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American Morning

Rangel Walks Out of Ethics Hearing; Growing National Outrage Over Airport Security; Palin's TV Success; Beatles Heading to Apple?; Having the Winning "Touch"; Outrage at the Airport

Aired November 16, 2010 - 06:00   ET

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


KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Thanks so much for being with us. It's Tuesday, November 16th. Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm John Roberts. Good morning to you. Thanks so much for being with us. Let's get you caught up on what happened overnight.

His career and reputation on the line and he walked out. The jury deliberating the fate of Congressman Charlie Rangel this morning after a mini circus erupted during his corruption trial yesterday. We're live in Washington waiting to learn his fate.

CHETRY: He warned the TSA agent not to touch his junk. And now it seems that everyone is now talking about airport security. John Tyner, the man who said no to body scans and pat downs is speaking out to CNN about privacy and also the ground swell of support he's getting.

ROBERTS: And come together. Could America's largest music retailer and the best-selling musical group of all time finally be joining forces? The rumors are flying fast and furious this morning that Apple is about to finally bring the Beatles to iTunes. We've got the latest on today's big announcement.

CHETRY: But first we start in Washington where the jury is still out this morning in the case against a New York Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel who actually walked out of his own trial yesterday.

ROBERTS: The man who helped write the U.S. tax code is accused of not paying his and is facing more than a dozen ethics violations.

Brianna Keilar is live for us in Washington this morning. And what's being taken, I guess, as a stunt by many people by Rangel Monday in the hearing room. And people are trying to figure out where this is all going.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, John and Kiran, certainly this was a surprise. And don't we know that Charles Rangel has a flare for the dramatic. Well, boy, was it on display yesterday. He walked into this hearing room. He had a smile on his face and he was by himself, representing himself without a lawyer and he basically told this ethics subcommittee that he wasn't sticking around. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHARLES RANGEL (D), NEW YORK: I object to the proceeding. And I, with all due respect, since I don't have counsel to advise me, I'm going to have to excuse myself from this proceeding. Because I have no idea what this man has put together over two years that was given to me last week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So Rangel said that he told the law firm he'd been working with for the past couple of years that he may not be able to pay them. He spent $2 million in legal fees. He said it was going to cost as much as $1 million more. And he said they withdrew when he said he couldn't guarantee that he could pay those legal fees. But a spokesperson for this law firm, Zuckerman Spaeder, telling a different story yesterday in a statement, saying this law firm did not seek to terminate the relationship and explored every alternative to remain as his counsel consistent with House ethics rules prohibiting members from accepting pro-bono legal services. And because Rangel wasn't there yesterday really to mount his defense, this all wrapped up much more quickly than we thought it would. We thought it could last a week. And actually the ethics subcommittee deliberating already instead, and they're going to begin doing that at 9:00 a.m. Eastern today, guys.

CHETRY: And so what's next? What happens now?

KEILAR: You know, at this point, they have to decide if he is guilty of any of these 13 counts. There are 13 alleged violations of House rules. They stem from a variety of different things, including the fact that he didn't pay taxes on rental income from a villa that he owns in the Dominican Republic. Also, he failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets in his congressional financial disclosure statement, pretty important for members of Congress. And he misused, according to this statement of alleged violation, he misused a rent-controlled apartment for campaign purposes and also used congressional letterhead to solicit donations for a college center bearing his name. And that included soliciting donations from companies that had business before his tax-writing committee.

Remember he stepped down a few months ago, but he used to be in charge of that very powerful House Ways and Means Committee. And at this point, we're thinking expulsion is unlikely. He hasn't been charged or convicted criminally, of course, but he could get any varying kind of rebuke. And that's what we're waiting for the ethics subcommittee to decide, John and Kiran.

ROBERTS: Always interesting when it involves Charlie Rangel, Brianna.

KEILAR: Indeed.

ROBERTS: Thanks so much for you.

And the Tea Party getting one of the party's most powerful mainstream GOP senators to change his mind. Senator Mitch McConnell says he is now on board with the GOP push to end earmarks. They are the thousands of pet projects stuffed into pieces of legislation each and every year. McConnell's reversal comes after the Tea Party leaned on him to support the earmark ban, even threatening to force a vote on the issue.

CHETRY: Brand new overnight. Senator Lisa Murkowski has officially pulled ahead on write-in votes in Alaska. She now leads the Republican nominee Joe Miller by about 1,700 votes, but 7,000 write-in votes cast for Murkowski are now being challenged. Miller upset Murkowski in the GOP primary with the help of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party. In an interview with Katie Couric, she didn't have many nice things to say about her former governor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R), ALASKA: I just do not think that she has those leadership qualities that intellectual curiosity that allows for -- for building good and great policies. You know, she was my governor for two years, and I don't think that she enjoyed governing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Murkowski was back on Capitol Hill yesterday. It may have been a little bit awkward for some of the senators who would actually urge her to quit before she lost the primary.

ROBERTS: Now to the growing national outrage over airport security. A lot of air travelers are fired up. And now we're hearing from the 31-year-old software engineer from California who is fanning those flames.

John Tyner got everyone talking this week when he refused to submit to a body scan and an enhanced pat down at San Diego's airport. He secretly recorded his confrontation with TSA agents on his iPhone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TYNER: You touch my junk I'm going to have you arrested. I don't understand how a sexual assault can be made a condition of my flying.

TSA: This is not considered a sexual assault.

TYNER: it would be if you weren't the government. I'd like only my wife and maybe my doctor to touch me there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Because he refused the pat down, Tyner has been told he faces an $11,000 fine and a possible civil suit for failing to complete his security check. He spoke to CNN yesterday and says the public support that he has received is overwhelming.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN TYNER, PASSENGER: Since my story has gotten out, I've gotten plenty of comments from people that they probably got worse than what you just got. I've had people say that they were so handled so roughly by TSA, that they ended up with a, you know, sick to their stomach feeling for the rest of the day.

The thing that upset me so much about the search was that the guy intended to touch my groin. I wasn't going to stand for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Meanwhile, protesters are organizing a national opt out day for November 24th. That's the day before Thanksgiving. Thousands of people have signed up on Facebook. They're pledging to make a very busy travel day a lot more difficult by refusing to submit to what they're calling, quote, "the federal government's virtual strip search, porno scanners, and enhanced pat down groping techniques."

CHETRY: Wow. What a nightmare it's going to be for the people that are at the airports.

ROBERTS: If people go ahead with it, you know. I don't know how many would. I think most people would probably just want to get through -- get it over with.

CHETRY: Get where they're going, especially with the amount of money they've had to pay to travel the day before Thanksgiving, right?

ROBERTS: Exactly.

Coming up at 6:30 Eastern, by the way, Jeanne Meserve has more of our interview with John Tyner. And you'll hear what Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano plans to do next. Then at 8:40 Eastern, hero- pilot Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger joins us. He made headlines this week when he said flight crews should not be required to submit to body scans.

CHETRY: Also new this morning, former JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater has a new gig. He signed a deal with a company that makes mobile communications applications. And he'll be judging a contest for them. Air travelers are being asked to submit their craziest travel experiences on a plane and then Slater will pick the best one.

ROBERTS: Emma Watson turned a lot of heads last night at the New York premiere of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." The film opens on Friday. And when everyone stopped gasping about Watson's new hairdo, she gave us this preview of film number seven in the boy wizard series.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMMA WATSON, ACTRESS: It's a lot darker. It's more intense. It's more of an adult movie. It's pretty sad at times, pretty scary at times. There's a part of it that it really feels like a horror movie or something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Part two of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is due out next year. And that will be the final installment in the series' 10-year run. I guess people were so surprised about the haircut because contractually she hasn't been able to cut her hair in any different style than she's had for the movie, so --

CHETRY: Yes. So she went all in once. She was able to, right?

ROBERTS: She certainly did. She's so pretty, though. You know, she doesn't need hair to look beautiful.

ROBERTS: Yes. And Harry talks about the kiss that she gave him, saying that she went all out for that too. So we'll see what the movie holds.

CHETRY: Well, people have been debating whether it's a reality show or a political ad. But whatever it is, Sarah Palin's new hit show is a hit with viewers. Nearly five million people tuned into the premiere of "Sarah Palin's Alaska," making it TLC's number one launch ever. Palin's daughter Bristol also opened up about her pregnancy and her relationship with Levi Johnston on last night's "Dancing with the Stars."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRISTOL PALIN, SARAH PALIN'S DAUGHTER: (INAUDIBLE) golden child. And I never really had any problems or challenges until I started dating Levi.

SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: Our little world kind of stopped spinning the day that Bristol came to us and told us that she was pregnant. Naive us thought it couldn't happen to our family, you know? It wasn't long after that that I was tapped to be the vice presidential nominee for the Republican Party and here Bristol was her little baby bump growing on a national stage for all the world to see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Well, Bristol Palin also earned her highest score yet last night. But it wasn't enough to get her out of last place where she's been for much of the season.

ROBERTS: And for better or for worse, Sarah Palin has made her mark on the English language. The Global Language Monitor chose her term "refudiate," an apparent combination of refute and repudiate, as one of the top words of 2010.

CHETRY: Yes. Also making the list -- spill cam, which beams (ph) back pictures of the gulf oil spill from underground; "vuvuzela," the noisy souvenir from the World Cup tournament in South Africa, and "snowmaggedon." That's what President Obama called the winter storm that blanketed the mid-Atlantic last winter. We had them flipped. But anyway, people get the point, hopefully.

ROBERTS: "Snowmaggedon." It's just one of those words that really kind of describes what you're experiencing.

CHETRY: I forgot how bad it was actually, now that we're almost a year away.

ROBERTS: Bad in some areas of the country over the last few days, as well. Let' get a quick check of the morning weather headlines. Rob Marciano in the extreme weather center for us.

Hey, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. No "snowmaggedon" at least today. I'm sure we'll get something similar as we get later into the winter. But right now, what you're seeing behind me, a lot of white. That is this cloud cover and a lot of it across the eastern third of country. It's got a lot of rain with it, too.

So a bit of a soggy start on this very fall-like Tuesday. And the rain stretches all the way from Maine down to the Gulf coast. And the heaviest amounts of rain are down across the Gulf Coast again today, where we're seeing some potential for tornadoes.

Tornado watch in effect until 10:00 this morning for much of the Florida Panhandle including Panama city. You see that cluster of storms rolling through there. Even if we don't see tornadoes, we'll probably see thunderstorms that could produce some straight-line winds of 50, maybe even 60 miles an hour. So a rough day for the east coast, but in some cases the rain is welcome. And yet another winter storm is diving south through the Colorado, into the Canadian Rockies and down into the intermountain west and we'll be detailing what happens next with that system as things get a little bit more interesting as we get closer to winter and more "snowmaggedons."

John and Kiran, back up to you.

CHETRY: You really think it was a "snowmaggedon" last year? I forgot. I forgot how bad it was.

MARCIANO: For D.C. and Baltimore, I mean, it was absolutely historic. It may have several storms to make for a snow apocalypse, I guess you could say as well.

CHETRY: Oh, they did call it snow apocalypse as well.

ROBERTS: It's so bad, they're still digging out in some areas.

Thanks, Rob.

MARCIANO: All right.

CHETRY: Still to come, Apple expected to make a major announcement today. So it could be soon you'll be able to get Beatles on your iTunes.

ROBERTS: And this is one brave cat. Brave or maybe there's another word for it. See what happens when the cat faces off with first, one alligator and then two of them.

CHETRY: Also, later, don't you hate when someone parks like this? Oh, come on. Don't take your Corvette out if you can't park it normally.

Well, there's a new Web site aimed at calling them out and also letting you print tickets to put on their windshields coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: It's coming up now on 15 minutes after the hour. We've just gotten some news this morning that the on again off again, on again off again, off, off, off, on, on, on relationship between Prince William and Kate Middleton is on again in a very big way. They're announcing their engagement this morning.

CHETRY: Yes. So we're ahead of the curve last week when we had -- we did a guest segment about this to see is this really going to happen. So they say summer or spring of 2011. Congratulations to both of them.

ROBERTS: A big royal wedding, this event.

CHETRY: Oh, yes.

ROBERTS: Well, the buzz is building this morning that the other British royalty, the Beatles are about to make their music available on Apple's iTunes.

CHETRY: Christine Romans is here, "Minding Your Business" now.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: After a long and winding road, they proved they can work it out, and, finally, Beatles fans will get some help, getting your Beatles tunes on iTunes.

ROBERTS: Because they're going to come together now.

ROMANS: They're coming - there you go. We could do this for hours -

ROBERTS: But who is the walrus?

CHETRY: But you could also just take your Beatles CD -

ROMANS: True.

CHETRY: -- dump it onto iTunes and have it.

ROMANS: True, which is what we do in our - in our Beatles-loving household. But now you'll be able to get on iTunes.

We think this is what the announcement is coming out of - of Apple today. This has been an acrimonious relationship between Beatle and Apple - the Beatles, by the way, have a company called Apple Corp, which has been fighting trademark and it's just been a disaster.

But it looks like they're coming together, and this is why we think so. Let's go to the wall. I want to show you the mysterious message on the iTunes website. Apple is known, as you all know, for Apple's cryptic messages. So - well, this is what we found out yesterday on their website. "Tomorrow is just another day. That you'll never forget."

Look at those clocks, California, New York, London and Tokyo. Well, the bloggers and the people who watch Apple for everything that it does - that they do think that this might be a reference to the Beatles' 1965 album cover "Help." I don't know, but this is the way that Apple usually works.

It's no secret that the Beatles' catalog has long eluded iTunes, and Steve Jobs - Steve Jobs, who is a big Beatle fan - this - the Beatles were a major holdout on iTunes, where you can download a song for 99 cents or for a whole album. You couldn't do that with the Beatles for a very long time for a lot of different reasons we are all dying to find out exactly what kind of deal they hammered out and what the pricing will look like for you on Beatles songs.

Apples iTunes has 10 billion songs sold on - on this site, so, clearly, this is a way that music is going to be delivered. They have a catalog of 12 million songs. The Beatles have sold 177 million albums. So these are two music behemoths,

Since Apple launched the iTunes seven years ago, it has completely reshaped the music industry. Now, 70 percent of music downloads are on the Apple site, and Amazon has its own - its own service, which is about 12 percent, and there are a few others that have some more, a little - much smaller slice of the pie.

But now you're seeing these two come together - we think. We think, because they haven't announced it yet, but this is the way that Steve Jobs operates, right? We all kind of wait and they build all this suspense before they -

CHETRY: And they get all this free advertising, is - is people like us saying, what are they going to do?

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: But, for music lovers, they have been waiting for this for a very, very long time.

And I don't know how much it'll be. What will the price be? Will there be special Apple pricing, maybe? Because $1.29 is the most expensive song you'll get on iTunes. Will you be able to get individual songs or albums? We just don't know yet.

ROBERTS: Still, a couple of very notable holdouts too, Kid Rock, AC/DC.

ROMANS: That's right. That's right. And - but - but when you look at the Beatles, many people are saying if the Beatles go over, does everyone else say, OK, now we're all going to - we're going to move in. But -

CHETRY: But if you love the Beatles so much, you have their CDs already. That's point.

ROMANS: Yes. That's true. CHETRY: And you - and you'd - everything -

ROMANS: We do in my house. We do in my house. And we have all of our - you know, all of our play lists, all are full of Beatles.

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: It has - it has been - been a glaring exception, though, from - from I Tunes.

ROMANS: It has. It really has.

I think the thing about iTunes that is so fascinating is how now people are sampling just a single song instead of an album. It's changed the whole idea of what is an album, with the B side, what - you know, the things that -

ROBERTS: And Apple is what you -

ROMANS: -- we old people know about.

ROBERTS: -- make up when you download it.

ROMANS: Yes. It's -

ROBERTS: All right.

ROMANS: I mean - so we'll tell you what - what - but what you - I don't know. Do you - do you buy the 1965 album cover reference, the clocks?

ROBERTS: Pretty clever.

ROMANS: I think it's clever, too.

ROBERTS: Thanks, Christine. We'll be watching this one.

ROMANS: Sure.

ROBERTS: Well, coming up next, a cat against an alligator? Who do you think is going to win this one? You might be surprised.

CHETRY: Also, a controversial competitive eater - you remember Kobayashi, putting down the hotdogs and trying his hand at pizza. We'll tell you what happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Twenty-two minutes past the hour. Welcome back. Here are some of the stories that got us talking this morning in the newsroom.

Kobayashi belly aching again. The competitive eater failed in his attempt to break the world record for eating pizza. It was last night in Brooklyn. It was a speed challenge. Maybe he shouldn't have used the fork and knife. Maybe it would have gone better. He finished a 12-inch pie in just 2 minutes and 3 seconds, but that's actually surprisingly 18 seconds off of record pace. Using a knife and fork. Again, he probably could've made up those seconds.

Kobayashi also complained that the pie was too soft to scarf it down in time.

ROBERTS: Boy, he's just - he's really slipping, isn't he?

CHETRY: Yes.

ROBERTS: Well, this guy used to - he used to dominate, now, what's he all about? You know, a 12-inch pie in three minutes. Anybody can do that. Particularly our Rick Salisi (ph), right?

CHETRY: Yes. You should get in the world of competitive eating.

ROBERTS: Well, they help make New York, New York. Now the city wants your input as it tries to choose the taxi of tomorrow. They've got it narrowed down now to three choices.

Well, you know that it's going to be more boxy, more like the dreaded minivan. One from Nissan, one from Ford, the other from a Turkish car maker called Karsan with something that looks a little bit like the taxi out of that film "Total Recall."

CHETRY: Pretty cool. Well, if you don't see -

ROBERTS: But your head doesn't explode when you get in.

CHETRY: Thank goodness.

It's something you don't see every day on the streets of Chicago - a Wile Coyote. A city official say that the animal is just actually timid, doing its job, hunting for rats and mice. There you see him.

The coyote's been fitted with a tracking collar now so that officials can keep tabs on him.

ROBERTS: OK. So, from a coyote to a cat, and this one either a fearless cat or a very stupid cat, locked in a standoff with an alligator. The video all over the Internet, as you can imagine.

You can see the paws come out. The alligator backs off. But it comes back a little while later and says, oh, well, this cat deserves some company. So it comes back with another alligator. And the cat - no, the cat's standing its ground there. The second alligator comes out, the cat just whacks it on the snout and proves cats really do rule.

CHETRY: The funny things is you saw the flip flops on - there was a guy just standing there a couple feet from the alligator, so -

ROBERTS: Apparently - apparently the alligator - apparently the alligators might have been fed prior to that, but if kitty comes back when they're hungry, it might be a different outcome.

CHETRY: Hopefully she'll stay away.

Well, it's one of the most random "Family Feud" answers ever, and it seemed like the contestant could not wait to blurt it out. Survey says - check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE HARVEY, HOST, FAMILY FEUD: Something a burglar would not want to see when he breaks into a house. Rob?

"ROB", FAMILY FEUD CONTESTANT: Naked grandma!

HARVEY: Naked - huh?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Naked grandma.

Well, it left the host, Steve Harvey, speechless for a few seconds. And, believe it or not, it actually came up as number two, since naked grandma apparently fell under gun or occupant.

What? That's a stretch.

ROBERTS: I would think. It's kind of like that woman that solved the "Wheel of Fortune" puzzle in one letter, you know? Who comes up with these things?

Still to come, how do you think your favorite basketball team is going to do this season? Well, the answer may be in the fist bumps. Carol Costello explains, coming up next.

CHETRY: Also, the growing controversy over the new TSA pat down procedures. The head of Homeland Security speaking out, defending the practices, but many Americans are quite outraged about it.

Twenty-six minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Twenty-eight minutes after the hour.

Gives new meaning to having the shooter's touch. A new study says the secret to a basketball team's success may be in how many times they bump, slap and smack each other.

Carol Costello joins us live from Washington. Who would study such a thing?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, apparently researchers out in California would study such a thing. The way you put it makes it sound so silly, but it's really not. It works. How much is a fist bump worth or a high five? Or if you're a baseball player, a pat on the backside?

Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley say it's worth a winning season. We talked to researcher Michael Krause, who said his team studied the entire 2008-2009 basketball season and they found the greater the intended contact like fist bumping after a play, the more winning the team.

I know what you're thinking, well, duh, if you're winning, of course, you'll fist bump. But consider this, the study showed that touch improved performance even after accounting for player status and preseason expectations. Touch is a sophisticated way of saying I'm on your side, I'm going to be working with you. You're making those inferences with a simple chest bump, John.

ROBERTS: So who are some of the more touchy feely guys out there?

COSTELLO: I'm glad you asked that. If you're a Celtics fan, Kevin Garnett was found in the study to be the touchiest player, which makes sense, because he's the most physically demonstrative people - he's one of the most physically demonstrative people< I should say, in the league. He really likes to touch his teammates and let them know that he's a great defensive player.

Chris Bosh, Matt Barnes and Kobe Bryant also rank high. So maybe it's no surprise that the Celtics and the 2009 NBA Finals Champion - Champions the Lakers were the top touchiest teams. I know what you're wondering, John.

ROBERTS: And that is?

COSTELLO: I know because I'm -

ROBERTS: Because I'm wondering - because I'm wondering a lot of things. What's top of mind here?

COSTELLO: What about - what about LeBron James? Is he a touchy player? And Dwayne Wayne? You know they're both -

CHETRY: You didn't think about that, did you?

ROBERTS: No, I didn't. But that wasn't even in the realm of possibilities.

COSTELLO: Well, I'm here to help you this morning. Kiran, you know what I'm talking about. Are they touchy?

ROBERTS: It's only 6:30 in the morning, people.

COSTELLO: Anyway, they're both from the Miami Heat and they are not as touchy as some of their teammates.

ROBERTS: Really?

COSTELLO: So, I don't know what that will say about the Miami Heat season. We'll just have to see.

CHETRY: Google John Wall and "The Dougie" and watch this entrance, OK? And then see next year whoever does "The Dougie" the best, does their team win? It could be the new indicator, Carol. COSTELLO: I'm going to do it and I'm going to call these researchers at the University of California at Berkeley.

ROBERTS: But I think you're right what you said at the top. What comes first -- is it the winning attitude, or is it the fist bumping and hand-slapping and butt-tapping and all of that?

COSTELLO: Well, you know, the other interesting --

ROBERTS: It's not the chicken and egg thing.

COSTELLO: True. The other interesting thing they found, though, is that this doesn't really work in the office because if you fist bump or chest bump your fellow workers in the office, they think you're invading their personal space.

CHETRY: Yes, and you're getting marched into H.R.

ROBERTS: And if you pat co-worker in the butt. That's not good either.

CHETRY: Carol, thank you.

COSTELLO: Sure.

CHETRY: Well, it's half past the hour right now, time for us to look at our top stories.

ROBERTS: Not that I've tried -

CHETRY: No, of course not. We're just -- we're assuming. We're just making an inference there.

The jury's still out on Congressman Charlie Rangel this morning and what is going to happen to him, one of those powerful Democrats in Congress. Yesterday, he walked out of his own ethics trial. He's accused of 13 ethics violations, including failing to pay taxes on his home in the Dominican Republic.

ROBERTS: Apple is promising an exciting announcement, one that you'll never forget. The rumors are swirling this morning that iTunes will start selling music by the Beatles. Apple has pursued the music catalog of the Fab Four for years. "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting the deal is a result of talks that took place as recently as last week.

CHETRY: And wedding bells are ringing in the U.K. this morning. The royal family announcing officially today that Prince William is indeed engaged to his long-time girlfriend ate Middleton. They say that they became engaged on a private holiday in Kenya back in October and that the wedding will take place sometime in the summer or spring of 2011.

So, congratulations.

ROBERTS: Congratulations to the happy couple. And we look forward to yet another royal wedding. Love those things.

As we head into one of the busiest travel periods of the year, thousands of air passengers are planning to boycott body scans and pat downs at airport security check points next week. And that could create quite a mess if it comes off.

CHETRY: Yes, the TSA has been flooded with hundreds of privacy complaints. And even though a new CBS poll suggests that most people, 81 percent, support the scanners, Jeanne Meserve reports things are getting tense in terminals across the country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Traveler John Tyner didn't want to go through the advanced body imaging machine at the San Diego airport last Saturday, but the option of an enhanced pat down galled him even more. Audio of his faceoff with the TSA has become a YouTube sensation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN TYNER, TRAVELER: If you touch my junk, I'm going to have you arrested. I don't understand how a sexual assault can be made a condition of my flying.

TSA OFFICER: This is not considered a sexual assault.

TYNER: It would be if you weren't the government. I'd like my wife and maybe my doctor to touch me there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TYNER: They have explosive detected equipment or explosives-detecting equipment that's capable of detecting very minute traces of explosives. So if that's the major concern, why aren't we using those machines? I mean, why do we have to view people's naked bodies?

MESERVE: Some pilots, flight attendants, and travelers rights organizations are up in arms over what they regard invasive, offensive, over-the-top security measures. One group is telling members to opt-out of the full body scanners during the busy holiday travel period and insist on a private screening with witnesses.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Behind here, I'm going to do your back and your legs.

KATE HANNI, FLYERSRIGHTS.ORG: While many people have concerns about radiation and they're very concerned about the impact, especially of cumulative radiation, and even more people are concerned about having their naked bodies witnessed by a TSA agent in a back room who they can't see and they don't know who they are.

MESERVE: But there's a flip side to the story. This is what PETN can do to an aircraft. PETN is what the Christmas Day bomber had sewn into his underwear. The secretary of homeland security says the best available way to find something similar is to use body scanners and enhanced pat-downs.

JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: You know, we're not doing this just to do it. We're doing it because we need to keep powders and gels and liquids off of planes that are unauthorized just as we need to keep metals off of planes.

MESERVE (on camera): The U.S. Travel Association says since last Wednesday, it's gotten over 1,000 unsolicited comments from travelers complaining about the new screening protocols. The secretary of homeland security and the head of TSA say they are listening and they may adjust protocols in the days and weeks ahead.

Meanwhile, the TSA is investigating John Tyner for refusing to complete the screening process. He could face a civil fine of up to $11,000.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.

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ROBERTS: And at 8:40 Eastern this morning, hero pilot, Sully Sullenberger, is going to join us. He made headlines this week when he said flight crews should not be required to submit to body scans. We'll ask him how much is too much when it comes to airport security.

CHETRY: Also new this morning, admit it, you sometimes don't always do a great job parking. Or do you just get annoyed when you go to a lot, especially around the holidays, and see how many bad park jobs are out there. Well, now, you have a Web site for a little bit of a release. We're going to talk to the creator of youparklikeableep.com.

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CHETRY: Thirty-nine minutes past the hour right now.

The dreaded mall parking lot, especially this time of year, right, is one of the biggest headaches. It only gets worse when you see a car taking up two spots or when you can't open your door because someone's parked too close. We rarely get to call those other drivers out.

But now, one Web site is giving you a chance. Of course, since it's morning TV, we're going to say the real name, but if you look at that, you can figure it out. Youparklikeableep.com has been a popular Web site for people to post pictures of the worst offenders and print out tickets and put them on their windshields, although do that at your own risk.

The creator of the Web site joins us by phone right now.

And, Andy, it's so funny. I know you're an elementary schoolteacher, so you probably don't want your kids using that language. So, we're not going to use this morning. But the site certainly caught on. What gave you this idea, Andy?

ANDY, CREATOR, YOUPARKLIKEAN**HOLE.COM: I started back in -- well, good morning, by the way. Sorry about that.

CHETRY: Good morning.

ANDY: It started back in grad school. I was taking a web design class and the professor had a project already lined up and I had a different idea, so I presented this idea to him. He said it's great, as long as you have a chance of learning, go ahead and make it, so I did.

CHETRY: So, this started out as part of the project but it really caught on, I guess, after one of the local stations did a story on it, or a radio station did a story on it. They mentioned where you could find the site. And since then, you had hundreds of thousands of people visit it.

ANDY: Oh, I've had almost just about half a million people visit it in the past four years. So -- and a lot of it happened when the one big radio station did the one interview, yes, that's correct.

CHETRY: All right. So, let's take a look at some of the violations that you talk about.

ANDY: Sure.

CHETRY: One is the diagonal parking. This is when the car's parked diagonally over the line. There you go. Pretty much ensuring that no one can get in either space on either side of it. You know, a lot of people who have expensive cars do this.

ANDY: They do. I think the most annoying part is when people with non-expensive cars do it. (INAUDIBLE) the neon does it in the parking lot, it's like really?

CHETRY: I hear.

ANDY: Just because you have a spoiler on it doesn't mean it's an expensive car.

CHETRY: Also, you have the little too close violator, the people who park right up next to you so that you can barely get out of your car.

ANDY: Yes, those people, I don't get it. Who do they think we are? We can just squeeze in (ph) their car and like, this is my spot here, I'll take this without any regard to who's next to you. It's quite amazing.

CHETRY: We've got another one, the compact car space. And you see this a lot in underground garages. It says compact cars only, and there's a Suburban in the space.

ANDY: Yes, that one -- actually, I didn't even realize that was an issue. And some -- a lot of people from L.A. actually sent me that. They wanted me to add that as an infraction. And I go, hey, I guess that will make sense in L.A. That's when I did it when I got a bunch of viewer e-mails suggesting that I do that. CHETRY: So, you basically get people to send in pictures of their experiences. And that's a really nice one right there, an example of it. It looks like a mixture of diagonal and too close.

What's the concept of these tickets? How are people using that?

ANDY: I've had about 175,000 downloads of the tickets. What you do is you go to the site, you download the ticket, you keep a couple in your glove box, and then when you see someone who's parking offensively, you look through the infractions, you check off the one, slip it underneath their windshield, and that's it. So, when they get to their car, they can look at their sheet, they can go to my site, look at the fraction and see what they did wrong and, hopefully, maybe learn how to correct. That's the idea.

CHETRY: The other funny thing is you've also got, I mean, that's a nice release for people who feel like, there's nothing I can do about this. It's just so annoying. But we've also got a lot of hate mail. This is interesting.

Why are people -- you actually have a whole area of your site now dedicated to hate mail. What makes people so angry?

ANDY: I don't know. I think it might be that the wrong place at the wrong time. Some people -- there's a guy in Philadelphia I think accused me of scratching his car. And I did not drive 400 miles to scratch his car.

There was a guy, I think it was in Arizona, who was sending me the stats on how big he was. He was going to come and beat me up. I'm like, I'm sorry that happened. It's just a piece of paper under your windshield. You should get over it pretty quick.

CHETRY: And there were a couple of people who also say, why don't you just call it you park like a jerk, why the foul language, because then it gets in the way of -- you know, people focused on that instead of the fact that they didn't park well.

ANDY: Yes. I mean, it's the language that's offensive. It's not an offensive site. Once you get into it, it's somewhat educational, I guess. But sometimes I think that word that I used fits a whole lot better than you park like a jerk.

A jerk is too nice, I almost think. This is more -- I think it suits the infraction at hand.

CHETRY: Well, Andy, congratulations on this site catching on and providing a little bit of release for a lot of people who get very annoyed by the parking situations where they live. Thanks for joining us this morning.

ANDY: Thanks for having me.

CHETRY: John?

ROBERTS: Coming up now on 44 minutes after the hour. And still to come this morning, Rob's got this morning's travel forecast. He'll be up right after the break. And get the sniffles, you hit the Web. You have a headache, you check it out online. It's a trend that could have dangerous consequences. What you need to know before you self-diagnose on the Internet.

Stay with us.

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ROBERTS: It's such a nice day out in New York City this morning. We've got the rain that was down in the south yesterday and it's going to be like that throughout most of the day, 48 degrees right now, high of 57 this afternoon so better let the smile be your umbrella. Although if you do that, you might end up with a mouthful of water so you make the decision, umbrella, smile, which one's better?

CHETRY: It's 47 minutes past the hour. Time for your A.M. House Call, there were stories about your health. This morning, are you a cyberchondriac? I know a lot of people who do this. There's something wrong with you so you Google it.

According to researchers, 8 in 10 users go online, internet users, to diagnose what's wrong with them and a lot of the information on web sites like web M.D. is useful and accurate.

But there a lot of misdiagnosing of medical condition happening as well. Experts believe that the web is actually fueling anxiety in many people who already battle hypochondria.

ROBERTS: I may not be a doctor, but I found one on the internet. Taking sleeping pills may be hazardous to your health. During a 12- year long study Canadian researchers and you can always believe them say those who use sleep aids or anxiety medication were 36 percent more likely to die.

They say the medications affect reaction time making accidents more likely. They also may affect your breathing while you're sleeping and your overall judgment. The study is summarized on calorielab.com.

CHETRY: Well, the votes are in, and Arizona soon to be the 15th state to legalize medical marijuana. The ballot measure passed by only 4,300 votes. The law will allow patients with debilitating medical conditions to use the drug if they have a recommendation from their doctor.

There'll be 120 dispensaries around the state and some people will be allowed to grow marijuana at their own home. And that's the, you know, the quote about the debilitating medical condition, it leaves the door open for a lot of interpretations of that. People say it's quite easy.

ROBERTS: You talk to people in California and they say basically you can get a prescription for medical marijuana for just about anything these days.

Let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines. Rob Marciano in the Extreme Weather Center for us and --

CHETRY: You've got some neck pain, Rob?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I got this pain in my neck I just can't shake.

CHETRY: You live in Georgia, sorry, buddy.

MARCIANO: Right.

ROBERTS: You have to move to California first of all. Tell us about the rain as opposed to the pain.

MARCIANO: Yes, if you get some pain from the rain, maybe some arthritis, you know, Advil and aspirin may be the call today. From the Canadian border all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico, this is the system.

And it's kind of riding a wave along this front that is moving very, very slowly to the east. So we're looking for rain across much of the northeast today. You know, in spots you might see some localized flooding, but I think it shouldn't be all that too terrible.

Right now, it's not too horrible except for down across parts of the southeast where it continues to rain fairly heavily. Closer to the gulf, a little warmer air mass, more bang for your buck as far as the rain goes.

You also have potential for seeing tornadoes until 11:00 this morning Eastern Time for the Central Florida panhandle. You see that bow echo. That's got stronger winds as it rolls down the I-10 corridor. So we'll be watching that the line of thunderstorms with potentially damaging winds.

You can see here just light to moderate rainfall across the I-95 corridor. This will probably be on the increase as we go through today and slices inland, a fair amount, 3 inches yesterday in Marianna, Florida, and Troy, Alabama almost 3 inches of rainfall.

And a lot of these spots, it's actually a very, very welcome stuff because we could use the rain, as well. Some snow across parts of the Rockies. We've got a system, another system diving down south from the Canadian Rockies. So winter storm warnings are posted for this part of the world.

California not looking that shabby with a high temperature in L.A. today of 72 degrees, Phoenix, Arizona, 76 degrees, 65 in Atlanta, and 58 degrees, kind of damp and dreary across much of the east coast, including New York. John and Kiran, back up to you.

CHETRY: All right, Rob, thanks. This morning's top stories are just a few minutes away. Including the new "Don't Tase Me Bro," it's the man who told TSA "don't touch my junk." He's now speaking to CNN what else is he saying about airline security.

And from doctor to patient in an instant, Dr. Gupta on the man who found out the power of compassion firsthand when the roles were reversed.

ROBERTS: And it's the video of the day, kitty versus alligator. Who's your daddy? Those stories and more coming up at the top of the hour. Stay with us.

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ROBERTS: I think bare naked ladies fans somewhere in this lot.

CHETRY: I know.

ROBERTS: Good band.

We've been talking a lot about what's taking place at our nation's airports these days, body scans, intimate pat-downs, a lot of people say airport security has gone too far. But as you'll see, Conan O'Brien doesn't seem to mind.

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CONAN O'BRIEN: This guy refused to be patted down by airport security and some people are calling him a hero. That's right. Personally, I don't mind being patted down by airport security, but I don't like it when the guy says now you do me.

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CHETRY: Well, all this talk about air travel had David Letterman thinking vacation? But probably won't be going to Alaska any time soon. Take a look.

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DAVID LETTERMAN: Sarah Palin, the part-time governor of Alaska has her own weekly show now. It's on the learning channel, a fascinating show. Anybody ever been to Alaska?

I always wanted to go to Alaska, I don't think that's going to happen now. I always -- and every week she -- Sarah Palin shows you around Alaska and they do a lot of fishing, obviously.

And in Alaska and a lot of places, it's catch and release, catch and release. You know what that is? It's like what they do with Lindsay Lohan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: First of all, they make her wear one of those posh bracelets around her ankle.

CHETRY: Right -

ROBERTS: Top stories coming your way right after the break. Stay with us.

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