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Gadhafi Regime Crumbling; Protests in Israel; Military Plane Crash off Chilean Coast; Tropical Storm Lee Moves Slowly; Dominique Strauss-Kahn Returns to France; President Obama Visits New Jersey After Hurricane Irene; "Travel Insider" at Lake Huron for Concert by Sunshine String Band; Tropical Storm Lee Drenching New Orleans; Romney Courts Tea Party Votes; Palin to Speak at New Hampshire Tea Party Rally; NYC Get Ready for Fashion Week

Aired September 04, 2011 - 14:00   ET

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

ALINA CHO, HOST, CNN NWSROOM: You're in the "CNN NEWSROOM." Hi, everybody, thanks for joining us. I'm Alina Cho. Fredricka Whitfield is off today.

And three big stories we're watching this hour. Gadhafi's son speaks out from his hiding place revealing new information about cease fire talks. Could his father be ready to surrender? We'll have that exclusive report just seconds away.

Tropical Storm Lee is putting parts of the Gulf Coast under water. CNN reporters are positioned in towns right in the storm's path. We'll take you there live.

Then we'll head to an area still reeling from Hurricane Irene. President Obama plays a visit to Paterson, New Jersey. A live report is just ahead.

But, first to Libya and exclusive developments right here on CNN. Moammar Gadhafi and his influential sons appear to be running out of options. That's according to CNN Senior International Correspondent, Nic Robertson.

You see him with Moammar Gadhafi's son, Saadi, earlier this year in Tripoli. Now, that was before the capital fell to rebel forces. The whereabouts of Moammar Gadhafi are still unknown. Or are they?

Nic Robertson has spoken with the younger Gadhafi in just the past few hours, mostly about the dwindling chances for some kind of ceasefire. Look at this map. South of Tripoli is Bani Walid. That's considered one of the few places remaining in Libya where the Gadhafis find any support. And even that support may not exist anymore.

We want to get right to Nic Robertson. He joins us by phone from London.

And, Nic, tell me about your conversation with Saadi Gadhafi. Where did he call you from and did he say anything about the whereabouts of his father?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I asked where his father was, where his brother, Saif al-Islam al-Gadhafi, the heir apparent, really, to Moammar Gadhafi, where they were.

He told me he hadn't seen them in two months. I asked him where he was and he told me he was a little way outside Bani Walid. He told me that he'd been moving around a lot, that he hadn't been able to watch television very much. He was relatively safe, but still in a dangerous situation.

He told me then that he's been negotiating with National Transitional Council, rebel military commanders. They've also confirmed this. He's been negotiating to try to get a ceasefire for the town of Bani Walid.

However, he said, on Thursday when his brother, Saif Gadhafi, gave what he described as a very aggressive speech on television urging his supporters to keep fighting, Saadi Gadhafi told me at that point the National Transition Council, the rebels, essentially said these ceasefire talks are off, if your brother is going to talk like that. And, right now, according to Saadi Gadhafi, he believes that there's no point in negotiations, that the National Transitional Councill is massing troops to move in to Bani Walid.

He did however say, and this is very significant, that he clearly has differences with his father and his brother, Saif al-Islam that there's clearly divisions emerging in the family. He said that he is neutral, is neither in the rebel camp nor his father's camp and is merely trying to negotiate a ceasefire. The divisions are significant because until now, Gadhafi's family have been the power brokers, the main people that have run the country. They've always stuck together and now that cohesion is falling apart.

Alina?

CHO: Nic, as you well know, the rebels have set a Saturday deadline for Gadhafi to surrender and now this development. How do you see things playing out in Libya over the next few days.

ROBERTSON: Well, they've even talked about extending that ceasefire. There have been some discussion about it, certainly from political leaders. Though, one senior military commander on the rebel side told me that he wasn't comfortable with that extension, that the political leaders had given this extension of another week until next weekend.

So, it seems that the military commanders really have the initiative right now. And it does seem that they will go into Bani Walid and we'll probably see scenes slightly reminiscent of Tripoli where the rebels will quickly take control after perhaps small fierce skirmishes, but the majority of those who are loyal to Gadhafi will run away.

And this seems set now to be a very protracted campaign. Their National Transition Council, the rebels, have said their key aim is to catch Moammar Gadhafi. And it's beginning to look like this could take some time. It's beginning to look like an Iraq-type scenario where the Iraqis and U. S. forces were chasing Saddam Hussein for a long time. It hasn't quite come to that yet, but the next few days in Bani Walid will really give us an indication, if that's what lies ahead for Libya right now, a long chase for Moammar Gadhafi.

CHO: Interesting perspective. We thank you for your thoughts and great reporting as always. Nic Robertson joining us by phone from London. Nic, thank you.

Meanwhile, a long brewing protest movement in Israel reached a tipping point last night. Just look at what may be the country's biggest ever public display of anger at the government.

That's an estimated 400,000 people according to media reports rallying last night in Tel Aviv. They were protesting against Israel's high cost of living, high taxes and high unemployment. Organizers call the turnout the "March of the Million" and hope to reignite particular momentum in this summer's wave of protest.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to form a government panel to look at possible solutions.

And a military plane that been missing since Friday has been found off the coast of Chile. The crash killed everyone aboard, 21 people in all. The plane tried to land twice, apparently, before losing contract with controllers. The bodies are still being recovered and identified and there's no official word yet on a cause.

We want to move now to the latest on Tropical Storm Lee. The slow moving storm has much of the southeast under flood watches or warnings at this hour. Some roads and low-lying areas have already flooded and right now the storm is centered in southern Louisiana where 10 parishes are under a state of emergency.

CNN's Ed Lavandera has been on the move a lot in the past 24 hours. He joins us now from Jean Lafitte, Louisiana.

Ed, just how bad is it where you are?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alina.

Well, here, what they're worried about isn't so much the rain because it hasn't rained in several hours and the wind is no longer really a factor. But what they're concerned about the tidal surge. The wind is coming out of the south, pushing water from the Gulf of Mexico into this community of Lafitte. Anywhere you drive around this town, you see dozens of home just like this where water is threatening to go inside these homes.

We've got the Jefferson Parish President, John Young, joining us.

What's the situation like around town here in Lafitte?

JOHN YOUNG, PRESIDENT, JEFFERSON PARISH, LOUISIANA: Well, we're just fighting back the water, as you said, from the Gulf of Mexico that's being pushed up through Bayou Barataria. The threat here is tidal surge. We're outside the levee protection system and every storm we have to fight this tidal surge when the wind comes from the south. So, we're using sandbags, tiger dams and rock dikes.

LAVANDERA: Do you think you've seen the worst of the flooding so far?

YOUNG: Well, we've seen the worst today. You know, it's all connected to the high tide. So, hopefully, the local weather authorities are predicting a change in the wind direction, pushing the wind coming from the north, pushing it out. That'll help us fight it tomorrow. But if the wind keeps coming from the south, pushing the Gulf of Mexico up through the Intercoastal, we're going to have to fight this again tomorrow.

LAVANDERA: OK, this is kind of really weird to gauge, I think, at times, because it fluctuates a lot.

YOUNG: Absolutely.

LAVANDERA: You've got high tide, you've got low tide, and that makes differences.

YOUNG: It fluctuates with the tide and it fluctuates with the wind direction. We have saved a lot of homes so far, but certainly a lot of homes have been like this home. It's very, very close to being overtaken by water.

LAVANDERA: Right. I think you were telling me earlier, only a handful of homes have taken on water. Most were like this where the water's at the doorstep.

YOUNG: Yes. The older homes that haven't been razed, whenever this happens, they're the ones most susceptible. But there's a lot of homes, even with water surrounding, that have been built-up that are at risk of taking on water, even though some roads flooded in some areas and low lying have water surrounding the homes.

So, even though it looks really bad and it is, there are still a lot of homes that haven't taken on water yet and we're trying to preserve that and the schools as well. So, the schools haven't taken on water yet either.

LAVANDERA: And you issued mandatory evacuations yesterday. I imagine that will continue for some time?

YOUNG: Oh, yes. We have mandatory evacuations. We have a shelter set up in upper Jefferson Parish inside the levee protection system.

But, you know, these are strong resilient people that have been through a lot over the past six years, four major storms, the BP oil disaster, and a lot of them are staying put, but we have transportation to bring them out. We've gotten some calls over the last 24 hours and we have public transportation and the sheriff's office high water vehicles have taken them to shelters or to relatives' homes inside the levee protection system.

And I want to stress, this isn't a failure of levees. There are no levees. We're outside the levee protection system and that's why we need to look at putting levees down here with the help of the federal government. LAVANDERA: All right. John Young, he's the Jefferson Parish President. As they're saying, they are just waiting for thesewinds to change and that will start pushing water out of here.

Alina.

CHO: All right. Ed Lavandera live for us in Jean Lafitte, Lousiana.

Ed, thank you very much for that update.

Jacqui Jeras, now, with the latest on the storm's path and, Jacqui, you see the flooding there. It's awful. Have they seen the worst of it yet? How much longer is this storm going to be around.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, it's still moving slowly, but the best news I can tell you is right now the latest update from the Hurricane Center is that it has picked up forward speed. This is the first time we've seen this thing moving this fast in more than 24 hours. So, that's the good news here.

Now, they are seeing some of the highest water that they are going to get now as this is starting to turn on up to the north-northeast. That's the good news and the center of circulation is somewhere around Lafayette or maybe about 40 miles to the west-southwest of Baton Rouge.

This is a 45-mile-per-hour maximum sustained wind storm. So this isn't a major windstorm, especially since this thing is not very symmetrical and the worst of the winds really associated with a lot of these thunderstorms have been down in the Gulf of Mexico.

Now that we're starting to pick up that forward speed we have better estimates on timing and direction. We are still expecting it to slowly move through Mississippi through the day tomorrow before it starts to head up into the Tennessee River Valley. Now, rainfall continues to be the biggest threat in terms of inland flooding. Some of the numbers that we've seen are just incredible, almost as much as a foot.

Look at what we're expecting here in the next 48 hours - Jackson, Mississippi, we're talking about seven to 10 inches of rainfall here. Atlanta, Georgia, probably three to five. Chattanooga, five to seven expected and that's going to continue up into the northeastern corridor as a cold front approaches and we could see one to three inches on top of already flooded areas. We also have the threat of tornadoes and tornado watches in effect here for New Orleans until four o'clock, over here into the Florida panhandle until 11 o'clock tonight. That's the latest on Tropical Storm Lee.

Alina, back to you.

CHO: The former IMF chief at the center of an explosive rape case, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is back in France. He arrived this morning after taking an overnight flight from New York's JFK Airport, the same airport where Strauss-Kahn was arrested back on May 14th. His return comes less than two weeks after a judge dismissed charges in the case where he was accused of trying to rape a hotel maid.

We want to bring in our Jim Bitterman now from Paris and, Jim, I think it's safe to say it was a mob scene out there today.

JIM BITTERMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Alina. In fact, Strauss-Kahn came in an hour and a half earlier perhaps thinking he could avoid the press mob but they were there anyway. As you can see, a big crowd was gathered around the airport as well as well wishers. We talked to one woman who got up at 5:30 this morning in order to be out there to support Strauss-Kahn. He actually received a brief round of applause from some of his supporters.

He went straight to his apartment and he hasn't said a word all day long. At his apartment, one of his neighbors, a guy named Jack Lang who's a former culture minister of France says he believes that Strauss-Kahn still has a role to play in politics. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK LANG, FMR. FRENCH CULTURE & EDUCATION MINSTER: A man like him, with his fabulous qualities, his international competence and knowledge of economy, of the question of society could be -- should be very useful for us not only in France, but also in Europe. But he has to decide. I am not to decide instead of him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMAN: Jack Lang, though, doesn't represent most of the French. According to current opinion polls here, 80 percent of the French don't want to see Strauss-Kahn run for the presidency.

CHO: Jim, I understand that you have some information about Strauss- Kahn possibly speaking out in the next 24 hours or so?

BITTERMAN: He said before he left the United States, he said that he wanted to speak out about the subject when he returned to France. He's now returned. His spokesman said to journalists today that she didn't think would he say something today, but perhaps by tomorrow he might be ready to say something.

It's also being made clear that he's not going to talk about the details of the affair in the United States because there's still this civil suit pending in the United States. One of things I should say too, there's still legal action here pending. There's a young lady journalist here who claims that Strauss-Kahn raped her or attempted to rape her eight years ago.

There's a prosecutor looking into that, at the moment just at the complaint stage, but no doubt he will want to question Strauss-Kahn to get his side of the story before he decides whether or not charges will be laid against Strauss-Kahn in that case. Alina.

CHO: What about Strauss-Kahn's political future? Does he have a shot at a comeback? It wouldn't be the first time. I'll ask Jim about that just two hours from now.

A New Jersey town under water, President Obama is there getting an up- close look at the dramatic aftermath of Hurricane Irene. A live report is coming up.

And for the first time in this school's history, take a look at this, a stadium full of fans told to evacuate on college football's opening day. We'll tell you where it happened next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHO: Bridges out and streets under water, that's just some of the hurricane damage that President Obama is seeing for himself today in Paterson, New Jersey. He is touring the town right now. We want to get straight to CNN national correspondent Susan Candiotti, who is there and joins us live. Susan, have you seen the president? Tell us what's happening.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not from our perspective, but he is certainly being seen by a lot of people. We all know his title as commander-in-chief, today he is also playing off his title as comforter-in-chief. He's already visited two communities in New Jersey, Wayne, New Jersey, and right now at this hour in Paterson, New Jersey, and he has been meeting and greeting with a lot of residents along the way and getting out of the motorcade, giving people hugs, shaking people's hands and telling them that the United States is there to help them with Federal disaster relief.

He also stopped briefly and made a statement in which he said that he wants people to know that America is behind them and that everyone will support them, that there is federal money, enough to meet its obligations to help people recover from Hurricane Irene. We're also going to show you now where we are in Paterson, New Jersey. This is a command post here where they are setting up to help a lot of people.

For example, 600 people in the city of Paterson alone remain without power and they don't have enough inspectors working today, apparently, to go out and help out some people. But they have been inspecting these homes to make sure that they are safe before they turn the power back on. They are also helping out people here with other information, for example, Verizon has set up free phone lines.

We want to show you a quick side by side. When we were here yesterday, Alina, you might recall we showed you a picture of a car that was partially covered by water. Now you can see by looking at these photographs how much the water has gone down. So things are improving, but we talked to residents here about what they think the president will be able to accomplish through his visit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MALE RESIDENT #1, PATERSON, NEW JERSEY: Praying for some of the families that have been hit by the flood worse than anybody else and I guess I would just tell him, just, you know, you've got to feel it for yourself. You've got to and come out here and look, you know, he has to look at it for himself. MALE RESIDENT #2, PATERSON, NEW JERSEY: People are suffering, people with no lights, no water, nothing to eat. It's suffering out here and we're praying for everybody that it will change. But when the president comes here, he will see for himself what's going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: And that's what the president says he is doing, so clearly everyone here is hoping that help is on the way. Back to you, Alina.

CHO: Susan, give me a sense of what the situation is right now, in terms of power outages, people living in shelters, people still living without gas. Is that situation getting any better?

CANDIOTTI: The situation is getting better, yes. There are about 600 people just in Paterson who remain without power, but they are hurting, and a lot of businesses are closed. People are still evacuated as you indicated, but they've been able to get everyone into a single shelter now, so that's improving.

However, here, for example, they've got to get those people out of the one shelter because it's in a school and school is supposed to be opening this week. So, they have to find someplace else for them to go. So, you can see the headaches, certainly, haven't gone away.

CHO: And, Susan, I want you to stay with us because I'm just hearing now from my producers that we've gotten tape of the president in Paterson, New Jersey, speaking. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: And when one part of the country gets affected, whether it's a tornado in Joplin, Missouri, or a hurricane that affects the eastern seaboard, then we come together as one country and we make sure that everybody gets the help they need. And the last thing that residents here at Paterson or the residents of Vermont or the residents of upstate New York need is Washington politics getting in the way of us making sure that we are doing what we can to help communities that have been badly affected.

So, again, I want to thank federal, state and local officials who have been working around the clock to respond to this crisis. We know it could have been worse, but we should not underestimate the heartache that's gone through a lot of these communities and affecting a lot of these families. We want to make sure we're there to help and I'm going to make sure that even after the cameras are gone and attention is somewhere else that FEMA and federal officials continue to work with our local officials to make sure we're doing the right thing.

All right. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you, guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHO: President Obama with Governor Chris Christie by his side, Governor Christie of New Jersey, the president touring Paterson, New Jersey, today, one of the hardest hit areas in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.

As you just heard, he said you should not underestimate the heartache here, but, even after the cameras are gone, FEMA will continue to work with residents and, of course, that is music to their ears.

We are watching that story very closely, but we're also watching the GOP. Mitt Romney courting tea party votes, not sitting well with some of the other candidates. No surprise there. We'll tell you why coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHO: CNN reporters anchors and producers cover stories around the world. That shouldn't be surprising to you. It means that we also get great tips on some of the best restaurants, hotels and travel spots.

In this week's "Travel Insider," producer, Karen Waygood, and photojournalist, Jim Gilson, take in a free concert on Michigan's Lake Huron.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CONCERT SPEAKER: On behalf of the Oswego Rotary Club, we would like to thank you for coming down tonight. Tonight, we have the Sunshine String Band all the way from Midland County.

ED "CROSSCUT" LARSON, MUSICIAN: I bought a little Regal mandolin when I came home from Korea. It was a nice little mandolin and Buddy sat on it when we were out drinking and playing and so I saved the neck out of it and I rebuilt the body board.

Well, that was back 45 years ago. I built this body and rebuilt it and rebuilt it. So, it's been one of the easiest playing instruments I've ever had and I've had a mandolin since I was about 12 and, so, I I'm 83, I've played the mandolin, saw, guitar, banjo, harmonica, whatever is left over I try to play.

CONCERT SPEAKER: You've got to watch it. It's a very dangerous instrument. He's cut off three legs already.

"Crosscut" Larson. Thank you, Crosscut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHO: Checking our top stories, former IMF chief Dominique Strauss- Kahn is back in his native France. He arrived this morning after taking in an overnight flight from New York's JFK airport, the same airport he was arrested back in May charged with sexually assaulting a hotel maid. The charges were dropped last month.

Right now, President Obama is touring the area around Patterson, New Jersey, a town hit hard by Hurricane Irene. Streets are flooded and thousands still out of their homes. The president is meeting with residents and local officials.

Tropical Storm Lee is drenching parts of the southeast with flooding rains. Right now, the storm is over southern Louisiana, 10 parishes, in fact are under a state of emergency. And Lee is starting to pick up speed at this hour. It is expected to move to the northeast and into the Tennessee Valley over the next few days.

The Alabama gulf coast is one of those areas feeling the impact of Tropical Storm Lee. Meteorologist Reynolds Wolf now live from gulf shores. So Reynolds, what is it looking like where you are right now? Wind is picking up.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: If you want to think about it, Alina, if you were to walk up to the beach and look around, you would have the sunshine and few scattered clouds, other than this it seems like another windy day.

Looks really can be deceiving because I got to tell you. If you were to go farther to the west in parts of Alabama into Louisiana and perhaps even Mississippi, you have heavy rainfall and flooding and farther to the east over in Destin, there have been reports of heavy rain.

Now behind me, one big textbook thing you see are is the heavy winds. The winds bringing the heavy waves and some of these waves have just been monstrous. And because of that, they have a double red flag warning in effect, which means basically, they don't want you in the water.

And that, of course, because of the good weather and you have people hoping to get in. That has been one of the fears here in gulf shores Alabama. We're very, very lucky this afternoon to have the mayor with us. Robert, is that your really big fear, the possibility of rip current?

MAYOR ROBERT KRAFT, GULF SHORES, ALABAMA: Yes it is, the folks that are here want to get out. They have been locked up with rain for two days. They want to get out on a sunny day and go to the water. It is really dangerous. It looks bad and it's even worse. The rip current you can't see.

WOLF: Being a holiday weekend, we've got tons of people that are here. They were inside in the last couple of days. That gives them incentive to go out, doesn't it?

KRAFT: Yes, because they are going home tomorrow and their vacation is over. This is their last chance to get in the water and that's the big problem because we don't have the means to inform them and provide them a safe environment along the whole beach.

WOLF: Absolutely, well, you have had some heavy rain though. You have water in 7 inches or so just over the last 30 hours or so?

KRAFT: Mostly yesterday. It rained almost all day yesterday and heavy wind and heavy rain, more coming I understand.

WOLF: Absolutely and with that potential, what is your biggest fear away from the coast inland?

KRAFT: Coastal flooding. I mean, obviously with that amount of rainfall, our drainage systems are compromised and ditches are full. The water level in the areas we drain too, the creeks and streams, they are higher. So we don't have as much pressure, as much flow capability. So we've got a drainage miss. Thankfully today with the sunshine, it's gone down some.

WOLF: Absolutely, as we wrap things up, I want to mention one more thing. Last year, we were here about a year ago covering the oil spill. Have you any evidence of any oil washing up with the water being so turbulent?

KRAFT: Not yet thankfully.

WOLF: Thanks so much for your time. I appreciate it. Alina, let's get back to you in the studio.

CHO: All right, Reynolds Wolf. Thank you very much.

You know, meanwhile, much of New Orleans sits below sea level and so far in the city, we have seen some flooded streets, but everyone is watching to see how those levees hold up in the rain.

Joining me now from New Orleans is General Russell Honore. You'll recall that he led the U.S. military's response after Hurricane Katrina and Rita.

General Honore, nice to see you again. You know, how has the city handled the amount of rainfall that has come down so far from Tropical Storm Lee?

LT. GENERAL RUSSEL HONORE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Alina, the system has worked. The pumps are working and moving the water out. The break in the rain as we've talked about, those rain breaks have been a blessing because they've allowed the pumps to keep up with the water.

The only homes that are threatened now as we said earlier are those outside the levee system. The levee system is holding and doing a great job and the pumps are working.

CHO: I heard about some problems around lake Pontchartrain, are you finding that as well?

HONORE: Yes, my sources tell me as Lake Pontchartrain is starting to feel the effects of the surge water being pushed in through from the gulf. As we need that wind to change direction, that won't change until the storm moved further north.

The good news is the storm is moving faster and the bad news the storm is moving through our richest agricultural area in the state of Louisiana. Those are the parishes that have sugarcane and cotton and are going up into the cotton belt of Mississippi at the wrong time of year.

CHO: How concerned are you about this storm, General? HONORE: Well, the continuation of what's it give into the Tennessee Valley, which has a lot of hills that can take 5 to 10 inches of rain in a day is going to create a significant amount of flooding in the Tennessee Valley, Alina.

CHO: You know, we're hearing up to 20 inches of rain in some parts. Meanwhile, I want to remind your viewers, I spent a lot of time after Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans area. Obviously, you did too. Six years after the storm, I'm wondering, how is the city faring?

HONORE: The city right now for the last hour and a half, we haven't had any rain and I rode around the French quarter in the central business district and people along the street are moving around. The city is open for business.

The longstanding issue, of course, is rebuilding the ninth ward and part of the seventh ward about 25 percent of the population is not here, but the housing is going in, the schools are getting better and the city is doing a lot better.

CHO: General Russell Honore, we thank you as always for your perspective. I also understand that you speak a little Korean. So we'll have to talk about that later. Thank you.

All right, that means thank you. General Honore, thank you so much for your perspective on this. Thanks so much.

Coming up, find out why a major Tea Party group is protesting Mitt Romney. We'll have that story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHO: It's 39 minutes after the hour. It's time for CNN Equals Politics update. We're keeping an eye on all of the latest headlines on the CNNPolitics.com desk. Here's what's crossing right now.

For the first time Mitt Romney is headlining a major Tea Party event. The Republican presidential candidate is speaking at the Tea Party Express rally today in New Hampshire. Some in the movement, however, aren't happy about it.

National Tea Party sponsor Freedom Works is protesting Romney's appearance saying that he backed government-run health care when he was governor of Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, a Tea Party favorite is spending Labor Day in New Hampshire. Sarah Palin speaks at the Tea Party Express rally tomorrow in Manchester. The former Alaska governor says she'll decide whether to enter the presidential race by the end of the month.

And six GOP candidates head to South Carolina tomorrow for a presidential forum. They are Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich. They'll all take part in the Labor Day event in Columbia.

The Republican presidential candidates will soon face off right here on CNN. They'll take the stage at the CNN Tea Party Republican debate co-hosted by the Tea Party Express. Watch all of the action September 12th, 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Some of the biggest names in the fashion industry will be in New York for Fashion Week. It begins next Thursday. My talk with designer Marc Jacobs is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHO: Next week is the start of New York's Fashion Week. Some of you know this. It's one of my favorite weeks of the year. A mega showcase of top designer collections for spring of 2012.

Now just a couple of days ago, I got an exclusive look with one of Fashion's mega stars, Marc Jacobs. He's been labeled a creative genius, but surprisingly the man "Time" magazine named one of the 100 most influential people last year tells that's not how he would describe himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARC JACOBS, DESIGNER: I don't know that I'm a household name. I really don't have the awareness or I'll go somewhere and people will ask for a picture or an autograph or something. It's not that I'm unaware or naive, but I'm busy and do my thing. I carry on and yes, I have some nice things and collect art and that kind of stuff, but I'm not a different person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: That was a great interview. I had a lot of fun. I also interviewed another top personality in the fashion world, her name is Rachel Zoe. You've heard of her, right?

She's best known as the most famous celebrity stylist. So I was surprised to hear that even after dressing major stars like Ann Hathaway for the Oscars and Cameron Diaz for the red carpet, Zoe was more anxious about now designing her own collection of clothes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL ZOE, STYLIST: It is 100 percent is the scariest thing I've ever done.

CHO: What about it is so scary?

ZOE: It's not a onetime thing. This isn't something where I'm dressing someone and it's the Oscars and I really hope they look amazing and work really hard at it on the red carpet. You know, you hope it's incredible and it's done and move onto the next thing. This is a very constant, constant process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: She's well on her way. The clothes look great. We will have many more inside looks at the runway shows with my back stage pass, the designers, the fashions and trends you won't see anywhere else on my special. It debuts on September 17th at 2:30 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

You know Labor Day poses a fashion dilemma each year. So last night and again today, I posted this question on Twitter. Should you, would you wear white after Labor Day? Boy, did you respond.

Here's a sampling, sure, you should always wear what looks and feels good. Do people actually still follow those crazy rules? Yes, they do.

We got this from the closet squad. I shift to off white, still fresh and crisp. Sounds good to m and Janet tweets, white after Labor Day when you have swagger, you can rock what you want when you want. Be comfortable in your own skin.

Sounds good. Want to get in your two cents, sent me a tweet at alinachocnn. Follow me. We'll be reading your comments throughout the afternoon.

And just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, there's a new shark movie at the theater. Is it "Jaws? Not really. Is it worth seeing? Depends on who you ask. We're going to ask our movie critic next.

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CHO: Two new thrillers hit the big screen this weekend, the first weekend is "Shark Night" about the ultimate summer vacation turning into a nightmare for seven teens when they are, you guessed it attacked by sharks.

Grae Drake of Fandango and movies.com joins us from Los Angeles. Grae, great to see you. We want to run a clip from the movie and we'll talk on the other side. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your house is on an island?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be a good weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody do something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: My goodness. That's dramatic music. The surfing was pretty good, but I should remind our viewers or tell them if they don't already, this comes from the director of "Snakes on a Plane." So, Grae, what's your grade for this movie?

GRAE DRAKE, FILM CRITIC, FANDANGO AND MOVIES.COM: Well, I've got to qualify my grade just a little bit.

CHO: OK. DRAKE: Because nature gone wrong is a genre that has given me so much. I want to give a gift back to it. This isn't a perfect movie, it what you would expect. It's like a bunch of Abercrombie and Fitch models that just show up on a lake and get torn to shreds.

CHO: That's not so bad.

DRAKE: Here's a problem. There's a general lack of shark mayhem in this movie that like kind of makes it look like a travel log for Louisiana made by someone who didn't want anyone to actually go there.

CHO: And there you have it. We want to move on --

DRAKE: The cast is trying so hard. I gave it a B plus.

CHO: B plus, got it. OK, let's move onto the next thriller. This one is more sci-fi, "Apollo 18" is the name. It hits theaters this weekend. NASA has made a point to say that this is a movie, not a documentary. Let's watch the clip and come back and talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, let me get a shot in the background.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at this. The flag is gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Houston, Liberty, do you see anything usual in the Westinghouse last night?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got some interference.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our flag is gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What? Say again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: All right, Grae, the "New York Times" says this film accomplishes something the world really wasn't crying out for. It recreates the tedium of watching the later Apollo missions.

DRAKE: My gosh.

CHO: So tell me what's grade for this one, I know.

DRAKE: My gosh, I totally give this movie an A. I think "The New York Times" is full of it. I'll go on record because I love documentaries, especially when they are fake.

This movie was so tense. It made me break out with eczema. I'm still itching like I thought that it was so much fun because it combined actual NASA footage with their found footage. I use that term loosely, of course.

I love a good moon conspiracy that doesn't involve the cast of jackas. These guys look like restaurants to me and I thought this movie was a lot of fun. I recommend that everybody buy popcorn because you'll need to stress eat during this film.

CHO: You know, this is how far behind I am. I just recently saw "Midnight in Paris" great film by the way.

DRAKE: It was so wonderful.

CHO: It was a great movie. All right, Grae Drake. Thank you very much.

DRAKE: Neither films on par but yes.

CHO: That's true. All right, thank you so much. Good to see you.

Coming up, a dismal jobs report this past week. What's ahead for the coming week? Our money team takes a look next.

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CHO: All eyes are on jobs. Where are they and who's looking? Plus the government tries to prevent a mega merger. We're keeping tabs on it all starting with Karina Huber.

KARINA HUBER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alina. The jobs report was the major headline on Wall Street this past week and boy, was it ugly. The economy didn't create any jobs in August, a big fat zero, most analysts were expecting to see at least some gains.

But when that didn't materialize, stocks immediately took a hit and investors moved into safe haven bets like treasuries and gold. The August report was a bit distorted by the government shutdown in Minnesota and a strike at Verizon. But still analysts say this report stinks.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent far worse for African-Americans with a nearly 17 percent jobless rate, the worst in 27 years. Felicia --

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Karina. The Justice Department moved to block AT&T's planned $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile. The government says the merger would reduce competition and lead to higher prices for consumers.

But if the deal does go through, it would mean just three companies would control 90 percent of the wireless market, a combined AT&T T- Mobile along with Verizon and Sprint.

But the deal isn't dead yet. AT&T could make concessions or fight it in court. Poppy Harlow has a look at what's coming up next week. Poppy --

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Thanks so much, Felicia. Well, the next week on Wall Street is going to be a shorter one. Financial markets are closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday.

When trading resumes on Tuesday, investors will get a key reading on the service sector that accounts for the largest part of the labor market. We'll see if there's any momentum there.

We'll get the weekly jobless claims report on Thursday. It will be closely watched because last week's report showed a big jump in the unemployment claims following the Verizon worker's strike and this week's report could reflect the impact of Hurricane Irene.

Of course, we'll track it all for you all week on CNN Money. Back to you.

CHO: Some of our top stories now, former IMF chief Dominique Strauss- Kahn is back home in France. He arrived this morning after taking an overnight flight from New York. Four months after he was charged with sexually assaulting a hotel maid. The charges were dropped late last month.

It was the worst possible news for friends and family members, a Chilean military plane that had been missing since Friday has been found and all 21 people aboard are dead. The plane crashed off the pacific coast of Chile. The bodies are still being recovered and identified. No official word yet on a cause.

President Obama getting an up close look at the damage from Hurricane Irene. Today, he is touring Wayne and Paterson, New Jersey. Towns hit hard by the storm's strong winds and heavy rains. The president is meeting with residents and local officials and first responders.

I'll be back in exactly one hour where our legal guys will talk about this woman and how she avoided jail time.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Open. Close your mouth. Did you swallow it? Do you lie to me?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: She's now being referred to as the hot sauce mom, videotaping herself to get on the Dr. Phil show. Also, we'll talk to Tiger Woods. He opens up about his golf game and cause very close to his heart.

Stay with CNN. I'm Alina Cho, thanks for joining us. "YOUR MONEY" starts right now.