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Battle for Health Care Reform; Snowstorm Cripples East Coast

Aired December 19, 2009 - 15:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, I'm Fredricka Whitfield and you're in the CNN NEWSROOM, on this weekend before Christmas. A treacherous storm has buried parts of the east coast with some of its heaviest snowfall in years. The nation's capital, take a look. It's in the bull's-eye right there with the snow emergency now in place. Washington's mayor says the city is throwing everything it's got the storm to keep businesses open as best they can. Across the Potomac blinding snow in Virginia. The snowstorm shut down major highways and stranded hundreds of motorists, as well. At least three deaths in that state are now blamed on snow.

It's not just the capital region; the snow is spreading misery from the Carolinas all the way through the northeast. We'll check in now with CNN's Reynolds Wolf who is live from Fredericksburg, Virginia, where folks there have a sense of humor about it all. They seem to welcome it.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: They are taking it in stride; they really are looking at this in a positive way. But let's take care of the business end of this first. This has been a rough time for a lot of people on the roadways Fredricka. We are talking about hundreds of accidents, maybe thousands before this is all over. You have several hundred people they are actually stranded on many of the interstates, many have been rescued, and there are a lot of people in shelters.

Over thousands that are without power at this hour. You've got a lot of this snow that is laying down a lot of the power lines with the strong wind gusts. Again, we had a lot of people that have been certainly out on the roads locally. They cleaned them out well. There is still snow. There are definitely slick spots here. This guy is trying to get down this intersection here. You have Prince Anne that takes you this direction. Traffic has been around pretty good. So has business. We've got the owner of Hyperion Espresso here with us. What is your name again?

DAN PETERSON: Dan Peterson.

WOLF: Dan, you've been here since early this morning. How was the drive in?

PETERSON: Not bad. I have a four-wheel drive vehicle. It's not too bad.

WOLF: It's a pristine morning; you drive over here, how long does it take you?

PETERSON: Normally? About three minutes.

WOLF: How long did it take you today?

PETERSON: About ten.

WOLF: You're a trooper. How has business been?

PETERSON: Digging out was the worst.

WOLF: You have to be digging the business today. You have a lot of folks out and about.

PETERSON: Absolutely. It's a great day to be open just because people are happy we are here. It's not like we are making any money, but in the long run, it's a good thing.

WOLF: Good busy afternoon to you. If you come over here, you can tell these are photojournalists. We show people across America, a lot of people that are window shopping, a few people buying stuff. What's your name?

PRESCOTT: Prescott.

WOLF: It's Prescott, everybody. Are you enjoying the snow?

PRESCOTT: Definitely.

WOLF: Lucy and Prescott are out here having a great time.

I'll tell you the blizzard warning has actually expired. It actually expired for the D.C. area, which certainly is some great news. However, we are still going to be seeing slick spots. We've got a lot of delays, a lot of cancellations, obviously in all the major airports. We'll give you reports coming up through out the hour. Even though the snow is beginning to fade in some parts, there is a good chance we could see another few inches of snowfall right here in Fredericksburg. So rough times definitely on the roadway, certainly something to watch out for. Fred lets send it back to you in the nice, warm studio. If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them for you.

WHITFIELD: OK, well I wonder if those two young ladies are still near you, they need to put coats on. They are not dressed for the weather. It's freezing.

WOLF: I think they ran for their lives. They are gone. They saw me, off they went.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Reynolds. Appreciate that.

WOLF: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: A lot of folks as you saw in Reynolds shop there, some folks are actually venturing out into the roadways, even though it's very dangerous and very treacherous. We're going to be joined right now by a couple there on the road. They have been in the car from Nebraska making their way to Virginia. They got stranded on Interstate 77 in Virginia for quite a while. They are making it a three-dog journey. They've got three dogs in the vehicle with them. They are trying to get to their family members in Virginia, I believe. Patrel Noble is on the cell phone with us now while she still has some battery juice. So Patrel you guys were stuck on the highway is that right and now you're actually moving?

PATREL NOBLE, STRANDED MOTORIST (via telephone): That is correct. We were stuck for about 19 hours noble.

WHITFIELD: 19 hours? You had to sleep in your car and everything?

NOBLE: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Where were you stuck, on I-77?

NOBLE: I-77, on the West Virginia Turnpike side. It was in the West Virginia Turnpike.

WHITFIELD: How did you stay warm? What did you all do? You snuggled up with your dogs for one?

NOBLE: And we had a couple of blankets. We would turn the car on and run it for a few minutes to get warm and turn it back off to conservative battery and gas.

WHITFIELD: That was very smart that you had the blankets. Had you been paying attention to the weather forecast where you kind of anticipating snowy weather as you embarked on your trip or is that by happenstance?

NOBLE: A little bit, yes. Then we had the blankets for the dogs to cuddle up and be comfortable on the trip. So it was a bit of both.

WHITFIELD: How much further do you have to go? Tell me what you're seeing and experiencing. Clearly, I understand you've got someone else who is driving, right? You're not talking to me and driving at the same time.

NOBLE: Right. My husband is also driving.

WHITFIELD: Good. Tell me what you're encountering right now. What are you seeing as you all make your way? How fast or slow do you have to go?

NOBLE: We are traveling pretty much at a good rate of speed. The roads for the most part are clear. There are still some slushy areas. We are encountering some vehicles that were abandoned at some point during the evening, so having to watch out for that.

WHITFIELD: So what city are you near right now?

NOBLE: We just passed through Bloomfield, West Virginia.

WHITFIELD: Your final destination is?

NOBLE: Roanoke, Virginia.

WHITFIELD: On to Roanoke, where already understand there are a lot of abandoned cars in Roanoke, Virginia, as well. You're probably going to see a lot more of that. What is your game plan in terms of how many more hours or minutes do you think it will be before you get to Roanoke?

NOBLE: It should be a couple of hours or so before we get into Roanoke. Then whatever trouble we may run into. That may lengthen our trip some more.

WHITFIELD: I'm not going to eat up all your battery juice. I know you need to be able to reach your family members as you get closer to Roanoke. All the best on your travels, be safe. Happy holidays.

NOBLE: Same to you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Patrel Noble thanks so much. Be careful out there.

It was a working weekend for members of Congress and the president of the United States. We'll check in on the White House to see exactly how the president is feeling after Senate Democrats decide to move forward on health care reform.

In the meantime, still very snowy there in the nation's capital. Karen MaGinnis is in the Severe Weather Center.

KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Fred, I'm with you, with Prescott and Lucy, get your coats on. What are you doing?

WHITFIELD: I got cold just looking at them.

MAGINNIS: I know. Its 26 degrees there. Fredericksburg. I watched Reynolds early this morning. There was this much snow and the wind was blowing around. Now he's got this much snow and the wind is blowing around a bit. Want to show you what is happening on flight explorer. These are all the flights in that north eastern corridor. Here is JFK and Newark and LaGuardia. Flights going in, flights going out look pretty good. The snow is starting to build up. A big event is going to take place this evening.

Susan Candiotti is there. Snow is coming down, but just wait, later on this evening; you'll see five to ten inches of snowfall. Then we get down to DCA, Reagan National not so much but they are not closed, but they are not open either. They are having trouble clearing the runways off. You can't get a lot of traffic when you don't have successfully -- you can't control the weather.

The snow is coming down at such a rate; it's very difficult to keep up with that. So Delta and some of these other airlines are just going to spend most of their time trying to clear off the runways. You can't control the weather, can't control the visibility. It require as whole lot of patience. That's what you're going to need over the next 24 hours. Area of low pressure offshore this is a classic nor'easter. It's going to go down in the history books. May not be the worst of all time. That was the Knickerbocker storm in 1922, 28 to 33 inches of snow, Fred it was a devastating storm. This one is going to shut down the interstates, shut down low progress commerce at a very important time of the year.

WHITFIELD: There were other big snowstorms in the interim, as well, enough to shut down Washington, cause a lot of big problems. Here we go again.

MAGINNIS: Right. Exactly.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks, Karen. Appreciate that.

Lots of snow. But it didn't stop folks on Capitol Hill and even in the White House. A breakthrough actually on health care reform in the Senate. Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson now saying that he will vote for the Senate's health care bill. His support gives Democrats the 60 votes they need to stop a filibuster and pass the bill. Majority leader Harry Reid acknowledges that it may not please progressives, but the Senate's top Republican is vowing to fight on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HARRY REID, (D) MAJORITY LEADER: Some who are progressives, they feel this bill doesn't go far enough and there are others who say, why didn't we get a public option? I like the public option. I spoke out loudly and strongly on it. But this bill, this bill will do so many good things for so many people. We explained that in some detail to the caucus just a few minutes ago.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R) MINORITY LEADER: This bill will reshape our nation and our lives. Democrats are forcing a vote on it, as I indicated over the weekend, counting on the fact that the American people are preoccupied with Christmas and not paying much attention to what they are doing. The reason for that, obviously, that is we know from all the survey data that Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to this bill. This bill is a legislative train wreck of historic proportions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The president sees it differently. Dan Lothian is at the White House. In short, the president said earlier, this is a major step forward to help make health care reform possible, Dan.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He really did. As you saw there, there continues to be that Republican pushback. Democrats and the president certainly looking at this as a significant day in moving this debate forward. You heard Senator Reid there just a short time ago. He was described as the quarterback in all this. If he was the quarterback and Senator Ben Nelson was the one running with the ball in the fourth quarter. He could have gone in any direction, he had concerns about abortion funding in the bill, taxpayer money being used for abortions.

Finally, he was able to get something that he could agree with. The president, who was planning to have a quiet day put on a blazer, left his tie at home, stepped before the mics to praise the Democratic leadership for really moving this forward. He said it now appears the American people will have the vote they deserve. The president also pointed out that as in any legislation, there's always compromise. He believes in this case, compromise has made the bill stronger. So Democrats and the president are very close to the finish line, but not there yet.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE U.S: After a nearly century-long struggle, we are on the cusp of making health care reform a reality in the United States of America. As with any legislation, compromise is part of the process. I'm pleased that recently-added amendments have made this landmark bill even stronger. Between the time the bill passes and the time when the insurance exchange gets up and running, there will now be penalties for insurance companies that arbitrarily jack up rates on consumers. And while insurance companies will be prevented for denying coverage on pre-existing conditions once the exchange is open, in the meantime there will be a high risk pool where people with pre-existing conditions can purchase affordable coverage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: President saying that this bill will hold insurance companies accountable and also provide insurance for 30 million Americans who don't have insurance, but also the president says bring down costs for consumers for small businesses and in the end, cut into the federal deficit. Now on a lighter note, the president in his remarks started off by saying, obviously, he's from Chicago. Now looking out at all the snow around the White House, it's finally starting to feel like home.

WHITFIELD: That's very funny. All right. Meantime, a lot of folks are bristling at all that snow, but trudging forward, nonetheless. Dan Lothian thanks so much.

The snow, it's not stopping all the shoppers out there in some corners, as well. We've got some more gift ideas coming from a techie. Right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. We are so happy that a big winter storm is not stopping our digital Santa, Mario Armstrong. Lucky for us that he is so tech savvy because a drive to Washington is out of the question today, with all that snow. And the Baltimore studio that is snowed in too. But look at you all dolled up.

MARIO ARMSTRONG: Got a Christmas tree.

WHITFIELD: Got your Santa hat.

ARMSTRONG: My digital Santa.

WHITFIELD: You look good. Thanks for Skype as well because you're able to be in our living room as a result. You've got some cool gifts beginning with, I guess, that techie kind of person who would love to have something very Dick Tracy on the wrist. Tell me all about that. ARMSTRONG: That's right. I was wearing this earlier. I took it off for you guys. This is a basically a cell phone watch. Can you believe it? You can actually make phone calls from this watch.

WHITFIELD: And talk into your wrist?

ARMSTRONG: Only works on the GSM Network, so Verizon, you're out and Sprint, you're kind of out. But for $199 bucks, it's really kind of cool. It's not bad. I was impressed it actually works.

WHITFIELD: Works in terms of telling the time and being able to make a phone call.

ARMSTRONG: That's the right. Also it has a 1.3 mega pixel digital camera on here. It also shoots video. I wore this camera, shot a little bit of video with my kid running around.

WHITFIELD: We are seeing it right now. That's not bad quality. Very good, very cool.

ARMSTRONG: Not too bad to be on your wrist.

WHITFIELD: I can see folks selling out of that one. Where do you find that?

ARMSTRONG: Hammaker-Schlemer is the website you want to visit.

WHITFIELD: You have a cool shirt on too and it is actually functional.

ARMSTRONG: That is right. Totally playable electric guitar, here is the deal. It's a wearable guitar. I have an amplifier here that is connected to the shirt. I'll play the shirt. I use my little pick here and play it.

WHITFIELD: OK. What are you going to play?

ARMSTRONG: So you can rock out to this thing, probably better than I can. I'm not Jimmy Hendrix.

WHITFIELD: I don't know. Was I hearing "Purple Haze" there?

ARMSTRONG: I was trying to get into it. $29 bucks.

WHITFIELD: $29.

ARMSTRONG: Can you believe that?

WHITFIELD: You certainly can't wash that shirt, right?

ARMSTRONG: Great question. You can actually remove all the electric components. Pop that off there. That's the speaker box, and you can take off the guitar. It's on here by Velcro; you can actually wash this shirt.

WHITFIELD: Where do you find that? ARMSTRONG: This is from Fakegeek.com. It's a great place for all the geeks.

WHITFIELD: I love that. A lot of our grandparents don't consider themselves being techie or geeky, but wait. There is something for them, as well. What do you have?

ARMSTRONG: There is something for them. We didn't leave them out. We have a teva digital picture frame. This is a seven-inch frame. It easily connected with just a power cord and a phone line. No computer is necessary. You can see a family photo there. It will automatically go through a slide show.

WHITFIELD: How do you get the image there?

ARMSTRONG: What makes this different, you can give this to your distant relatives and e-mail the frame your photos from your mobile phone or your computer. You e-mail the pictures and every night it uploads the new photos to the picture frame.

WHITFIELD: I'm techie dumb-dumb. That's why I have to ask those dumb- dumb questions.

ARMSTRONG: It is a great question. They've been around for a while, but this is a newer version.

WHITFIELD: A lot of us have great memories, old formats, what do we do with it?

ARMSTRONG: You probably have a lot of these hanging around. You have some old wax lying around like good old-fashioned records. You want to get yourself an ion-usb turn table. This actually connects directly to your computer. You put the needle on the record, connect the turn table to your laptop or computer and you can record the music digitally so that you can put it on your CDs or mp3 player.

WHITFIELD: That is cool. Some folks are saying, what is that? Because they've never seen it before. Gosh, it's a turntable, people.

ARMSTRONG: That's right. You've got to know what a turntable is, right?

WHITFIELD: Some folks may not.

That's cool stuff. Where can you get that?

ARMSTRONG: That's made by Ion Audio. You can also go to Newmark, Target, and Best Buy. There are other brands out there. Sony has one, a USB turntable is what you're looking for. Look for USB turntable. They have different versions some that remove the computer so that you can actually put the record on and at the bottom it has a CD tray. You put the CD in the bottom. Put the needle in the record, hit record on the CD and your CD gets burned for you without a computer.

WHITFIELD: Oh my gosh, Mario very cool stuff, I think my favorite there has to be the t-shirt. ARMSTRONG: Has to be the t-shirt.

WHITFIELD: It's multifunctional. Want to give as tune to sign off on.

ARMSTRONG: You better believe it. Here we go. My Fredricka style. Here we go. Happy holidays.

WHITFIELD: Later. Thanks so much. Have a great holiday.

ARMSTRONG: Take care, guys.

WHITFIELD: Much more straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The gondolier business is a unique one to be sure, at least outside of Venice, Italy of course. So for this week's "Turnaround," Thelma Gutierrez reports on a California gondolier who turned the tide when the recession threatens his business.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is a story about the business of romance. A gondola cruise through the canals and waterways of Naples. Naples, California, that is, near Long Beach.

MIKE O'TOOLE, GONDOLA GETAWAY: We started with one little tiny boat in 1982.

GUTIERREZ: Mike O'Toole is a California beach boy who saw money and love. He started the gondola getaway near the bay where he grew up. I couldn't think of a better place for the interview. So this was born out of a love. It was born out of a dream that you had.

O'TOOLE: I had always seen pictures of gondolas out here. I thought that would be great. I did it as a college project.

GUTIERREZ: After he graduated, Mike set off for Venice where he learned to row with the gondoliers. He came back with his first boat.

O'TOOLE: Dug out his roses, replanted them, and made the boat float. You saw me standing alone.

GUTIERREZ: Twenty eight years later, Mike has a fleet of ten custom- made gondolas, and has seen a fair amount of courting.

O'TOOLE: They can tune you completely out. Oh, my word.

GUTIERREZ: Marriage proposals, and lately, gondola weddings. But in this economy, at $75 a couple per hour, Mike found out that even the most romantic at heart couldn't afford to indulge and business dropped.

O'TOOLE: Oh, it was 50 percent, at least. It was like; we were already into a problem now. We didn't realize it so we had to get creative. We had to get down and dirty and figure out something new. Got bless the Internet.

GUTIERREZ: Mike reached out and formed alliances with other Italian- themed business owners. How did you do it?

O'TOOLE: Just start sharing information. Being linked on their Website. Me having brochures in both places of both businesses. That was a way to make us bigger.

GUTIERREZ: What should small businesses avoid?

O'TOOLE: Avoid overspending. You don't know where the end of this thing is going to be. You've got to buckle up and hold on tight.

GUTIERREZ: If another low tide hits, will you be better prepared to deal with it knowing what you know now?

O'TOOLE: Yes. I think what we are building now is a strong low-tide business, so to speak. When it's high tide, it will be twice as high. When it comes down low, we are always prepared for that.

GUTIERREZ: He says it's always easier to weather a storm if you do something you love.

O'TOOLE: The tradition of a kiss underneath the bridge for the couple, so it's a pretty amazing -- well, we've got to keep that tradition ,here. Even though we don't know each other well enough yet. That's one bridge.

GUTIERREZ: Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Naples, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, so iIt looks sunny there. Well, it's very snowy almost everywhere else on the East Coast. We'll have much more on this nasty storm and very dangerous one as well, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, it's a nightmare for air travelers heading out for Christmas. The snowstorm on the East Coast has delayed or canceled hundreds of flights. Both major airports at the nation's capitol are at a standstill. Runways are closed at Reagan National Airport which is where we find our Elaine Quijano. And even at Dulles, we understand maybe one runway is open.

But, you update us right now, Elaine, what's going on?

QUIJANO: That's exactly right.

WHITFIELD: Or nothing's going on.

QUIJANO: Just a short time ago we learned -- yeah, can you tell it's awfully quiet behind me. That pretty much tells the story, here. A short time ago we learned from the spokeswoman of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority in fact, here at Reagan National Airport, all the runways are closed until at least 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, and at Dulles, as you mentioned, one runway does remain open, but the conditions continue to deteriorate, Fredricka.

And all morning long that's what we had been seeing as the boards inside here in the terminal reflected that. Cancellations, delays across the board, and yet we saw passengers continuing to be hopeful arriving here, trying to really see if they could beat the storm. Unfortunately at this point, they are out of luck.

Nevertheless, the crews have been out trying to keep those runways as clear as possible, although we don't see any activity right now. Certainly, they have been at this since well before the storm hit. They were out pretreating those runways, trying as best they could to keep them clear. But, now the runways shut down.

All of this, of course, is a scene echoed throughout the region, here. Here, at Reagan national, we've seen at least a foot of snow. We are going to go out and take an unofficial measurement next hour, if you will. Certainly it's not just the runways, the air travel that's been affected by all of this. But the D.C. Metro system, in fact, has decided to shut down all the above-ground stations because of the fact that the snow, the sleet, the ice is really just wreaking havoc with their rail system.

So, the above-ground stations shut down, as well. I can tell you, looking around and talking to folks just a few moments ago, they are getting ready to camp out for the night, if you will. The airport terminal itself is open, but no flights are coming in or out of Reagan National, right now -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So, Elaine, are people taking it in stride or are tempers flaring?

QUIJANO: No tempers flaring. Although, I have to tell you, it's interesting. I talked to one young woman, a 19-year-old freshman from Georgetown. She said this is really only her third or fourth time actually traveling by herself and she said, one of the things that's really helped her though is she was going to bring a lot of things home. So she's got a lot of stuff with her to kind of keep her busy. And so, that's what we are seeing. A lot of folks with a whole lot of electronic devices, defiantly look like they've got their various camps set up for what looks to be like a very long evening ahead -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Oh, man, on that hard floor. That is not comfortable at all. All right, Elaine Quijano, thanks so much. Appreciate that.

QUIJANO: Sure.

WHITFIELD: All right, so as we mentioned, a major snowstorm it is bad, making it very tough for air commuters and for those getting around by car, as well. Karen Maginnis in our Severe Weather Center.

It's ugly all over the place. You look at that map.

KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know, I feel sorry for that 19- year-old and everybody else.

WHITFIELD: Everyone will be fast friends soon enough.

MAGINNIS: Yes, and it is very frustrated. I've got someone traveling internationally, supposed to be home today. Not going to be home until 10:00 p.m. tomorrow, allegedly. And I'm thinking that's going to be pretty positive if that even happens.

All right. Going to show you flight explorer. There are, I can't believe it, they're actually flights that look like they are lined up coming into International. Actually these may be going into maybe into Richmond or something. But, we do have a lot of flights going onto JFK.

Now, these airports are not closed. They are awfully slow, but they're not closed. JFK, LaGuardia, they are open. It is snowing now. But, wait until this evening, things are going to be a lot different later on.

Here is Virginia, this is Maryland, there's Pennsylvania, there's New York. So, we see all the flights in this north eastern corridor taking place right now. Want to show you what's happening as far as radar is concerned.

Area of low pressure. This is a classic nor'easter. If you ever hear us talk about a nor'easter, it's usually an area of low pressure throwing that moisture back onshore. Winds out of the north and running into lots of cold air and that's why we've got this huge amount of snow. It's going to rival the record snowfalls that we've seen in the past. One going back to 1922 called, it's the Knickerbockers storm that collapsed a building, the Knickerbockers Theater in Washington, D.C. but they had 28 and 33 inches of snowfall there. And they probably won't get that much. But, we are looking at significant snowfall, Fred, on those interstates, on the runways. It's miserable, the weekend before Christmas. Terrible. Back to you.

WHITFIELD: It is tough. All right, thank you so much. And slow going. Karen Maginnis.

All right, a huge Christmas gift for one Atlanta independent school from one very big star.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Yes, it's a big snowy weekend in the nation's capital. But, it also I had for a very special weekend in Washington, D.C. for some very special people who hail from an Atlanta independent school. Not only did they get an invite to be at the White House, but they also received a huge cash gift from the Big O., Oprah Winfrey.

All right, so our guests are Ron Clark of Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta. He's joining us from Washington, D.C.

Good to see you.

And Jordan Still is a fifth grader who at Ron Clark Academy as well as Darius Emmanuel, also a fifth grader. Good to see both of you and your beautiful smiling faces. This is a big weekend. Jordan, I'm going to ask you first. How in the world did you all get to be invited to the White House?

JORDAN STILL, RON CLARK ACADEMY 5TH GRADER: Well, actually, we all, like, planned it months in advance. But, I also believe since last year what had happened last year, I think that was another reason why.

WHITFIELD: And that was in part because you received a big gift from Oprah Winfrey, $365,000, your school did last year. You got a lot of attention last year because of your academic accolades, as well as music you put together. Do I kind of have it in a nutshell, Darius?

DARIUS EMMANUEL, RON CLARK ACADEMY 5TH GRADER: Yes, ma'am. But we put a lot of things into music and a lot of economic and, like, domestic affairs going on in our country into music.

WHITFIELD: Oh, that's fantastic. And so, Ron, tell me about this beautiful invitation to get to the White House. And I'm kind of burying another lead to. It's a dual lead, yes the White House, but you got $1.5 million from Oprah Winfrey. And that's after she gave you $365,000 as I mentioned last year. Why?

RON CLARK, RON CLARK ACADEMY: Actually, I think miss win free recognizes the amazing work we do at our school. Our school is all about lifting up our students and put passion into the classroom. And also we train teachers, we invite teachers to come to our school from all over the country and around the world to learn about our methods and take our techniques back to their school systems. I think Miss Winfrey recognizes the great work that we are doing to effect educators around the world.

WHITFIELD: And so what are you going to do with this $1.5 million? Because, I understand just over $2 million in operating costs is what you spend per year, so now with this giant gift, are you going to have a surplus or has money been tight for your school as you head into 2010?

CLARK: I think money's tight for everyone right now and so the majority of the money from Miss Winfrey will go into our operating expenses. When Miss Winfrey gave the gift she said, Ron, the main reason I'm giving this gift is to draw attention to the great work that you're doing at the Ron Clark Academy in hopes that others will contribute and support your school, as well. And so she hopes that others will help us financially so that it will be easier for us to impact more teachers to do more with our students, and to make more of an impact on the world of education.

WHITFIELD: Oh, this is so exciting. And Jordan and Darius I love your perpetual smiles that I get to see on the monitors, even when Ron is talking.

So, give me an idea, Jordan, if you had some advice to Mr. Ron Clark about how to spend the money, how do you suppose some of that money should be spent at your school? What would you like to see happen? STILL: I think that a lot of the money should probably go into scholarships for the kids because 96 percent of the students are on scholarship at our school. I think a lot of it, I think some of it can actually go to funding for our cafeteria and our performing arts center and our teaching training center.

WHITFIELD: Wow. And Darius, do you have other ideas or do you agree with Jordan?

EMMANUEL: I agree with Jordan. Like, because we have a cafeteria in construction. We really want to build that up. So, yes, ma'am.

WHITFIELD: Oh, that's cool. So, Darius, what was the coolest thing about being at the White House? What did you see? What did you love? Give me the highlights of this trip.

EMMANUEL: The highlights of the trip is seeing things that we're studying. It's like, wow, it's so amazing. You never get these opportunities anywhere else. So, I'm very thankful to have opportunities to be able to just see things, be out of my state with my school. It's just amazing.

WHITFIELD: Oh, and. Ron, I'm not ignoring you, but you know, Darius and Jordan have so much to say.

So, Jordan, there are other places you saw besides the White House. You checked out the Lincoln Memorial and the Korean and Vietnam War memorials, as well. Give me an idea. Paint a picture for me. What were your impressions?

STILL: Well, the Korean War veterans memorial, I was amazed at the artwork of it. If you look at the soldiers' faces, they are so real. They're almost breathtaking when you look at them, how scared they look, how, like, they want to go home. And it's really, really amazing. It's almost haunting how they look. It's like they are talking to each other and everything.

WHITFIELD: Wow, I love your word choice. That just was so visual for me. Give me an idea, Darius, you know, what were your impressions of Washington before you got to this nation's capital? What did you expect?

EMMANUEL: I expected to see monuments, I expected a little bit of snow. I expected to just be a wonderful experience, but it's so far, it's been so much better than I thought. So much better and I intended. It's been so much wonderful. I thank Mr. Ron Clark and all the chaperones that are here.

WHITFIELD: That is so fantastic.

YOU KNOW, Ron, how many students do you have with you? And it sounded like you knew this was going to be a great trip. Now you've got all this beautiful snow and hearing darius and Jordan's description of this entire trip, you've got more than you could possibly bargain for, didn't you? CLARK: Yeah. We have 30 wonderful fifth graders here with us. And this trip is amazing. We have a couple of feet of snow and the kids, they're all soaked from the waist down. But, we went to the capital building in the White House today and we were the only ones there. We have braved the cold. We are loving the capitol and these kids are on fire with a love of education to see all the things they learned in their classrooms coming to life. So, it is just so special. We are thrilled to be here.

WHITFIELD: Wow, you got Washington at its best. You were in good company on Capitol Hill. There were U.S. senators hard at work today.

CLARK: We were there. We were in the Senate with them.

WHITFIELD: You all are so awesome. What an incredible weekend. Congratulations. And look, senators are still there. Live pictures on Capitol Hill as they've been trying to work on health care reform on this historic measure.

You know that for many of you join us right now, you know that Senate Democrats actually feel like they have all the votes need for tomorrow night's or Monday morning's historic vote. We heard from the White House, the president of the United State from the White House today, as well. You guys are at all the hot spots in D.C. this weekend. You really are special.

Ron Clark of Ron Clark Academy and Jordan Still and Darius Emmanuel, both fifth graders, 10 years old, so well-spoken and so descriptive. Thank you so much. Because, something tells me you're going to be in D.C. for a while, now.

CLARK: Thank you. We hope so.

WHITFIELD: Lucky you. All right, thanks so much, guys and gal.

EMMANUEL: Thank you.

STILL: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: And congratulations on the invites and the money, as well from Oprah. All right, you need to stick around, of course. Josh Levs is here with more in the form of viral videos you do not want to miss.

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WHITFIELD: All right. We thought we'd share with you some very cool video that our Josh Levs has been sifting through, finding the best of the best. And it just gets better every weekend, doesn't it?

JOSH LEVS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: It does. Well, you know, because we get to play with all of the best viral videos out there. And you know, I'm especially thinking of you folks stuck in airports today, you can relax...

WHITFIELD: They need this.

LEVS: Yeah, you deserve this. Stuck in your house. No matter where you are, you're going to love this. All right, we're going to start of with this one.

A lot of people blast people in their cars but these very creative and talented kids play music with their car. What you're about to hear is music made entirely by a Jeep, Cherokee.

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LEVS: This video -- this video has been posted to music and technology blogs all over the Internet as an example of how ordinary objects can be turned into instruments. And the blogs we've been reading talk about this. They say these eight friends spent two weeks on it and it took them seven hours to make this one perfect take. And every single sound, everything, is all of the sound they could come up with from inside that Jeep. The electric (INAUDIBLE), the horn, everything the got. Sampling it together. Some pretty powerful music. It's awesome, isn't it?

Now you get the opposite extreme for you. A soldier is going to kill some time with his buddies by showing off his drumming skills with only pencils, coffee cups and a can.

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WHITFIELD: Wow. So, much talent out there.

LEVS: He's got some skills, right? Talk about doing more with less. Who knows how to do that better than our men and women in uniform? All right, we'll give that a couple more seconds. You can see he's got the tattoos, there, some people are saying, you know what, he must have been in a rock band before he joined the military. So, that's impressive.

But now you got to see this. You know how every year holiday lights choreographed to music is this big online sensation? Well, try adding in another element, instead, try turning your entire house into one giant video game.

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LEVS: This is a viral video. It went viral practically overnight with more than a million hits. It shows the lights at this home in Burbank, California. They have been hooked up to an actual game of Guitar Hero.

WHITFIELD: He looks like Macaulay Culkin, you know, back in the day.

LEVS: For a second I thought that, too. I thought the same thing.

WHITFIELD: I didn't know it was intentional.

LEVS: But, this is so cool, because people can come up to this house, Fred, they can just go there. You, push a button and start playing with the wireless guitar. The lights are preprogrammed so they're going to go no matter what, but the player controls the music. And you don't have to worry about disturbing the neighbors, because they don't hear anything. It's transmitted over a low power FM radio that could only be heard over a car stereo or head phones. (INAUDIBLE) isn't' that pretty amazing?

All right, that takes a lot of technical know-how. This next one I guess we can add. Now this one took a lot of scotch tape, instead. This guy's friends gift wrapped his entire apartment.

WHITFIELD: Why?

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WHITFIELD: Oh my gosh.

LEVS: He went out of town and he gave the keys to some friends. His name is Louis (ph) and his girlfriend were out of town. His friends went wild with some wrapping paper. Literally every single thing in his entire apartment has now been wrapped.

WHITFIELD: All of it. All of it.

LEVS: All right, well you can send us your favorite viral videos of the week. Let's show them on the graphic where you can send to them. It's up the blogs, CNN.com/JoshLevs on FaceBook and Twitter JoshLevsCNN. See, Fred, you know, people stuck at the airport, just got a big smile.

WHITFIELD: I'm feeling warm and fuzzy.

LEVS: You know, me, too, a little bit.

WHITFIELD: I love to see the people who are really into the Christmas spirit.

LEVS: Yeah, even if it's a little creepy and weird. Be careful who you give your keys to when you go out of town.

WHITFIELD: OK, Always. Thanks a lot, Josh. Appreciate it. LEVS: You got it.

WHITFIELD: All right, if you really don't feel like 'tis the season, take a look at the storm that we have live reports from right after this.