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23 Killed in Midwest Ice Storms; Senate Grills CIA Director Over Destruction of Interrogation Tapes

Aired December 11, 2007 - 15:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The Fed delivers and the markets say, humbug, no love on Wall Street for a quarter-point cut in interest rates. We are going to run the numbers and dig for answers in the final hour of trading.
Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips at the CNN Center in Atlanta. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

The ice is everywhere, on the roads, in the trees and on power lines. Schools and businesses are closed across the Midwest and so are some airports. At least 23 deaths are blamed on this huge ice storm, and that extends all of the way to Illinois. A third of Oklahoma is without electricity. And President Bush has declared an emergency in every county in that state and put FEMA in charge of disaster relief.

Chad Myers has been tracking it for us all afternoon.

Where's the good news? Where's the bad news?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The good news is that the weather in Oklahoma has warmed up above 32 in the entire state. Now, that means that a lot of this ice is going to start falling off buildings and towers and plants and trees, and so trees that were down are going to start snapping back up and sometimes when they snap up, they actually can knock the power lines down that they didn't get the first time.

Tulsa, you're well above freezing, 39 degrees now, Oklahoma City over 40. And, so, that is at least something to be thankful for. Up to the north, though, Kansas City, you're above 32, but later on tonight, you are actually going to refreeze back below 32. So, will the Quad Cities and Chicago.

Have a live shot there you just kind of briefly saw out there out of Madison, Wisconsin. And you can kind of see that, oh, man, yes, a little bit frozen up, but not too bad, WMTV, our affiliate there in Madison, Wisconsin. We have seen a couple of other pictures from our weatherbonk.com, if you want to go there. You can click all around the city to all the tower cams that are there. We have had that on a couple times today. Thank you to our affiliate there.

And there comes the snow. It's about just to the edge now, just about to the Mississippi River, as it's going to be passing on by Madison. Their snow should be over probably in the next two hours or so, moving quite quickly now. It's picked up some steam. It's picked up a little bit of energy and it's moving by, moving away, so this ice, this ice event of today will be gone. There is no ice event tomorrow. It literally is just a rain or snow, a little bit of mixing, but no real big ice anywhere.

Look at the temperatures today, from 76 in Nashville to 77 in Atlanta. Even D.C., very mild today, a high of 54, where, the West, you guys are in the cold air for sure -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Chad, thank you.

MYERS: You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: And you have seen the video, trees heavy with ice snapping in two. Chad's been monitoring it as well, bringing it into his news -- or his weather cast there.

And if one group has its way, that won't happen to a certain tree in heart of the Oklahoma City. It survived the 1995 bombing of the Federal Building there and has been a symbol of life ever since.

Reporter Kevin Sims of affiliate KOCO has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEVIN SIMS, KOCO REPORTER (voice-over): Branch by branch, Mark Bays has just one goal, saving the Survivor Tree.

MARK BAYS, OKLAHOMA FORESTRY DEPARTMENT: We're just knocking a little bit of the ice off, and hopefully when the next round comes through, it won't be as bad.

SIMS: He and a group of arborists have been battling the ice off the tree since about 3:00 this morning. Each hit sends only a few small pieces to the ground, but, when it comes to this sacred American elm, every ounce counts.

BAYS: But all we're trying to do is just trying to get those lower branches to lift up.

SIMS: Even if it means taking a beating themselves, their faces peppered from the falling eyes, their noses numb from the cold. But this tree, this ground, these people have seen worse pain before and survived in spite of it.

BAYS: If it means coming out at 3:00 in the morning during an ice storm to kind of do what we can to make sure this tree is going to be around for a long, long time, well, then that's what we're going to do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And you will be glad to know that those efforts are paying off. Oklahoma's Forestry Department tells us so far, so good.

Shattered lives, shattered glass, bullet holes, and a frightening picture still coming into focus -- the gunman who killed four people at a church and missionary training center in Colorado, Murray's death now ruled a suicide. A coroner says that Matthew Murray took his own life after he was shot several times by a security guard. Police are still trying to figure out why the 24-year-old Murray carried out Sunday's attacks. And the church is trying to move on beyond those terrifying moments.

These comments from the pastor just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PASTOR BRADY BOYD, NEW LIFE CHURCH: But the reality is, we live in a world that's filled with violence and evil. And we need to be prepared for it. We can't bury our head in the sand and say that violence and evil will never come on our campus just because we're a church.

We have to assume that we are going to be a target and prevent it in every way we can, to live with wisdom and prudence, but not be fearful. We will not live in fear at New Life Church. We're not going to get here -- come here on Sunday, looking over our shoulders, wondering if we are going to be attacked. We are going to come here and be a people of faith and trust God to protect us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, the church has set up an area on its Web site where you can donate money for the victims' family. The address is www.newlifechurch.org.

Colorado attacks left five people wounded. And one of those victims shared his experience with CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY BOURBANNAIS, SHOOTING SURVIVOR: Well, I ran for the cafeteria in the south, where the gunshots were. And then I saw him standing in the hallway.

So, I ran to my left, where there was a pillar. The security guard had a handgun out and kept yelling at me to get behind him. I said, no way, we have got to do something. So, I -- I just yelled. I said, hand me your handgun. I have been in combat. I'm going to take this guy out.

And I kept doing that four or five times. And he wouldn't. So, I thought the only thing I -- my only option was to distract the gunman. And, so, I yelled, "Coward!" And then I stood out in full view and called him a not-nice name. And it worked, because that's when raised his rifle and -- and shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Bourbannais was shot in his left forearm. He was treated at a hospital and then released.

Interest rates going down again. As pretty much everyone expected, the Fed slashed a benchmark interest rate a quarter of a point last hour. And Wall Street is clearly not impressed, looking at the Big Board.

What does this rate change mean for you, me, all of us?

Paul La Monica is editor at large for CNNMoney.com in New York.

Paul, why are investors so disappointed?

PAUL LA MONICA, EDITOR AT LARGE, CNNMONEY.COM: I think people were hoping the Fed would be more aggressive and would cut rates by half of a percentage point instead of just a quarter of a point.

PHILLIPS: So, what does that mean for us, for paying off our credit card bills, for dealing with our mortgages. As you know, the foreclosures have been a tremendous issue.

LA MONICA: Exactly.

The Fed funds rate does not have that much of an impact on the actual mortgage rate, but it is very important in terms of helping to determine credit card rates, home equity lines of credit, auto loans. So it is a very important rate for consumers.

I think the hope was that, if the Fed cut rates by more than what they did today, that might enable banks to be a little bit more free with lending standards, and that could help borrowers in the long run.

PHILLIPS: Why is the Dow dropping?

LA MONICA: The Dow is dropping really, I think, for a couple of reasons.

The investors wanted that half-point cut, and they didn't get it. And, when you look at the language of the statement -- the Fed always puts out a couple of paragraphs explaining why they did what they did -- the statement seems to appear to indicate that the Fed may not cut rates again in early 2008, as many had expected.

They're talking a lot about inflation again. And any time the Fed talks about inflation that might mean that the Fed is just going to stand pat and maybe even be looking to raise rates.

PHILLIPS: All right. Paul La Monica, thank you so much.

LA MONICA: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: And you can keep up with Paul, of course, and the markets and all your investments on CNNMoney.com.

Patient deaths in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. What really happened at a New Orleans hospital? New details finally coming out. Drew Griffin here to tell us what they are.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Three eleven Eastern time, are here are some the stories that we're working in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Dangerous roads, canceled flights, hundreds of thousands of people without power, all part of life in the heartland right now. At least three states are declaring states of emergency because of a paralyzing ice storm.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission meets this hour. They are going to decide whether their move to ease crack cocaine sentencing guidelines should apply retroactively to nearly 20,000 federal inmates.

"Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek now in a Los Angeles hospital. A spokesperson says that the 67-year-old Trebek had a minor heart attack last night at home. He's still expected to resume taping "Jeopardy" in January.

Senate Intelligence Committee grilling the CIA director today over the destruction of interrogation tapes. The tapes reportedly documented the use of water-boarding on two al Qaeda suspects. CIA Chief Michael Hayden says the videos were destroyed to protect the identity of interrogators.

But he's getting pushback from many people in Congress now who question that decision and say they weren't kept in the loop. As Hayden entered the briefing just a little while ago, he had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, CIA DIRECTOR: And I just want to let you know that this is what the agency wants, to come down and lay it out in front of the committee.

I think Senator Rockefeller said it very clearly: It's the committee that should be looking at all these facts. And I'm very delighted to come on down and lay out the facts as we know them, and we will be very happy to let the facts take us where they will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now, tomorrow, Hayden will brief the House Intelligence Committee again right behind closed doors there where you saw.

Now, we know what the Colorado shooter did, but we don't know why. A forensic psychologist will try to get inside the killer's head. We will talk about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, more than two years after Hurricane Katrina, details are emerging about patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital in the center of the storm.

Drew Griffin joins us now with an investigator's report that was just -- or an investigations report, right, that was just obtained by CNN.

I know you followed -- or you filed for this a while ago. And the question was, were these patients purposely killed or not?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: And, according to this 68-page report which was leaked to CNN, the investigators determined that that is indeed what happened, that it was a group decision at Memorial Hospital, multiple doctors involved, multiple nurses involved, the pharmacists aiding in delivering the morphine.

And then systematically, Kyra, four days after the hurricane in the course of four hours, nine patients were deliberately killed. That is what the investigators have concluded.

PHILLIPS: OK. Now, we covered this for weeks. And Anna Pou, right, Dr. Anna Pou, this was the main doctor.

GRIFFIN: Dr. Anna Pou, right.

PHILLIPS: She's been all over the media claiming her innocence, saying they didn't do anything wrong. And this all just sort of went away. They were all cleared. There was -- so, what happened here?

GRIFFIN: Well, just to bring you up-to-date, the attorney general investigated the case, arrested a Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses.

The two nurses then -- and the entire investigation was turned over to the district attorney of New Orleans, Eddie Jordan. Eddie Jordan was to take that case to a grand jury. Before it went to a grand jury, the nurses were given immunity.

We don't know what happened in the grand jury, what testimony was heard. We know which testimony was not heard. And there was no indictment. And, Kyra, I know you have covered a lot of crime. You have covered a lot of court cases. It is hard to believe that a grand jury would not indict based on the evidence in this report that was conducted by the investigators. It's just beyond belief.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: That's what I'm finding hard to understand. And you and I both have worked in New Orleans. I used to be a reporter there. And there's a lot of interesting things that happen within politics.

GRIFFIN: Right.

PHILLIPS: A lot of things are sort of swept under the table a number of times. And that just -- it goes back to Huey Long and the days of New Orleans politics.

So, what are you sensing here, that -- all the evidence was here. The investigation was done and for some reason, the decision was made to not pursue it.

GRIFFIN: We know a major portion of the evidence was never presented to the grand jury. That was the five medical experts hired by the coroner and by the state who looked at these toxicology results and said, hey, all nine of these patients were homicide victims. None of them were called to the grand jury.

PHILLIPS: Is there an attempt to cover up here? Is that part 12 to this story?

GRIFFIN: Well, the grand jury proceedings are secret, as you know.

PHILLIPS: Right.

GRIFFIN: CNN continues to press for all the information in this investigation to get it out in the open. This is a first step towards that, getting this documentation out.

And I think that, at the end of day, most people would determine, if they saw this evidence, that there should have been indictments in this case, that it appears to be a deliberate killing to hasten the evacuation of staff in the fourth day after Hurricane Katrina, that the patients were not dying.

PHILLIPS: Were they alert? Were they communicating?

GRIFFIN: Three of them were alert. One was telling the doctor, "That burns," when morphine is injected into her.

Another one, Emmett Everett, was ready to go, happy to get out of there on the very day that the helicopters were coming. That's the day he died. He happened to be 380 pounds. They just didn't want to carry him down the stairs.

PHILLIPS: So, what happens next?

GRIFFIN: Right now, nothing happens next. Eddie Jordan has left office in disgrace, the district attorney. The attorney general has been kicked out of office in an election. And the new attorney general says he's not going pursue this case.

So, for the nine families, they are left wondering what happened to their loved ones and wondering if indeed their loved ones were killed by the very medical staff that was supposed to take care of them.

PHILLIPS: So, this medical staff is in the clear, even though this has come forward, you're talking about it?

GRIFFIN: Which is why it's very troubling to many people, because, if indeed these physicians, these nurses participated and/or looked the other way while, let's face it, mercy killings, euthanasia, was going on, they're still back in the community, many of them back in practice, attending to other people in hospitals, without having to answer any of these questions under oath in court.

That disturbs a lot of people, that this investigation has gone nowhere. And, again, the district attorney will simply not talk to us at all. PHILLIPS: Not surprising.

All right. We will keep following up with you. I know you're not going leave it alone.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Drew Griffin, thanks.

The president of Iran says that he hopes to visit Iraq. At a news conference today in Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that the two countries are negotiating his travel plans, but nothing is settled yet. Despite the heartburn such a visit would no doubt cause the Bush administration, the Iranian leader says he's optimistic for better ties with America, but not overnight.

Here's a bit of his exchange with CNN's Aneesh Raman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT: And sir, as you might know, there's a discussion in the U.S. about whether to engage directly with Iran. If there were no preconditions, would you be willing to sit down with the U.S. president, or, perhaps, at the foreign ministry level, to discuss everything, the U.S. questions on the nuclear program, Iran questions on sanctions? Would you be willing for direct talks without preconditions?

MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Well, the gentlemen referred to resolutions as well.

Well, as you might appreciate, the only outstanding issue between Iran and the U.S. is not the nuclear issue or the resolutions. There is an array of issues that we need to think about, and we need to find solutions to all of them.

If you remember last year in my trip to New York, I said that we are ready at the level of the United Nations or in front of the media to debate the president of the United States. My proposal is very much on the table.

I wanted to present my points of view about the management of the war and the reasons behind many of the developments that take place internationally. This would have been helpful. This would have helped with resolutions and root causes of international developments. My proposal is still very much on the table.

RAMAN: Would you be open to direct talks, official direct talks?

AHMADINEJAD (through translator): Well, anything any, let's say, venture, requires its own instruments.

For example, in Iraq, to help with Iraqi security, we have talked and negotiated with American officials. There is a possibility for the talks to be continued, to be repeated. And if we are to talk, the appropriate grounds have to be set. The conditions have to be there, in other words.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Ahmadinejad says, that U.S. intelligence report on Iranian nukes, the one concluding Iran stopped work on a bomb in 2003, is a positive step.

(BUSINESS REPORT)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

(DOGS BARKING)

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And we're getting desperate.

Those jingle dogs are barking up the wrong tree. According to this year's national Christmas music test, a marketing research group found that the canine carol is the most hated holiday tune around.

Rounding out the top five stinkers, a creative rendition of "O Holy Night" by "South Park" cartoon character Cartman, "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" by Elmo and Patsy, which actually got a lot of favorable votes as well, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" by the Jackson 5, and "Jingle Bells" as interpreted by Barbra Streisand.

Sorry, Babs.

Holiday harmonies people love, Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song," "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby, "Do You Hear What I Hear" sung by Johnny Mathis, "Holly Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives, and, finally, "The Little Drummer Boy" by the Harry Simeone Chorale.

And, on that note, we are going to be right back with more news and maybe some good music, Otis (ph)?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: This video just in via our affiliate, KOIN Television; also, KPTV. This is coming from Clatskanie, Oregon. Boy, I hope I'm saying that right.

Chad Myers, a mudslide apparently closing a highway here in Oregon.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, closer to the town of Westport, which is easier to say.

(LAUGHTER)

MYERS: This is Highway 30, Kyra. This actually came down the Tangy Creek. And all of this mud came sliding down this mountain. And we have not had a rain event -- a drop of rain in Oregon now for the past three-and-a-half days. But yet this is what happens when land is just saturated to the point where at some point in time, something makes it go. And this isn't even a burn area. This is literally a mud flow.

This is live pictures from earlier, again -- earlier today. Just literally a few minutes ago we got them in from KOIN and KPTV. And it was going all of the way across Highway 30. Highway 30 is closed. This isn't that far from Astoria. This is between Astoria and Portland. So that road that you would take from Portland, the Highway 30, all the way across and just south of the river -- well, now, all of this is running down into -- across 30 and into the river itself. So this road is closed in both directions now. This is Western Oregon, just to the east of Astoria and to the west, obviously, of Clatskanie and also to the west of Portland, Oregon.

And so Highway 30 closed. This is what happens and why we tell you even though the rain has stopped, you need to be careful of these mud prone -- mudslide prone areas and also the burn areas in Southern California.

So far, so good. We don't have any more rain in the forecast for these guys for the next two days. But after that, for the weekend, another big storm coming in that could bring another five inches of rain by Sunday night -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Yes. Boy, they need a break.

All right, we'll keep tracking it.

Thanks, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: Well, we're learning more troubling details about the gunman in Sunday's deadly shooting spree in Colorado. Police say that Matthew Murray killed four people in the attacks on a missionary training center and a church. Among other things, reports say that Murray posted anti-Christian rants on Internet sites. Richard Werner tell us that he trained with Murray at the missionary center five years ago and that Murray acted strangely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD WERNER, MURRAY'S FORMER ROOMMATE: And on October 23, 2002, I woke up at 5:30 in the morning. And he was just tossing and turning, making some strange noises. And I was, like, hey, Matthew, what are you doing? And he said I'm just talking to my voices, man. Just calm down. I said dude, you've got to be kidding me. He said don't worry, Richard. You're a nice guy. You know, you don't have to worry -- the voices, they like you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Chris Mohandie, a forensic psychologist, joins me now from Pasadena, California.

Boy, Chris, you hear something like that, it gives you shivers and you wonder, should something have been done at that time? CHRIS MOHANDIE, FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST: That certainly makes you wonder, because those kinds of warning signs certainly suggest that he may have been psychotic. What we're calling psychotic is a person who has breaks with reality, hears voices and has delusional or fixed and false beliefs -- a very important warning sign for somebody who, at the very least, requires serious mental health attention.

PHILLIPS: So it doesn't sound like he was joking around. And maybe this is where lack of awareness really hurts us with regard to mental illness, because maybe if this friend of his would have known that, ooh, that -- this is not a good thing. If he's really being serious about this, he's hearing voices, then he's got to do something about this.

MOHANDIE: Absolutely. There certainly is a lack of awareness in many pockets around America about the need for people to have mental health intervention. The good news is most people with serious mental illness will not perpetrate acts of violence.

However, there is a small, distinct, sub-population who will. And those folks are often obsessed with violence, harboring deep-seated resentment and believe that violence is the solution. And they may also be preoccupied with the idea of being remembered and identify with other violent offenders. And that's what distinguishes those folks who are just simply mentally ill and requiring attention -- which is most mentally ill people -- and those who have darker motivations.

PHILLIPS: Well, I remember doing a number of interviews -- actually with schizophrenics -- and that was what haunted them were the voices.

So is that a possibility here, that he was a schizophrenic, he was hearing these voices and it was leading him to do these things?

And would something like being removed from the Youth With A Mission Center program trigger him to do something like that?

MOHANDIE: Yes, to both questions. We do find that two-thirds of people who perpetrate a mass murder -- that is, killing three or more people in a single event -- and this is actually a single event that is just split in time briefly -- will have psychosis, that is, will be operating under delusions or hallucinations. And so that is an important piece of the puzzle.

The second part of your question, Kyra, was what?

I was listening to the -- actually, that part of your answer.

But you know what?

You just said something -- if you don't mind, I want to take it just -- because I've been thinking about -- let's say that was the situation, where he had some type of schizophrenia.

MOHANDIE: Right. PHILLIPS: You know, here in the media, unfortunately, we've been covering all these violent stories lately, from, you know...

MOHANDIE: Yes.

PHILLIPS: ...Virginia Tech to the Von Maur mall shooting just recently.

MOHANDIE: Correct.

PHILLIPS: So is it possible that he could have seen this stuff on the news -- and here we are highlighting these killers and these rampages -- and would something like that influence and set him off, if he were watching CNN and he saw all this coverage?

MOHANDIE: Well, it certainly looks like there are a variety of things that he was responding to. Number one, he has had a deep-seated hatred of Christianity, it appears, for some period of time. It also appears that he was obsessed with Harris and Klebold, the shooters from Columbine. And you can't lose the fact of this particular situation, that he is in Colorado. So this would cause him to have a special kinship with other people who perpetrated a mass murder in Colorado.

So the idea that the media created it, I think, is an overstatement. However, because he's already had these ideas, clearly, the fact that it may have stimulated him is another part of the equation. And we certainly see people who are already having these ideas, who come to believe that now is the time, because several of them are happening and they're paying attention to them. That's why we have to be very careful about what we put on the news and to make sure that we view this as an opportunity to identify other like-minded individuals, intervene and interrupt them. The fact is that he was likely stimulated by these other events. And, you know, that causes us to now have to see ourselves in a window for potentially other unstable individuals.

PHILLIPS: Sure. And here we are getting close to the holidays...

MOHANDIE: Correct.

PHILLIPS: ...and that always influences people.

Forensic psychologist Chris Mohandie.

Thanks, Chris.

MOHANDIE: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: The race for the White House is getting tighter and both parties.

Senior political analyst Bill Schneider joins us now from Des Moines -- Bill, let's start with the big shake-up in the GOP race that finds Mike Huckabee basically in a virtual tie with Rudy Giuliani.

How was Huckabee able to rise so quickly?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Huckabee gave a good presentation in the debates.

He's got a base here in Iowa of Evangelical voters -- and in South Carolina they're very strong, too. But around the country, a lot of people say in our poll that they find Huckabee likable, that he's not like a typical politician and that he's different from all the others.

So he is different. They're taking a look at the race for the first time, many voters. And they like what they see in Mike Huckabee. It's not just religion.

PHILLIPS: All right, let's talk about Democrats. Senator Obama has cut Senator Clinton's lead in half in our poll.

Who's giving him support?

SCHNEIDER: Well, he's getting a lot of support, interestingly, from men. Hillary Clinton still has a big lead from women, but Obama is doing very well among men and among liberals -- the base of the Democratic Party. They were supporting Hillary Clinton and now liberals are tilting rather strongly to Barack Obama. He's made big inroads for some of the same reasons as Mike Huckabee. He doesn't talk like a typical politician. A lot of Democrats are looking for something new, something different, and they see that in Barack Obama.

PHILLIPS: Well, we polled voters about some hypothetical head-to- head match-ups.

Do you think there were any surprises there?

SCHNEIDER: Well, I think one surprise was that Hillary Clinton -- first of all, all the Democrats -- all the leading Democrats do well against all the leading Republicans. But Hillary Clinton is not the strongest running Democrat. The strongest running Democrat is actually John Edwards, who does well -- and Barack Obama. They both do very well although, as I said, all the Democrats lead all of the Republicans.

Does any Republican do better?

John McCain, actually. He has some residual appeal to Democrats. And he -- right now, he looks like the best positioned to be a tough opponent against those Democrats, who are doing well.

PHILLIPS: Bill Schneider, our political analyst.

And love the hat.

SCHNEIDER: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: (LAUGHTER)

Time is winding down and the races are heating up. For the freshest polls, the latest fights and all of Bill Schneider's cool winter hats, the political ticker blog and more, just check out CNNPolitics.com.

And this programming note to tell you about. CNN will have live coverage of the "Des Moines Register" Iowa debates. The Republicans face off tomorrow at 2 p.m. Eastern and the Democrats on Thursday, also at 2 p.m. Eastern.

Let's take one more look at that mudslide. It's closing highway -- I believe it was I-30 that Chad Myers was telling us about there in Oregon. We're going to check in with him after a quick break and get more. Thanks to our affiliate there, KOIN and KPTV.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We're still monitoring that mudslide in Oregon.

Chad Myers is following it with us, as well -- apparently getting worse. And I apologize. I said I-30. It's Highway 30, right, Chad?

MYERS: Yes. Highway 30, the lower Columbia River Highway there in...

PHILLIPS: Is this rising?

Is the mud -- is it actually rising up?

It was...

MYERS: You know, it's coming down this small little channel -- the Tangy Creek Channel. They knew that this was going to happen. They closed this highway earlier this morning because they knew the ground was moving. Now, I don't think they had any idea that the ground was going move this much. But it is completely over the road and into the river.

We'll get a wider shot and you can see the bridge that actually goes over the river. It did not damage the bridge. It was actually just to the east of where the bridge was. The slide and the flow moved into the river. And it appears now that all of those large timbers did not hit the bridge yet.

But, look, you've got a mobile home there, probably moving -- because it shouldn't be in the middle of the road. And there's the bridge, where the water is going over it. Now scouring out some of that water under the bridge, now scouring out some of the dirt and the land mass under that bridge. And I'm sure that bridge is going to be in trouble. If you scour it out too much, you're not going have the support for that bridge to stand up. And it could be closed, too.

That is a major bridge. If you don't get on that bridge, you literally have to go 45 miles around the other side to get to the other side of this Columbia River on this lower Columbia River highway.

PHILLIPS: And have you been able -- because I know you do the Google Earth and all your fancy dancy technical things and make phone calls -- is this -- I'm trying to figure out if it's a neighborhood or a combination of both. It looks like there was possibly a church in there.

I mean could you pinpoint what we've got?

MYERS: Sure. Kyra, let's go in -- let's go all the way into basically Astoria and then the lower Columbia River Road, Highway 30.

PHILLIPS: OK, great.

MYERS: U.S. highway 30 right there. There's Clatskanie. We move to the west and all the way down here, where the highway actually gets very close to one of the branches of the rivers here. And this is the bridge that I was talking about right there. The flow -- the mud flow came down this direction from this gorge, which is the Tangy Creek. And it's going to actually come right across here. This is obviously a picture that was taken a year ago or two years ago, so we don't have the literally the picture of the flow here. But the flow came from -- obviously, those pictures came from KOIN and also KPTV. We showed you that before.

And, so, yes, there are a few little buildings out here. These are little outposts, literally. I told you about the Westport. And there are another couple of little towns. But no towns, Kyra, on this highway until you get out toward -- closer to Astoria -- no towns bigger than maybe five or 10 buildings, literally.

PHILLIPS: OK.

We'll keep tracking it.

Thanks, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: All right, let's check on what you dot-comers are clicking onto, some of our top videos this hour.

The little boy and the big bear. A 5-year-old from Arkansas proudly poses with his 400-pound hunting trophy. Yes, he says he killed it himself. Dad says he started teaching the kid to shoot at age two-and-one-half.

A big thanks after a big loss. The father of triplets talks about the donations that have poured in after his story got out. His wife died delivering those three babies.

An Oklahoma City survivor tree lining up to its name -- or living up to its name, rather, with the help of some amazing arborists. They came out overnight in the middle of an ice storm to help protect the elm -- which survived the 1995 attack on the nearby Murrah Federal Building. All these stories and much more at CNN.com.

One more look at that mudslide that Chad and I have been monitoring there off Highway 30 right there in Oregon. We're going to check in with Chad once again after a quick break and let you know what's happening to this part of Oregon and all throughout.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We continue to follow that mudslide via our affiliates out of Oregon there, KOIN and KPTV. Thank you for those pictures.

Chad Myers, we've been watching this on Highway 30, which has now been closed.

MYERS: Yes.

PHILLIPS: And, for a while there, we could see a stretch of that highway. And now, just slowly but surely, it's filling in the entire road.

MYERS: You can clearly see it moving across the road and you can see the debris. It's not just mud there. OK, maybe on the top, that looks like mud. But on the bottom, you can see all of the logs that have come down this creek near Clatskanie -- that actually is the pronunciation. I think I was doing that incorrectly for a while.

But Marshland is the town that this is. And that's literally Highway 30 between Astoria and Portland. It hasn't rained in this area for three days. And this is the threat after you get a big water event -- a big rain event -- that this land can be saturated, but yet not move. It can be a delayed move. And so that's why flood watches are always posted for these burn areas in Southern California, even after the rain has stopped -- because this can always happen. And, clearly, this was only this morning. They knew it was going to happen. The highway was closed in advance because they saw the land moving up the hill. But it literally came down the hill today -- Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Wow!

All right, Chad.

Appreciate it.

MYERS: You're welcome.

(VIDEO CLIP FROM "BEEN A LONG TIME," LED ZEPPELIN'S REUNION BLAST, COURTESY LED ZEPPELIN)

PHILLIPS: It's been a long time since a rock and roll show like this, wouldn't you say?

Led Zeppelin -- a little older, a little grayer, knocking it out of the park.

Remember "Stairway To Heaven?"

Otis gave me a little bit of that, my audio guy. My first slow dance. It brought back great memories. Fans saying the reunion gig was worth the hype. Wish we could have been there.

(VIDEO CLIP FROM "BEEN A LONG TIME," LED ZEPPELIN'S REUNION BLAST, COURTESY LED ZEPPELIN)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Thank you, Otis.

After almost 40 years, the rock remains the same for the legendary band Led Zeppelin, seen here in 1969. And time has proved the music is timeless.

If you couldn't make it to last night's reunion concert in London, well, CNN's Phil Black brings you the concert.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

(VIDEO CLIP FROM "BEEN A LONG TIME," LED ZEPPELIN'S REUNION BLAST, COURTESY LED ZEPPELIN)

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It just might be music's greatest reunion -- a one time show, some of the greatest guitarists in rock history.

(VIDEO CLIP FROM "BEEN A LONG TIME," LED ZEPPELIN'S REUNION BLAST, COURTESY LED ZEPPELIN)

BLACK: When the members of Led Zeppelin announced they were getting the band back together, it triggered a global frenzy for tickets. Millions tried to enter an online lottery to get them. Around 18,000 were successful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I entered the draw. I forgot about it. And three weeks later, you get the e-mail. I've won! I've won the (INAUDIBLE). I can get the ticket. I'm going to Led Zeppelin.

BLACK: People came from across the planet to see Led Zeppelin's first full set in 27 years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a once in a lifetime event. It will never, ever happen again, OK? And that's why I've come all of the way from New Zealand.

BLACK: This man flew in from Mexico.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been very important to me to be here.

BLACK: This mother and daughter traveled from Canada.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're just ecstatic to be here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

BLACK: But Led Zeppelin fans don't come much bigger than American Darren Bender. He bought two tickets at a charity auction for $30,000.

DARREN BENDER: Just, it's in my spirit. It's in my soul. Led Zeppelin is in my soul.

(VIDEO CLIP FROM "BEEN A LONG TIME," LED ZEPPELIN'S REUNION BLAST, COURTESY LED ZEPPELIN)

BLACK: For a little over two hours, the band belted out their greatest hits. Fifty-nine-year-old Robert Plant on vocals, 63-year-old Jimmy Paige on guitar. John Paul Jones, keyboard and bass, and the late John Bonham's son, Jason, smashed the drums.

(VIDEO CLIP FROM "BEEN A LONG TIME," LED ZEPPELIN'S REUNION BLAST, COURTESY LED ZEPPELIN)

BLACK: They left the crowd of mostly middle-aged music fans wanting more.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're all older and I thought they were really good. I would like to be that good at what I do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Awesome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From Norway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brilliant -- from Norway plus awesome.

(VIDEO CLIP FROM "BEEN A LONG TIME," LED ZEPPELIN'S REUNION BLAST, COURTESY LED ZEPPELIN)

BLACK: For the millions who missed it, there may be reason to hope. Led Zeppelin is rumored to be considering a world tour.

Phil Black, CNN, London.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

PHILLIPS: What a way to wrap the hour.

The closing bell about to ring on Wall Street.

Stephanie Elam is standing by with a final look at the trading day -- Steph, I know, we have all various tastes in music.

Did you ever get into Led Zeppelin?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: It's OK if you didn't.

ELAM: No, I didn't.

PHILLIPS: I under -- it's all right.

ELAM: But, you know what?

You got me to sing like a half an hour ago and I got an e-mail that said don't sing -- and they weren't joking.

PHILLIPS: OK. ELAM: So I've now like lost my status, I guess, here.

But you know what is singing a very sad tune today?

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

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