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Pre-Trial Hearing for Drew Peterson; President Obama Outlining Proposal for Education Grant; Possible Kraft-Cadbury Merger in the Making; Earthquake off of Grand Cayman Islands; Filling Late Ted Kennedy's Senate Seat

Aired January 19, 2010 - 10:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Here are some of the stories making news right now. A pretrial hearing for Drew Peterson about to get under way in Illinois; for the first time we'll hear from dozens of witnesses who say Peterson's third wife Kathleen Savio feared for her life. You'll recall that her death was ruled an accidental homicide at first until Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy, disappeared.

President Obama is in an elementary school in Falls Church, Virginia, this morning. And in just about 30 minutes he's going to outline his proposal to increase funding for a competitive education grant. The race to the top program awards money to states and schools based on student test scores. President Obama is expected to ask Congress today for another $1.35 billion for the initiative. We will follow that live.

And after several bids, Kraft may finally have a deal with the maker of the Cream Egg. The British company Cadbury has accepted a buyout offer worth about $20 billion. That's a lot of creme eggs. Of course it's not official until the shareholders approve.

Rob Marciano back with us. If you are watching just a few minutes ago, we got word about an earthquake on the Grand Cayman, is that right? 5.8, Rob?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, 5.8. You know, I was just talking to David Applegate, one of the scientists at the USGS and trying to gain some insight. You know, the big question is are these two quakes related and I gave the analogy that you know, you break the foundation of a home and crack it in one spot and you're going to have some settling in another.

And that's not too far off the mark. He basically said that you have what's called trigger earthquakes, because when you have an earthquake like we had in Haiti, 7.0, you are relieving pressure in that spot but when you do that you're building pressure in another. So this 5.8 quake could be related in that aspect but it's not along the same faults. It's not along the same rupture zone but it is a similar depth. 10 km depth, 5.8. There was some shaking there. How much, if any, damage on Grand Cayman has yet to be seen but that is a strong earthquake to say the least.

We'll be reporting on that throughout the day.

PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks, Rob.

And topping what we know on the Haitian crisis right now, new video just in, of Haitian orphans arriving in Pittsburgh this morning. More than 50 on that flight. Well, these little babies in the process of being adopted by American parents right now. They should be in the arms of those families. U.S. officials cutting red tape for them. Thank goodness.

And then back in Haiti, thousands of people living in tent cities have security concerns now to go along with their worries about food and water. The Port-au-Prince police force of 4,000 has dropped to about 1,500 now. A lot of officers got injured. They were killed or they have been unaccounted for after the quake. The U.S. military considers the security situation stable right now.

While a number of roads are still congested are impassable, U.S. Military officials say logistical problems are clearing up at the Port-au-Prince airport.

Our correspondents in Haiti have been rushing to get you all these stories, but we're going to show you one case where our reporter actually wound up rushing earthquake victims to the hospital. Chris Lawrence tells us what happened to his crew.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We're driving to a story when a paramedic runs out in front of our truck begging for help.

(on camera): So what's happened was we were just passing by and the rescue teams told us can we please use your truck.

(voice-over): They just pulled a young woman out of the rubble and her blood pressure is 60/20. She's got to get to a hospital. They need to keep their truck to search for other survivors, so our CNN pickup truck becomes an instant ambulance and it's our driver behind the wheel.

A rescue team from Peru and Nicaragua had just pulled her out of a collapsed building six days after the earthquake.

(on camera): It looks like she had lost consciousness there for a minute or two and she just blinked and now she's opened her eyes again. I can see the paramedic. He's got his hand firmly on her neck. He's feeling for her pulse. It looks like we're pulling up now to the U.N. hospital. Maybe we were driving for 10 minutes, you think 10 minutes? 10-minute drive. It seemed like a lot longer.

This place really isn't set up for any sort of long-term care. You can see she's being treated outside right here on the sidewalk. The doctors are telling us what they're trying to do is just stabilize her enough so that they can transport her to a better hospital.

(voice-over): She's a college student named Maxey Fallon and her sister tells me she's been looking for her all week. We think it's over. But, no, they load another quake survivor in our flatbed. Both need to go to a better hospital. The first one can't take them. So we drive another 40 minutes and it's dark by the time we get to this French hospital where the paramedics finally get her inside.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Wow, Chris Lawrence, pretty powerful.

LAWRENCE: Yes, Kyra. I mean, from what we heard from the doctors too, they said that basically she's got - she was severely dehydrated, that she may have a few fractures. They were going to have to x-ray her this morning, but their most likely prognosis was that she was going to walk out of that hospital sometime in the next few days. Stunning. It's amazing.

PHILLIPS: And, you know, Chris, a lot of you guys are finding yourselves in the middle of situations like this and you're having to cover the story. At the same time, you can't turn away helping a human life.

LAWRENCE: No. I mean, you know, we were just driving down the street when that paramedic just ran out in front of us just flagging us down, waving us down saying we need your truck, we need your truck. We had no idea like hours later that we'd be at our third hospital of the night as they dropped her off. But I mean there - those guys were amazing.

I mean the paramedic was standing up in the truck holding the IV with one hand, checking the pulse. You know, Arthur Brice was also in the car with me. Arthur is with CNN Wires, our wire service, and you were translating in Spanish to the paramedic with the victim in Creole and French and us speaking English.

ARTHUR BRICE, CNN WIRES: We had a lot of languages. She only spoke Creole, I speak Spanish and a little French and so we were very, very fortunate in that the crew that saved her and the crew at the hospital there at the U.N. medical facility both were Spanish-speaking people. So it made it a lot easier for us to get information from them. They were very, very gracious in giving us that information and so that was just - it was luck all the way around. We happened to be at the right place, at the right time and working with the right people.

LAWRENCE: Yes, it was interesting, Kyra, you know, she told us that it was painful, that it was very dark. That she could even smell a lot of the bodies from the people who had died around her.

BRICE: She started crying. One of the - when we were talking with her, once she was stabilized and we got her to the third hospital about a couple of hours after we picked her up, we were asking her rudimentary questions. First, the doctors asked her questions about her health and state of being and stuff like that. She did not lose consciousness at all, she said. She was awake. She prayed the whole time.

But the only time she got visibly upset is when the doctor asked her if there were other alive people and she said no. He asked her if she could smell the bodies and she said yes. At that moment she broke down and started crying. It was just a very, very touching moment.

LAWRENCE: Yes, that was one thing we asked the doctors. How did this happen? How could someone be buried under all that rubble for six full days with no food, no water. And one of the paramedics said it was that her legs may have been bent over her in such a way that it took the pressure off her chest, allowed her to breathe and that she prayed. She was incredibly mentally strong and just didn't give up.

PHILLIPS: It shows the power of mind over body in a number of situations. Incredible story. Guys, thanks so much.

Well, Woody Allen once said 80 percent of success is just showing up, and that's what we're wondering right now. Who is going to show up to vote in Massachusetts? Voter turnout may be the biggest factor in who wins the special election to fill out the late Senator Ted Kennedy's term.

CNN's Dan Lothian joins us live now from a polling place in Medford, Massachusetts. So what do you think, has it picked up since we last talked, Dan?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's slowed down just a bit. I think we saw the folks headed out to work in the morning who were coming through here. They're still coming in. We have a steady stream, but not as many as we saw this morning. We heard from the secretary of state's office, a spokesman there saying he doesn't expect that the weather, it's snowing, will be a factor here.

Obviously this is New England. But there's a lot of enthusiasm behind this race. So they expect there will be heavy voter turnout, expecting about a million and a half or so people to turn out to the polls today. But as you point out, this is an interesting race not only for the state but also this country.

And what's really interesting about this is that just a couple of weeks ago most people nationally did not even know these names. Scott Brown, Martha Coakley. It was pretty much a race defined in the region of Massachusetts and New England. But what happened? Well, you have Scott Brown, who's a state senator, who all of a sudden wasn't expected to do well at all and now he tightens up this race. Running on health care reform or against health care reform, saying that it's time to make some serious changes here, gets a lot of support.

Martha Coakley, who was expected to be, you know, the front runner here just a couple of weeks ago, was ahead double digits, all of a sudden it's a tight race. And so why is this important for the nation? Well, it all comes down to that 60th vote in the Senate. As Scott Brown has said that if he wins this race, that he plans to vote against President Obama's health care reform plan. And so this is why this is so crucial. And at the heart of all of this is a lot of voter anxiety, anger, frustration about the economy, about some of the things that President Obama is doing. We heard some of the voters talk about that this morning as they were showing up here at the polls. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM MARABELLA, VOTER: The state, we want to show nationally that we can make a difference with our own change. Turn down the policies of Washington. We just can't take it anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: Now, Kyra, just about a week and a half ago the White House was asked if the president was going to get involved in this race at all, that he plan to come and visit, at that time, we were told no. Then over the weekend the president does come here to campaign for Martha Coakley, the attorney general, the Democrat.

Clearly the White House realizing what's at stake here. It's unclear what impact that will have on the vote but certainly what it did do is provide a little enthusiasm for this campaign, which has been lagging now for quite some time.

PHILLIPS: Dan Lothian, appreciate it. We'll be following the race all throughout the day, of course.

Another story that we are now following, we got word of an earthquake just near the Cayman Islands. 5.8. Our Rob Marciano is following that as well as Kafara Augustine, a reporter for Cayman 27 on the phone with us now. Kafara, what can you tell us?

VOICE OF KAFARA AUGUSTINE, NEWS PRODUCER, CAYMAN 27: Well, around 9:23 this morning, we were sitting down in our morning meeting, getting our story ideas down for the day when we felt a tremor. We didn't know what it was. We thought maybe some sort of car hit the building or there was some accident outside. Maybe two or three seconds later we felt a longer tremor.

And then someone in the newsroom said, you know what, I think this is an earthquake, we should get underneath our desks and you know, see what happens from there. About a couple of seconds later we saw everybody evacuating the building. We're on the top floor, we're located in central Georgetown. So we were on the top floor. We all went outside for maybe five, 10 minutes until we all saw that it was, I guess, safe to go back into the building.

PHILLIPS: So with regard to any type of catastrophic effect where you are, everything looks OK.

AUGUSTINE: Everything looks OK for now. We understand the earthquake was a 5.8. Basically, they (INAUDIBLE) from our local hazard management unit. The Cayman Islands Hazard Management and they basically said that so far, this is just so far, we've sent our crews out and they haven't gotten back to us yet, we're having trouble with our cell phones. But so far there have been no reports of damages or any injuries received by our 911 emergency center.

And Hazard Management also sent a press release that said there's no tsunamis from this event at this time. So we should be all right. Right now we're just trying to gather all the information we can. You know, get some video of the scene. We're hearing reports of that maybe there were some power outages, et cetera, but we're not sure at this time. It's still a little too early to tell.

PHILLIPS: Got it. Kafara Augustine, news producer there at Cayman 27. Kafara, appreciate it so much. We're going to take a quick break and we'll bring our Rob Marciano back and he's going to bring us what he knows as well.

Once again, earthquake 5.8 near the Cayman Islands. We're tracking it for you right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Voters going to the polls in Massachusetts right now. Let me tell you why you in Peoria, Baltimore or Dunlap, Tennessee, should even care about this. The race between Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley could throw a monkey wrench into the president's plan for health care reform.

Now that's important no matter which side of the issue that you stand on. And think about this, they're filling the late Ted Kennedy's Senate seat. Ted Kennedy, the liberal lion. His dream was universal health care. And now it could cost Democrats his seat.

Here to help us get through the meat of this thing, Chris Rowland. He's Washington bureau chief for the "Boston Globe" and has a foot in both cities right now. So Chris, you know, if Scott Brown does win, if the Republican does get the seat, you know, does the Kennedy spirit slowly fade away?

CHRISTOPHER ROWLAND, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF "BOSTON GLOBE": Well, I mean, if Scott Brown wins this seat, it's going to go down as one of the sort of monumental blunders, I think, in Massachusetts politics. It certainly would taint somewhat the Kennedy legacy in Massachusetts. But I think - I mean, it's, look, you can't separate Kennedys from Massachusetts. They're steeped in our history.

But what it will do, I think, is signal how much the ground has shifted beneath the Democrats in 2010 heading into the midterms, and how weak of a campaign Martha Coakley has run up until about four days ago when she finally woke up.

PHILLIPS: So it's more of how you run a campaign versus the quality of the candidate?

ROWLAND: Well, I think she - I mean Martha Coakley is actually - she has a good brand name in Massachusetts politics. She's a respected attorney general, a law and order candidate. She ran a respectable primary. I think what happened was that they had a very flawed strategy of trying to sort of ignore, if you will, over the holidays Scott Brown and keep the race quiet. While Scott Brown was out campaigning aggressively and also with very much more charisma but also with a message that was really resonating and that was running against health care. As you pointed out, Kennedy's legacy. Raising fears that it is an economic boondoggle, that it is, you know, going to require new taxes and tapping into a lot of voter anger. Very successfully transferring economic fears and unemployment fears onto this health care bill. And that's how he has caught fire.

PHILLIPS: Well, he's definitely caught some fire when he was 22 when he was a law student at Boston College. We can't ignore the pictures that surfaced here from this photo shoot that he had. Apparently cramming for finals and also having time to do a little spread for the magazine here.

Now, here's what's interesting. Let me ask you this. You've covered this beat for a long time. Is there a double standard going on here? Because I tell you what, if these appeared for the woman candidate, Martha Coakley, this would raise quite a ruckus.

ROWLAND: It's hard to imagine Martha Coakley appearing in a photo spread like that. But Scott Brown, for him, it works because he's this brash kind of, you know, devil-may-care candidate. He's riding around in a pick-up truck. He's kind of developing this sports-related kind of macho persona, really running -and I think that's sort of that brashness translates here.

Absolutely, you know, I agree with you, it's a double standard. I don't think a woman candidate could really at least in Massachusetts, you know, survive something like that. But definitely a double standard, absolutely.

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, we'll be obviously tracking this story all day. We're at the polls, a number of them. We'll be talking to you. Chris Rowland, appreciate your insight today.

ROWLAND: Thanks for having me.

PHILLIPS: You bet.

Straight ahead, we're talking more about the crisis in Haiti. Doctors have rushed in. You're helping out. Donations are adding up. So why isn't the help reaching the people that are dying for it? We're talking more about that right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: One week after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, doctors say there's an alarming shortage of medicine and supplies for the injured. We've been getting your e-mails, we feel your outrage, so where has the relief mission bogged down?

CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen in Port-au- Prince looking for answers. And I just want to read a part of your e-mail to our viewers, Elizabeth. This is why we wanted to talk to you today. This was just heart-wrenching when you wrote that corneas from cadavers were sent here to where you are that will now go to complete waste. Some kind of soul, sweet soul donated their own body parts and now no one will ever get this precious resource because they were sitting in the heat for so long. That has just got to be tough to watch.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I know. And here it's sort of inexplicable why these corneas ended up here. And it is hard to watch. Pardon me while I reach for them. This is a box of corneas. You can see it says eye on it. And there are corneas. I'll open up the box for a sec that people agreed to donate before they died. You know, they signed their driver's license or whatever and then they somehow ended up here.

So there's a cornea inside this little bottle and they have been here for days along with all the other supplies. So this hospital is getting corneas that they cannot use. There's no way they could do a cornea replacement surgery in this little hospital. They are also getting things like kits to do open heart surgery that they can never use. And they don't have things they do need.

For example, when they do amputations they need tourniquets and they're using a man's belt as a tourniquet. It's inexplicable how some things end up here and some things don't.

PHILLIPS: So but what are doctors telling you? Is stuff just randomly being sent to hospitals? Is there no one source of coordination? What do doctors say need to be done? What could have saved those corneas? Could they have gone somewhere and been effective?

COHEN: I mean, Kyra, I don't even think they knew these corneas were here. I kind of stumbled into them. They were between a box of granola bars and a suitcase. So I don't even know that they know that they were here. But to answer your question, there is no single source.

There are just things that kind of wind up in places. It's understandable. I mean this situation is chaos on top of chaos wrapped in confusion. So who knows why some things end up here. There are boxes and boxes of very useful supplies and then there are things like corneas, which they can never use and will now go to waste.

PHILLIPS: Elizabeth Cohen, we'll keep talking about this. Meanwhile, you can go to cnn.com/impactyourworld and figure out where exactly you can send money, at least at this point. Elizabeth, thank you so much.

Well, the desire to help is taking many forms. In Iowa, student athletes at Drake University now are dishing up meals from the heartland. They're filling bags with rice, soy, vegetables, vitamins, enough to feed a family of six. In all the school churned out 50,000 meals. A larger program, Meals from the Heartland, has also distributed more than a million meals in Haiti. Our hats off to you.

Another basic need in Haiti, shoes. So the landscape there is littered with rubble and debris. So some elementary school kids in Norwalk, Iowa, are helping out on that front. They have collected hundreds of shoes for Haiti's children. In fact they're expanding the shoe drive beyond their school to the entire school district.

And here's another fund-raiser, middle schoolers in Madison, Wisconsin, sold baked goods as well as coffee and hot chocolate. They had hoped to raise $500 for the Red Cross. And get this, they raised $1,200. And a local hospital matched it.

Not enough police to patrol Haiti's tent cities. Safety quickly becoming a concern. We'll show you what life is now like for many of those quake survivors.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Kyra Phillips.

PHILLIPS: Storms drenching California, threatening homes. Huge waves pounding a cliff in Pacifica and right on the edge, this apartment complex. Engineers are trying to figure out how to save it.

In southern California, mud has been flowing in areas burned by wildfire. Hundreds of people were evacuated yesterday. They're back home now but still on alert.

And Rob Marciano, a couple of things you're tracking. West Coast getting pounded by storms lately, and also earthquake near the Caymans. Where do you want to start?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Let's start with where they have earthquakes but aren't getting one today. They're getting one above ground, above sea level and in some cases, right at sea level where the waves are coming into California.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MARCIANO: And then, Kyra, you and I were talking about this earthquake.

PHILLIPS: Right. 5.8.

MARCIANO: 5.8, six miles deep, so similar depth as the Haiti quake. But generally speaking, this far away it's not related at all. It's similar in that it rides along the same plate boundary, North American plate and Caribbean plate kind of rubbing up against each other. But the scientists I've talked to, David Applegate at the USGS says it's definitely too far away to be an aftershock.

But it could be what's called a trigger earthquake where stress is relieved on one side of the plate and then builds up on the other, but their computer models don't show that as a potential. He thinks this was probably a weak spot to start, and the Haiti quake at 7.0 may have pushed it over the edge.

The good news, just light to moderate quaking. We can assume that the building codes in Grand Cayman likely much better than they were in Haiti. So I expect to see very little damage.

PHILLIPS: And different fault line, right? We should point that out.

MARCIANO: Different fault line, yes.

PHILLIPS: OK. Got it. Thanks, Rob.

MARCIANO: You bet.

PHILLIPS: Cutting red tape in a time of crisis. A short timing ago, a group of 53 Haitian orphans finally arrived in Pittsburgh. We were able to bring you these pictures, thanks to our affiliate WPXI. They were taken to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh where their adoptive parents are pretty darn excited to see them. The children were accompanied on the plane by doctors, a few members of Congress and Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. EDWARD RENDELL (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Good humor of these kids was just unbelievable. And we flew into Orlando Sanford airport. Then we had no plane to get us here.

But we eventually hooked up with our original plane, came and got us around 6:30, 7:00 in Orlando, and we are here. And it was a tremendous effort and, again, all of the government agencies did a great job on this. Couldn't have happened without them...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, it's not clear yet how Rendell was able to secure this trip so quickly. The children's adoption cases are at the end of the bureaucratic process. They'll be placed in foster homes until details of their adoptions are done.

It's been a week now since Haiti's quake, but because of the massive destruction and the lack of communication, we're still just getting new video of one of the -- of the actual event, actually. This is what the 7.0 quake looks and sounds like. We want you to take a look and a listen.

(VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Rick Hersh (ph) of Cincinnati was documenting a missionary trip to a Haitian orphanage when that cake -- quake struck. He says that everyone made it out safely. The 20 young girls living there now are staying in a one-bedroom apartment.

Thousands of others left homeless are now living in makeshift tent cities where they worry about their safety. CNN's Jason Carroll in Port-au-Prince with more.

I think, Jason, the worst thing that we heard, and we had a feeling that this possibly could start happening, is women are now starting to be raped during the night in these tent cities. That's what we're hearing.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Just one of the many crimes that are starting to happen in some of these tent cities, like the one behind me that exists all over the city.

One of the biggest ones that we've been focusing on is one is Dunma 40-B. We talked about the need for food and water. Now everyone is talking about the need, Kyra, for security, especially at night.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: This is one of Port-au-Prince's largest camps for survivors, a former golf course now home to thousands. Daytime, it is hot and uncomfortable. Nighttime presents even more serious problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can put something down and they steal it.

CARROLL (on camera): The people here tell me that the overwhelming number of survivors who end up in tent cities like this one are good people who are just trying to make do night after night. But there is that small element that exists here that makes life miserable for everyone.

CARROLL (voice-over): Incidents of sexual assaults, stealing food and water now being reported at camps like this all over the city.

PRISCA LABRANCE, SURVIVOR: I have to sleep on the floor and sometimes I'm afraid.

CARROLL: Prisca Labrance is 13 years old. At night she shows me how she does not go far from her family's tent.

CARROLL (on camera): And so you sleep there and is that your Bible over there?

LABRACE: Yes, it's my Bible.

CARROLL: Her family and the Bible her only comfort now.

LABRACE: I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid, because god is with me.

CARROLL (on camera): Because god is with you. You use God as your protection?

LABRACE: Yes.

CARROLL (voice-over): Not far from her tent, Gene Roman sits and wonders why police are not doing more to protect his family.

CARROLL (on camera): Have any of you seen police around here to help protect you?

GENE ROMAN, SURVIVOR: I don't see the police.

CARROLL: You don't see the police.

ROMAN: I see the police on the street.

CARROLL: On the street but not here?

ROMAN: No.

CARROLL (voice-over): Roman isn't seeing many police at the camp because many of them were victims of the earthquake, too.

MARIO ANDRESOL, NATIONAL POLICE CHIEF: It's clear that, you know, we do not have enough people.

CARROLL: Haiti's national police chief Mario Andresol telling me before the quake Port-au-Prince had more than 4,000 officers, and now less than half that.

CARROLL (on camera): It's got to be incredibly difficult and an incredible challenge for you to try to enforce crime in these areas at night.

ANDRESOL: Exactly, exactly right.

CARROLL (voice-over): Andresol says the international community needs to provide reinforcements because the tent cities aren't going anywhere and people like Prisca Labrance and Gene Roman are waiting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And Kyra, today the U.N. Security Council is expected to improve an increase in the number of peacekeepers here in Port-au- Prince. Obviously, you can see from the folks that we spoke to, the need is great and it's needed now. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Jason Carroll, thanks so much.

And we're just getting word that our Brian Todd just got off the USS Carl Vinson. As you know, that aircraft carrier came into the region to help support security efforts, getting aid into Port-au- Prince. In addition to surgeries there, they had a couple of rooms open for that.

Brian todd reported on that. Now at Port-au-Prince airport. Brian, how's everything going now on the Carl Vinson, and what about the Marine effort that was just getting underway when you were there?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, kyra, that marine effort is really what's breaking right now. The Marine Amphibious Readiness Group deploying off the U.S. warship Vitan (ph) has arrived in the region, and they're a critical part of the relief and security operation. You have 2,200 Marines now in the region. They're going to start to push onshore. We're told probably in the coming hours.

They have got fast-moving hover craft and other things like that that can get them onshore quickly. They have got a great logistics capability. They establish a security perimeter and start to repair roads, distribute water and food, they have got heavy-lifting Humvees, helicopters, trucks that can get onshore quickly and they'll start securing some areas from the beachheads very, very soon in the coming hours.

They've also got an even got more robust medical capability than this aircraft carrier has that we've been on for the last few days. So, this is a critical component of the relief and security operations, Kyra, and the Marines have arrived. 2,200 of them will be onshore very soon.

After hearing about the security situation through Jason Carroll's reporting, that security is definitely needed. Brian Todd, thanks so much.

And it's pretty clear that the quake victims need all the help that they can get so you can still go to CNN.com/impact to find out how you can get involved. We have links to more than five dozen organizations, providing everything from basic needs to medical help.

Some other top stories this hour.

The U.S. grants a temporary reprieve for Haitians living in the country illegally. In south Florida, large crowds are seeking refuge from their devastated homeland. The White House says that they can stay here for the next 18 months and not worry about getting sent back.

Also this morning, President Obama asks Congress to pony up for the nation's schools. Just a short time ago at an elementary school in Falls Church, Virginia, he's asking lawmakers for $1.35 billion. It's part of an initiative that awards grants to states.

Jap -- Japan Airlines, rather, filed for bankruptcy this morning, but they'll keep flying. JAL is in such bad shape the whole company is worth around the price of that plane. The restructuring will cut thousands of jobs and planes. They'll also abandon several international routes. American Airlines and Delta trying to get a piece of that action.

(COUGHS) Excuse me.

A special election in Massachusetts today. Much more than a Senate seat at stake. Many people outside the commonwealth could have a stake in that outcome. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, it's the one vote in one state that could shake up the entire country. Will Massachusetts voters today kill the Democrats' health care reform efforts or not? Not to mention some other things on President Obama's agenda. Josh Levs here to show us how this is going to all shake out.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kyra, I'll tell you something. We're certainly --especially on Capitol Hill seeing the political angles and the political gamesmanship of it, but at the same time, what we're also talking about the power of American democracy. And it is rare. This is something for Americans to stop and look at. Because it is rare for one special election like this to have this much power, and it all boils down to what is at the core of our democracy, the power of the vote.

Let's put up some of my graphics here. I'm going to start off reminding everyone the reason that we care. We've got some fun "Schoolhouse Rock" type graphics.

This is, first of all, the reason so many people are concerned about today's vote. This is our representation of our filibuster. So, here's one lawmaker going make going blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It takes 60 votes to break a filibuster. If Democrats lose the election, they lose their coalition of 60. The Republicans can filibuster health care or something else, hence the big concern.

Let's go to the next screen. I want you to see these numbers. Because this is what's at issue today. Let's zoom way out so they can see all of it. You've got inside Massachusetts a total of about 4.1 million voters, and about half of them here are unenrolled, so these are the people that a lot of -- both sides are fighting for right now.

I was reading some figures from Massachusetts. They're expecting up to about two million voters today. So, you do some numbers there. It boils down to about one million unenrolled voters or independent voters who both sides are really clamoring for today.

In the end, Kyra, those one -- just one million voters here could have a huge effect for the whole country on health care and other items on the president's agenda, so that's what's at stake in one state today. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. So, you've been looking into one tactic some Democrats say the party could use to fight back if they lose the seat, right?

LEVS: Yes, this is a term that confuses a lot of people and it's coming up big-time again today. Let's put up the next graphic here. I want to talk to you about something called budget reconciliation because this is something that some Democrats have floated as a possibility.

Here's the idea. Each year, you've got a budget. Well, in the 2010 budget, there was something that was stuck inside the budget, and the term for it is a budget reconciliation. It's a line about -- in this case, it was a budget reconciliation about health care.

When you have a line about an issue inside the budget, that's a reconciliation measure -- go to this last screen here. A reconciliation measure can pass on 51 votes instead of needing the 60. So, it only takes 51 votes in the Senate to pass reconciliation. So, the theory is Democrats might have as an option trying to use this technicality in their system.

But we've also been hearing from our hopes -- our folks on Capitol Hill that there are plenty of Democrats out there who don't want to see this to be used. They certainly don't want to see it take as long as this takes, and some are saying this could cause a lot of problems. Not as simple as it sounds. But that is why you're hearing that term again today, budget reconciliation.

In the end, if the Democrats need it, we'll probably talk about it for a while. But it all comes down, Kyra, to what happens in one vote in one state today among probably about a million people who may ultimately swing this race either way. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: We definitely won't stop talking about it, that's for sure.

LEVS: You got it.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Josh.

LEVS: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: "I want my dealership back." All those car dealers who were unceremoniously dumped last year, remember them? Now they have a chance to get back in the game.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Thousands of GM and Chrysler dealers still reeling after their Michigan mothership shut them down last summer. But some are fighting back, trying to win the right to reopen their dealerships. CNNmoney.com's Poppy Harlow introduces us to one.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM (voice-over): In all the fallout from the U.S. auto industry, Colleen McDonald didn't exactly make the headlines. But she and others like her should have.

COLLEEN MCDONALD, FORMER CAR DEALERSHIP OWNER: Everything that I once knew, was no more.

HARLOW: Within just two days last spring, McDonald lost all three of her car dealerships on the outskirts of Detroit. Victims of GM and Chrysler bankruptcy.

"We wish there was a better way, but there isn't," reads a letter to McDonald from Chrysler.

MCDONALD: I can't believe what's happened. We're sitting here in my showroom that's freezing cold as you know see and no heat on, no one is around, no cars. We're just here left to try and pick up the pieces and see what we can do in the future.

HARLOW: More than 2,000 U.S. dealership closings were announced last year, and more than 88,000 jobs lost as a result.

"The rejected dealers are left in the cold, shaking our heads, pounding our fists and demanding justice," McDonald wrote in a letter to lawmakers.

And Washington responded. President Obama signed an appeal procedure into law last month that allows owners of terminated dealerships to file for arbitration against GM and Chrysler. McDonald, who started working at her father's dealership when she was 16, is preparing to do just that to try to win back her Chrysler dealerships.

MCDONALD: This is what the right thing to do is, is to fight for what he worked so hard for and all I've ever done. That's our life, that's our livelihood. They took it away for no reason at all.

HARLOW: Despite testifying at the Chrysler bankruptcy hearing and meeting with lawmakers in Washington, McDonald couldn't save her business. All 170 of her employees lost their jobs.

MCDONALD: It's so, so sad. I mean to this day I just -- I miss them. I'll get teary-eyed already. It's horrible.

HARLOW: GM calls the restructuring of its dealer network extremely painful but necessary. Chrysler's CEO expressed his understanding when we told him about McDonald.

SERGIO MARCHIONNE, CEO, CHRYSLER: I understand her plight. She needs to understand ours and we'll try to find a way to resolve it for her benefit and for us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Poppy joining us now from New York. So, Poppy, fighting to win back a dealership, you know, this could be a pretty serious undertaking.

HARLOW: It's incredibly expensive, Kyra. The dealers have until Monday to file for this arbitration. It's going to cost them thousands of dollars, a lot of time, a lot of energy. So, we've seen a lot of these dealers giving up. Saying fine, you're going to close our dealership, fine.

But this woman, Colleen McDonald, is not. What's so interesting, Kyra, is not only is she filing for arbitration. She sent the papers in last week. You know what else she did last week? She sent in paperwork to file -- to run for state Senate, which I find fascinating.

She said, "I was unhappy with my own representation in Michigan. They weren't here for me when I was trying to save my dealership, so I'm going to run for state Senate, and I'm going to try to be a lawmaker." Pretty impressive woman with lofty goals ahead of her. We'll be following her story. We'll bring you her story, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Lofty indeed. Good, I look forward to the follow-up. Thanks, Poppy.

Harnessing star power for Haiti. CNN's Larry King calls, and they answer. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean fighting back against allegations that he siphoned money from victims. Tears streamed down his face as he described collecting the corpses of earthquake victims in the capital. In his words, Port-au-Prince is a morgue.

Jean gave an impassioned defense of his charity. It collected more than two million dollars in a few days. He said mistakes were made, but he never used the money for personal use.

If you tuned into CNN last night, you may have taken part in one charity event. Our Larry King assembled a staggering roster of stars, and with your help, they raised more than $7 million for the relief efforts. CNN's Alina Cho has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN MAYER, MUSICIAN: (SINGING).

MOLLY SIMS, ACTRESS: They described it as a nuclear bomb going off.

MICK JAGGER, MUSICIAN: This is like a huge, massive disaster, for - for one of the poorest, poorest countries.

PAULA ABDUL, ENTERTAINER: Overwhelming despair, and families not knowing who's alive.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): J-Lo, Mick Jagger, P. Diddy, Snoop Dogg, Ben Stiller, even Ringo Starr - a constellation of stars with so much to give, helping people with so little.

Larry King welcome all of them for a telethon and tweet-a-thon called, "Haiti: How You Can Help" and they raised millions in a matter of hours.

RYAN SEACREST, TV AND RADIO HOST: The need is immediate.

CHO: And what's more immediate than Tweeter? Ryan Seacrest, an avid tweeter, was on hand in Larry's Tweet Suite with Jared Leto, who lived in Haiti.

JARED LETO, ACTOR/MUSICIAN: See, I saw through Tweeter that people are actually building houses around the world. Some of our fans are kind of joining in and - and helping the cause.

CHO: Some of the first images of disaster came in through social media. Now it's being used to prevent a humanitarian aftershock.

SEAN "P. DIDDY" COMBS, RECORDING ARTIST: Haiti, for me, is such an inspirational country. They were the - the first people to - to take back their freedom and the first people to say that we will not be slaves any more.

GARCELLE BEAUVAIS-NILON, ACTRESS: My cousins are OK. My aunt is still missing, but my cousins are OK. And I got to speak to a few Haitian callers, and we got to speak in Creole. And I can't tell you how - how moved I am that everybody cares.

CHO: Even Larry King's signature suspenders are helping.

JEFF PROBST, GAME SHOW HOST: Herbil Grand (ph) says Larry should auction off his suspenders tonight.

SEACREST: Jared Leto says $400.

CHO: And Ben Stiller, who I sat down with just a few weeks ago, says he hopes Haiti remains in everyone's heart long after the last plane leaves.

BEN STILLER, ACTOR: A month, two months, you know, six months down the line, when people aren't doing specials on it, when the news cycle's moved on, the support they're going to need, and I think that's - that's what - you know, we have to all sort of work towards keeping attention.

CHO: I spoke to Ben Stiller by phone after the show, and he told me he does plan to go back to Haiti once the cameras are gone. By the way, Ben does have his own charity, StillerStrong, and he has redirected his focus. All donations will now go towards emergency relief in Haiti.

He also told me his biggest asset as a celebrity is that he can draw attention to a cause, and by all accounts, it worked.

Alina Cho, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, the earthquake in Haiti sure has touched people's hearts and pried open their wallets. As of yesterday, Americans have contributed more than $200 million to relief efforts.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Wow.

PHILLIPS: Wow is right, Tony. And that's nearly double the amount given in the first week after Hurricane Katrina. And also, Tony, charity organizers say that the generosity is especially remarkable given the economy and high unemployment. It goes to show when you've got the will, man, you can make the way.

HARRIS: Looks like it. It really does. That is a lot of money. We just hope it gets to everyone that needs it and that six months down the road, we're starting to rebuild that country. Desperately needs it. Boy.

PHILLIPS: Have a great show.

HARRIS: Yes. Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right.