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Disturbing Developments in Case of Missing Hiker in Georgia; National Debate Over Death Penalty Moves to Supreme Court; New Poll Numbers Sending Shockwaves to Presidential Campaigns; High-Tech Gadgets

Aired January 07, 2008 - 09:00   ET

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

HEIDI COLLINS, ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Heidi Collins. Watch events come in to the NEWSROOM live on Monday morning. Here's what is on the rundown for January 7th. Barack Obama, surging in a new CNN presidential poll out of New Hampshire. John McCain making moves on the Republican side.
Lethal injection: this morning, the lawyers make the case at the Supreme Court. Is it cruel or unconstitutional?

Sunrise this hour in Colorado and the search resumes shortly for eight people missing in deep snow. In the NEWSROOM.

We begin this hour with breaking news. The U. S. and Iranian boats harassed and provoked three navy warships in international waters. CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr joining us now live. Barbara, what's this all about?

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT, PENTAGON: Well, Heidi, the question, did the Iranian navy really try and take on the U. S. Navy in the Persian Gulf Saturday night? Apparently so, according to U. S. military officials they have confirmed to CNN that five Iranian naval vessels described as attack craft that the U. S. believes were operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Saturday night harassed and provoked three U. S. Navy warships sailing in those international waters, which, of course, is a choke point for much of the world's oil supplies. According to several U. S. military officials, we've spoken to in the last several minutes, the five Iranian ships made threatening maneuvers against the U. S. navy warships and threatening radio transmissions. U. S. officials tell CNN that one of those Iranian radio transmissions said the following, quote: "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes." Officials also just now confirming to CNN that one of the Iranian ships was observed to be dropping a number of white boxes into the water, right in front of one of the U. S. Navy warships.

Now, the U. S. Navy had all of -- we are told -- all of its gun stations manned. No shots were fired, nobody was hurt, but in fact one of the U. S. Navy captains of one of those ships was in the process of giving the order to shoot when the Iranians finally turned away. The question now for the U. S. Navy is what were the Iranians up to? Were they simply trying to provoke the U. S. Navy into an international incident or were they trying to test U. S. naval defenses? What was going on? That's what the U. S. Navy wants to know, officials here this morning describing this incident as significant. Heidi?

COLLINS: Wow. I guess so. I mean, it sounds like from the description there and certainly from the transcription of that radio call, very aggressive behavior. Barbara, give us a sense, if you could, how often something like this seems to happen in international waters?

STARR: Well, this, from having covered this for a number of years, I really -- it's been many, many years since the Iranians have taken, you know, if all of this is confirmed to have happened just as the U. S. Navy, as the U. S. military says, many years since the Iranians have taken such a direct aggressive action. I think, that one can expect the Iranian government may have a different public statement later today. Now that this has come to light, but the important point that U. S. military officials make is that they were sailing in international waters. This is not a dispute about coastal boundaries. This is not what we saw several months ago, when those British sailors were seized and there was some discussion about where's the international boundary line. This is the Strait of Hormuth, international waters and, of course, one of the most critical choke points for much of the world's oil supplies, Heidi, something the U. S. military is taking very seriously.

COLLINS: Yes, I imagine so. All right, Barbara, let us know if you learn anything new on this. Appreciate that. CNN's Barbara Starr from the Pentagon this morning.

Countdown out of New Hampshire, the next test for the presidential campaign comes at midnight. The first votes in the nation's first primary and some candidates seeing their Cinderella story slip away a bit. New poll numbers raise fresh concerns for several campaigns. We have CNN crews covering the candidates as they race the clock. We want to begin with the Democrats this morning. The big question, they are facing today, is Barack Obama pulling out of reach? CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is covering Hillary Clinton and just sat down with her last night. Suzanne is in Manchester now this morning. So, Suzanne, what is her reaction to these numbers?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, this really is a dramatically different kind of race than we just saw even 24, 48 hour ago. Essentially, what you're seeing here is she is going on the aggressive, on the attack here. Very on the offense when it comes to going up against Senator Barack Obama. They are sending thousands of e-mails to their surrogates, to their supporters -- the talking points saying that it is not about talk but it's about action. It's not about rhetoric, it is about reality here. There are a couple of things that they are reacting to.

Clearly, those Iowa numbers that put them down essentially losing the women's vote, losing the young votes. They are also responding to the debate that happened over the weekend. Sometimes, a contentious debate, but they feel that this is really kind of flipping things around here, tweak things. They are very much on the offense here and there are a couple of things that they are trying to do. One of them is that they are trying to to up-play -- and her strategy being that she has more experience, that she can talk about a number of issues, while downplaying Barack Obama's experience. Let's take a listen in my one-on-one interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: You know, it is significant that if someone is going to rail about lobbyists and claim that they are above all of this kind of special interest influence, the fact that Senator Obama's chairman here in New Hampshire as a lobbyist is a relevant piece of information. If someone is going to claim that by their very words they're making change, then if those words say, I'm going to vote against the Patriot Act, but when they go to the Senate, they vote for it, or if those words say, I'm against the war in Iraq and I'll never vote for funding, and then when they go to the Senate they vote for $300 billion worth of funding, I think, it's time for people to say, wait a minute. Let's get real here. There is a big difference between talking and acting, rhetoric and reality.

MALVEAUX: Why do you think it's relevant that he's a lobbyist? Because, his own campaign says that they think that that's an act of desperation on your part, on your campaign, because it had never come up before?

CLINTON: Well, there's a time for things to come up, when people know about them, and when contrasts are being drawn, when voters are paying attention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: That's key, Heidi, a "time for things to come up." This is the time here. They say that they might be in some trouble in New Hampshire. So, they are definitely ratcheting things up here. I talked to the Obama campaign about some of the back and forth over the chairman being a lobbyist. They say that he does not lobby for the federal government. He doesn't lobby for Obama. That he has clearly been vetted. They believe that this is simply mudslinging at this point. One of the things that she is doing is she is highlighting one particular issue and that is her health care plan -- what she's done in New Hampshire specifically, because that's one of the issues that voters are paying very close attention to. There are some distinctions between her plan and Obama's plan. Heidi?

COLLINS: Suzanne, what about the other Democrats? What are they up to today?

MALVEAUX: Everybody is trying to hit as many people as possible, as you know part of it is just get out the vote. Get people motivated, get them excited. So what you've seen, you see on Edwards team, up early in the morning, going from one rally to another, to the next. We see particularly in the Obama and Clinton camps where they're literally going to the same places. In the same gymnasium yesterday that the Obama camp hit. This competition, how many people can they fill in that one gymnasium? How crowded does it look? So you've got, like 2,000 in the gym. You've got 800 in overflow rooms here, we even saw a line that was snaking around the school. It's about a quarter mile or so for people to pack in. They are trying to reach as many people as possible at this point and the trying to get those talking points out, those messages about their issues, but specifically, Heidi, about their differences.

COLLINS: Well, maybe, they should start offering snow-shoveling and baby-sitting that they offered in Iowa to get everybody in. It was pretty effective! All right...

MALVEAUX: Believe it or not, the weather's better here than it was Iowa. So, that might not be a problem.

COLLINS: Yes, it looks better. That's true. All right, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux reporting to us this morning from Manchester. Thanks so much, Suzanne.

We want to get ahead and get over to the Republican side of things now. The headline here, John McCain and Mitt Romney slugging it out in the polls and on the stump. Here's Dana Bash -- she is in Nashua, covering John McCain. Good morning to you, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi, and this really is a bit of a nostalgic day. In fact, that is even the word that John McCain used for today. And, the reason is because this state of New Hampshire is so critical to John McCain. You remember, back in 2000, this is where he won. He beat George W. Bush and since then, he has really used this state to wage a comeback. It was not that long ago, just a few months ago, that John McCain was thought of as absolutely gone from this race -- somebody with absolutely no chance. As you mentioned, CNN's new poll and several others show that he is not only a contender but even a front-runner here for the primary, which is, of course, tomorrow. So it is interesting that he started his day here, here in Nashua in what is really a race to the finish. He has a frenzied day -- seven stops on his now famous straight talk express.

You know, one of the ways that John McCain has really been able to come from nowhere here is because he has really had a lot of town hall meetings, he's lingered with voters for hours and hours, and answered every question they possibly have. Today, it's quite different. Today, he just spoke at his very first event here. Heidi, two minutes and 42 seconds -- that is the length of his speech to supporters here because he is trying to, just like the Democrats, reach as many voters as he possibly can. He is going to make stops as he possibly can and it's a race to the finish here in New Hampshire. It's impossible to overstate how important this state is for John McCain. He must win New Hampshire. He must win New Hampshire to be at all viable from here on out. And it is something that he didn't think was within reach that long ago, nobody really did. But, today, he actually does think it's within reach. Heidi?

COLLINS: That's just what I was going to ask you. Because, it seems very obvious that without New Hampshire, without a win there, it could significantly change things for John McCain.

BASH: Oh, absolutely. There's no question. I mean -- and he won't say this, but he understands that he needs a win here in order to be viable -- and I was actually talking to one of his aides who's setting up this event here. There is a sort of sense of, they are sentimental about the fact this is a state so important to him. His approval rating here, Heidi, is through the roof. It's about 80 -- a little more than 80 percent. That's almost unheard of. Oprah Winfrey, basically, has approval ratings like that. That is the kind of connection that John McCain has to this state.

On the other side, it's important to note that it's not just important to state in this primary tomorrow for John McCain, but Mitt Romney. Is as important for Mitt Romney to do well here and that is why Mitt Romney is also having -- I think about seven events as well. He is also trying to reach as many voters as he can, because Mitt Romney obviously had a big setback in the state of Iowa. His full strategy from the beginning was to get momentum by winning early states. By winning Iowa, winning New Hampshire, particularly New Hampshire, because he, of course, was the governor of the neighboring state of Massachusetts. Now if he does not do well here, his kind of whole strategy of getting the momentum is really going to be thrown. It is as important for different reasons for Mitt Romney to do well here, need to win here, as John McCain. These two men are really racing to the finish to see who gets the top spot. Heidi?

COLLINS: No question about it. CNN's Dana Bash reporting for us from Nashua, New Hampshire, this morning. Dana, thanks for that and more information on the New Hampshire primary, go to cnnpolitics.com. Your one-stop shop for all things political.

Want to get to some new information coming to us here in the CNN NEWSROOM. A developing story that we are watching in Florida, Polk County to be exact. This is a pretty significant crash here that we're looking at between a school bus, you see there, and a vehicle. Apparently, five people in that car -- I'm not quite sure if you can see the vehicle. I'm told it is a Buick and I am told that there were five people there. According to our sources, two people have been confirmed dead in this crash. They were inside of the car. There were 13 people on the school bus. No one injured there. In fact, the children already have been taken on another bus, and have made their way off to school, but apparently, this bus was traveling on a road there. It did have the right of way. There was a stop sign and apparently the crash happened shortly after it tried to come to a stop there. We will continue to follow this story for you, once again, out of Polk County, Florida.

Headed home after a weekend ski trip, a tour bus rolled off a wet highway in Utah. At least seven people were killed when the bus rolled down an embankment and crashed. 20 others were injured. It happened near Mexican had in the area known as Four Corners. Emergency crews from those nearby states rushed in to help.

California utility crews using a break in the weather today to get more power to more customers. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses still without electricity since a severe storm hit on Friday. In fact, at one point, nearly 500 miles of power lines were down. At least four deaths have been blamed on the storm now. Rain has increased the threat of floods and mud floods in areas of southern California ravaged by wildfires. This video shows what San Diego fire officials are calling a slippage of land. No homes were damaged.

Heavy snow from the same storm system is complicating efforts now to reach people in southern Colorado. Two families haven't been seen since going out on a snowmobiling trip on Friday. Two skiers are also missing. In fact, CNN's Thelma Gutierrez has the very latest on those two searches.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A frantic search in the deep snow for two families: Jason Groen, his wife, and 14-year-old daughter and their friends. Mike March and his wife and 13-year-old son. They went snowmobiling north of the pass near the New Mexico border Friday. They were supposed to return home that evening when a fierce winter storm dumped about four feet of snow in the 10,000-foot cap. A search from the New Mexico side had to be suspended because of dangerous avalanche conditions. Frustrating for Jason Groen's father.

JASON GROEN'S FATHER: Well, you have a lot of mixed emotions of what is really going on. We pray that he's in a cabin somewhere, and that they're safe.

GUTIERREZ: In southern Colorado, near the Wolf Creek ski area, a search is on for two missing skiers: Michael George and Kyle Kerchin haven't been seen since Friday. Their car was found in a parking lot at the resort but no sign of the men. Nerve-wracking for their families.

MR. KERCHIN: We're very, very concerned and worried.

MRS. KERCHIN: Help is on the way and, you know, just stay strong. Not to leave each other. That's the biggest thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Some very frightening moments, I'm sure, for that family. I want to go ahead and bring in Jacqui Jeras now to give a little bit more information on the situation there. This was a heck of a storm, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, unfortunately there's more snow in that area. We are going three to five inches into the valleys and when you get up in the higher elevations, we're talking another one to two feet on top of what they already have today and the San Juan mountains are really going to be hit very hard for the next 12 to 24 hours before things start to quiet down a little bit. Now, all the Pacific moisture from the storm system moving in are now making their way into the nation's mid-section, bringing with it some rainfall and some incredible warmth.

I want to show you a live shot here from KMOV-TV in St. Louis, Missouri, where the temperature is already 63 degrees. Our high today expected to be about 72. The record is 73. But when you get unstable conditions and warmth like that this time of year and cold air coming in back behind it, we can get severe storms. All right, now, we're watching stronger thunderstorms moving across south central parts of Wisconsin, but we could see some of these develop into stronger storms producing some hail and some damaging wind. This is all moving in over a snow packed area and so we're getting in some foggy condition there. There, you can see the area of severe storms that we're expecting later on this afternoon from St. Louis to Kansas City, sitting down towards Little Rock, Arkansas.

Let's talk a little more about this snow pack conditions. This is the map from NOAA that we put on top of Google Earth. And everywhere we see the whites, and the purples, and the blues, and the pinks, is where we have snow pack. Your legend is right up here along the top. And, notice it's the bottom part here that you want to be looking at in terms of the number of inches and centimeters up on the top. Here's Wisconsin and all that purple you see highlighted there -- that's anywhere between one and four inches of snowfall. And so, we're concerned that this is going to be a lot of snow melt here with these warmer temperatures coming in. And that could bring in flooding situations.

Also the northeast starting to warm up a little today, but much warmer for tomorrow and look at how much greater the snow pack is here from Vermont to New Hampshire, on up into Maine. That's anywhere between about six and ten inches of liquid equivalent snow amounts, not necessarily ten inches of snow on the ground, but if you melted it all down, it would equate to about ten inches of rain. So, we'll watch the flooding situation here the next few days. Heidi?

COLLINS: Yes, darn it! Everybody likes to talk about the skiing. Well, we're talking about snow like this. Obviously, the situation quite a bit more serious than just being able to enjoy that. All right, Jacqui, we'll check back later on. Thank you.

After the Nevada levee break --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: If it's not high, it's lost. So, it's pretty ugly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Homeowners return to a muddy mess. The cleanup -- in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Heidi Collins. A beating death in Florida. The victim, a toddler. The accused, a young boy. The alleged reason? Hard to believe.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: An unexpected flood: people in one small community watch their roads turn to rivers, and homes fill up with mud. Now the federal government may lend a hand. CNN's Chris Lawrence is in Fernley, Nevada, this morning with the very latest. Chris, good morning to you. CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Heidi. You know, it's better than the weekend, but that's a little bit like saying, it's a little bit better than just plain awful. You can see these huge sheets of ice that have formed out here, and you can also see some of the debris that is still in the streets from when that water just rushed through this neighborhood. But the waters have receded. I mean, you can see here, it's almost completely now covered by this sheet of ice and mud and the water that is left is trapped underneath there.

Now, take a look from this scene, take a look now at what it looked like this weekend. And, when you see these pictures, the difference comes from an intense effort to pump out the water from this neighborhood, as well as repairing that breach in the levee. A lot of the officials here believe a gopher or some other kind of rodent burrowed a hole in the canal, in the walls of the canal. What happens is -- normally, that wouldn't be much of a problem but when the volume of water rises and these rain storms doubled that volume recently, that water just punched holes right through those weak spots, and you get what we saw this weekend. Three, four, five feet of icy water just pouring through people's homes. A lot of these folks had to be airlifted out by helicopters. Some had to be rescued by pontoon boats. We spoke with some of the folks who were able to, at least, get back in their homes, and they tell us a lot of the neighbors here are trying to help out those who won't be able to go home anytime soon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILL LAYMAN, FLOODING VICTIM: We have another house we can move into immediately and then, just -- we got a couple more of our friends who are trying to help our neighbors move in. Get relocated. Kids with -- families with kids we' re trying to help out. Give them a place to stay for a month or so and then, just see what happens and try to rebuild our community as best we can, because it certainly is a -- it's a good community. It's a good group.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: There, you can see, again, this sheet of ice that is covering the ground here in the neighborhood with some of the water still trapped underneath it -- going to make it even tougher for some of the folks here in this neighborhood and the neighborhood around it, to get things cleaned up. FEMA is on the scene doing an assessment. They hope to get a better idea of the amount of damage either later today or, at the latest, sometime tomorrow. Heidi?

COLLINS: Well, we certainly wish all the people of Fernley the best of luck with the cleanup. CNN's Chris Lawrence reporting live this morning from Nevada. Thank you, Chris.

Pakistan's president says Benazir Bhutto's assassination two weeks ago was her own fault. President Pervez Musharraf talked about it in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview saying the former prime minister acted irresponsibly when she stood up through the sunroof of her armored car to wave to supporters. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. PERVEZ MUSHARRAF, PAKISTAN: Why did she stand outside the car?

60 MINUTES HOST: Why did she stand up through the sunroof?

MUSHARRAF: Entirely, who's to blame?

60 MINUTES HOST: Who is to blame?

MUSHARRAF: Only she.

60 MINUTES HOST: So, Benazir Bhutto, in your words, should bear some responsibility for what took place, for her own death?

MUSHARRAF: For standing up outside the car, I think she is to blame alone. Nobody else. Responsibility is hers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Bhutto died after shots were fired at her and a suicide bomb was detonated. Detectives from Britain's Scotland Yard are helping in the investigation now. They met with Pakistani police today.

The rocket launch's lawsuit, baseball's Roger Clemens indignant and defiant over steroids allegations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Death row inmates ask for kinder and gentler execution. The Supreme Court is listening. We'll have that story for you just ahead.

Good morning, everybody. 9:30 eastern time. Now, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Heidi Collins. Tony Harris is off today.

Roger Clemens: on the record and filing suit. The star pitcher is suing his former trainer for defamation. Brian McNamee says he injected Clemens with steroids. Speaking with CBS' "60 Minutes", Clemens says he was shocked to hear that. He denies ever getting steroid shots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER CLEMENS, MAJOR LEAGUE PITCHER: If he's putting that stuff up in my body, if what he's saying which is totally false, if he's doing that to me, I should have a third ear coming out of my forehead. I should be pulling tractors with my teeth.

MIKE WALLACE, 60 MINUTES: Why didn't you speak to George Mitchell's investigators?

CLEMENS: I listened to my counsel. I was advised not to. A lot of the players didn't go down and talk to him. WALLACE: I know.

CLEMENS: But if I would've known what this man, Brian McNamee, had said in this report, I would have been down there in a heartbeat to take care of it. But I understand that as a public person, you're gonna take some shots. The higher you get up on the flagpole, the more your butt shows. I understand all that. But I'm tired of answering to them. That's probably -- why I will not ever play again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We expect to hear more from Clemens later today. He's schedule a news conference for this afternoon. Both Clemens and McNamee had been invited to testify at a congressional hearing. That will be coming your way next week.

Meanwhile, we want to take a moment to listen to the opening bell today. This Monday morning, boy, we sure hope things go better today than they went on Friday. Down, the Dow Jones Industrial average's 256 points, postings up at 12,800. We will continue to watch all of these numbers today along with Susan Lisovicz and talk more about a possibly recovery from that big sell-off last week. We'll have that for you shortly.

Meanwhile, disturbing developments in the case of that missing hiker in Georgia. Teams are out again this morning searching for any signs of Meredith Emerson or for her body. Her bloody clothes, identification and a blood-stained seat belt were found in a trash bin about 50 miles from where she'd been hiking New Year's Day. Suspect Gary Hilton heads to court today charged with kidnapping. Police say he was seen with Emerson the day she disappear and then he later tried to use her credit card. Right now, authorities in two states are looking into the possibility Hilton could be linked to other unsolved cases.

A baseball as a murder weapon? But that's not the shocker. It's a 12-year-old boy who is accused of using a baseball bat to beat a toddler to death. The boy is in custody in Broward County, Florida. Authorities say the boy beat the 17-month-old girl because she was making noise while he was trying to watch TV. The boy had been baby sitting.

You may recall the case of Lionel Tate, also a 12-year-old Florida boy. He was sentenced to life for beating and stomping to death a 6-year-old child in 1999. His conviction was later thrown out and Tate pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

The national debate over the death penalty moves into the Supreme Court this morning. The issue? Lethal injection. Here's CNN's Gary Nurenberg.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Clay City, Kentucky, 1992, Sheriff Steve Bennett and his deputy, Arthur Briscoe, were ambushed and killed by Ralph Baze, who was sentenced to death through lethal injection by a state court. Like 34 other American states, Kentucky uses a three-drug protocol to execute prisoners.

Sodium Thiopental is injected first, an anesthetic. It is supposed to make a person unconscious, unable to feel pain. Pancuronium Bromide follows to paralyze muscles and stop breathing. Finally, potassium chloride to stop the heart.

In at least one case in Florida, the first drug, the pain-killing anesthetic, was not properly injected and opponents of this method of lethal injection worry that happens too often.

ELISABETH SEMEL, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LAW SCHOOL: If anesthesia is not properly administered and maintained throughout the execution, that the second two drugs, the paralytic and the potassium, which stops the heart, will cause suffocation and excruciating pain.

NURENBERG: Baze and another Kentucky inmate argue the three-drug protocol carries an unnecessary risk of pain and suffering violating the constitution.

ROY ENGLERT, ATTORNEY REPRESENTING KENTUCKY: Kentucky is saying that this is not painful. Period. Period.

EDWARD LAZARUS, SUPREME COURT LEGAL ANALYST: The question before the court is, how much risk of unnecessary pain is too much risk of unnecessary pain under the constitution?

NURENBERG: The court will examine what standard the state applies in answering that question.

ENGLERT: If the court really does make a definitive statement, it will make an impossible to litigate a lot of the issues that are being currently litigated in the lower courts, and it will lessen litigation and perhaps speed some executions.

NURENBERG: Welcome news to Sheriff Bennett's widow.

ROSE BENNETT, KENTUCKY SHERIFF'S WIDOW: It's just never over. I mean, they just keep looking for other loopholes, you know, to get them out of their punishment.

NURENBERG: The court is taking several death penalty cases this year putting crime and punishment law and order in the headlines at time when American voters will be looking for candidates at both the local and national levels who mirror their views on those issues. Gary Nurenberg, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: John McCain's New Hampshire prediction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We'll win it. We'll win.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COLLINS: Fresh poll numbers at campaign revive, in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Crunching numbers and reading tea leaves. New poll numbers are sending shock waves to the presidential campaigns today. Here to break them all down for us. CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider, coming to us from New York this morning.

Bill, good morning to you. Let's look, if we could, at this new CNN WMUR presidential primary poll here. This is out of New Hampshire. We want to look at. First, of course, the Democrats here. Look at this now. Some big, big changes as I'm sure you're well aware.

Barack Obama now holding 39 percent over Hillary Clinton's 29 percent. Huge jump from back in January from 33 percent. John Edwards, holding up at 16 percent.

Then the Republicans, look at this. Now for John McCain, leading the pack at 32 percent. Not a huge change from January I should say, but big change over the lead there with Mitt Romney. Look at that, 32 percent to 26 percent. And then we see Mike Huckabee at 14 percent and Rudy Giuliani down at 11 percent. What do you make of all this? It is getting little spicy, isn't it?

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is. And that change was only from the last few days. What it suggests is that there is an Obama surge or could be an Obama surge happening in New Hampshire. Now, that ten-point lead is just at the edge of statistical significance. The poll has a margin of error of five points which just is statistically significant but it does suggest that Obama is gaining about three points a day and he's gaining that support at the expense of both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. His lead has hit double digits, as we just saw. Ten points going into the home stretch.

You know, George Bush's father, back in 1980, when he beat Ronald Reagan in Iowa, he claimed he had the big "MO", meaning momentum coming out of Florida -- sorry, coming out of Iowa, but it didn't carry him to victory in New Hampshire. Obama may have the same thing going on. We won't know until tomorrow.

COLLINS: Yes. We really won't. And you know, we just did a couple stories on that last week, when we were talking, Bill, about what Iowa means for the next primary. And historically, sometimes, it has no bearing whatsoever. So it will be very interesting to see what happens, but when you talk about the "MO", not Mojo, but momentum, it's pretty unbelievable how quickly those numbers have changed for Obama?

SCHNEIDER: That's right. They have changed very fast. And of course, with the primaries coming thick and fast, with this crowded, front-loaded schedule this year, a lot of people are wondering, you know, could suddenly we have nominees without the usual process of weeks and weeks of going over, testing and hearing more about them, because most voters in the whole country don't know much about these candidates, these contenders. They haven't heard much about Mitt Romney. They don't know much about some of the Democratic contenders, Bill Richardson, say.

And a lot of voters in places like California and Florida are going to say now wait a minute, why don't we get a say. That's the problem with having a very front-loaded process.

COLLINS: Quickly, before I let you go, Bill, what about McCain? I mean, this does seem like a revival?

SCHNEIDER: Well, it does. That lead is not quite statistically significant but it shows up in a few other polls, some modestly, six points over Mitt Romney. And you know, McCain won New Hampshire primary when he beat George Bush in 2000. And now, it looks like he might win it again. If that's the case, well, you know, it's one of the great comeback acts in American history, because this campaign was given up for dead back in June, when he ran out of money or almost ran out of money, and now suddenly it's come back to life again. It's a very amazing story.

COLLINS: Well, we are watching then. Tomorrow is the big day. CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider. Thank you, Bill.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

COLLINS: California utility crews using a break in the weather today to get power to more customers. Tense of thousands of homes and businesses still without electricity since a severe storm hit on Friday. At one point, nearly 500 miles of power lines were down. At least four deaths have been blamed on the storms.

Rain has increased the threat of floods and mudslides in areas of southern California ravaged by wildfires. This video shows San Diego fire officials are calling a slippage of land. No homes were damaged.

Heavy snow from the same storm system is complicating efforts to reach people in southern Colorado. Two families have not been seen since going out on a snowmobiling trip on Friday and two skiers are also missing.

Some winter storm warnings still in effect for the western U.S. Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is live at the severe weather center with more on this. Hey there, Jacqui.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: And as news or weather is happening where you, send us your video or photo like Aaron Brill did. You just saw those photos there. You can go to cnn.com and click on I-report or type ireport@cnn.com right into your cell phone. But as always, when you do this, please stay safe.

High-tech gadgets. See what's hot at the Consumer Electronics Show in just a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: From robots to the latest in cell phone technology. High-tech gadgets are on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. CNN's Veronica De La Cruz is there for us this morning. So, Veronica, you are relaxing. I was going to say, show us some cool stuff. But I don't know, do I have to wake you up first?

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Sorry. You know, this is going to be the coolest, though, Heidi. This is absolutely amazing. This is the Human Touch Zero-Gravity Massage Chair. And why this is so great, is it uses accupoint detection. There are actually sensors that had scanned my back and they have honed in on my knots.

COLLINS: Wow.

DE LA CRUZ: Yes.

COLLINS: I think that's what the anchor chairs are made of here.

DE LA CRUZ: Oh yes, you're right about that.

COLLINS: Yes. It's so comfy.

DE LA CRUZ: This is actually got to be $4,000. So pretty pricey product, but it is definitely my favorite so far. You know, 2700 different exhibitors here on the floor at CES. They say that if you wanted to look at all the products, it would take you 2-1/2 years. So joining us now, to help us sort through some of the latest and the greatest is Megan Miller and she is with popseye.com.

Hello.

MEGAN MILLER, POPSCI.COM: Hello, how are you?

DE LA CRUZ: I'm doing, you know, a lot better now, actually. A lot better now after that massage. So what have you got for us?

MILLER: Well, this product is the Casio Exilim Digital SLR with this amazing high-speed photo and video capability. It gets actually 60 frames per second, which you'll be able to see -- we're going to cue up a video, showing 60 frames per second stills and 1200 frames per second video.

DE LA CRUZ: We want to think some Matrix?

MILLER: It's like the Matrix.

DE LA CRUZ: Slow-mo of the Matrix.

MILLER: Yes. Your kids playing soccer and you catch him, right mid-shot and get this amazing video of it.

DE LA CRUZ: And how much does with this cost?

MILLER: It's $900 but that's significantly lower than this sort of technology has ever been, because it used to be only available for professionals.

DE LA CRUZ: And it's pretty lightweight. It's not too bad. All right. So we've taken our photos now. Now, we want to print them, what are we going to do?

MILLER: We are going to use this product. I'm telling you, the editors of popular science are freaking out about how cool this is. The new Polaroid digital inkless printer.

DE LA CRUZ: It's inkless?

MILLER: It's inkless.

DE LA CRUZ: It's inkless.

MILLER: And the cool thing about that, it's got this new Zinc paper technology, and instead of using ink, it uses these color crystals that are inside the paper. And what you do is you plug in your camera or cell phone.

DE LA CRUZ: And you can actually do this wirelessly as well. You can use Bluetooth, right?

MILLER: Yes. And you -- you end up being able to take the photos off of your cell phone, which were previously sort of traps there and you print out these adorable little Polaroid, which are actually stickers. This is very popular. They have this sort of thing in Japan only without the inkless technology now.

DE LA CRUZ: And how much, would you say this going to cost you?

MILLER: It's going to cost $200 to $300. It's sort of purchase for the teen market or for anyone.

DE LA CRUZ: All right. Quickly, because we only have 30 second left. Shall we go ahead and show this really quick? Because you know, Heidi, we all have cell phone cameras these days. This is what's next. We're going to start having what these, mini projectors built into...

MILLER: Let's say your consumer electronics.

DE LA CRUZ: That's right.

MILLER: So this is the new 3-m miniature projector. It is going to be inside all sorts of different technologies, coming up in the next year. And you can see, you can point little photos in there, and change the resolution, and you're also going to be able to show video.

DE LA CRUZ: So maybe like, if I was on a plane headed back from Cancun. And my girlfriends, we wanted to look at our photos, videos, we could do it on the plane, up against the seat in front of us, maybe.

MILLER: Yes. No more sharing your tiny iPod screen. DE LA CRUZ: Awesome. All right, Megan Miller, PopSci.com. Thank you so much. There just so much here, Heidi. The doors haven't even opened yet. So this is just a quick preview what's to come.

COLLINS: Yes. It's a great show. I know, everybody gets very excited about it. Some cool stuff. All right, Veronica, thank you. I appreciate it.

DE LA CRUZ: Of course.

COLLINS: Time now to take a look at some of the most clicked on videos on cnn.com.

A boy in India is in training to limbo skate. Wow. Now, what happens if he -- just gets tripped up even a tiniest bit? Sorry. Think about it that way. But that's unbelievable. Limbo skate under 100 cars in just one minute. So far, he can do 57. I hope he doesn't get stuck like that, though.

Viewers are interested in New Hampshire voters, of course, they call themselves, Yankees. Their motto: Live free or die. Tired of the political process, but not looking to give up their position as first in the nation.

And in Columbia, visitors are relaxing as they enjoy a week-long exhibit on laziness. The curator says it's all about people learning to take it easy.

And, of course, don't forget, you can take us with you, anywhere you go. You can be lazy while you do it. CNN NEWSROOM podcast available 24/7 at cnn.com.

The Iraqi army on alert. A long time military tradition, threatened by fear of insurgents attacks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: An annual day of celebration honoring Iraq's army. This year, it was quieted by fear. CNN's Alphonso Van Marsh has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALPHONSO VAN MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was an army day with little reason to celebrate. A rush of attacks across the capital killed at least 17 people, several others were wounded. A suicide bombing, a car bomb attack, a shooting. Hallmarks of the insurgents, the Iraqi people bearing the brunt of their brutality.

These massive crosswords serve as the beginning and end of where Iraqi troops would march on Iraqi Army Day, but they also serve as markers for insurgents who may try to send mortars or rockets to injure anyone who would come to attend. And this, in the middle of the international zone, administered by the Americans and on Iraqi Army Day, they were referring all questions to the Iraqis.

BARHAM SALEH, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: There were intelligence of al Qaeda and other organizations might have been planning some attacks in Baghdad during army day. But I'm not going to comment on the specifics of those reports.

VAN MARSH: The deputy prime minister says army day celebrations were held elsewhere. For example, in Basra, Iraq's southern province recently handed over from British to Iraqi control. In the ceremony broadcast live, one of Iraq's military leaders had warned Iraqis that they are also responsible for keeping their community safe.

GEN. MOHAL AL-FRAIJI (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): We submit everyone to the law and we cruelly punish anyone who violates the law.

VAN MARSH: Back in Baghdad, some say they are not surprised the troops were a no-show here in 2008.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Maybe they are concerned for their lives. Maybe they'll come under attack. They might be attacked by terrorists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Maybe there are other reasons, but I think the reason is that people are afraid of terrorists.

VAN MARSH: Iraqi officials say they've recruited tens of thousands of people to join Iraq security forces. That's something to celebrate, considering just a few years ago, there were virtually none. Alphonso Van Marsh, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Is it an Iowa-bound, Barack Obama surging to a big lead in New Hampshire polls? We're on the trail with the Dems and the GOP, live from the Granite State.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Let the good times roll. Carnival seasons kicked off in New Orleans and Mardi Gras, these are already flying. 12th night traditionally marks the opening of the festivities. Fat Tuesday, February 5th, now less than a month away.

Good morning, once again, everybody, I'm Heidi Collins. You'll stay inform all day right here on the CNN NEWSROOM. Here's what's on the rundown. Now, the U.S. accuses Iran of (INAUDIBLE) against American warships.

Breaking news from the Persian Gulf. Our guests will break it all down for us.

And the final day of campaigning in New Hampshire. A Democrat leads to a stunning lead. A Republican comes from behind. The new CNN poll, this hour.

And a levee break leaves hundreds of homes under water and coated in mud. Going home on this Monday, January 7th, you are in the CNN NEWSROOM. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com