two former Harvard classmates, twin brothers Cameron and Tyler claim that Zuckerberg stole their idea. The allegation plays out on the big screen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your father's lawyer?
He's going to look at this and if he thinks it's appropriate, he'll send a cease and desist lawyer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can do that ourselves. I'm 6'5" 220, and there's two of me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The real life Winklevi eventually eventually settled the case for a reported $65 million. But now, apparently, they want more since Facebook is estimated somewhere between $20 billion to $24 billion in value. They will join us at 7:40 eastern to talk about that and how they were portrayed in "The Social Network."
ROMANS: Meanwhile, Oprah opens up to "Fortune" magazine about the launch of her own cable network. And we'll talk to the woman who spoke exclusively to Oprah about why this new venture almost didn't happen.
ROBERTS: And should Sarah Palin make an official run for the Republican nomination in 2012? New poll numbers reveal how she would stack up against her potential Republican challengers. And we've got the numbers coming right up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Fifteen minutes after the hour. To the Most Politics in the Morning now.
A huge departure from the Obama White House coming today. Sources tell us that Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is going to leave Washington to go back to Chicago to run for mayor of that city. If Karl Rove was Bush's brain, Rahm Emanuel was Obama's muscle. And long before that, the driving force behind the Democratic Party. So why is he out now?
Ed Henry live for us in Chicago this morning. And the big announcement expected today. And Rahm really on a tight schedule if he wants to run for mayor there.
ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John, because he's got to get the signatures to get on the ballot by November 22nd. You've got the election on February 22nd. He's got to mobilize and he's going to move quickly we're told by people close to him early next week here in Chicago to get that campaign up and running.
But it's hard to sort of overstate how much of a blow this is going to be to the president, at least in the short term, because of the fact that, as you say, we're just a month from the midterms. Rahm Emanuel known as one of the Democratic Party's top strategists from a political standpoint, but also from a policy standpoint as a former congressman, a former Clinton White House aide. He's the one who knows how to run and trains. Basically his fingerprints are all over much of the president's accomplishments over the first two years.
And if Democrats take a hit in those midterm elections, the White House people are expecting to have Rahm Emanuel there on November 3rd helping the president pick up the pieces, figure out how to work with either the Republican Congress or severely weakened Democratic Congress. Now they're just going to have to look back on what they see as many, many successes he's been able to do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: His leadership, his energy has helped us accomplish so much in helping our economy recover, in passing landmark Wall Street reform, health care reform, credit card reform, student loan reform. All of the things that -- there's not a -- there is not an important thing that has happened in this administration that we've been able to accomplish for the American people. It has not involved heavily his signature.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Now, while Emanuel has been the top dog at the White House, interesting to see how it's all playing out here in Chicago. A front page of the "Chicago Tribune" this morning, you see it's all about the governor's race. There's a little line up here. "Rahm will leave White House." You have to go to page 8 inside to get that story. It shows you that he is going to have to fight this out. He's going to have to claw his way. There's about 10 people already in the mayor's race here. Another dozen or so looking at it. This is not going to be a slam dunk by any stretch of the imagination, John and Christine.
ROBERTS: Ed Henry, what do we know about the fellow who's replacing Rahm at the least in interim, Pete Rouse? He's never sent anybody a dead fish, has he?
HENRY: He has not, unlike Rahm Emanuel who did that to a political opponent long ago. Quite the opposite. Self-effacing, somebody who's known as a love of cats. Of all things, he loves cats. You can't see Rahm Emanuel loving cats or even puppies. This is a hard-charging political operative as you noted, but Pete Rouse is somebody who's been the senior adviser in the White House. He was on the campaign. He was chief of staff to then-Senator Obama.
He was also chief of staff before all of that to the majority leader in the Senate then, Tom Daschle, known as the 101st senator because he wielded so much clout. And so Pete Rouse is well known behind the scenes in Democratic politics. And there are some Democrats who even think, look, instead of the high wattage star power of Rahm Emanuel, it'd be good to have a self-effacing insider right now to sort of steady the ship, John.
ROBERTS: How much of a cat lover is he? He doesn't have 82 cats or anything like that, does he? HENRY: I don't think he has that many, but I've heard he has several and he talks to his friends about which cat they've got and what not. Like I say, I can't imagine Rahm Emanuel being a big lover of cats or puppies or anything like that. He's, as you said, he sent that dead fish to a political opponent years and years ago. You couldn't find two more stark style differences between Rouse and Emanuel.
ROBERTS: Yes. Maybe Pete Rouse is feeding the fish to the cats. We'll see.
All right. Ed Henry this morning. Ed, thanks.
Christine?
ROMANS: Oprah talking candidly to "Fortune" magazine about her fears of starting her own network. Hear what Oprah had to say when we speak to the magazine's editor-at-large in a few minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Oprah Winfrey as you can see assembling quite the star- studded slate for the launch of her upcoming cable channel. It's the beginning of a new chapter for Oprah who's ending her syndicated talk show after 25 years and now preparing to run a network which hits the airwaves in just three months. And recently the queen of all media confessed her fears about the transition to "Fortune" magazine's editor-at-large Patricia Sellers. Patricia joins me now.
You first interviewed her, you know, eight or nine years ago. You interviewed her for this piece, as well. Oprah called you last night, you said.
PATRICIA SELLERS, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "FORTUNE": She did.
ROMANS: What was that like?
SELLERS: I was actually standing on 46th street talking to the CNN producer.
ROMANS: Really.
SELLERS: And I got an unknown caller call and I said hold on a minute. And she goes -- this voice goes, hi, it's "Ms. Next Act." Well, that's the cover line. Oprah's next act and I go who? And she goes "Ms. Next Act." Yes, she called the story soulful.
ROMANS: Soulful.
SELLERS: Soulful. Which is unusual for "Fortune" magazine.
ROMANS: I would say so. But the soulful part of the story is that here's a woman who's got 25 years on her show, a show she owns and dominates. A woman who's become her own brand and she's starting this next act, which is the cable channel. There are risks involved with this. SELLERS: There are big risks involved. You know, the cable -- the TV landscape is so crowded, so jam packed, and it's really hard even for the biggest moguls to start successful cable networks today. I mean, look at Rupert Murdoch trying to start FOX Business Network three years ago. He wanted to catch up to CNBC and he's still trying and he spent hundreds of millions of dollars.
ROMANS: And Martha Stewart moving her show --
SELLERS: Yes, she's getting like a quarter of the audience that she got on broadcast TV, over on the Hallmark Channel.
ROMANS: So now Oprah Winfrey at the beginning of this, she was going to lend her name and her brand to this network and somewhere along the way she had to go all in.
SELLERS: She did. This is a 50/50 partnership with Discovery Communications, which owns the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC. David Zaslav, the head of Discovery, came to her three years ago and said I want to start a network together. Own the Oprah Winfrey network. Well, she had been sitting on this idea for 18 years.
ROMANS: Wow.
SELLERS: Stedman, her boyfriend, came up with it 18 years ago, but she was afraid. And she was too comfortable doing "The Oprah Winfrey Show." So they agreed. The ad market collapsed when the recession happened. He came back to her and he said I need a lot more of you. And you have to give up broadcast TV entirely. And she said -- and I said what did you think? She goes, I was not pleased.
ROMANS: I was not pleased.
SELLERS: Not pleased at all.
ROMANS: What -- is she optimistic that this will be a big success ratings-wise? That advertisers are going to go for it and that it's going to change the lives of viewers?
SELLERS: You know, it's so funny. She says she doesn't care about ratings. And I said, what do you mean you don't care about ratings? If you talk about having an impact on the audience, you need ratings. She goes, you're right. She said -- I said, do you want to be a top 10 cable network? She said I don't think in those terms, but yes.
ROMANS: Yes, there's that competitive spirit in Oprah Winfrey. Patricia Sellers, thank you so much, "Fortune" magazine editor-at- large -- John.
ROBERTS: Still to come this morning, a new war, a new enemy, a new battlefield, the same bond. Our Jason Carroll with the 101st Airborne in Afghanistan. A new generation of band of brothers. "A Soldier's Story continues coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROMANS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Time for an "A.M. Original," something you'll only see on AMERICAN MORNING. And we've been following the story of Army Sergeant First Class Randy Shorter and the 101st Airborne in Afghanistan.
ROBERTS: They are the next generation of band of brothers. And Jason Carroll joins us now to share more of their story. He's here with us.
Good morning.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I know this is called "A Soldier's Story," but maybe we should call it a family story because they really are like a family. You realize that when you spend so much time with them. They are dedicated in a way that few can appreciate unless they too have been in the same situation. They are truly a band of brothers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Much has been said about the closeness that in the bonds that exist between you guys. Where do you think the bond between you guys comes from?
SGT. CHARON RICHARDSON, U.S. ARMY: You know, you bleed with them, you sweat with them. You know, becomes your brothers. My problems are their problems. Their problems are my problems. You know, we share that amongst each other and you can't get no tighter than that. It's like a brotherhood.
SGT. FIRST CLASS RANDY SHORTER, U.S. ARMY: We've got to fight for one another. It's about fighting to the man on your left. It's about fighting to the man on your right. That's what it's all about.
CARROLL: How about the rest of you guys?
SPC. FRANK WHARTON, U.S. ARMY: I agree with that. I don't have any brothers, so these are actually, like, a lot of them feel like they are my brothers.
CARROLL: I wonder if you get to the point where as much as you guys love each other, do you get to the point sometimes where you just want to throttle someone?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what the cave is for.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is what the cave is for. Now you feel like you want to wring their neck, just go hide in your cage and calm yourself down.
CARROLL: You know, you've got to be -- you've got this bond. But sometimes people can become so close, you know, they can't see -- they lose perspective so to speak. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just like a brother. I can be so mad at my brother I just wanted to hurt him. But then five minutes later, it's like, what's up, baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Best friends.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, you're best friends again.
STAFF SGT. ANTHONY COOK, U.S. ARMY: After you've been with these guys for so long. Everybody knows how we are truly deep down inside. And we cannot let the moment get to us. We're going to get mad at times. We're going to get frustrated. But at the end of the day, we know, "hey, I'm still here. You're still here. We're going to make it."
CARROLL: When I started this assignment, I thought to myself, one of the questions I always had is how you guys deal with death because that's a very real part of what you do.
SGT. CHARON RICHARDSON, U.S. ARMY: My first deployment I lost someone, I lost a friend of mine. We all had that whole mentality, you want to go out there, hurt someone, you want to tear somebody up. You know, but, our buddies to our left and right kept us sane, kept us still in the fight, still focused on the mission ahead. Because they become your mom, they become your father, they become your brother, they become your sister. Basically they become your family. That's who you lean on. So whenever you're hurting, that's who I'm going to lean on.
SGT. FIRST CLASS RANDY SHORTER, U.S. ARMY: I know if it was to happen to me, I wouldn't want everybody to be sad. You know, play the music, you know, have some food, just kind of get together.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want a party.
SHORTER: You know.
CARROLL: Oh, you want a party?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want a party and I want them to sit me up in the corner just chilling, smiling.
CARROLL: It's got to be difficult for you guys when you go home, when you have these kind of experiences and then you try to talk to people about it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But it's our responsibility. It's our responsibility to go back home and put it in words and ways for them to understand. And I think we're making a difference. And that's what you want your life to be. You want to make a difference in life. And by us doing this, we're making a difference.
PVT. TERENCE LEE ARMSTRONG, U.S. ARMY: I just hope the American people actually keep us in their thoughts and prayers and not forget about us, and not forget that we're over here. RICHARDSON: Regardless whether you agree or disagree, we are Americans. Keep us in your prayers regardless. Keep us in your heart.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Well, since the U.S. has been at war for nine years now, it's easy to get fatigue on the home front and the war front. Sergeant Shorter and his platoon represent the thousands upon thousands of men and women who are there every day leaning on each other to see this through until the very end.
ROBERTS: You know, they've got such great spirit. But the fact that a lot of those guys have been there two or three times.
CARROLL: Absolutely right. And when you think about the fact that they're there for a year, away from their families. I mean, but in order for them to keep their sanity, it's all about good leadership and having that down time and being able to lean on each other.
ROMANS: And as one of the guys said, being able to laugh. Laugh at its own funeral. That's fantastic.
CARROLL: Yes. Yes.
ROMANS: All right. Jason Carroll, thanks.
ROBERTS: Great series, Jason. Well done. Good to see you here.
Crossing the half hour, it's time for this morning's top stories. Possible new charges in connection with a Rutgers University student who jumped of the George Washington Bridge after his same sex encounter was secretly broadcast over the internet. Two other Rutgers students including Tyler Clementi's roommate are charged with invasion of privacy and could face additional charges.
ROMANS: Attention Wal-Mart shoppers in search of discounts. Store prices rose in September to their highest level in 21 months. The mega retailer had been scaling back on discounts from earlier this year. Prices for produce at Wal-Mart jumped 10 percent in the past month, dairy products rose two percent.
ROBERTS: And record-breaking extreme weather all along across the East Coast. Five people dead in North Carolina where parts of the state have been hit by nearly two feet of rain this week. Flood watches in effect this morning as far north as Maine.
Our Rob Marciano tracking the system from the extreme weather center. Those fatalities in North Carolina because people were driving and hit puddles and started hydroplaning and went off the road. And there's an awful lot of rain on the roadways north of there too.
MARCIANO: Yes, you know, there's certain things you can't control. You know, if a tree falls down on your car, there are certain weather-related fatalities that you just have no control of but good tires slowing down when you know you're in a flood zone. That's something that you can certainly do.
2.9 inches of rain so far in New York City. But that pales in comparison to (INAUDIBLE) in Allentown, six to seven inches of rainfall over there. Norfolk, Virginia, the Hampton Roads areas, boy, they just got pummeled yesterday, not only with rain, but with wind, almost a foot of rain. And in Wilmington 16.68 inches of rain. But if you go back over another couple of days, they've got over 20 inches of rain.
Let's take this to Newark, New Jersey. This is fresh video coming in to the CNN NEWSROOM showing you flood rose near Essex County, Sussex County, Bergen County, you're all under a flood warning until 10:30 this morning. Really got a ton of rain between say 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. is when it really came down in that area. And that's why it's such a slow go right now.
Here's where the rain is right now on the radar scope, we are seeing some progression, some movement to the east. If we do get any sort of a slowdown, we might get a little wave that develops here and that might prolong what happens in the New York Metropolitan area. But I think for the most part, the heaviest rains are moving towards eastern New England. And that's where the brunt of the rainfall is.
It's good to see some sort of an easterly progression with it because it's been from south and north for the past 48 hours, bringing in that tropical stream of air, and that's been the biggest, biggest, problem here. The red areas including New York metro area, tri-state area and through parts of southwestern Connecticut. Flash flood warning now for the next 15 to 20 minutes as this heavy band of rainfall continues to move through.
Do want to touch on what's going on for the weekend, which is some pretty nice weather. So just get through this Friday, we're looking at some fantastic cool, fall-like weather here, for much of the country over the weekend. But it's been a rough go certainly these past two days. John, Christine, back up to you.
ROBERTS: You know, I swear that eastern progression is part of the New York-Boston rivalry. OK, if we've got the weather, you're getting it too.
(LAUGHTER)
MARCIANO: May very well be.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right, guys.
ROBERTS: Coming up, the so-called Facebook movie opens today. It's not about friending anybody either. Two of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's sworn enemies, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, known as the Winklevi (ph), join us with their side of the Facebook story. The movie really is about them.
It's 36 minutes after the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys were the inventors of Facebook.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) Facebook.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there anything that you need to tell me?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your actions permanently destroyed everything I've been working on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have been working on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you want to be a joke? Do you want to go back to that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mark!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: You don't get 500 million friends without making a few enemies. One of the year's most anticipated films, "The Social Network." It opens nationwide today traces the evolution of Facebook with the action frame by two lawsuits filed against founder Mark Zuckerberg. One those accused Zuckerberg of stealing the idea for Facebook.
That suit was brought by two of his former Harvard classmates, twin brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. And they join us this morning. Great to see you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Great to see you.
ROBERTS: We got Tyler over here. We got Tyler over here and Cameron over here, Cameron over here.
So we got that straight. You guys saw the movie, what did you think of it?
CAMERON WINKLEVOSS, CLAIMS ZUCKERBERG STOLE IDEA FOR FACEBOOK: Well, it's very entertaining. It is a non-fiction film and it's definitely -- it keeps you engaged the whole time.
ROBERTS: Tyler?
TYLER WINKLEVOSS, CLAIMS ZUCKERBERG STOLE IDEA FOR FACEBOOK: Same thing. The caliber of the script, David Finch's directing, this is definitely going to be a movie of the year.
ROBERTS: Now you say it's non-fiction film, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, sees it differently. He says that much of this film is a work of fiction. What do you say to that?
CAMERON WINKLEVOSS: Well, I'm not sure he actually sees it because he hasn't seen it. So it's sort of hard for him to say what is fiction. But certainly it is a non-fiction film. And that's sort of the party line. But they haven't even seen the film.
ROBERTS: Tyler, what do you say in response?
TYLER WINKLEVOSS: Yes, it's laughable that you could make a comment on the veracity of the film without having seen it. So until he does, it's not really credible.
ROBERTS: Now, just to you folks at home who haven't had the benefit of seeing the movie, the background, you guys were at Harvard University, you were working on something you called Connect U, which was like a Harvard wide version of Facebook, you know, social network.
He was working, Zuckerberg was hired to work for you as a programmer, correct?
CAMERON WINKLEVOSS: That's right.
TYLER WINKLEVOSS: Yes.
ROBERTS: And you say in a filing from 2004 "over the course of three months, Mark led us on by pretending to complete work and making up excuses to stall our progress while he developed his own competing web site. He did a tremendous job of duping us. So much so that we were completely blind sided when he came out with his web site." So you went to then Harvard president Larry Summers to complain. What did Summers say to you?
CAMERON WINKLEVOSS: He wasn't -- we sort of went in the meeting feeling pretty disappointed about the situation and we came out feeling a bit worse. He wasn't particularly diplomatic. But he did tell us to go to the courts and that's where we should seek recourse.
ROBERTS: OK. So not being diplomatic, translate that for us. What did he say?
TYLER WINKLEVOSS: Essentially, like Cameron said, we came in obviously very disappointed and felt betrayed. And there was no reason for us to have to feel, you know, even worse about it when we left. But he effectively said that it was something that was outside of the jurisdiction of Harvard and that --
ROBERTS: Well, that sounds pretty diplomatic. Did he say something to the effect of suck it up, go start another business?
CAMERON WINKLEVOSS: There was -- there was -- in addition to that, he did sort of say, well, there's -- you'll have another good idea. And we essentially said, well, sir, that's not particularly the point here. You know, this is the idea now, this is it. And the only time he seemed to really be interested in it when I mentioned I said -- look, I'm pretty sure this is going to be a national global story. Are you concerned about sort of the university's stance on this. Will the university get involved with this ethics issue? Because, you know, it's not just about shaping minds, it's about shaping leaders, people, and ethics.
ROBERTS: So you guys sued the company, you settled. The figure has been redacted of the court fillings. It is taken to be somewhere around $65 million, which a lot of people would think that's a tremendous amount of money. But you're going back -- you're appealing that. Why?
TYLER WINKLEVOSS: Well, basically Facebook played dirty with us during the litigation and at mediation. So we don't want to be defrauded into a settlement agreement so we're appealing and trying to rescind it.
ROBERTS: So what are you looking for? More money?
CAMERON WINKLEVOSS: Well, essentially the agreement that we entered into, there was an equity component of that and they misvalued that.
ROBERTS: And that component being what, what the company was actually worth?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The equity being -- yes, exactly.
ROBERTS: And it's worth what? $24 billion now?
CAMERON WINKLEVOSS: Well, I'm not sure exactly what the exact valuation is today, with respect to our situation, we were given equity that was valued considerably higher than what they were valuing their own equity internally and a board-approved number. So once we sort of determined that difference and we found out about that, we have since trying to challenge it.
ROBERTS: So you're just looking for money or looking for maybe recognition, as well?
TYLER WINKLEVOSS: Well, we're looking for a fair race so to speak. The litigation, they sat on documents that are radioactive essentially. All of Mark's electronic instant messages. So we filed suit in '04, we settled in '08. They have established in "The New Yorker" that the board of executives and lawyers at the company reviewed these instant messages, yet two years later we didn't have them. Yet they had a duty and obligation legally to send those over during discovery.
So not only did we go into settlement with nothing close to the evidence we were entitled to, then as Cameron said during the settlement -- during the mediation they said that the stock they were trading us with was worth one value when they themselves knew it was worth entirely different.
ROBERTS: Well, even if you don't prevail here, you just got MBAs from Harvard, you're trying out for the 2012 Olympic rowing team. You've got a nice nest egg to build on. So you might be OK. But thanks for joining us.
CAMERON WINKLEVOSS: Yes, thanks for having us. TYLER WINKLEVOSS: Yes, appreciate it.
ROBERTS: Cameron and Tyler, good to see you this morning. The Winklevi (ph) as they're known. Christine?
ROMANS: Tyler in blue, I think. Cameron in the other.
Coming up, becoming an empowered patient, senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has another life-saving lesson for us. It's 44 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back to the "Most Politics in the Morning," crossing the political ticker this morning. New poll numbers reveal the top GOP choices for 2012.
ROBERTS: Our senior political editor Mark Preston live at the CNNPolitics.com desk for us this morning.
Hi, Mark.
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, John. Hey, Christine.
Look, we're not even to the 2010 midterms and we're still talking about the 2012 presidential race.
Well, Gallup has a new poll today. Who do Republicans want to challenge President Obama in 2012? Well, let's take a quick look at these numbers.
Mitt Romney who ran for the nomination and lost back in 2008 to John McCain, he comes in at 19 percent. Every social conservative's favorite, Sarah Palin, comes in at 16 percent, followed by Mike Huckabee, another 2008er who lost. He comes in at 12.
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich comes in at 9, Ron Paul, the Texas congressman who also ran in 2008, comes in at 7 percent. And then we have a whole list of folks after that.
So it just shows you that people are certainly focusing on the 2012 presidential even though we have the midterms.
Very embarrassing situation for the senator from Georgia, Saxby Chambliss. He had to remover a staffer from his staff because of an anti-gay comment that this staffer posted on a gay-oriented Web site.
This comment was posted right after the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" vote just a couple of weeks ago. It was a very violent message. It required the Senate officials here to do an investigation to find out where the comment came from.
They traced it back to Mr. Chambliss' office. Mr. Chambliss has apologized to the author of the blog.
A very embarrassing situation, again, for Saxby Chambliss. John? Christine?
ROBERTS: All right. Mark for us this morning. Mark, thanks.
ROMANS: And for all the latest political news, go to our Web site, CNNPolitics.com for everything you want to know about the midterms and 2010. We're already talking about 2012.
ROBERTS: So just to go back a second, what did you think of the Winklevoss.
ROMANS: Wow, they look exactly the same. I haven't seen somebody wear Sperry topsiders in a very long time.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: For 29 years old, again, they just got Oxford -- MBAs from Oxford. They got that huge settlement. I mean they're stunningly handsome. I think they're going to be OK in life.
ROMANS: I think so too. I think so too. And I mean they're -- they're Olympic rowers, is that right?
ROBERTS: Yes.
ROMANS: Olympic rowers. They've got a lot -- an awful lot going for them. But when you see your friend who has this huge 500 million person -- I mean if you really feel --
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: Yes, he's worth -- he's worth billions.
ROMANS: -- truly that it was your idea.
ROBERTS: Exactly.
ROMANS: Maybe you feel like you have the right to fight.
ROBERTS: Boy. I wouldn't mind starting off at the age of 29 from where they are right now. No question about that.
ROMANS: Make wise choices with your money, gentlemen.
ROBERTS: There you --
ROMANS: Because you could make that grow over the course of a lifetime.
ROBERTS: It's 11 minutes to the top of the hour. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Time now for an "AM House Calls," stories about your health and all this week our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has been schooling us on becoming an "Empowered Patient." ROMANS: It's the title of her terrific new book and the subject of her CNN special this weekend. Elizabeth joins us from Atlanta with another life-saving lesson.
All about taking the power and making sure you have the information to make the right choices with your health care. You can't let it -- you can't let it happen to you, right, Elizabeth?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You can't let it happen to you, Christine.
And in my book and in my special this weekend, I teach you how to become an Internet MD, an Internet medical detective. Harness the power for your good health with the help of Turner Animation Studios, I bring you this story of an Internet MD. Her name is Geralyn Lucas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN (voice-over): Geralyn Lucas beat breast cancer but she's terrified it's going to come back. And what scares her even more is that her daughter Sky will also get it.
So Geralyn is about to take a cutting-edge test to find out if there's a gene for breast cancer hiding in her DNA. And if so, has Sky inherited it?
The test takes about a minute.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're all done.
COHEN: The test called BART searches deep into a woman's DNA to look for breast cancer genes.
(On camera): This is Geralyn's the blood sample. To everyone, this is just a vial of blood. But for Geralyn, this is her future and perhaps even more importantly to Geralyn, this is about her daughter. This is about what happens to her daughter.
(Voice-over): If this test does show Geralyn has a dangerous genetic mutation, she'll have her ovaries and her other breast removed and there would be a 50/50 chance that she passed that gene down to Sky.
GERALYN LUCAS, BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR: I feel very guilty that this is part of her vocabulary and this is part of her world but in the same breath I feel like maybe I'm teaching her a lesson, knowledge is power.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How have you been?
LUCAS: Nervous.
COHEN: A month passes. Dr. Rachel Wellner has the results in her hand.
No surgery needed. LUCAS: My god, it's negative? I don't believe it. So mommy got her results. It's negative.
SKY LUCAS, GERALYN'S DAUGHTER: Yay.
COHEN (on camera): How did it feel to tell her just now?
LUCAS: I'm getting to tell Sky was the hugest thing of that news. And I feel I did it for her.
COHEN (voice-over): And what's pretty amazing is Geralyn discovered this cutting-edge test on her own from other breast cancer survivors.
(On camera): What lessons have you learned from all of this?
LUCAS: I have to keep searching. I can't rest on my laurels.
COHEN (voice-over): By doing research and staying ahead of the curve, Geralyn stayed ahead of breast cancer.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN: It's so crucial to be an Internet MD. One way is to go online and find folks who have the same disease that you do. It's from other survivors, of course, as I said, that Geralyn learned about this breast cancer test. She did not learn about it from her doctor -- Christine, John.
ROBERTS: And when you go online there are so many support groups for so many different medical conditions and diseases. Is it pretty easy to find a group of people, a patient like yourself that you can talk to about all this?
COHEN: You know, people tell me that it is. People I know who've have done this say that once you start going online, it become pretty obvious what are the big and more respectable groups of patients.
There are kind of outliers out there who you might want to stay away from. But they say that it's really pretty easy to find them and it's also -- here's a good thing to do, is find a blogger who has your disease. A smart blogger who's maybe going to all the conferences and reading all the studies and they can be really helpful.
ROMANS: All right, Elizabeth Cohen. Thank you.
Don't forget to see Elizabeth's special report, "The Empowered Patient," that's Saturday and Sunday night at 7:00 Eastern here on CNN.
ROBERTS: Top stories are coming your way right after the break. Don't you dare go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
