Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Health Care Reform; Airline Security Mistake; Rebates for Home Efficiency; Water Dangers

Aired December 09, 2009 - 09:00   ET

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

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Here's "CNN NEWSROOM" now with Brooke Baldwin -- good morning, Brooke.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: John, good to see you back home. John and Kiran good morning to you.

Here's what's happening right now in the "CNN NEWSROOM". First up, a possible break-through on health care reform: Senate Democrats might have cleared this hurdle of the so-called public option but is it a deal breaker among members of their own party. And a vicious storm hammers the eastern half of the country. Flash flooding, high winds, heavy snowfall. Are you sure it's not winter yet?

And the economy, job one. At the White House, President Obama reaches out to small businesses and ponies up a little bit of cash for homeowners calling it cash for caulkers, anyone?

Good morning, everyone. I'm Brooke Baldwin in for Heidi Collins. It is Wednesday, the 9th of December and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

All right, want to begin this hour with health care reform. You know after months and months of back and forth, sparring, squabbling, dare we say it? There might finally be this breakthrough at hand.

Now the White House is in fact praising it but at least one Democrat already breaking ranks with his own party leaders.

Our own congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: We can't disclose the details of what we've done but believe me we've got something that's good.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If it's specifics you're looking for, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the so-called gang of 10 senators who negotiated the deal aren't prepared to offer any. Not until the Congressional Budget Office puts a price tag on the plan.

REID: We want to know the score before we start giving all the details even to our own members. KEILAR: Two Democratic sources tell CNN the agreement replaces a public government-run insurance option with a private not-for-profit option. It would be overseen by the Federal Office of Personnel Management, the same group that manages the current health plan for federal employees.

But the compromise could be a deal-breaker for Wisconsin senator, Russ Feingold. He said last night he would not support replacing a public option with a purely private approach because it wouldn't provide enough competition for insurance companies to keep their rates down.

Sources also tell CNN the deal would allow Americans 55 and older to buy in to Medicare. But when reporters pressed for details late last night, the majority leader was less than subtle about keeping his colleagues silent.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Is the end in sight? Well, I guess I...

REID: The answer is yes.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And Brianna Keilar joins us now from Capitol Hill.

And Brianna, you opened your whole piece saying, you know what, no, they're not talking specifics so I guess my question to you is why are Democrats playing this thing so close to their vest? I mean why not just come out and give us details?

KEILAR: Well, because if they give the details, if they officially outline what the plan is, well, then the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that puts a price tag on the whole thing can then be public with their price tag. So if Democratic leaders play it close to the vest like this, then they can talk to CBO.

And if they get a number back that's really high, the price tag is really high, which you know if that were public, Brooke, they would just be skewered by their opponents for a really high number. But then they can work with CBO back and forth until they get it to a number that they want, instead of really ending up in a place where politically they're trying to kind of make up ground.

BALDWIN: So not talking specifics yet but eventually they'll have to. Right, Brianna?

KEILAR: Well, certainly, and you know, we already know we know some of the specifics because we know some of the things they were talking about...

BALDWIN: Right.

KEILAR: ... as we move towards an agreement. So that's really what we're going on now. But for the official "this is what it is," yes, we still have to wait for that. Could be days here.

BALDWIN: Gotcha. All right, Brianna Keilar thank you for that.

Also on the Hill, another big divisive issue here, another impassioned part of the health reform debate centering on really the funding of abortion and specifically whether federal money could be used to pay for abortions.

Yesterday we told you a portion -- opponents in the Senate failed to muster enough votes to tighten those restrictions on such federal funding, but those opponents also say this issue is not necessarily dead in the water. They may force this compromise before pledging their critical votes to the sweeping overhaul.

Inside secrets for airline screeners like how much does an x-ray machine really see. That is one of many details accidentally posted on the Internet from this TSA manual, this 93-page manual. Now the agency promising a full review.

CNN Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve joining us live now from Washington.

And Jeanne, just first explain this to me because it was published, it was redacted, certain points were blacked out yet hackers still managed to take a look at this.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Right. The Transportation Security Administration is trying to minimize the impact of this security lapse calling the 93-page screener manual outdated and unclassified but it lays out some specifics.

For instance, the limitations of x-ray screening machines, raising concerns that it could give terrorists a playbook for evading security and the criticism has been blistering.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLARK KENT ERVIN, FMR. INSPECTOR GENERAL, HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICE: The most serious security breach that TSA has been involved in since 9/11 and since TSA's inception in 2002, it is really incredible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: The manual was posted on a government Web site that gives information to federal contractors but redacted portions of the report were not properly protected. People with programming experience were able to restore the sensitive information and posted the entire document elsewhere on the Internet.

The TSA says this document was never implemented, that it was revised six times but it didn't elaborate on the extent of those revisions. The agency said in a statement the TSA has many layers of security to keep the traveling public safe and to constantly adapt to evolving threats. TSA is confident that screening procedures currently in place remain strong. But some members of Congress are already calling for an independent investigation and we're expecting more expressions of outrage on the Hill today -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: You mentioned the fact that this has been blistering. I guess the question is, how much damage has this actually caused the TSA itself?

MESERVE: Well, let's face it. The TSA is a favorite punching bag. There is somebody criticizing them virtually every day of the week. This is not going to help that picture. But I should point out that right now this is an agency that doesn't have a director.

Here we are 11 months into the Obama administration, they have named someone. He's been through confirmation hearings but Congress hasn't yet given final approval to the nominee. So perhaps one of the side effects of this will be finally that this agency has someone in charge -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: Probably a lot of air travelers out there this morning wondering, what's this really mean for me?

Jeanne Meserve live for us in Washington -- Jeanne, thank you.

Before it's all over, there is a good chance you will be affected by what one weather expert is calling a monster of a storm. At least five deaths have been associated now with this storm stretching -- take a look at this -- really from coast to coast.

This morning blizzard warnings are out for parts of the upper Midwest. Snowdrifts could reach 15 feet in places there. And you don't always think about snow in Arizona. But take a look at this. This is Flagstaff, Arizona. Basically digging out from 20 inches of snow. That is more than four times the record set back in 1956.

And even for the saturated south, the storm is bringing heavy, heavy rainfall plus the threat of tornadoes. Take a look -- don't drive in it. They always say that, but don't drive in it. Parts of New England as well here bracing for bitter cold and up to a foot of snow by the afternoon.

So, Rob Marciano has been taking a close look at all of this, what this means for us.

I feel like the momentum just kind of keeps coming. This is a pretty dangerous storm system, is it not?

(WEATHER REPORT)

BALDWIN: Maybe the students at the University of Wisconsin Madison enjoying their snow day.

MARCIANO: Who doesn't like a snow day?

BALDWIN: Right? All right, Rob, thank you. President Obama's new plan to stimulate the economy. How you might just be able to cash in just by making improvements to your home.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: More economy talk from President Obama this morning. One day after proposing this new economic stimulus, the plan includes what he's calling this Cash for Caulkers program.

Here now to explain what this really means for you, Christine Romans. I can't help but giggle. Cash for Caulkers.

Christine, this is basically Cash for Clunkers but for your home, right?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And you know he pointedly is not calling it Cash for Caulkers. We're all calling it that.

BALDWIN: OK.

ROMANS: A lot of the people who have been pushing for this and some of the people who will actually be helping design it are calling it Cash for Caulkers. Here's how it works. This would be rebates, cash rebates or maybe tax credits, not sure how that's going to work yet, but for homeowners, for energy efficiency projects, that's like buying new insulation.

It's like caulking your windows, it's like dishwashers, washers, dryers, energy-efficient appliances, and also for companies in renewable energy and efficiency manufacturing of solar panels and the like. So you've a couple of different ways that's going here toward you and me, Brooke, and then toward the big companies who are pushing energy efficiency.

Here's what you could get. Up to -- up to $24,000 worth of stuff you would get a 50 percent rebate on appliances and installation. That's up to $12,000 per household. So think of it. You go out there and you spend $24,000 on , say, a contractor who's going to do an audit of your house, he's going to find all -- or she is going to find all the places where it's energy inefficient.

Going to put in new windows upstairs, maybe put in some new insulation. Going to get you a new dishwasher that's energy efficient, a new washer and dryer, maybe install a couple of other things to help you keep your energy bill down and you're going to be able to get half of that back.

This could be a powerful, powerful motivator for the economy if we looked at Cash for Clunkers, for example. It could provide that brief hit to the economy but they're looking to get some money moving around out there.

And also it would help energy efficiency for a whole lot of Americans. It would also cost something, too. These things don't come for free.

BALDWIN: Of course not.

ROMANS: We don't know exactly the price tag. It maybe $10 billion.

BALDWIN: Right.

ROMANS: And that's of course what critics of all this government spending will say, oh, great, more free money than isn't really free. But this is something that supporters are saying could do two things. One, make your home more energy efficient but also get you out there and spending -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Now, Christine, I remember covering the Cash for Clunkers. I went to a junkyard and there were all these restrictions about your cars. Are there any eligibility restrictions when it comes to this program?

ROMANS: And Brooke, so far no. So far there aren't any income restrictions. This is one of the things that makes it interesting. There are people out there who had money to use in the economy but who made too much money for the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit or for the Cash for Clunkers, for example.

This would be a way maybe to tap some of that economic activity, people for a couple of years who've been very -- maybe hiring some people who were very cautious about their spending. This might be the thing that gets them to go out there and spend some money on their home.

But also if they can work out some of the details, maybe get some of the big box stores or the contractors to be able to bear the big costs ahead of time, people who have less of an income, who are living more paycheck to paycheck, they might be able to work some of the details so those people could pay for their appliances and be able to get that rebate as well.

I mean it's hard to convince somebody who's living paycheck to paycheck, right, to spend $10,000 on new appliances?

BALDWIN: Right. Sounds like a lot of money.

ROMANS: You still have to pay for it. So -- yes. So those are some of the things that they're going to have to work out. And again, I want to be clear. The president is light on the details of this. He's going to have to work with Congress. There are some other Democratic proposals that are far bigger, frankly, out there than what the president has sort of sketched out.

Details still to come, how it would actually work, but it sounds like something that has a lot of momentum in Washington.

BALDWIN: All right, Miss Romans. What's your "Romans Numeral" this morning? ROMANS: It's 20 percent. And it has to do with this idea that there's two ways to get paid by this thing. One is by getting money back for buying the appliances. And two is on your energy bills. That's the potential savings on energy bills under a Cash for Caulkers program.

Meaning, if you could get your -- all of the leaks and inefficiencies fixed in your house, maybe your bills would go down by about 20 percent. So it would be a little bit of an investment for you in the longer term.

BALDWIN: Could be significant in the long run. Christine Romans, on the Cash for Caulkers beat, thank you.

Talking about climate change could lead to contaminated water supplies. Find out how you can protect yourself.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Checking our top stories for you this morning.

Two candidates are left in the race to take over for the late Ted Kennedy. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Copely beat out three other Democrats in yesterday's primary. And State Senator Scott Brown beat out one other challenger in the Republican primary.

Copely and Brown will face one another in the general election, that is in January. And then the winner will serve the last two years of Kennedy's six-year Senate term.

Tiger Woods' mother-in-law back at his Orlando-area home after an early-morning health scare yesterday. That's her on the stretcher. She was rushed to the hospital with some stomach pain.

Barbara Holmberg was released in good condition just a couple of hours later. She is expected back at work in Sweden on Monday.

And four are dead today in a pair of new bombings in Baghdad. One bomb was left in a trash can, the other on a bus. At least 18 people are injured. The explosions come just a day after a string of blasts killed about 130 people and injured more than 400.

A leaked document has poor countries crying foul at the climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. That conference on day three now. The head of the Delegation of Developing Nations says a Danish draft proposal preempts negotiations with poor countries.

A representative from Sudan also says the $10 billion being proposed to help them fight climate change is not nearly enough.

Also today the head of the Environmental Protection Agency speaking at a U.S. sponsored meeting. Lisa Jackson is talking about ways to regulate greenhouse gases.

And a lot of this climate change talk really is centered on these hacked e-mails. Thousands of them -- e-mails, documents really -- that skeptics say are evidence that these prominent climate scientists have manipulated or hidden some of the climate data to exaggerate the threat of global warming.

Well, former vice president Al Gore had a harsh response to that earlier today on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: Well, they took a few phrases out of context. These are private e-mails, more than 10 years old, and they've tried to blow it up into something that it's really not.

Just to pick one example, some of those exchanges you're talking about had to do with years ago whether or not a study that they thought was of poor quality and shouldn't belong in the scientific report should be excluded from the report.

Well, they had exchange back and forth. It ended up in the report, fully analyzed and discussed. So if you take one little thing from 10 years ago out of context and describe it inaccurately, then it becomes a controversy without any real substance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So from that e-mail controversy to climate change and your health. Have you thought about the two here? One of the biggest dangers that actually comes along with climate change is contaminated water supplies.

And here to talk a little bit more about that, our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

You know, yesterday we chatted about allergies.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BALDWIN: And that was interesting. And now we're talking about water. We all need it, but really how does climate change cause problems with what we're drinking?

GUPTA: Yes, maybe a little counterintuitive here, but you know when you think of water and how it might change in response to climate change, really, two things. One is the water could get incrementally a little bit warmer. And two is there just might be more of it. Heavier rainfalls, for example.

Those warmer temperatures that even incrementally warmer can cause the -- you know, the emergence of certain things like protozoa, for example, in the water that can contaminate the water and get people sick if they drink it. Just by temperature changes.

But the amount of rainfall, I think, is actually a bit bigger issue. NOAA data showed a 7 percent increase annually since 1970. And this is from NOAA data, from the National Climactic Data Center. About a 7 percent increase annually overall. And also 14 percent increase with big rainfalls. Two-plus inches. So it's raining more and it's raining harder.

The problem, Brooke, is that you also have 1970s infrastructure as far as dealing with the extra water. So you have sewage pipes and storm water drains all sort of combining. And you can kind of see the problem there. You can get, you know, bacteria, parasites, viruses, all sort of into the drinking water.

And this isn't just theoretical. It happened in Milwaukee where you had a huge rainfall like that and then the drinking water got contaminated. Four hundred thousand people got sick, 69 people died. So, you know, this is what happens when you have that sort of much water all mixing together.

BALDWIN: So how do we protect ourselves from the nasty stuff, the bacteria?

GUPTA: Right.

BALDWIN: The diseases that you just mentioned? Because we need water.

GUPTA: Yes, we need water. And I think part of this is going to be a message that, you know, our infrastructure has to improve over the last 40 years...

BALDWIN: Yes.

GUPTA: ... to deal with the extra water so we don't have the co- mingling, if you will, of sewage and storm water. But you know, I think for the average person, there's little things that they can think about. Heed warnings, for example, when it comes to, you know, swimming at the beach or a lake or something like that.

People can get pretty sick from swimming in contaminated water. Also use phosphate-free products. That's fertilizer. Based on that same thing I was just talking about, that can wash into your ground water and cause real problems. Filter your water. That can help but admittedly not take care of everything.

BALDWIN: I was going to ask you. I got my water filter, am I safe?

GUPTA: Yes. Yes. You've got viruses, you've -- again, protozoa bacteria.

BALDWIN: Yes.

GUPTA: The filter can't take care of everything. But I think it really comes back to this idea that the infrastructure is going to have to improve. If the data is correct, you know, you have more water accumulating, you know, you have the Great Lakes, for example, which is the water supply for 40 million people.

They anticipate by the end of the century you're going to have 100 percent increase in sewage infections in that water. So...

BALDWIN: Let's get on that infrastructure, shall we?

GUPTA: That's right.

BALDWIN: And hold that.

GUPTA: I'll try and help out as much as we can.

BALDWIN: You're busy enough, Dr. Gupta. Thank you.

GUPTA: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

So talking more about climate change here, what really is the truth when it comes to global warming? Coming up tonight at 8:00, a special edition, once again, you have Campbell Brown looking at the science, the skepticism and the secrets surrounding climate change. "TRICK OR TRUTH?"

And you hear all about them all the time but what exactly are green jobs and how much can you really make?

And bone-chilling cold, dangerous snow, gusty winds. Looking at this just gives me the chills. A winter storm slams much of the country and it's not even officially winter yet. Rob Marciano checking some numbers. Looking busy over there. He will have the full forecast coming up for really all of the country, much of us affected by this, coming up on CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: And we've just finished hearing the opening bell. Want to head now to Wall Street where the Dow looking to bounce back hopefully from yesterday's triple-digit declines.

Felicia Taylor at the New York Stock Exchange for us.

Felicia, good morning.

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brooke. Actually we had been looking. Futures indicated a higher open. Unfortunately we're not actually seeing that right now. Markets are pretty flat. We'll get to that in a minute.

In recent weeks, though, the stock market has been moving in the opposite direction of the U.S. dollar. That's the case again today. The dollar sliding, stocks hopefully will be trending -- actually, the Dow just moved higher, now up about five points. So we're seeing that trend continue now.

Also ahead higher today, oil prices. Crude has fallen for the five straight days to below $73 a barrel. It's bouncing back today again on weakness of the dollar. The movement comes ahead of the latest weekly reports on oil supplies. Most energy experts predict that inventories rose last week as they have in seven of the past 10 weeks. Rising oil prices translate naturally into rising energy stocks.

We expect some buying in the banking sector. Shares of Citigroup and Bank of America are both trending higher this morning. They're higher by about a third of 1 percent on reports that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is planning to authorize an extension of TARP through next October.

The bailout plan, though, was set to expire at the end of this year. So we've got the first few minutes of trading on Wall Street, just a couple of minutes. And the Dow, again, up fractionally. The NASDAQ pulling back ever so slightly and the S&P is up a quarter of 1 percent. Brooke?

BALDWIN: All right, Felicia Taylor, thank you. We'll check back in the numbers on the big board a little later.

Meantime, we told you earlier about this proposed Cash for Caulkers program. You know how it would offer up a homeowner up to $12,000 in rebates just to make your home a little bit more energy efficient. But that's only part of the president's plan to spur job growth.

The president is also proposing to give tax breaks to small businesses. You know a lot of them have been struggling, small businesses for hiring new employees and investing in themselves. To fund these new ideas, the president wants to use money left over from TARP, remember that was the Trouble Asset Relief Program. It was created to bail out Wall Street at the height of the financial crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: TARP has served its original purpose and at much lower cost than we expected. In fact, because of our stewardship of this program, and the transparency and accountability we put in place, TARP is expected to cost the taxpayers at least $200 billion less than what was anticipated just this past summer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now Republicans would rather use that leftover TARP money to pay down the federal deficit. President Obama will be making some more remarks on the economy after a meeting with a group of bipartisan lawmakers. That should be happening this morning right around 11:50 Eastern Time. We'll bring that to you live here on CNN.

The new war strategy in Afghanistan. It is really front and center again here on Capitol Hill this morning. The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan will once again defend the plan -- defend the president's plan to lawmakers and next hour he will be joined by General David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander to the greater Middle East.

CNN foreign affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty is at the State Department.

And, Jill, what should we be listening for today?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: You know, Brooke, some of it could be very similar to what we heard yesterday. And this is really an attempt by the senators -- today the senators, yesterday it was both Senate and House -- to define exactly what President Obama means by what he said a week ago, and that is really the strategy.

This new strategy, how does it work. And a lot of it has really boiled down to this question of, you know, winning or success, what does success actually mean, what does that July 2011 date actually mean when they begin a drawdown.

And yesterday we had Ambassador Eikenberry there and General McChrystal. They really drilled into General McChrystal, and essentially, you know, what he said was he's confident of success but everything is based on conditions at the time in which that -- you know, that July date will come.

So let's hear some of how he explained that yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL, COMMANDER, U.S. FORCES, AFGHANISTAN: We plan to have fewer forces in harm's way. We will remain partnered with the Afghan security forces in a supporting role to consolidate and solidify their gains.

Results may come more quickly and we may demonstrate progress towards measurable objectives but the sober fact is that there are no silver bullets. Ultimate success will be the cumulative effect of sustained pressure across multiple lines of operation. (END VIDEO CLIP)

DOUGHERTY: Yes, this is kind of technical in the way. And that's the type of general he is. But you know, he made a very interesting point, Brooke, which I think is crucial. What he's saying is, if you're going to win against the Taliban, you're not going to -- you know, kill every single Taliban in Afghanistan.

But what you're going to do is improve the security and the conditions and services that Afghan people get from their government, and that will wean them away from the Taliban. And then, the Taliban won't be able to attract, you know, Afghans. That is the theory.

And then also we're probably going to hear a lot about Pakistan and whether, you know, that where -- whether they can go over the border, how they can shoot over the border. Because Pakistan is very much a part of this Afghan strategy -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: So, Jill, you mentioned possibly some of these Congress members who'll be drilling down on Pakistan. What other issues specifically might they be after today?

DOUGHERTY: You know, I think they're still going to go after this timeline of how it works and the Taliban. Because those are key. We now know the numbers. There will be some more NATO troops, et cetera. But it's -- how does this all work and that idea of winning. I mean what exactly is "winning"?

Yesterday it was very interesting dance back and forth about not even using that word and then eventually using it in the afternoon. So I think you're going to try to get them to see if there is any daylight between what the president is saying and what his general and his ambassador are saying. That's the key.

BALDWIN: So Eikenberry and Petraeus, both today...

DOUGHERTY: And Petraeus.

BALDWIN: ... testifying. We'll be watching. If we hear anything, we'll bring that to our viewers live.

Jill Dougherty, of course, from Washington -- Jill, thank you.

And from a Senate hot seat really to ours, General Stanley McChrystal says he knows how to gain success in Afghanistan. In fact, he sits down with our own Christiane Amanpour just to lay out this whole plan. See the entire interview today, 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

Former director of the FBI will lead an outside investigation into the massacre at Fort Hood and whether it could have been prevented. William Webster will review the FBI's policies, its actions, when it dismissed this man, shooting suspect Nidal Hasan, as a possible threat a year before the shooting.

The agency had looked at this man because of his correspondence with an Islamic extremist. Hasan is charged with the November 5th shooting spree that left 13 people dead.

And gunfire erupting on a college campus. Amazingly, no one was hurt. But here's what happened. This all went down yesterday at a northern Virginia community college when a student opened fire in a classroom with this high-powered rifle. A teacher hit the floor, students scrambled as you can imagine. Police say 20-year-old Jason Hamilton retreated into the hallway. He did peacefully surrender. He is now charged with attempted murder. Police have yet to reveal any kind of motive.

And in rural Kentucky, police say an enraged patient stormed out of this medical clinic only to return with a gun and kill his doctor. Police say Dr. Dennis Sandlin had earlier denied this patient's request for narcotics. This particular area apparently has been hard- hit with a prescription drug problem. In fact, about two months ago hundreds of people were charged with selling them.

And it is getting more powerful as we talk about it here. This dangerous monster storm moving across the Midwest heading to New England now. More than a foot of snow expected in parts of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and the National Weather Service has warned of extremely dangerous blizzard conditions. Take a look at this, barely driving through it. There is that car, just completely upside down. Difficult stuff to drive in. Travel very, very difficult and a lot of places driving already treacherous. In Topeka, Kansas, cars -- you see them -- upside down, sliding off the roads. Accidents everywhere. At least five deaths are blamed on bad weather across the country.

And for those of you sitting in the airport, hundreds of flights have been delayed or canceled leaving travelers stranded. Frustrated coast to coast.

I could empathize with those folks having to sit in the airport. Rob Marciano, it is not fun. But you know, they're saying -- I keep on reporting all morning, looking at some of these pictures, kind of going from bad to worse. Is it not?

(WEATHER REPORT)

BALDWIN: Give us a couple days. Be patient.

You know, Rob, you mentioned Wisconsin. Let's talk more about that. You know this wintry blast has led to storm warnings really across the entire upper Midwest, including Wisconsin.

I want to check in with reporter Kyler Burgi of affiliate WISN in Milwaukee. And just to set you up, Kyler, I understand you're driving and you're talking to us via Skype. Please be careful but...

(LAUGHTER)

Tell me what conditions are like there.

KYLER BURGI, WISN REPORTER: Well, first of all, I'm not the one -- I'm not the one driving.

BALDWIN: You're not driving.

BURGI: I'm not driving.

BALDWIN: OK.

BURGI: So that's certainly the safe way to do things. And can't blame us, of course. We're about 20 miles, I would say, northwest of Milwaukee. And that's really the part of an area that got hit the most. You heard the governor declare a state of emergency. And it's because of areas like this.

We're seeing 10 inches, maybe a foot of snow. And that's really causing some problems for traveling. Just in the small county where we are, for example, there were over 50 cars in the ditch overnight and some injuries and that sort of thing. So road crews are doing their best to try to clean these roads.

BALDWIN: Yes, we're looking now. We're looking now at your picture via Skype there. And all I see is just white. It almost looks like a whiteout. BURGI: I tell you what, if you're not driving in it, it almost looks like a Christmas card. But, you know, the bad thing of course is if the snow continues to fall and, you know, that really makes it tough to get these roads clear.

And of course, they're advising people, look, if you don't have to be out in this, stay home because it can certainly be very dangerous out here.

BALDWIN: Absolutely. Well, thank your photographer presumably for driving and you for chatting with us. Amazing pictures coming in from Milwaukee. I know state buildings per the governor, state buildings are closed. University of Wisconsin Madison closed. And I think that's the first time, what, since 1990 this has happened?

BURGI: Yes. It does not happen very often.

BALDWIN: Right.

BURGI: We are used to the snow here for the most part. And it really takes a lot to bring this state to a standstill. So that's, I guess, another indication of just how strong this storm is.

BALDWIN: Yes, Kyler Burgi, good thing we don't see any other cars on the road other than you guys. Please stay safe. Appreciate you taking those pictures for us.

Kyler Burgi from Wisconsin there.

All right, some of our other top stories, want to check for you now. Thousands of Native Americans could receive as much as $1,000 each. First though, they have to accept the government's proposed settlement of its class action lawsuit. It was filed in 1996 accusing the Departments of the Interior of mismanaging tribal lands. The government is offering to pay $1.4 billion just to make amends.

State dinner crashers, Tareq and Michaele Salahi could be subpoenaed by Congress today but don't expect to hear them talking about how they managed to slip in at a White House state dinner without an invitation. Their lawyer says this couple will invoke the Fifth Amendment which of course gives Americans the right not to testify as witnesses against themselves.

For some coping with climate change is just a matter of money. Today at the summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, a minister from Bangladesh said his country deserve at least 15 percent of what the rich nations are talking about giving poorer nations. Bangladesh is especially vulnerable to rising sea levels and cyclones.

You hear about them all the time. What exactly are green jobs? Have you stopped to wonder what? Well, what are they and how much do they actually pay? We will solve this green job mystery.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Investment in green jobs. You've probably heard the president talking about that a lot but what does it really mean and what kind of jobs is he talking about?

Personal finance editor Gerri Willis as always got the answers for us. All right, Gerri, green jobs, what are they?

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Well, it's one of those phrases that isn't really very specific so we set out to demystify the phrase digging down into sectors and actual job titles. Understand though, the green jobs are really a tiny proportion of the workforce currently, just 770,000 jobs or half a percent of all jobs, very small. The good news is they are growing at a fast cliff 9.1 percent versus 3.7 percent for all jobs.

Now, the biggest sector fueling 65 percent of green jobs is conservation and pollution mitigation, big phrase. What it means is recycling, conserving water, cutting greenhouse gases. People who remove hazardous materials from industrial sites are in this sector as are scientists who develop products to treat pollutants.

Environmentally friendly production jobs are typically in transportation, manufacturing, they produce hybrid diesel buses and develop traffic monitoring software.

Energy efficiency and clean energy jobs another sector. They help find new sources of energy or better use existing ones. Jobs include electricians and engineers.

Now, experts say this sector will enjoy the fastest growth -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Electricians, engineers, Gerri what are some other real-life examples of green jobs and how much green could you make?

WILLIS: Yes, how much money. Right? The big question.

BALDWIN: Yes, let's get to that.

WILLIS: So let's talk about smart grid engineers, for example. This is somebody who develops a faster network for electricity using digital technology. You can you make $50,000 to $100,000 a year depending on your background but you have to have at least a bachelor's degree in engineering to land the job.

Or, hey, you might become a green architect or builder designing, constructing buildings that use sustainable materials or renewable energy sources. You can make $50,000 or $105,000 a year or if you're a builder, $10 to $30 an hour.

You have to get accreditations though, that takes some time and money to invest in like understanding leads and knowing how to apply it. Energy auditors, another big category; they conduct room by room examinations of structures to determine where there are air leaks and how to fix them. Various certifications are required. And they make about $12 to $14 an hour.

BALDWIN: If I want to go out and get a green job, will I need advanced school? More training?

WILLIS: A little more training maybe but you may not need another diploma. Experts say that green jobs are great for people who are lower income. Of the 1.7 million new jobs that will be created, it's estimated that 870,000 will be available to folks will high school degrees or less and that's according to a study by the Political Economy Research Institute -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Gerri Willis, thank you.

Now that we all know, have been enlightened here on what green jobs actually are, you may be wondering where you can actually find them. Gerri will be back next hour with that answer.

Screener secrets posted online for anyone to see. A critical breach of security leading for calls for this full investigation of the TSA.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The inside scoop on airport screeners posted on the Web for anyone to see. A security breach for the TSA prompting many calls for a complete review to track down what exactly went wrong here.

Joining me now live from Washington to talk about this whole thing and really the severity of the breach, Clark Kent Ervin, a former inspector general for the office of Homeland Security.

Clark, before we talk specifics about what was in this 93-page manual, let's just -- I want your opinion as far as how egregious was this breach?

CLARK KENT ERVIN, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR THE OFFICE OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Brooke, I think this is the most serious security breach on TSA's part since its creation in 2002. It's alarming and it's appalling. It's really unfathomable.

BALDWIN: And you have to know that so many air travelers were hearing about this, this morning are worrying because they're thinking what about me. What's going to stop a terrorist, someone with ill intentions, walking through some of these screening areas in the airports and shoving a weapon possibly in a prosthetic or wheelchair because as explained and as hacked in this manual, that apparently is passable without further screening.

ERVIN: Exactly, yes. This really is a road map for terrorists and God knows the number of people to whom this manual was exposed. As you say, it points out weaknesses in procedures that can be exploited, people who are subjected to less scrutiny than others. And so it's absolutely imperative the TSA immediately -- I hope it did it as soon as this story broke yesterday -- tighten all the procedures that are identified in that report that are relaxed that people who were subjected to less scrutiny hereafter being subjected to the same scrutiny as everybody else. Otherwise there's no question but the terrorists will eventually exploit these vulnerabilities.

BALDWIN: How fixable is this breach, number one. And really number two what kind of ripple effects might this have security-wise?

ERVIN: Well, it's very difficult to put toothpaste back in the tube. But really the only thing that can be done at this point is what I just said, that these procedures need to be tightened where weaknesses in technologies were identified. Those technologies need to be supplemented.

The second thing that needs to be done to prevent something like this from ever happening again is there needs to be a full-blown independent investigation conducted not by TSA itself but by the independent inspector general. And then whoever is responsible for this, either a person or people should be fired. And depending on the circumstances, this could be so grossly negligent as to be criminally prosecutable. We'll have to see about that.

But this has to stop. And this comes, by the way, against a backdrop of lots of other problems at TSA. Nearly every quarter it seems there's another report showing how easy it is to sneak these weapons past screeners. There are lots other examples.

And so this is really serious but it's really the most serious one as I say since 9/11 and since TSA was created thereafter.

BALDWIN: Serious and a lot of air travelers you've got to know this morning, kind of wondering what's going to happen. How could this affect me? It has all kinds of ramifications.

ERVIN: It couldn't come at a worse time.

BALDWIN: It couldn't come at a worse time at all, a lot of people traveling for the holidays. Clark Kent Ervin, former inspector general, Homeland Security Department -- Clark, thank you for your time.

ERVIN: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Right now we want to talk more about this on our blog here. I want to know what you think. E-mail us your thoughts on this security breach at TSA. How concerned are you about your own flying safety and what do you think should be done to protect all of us? Air passengers.

E-mail us your comments. Just go to CNN.com/Heidi and we will read some of your responses live in the next hour of the NEWSROOM.

And we have a lot going on this morning. CNN crews are in place to bring it all to you. We want to check in with some of those correspondents beginning with Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill.

KEILAR: Hi there, Brooke.

A tentative deal between Senate Democrats on health care reform; what does this mean? We'll tell you coming up at the top of the hour.

MARCIANO: I'm Rob Marciano at the CNN Severe Weather Center. We have a doozy of a storm entering across the Midwest. Part of the Wisconsin government has been shut down and the National Guard called in to Iowa because of stranded motorists and severe weather across the south. We'll talk more about that storm in the next hour.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans in New York. A year ago Bernie Madoff said he had $65 billion in his clients' accounts. What happened to all that money? A year later, we're still learning more lies and more truth as every day unfolds. We'll have more on the Bernie Madoff scandal at the top of the hour -- Brooke.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)