investigators suspect your realtime captioner is linda marie macdonald. caption colorado, l.l.c. we have breaking news. an international security alert that investigators suspect may have been a dry run for a terrorist attack. cbs news obtained this exclusive photo of an ink cartridge found inside a package on a cargo plane in england. it had wires and a powder attached though no explosives were found. randall pinkston is live at newark airport in new jersey. that's just one place that's under investigation, randall? ro. >> reporter: yes, juliette. it's truly an international investigation going on this afternoon. the story began last night apparently with a discovery of suspicious packages in cargo planes which was supposed to fly from europe to the u.s. one plane was diverted in london, another in dubai. searches were begun and because of that, that's a decision by authorities to also search cargo planes in philadelphia

and here at newark international airport. investigators focused on three- car go planes and a truck in the u.s. after suspicious package was found on a plane in england. uk official confirmed they found a toner cartridge during routine screening of cargo. it tested negative for explosives. the planes in philadelphia and new jersey were carefully searched. cbs news has learned that investigators are looking for 10 to 20 packages slipped from the u.p.s. office in yemen some sent to jewish centers or synagogues in chicago, one found on a u.p.s. truck in brooklyn. >> that package has been scanned by the bomb squad and cleared. >> reporter: even though no explosives have been found, intelligence organizations here and in europe are concerned that the packages may have been a trial run for terror attacks. the department of homeland security is stepping up security at airports across the country.

john curtain from atlanta isn't worried. >> seems like it's part of our daily life anymore. and unfortunately, i think it will be for a while to come. >> reporter: the white house says the president is getting regular updates from his national security team. he first heard about the suspicious packages last night. those enhanced security measures by the department of homeland security we are told will include an unpredictable mix of k-9 searches, patdowns and also explosive trace detection at the nation's airports. juliette? >> randall, we're also hearing about the military escorting two planes right now. what do we know about that? >> reporter: i can tell you about one of the planes and this is a developing breaking story. apparently, military aircraft in canada picked up a passenger aircraft and canadian airspace and handed it all to u.s. military aircraft when it entered american airspace. it's flight uae201 from dubai to yemen to jfk. it's expected to arrive at 3:23

eastern time and according to norad, the u.s. fighter escort is being done out of an abundance of caution. after all that's gone on today, one wouldn't be surprised if there is an abundance of caution. >> thank you, randall pinkston live. we are also learning that president obama is expected to speak at 1:15 today. we will carry that on cbs5.com and bring you the latest information. also, the tsa is rolling out a new security measure that gets an up-close and personal look. this was planned in advance of today's security scare. tsa agents will now use a method called the hand slide. it's similar to a patdown but much more touchy feely. the screening technique is used for passengers who opt out of a body scan or set off the metal detectors. it's being added to all u.s. airports. screeners will still be matched to the passenger's gender. the fbi is investigating a series of shootings in the

washington, d.c. area. bullet holes were found at the national museum of the marine corps this morning. investigators believe the same gunman is behind three similar incidents in the past two weeks. the fbi believes the gunman may have a grievance against the marine corps but authorities don't believe the suspect is out to hurt those in uniform. on to our wet weather. certainly causing some problems across the bay area today. in fact, this was the scene in san francisco earlier. a huge tree fell down in potrero hill. crews are busy cutting it up and clearing it away. we are told the wet weather may have caused this tree to fall down. and now, let's take a live look at downtown san francisco, lots of gray clouds over the transamerica building. so is the weekend going to be a total washout? we have halloween coming up. let's head to tracy in the weather center. hi, tracy. >> we have a whole lot of trick or treaters out there who don't want to get wet. they don't want to be soggy asking for candy.

looks like halloween isn't so bad. partly cloudy skies, pretty nice. toward the coastline, we have some clouds out there. we do still have some rainfall but for right now it's playing favorites with the north bay. that's where we're seeing the bulk of it today. inverness picking up more than an inch of rainfall and san francisco more than a half inch. you can see some light showers just moving through the daly city area. and also impacting sfo. heavy rainfall off the coast that has not yet made it to the bay area. so our forecast for this afternoon, cloudy with showers still possible and likely. temperatures ranging from the upper 50s to the lower 60s along the coast. mid-60s around the bay and near 70 degrees inland. there is a chance of more showers in the forecast for the weekend. i know, that's not good news. we'll take a look at your weekend forecast in just a few moments. back to you. >> thank you. all right. the giants are on the road this afternoon. they are headed to texas for game 3 of the world series. we're pretty confident though. the players boarded buses at

at&t park this morning. game 3 is tomorrow in arlington at 4:00. the giants owner talked to cbs 5 about the giants winning streak. >> you can never plan to get into the world series or to win it. but what you can plan to do is to have better and better baseball talent on the field playing the game the right way and having that positive trajectory. >> another game at home is not a sure thing. the giants could clinch the world series if they win two out of the next three games in texas. well, there is one giants player who won't be headed to texas. we're learning the feds have started investigating outfielder jose guillen. the "new york times" says it stems from shipments of human growth hormone allegedly sent to guillen's wife, who lives in the bay area. major league baseball advised the giants to keep him off the play-off roster. all right. the first pitch in sunday's game will have a presidential spin. former president george h.w. bush and george w. bush will do

the honors before game 4. before he was our last president, george w. bush was part owner of the texas rangers. checking headlines around the bay area, final touches are being put on the new eastern bay bridge tower. the fourth and final tower started going up this morning. it will be a 16- to 20-hour process. crews were worried about wind delays and now rain might be the problem. as tempting as it is to look, caltrans is warning drivers to keep your eyes on the road. >> 2, 3, all right! >> there we go. bart breaking ground on the new line in the east bay today. it will run from the pittsburg- bay point station to antioch. the trains will be smaller than regular bart trains and will be scheduled to meet regular trains at the bay point station. service is expected to start in 2015. this is what city official in san francisco don't want to

see this halloween. they put the word out, there will be no party in the castro. it's the fourth year in a row the party has been cancelled after violence broke out in 2006. all right. we have seen plenty of attack ads but nothing quite like this. the ad so offensive, we can't even show it to you. a new poll shows barbara boxer extending her lead over carly fiorina in the race for senate. fiorina here in the bay area today, i'll have her reaction to the poll. [ male announcer ] carly fiorina. carly fiorina. just too extreme for california. [ boxer ] i'm barbara boxer and i approve this message.

after another. and another. just a dishonest politician, trying to hide his record of failure. the real brown plan? more spending on out-of-control state pensions. more favors for the big teachers union, blocking education reform. more job-killing taxes and regulations. more of the same old failure from sacramento. job killer jerry brown. always more taxes, more spending, and more lost jobs. barbara boxer appears to be widening her lead over her republican challenger carly fiorina. the latest f s four days until the election and barbara boxer seems to be widening the margin with carly fiorina. boxer has an 8 point advantage

over fiorina. mark sayre is in menlo park where fiorina is making a final push today to get out the vote. mark. >> reporter: juliette, in these final days before election day, carly fiorina making several stops around the state today including this morning here in menlo park. fiorina came to a small business here. it's called the sugar shack, to discuss her plan to create jobs, with the owner of the business and other supporters. fiorina again called for a two- year payroll tax holiday for small businesses who hire anyone who is currently unemployed. but fiorina responded to that new field poll showing that senator boxer has an 8 point lead and as you might expect she largely dismissed it. >> the field poll is an outlier poll in many ways including when it was taken. we have a whole set of internal polls as well as a whole set of external polls that say this race is very, very tight. it is very, very winnable and that it comes down in many ways to turnout. you don't need to believe the polls to know that barbara

boxer is in trouble. >> reporter: now, as for senator boxer, she is in southern california today on a campaign swing with senator dianne feinstein. the two are touring a fuel cell facility at cal state northridge. live in menlo park, mark sayre, cbs 5. a well-known bay area attorney is drawing attention with a big sign that includes the names of fiorina, meg whitman and a four-letter word. tony serra posted the sign near his office in san francisco. it shows his displeasure with the two republican candidates. whitman believes it was inspired by attack ads against her. >> what i have been called in this race? i have been called a liar, nazi and whore. and i have run a campaign on the issues. >> today whitman is campaigning in southern california. the latest poll shows her trailing democrat jerry brown by about 10 points. and we are aheading into halloween but there are already some black friday sales.

coming up, where you can find good deals now. and speaking of halloween, just how much, uhm, rainfall could be in your sunday forecast? coming up, we'll take a look at the weekend and also a warm, warm, warm temperatures that are moving back into the forecast. [ male announcer ] carly fiorina. she's against banning assault weapons... and that's reckless and dangerous. she's for risky new oil drilling that could threaten our jobs. fiorina's plan would mean slashing social security and medicare,

which would devastate seniors. and she'd make abortion a crime. no wonder fiorina is endorsed by sarah palin. carly fiorina. just too extreme for california. [ boxer ] i'm barbara boxer and i approve this message.

"abolish the public schools." he even called our schools "insidious" and "socialism." as families struggle to raise their kids, to provide a good education, harmer bragged, "we can design a plan to dismantle them." david harmer is just too radical. we need jerry mcnerney. protecting local schools from devastating cuts. endorsed for his "independence" by the contra costa times, stockton record, and our local teachers. i'm jerry mcnerney, and i approved this message.

really important part of the newscast because we have a lot of trick or treaters for sunday. so fill in us. >> right now we are not expecting any rainfall on sunday. the rain will be out of the way by then so you don't have to worry. you can wear that scandalous outfit you're going to wear. >> arielle the mermaid! >> she lost water! [ laughter ] >> plenty of clouds in the south bay. you have been dry all day, san jose. and here's why. hi-def doppler showing that most of those showers that we have had today have just been hugging the coastline here. and i like to say they are playing favorites because we have seen the most activity in the north bay, more than an inch of rainfall already in inverness and still picking up some moderate rainfall there illustrated by the yellow and orange. more moderate rainfall in bodega bay. the green showing some light showers pushing in near petaluma as well as novato. as we move down to the south, just a little more, san francisco, also seeing some light activity. more light showers through

redwood city and also hayward. and near the san jose milpitas area, not a lot going on. and that's because this cold front that we have is moving from the southwest and also kind of moving due north right now. so much of the bay area not really seeing a lot of heavy rainfall currently. that does not mean that we're not going to keep it in the forecast. for this afternoon, cloudy with showers possible. temperatures ranging from the upper 50s to near 70 degrees. still a chance of showers for tonight as temperatures bottom out in the upper 40s to the upper 50s. here's a look at the cold front, the rainfall it's generating up and through the bay area. that will be the drill for the afternoon and also for tonight. and through tonight up to 1.5" in the north bay. up to .75" in the peninsula as well as the santa cruz mountains. up to .3" in the south bay so not a lot of activity down there. and up to a half inch in the east bay. that will be for today and something else for today, how about your temperatures? lower 60s in san francisco, 60

degrees in san rafael, 63 in vallejo. 65 in oakland. 70 in fremont. 70 degrees in san jose. mid- to upper 60s from concord to livermore, and the lower 60s this afternoon from fairfield to napa to santa rosa. five-day forecast, so we're moving into the weekend. a few leftover showers possible tomorrow with a mix of sun and clouds. sunday halloween looking good. and take a look at monday through thursday, warmer temperatures, almost 10 degrees warmer with plenty of sunshine expected. sunday, partly cloudy with temperatures ranging from 55 to 65 degrees. also this weekend is called boo at the zoo going on saturday and sunday. but again, the best chance of showers will be saturday. temperatures in the mid-60s. that's a look at your weather. back up to you. >> thank you. >> knock knock. >> who is there. >> boo? >> boohoo? >> ha ha. [ laughter ] >> it's not even halloween but christmas is coming early to some stores. on the consumerwatch, julie watts shows us several retailers are starting their

big sales now? julie? >> reporter: last friday before halloween. stores will do anything to get people to spend money. americans will only spend 2% more this year than last year and last year was the worst holiday season in a decade. reporter: the taylor family isn't trick or treating. they are holiday shopping. >> it's never too soon to start christmas shopping. >> reporter: retailers agree. several big names are cutting prices earlier than ever. >> this christmas, be savvy. it's black friday now at sears. >> reporter: a full four weeks early. black friday is traditionally the day after thanksgiving. that's when stores slash prices to bring in big crowds but with the sour economy, retailers are getting a jump-start and for some shoppers it's too early. >> i think we need to give thanksgiving and halloween a chance before we worry about christmas shopping. >> reporter: j.c. penney disagrees.

its holiday deals start next week. while wal-mart, target and amazon.com are cutting prices now -- >> that's scary. i think our economy needs it. [ laughter ] >> no, i think smart shoppers will begin to buy now. >> reporter: well, starting now meanings you will have more time to hunt for bargains and comparison shop. >> it's better because you can save more money. you can actually work the circulars and go for more sale items. >> reporter: but what about all those last-minute shoppers? >> there will be other interesting offers throughout the whole season. >> reporter: and that season just got a little longer. so if you are looking for any of those deals right now, head online. already sears has deals online, amazon.com does. we listed a few others in that story. most online retailers expect a jump in sales this year, up to 15%. four out of five will offer free shipping at some point this season, juliette. hey, folks at home, if you have a consumer story or problem, we

want to hear it, give us a call, 1-888-5-helps-u. our volunteers are standing by right now to help you. >> thank you. we want to go to some breaking news. we first told you about an international security alert that investigators suspect may have been a dry run for a terrorist attack. cbs news obtained exclusive photos of an ink cartridge found inside a plane in england. two military fighter jets are escorting an airliner from canada to new york. looking at live pictures right now of the aircraft coming in, law enforcement and intelligence officials in the u.s. and abroad are trying to determine if suspicious packages shipped from yemen are part of the dry run for a terror plot. one package discovered during routine cargo screenings in the united kingdom contained a toner cartridge, wires and powder that prompted searches

in philadelphia, newark, new jersey and new york city of other packages being sent from yemen through u.p.s. in about 45 minutes president obama will make a statement about today's threat. we'll carry that live at 1:15 and on cbs5.com. we'll follow this throughout the afternoon. we'll be right back with more news. ,, our state is in a real mess. and i'm not going to give you any phony plans or snappy slogans that don't go anywhere. we have to make some tough decisions. we have to live within our means. we have got to take the power from the state capitol and move it down to the local level, closer to the people. and no new taxes, without voter approval. we have got to pull together not as republicans or as democrats

but as californians first. at this stage in my life, i'm prepared to do exactly that. i have a great fit with my dentures. i love kiwis. i've always had that issue with the seeds getting under my denture. super poligrip free -- it creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth. even well fitting dentures let in food particles. just a few dabs of super poligrip free is clinically proven to seal out more food particles so you're more comfortable and confident while you eat. super poligrip free made even the kiwi an enjoyable experience. [ charlie ] try super poligrip free.

republican. democrat. independent. your party doesn't matter anymore. it's fixing this mess. boxer's been there twenty-eight years. and, look what we've got. when bickering ends, solutions begin. i'm prepared to oppose my party when it's wrong. we can change washington but first you have to vote, to change the people we send there. i'm carly fiorina and i approve this message.

today tip of the day is beefsteak tomatoes, still the season, winding down with changing weather but what's in the market right now has so much flavor. but you have to select them and store them right. come here, let's talk about selection. when you buy them, look at this look how beautiful this one is. nice and red all the way around. these tomatoes are sometimes completely round, sometimes oval, but that's okay. make sure the stem is still attached and make sure they are nice and heavy for the size. the heavier for the size the better they will be when you open them and cut them. when you bring them home, store them on the counter, not in the refrigerator, like all tomatoes. beefsteak tomatoes in salad, mozzarella, basil, olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette, ah! delicious! and salt and person. i'm tony tantillo, your fresh grocer. and always remember to eat fresh and stay healthy. this is one beautiful tomato! >> thank you so much. coming up tonight at 5:00, chocolate bars connected to

child labor. the documentary that sheds light on the dark side of chocolate. that and more at 5:00. also, we want to tell you about some breaking news right now in daly city at westlake apartments. there's been a chemical odor in the hallway. they are evacuating people out of the apartment complex. a lot going on today, and also at 1:15 president obama will be talking live on air in regards to the worldwide security alert, the suspicious items found on planes bound for the united states so we'll carry that at 1:15. all right. and no rain this weekend. thank goodness. have a great weekend.

i'm among 30,000 employees who used to work for hp. i was supposed to retire there. carly fiorina changed all that. fiorina laid off 30,000 people and she shipped our jobs to china and india. i had to pack my bags and i was out the door that night. we even had to train our replacements. she didn't need 5 corporate jets. one hundred million for herself. fiorina never cared about our jobs. not then and not now.