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American Morning
Winter Storm Hits Eastern U.S.; Calorie Count
Aired February 26, 2007 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: Welcome back. It's Monday, February 26th. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: I'm Miles O'Brien. We're glad you're with us.
S. O'BRIEN: Let's begin with that powerful winter storm that's socking the East Coast right now. It's going to be a snowy and sloppy commute, if are you in New York City or in Philadelphia, where the plows are out in full force.
Thousands of people in the Midwest are without power right now. Hundreds of flights have already been canceled. Now, that same storm system spun off tornadoes in the southeast. We'll talk about all of that this morning with our team coverage.
We've got Allan Chernoff in New York. Reggie Aqui is at Chicago's O'Hare, Sean Callebs in Dumas, Arkansas, and Rob Marciano is watching the big picture at the CNN Weather Center. Let's start with Reggie in Chicago.
Reggie, good morning.
REGGIE AQUI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Soledad.
This is sort of crunch time now at O'Hare. Look behind me. You can see what the line looks like at 6:00 a.m. Central Time, as people -- not just this morning who are business travelers who always go out every Monday, but people who have been trying to get to their destinations all weekend, are lining up trying to get through security.
It is quite a mess here in Chicago this morning. But it's not a mess on the roads. Actually we hardly got any snow and ice. As you know, this being such a huge hub, any little weather adjustment in this area causes a major pile-up at this airport.
So what a lot of folks didn't realize is they had to bring in their bags this weekend, sleeping bags.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AQUI (voice over): Iowa, ice, Colorado, car pile-ups, a wintry Minnesota mess. Perhaps the most telling images from this weekend's storm come from Chicago. At least airport officials kept them warm inside, but for several days it looked like Camp O'Hare. On this night more than 1,000 passengers who wanted to take to the skies found themselves stuck just a few inches off the ground.
DAWN BECKMAN, STRANDED PASSENGER: We sat on the plane for four and a half hours. We were de-iced twice, taxied around a lot. And I think between the fact that it was still hailing and that the crew had done their 16 hours, back to the gate. Here we are sleeping on the cots.
AQUI: Cots turned out to be much safer than cars. Parts of the Midwest saw up to two feet of snow, and in Wisconsin a minivan driver lost control of her car, colliding with a county snow plow. A mother, daughter, cousin, and family dog all died in the crash.
In Iowa it could be a week or more before power customers see the light. At one point 160,000 people lost electricity. Meanwhile, back at O'Hare, oh, brother.
PATTY SILVERMAN, STRANDED PASSENGER: I'm having a heck of a time sleeping.
AQUI (On camera): What do you have, here.
SILVERMAN: Yeah, a little cot here, not very comfortable.
AQUI (voice over): Patty Silverman and thousands of others just try to get home after a weekend of this, those cramped seats in coach never looked so good.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AQUI: All right. Now, I'm with the Campbell family. They are from St. Louis. Not too far away from Chicago, actually.
You guys have been on so many forms of transportation this weekend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. We've been planes, trains, and automobiles. Drove to the train station and then hopped the train to Chicago, and the subway to the airport.
AQUI: Now, they actually got lucky because you stayed in a hotel last night. A lot of folks had to stay on the floor of O'Hare. Not so comfortable. Did you get any sleep at all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had a good night's rest. All five of us in a hotel room. It was pretty good, yeah.
AQUI: All right, well, it looks like you have another half hour in line here in security?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
AQUI: Enjoy.
All right, Soledad. That's the situation here. People are, obviously, kind of understanding that this is the way that modern air travel works these days. They're ready to get on to those cramped planes. Back to you.
S. O'BRIEN: At least you get to stay in a hotel. Puts you in a better mindset for the morning. Reggie Aqui for us this morning. Thank you.
Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: This morning everyone is accounted for in southeastern Arkansas after a powerful tornado left a 17-mile trail of destruction. Homes and businesses in Dumas blown to bits. Power is out. At least 40 injured, in all. This morning two children, five and seven years old, are in critical condition. AMERICAN MORNING's Sean Callebs is in Dumas, Arkansas, with the latest.
Sean, good morning.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.
We're standing in front of the R-CAT (ph) Pet Food Plant here in Dumas. It is one of the area's largest employers. Behind me you can see what the high winds did over the weekend. A giant semi-truck used to haul the food out of here simply tossed in the yard here. The yard also littered with bits of aluminum, ripped off of the two mills here. And you may be able to make out some of the twisted steel on one of the mills right behind me.
Usually on a Monday morning people would be filing into work right now, but not today. The big unknown, what is going to happen to this area? It certainly took a tremendous economic hit over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRANDY LAY, HOME DESTROYED IN TORNADO: Everything that's not broken is wet.
CALLEBS (voice over): In a terrorizing instant, Brandy Lay lost everything -- her home, her job, and perhaps her entire community.
LAY: I think it will devastate it. My place of employment is demolished, and they're one of the biggest employers in this town. I just don't know if we'll recover.
CALLEBS: Seconds before two suspected tornadoes did this to her streets, Lay, a mother of two, rushed next door to lead an elderly neighbor to safety just as emergency warnings blared.
LAY: By the time we got to the grass, the sirens went off, and we made it from her driveway to our house into the hallway, and it happened, that quick.
CALLEBS: So quickly, and so deafening, Brandy will never forget.
LAY: You hear people say it sounded like a freight train. It sounded like there was a freight train right on top of the house. It was just like someone took the house and just shook it. The roof just blew off.
CALLEBS: The town's major power substation took a direct hit. Most of the 5,000 residents are without power, and it could be days before it's restored.
SHERIFF JIM SNYDER, DESHA CO., ARKANSAS: It's kind of crippled a small town like this. We probably have -- we're looking at probably 800 people out of work. Probably one-third of our businesses are gone.
CALLEBS: Lay lost everything except her sense of humor as she tried to calculate the incredible odds of losing both her house, and her livelihood.
LAY: It's gotta be a million to one, but it happened to me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS: Boy, just a painful weekend for the residents here. We can characterized by some looting that happened right after the tornadoes touched down through this area. And also search and rescue operations, and 40 people now scattered in three different hospitals in this area. But the big unknown, what's going to happen to this tiny community? You have a town of 5,000 and lose 800 jobs. The sheriff thinks it's going to take at least a year to get this town back on its feet -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Sean Callebs, thank you very much.
Coming up, we're going to get the storm's track from Rob Marciano. We'll go live to New York's Kennedy Airport; JetBlue already canceling dozens of flights well in advance today -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning, Vice President Dick Cheney making a surprise overnight stop in Pakistan. And we just learned Afghanistan, too. Vice President Cheney met with President Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan. He asked that the Pakistanis step up against the Taliban and do more to track down Al Qaeda operatives.
Deadly bombing to tell you about this morning at the ministry of municipalities in Baghdad. This is some of the video that is just in to CNN. At least 12 people were killed and 42 others injured, including the Iraqi vice president. He now is at a hospital, we're told, getting checked out after some minor injuries.
Two people are dead this morning. Hundreds still trapped in a burning office building in Bangladesh. Take a look at these pictures. The building is home to TV channels and a newspaper in the capital Dakka.
M. O'BRIEN: The last of the after parties wrapping up this morning in Hollywood. The Oscars are now in the hands of the winners, and while the shoe-ins did not disappoint, there were some Kodak moments last night. CNN's Sibila Vargas joining us live from L.A. this morning.
Sibila, any sleep? SIBILA VARGAS: Oh, no, actually. None at all. I'm OK. And I'm here for you guys.
Hollywood stars turned out for the Mack Daddy of all the award shows, the event marking the end of award season. A king, a queen, and a few wild cards kept things interesting.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JACK NICHOLSON, ACTOR: Goes to "The Departed."
VARGAS (voice over): The crime drama "The Departed" stole away with four Oscars, best picture, editing, adapted screenplay, and a long-awaited best director award for Martin Scorsese, who after five previous directing losses couldn't believe his luck.
MARTIN SCORSE, FILM DIRECTOR: Did you double-check the envelope?
VARGAS: In the lead acting category Forest Whitaker won for his portrayal of Ugandan dictator, Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland". While Helen Mirren reigned supreme for playing Queen Elizabeth II in "The Queen".
HELEN MIRREN, ACTRESS: Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you "The Queen".
VARGAS: As for the supporting actors, veteran Alan Arkin pulled off an upset winning for his performance in the quirky family road comedy "Little Miss Sunshine", which also won for best original screen play. And best supporting actress Jennifer Hudson was recognized for her first film "Dreamgirls."
JENNIFER HUDSON: I couldn't believe it. I'm still in shock.
VARGAS: The Al Gore global warming film "An Inconvenient Truth" won for a feature, and for a second it looked like Gore might have a big announcement.
AL GORE, FMR. VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My fellow Americans, I'm going to take this opportunity right here and now to formally announce my intention to --
(MUSIC PLAYING)
VARGAS: Melissa Ethridge's "I Need To Wake Up" from the documentary won best song, beating out three entries from "Dreamgirls". Which despite eight nominations wound up with just two Oscars.
ELLEN DEGENERES, MISTRESS OF CEREMONIES, ACADEMY AWARDS: This is the most international Oscars ever, which is a huge deal, I think.
VARGAS: As "Pan Labyrinth" and "Babel" won four Oscars between them, and top honors went to a very American version of a Hong Kong film, it proved to be a very small world on Oscar night. (END VIDEOTAPE)
VARGAS: You can bet some stars are still celebrating wins. And one of the highlights of the evening was when three directors, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Ford Coppola presented Scorse with the director's award. Scorse said he had a feeling he was the winner, and they all shot him a look from the stage.
M. O'BRIEN: Ah, he saw it. They were telegraphing it all. Not a bad group to give the award to him.
Who do you think was best dressed?
VARGAS: I would say Kate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman was stunning in red.
S. O'BRIEN: I totally agree.
M. O'BRIEN: Soledad concurs.
M. O'BRIEN: I have no opinion on this. But all right.
(CROSS TALK)
M. O'BRIEN: Excellent. Thank you. Thanks for staying up for us.
VARGAS: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning Ralph Marciano will tell us about the latest path of the winter storm that's been slamming the East Coast. We'll update you on that.
Plus, the Olympic wrestling champion, Rulon Gardner (ph) is either the luckiest guy alive, or the unluckiest guy alive. He so far made it through a snow mobile accident, frostbite, lost a toe, crashed his motorcycle. All near death scenarios. We'll tell you about his latest survival story, a plane crash.
Plus, Reverend Al Sharpton, believe it or not, he's linked Strom Thurmond. We'll tell you about their shared history ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: He's an Olympic gold medal, Greco Roman wrestler. This morning Ruben he deserve a gold medal for survival, and this is his fourth brush with death. Let me tell you about his latest on. He was flying over Lake Powell in a small airplane. He was a passenger. Apparently they were flying low. It was a sightseeing mission.
If you know Lake Powell, it's on the Utah-Arizona border. It's a beautiful lake. It has these steep canyons. It's the damned up Colorado River. Apparently the plane, a Cirrus SR-22, we'll show you one that happens to be mine, as a matter of fact.
It was flying a little too low. By the way, this plane is equipped with a parachute for the entire plane. It comes out the back here. In this case, proved no good. The pilot, Randy Brooks, apparently tried to get a close look at a houseboat, got too low. Into the drink they went. Now, listen to what Gardner had to say about all that.
RULON GARDNER, PLANE CRASH SURVIVOR: We skipped, once. And then we hit a second time, and that's when it dug in. The propeller stopped, and it just spun us, and we kind of went nose almost down in the water.
And as soon as we hit and we started spinning, you know well, said, hey, get your seat belts off. You know, open your door and get out. I started going down, and the water was coming in my mouth. And I started saying, hey, this doesn't look good. There's a chance, you know, you may drown.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Let's Google Earth you down to Lake Powell and tell you about the situation, the predicament they were in. This time of year the water temperature in Lake Powell -- it's a very deep lake -- is about 44 degrees. We'll get down to Good Hope Bay. They needed a little bit of hope to get through this one.
If we can zoom in one more time and give you a sense of where they were. They ended up in this bay that is -- Lake Powell is pretty narrow. The distance from here to there is about two miles, and the distance across here is probably about two-thirds of a mile. They were in the drink for about an hour. Made their way to an island and then spent the night on that island before being rescued by a fisherman the next day.
Now, an hour in the water at 44 degrees. We looked this up. Hypothermia sets in pretty quickly. That gets -- that means when your body temperature is down to 95 degrees -- at temperatures between 40 and 50, which is what we're talking about here. Between 30 and 60 minutes time you lose consciousness, and it takes about three hours for it to be a fatal situation. They were right on the edge of losing consciousness. Unlikely they had any life jackets, of course.
Now, the real kicker to this story is Rulon Gardner has had a few other brushes with death. He was stranded overnight in the wilderness, a snow mobile mission, got some frostbite, lost a toe, a few years ago due to frostbite. He impaled himself on a hunting arrow, hunting a few years ago. Had a very serious motorcycle accident. Now he can add a plane crash to his list.
Apparently the doctor who assisted in Gardner's birth told his parents that their son would be accident-prone. Now, how he knew this, we do not know. But, boy, was he prescient. We will talk to Rulon Gardner about harrowing experience, at 8:15 Eastern time, Soledad.
Would you get in a plane with him?
S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely. I'm not sure I'd go bowling with him. He needs to stick with things that are a little more low key. Look forward to that interview. Thanks, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, absolutely.
S. O'BRIEN: Quarter past the hour. Rob Marciano is at the CNN Weather Center. He is watching it all today, and it is a mess.
(WEATHER REPORT)
S. O'BRIEN: The Reverend Al Sharpton says it is probably the biggest shock of his life. His family tree, it turns out, is intertwined with the slaves once owned by the family of Senator Strom Thurmond. AMERICAN MORNING's Bob Franken has more for us. He is live in Washington D.C.
Bob, this is kind of a shocker, isn't it?
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's one of the sad truths in the United States that if Southern blacks and Southern whites go back far enough, actually just a few generations, they can find a connection -- slavery.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REV. AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Everything from anger and outrage, to reflection, and to some pride and glory.
FRANKEN (voice over): That's how a flabbergasted civil rights activist Al Sharpton describes what it was like to learn that not that his great-great grandfather was a slave, but a slave owned by relatives of a symbol of racial segregation, Senator Strom Thurmond.
According to the genealogists, Coleman Sharpton, before he was freed, he was owned by Julia Thurmond, blood ancestor of the Strom Thurmond who generations later became the champion of Jim Crowe laws before moderating his views in later years as a U.S. senator.
He had walked out of the 1948 democratic convention run for president as a Dixiecrat. This intertwined family history was discovered after web site ancestory.com approached the "New York Daily News" and then Sharpton, who has run for president himself.
MEGAN SMOLENYA, ANCESTRY.COM: I'll tell you, this was a stunner even for me. I had no clue we would find a story like this hiding in there.
FRANKEN: It was just another chapter in the story of Senator Strom Thurmond. Before Thurmond died, at age 100, it was made public that he was, in fact, the father of a mixed race daughter, Essie May Washington. Family members are refusing comment on the slavery connection, although a niece of Thurmond's, Ellen Senter, did tell the "Daily News" "It is wonderful that [Sharpton] was able to become what he is, in spite of what his forefather was."
SHARPTON: The shame is that I am the heirs of those that were properties to the Thurmond family, but the glory is that Strom Thurmond ran for president in 1948 on a segregationist ticket. I ran in '04 on a ticket for racial justice.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN: But as we ponder black and white relations in the United States, it's always important to remember, Soledad, that slavery was a fact in the South less than 150 years ago.
S. O'BRIEN: Yeah. Pretty incredible story. Bob Franken for us this morning.
We'll be talking with the Reverend Al Sharpton at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time right here on AMERICAN MORNING.
M. O'BRIEN: Won't want to miss that one.
Coming up, one oil company reaches a settlement in one of the worst refinery accidents. Ali Velshi will have the bottom line on that. Plus, senator, vice president, now Oscar winner. Could something else be in the cards for Al Gore? That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Well, it began as a slide show, became a widely watched documentary, and now it's an Oscar winner. But is it a ticket to run? Or is that a little more than hot air? We're talking about Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth," the movie.
CNN's Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider joining us from Los Angeles.
Very well-dressed this morning.
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
M. O'BRIEN: Good to see you. You been up all night, too?
SCHNEIDER: Yes. Party, party, party.
M. O'BRIEN: I miss all the fun out there. Anyway, is there a lot of buzz about this?
SCHNEIDER: Oh, there certainly is. Before the Oscars the question of the moment about Al Gore was will he or won't he? After the Oscars the question was did he or didn't he?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCHNEIDER (voice over): Before the Oscars the Al Gore question was will he or won't he? After the Oscars the question was, did he or didn't he?
It was Al Gore's night at the Academy Awards. His movie won not one Oscar, but two. One for best documentary feature.
JERRY SEINFELD, COMEDIAN, OSCAR PRESENTER: And the Oscar goes to "An Inconvenient Truth." SCHNEIDER: And for one for best song.
JOHN TRAVOLTA, ACTOR, OSCAR PRESENTER: And the Oscar goes to Melissa Etheridge for "I Need To Wake Up" from "An Inconvenient Truth".
SCHNEIDER: This is liberal Hollywood. They love Gore.
ELLEN DEGENERES, MISTRESS OF CEREMONIES, OSCARS: Jennifer Hudson was on "American Idol" and America didn't vote for her, and yet, she's here with an Oscar nomination. That's amazing. That's incredible.
And then Al Gore is here. America did vote for him, and then it's --
(APPLAUSE)
SCHNEIDER: The big question hanging over the ceremony was will he or won't he run for president?
LEONARDO DICAPRIO, ACTOR: Now, are you sure -- are you positive that all this hard work hasn't inspired you to make any other kind of major, major announcement to the world here tonight?
SCHNEIDER: The envelope please.
GORE: I had not planned on doing this. I guess with a billion people watching, it's as good a time as any, so my fellow Americans, I'm going to take this opportunity right here and now, to formally announce --
(LOUD MUSIC PLAYING, APPLAUSE)
GORE: my intention is --
SCHNEIDER: Meaning, what, exactly?
GORE: I think the moment has passed now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you completely -- ?
GORE: The music cut me off, and --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, in the future?
GORE: In all seriousness, I have -- I've said before I don't really have plans to run for office again, but I am --
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCHNEIDER: That settles it, or does it? Mr. Gore says the moment has passed, but it could come again. Especially if the squabbling among the Democratic candidates gets really out of hand -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: And it's already headed in that direction, isn't it? SCHNEIDER: Right. It certainly is.
M. O'BRIEN: Bill Schneider, thanks for staying you for us. Appreciate it.
SCHNEIDER: OK.
M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: He is funny, Al Gore, huh? Now.
M. O'BRIEN: It was funny, he wasn't funny before.
S. O'BRIEN: This time around.
M. O'BRIEN: Version 2.0, funny.
S. O'BRIEN: Very funny.
S. O'BRIEN: A Texas-size deals in the works, and it could be a winner for planet earth.
(BUSINESS HEADLINES)
S. O'BRIEN: Top stories in the morning are coming up next. JetBlue is canceling flights, and there's a powerful winter storm on the move. Plus, something you carry with you every day might be changing. That could mean a bigger hassle at the DMV. We'll explain.
Plus, take a look at this. Which entree do you think has more calories and fat? The dramatic answer in a startling new report straight ahead. You are watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: Dangerous winter weather in the northeast. Hundreds of thousands of people in the dark in the Midwest.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: Also, change in your pocket. New rules could mean a shift to something, in something we carry with us every day.
S. O'BRIEN: And a special investigation, why you may be getting way more than you ordered at your favorite restaurant, extreme calories and fat on the menu on this AMERICAN MORNING:
M. O'BRIEN: Good morning to you. Monday, February 26th. I'm Miles O'Brien.
S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien. Thanks for being with us. Let's first and foremost talk about the weather. A powerful winter storm is slamming the east coast this morning, going to be a snowy and sloppy commute for New York City and for Philadelphia too. Thousands of people in the Midwest are without power this morning. The storm system is sweeping through the northeast, could bring another five inches of snow as well and hundreds of flights are already canceled. CNN's Allan Chernoff is live for us at Kennedy airport in New York. Alan, good morning. Let's start by talking about Jetblue, shall we? Good morning.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. You know, the snow has ended here in New York. It had turned to rain earlier, but right now not even raining, so the ground conditions are pretty good here at JFK. Nonetheless, Jetblue not taking any chances this morning. It canceled 68 flights in and out of JFK airport here in New York, being very careful. That's not all the flights for Jetblue. For example, the airline is flying to Aruba, but it's not flying to Austin, Texas.
Now, other airlines? Well, Delta Airlines has canceled 27 flights out of JFK and American has seven flights canceled. They're not flying to London or San Francisco this morning. There are plenty of delays as well. United Airlines had a 6:00 a.m. flight down to Washington. Well, now it's taking off at 8:00 a.m., should have taken the train. But generally, the airport is doing pretty well this morning, lots of arrivals. As a matter of fact, this is the international arrivals building and this morning I have met people coming here from Tel Aviv, from Bangkok, also from Trinidad. It's a real interesting place to hang out. So, Soledad, after the show, you want to greet some people, I'm sure they would be delighted to meet you here.
S. O'BRIEN: JFK is always that way, isn't it? Allan Chernoff for us this morning, thanks, Allan.
That storm that's playing with the east coast is part of the same system that spun off tornadoes in Arkansas and Mississippi and Louisiana. Some of the worst damage we've seen is in Dumas, Arkansas. A tornado tore through more than 100 homes and businesses, injuring 40 people. The damage now is estimated to be in the millions of dollars. Going to get more weather for you in just a couple of minutes. Rob Marciano is going to update us on the latest path of the storm. Some cities are not out of the woods yet. We'll tell you where. Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Happening this morning Reuters is reporting Vice President Dick Cheney is in Afghanistan for a surprise meeting with the Afghan President Hamid Karzai. We told you earlier he was in Pakistan, also previously unannounced. And that -- that's where those pictures were taken right now. There he is with President Pervez Musharraf, trying to pressure him to go after the Taliban in the border regions as well as Osama bin Laden in the border regions of Pakistan near Afghanistan.
Iraqi President Jalal Talibani remains in the hospital in Jordan this morning. He collapsed yesterday, apparently suffering from exhaustion and dehydration. His son denying he had a heart attack. Doctors say he will be discharged in a couple of days.
Two are dead this morning, hundreds still trapped in a burning office building in Bangladesh. The building is home to TV channels and a newspaper in the capital of Dhaka. In Mozambique, Africa, a crushing refugee crisis this morning after some serious flooding, 170,000 now homeless. It comes after weeks of soaking rains triggered flash flooding, washed away homes, bridges and crops. Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: No one likes waiting in line to get a new driver's license. Starting soon you might be waiting a lot longer. There are some major questions being raised about guidelines that are coming out this week to make driver's licenses exactly the same across the country. Homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve reports that right now the system is vulnerable to terrorists and even pranksters.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I definitely don't think this is going to work.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): But it does. The prankster goes into the Virginia department of motor vehicles and comes out with a valid driver's license, silly picture and all. From a security perspective, it is not a laughing matter. After 9/11 Congress mandated tough new Federal standards for driver's licenses, called real ID. States are supposed to implement them in little more than a year. Every one of the 245 million license holders in the United States will have to re-apply in person with documents that prove they are citizens or legal residents. The states predict it will swamp motor vehicle offices, creating long waits. Currently each state issues licenses following their own security standards and with their own features.
KAREN JOHNSON: They have no business in our state's business, and that's what they're doing.
MESERVE: Arizona state Senator Karen Johnson is sponsoring legislation saying her state will not comply.
JOHNSON: I mean, homeland security is the one that's going to be running the database? Give me a break.
MESERVE: Arizona is one of 24 states that has passed or proposed legislation opposing real ID. The big complaint, the cost, an estimated $11 billion over five years. The biggest expense is likely to be a requirement that states verify the authenticity of identity documents used to get a license.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's verification that not even the Federal government can complete for its own employees.
MESERVE: Rodney Marshall just got his license renewed in Phoenix in 20 minutes.
RODNEY MARSHALL: I don't think everybody should just automatically get a driver's license. If it takes a day of your time, that's what it takes.
MESERVE: Homeland security is taking an even harder line. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we don't get it done now, someone is going to be sitting around in three or four years explaining to the next 9/11 commission why we didn't do it.
MESERVE: Because the next person who tries to get a driver's license may want to do harm to the country, not just get a laugh. Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Phoenix.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning (INAUDIBLE) how do you know about what is in restaurant meals you're ordering? More fat, more calories. Hundreds more in fact might be on the plate. A special investigation is straight ahead this morning.
Plus, the war in Iraq is forcing a split in both political parties. We'll explain straight ahead. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING, the most news in the morning is right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Most news in the morning right here on CNN. Jetblue's new customer bill of rights facing its first acid test this morning. Jetblue canceling flights in New York, Chicago and Washington in advance of that big storm.
Vice President Dick Cheney in Afghanistan right now. He stopped in Pakistan earlier today, both of those stops previously unannounced. He was pressing President Pervez Musharraf to get tough with a resurgent Taliban and look for Osama bin Laden. Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: A report that's due out today from the Center for Science in the Public Interest has a pretty shocking information, especially if you are watching your calories. They got the scoop straight from the restaurants themselves. They tallied up the calorie count of some of the dishes in the most popular restaurants in the country. AMERICAN MORNING's Greg Hunter is on it for us this morning. Hey, Greg, good morning.
GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey Soledad. Well, I'm at Uno Chicago grill, and when you go out to eat and they say you are what you eat, but when you go to a restaurant, you better be watching what you are eating because some of the calories you get can be extreme. Listen up.
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HUNTER (voice-over): Unlike food manufacturers, restaurants aren't required to have nutrition labels on their menus, so it's hard to know what you are eating.
JAYNE HURLEY, SR. NUTRITIONIST. CSPI: It's tough to find an entree under 1,000 calories and many are coming in at 2,000 calories.
HUNTER: Nutritionist Jane Hurley works for a nonprofit nutrition watchdog group, Center for Science in the Public Interest. They issued a new report called "Extreme Eating" that contains startling numbers based on information provided by restaurants. Take the Ruby Tuesday colossal burger, 1,940 calories, 141 grams of fat, about the same as five McDonald's quarter pounders. That's almost equal to health official's recommended daily guidelines for an average adult. This makes McDonald's look healthy.
HURLEY: It certainly does in this case, though I'm not recommending anyone eat five quarter pounders.
HUNTER: Hurley says Ruby Tuesday's chicken and broccoli pasta with cheese in cream sauce isn't exactly light. It contains 2,060 calories with 128 grams of mostly saturated fat. You're telling me I could eat this, equals this?
HURLEY: Exactly. To your arteries and waistline, two sirloin steak dinners with Caesar salad and buttered baked potato, the same as one Ruby Tuesday's fresh chicken and broccoli pasta.
HUNTER: Just this would cut the calories in half.
HURLEY: Cut the calories in half, get a sirloin steak dinner.
HUNTER: Appetizers also have plenty of hidden calories, fat, and sodium.
HURLEY: One order of pizza skins, you could eat three Pizza Hut personal pan pepperoni pizzas, plus a pat of butter for each one.
HUNTER: You would never do that.
HURLEY: Nobody would, but many people would sit down and eat this appetizer at pizzeria Uno's.
HUNTER: Ruby Tuesday told us it has dishes for those who want to splurge as well as those who watching their weight.
RICHARD JOHNSON, SR. VP, RUBY TUESDAY INC: When they go out to eat at Ruby Tuesday, they have a menu with enough variety and enough choice to be able to eat a little or eat larger portions.
HUNTER: Uno Chicago Grill with nutrition kiosks in each restaurant for customers, calls menu labeling impractical. They say quote, given the extent of our menu, we cannot conceive of how one could possibly include all the information for each menu item that covers the legitimate needs of every guest and believe our kiosk, unique in casual dining, offers the best way to keep our guests informed and safe. In New York City, menu labeling becomes mandatory this fall. Hurley agrees, that's a good idea.
HURLEY: People need calorie information right on the menu next to the price so they can make some sort of informed choice.
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HUNTER: Well, we're at Uno Chicago Grill and, of course, they have those pizza skins. It's over 2,000 calories, 130 some odd grams of fat. But the company says, hey, listen, to be fair, we have alternative foods you can eat. This is an appetizer for two as well. It's chicken lettuce wraps. It has 470 calories, that's it and only 11 grams of fat. The guys came in this morning at Uno Chicago Grill here in New York City on 86th Street and they fixed a few things for us.
They say they have this pasta dishes, for example. Here's a Tuscan penne with 56 grams of fat as opposed to the rattle snake pasta which has 82 grams of fat. If we back up down here, you have two different soups, 24 grams of fat in the chowder, 1.5 grams of fat, and of course, you can load up on a baked potato, but then again, you can also have the steamed broccoli and the calorie differential here is pretty amazing. Also, the guys here at the grill at Uno Chicago Grill say, hey, they're just about almost trans fat-free. They'll be trans- fat free this year. So that's their side of the story. They say, listen, there are choices that you can make. Yeah, we have our fatty stuff, but we have our low cal stuff, the stuff to keep you on a diet as well. Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Good. They should put the numbers on the menu too. All right. Thanks, Greg Hunter, for us this morning.
M. O'BRIEN: Quarter of the hour now. Rob Marciano at the CNN weather center. He is watching that big snowstorm that's on the way. It's not clobbering New York, but it's hurting some people in some places for sure.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right. I think the history of this storm is really more impressive than the present, but it is causing some problems because it is Monday morning. It is snowing in some of the bigger cities. Places like Boston and Hartford, we're seeing snow at this hour. A bit of a break across New York, but in places like Bradley, Boston, La Guardia, they all have to do their de-icing deal at the airports.
Let's go to Philadelphia right now, reporting officially some ground delays there where temperatures are right around 33 degrees, 45 minute delays, our affiliate out that way WPVI reporting, looks like a 757 making its way up the tarmac. Not a whole lot more snow expected in the Philadelphia area. But north upstate -- north of New York into Poughkeepsie up through the Catskills, might see an inch or two, and then the upper hand of Michigan might see a couple of more inches with this storm system, but there's another storm, Miles, out now impacting the west coast that will making its way across the U.S. throughout the week. So that's our next headache to deal with. In the meantime, folks heading out in the northeast today, there are some slick roads. Do be careful. Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you, Rob. See you in a bit. Coming up, who doesn't love youtube? Well, some are saying the tube may drag down the Internet. Is that possible? We'll find out.
Plus, one more round of cheating death for Olympic gold medalist Rulon Gardner. He survived frostbite. He's been impaled on a hunting arrow. He crashed his motorcycle and now he has lived through a plane crash. We're going to talk to him live and see if he feels lucky or is he unlucky? I don't know. Depends on which way you look at it. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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S. O'BRIEN: Another look at just how politically divided our nation is. The question of how to get out of Iraq, but undermine the troops that are there. AMERICAN MORNING's Chris Lawrence shows us how both sides in the aisle are feeling heat from their neighbors back home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These antiwar protesters are staging sit ins outside the offices of the two Colorado Democrats.
NELSON BOCK, PRESSURING DEMOCRATS TO CUT FUNDS: Senator Salazar released a statement a couple weeks ago saying I will never vote against funding as long as troops are in the field. Well where does that get you? President Bush is going to keep the troops in the field as long as there's funding.
LAWRENCE: What's spent is spent. What cutting funding really means is opposing President Bush's request for another $90 billion. Democrats are considering a plan to restrict how the money is spent by requiring it first go to troops equipment, but activists are demanding congressmen like Mark Udall make real cuts to bring troops home by the end of the year.
CLAIRE RYDER, PRESSURING DEMOCRATS TO CUT FUNDS: He is a good guy and people say why are you going against the good guy? Because he has no spine. He is going to run for the Senate. He wants to appear to be moderate. He doesn't want to take a stand.
LAWRENCE: Getting criticized by the Republicans is one thing, but this is coming from Democrats.
REP. MARK UDALL (D) COLORADO: It happens. Your friends are sometimes your toughest critics.
LAWRENCE: Congressman Udall opposed the war, but won't vote to cut funding.
UDALL: It will further polarize the country I believe and it may well harm the men and women who are serving in Iraq.
LAWRENCE: People living near Fort Carson agree.
LINA KLISCH, OPPOSES FUNDING CUTS: It's hard to see our boys out there, but you have to finish what we started.
LAWRENCE: Republicans aren't immune from the pressure within their party either. A small group broke ranks and opposed the president's recent plan to add more troops. Now, they're being targeted by some conservative activists who are promising to challenge their re-election campaigns. ALLAN HOFFENBLUM, REPUBLICAN POLITICAL ANALYST: I believe those Republicans who have been deserting the president when things are at its worse, they could be in serious difficulty come November 2008.
LAWRENCE: The war divided Democrat and Republican. The fight over how to fund it may rip both parties inside out. Chris Lawrence, CNN, Denver.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, if you have a flight this morning, you better call or log on ahead. Stick around. We'll give you a look at what is happening in O'Hare. You know, when O'hare sneezes, the rest of the country gets a cold and we'll tell you all about that.
And they're waking up to very grim morning in Arkansas, a town blown apart, 17 mile swathe of destruction there. We'll tell you all about that. Most news in the morning right here on CNN.
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M. O'BRIEN: A new report out that says youtube could be clogging the web and could it crash the whole Internet. Just a few minutes before the top of the hour. Ali Velshi minding your business. There could be a band width issue, I suppose.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is it because the whole world is downloading these little clips. Youtube has 100 million-plus downloads a day and the report comes from Deloitte and Touche. It says that computer usage, Internet traffic is growing faster than computing power. The warning specifically is that if the Internet isn't expanded, if the infrastructure doesn't grow fast enough, the web could come to a crashing halt. Now we're talking about the youtube clips. Some of them are a few minutes long. Increasingly people are watching full length shows and feature films on the Internet.
One company that's got its eye on that is Netflix, which by the way, has hit a milestone. Netflix, after 7.5 years in business, this weekend sent out its one billionth DVD. It went to somebody in Texas. The movie was "Babel." The guy who got it by the way or woman who got it is going to get a lifetime subscription to Netflix. Just to keep this in perspective, Netflix has 6.5 million customers almost. It ships 1.5 million DVDs per day. The most popular one, the one that everyone asks for is "Crash" and number two is "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." I would never have guessed either of those two things. Now, it took seven and a half years for Netflix to get to a billion. It took McDonald's a little over 8.5 years to get to its billionth hamburger after it started back in 1955 and that just made me hungry. SO I'm going to stop talking.
M. O'BRIEN: How long before you get to your billionth business report?
VELSHI: We're going to try to accelerate this. But for now, I'm going to give it back to you because the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING begins right now.
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you Ali. A deadly storm, powerful winter weather in the northeast to tell you about. Hundreds of flights are now on hold.
M. O'BRIEN: Twisters ripping through the south, blowing apart homes and jobs, causing a lot of injuries.
Cheating death. Gold medalist Rulon Gardener survives a plane crash. It's the fourth time he's cheat death.
S. O'BRIEN: And a shared history. The Reverend Al Sharpton gets the shock of his life from his family tree. We'll tell you about his ties to Strom Thurmond. We're live for you coast-to-coast, Hollywood, Salt Lake, Chicago, Miami and New York on this AMERICAN MORNING.
M. O'BRIEN: Good morning to you, Monday, February 26. I'm Miles O'Brien.
S. O'BRIEN: I'm Soledad O'Brien. Thanks for being with us. Let's begin with the winter weather, a powerful storm that's socking parts of the east coast right now. It's going to be a sloppy commute if are you in New York City or in Philadelphia where some of the plows are out in full force. Thousands of people in the Midwest are without power right now. Hundreds of flights have already been canceled. Now, that same storm system spun off tornadoes in the southeast, a small town in Arkansas really bearing the brunt of the twisters. We've got team coverage for you this morning with Allan Chernoff at Kennedy airport in New York City for us, Reggie Aqui in Chicago's O'Hare airport, Sean Callebs is in Dumas, Arkansas and Rob Marciano is watching it all at for us the CNN weather center. Let's start with Reggie in Chicago. Hey, Reggie, good morning.
REGGIE AQUI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Soledad. We've been talking to you all morning and now I am really in the way. I am between two of the security lines here and the ticket lines and take a look. You'll see just how long these lines have become. This is probably -- I have been to O'Hare lots of times flying in and out of here, this is probably the longest line I have ever seen here, including during the holiday crunch. Why? Well, first of all, you got all the business travelers flying out on a Monday morning. But second, you have all these people who have spent the entire weekend stuck here or at least around this airport. Now, actually here in Chicago we didn't get the worst of this storm, but here in the city, the worst of that storm was right here in this building.
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