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Recovering from Irene; Floodwaters Remain in New Jersey; Neighborhoods Cut Off by Floods; Vermont Cleans Up from Irene; Texas Wildfire Destroys 40 Homes; New Possible Storm in the Gulf; Another Foot Found in Canadian Waters; Solar Company Obama Visited Shuts Down; CNET: iPhone Prototype Lost in Bar; Americans Sour on the Economy; Obama Backs Down, Moves Speech; Marc Anthony on Split with Lopez; Cher Defends Chaz Bono; Report: Tyson Gets HBO TV Show; Allstate: Fort Collins Drivers Safest; Venus Williams Pulls Out Of U.S. Open; Security Gaps 10 Years After 9/11

Aired September 01, 2011 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we're at the top of the hour here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hello to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes in today for Kyra Phillips.

And we need to start with this lingering misery caused by Hurricane Irene. It's been five days since the hurricane first made landfall but still now from North Carolina to Maine, still have almost two million homes and businesses without power.

Many towns and communities are still cut off. Bridges are washed out, roads impassable and in some cases food even is running low. In Vermont, the National Guard is providing air drops of food, water and medicine.

On Sunday, President Obama will travel to New Jersey to get a look at the damage for himself. We have two states still struggling to recover. We want to check in on now, Susan Candiotti for us in New Jersey, Amber Lyon in Vermont.

Susan, let me start with you. The president is going to be heading your way this weekend. What do the people want him to hear and see?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think the message very likely will be send us help and more likely than not send us money. Of course, this state has been declared a federal disaster area by President Obama and so help is very likely to be on its way.

We're standing in the middle of a parking lot and over here is a street. This street leads to a neighborhood. A neighborhood that obviously remains cut off, unless you can go in and out by boat. We had that chance yesterday, some people who live back there or know people back there gave us a ride.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: It is now -- yes, now called lake Passaic. I'm seeing what are probably the tops of fences leading up to the front door. That's not a house on estimates. That's a garage that's under water.

They stayed around? Of course, lost the car. A classic Mustang lost. Yes. If you have gone through this time and again, why do you and other people still live here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, what are you going to do? You can't sell the house. You can't give them away down here.

CANDIOTTI: Here is a sign over here that has double meaning now. Road closed few hundred feet ahead, local traffic only. At this point, it is local boat traffic only. You are about to start school. You're senior year in high school coming up just in a week.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

CANDIOTTI: What's going through your head?

LAURA SHAKIRI, LITTLE FALLS RESIDENT: How am I going to prepare for school? My clothes, everything is stuck at home. I don't know how I'm going to get them. Everything is closed to go shopping. Mall is down. I don't know where to go.

CANDIOTTII: All you have is a suitcase you were able to run out with?

SHAKIRI: Yes. Five pants, five shirts, that's it. That's all I have. School starts in one week.

CANDIOTTI: Probably won't be the only one.

SHAKIRI: Yes, plenty. I have so many friends that live on this street.

CANDIOTTI: Is this the first time you are seeing it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CANDIOTTI: How do you even begin to think about the cleanup involved here? What's going through your head?

SAM SHAKIRI, LITTLE FALLS RESIDENT: I don't want to think about that right now. As long as we are safe that's good. That's the main thing, to be safe. Then the cleanup comes next.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: And trying to keep people safe you've got the police, you've got the National Guard out here, the fire department, everyone pitching in. They occasionally go into the areas by boat to see whether any of the people who refused to evacuate who stayed behind if they know any water, food, medicines.

A lot of people have got all that, but in case they might have to go in, to give them a hand. The good news is the water is beginning to recede. Just since we've been out here yesterday afternoon it's gone down two feet.

With any luck authorities say the water should be down low enough sometime this weekend for people to go inside and get some real cleanup work under way. T.J., back to you.

HOLMES: Susan Candiotti in New Jersey, thanks.

Let's turn to Vermont that is where our Amber Lyon is. She's in Wilmington. What is the view from there, Amber?

AMBER LYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: T.J., well, we're here in the center of town. This is the main bridge giving access to this community and this exemplifies the problem that's been going across the state as road crews rush to try to return some type of a sense of normalcy of the transportation system out here.

When floodwaters came through not only the debris damaged the asphalt portion of the roads, but that waters also took out the bottom, the foundation and you can see here all the way to that orange cone that area is unstable.

And that happened all over the state so road crews have to replace the asphalt. They have to replace foundation. If you look at asphalt it can only be laid down in certain temperatures. When it gets too cold out, road crews can no longer start to repair these roads.

Typically that's November for Vermont. Here in this town, 1,800 people and I was sitting at a cafe today talking to a man who says I want you to know, Amber, that this was a flash flood.

We did not have any type of a warning that this water was coming. Within eight hours this river over here crested all the way to the bottom, this tin part of Dot's Restaurant. So, I mean, you're looking at 30 feet there within eight hours it rose and then dropped.

And business owners here did not have time to move their inventory outside. Earlier, some dump trucks have come in there and cleaned up a lot of the piles, you would see pile after pile of debris, of lost belongings, lost inventory and for some people they lost their retirement, T.J.

HOLMES: Amber Lyon with a view from Vermont, thank you as well.

And we turn to Texas and Oklahoma where they have the opposite end of the story. They could actually use some water, a lot of it. They even could use a tropical storm and they're hoping for one, in this ongoing fight against destructive wildfires.

Possum Kingdom Lake, Texas, this is the second round of wildfires destroying upscale homes this year. The recent outbreak threatens a lot of people's Labor Day plans. Similar story in Oklahoma City, their second round of grass fire this is year.

Currently, they've got two big fires burning. It's got authorities closing roads, evacuating neighborhoods as buildings burn, a good note, there have been no fatalities to report in these fires.

Hello again to Jim Spellman who's keeping an eye on these things for us in Texas. Jim, it's seems like the same old stories, same old song there in Texas. We were reporting this not too terribly long ago.

JIM SPELLMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, you touched on it, they could use water here. That's really what they need. This drought is so intense and going on for so long the conditions are ripe for the slightest spark to start a fire.

This fire that's happening right here is not a huge fire, but it happened right in the middle of a populated area, this popular resort area, Possum Kingdom and the house that this is fire hit about 39 now that we know are destroyed it just levelled them.

These were big substantial brick houses and they were destroyed, flattened. It's that perfect combination of the high temperatures, drought conditions, the winds and populated areas. Today, right now, firefighters here are meeting trying to devise a plan for today.

Yesterday they hoped to get this fire under control, but when the winds picked up, it sent embers flying and started new fires and they had to pull back and expand the evacuation area.

Right now, the winds are still calm and they're hoping to get a handle on it. But with conditions like this, new fires can break out at any time from here up to the fires they're experiencing in Oklahoma City. The drought is that severe, T.J.

HOLMES: Jim, you mentioned some homes, buildings already burned, but give us a better sense of just how many more homes and populated areas, how many people even are under threat from these fires?

SPELLMAN: Sure, so far the latest figure we have is 39 homes destroyed, at least 400 more are in the direct path, and are at risk of this fire, is what firefighters tell us here.

Hundreds of people had to be evacuated. A lot of these homes are second homes so they were unable to get accurate figures of how many people were evacuated.

When the winds pick up they can carry embers for a mile away so they've had to continually expand this evacuation area so definitely a lot more people potentially a threat here, T.J.

HOLMES: All right, Jim Spellman for us in Possum Kingdom Lake in Texas. Thank you so much. It's 8 minutes past the hour.

Let's turn to Rob Marciano, once again, Rob, right after Hurricane Irene it seems everybody would be saying no, keep that tropical thing away from me. They're saying bring it on.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, they are and we're trying to do that the entire state of Texas is in exceptional drought or the majority of it, and Oklahoma is having its share of problems as well. Let's try to get some rain back through Texas.

We've got a little bit of a swirl here trying to develop, and right around in through there, hurricane hunter aircraft will go out and fish around, sniff around, see if they can't find something- something. National Hurricane Center is thinking about a 70 percent chance of this becoming our next tropical depression potentially Tropical Storm Lee here in the next couple of days.

What it does after that, we don't know. We'd love to bring it to Texas as a tropical storm and no greater than that, with significant rainfall, but our computer models have no idea what to do with this very, very weak steering currents.

And this is what we have to offer as far as guidance goes, meaning we just have no clue. So just stay tuned with this, best chances are in Louisiana for heavy rain, but it may spin out there and sit through the weekend and may not come onshore until next week.

If that happens then it has time to develop into something greater than just a tropical storm. Maybe like Katia, which is a Category 1 hurricane. That developed overnight or strengthened overnight. Westerly movement about 19 miles an hour. Is this a threat to the U.S. and the east coast still reeling from Irene?

Get it to Category 3 status over the weekend and bring it to the general direction of the U.S. so that makes us nervous, yes, but notice a bit of a northerly jog.

Looking ahead there's a couple of strong cold fronts coming through next week and hopefully this one, which is going to cool down a good chunk of the country, hopefully that nudges Katia out to sea.

But at this point, the timing is too far away to say that for sure. Meantime, we'll keep a close eye on what's cooking in the Gulf of Mexico. Hopefully it's a good news situation for Texas, but it could easily be a bad news situation for other people.

HOLMES: Rob, thank you, kind sir. We're 10 minutes past the hour now.

We are following a bizarre story out of Canada. Authorities have found what looks like a severed human foot in waterways in British Columbia. Max Foster has the details for us. Max, I said they found "a" I should say they found another. That's what makes this story a bit odd.

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's truly weird and truly grisly, isn't it? A young boy found this one near Vancouver in a creek, a foot in a sneaker with a leg bone still attached, pretty grim experience. As you say what's interesting about the story, this is the 11th foot that they've discovered in Canada over the last four years and there hasn't been one for a while.

No one knows why this keeps happening. There has been a major police investigation. They don't know who the feet belong to and how they ended up in the water. Various theories, they were perhaps the feet of the victims of the Asian tsunami in 2004 or they may have been stowaways on ships, but no one has any idea why this keeps happening and it's a very, very strange thing.

HOLMES: All right, thanks, Foster. Like you said, grisly, odd, a lot of theories out there, but we have covered this story it seems a number of times. Each time another limb or another foot seems to show up. Max, appreciate you once again.

Last year, it was President Obama paling it as the future for job growth. This morning more than 1,000 employees are being laid off at a Silicon Valley solar plant.

Also ahead, the president versus the speaker of the House, what a difference a day makes in Washington, D.C.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It's 14 minutes past the hour, some of the stories making news cross-country and the surf, check it out. It's up along the Hawaii and California coastlines, as the National Weather Service issues high surf advisories. These big swells should diminish they say later in the week.

Also in California, the solar company that President Obama visited last year has now shutdown. Cylindra announcing yesterday the layoff of 1,100 employees at its Freemont manufacturing plant and the company will file for bankruptcy protection.

Also, Apple needs to put some new security measures in place because they keep losing iPhone prototypes. In San Francisco, it seems another one has been lost. This report we're getting from CNET.

They say an Apple employee left it where else in a bar, back in July. Apple right now not commenting on the story, but this story might sound familiar to you because a similar tale happened right before Apple released the iPhone 4 last year.

President Obama is due to address the nation next week on the economy. The day is Thursday, that in itself has become a part of the story. We'll explain in just a moment.

But first a sampling of how concerned Americans are, according to a CNN/ORC national poll only a third of Americans approve of how the president is handling the economy. Nearly three and four Americans have a gloomy view overall and believe things are going badly in the country.

Now back to the scheduling issue of the president's speech before Congress. He asked for one night, the Republican speaker said no. And all of us have another jaw-dropping sign of just how divided Washington is these days.

Let's say hello to our congressional correspondent Kate Bolduan in Washington. Kate, hello to you. Always good to see you. So it's Thursday, right? KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is Thursday, but don't blink or move to far away from your television because it could change. No, I'm kidding. Next Thursday is the date.

This has really become I think by all accounts a situation that has kind of borderlined on the surreal that this fight has become so public. What we know now, of course, is that President Obama proposed to make an address to a joint session of Congress on this much anticipated jobs plan that he'll be rolling out on Wednesday.

This happened through a letter, Speaker Boehner quickly replied in a letter saying that he was going to suggest that actually Thursday would be a better day so logistical impediments would not get in the way as it was cited in the letter, issues related to getting a security sweep in time.

so there were letters flying back and forth, and much disagreement really on how much consultation ahead of time happened, if any, and there was a bit of a war of words that eventually we have come down to the president agreed to move the date to Thursday.

But I will tell you that Speaker Boehner, he held a conference call according to a senior Republican aide, held a conference call yesterday with Republican members and said all of this flap really could have been avoided with more consultation ahead of time.

A spokesperson for Speaker Boehner taking it a little further saying in a statement yesterday "It's unfortunate the White House ignored decades if not centuries of protocol of working out a mutually agreeable date and time before making any public announcement."

I will say on the part of the White House, T.J., they say Boehner and his office were consulted, did not make any objections. Now you can see what we've been following for the past 12 to 24 hours on this.

HOLMES: We haven't seen gotten to the debate over a jobs plan and we can't agree on which day to do it. The other issue, I'll ask you, I know this is trivial or should be trivial at least, but how does the president now feel about going up against the Packers and the Saints.

A lot of people waited for their football with the lock out. We finally get to it and I think kickoff is supposed to be at 8:30 Eastern, the president's speech at 8:00 Eastern. Are they concerned about where the country's attention might be?

BOLDUAN: We have not heard yet from the White House if they are going to be making a bet on who has more viewers. I think the president knows this is a very important speech. The Congress knows this is a very important speech, any address to a joint session of Congress is a very big deal.

And it comes with quite a bit of pomp and circumstance and gets a lot of attention and should get a lot of attention, but they normally don't schedule it at almost the same time as another event that gets a lot of attention, which would be the opening game of the NFL season.

I think really what we can take from all of this, the back and forth we're kind of recapping now, this really underscores the tension that's already existed between the White House and House Republicans, and if they can't agree on a date for something like a speech it leads many to wonder how they're going to agree on jobs initiatives.

How they're going to agree on it further deficit reduction measures, which will be a focus when they return. So a big question on how much rest and what kind of different perspective members are able to get when they went home for their August recess.

HOLMES: All right, Kate Bolduan, thanks as always. Good to see you.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, T.J.

HOLMES: It's 19 minutes past the hour now. Marc Anthony is breaking his silence on his split with Jennifer Lopez. Hear how they came to the decision to divorce. Your showbiz update is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right, Marc Anthony breaking his silence about his split with Jennifer Lopez. Also Chaz Bono's famous mother defending him on Twitter, and Mike Tyson making a comeback, but is it in the ring?

"SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" host A.J. Hammer joins me now. A.J., always good to see you. So Marc Anthony, kind of a surprise. Was he pretty candid here?

A.J. HAMMER, HOST, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": He was pretty candid. He told ABC, T.J., among other things that their decision to split up was made mutually and this is the first time that Marc is speaking out since he and J. Lo blindsided pretty much everyone with that surprising announcement back in July that they were ending what really appeared from the outside to be one of the most solid marriages in Hollywood.

Marc was speaking with ABC's John Quinones and he fired back at all those tabloid reports out there that the reason they broke up was because he was cheating on her. I want to play for you now a bit of the interview, which aired this morning on "Good Morning America." Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What can you tell us about what went wrong in the marriage?

MARC ANTHONY: I'll tell you that it wasn't -- it wasn't some sensationalistic happening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Infidelity?

ANTHONY: No, absolutely not, nothing sensationalistic. These things happen. These things happen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you want this divorce?

ANTHONY: You know, it's a decision that we made jointly, and that's how I'll answer that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAMMER: So you know he had his language down, but he did repeat a few times in the interview that he still loves Jennifer and he added "this story is not over and they have stuff to do together and life to see together through Max and Emme" the couple's 3-year-old twins.

So, T.J., based on this interview, at least at this point it looks like things have a good chance of remaining civil. Let's hope they do.

HOLMES: You never know what's going on, but you're right, a lot of people look at them and a number of couples that have surprised us down the road when they split.

Let's move to "Dancing with the Stars." Last I heard it was a pretty popular show. Now they've got some controversy before the season really starts that's going to probably get more eyes on that show.

HAMMER: Yes, and all of that started, T.J., when ABC announced earlier this week that Chaz Bono, the son of Cher and Sonny Bono would be a contestant. A lot of viewers began lashing out at ABC on their message boards accusing the network of pushing a homosexual agenda.

I mean, this is pretty crazy that they actually think this is what's going on. But Chaz's famous mom has had enough of the backlash and Cher is jumping to the defense of her son on Twitter and I want to read some of what Cher has been tweeting.

She has more than 300,000 followers. Cher is saying "lovely, Chaz is being viciously attacked on blogs and message boards, but being on 'Dancing with the Stars.' This is still America, right? It took guts to do it."

Cher adds, "I support him no matter what he chooses to do. God, will there always be haters. It took courage to do 'Dancing with the Stars.'" Thank God, Chaz has unlimited supply and then, of course, Chaz is thanking his mom for her support.

Tweeting thank you for all your support, mom. The haters are motivating me to work harder and stay on "Dancing with the Stars" as long as I possibly can." So it's turning it into something positive.

HOLMES: You know, this is what they need. You know, they have to - who knows what they were doing - what to suggest behind the scenes. But still this has got to be good to have people talking about that show.

Last thing here, Mike Tyson, that's what I need to see right now in boxing. I need to see Mike Tyson back in the ring. The heavyweight division is just not what it used to be so he's making a comeback, right?

HAMMER: Yes, but not in the ring. I'm sorry, T.J. You're just going to have to wait a little bit longer. Tyson is getting into the TV business. He's going to be producing.

The former boxing champ is reportedly teaming up with Spike Lee, it's going to be Mike Tyson producing in a new series for HBO, which looks really good. It's supposed to be an entourage type show loosely based on Mike's life growing up in Newark, New Jersey.

According to deadline.com, it's going to be set in current day Newark, the nickname of that town is "Brick City" so the show will be called "The Brick". The search, of course, is underway, T.J. for young actor to play the lead. They're open to suggestions if you have any, my friend.

HOLMES: Not yet, but I will come up with some. But Tyson is always good TV, sometimes scary TV. But still Tyson, he was great in "The Hangover," by the way as everybody know.

A.J., good to see you as always, buddy. To our viewers, if you more information and want to see A.J. some more, he's got all the news from the entertainment world for you this evening on "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" 11:00 on HLN.

President Obama in another (INAUDIBLE) with Speaker John Boehner. The president some say blinked. Does that mean he lost this round necessarily? Our political panel is just ahead.

Also the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, but the job market is far from seeing a recovery. Christine Romans along to break down the numbers and exactly what they mean.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, top of the hour now, you get a look at some of the stories making headlines. Irene-linked flood advisories are still up for five states. New Jersey's Passaic River is expected to fall below flood stage at some point today. The 1,700 people who live there have been evacuated there.

Now, Hurricane Katia now churning into the Atlantic. Too soon to tell whether it can possibly affect the United States.

Also, one of two wildfires burning in Oklahoma City is now threatening. (INAUDIBLE) fire crews have mostly contained the fire before wind got it going again.

Well, political buzz is your rapid fire look at the best political topics of the day. Three questions, 30 seconds on the clock. Look who we got playing today, Democratic National Committee member, Robert Zimmerman, Pete Dominick, host of XM radio "Stand Up with Pete Dominick," and also CNN contributor, Will Cain, or as Pete Dominick has just called him on Twitter "The Handsome But Misguided" Will Cain is here with us today.

(LAUGHTER)

WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: So good for my confidence, Pete.

(LAUGHTER)

CAIN: You know, T.J.?

HOLMES: Yes?

CAIN: Pete's got a point there, because my friends keep telling me Will looks to good to be a conservative.

HOLMES: Oh, wow! OK.

CAIN: So, I think there's something to that.

PETE DOMINICK, HOST, "STAND UP WITH PETE DOMINICK": Let's just go on this topic. Just give me topic number. Let's just keep going.

HOLMES: Not sure if that was a compliment or not, but let's start with the first question of the day. Obama, he moves the day for his Congressional address to accommodate Speaker Boehner. So, who came off looking bad in this showdown? Thirty seconds on the clock. Robert, let's start with you.

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE MEMBER: OK. Who didn't look bad in this showdown, T.J.? I mean, the reality is you've heard the phrase political limbo, and this was an example of which -- how low could each side go to make their point? Now, ultimately, the speech the president gives on jobs and its follow-up is really going to be the story. But right now, it's another example of how Washington just doesn't get it.

HOLMES: With time left to spare on the clock. Pete, you pick it up for me.

DOMINICK: Well, this whole fight looks like, sorry, there's no women on the panel to criticize me for making the sexist comment, but two women that are arguing over who's going to get which wedding date. I mean, this is ridiculous. The truth is politics is perception.

And looks like President Obama picked the night that the Republican presidential candidates are going to be debating. That's what people are going to see, and that's going to hurt the president. So, I definitely think the Obama administration looks worse here.

HOLMES: All right and Mr. Misguided, himself, who do you think looks bad in this showdown?

CAIN: Bravo, Pete. Bravo. Let me tell you something. You got to wake up and be a serious Obama fan boy. I'm talking about, put on your Democratic jersey first thing in the morning to not see that he comes off looking poorly in this. They've had this debate scheduled for months and that's the night he picks to make his speech? But I also agree with Pete on this. We're not going to look back on as the big scheduling conflict of 2011. You know, Israel, Palestine, Libya, can you, guys, just wait? We got to work out this Wednesday/Thursday thing. It's stupid.

HOLMES: That's a good point. Need some perspective there. Let's deal with it and move on. All right. Another poll now shows Rick Perry with a strong lead among the GOP contenders. So, Will, this question goes to you first. Is Mitt Romney being done being called the frontrunner?

CAIN: He's only the frontrunner, T.J., if you're just doing this thing on gut feel. I mean, that's the only way. There's been two polls now to put Rick Perry in the lead, and I'm not talking about like 39-37. I'm talking about double-digit leads over Mitt Romney.

And now, Romney is trying to sneak in the back door Tea Party rallies, not the thing that a frontrunner does who needs -- that's not really his constituency. Rick Perry is your frontrunner right now. I don't know if he'll be that way in a month, but he is today.

HOLMES: Robert, we can't Romney the frontrunner anymore?

ZIMMERMAN: You can't call any of them frontrunners at this point. Let's remember, Rick Perry is at 24 percent, according to Quinnipiac Poll, which means 76 percent are out there shopping around. These polls are very important to political pundits and to the media, but then there's political reality.

Frontrunners are picked by how well they do in the early caucuses and primaries by the organizations they develop and their message. Just ask Fred Thompson and Howard Dean how important national polls were to their candidacies.

HOLMES: Pete, you tell us as well. Are you ready to call Rick Perry the frontrunner?

DOMINICK: Well, I mean, I think he probably is a frontrunner right now, but think about it for a second, T.J. I mean, as soon as Donald Trump decided to flirt with the idea he was the frontrunner, Mitt Romney sat back. Michele Bachmann came out. She was the frontrunner. Mitt Romney sat back. Now, Rick Perry, he's the frontrunner, and again, Mitt Romney is sitting back.

The sad thing is, this is become who has more disdain for reason and science between Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann while Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney sit back and believe mostly in evolution and climate change. Not that they want to do anything about it --

(BUZZER)

DOMINICK: But we'll see who wants to be the biggest theocrat, Michele Bachmann or Rick Perry for the love of Jesus the most.

HOLMES: First time we heard the buzzer today. And this is time for the buzzer beater question. We'll have a little fun with this in just 20 seconds on the clock this time, and Pete, we're going to start with you. You all heard this story. I don't know if you, guys, watch "Survivor" with the former star, Rupert Boneham --

DOMINICK: You bet.

HOLMES: I think I got his name right. He's thinking of running for governor of Indiana on the libertarian ticket. Now, we're not going to talk about him, but, got us to thinking, Pete, what other reality TV stars should run or maybe would you like to see run for office?

DOMINICK: Well, I think the show "American Idol" brings Americans together. So, people who maybe won that, but I think "Survivor" is a great training ground for political office, because what better show? They eat bugs and stab each other in the back, the competition to be in political office, that's a great training ground. Either that or I suppose --

(BUZZER)

DOMINICK: They could go work on Wall Street.

HOLMES: So, no name, just anybody who is on "Survivor" you think qualifies. Will, what about you? You got a name of somebody you think should run?

CAIN: T.J., I got names. This is in my wheelhouse. I'm not too elite to say I love reality shows. You want to go with "Survivor," stick with Russell. Russell knew how to stab people in the back and get himself all the way to the finals every time, but -- and again, I'm not afraid to admit I watch "Real Housewives." If you get somebody like Theresa from "Real Housewives of New Jersey" who is in there flipping tables, now, now, we're talking about politics.

HOLMES: OK. Will, I'm a little concerned. Do not admit that ever again --

CAIN: I bounce that with football. Does that count?

HOLMES: Will, do not ever admit that publicly again. Robert --

DOMINICK: I tell you the man is misguided.

HOLMES: Robert, I guess, Pete might have been right. Will might be a little misguided, bur Robert, you give me some names. Who would you like to see run?

ZIMMERMAN: I finally found Will's wheelhouse. What can I tell you? And Pete, we'll talk later about that sexist comment about women choosing wedding dates. Wrong on that. Here's the point. We have Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Rand Paul, Dennis Kucinich in my party, we don't need any reality TV stars to match these folks. But my choice would be Andy Cohen, because if nothing else, he'll find out a way to make a profit out of running for office.

HOLMES: Interesting today. Pete, Robert good to see you. Will, we will talk later. All right. Good to see you guys. Thanks so much. Thirty-six minutes past the hour.

DOMINICK: Good to be with you.

HOLMES: Let me bring in Christine Romans. Let's get a woman back on the show, if we can, please. Was that a sexist comment to compare what was happening in Washington over this date to, you know, two women arguing over their wedding date?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm still thinking of Will and all this reality TV he must be watching. Geez, I mean, whoa.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: Maybe a little misguided, but let's get back to the question at hand and what we're talking about, a sign maybe that the job market is improving. Is this a real sign, or at this point, we'll just take any little good news we can get?

ROMANS: Well, I'll tell you. The jobs market is kind of like a reality train wreck, right? I mean, 9.1 percent unemployment. A lot of -- you look at these pictures from so many of these job fairs and you as many people lining up to try to get a job as they're lining up to try out for "American Idol" to continue with the reality TV thing here. You know what I mean? It's really a very troubling situation. That's what the president is going to try next week to assuage our concerns about.

This morning, we got another number, weekly jobs number, this is the number for how many people are lining up for the first time for unemployment benefits, and it's still above 400,000. It's not as bad as it was the week before, but it's still above 400,000. 409,000 people lined up last week for the very first time for unemployment benefits. In a healthy economy, that is still too many. Anything really above 400,000, economists say, shows you that you've got trouble and that you're not going to be able to eat into your unemployment rate.

So, there is where we are right now. Tomorrow the big jobs report looking for 80,000 jobs to be created. We've got more than 300 million people in this country. Eighty thousand jobs is not enough for one month. The unemployment rate may be steady at 9.1 percent. It's not getting worse. It's not like it was, you know, two years ago when we were losing hundreds of thousands of jobs a month, T.J.

But what the president and what Congress and what the Super Committee and what all of our leaders have to have first and foremost here is how do they balance deficit reduction with job creation in the very near term, and a big concern on Wall Street quite frankly that the political will is more like political battling and just real concerns about how they're going to get that done.

HOLMES: All right. Christine Romans, good to see you as always.

ROMANS: Yes. You, too. HOLMES: Thank you. Thirty-nine minutes past the hour now. We're going to give you a new look. You can see it here on your screen now. A new look at that earthquake that rattled much of the eastern United States some nine days ago, and we'll tell you why things are a little more unsettled there this morning.

Also, Venus Williams is out at the U.S. Open, and we're just in the second round, but she wasn't beaten by a player. She was brought down by a disease. We'll tell you about her revealing admission next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It's now 42minutes past the hour now. I'll give you a look at some stories making news cross-country, and this is in Montana near Whitefish where a 27-year-old employee of Glacier National Park is missing. His name is Jacob Rigby (ph). He never showed up at work Monday morning. He may have gone hiking before his shift. They have been looking for him since Monday.

Also, look at the surveillance video now, the earthquake that rattled much of the eastern United States nine days ago. This comes to us from a high school in Virginia. This wasn't too far from the earthquake's epicenter. U.S. Geological Survey says another aftershock from the August 23rd quake was felt just a few hours ago.

Also, Ft. Collins, Colorado, take a ride in that town, because for the second year in a row, all-state insurance names that city the safest to drive based on the frequency of auto accidents. Seven of the top ten cities picked have a million people or less.

All right. Even if you're not a sports fan, even if you're not a baseball fan, just look at the screen and you will enjoy this. I promise you. Embarrassing moment for the Brewers all-star Ryan Braun. All right. He hits it into the outfield. Now, maybe the outfielder should have made the catch, but he looks and says, wait, I got a chance for an inside the park home run, oh my goodness, gracious. He is a professional athlete making millions and millions of dollars and the young fellow can't run.

No, it's a funny moment, it happens. These guys aren't used to having to be in dead sprints. He had to be in one. He rounded third and couldn't make it home. He was tagged out.

Let's turn to the U.S. Open now. Andy Roddick, he's in the far court. He can't make them out. He's a 21st seed. He got to four sets to (INAUDIBLE) Michael Russell. He did get to the second round. You'll remember Andy Roddick made a name for himself at the U.S. Open back in 2003 when he won it.

But really, another shocker from the U.S. Open is that Venus Williams is out already just in the second round, but she wasn't beaten by an opponent. She released a statement saying she has Sjogren's syndrome. That's an autoimmune disease. Our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joins us here. OK. First of all, just what is it? ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's sort of defects about four million people, nine out of ten of them are women, and you mentioned autoimmune disease. So, we off of this great immune system that fights of foreign invaders, but sometimes, things get messed up. And it thinks that we are the foreign invader and we attack ourselves.

And, it can affect people in a range of ways. I mean, some people, you know, they go about their life and it's not that debilitating. They run marathons. Other people, it's much more debilitating.

HOLMES: OK. Now, she is what age, I think somewhere around 30, but she is still --

COHEN: Yes, around there.

HOLMES: A young woman. Is that the right age when this would show up or does -- do you even know it?

COHEN: It shows up when it shows up. So, you know, it shows up in children. It shows up in older people. Around 40 is often when it shows up, so she is not too far off that mark. So, yes this would be sort of, you know, pretty much textbook.

HOLMES: OK. She's still playing -- I mean, she's not in the prime of her career anymore, but still, she's got some tennis left in her. Is this something that could affect her career moving forward?

COHEN: You know, we asked folks at the Sjogren's foundation about this, and they said, look, we have patients who are running marathons. I mean, we have patients who are tough athletes. However, we also have some patients where the disease attacks your kidneys and your lungs and other internal organs, and they aren't running marathons where they're so incredibly fatigued from the disease that they're not running marathons. It really remains to be seen. She is obviously one tough lady.

HOLMES: Those marathon runners, though, are those the exception, though, when they talk about Sjogren's disease?

COHEN: You know, I think you have to think about it as a disease that affects people sort of in a spectrum. You know, many different ways. And so, for some people, they're really feeling it. Others aren't feeling it as much.

HOLMES: All right. And also, I understand this runs in the family. So, that had people immediately thinking about Serena.

COHEN: Sister. Right. There's what doctors will say it has a genetic component. Meaning, that your genes probably play some role, and so, perhaps, her sister maybe has a slightly increased risk of getting this, but I don't want to overplay that, because there's an excellent chance that she wouldn't get it.

There are so many other things that go into this. I mean, who knows why she got it. It could be hormones. It could be a whole bunch of other things. And so, there's no reason really for us to think that her sister is in trouble.

HOLMES: And I don't know how much we know, how many details she necessarily gave, but is it possible she could have been fighting through this over the past -- for years, and now, finally, she's like oh, I can't do this anymore.

COHEN: Right. She mentioned the word years.

HOLMES: Yes.

COHEN: She said that. "I've been fighting this for years." And she said, "I'm still thankful to have the diagnosis." That is so classic for Sjogren's patients. They wait usually seven years. And when you see the symptoms you'll see why. So let's put those up, because I want to show you what the symptoms are. The symptoms are things like dry eyes and mouth, joint pain and fatigue.

You know, all of us have experienced probably all of those at some point in our life. So, you show up to your doctor. I don't feel great. I'm kind of tired. My eyes are kind of dry. They're going to think of a million other things before they think of Sjogren's, and this is where you have to be an empowered patient and go on CNN.com/empoweredpatient. Read about the symptoms. You probably don't have it, but you know what, it's worth saying to your doctor, could I have this?

HOLMES: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, empowered patient. Always good to remind us sometimes we got to tell the doctor what to do. they don't have all the answers. You got to inform

COHEN: Or at least make a suggestion. That's right.

HOLMES: You can't tell the doctor operate here. You can't do that. Elizabeth, thank you so much.

We're about 13 minutes to the top of the hour now, and a warning about U.S. security gaps now ten years after 9/11. Rescue workers, firemen, police, in many cases, still can't communicate via radio? A new report says the consequences could be deadly.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Nearly ten years after the 9/11 terror attacks, the U.S. still has major security shortfalls. That's the conclusion of a new report from the 9/11 Commission. Our Pentagon correspondent has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The 9/11 Commission's new progress report says ten years later, some emergency responders still can't communicate by radio in crisis. Some cops can't talk to firefighters who can't talk to EMTs.

THOMAS KEAN, CO-CHAIRMAN, 9/11 COMMISSION: They died because of that in 9/11. They died because of that in Katrina, and they will die in the future, unless, this particular problem is not solved.

LAWRENCE: The report gave a thumbs down to the airport's new hold body scanners, saying they failed to detect some explosives hidden within the body.

LEE HAMILTON, CO-CHAIRMAN, 9/11 COMMISSION: Our conclusion is that despite 10 years of working on the problem, the detection system still falls short in critical ways.

LAWRENCE: The report did credit the government for better screening passengers before they get on planes and doubling its spending on intelligence.

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: If you look at the number of recommendations the commission made and the number that have been filled (ph), it's a very high percentage.

LAWRENCE: But the commission issued its original list back in 2004. And of the 41 shortcomings, nine have still not been addressed.

CARNEY: Which doesn't mean that we don't constantly look for ways to improve.

LAWRENCE: But that improvement will have to come in an economic environment where every dollar counts.

GOV. JAMES THOMPSON, 9/11 COMMISSIO: The question should be not how much is this, but is this worth paying for? Is this good security? Is this the best we can get?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE (on-camera): You know, the commission says Homeland Security has set up a system that tracks people who come into the U.S. and ensures they are who they say they are, but the commission says the exit part of that system has still not been completed. So, the government doesn't know who is staying or who's left the country. They say a system like that could have helped authorities track at least two of the 9/11 hijackers who had overstayed their visas -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Chris Lawrence for us at the Pentagon. Thank you, Chris.

Former Bush White House officials now in a he said/she said dispute. Condoleezza Rice said she never came into Dick Cheney's office in tears. The story ahead in our "Political Ticker."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Some of the stories that'll be making news later today next hour. In Paris, the international community meets on the future of Libya's transitional government.

Also, next hour, the staff of the National Cathedral in Washington begins media tours of the quake damaged edifice.

And at 1:30 Eastern, Cathay Pacific Airways holds it inaugural nonstop flight from Chicago in Hong Kong.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Condoleezza Rice has a beef with Dick Cheney now over how he depicts her in his new book. CNN's Jim Acosta is here with the story. This often happens when people write those books after they leave administrations.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It does, T.J. You know, you've heard of kiss-and-tell books. Well, Dick Cheney is doing a little more than kissing in this book. He's throwing some serious punches. And, you know, he basically says that he got and that the Bush administration got most of what they wanted to do right during their eight years in office.

But one of the things that came up during the Bush administration is the case that was made for war in Iraq, and you remember, T.J. that speech that President Bush gave where he said that there is intelligence indicating that Saddam Hussein is trying to get uranium in Africa. Well, Condoleezza Rice, eventually, said you know what, maybe we shouldn't have said it that way.

In his book, Dick Cheney says, you know what, we shouldn't (ph) have apologized for that, and he says in his book that Condoleezza Rice tearfully, he puts it, admitted to him that Dick Cheney was right. And Condoleezza Rice gave an interview to Reuters about this in the last day or so where she basically said she really objected to the vice president questioning her integrity, as she put it.

And so, it just goes to show you even though they leave office, T.J., when they start writing books, these fights can come up all over again. It seems that whenever Dick Cheney resurfaces this fight over the war in Iraq, how we got in, how we got out, how it was handled, it seems to happen all over again -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. And people should probably get used to it for a little while.

ACOSTA: I think so.

HOLMES: We know this book is out, and he's doing a round of interviews, so more to come. Jim Acosta, thank you, as always.

And as we get close to the top of hour, 11 o'clock Eastern time, time for us to hand this thing over to Suzanne Malveaux. It's all yours.