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American Morning

Double Trouble for Obama; "Bomb Factory"; Secret Credit Scores; Babies Combat Bullying

Aired December 10, 2010 - 08:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Thanks for being with us on this Friday, the 10th of December. It's another AMERICAN MORNING. I'm John Roberts.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us.

It might be the weather event of the season and we're just talking about the first or second week of December. It's coming this weekend -- a huge storm threatening to dump more snow on the Midwest and the Northeast, crippling cities and towns already buried by lake- effect snow. The Southeast in store for a big blast of cold, as well.

So, we're going to be breaking down who's going to get hit and how much snow we can expect coming up.

ROBERTS: Double trouble for President Obama. House Democrats refuse to bring the tax deal he negotiated with Republicans to the floor for a vote and the Senate killing hopes for repealing "don't ask, don't tell" any time soon. We're going to break down this dramatic development with our Candy Crowley.

CHETRY: And violent protests on the streets of London. Prince Charles finding himself at the center of it all. Demonstrators broke through his window. The prince and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, were not hurt. But students protesting massive tuition hikes at universities. These demonstrations have gotten very violent.

ROBERTS: Now to that cold blast that set to sweep across a large section of the country this weekend. We've been monitoring live pictures from some of our affiliates along the storm's path this morning.

It's already snowing in Detroit. Same goes in Columbus, Ohio, and other parts of the north and the Midwest -- a live look there. And checking in with downtown Cleveland where there's already a foot of snow on the ground from Wednesday. And here's Pittsburgh, where they're rolling a brand new snow emergency plan for the big storm.

CHETRY: And now to Atlanta, where they're also bracing for bitter cold yet again.

Reynolds Wolf is in the extreme weather center for us this morning.

It seems for much of the East Coast, no one's immune to this.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, absolutely. You know, this is going to be one of the days where people really need to get prepared. Maybe go to the store, and get some of those last-minute supplies, maybe some extra batteries. It's going to be one of those kind of days.

The thing that's going to make all this come together, the key component is going to be this storm system you happen to see on the screen. Let's put this into motion, we're going to show you how this all going to play out.

The storm system is going to leave parts of the Rockies in the Northern Plains, sweep eastward. As it does so, it's going to intensify. Not only it's going to pull up some moisture from the Great Lakes and the Atlantic, but it's also going to bring in quite a bit of cold air, with that, a possibility of ice in the southern part of the Ohio Valley, into parts of Kentucky, West Virginia, maybe even into Tennessee and the Carolinas -- widespread power outages certainly a possibility.

Some places along the lake shores may get up to a foot of snowfall.

But again, the moisture is only part of the story. The second part is going to be that cold air. By the time we get to Monday, your high temperature in parts of the Twin Cities may be 14 degrees below zero. You see the 22 right below that, that is your -- the smaller number, that happens to be your wind chill factor. Some places as low as 22 degrees below zero. And that's how we're going to get things started.

Let's talk about what's happening right now. As we speak, we're getting some light snowfall. But this isn't that main storm system yet. This is the first shot, some light snow falling across parts of the Catskills, back into parts of Pittsburgh, where temperatures mainly into the 20s and teens, even some single system up towards Boston, as you look at those temperatures run out.

It is going to be a cool day for you. You can expect some delays out there. Also, some delays in places like roadways, for example, along parts of 35, in Minneapolis, where we have winter storm warnings that are now in effect and later on, you can expect backups in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, as we wrap up, and San Francisco and San Diego, not due to winter weather but just some low clouds and some fog.

So, guys, looks like we are going to see a lot of big changes take place later this evening and into Saturday and Sunday. Monday and Tuesday, we're going to try to start digging out. That's the latest.

ROBERTS: All right. Reynolds, thanks. We'll see you again soon.

The president's tax plan presented as practically a done deal. But this morning, its fate is a little certain than it was, that's because House Democrats opted to defy their president, refusing to bring the tax compromise he negotiated with Republicans to a vote. Democrats in the Senate may be ready to push it forward. And that would put more pressure back on the House.

Coming up in 20 minutes time, we're going to talk to Democratic Congressman Gary Ackerman of New York. He put it bluntly, saying that the Democrats and the American people, quote, got screwed by the president's tax cut deal.

CHETRY: Opponents of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy are not optimistic that they'll see this repealed in 2010. Democrats try to get the debate started in the Senate yesterday. It never got off the ground. Gay rights groups are now planning to hold a rally in Washington today to protest.

Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon.

You know, they were trying to get it through the Congress understandably, but there are some who are very angry about it because they say that the president could have, you know, by executive order, made this happen by now.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, some people say that, but there is a law on the books, and the administration's view is that Congress needed to act upon this. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, traveling back to the United States, spoke to reporters about his reaction to the Senate vote and what he'd like to see happen now.

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ROBERT GATES, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Disappointed in the Senate vote, but not surprised as I indicated when we were on the Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln earlier in the week. I was not optimistic. The fact remains, though, that there is still roughly a week left in the lame duck session. And so, I would hope that the Congress would act to repeal "don't ask, don't tell."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: The problem for Gates is that there is a pending federal court ruling in California. It is expected to be a final decision and all the indications are the courts are going to continue to rule that the ban on gay service is unconstitutional. And what that will mean is when that final court ruling happens, the ban could be immediately ordered to be lifted. The military could have to comply immediately.

That's why they wanted legislation. They wanted time to prepare for it.

And now, if the Senate does not act, they are facing that possibility of immediate compliance once the federal courts make a final ruling -- John, Kiran.

ROBERTS: Barbara Starr for us at the Pentagon this morning -- Barbara, thanks.

So, what is the president's game plan moving forward when it comes to "don't ask, don't tell" and those tax cuts?

CHETRY: Joining us now from Washington, chief political correspondent Candy Crowley, host of CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION."

I don't know if you had the chance to hear us speaking with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, but she's one of the Republicans who says she's not going to vote for this either, because she doesn't want to see the deficit being expanded.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: There's going to be some cherry-picking going on in the House, for sure. They need to find some sort of coalition of Democrats who are willing to go along with it and Republicans.

So, certainly, the White House remains pretty confident that, in fact, this is going to happen. That it will look pretty much in the broad outlines of what they put out there -- which is continuing tax cuts for everyone for two years, continuing unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed for a year without having to come back every six weeks or so.

So, the White House remains pretty confident, but obviously is a math problem now on the House side because you're going to have some liberal Democrats who are not going for an extension no matter what. Others that might be lured aboard if you tinker around the edges of it and then you got Republicans like Michele Bachmann who say, look, it adds to the deficit and I'm not doing it.

ROBERTS: Yes. It adds to the deficit and yet, $450 billion of that deficit is because of the tax cuts that she supports. So, it's an interesting argument that people are making.

But when it comes to the president, we see this discord among the Democrats and it's kind of rare to see them speaking out this loudly against the president, but analysts have taken a look at this and they say, hey, this is a stimulus package. So, did he kind of really know what he was doing here and that Democrats just aren't getting it?

CROWLEY: Well, listen, I mean, there are many layers to this. There's the politics of it. There's the policy of it.

I think, first of all, the White House has read the results of the last election. One of the things they know is that people want something done. And in order to get something done now, and particularly coming up with a new Congress where the House will be controlled by Republicans, it's going to take dealing with Republicans. So, there's that element of it.

There's also the aspect of the economy, which has been sluggish. And so, we now have these economists and the White House is out there pushing this saying, listen, if we don't do this unemployment or the job rate will suffer. If we do not do this, the economy will suffer.

And we heard Larry Summers, the president's top economic advisor, saying, look, it could be a double-dip recession if we don't get this passed.

So, clearly they are selling it to Democrats clearly as a stimulus package, although I don't think it will go down so well with Republicans. So, you know, it's all in the sales job.

CHETRY: Yes. It's so interesting because you read some conservatives like Charles Krauthammer who said the president is a genius to do this, you know, because he's really getting through a stimulus that would never have gone through, yet all the liberals, according to Charles, don't get it.

The flip side is, people are saying, wait a minute, isn't this a big loss for the president, you know, a big hit in terms of "don't ask, don't tell," which was a campaign promise that's obviously not happening at this time, being overturned, and then the middle class tax cut and making sure that the tax cuts expire for the wealthiest. That was also a campaign promise, it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

CROWLEY: It is. And I'll -- let me just throw another sort of theory in there which people out there are saying this is really good because it allows the president to separate himself for the more liberal wing of the Democratic caucus on the House side, that this will be a way to prove his centrist credentials. That here, I am, I'm out here working and, yes, I understand and we're going to -- we're going to extend tax cuts for everyone.

So, look, the politics of this are going to play out. But I think the basics of the policy are set. And I don't think anything -- I think something will pass because I don't think the House or the Senate want to leave, either Republicans or Democrats, without having extended these tax cuts and they're not going to get extended unless it's across the board.

So, in general, the president's going to get what he wants and that's never a bad thing. You're right, though, when people say, isn't this giving a problem with the left wing of his party and the base. And the base has been somewhat upset with him about "don't ask, don't tell," saying that he could have done something -- and as you heard Barbara say -- there's some argument about that.

But, nonetheless, at this point, he is looking, you know, down the road at stuff for, "A," the economy, and "B," let's not forget there's a 2012 election coming up when the swing voters, independents are quite necessary.

ROBERTS: Real quick, Candy, what's coming up this Sunday on "STATE OF THE UNION"?

CROWLEY: We are going to be continuing this talk with Elijah Cummings and Jim McDermott, two very angry Democrats who don't understand why the president gave up the store as far as the liberals are concerned, kind of to see like what their bottom line is here, what could he do to bring them on board and what bring on other Democrats.

ROBERTS: Looking forward to that. Candy Crowley, "STATE OF THE UNION," every Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

Candy, thanks so much.

CROWLEY: Thanks.

CHETRY: Firefighters battling a huge blaze this morning at a charter school in northwest Atlanta. The flames broke through the roof at the Kipp Way Academy, the school located across the street from a subway station. The fire started about two hours ago. There's still no word if students or teachers were inside. However, they say that they were first called to the scene around 6:00 in the morning. So, it would be very unlikely that students were there at the time.

ROBERTS: Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles caught up in a violent London street protest. The royal couple's Rolls Royce was kicked, rocked, pelted and splattered by paint by students -- spattered by paint, rather, by students who were protesting plans to hike tuition caps. Neither one of them was hurt.

But a lot of questions being asked of the metropolitan police department as to how the protesters got so close to the royal couple this morning. Heads could roll over this.

CHETRY: Yes.

Well, this morning's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway, is stirring up quite a bit of controversy because of the winner, Liu Xiaobo. He is serving an 11-year sentence in China for inciting subversion. Some analysts believe that the Peace Prize, though, could lead the Chinese government to shorten his sentence. However, Chinese leaders are very angry at the committee's decision to award the prize to Liu who they call a common criminal.

ROBERTS: A surprising arrest in connection with a string of pro-WikiLeaks hacking incidents against credit card companies and Sarah Palin's Web site. We've got details on that just ahead.

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CHETRY: Fifteen minutes past the hour.

New this morning: an arrest in connection with the WikiLeaks hacker attacks. Dutch authorities say a 16-year-old boy confessed to involvement in the hacking allegedly mounted by the WikiLeaks sympathizers. Web sites run by MasterCard, by Visa, by the Swiss government among those targeted.

ROBERTS: Well, small explosions can be heard from miles around as a home filled with explosives was burned to the ground by officials in southern California. You can see the single-story home engulfed in flames. The man allegedly behind it all is in jail, but his motive for having what amounted to a house bomb is not clear at this point.

CHETRY: Well, you probably know your credit score, and you know that it can affect your ability to get a credit card and more -- or even a job in some cases. But did you know that there are also some secret scores out there that banks don't want you to know about?

ROBERTS: Yes. We're going to tell you about them this morning. We're "Minding Your Business" today with Ryan Mack. He's the president of Optimum Capital Management, and he's here to tell us all about it. So, what are these scores?

RYAN MACK, PRESIDENT, OPTIMUM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: Well, the banks need to make money, and the best way for the banks to make money is to figure out exactly how you're spending your money and how much money they can make off of you. So, there's a few different types of scores that they have. One of them is the response score. You know, you're sitting at home, you're opening up your mail, you're seeing all this 0 percent interest rates.

ROBERTS: We get them every day, yes.

MACK: The more you get, the more the banks are saying, you know what, this person is more likely to fill out these offers because they've been applying for all this the different --

ROBERTS: So, the response score, when you get these things if you actually respond and send them in, ticks up your response score.

MACK: Exactly. And all the banks look at them, and say, wow, this person is a good credit and a good candidate to give an extension of credit offer to.

ROBERTS: So, it's kind of one begets another?

MACK: Exactly. You know, and we're doing a lot better at using our credit card scores. So, when you get those things understand, they do impact your score. Another way to look at it is revenue score. Figure out how much money can we make off of you, you know? Essentially --

ROBERTS: How big a mark is this person, really?

MACK: This is what it's all about. I mean, they have to figure out exactly how much money you're spending. If you want those people paying your bills on time, you're sitting back, you're not falling to a --

ROBERTS: You're no good.

MACK: No, you're not a good customer for them. This well -- they actually like individuals who file for bankruptcy. They attack (ph) those customers more frequent because they have more of affinity for credit. You know, another good score is application score. You know, sitting on -- you're on delta. They say, hey, you know, fill out this application. Gets a frequent flier milers. When you fill out the information, it actually does impact your credit score because 10 percent of your FICO score is additional credit inquiries.

CHETRY: Right. And they're also getting personal information on you.

MACK: Exactly.

CHETRY: That they then possibly can share with -- right? Put in it a database and they get (ph) shared.

MACK: Exactly. When you fill out this information, your name, your address, your assets, your income, your job, your profession, that -- if you're not approved for the credit card, it might not (INAUDIBLE) your FICO score, but it does impact your application score because banks use the information to figure out exactly what type of a lender you are.

And the last one they have is transaction score or the fraud score. They look at your history. They look to see how you're using your cards. And if you actually have a tendency to go overseas and spend all out of money, sometimes, individuals get their credit card frozen. That's a little bit out of character. It's another way to protect you from fraud.

ROBERTS: So, that's actually a good score?

MACK: That's actually a good one.

ROBERTS: Thank goodness.

MACK: Make sure you spend your money responsibly and nobody stealing your credit card.

ROBERTS: Three scores that will help spend you into oblivion and one that will actually protect you?

MACK: This is capitalism. So, we have to do things that are necessary to make sure we can protect ourselves. So, they are watching you more than you think.

CHETRY: Throw the offers in the garbage. That's the first thing you protect yourself, right?

MACK: Exactly.

CHETRY: Thanks, Brian.

ROBERTS: Remember, every time you answer one of those, you're upping your response score.

MACK: Exactly. ROBERTS: Thanks, Brian. Good to see you this morning.

MACK: Thanks for having me.

ROBERTS: Thanks for pitch hitting for Christine who is under the weather today.

Attempted by toys ahead the little girl who would not be denied by the claw machine at the arcade.

CHETRY: And Sarah Palin takes aim at a caribou in the latest episode of her reality show. We'll tell you who's taking aim at her. Eighteen minutes past the hour.

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CHETRY: Twenty-one minutes past the hour. "Morning Talker Time." And you talk about fun. Hey, what could be more fun than an arcade game full of toys? Well, it proved to be a little too tempting for this adorable 2-year-old who found a way to get to the animals. The only problem is she couldn't get back out. She actually got stuck in the claw machine. Happened in Robinson Township, Pennsylvania.

Firefighters spent about 15 minutes getting her out. She was fine. But what happened is they say she was able to crawl through the hole where the winners reach in to get their prize.

ROBERTS: Well, you know, if you can't get it the right way, she got creative. That's for sure. This happens more often than you might think, too. It happened to a little boy a couple of months ago and then a couple of years ago. We reported another one that happened as well. I guess, the kids get frustrated when the claw keeps undropping little stuff toy.

Check out this Russian daredevil taking. It's taking B.A.S.E. jumping to new extremes. The 45-year-old braved temperatures of 22 degrees below 0 when he jumped off nearly 2-mile high peak.

CHETRY: Yes, that's the easy part, braving the temperature.

Well, he jumped off the peak, but here's the deal. It was in Antarctica. Went all the way to Antarctica to do this. He glided for about 45 seconds before opening the parachute after flying on that wing suit there and landed safely. Wow. That's an adventure go all the way to Antarctica to jump off that.

CHETRY: Unbelievable. There we see it. And in the end, you see him land safely. So, amazing. Amazing. I don't know.

ROBERTS: There's always red bull on everything that jumps off a cliff.

CHETRY: Yes, well, gives you wings, apparently.

Sarah Palin has a lot of fans, but she also has her share of critics and the writer behind the social network and a few good men is criticizing a scene from the reality show. In the scene, Palin takes shots to kill a caribou. Aaron Sorkin calls it the first moose ever murdered for political gain.

Well, a helicopter to the rescue of an 840-pound manatee. That Puerto Rican national guard is teaming up McDill Air Force to transport the animal. Six biologists and two veterinarians went along for the ride. The endangered animal will serve as a surrogate to orphan manatees.

CHETRY: Well, New York Congressman, Gary Ackerman, says that Democrats got screwed, as he puts it, by the president's tax cut deal. We're going to ask him what upset him the most about it when he joins us live in just three minutes.

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ROBERTS: It's your money, and that's why we're back to President Obama's tax cut deal. House Democrats saying no to the plan that the White House negotiated with Republicans so what happens next? New York congressman, Gary Ackerman, joins me live now. Thanks very much for coming in today.

REP. GARY ACKERMAN, (D) NEW YORK: Thank you, John.

ROBERTS: You famously said the other day that Democrats did get something out of this bill, they got screwed.

ACKERMAN: I guess I did say that.

ROBERTS: You did say that. Why do you think you got screwed?

ACKERMAN: Well, I don't think there was enough in it for the average American, and I think the wealthy people got everything they wanted on their wish list.

ROBERTS: But you got a lot. You got the extension of unemployment benefits, you got a lot of the tax credits that you wanted to have extended.

ACKERMAN: The president did a fairly good job. There's a lot of stuff and that's very, very important. But it's different when you get a partial list, and the Republicans get their dream list. They get everything that they possibly could have wanted and added to the deficit. This adds $900 billion to the deficit. It's a trillion dollars that they're going to get Democrats they think to vote for.

They're going to get off scot-free. They haven't said that they're all going to vote for it. They haven't said how many votes they're going to provide. This is on our watch, and then, they're going to attack us in the next election for increasing the deficit when most of them are going to vote against them.

ROBERTS: But what really comes down to it, congressman? Isn't the thing the Democrats are upset about is the provision to extend the current marginal tax rates for people who earn more than $250,000 a year which really accounts for $70 billion of this $900 billion. ACKERMAN: Well, you know, you take the wealthiest top 2 percent of American taxpayers, and the other thing that Democrats are very upset about is the --

ROBERTS: But it's only about 8 percent. The estate tax, too. OK.

ACKERMAN: The estate tax is the big one. That suddenly appeared from nowhere and to give people $5 million that they could transfer to their -- to the next generation completely tax free and then lower the tax rate on the rest of the God knows how many more millions of dollars, this affects one quarter of 1 percent of the wealthiest estates in America. Where did the rest of the 99.8 percent of the people getting out of this? It adds tremendously to the deficit. We didn't even hear them asking for this. This was just an extra gimmick (ph).

ROBERTS: So, the White House is pushing very hard for this, obviously. We put your statement to David Axelrod the other day. And here's what he said. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID AXELROD, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: I say to people who are going to get screwed as Congressman Ackerman says are the American people if we don't act to prevent their taxes from going up on January 1st.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: All right. So, what do you say in response to that? He says you got to make sure that the taxes don't go up.

ACKERMAN: Listen, there's going to be a deal that's going to be cut. Why should the Democrats take all of the blame? The Republicans are very good at this. They've been brilliant. This has been their game plan. They get the credit for everything we do. We get the blame for everything they did that went bad.

If they've cut the deal, let them deliver the votes. There'll be Democrats who are going to vote for this. We want a compromise. Compromise isn't what's mine is mine and what's yours is ours. That's what's happening here. They get everything on their list plus and the average person really does get screwed.

ROBERTS: The president said on NPR this morning. He believes that the deal is going to go through. Is he right?

ACKERMAN: Well, he's probably counting votes. A lot closer than we are. But I got to tell you something, you know, we've left a lot of blood on the floor. 25 percent of the Democratic caucus is that's been in those rooms that I've been in have lost in the last election, fighting for the things that we believe in. We have a fight facing us (ph).

ROBERTS: But, again, congressman, do you think the president will get what he asked for? Do you think this tax cut extension will go through?

ACKERMAN: He's going to have to get more Republicans than Democrats to make it go through.

ROBERTS: One of the other things I wanted to talk to you about why you're here is the looming battle over health care reform, and you're already preparing for this fight because you introduced six bills in the Congress under the title of the HIPA-CRIT act. We'll put it up on the screen so people can see it. It stands for Health Insurance Protects America-Can't Repeal It. Nice play on words here. The bills that you introduced would overturn six of the major consumer protections in the new health care law, and you are daring Republicans --

ACKERMAN: I'm double daring them.

ROBERTS: -- to vote on it.

ACKERMAN: Double daring them.

ROBERTS: It's a nice little maneuver here. But really, do you see health care as a prime battle in this new congress?

ACKERMAN: Well, I think the Republicans have gained tremendously because they were able to message it a hell of a lot better than were we. We've not marketed the real message out there.

And this is part of the message. What the American people are getting from this particular bill and the people that it's going to cover, which are 30 million more people with no access to health insurance and spend our tax dollars because we are paying for the 30 million people to get the health care from the emergency room.

It's cheaper to give them each an insurance policy than to pay their bills, which is what we're doing. This is going to be a major fight.

ROBERTS: You think so?

ACKERMAN: If the Republicans are up to it, we are up to it.

ROBERTS: Congressman Ackerman, it's great to see you this morning.

ACKERMAN: Thank you.

ROBERTS: Kiran?

CHETRY: A heaping cup of snow with a cold wind chaser. That's what's on the menu for a big part of the country this weekend. There's light snow already falling in places like Detroit, Pittsburgh and Cleveland right now. People in the southeast are in for a blast of chilly temperatures as well.

The latest now on the Natalee Holloway investigation. Disappointment after some promising leads fell through. We'll be checking in with an update on what's next for the high-profile investigation.

And improving the health of an entire city could be as simple as painting some new traffic lines on the street? We'll talk to a man making it happen, and he'll show us how.

Family and friends and fellow rescue workers are honoring the memory of an NYPD detective who died after being exposed to toxic debris following the 9/11 attacks. Kevin Zartorski was laid to rest yesterday. He died on Sunday after a battle with lung cancer. He worked at ground zero for months after the attacks, searching for victims' remains and setting up a temporary morgue. He was just 46 years old.

Meanwhile, Republicans are blocking a proposal to fund medical benefits and compensation for the 9/11 first responders. They say that the $7.4 billion cost is too pricey. Supporters say they'll try to bring the measure up again. The proposal seeks to provide free medical insurance to those exposed to toxins after the attacks.

ROBERTS: A health makeover for entire cities. Meet the man on a mission to make your hometown more friendly to keeping you fit.

CHETRY: Also, teaching empathy. Making a baby the teacher is helping kids understand how to get along better and it's turned into an unexpected way to fight bullying.

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ROBERTS: Five years after the disappearance of Natalee Holloway, the search for new evidence continues in Aruba. So what new avenues do they have to investigate? And what's the latest with the suspect Joran Van Der Sloot? Martin Savidge has more live in Atlanta for us. What do we know, Martin?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. This is a case that continues to haunt and baffle and it continues to break the hearts of many people, especially the family, of course, of Natalee Holloway and all of her friends.

This was a young girl, beautiful girl. It could have been anybody's daughter, 18 years of age, had dreams of going to medical school, honor student, celebrating graduating from college with a trip of a young lifetime, and then just vanishes.

What we wanted to do is go back five and a half years later, remember exactly what happened, look at the new evidence. and see if there was any hope of bringing some resolution to this case. Here's some of what we found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: Five years after the disappearance of 18-year-old Natalee Holloway, the search for answers continues. Joran Van Der Sloot remains the prime suspect. But with no evidence, the case is at a standstill. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are waiting for evidence. They need evidence. And they're really looking for forensic evidence to corroborate the witness statements. And when we think about statements, we think about Joran Van Der Sloot.

SAVIDGE: Then, in June, a stunning twist -- 21-year-old Stephany Flores is found dead in a Lima, Peru hotel room. Joran Van Der Sloot yet again a prime suspect. Beth Holloway hears the news and heads to Peru where she would sit face to face with the man she believes knows what happened to her daughter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If it was an accident, tell me. You know, I don't know.

VAN DER SLOOT: I mean, I have made so many bad decisions, and all for the wrong reasons.

SAVIDGE: So far, nothing has come of that meeting. Then, just last month, a new development -- a human jawbone washes up on a beach in Aruba.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Based on the bone that was presented and on the dental records, investigations were done that exclude that the bone might have belonged to Natalee Holloway.

SAVIDGE: Yet another dead end for a mother left to agonize over what happened to her daughter.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: You know, I have covered that story for now five and a half years and made many trips to Aruba. And it haunts the island as much as it haunts many Americans up here as to what happened.

But there were certain small group of skeptics, those who actually believe that Joran Van Der Sloot had nothing to do with the disappearance. Then came the murder, the death of Stephany Flores in Peru. Once again, Joran Van Der Sloot and this story broke a heart because it was now seen that perhaps if Aruban authorities arrested Joran, put him in jail, Stephany Flores could very well possibly be alive today.

So there are many, many tragedies in this story that continue to reverberate. John and Kiran?

ROBERTS: So a question, Marty, that many people might have is will Aruban authorities travel to Peru to interrogate Joran Van Der Sloot to see if he's in the mood to tell them something?

SAVIDGE: Tight, and that's an obvious question and one we put to authorities. They said no, they're taking a hands-off with allowing the Peruvian authorities to investigate the murder case down there.

And they say, look, we have talked to Joran over and over. He's been arrested several times and then released because they had no solid evidence. The young man continues to tell all sorts different sorts of stories. They believe he just tells one lie after another. They don't believe he has anything to say now that is different from what he's already told them before.

ROBERTS: Martin Savidge with the look back for us, thanks so much. This weekend, by the way, CNN takes a look back at the disappearance, the investigation and unanswered questions in the Natalee Holloway case. "Paradise Lost, the Natalee Holloway Story" airs this Sunday night at 10:00 p.m. eastern and Sunday night at 10:30 eastern.

CHETRY: It takes more than diet and exercise to have a healthy lifestyle. Our next guest traveled around the world to discover the habits that lead to good health, longevity, and also happiness. And he's using what he's learned about the globe to make things better here in America.

Band Buettner is making over cities here in the U.S. And he's following a successful transformation of a Minnesota town and coming off of that yesterday. He launched a newest project in three California communities. Dan joins me now from Los Angeles.

Good to see you again. Last month you talked about the results of Alberta Lee, Minnesota. And it's just amazing to see these people experiencing a 50 percent drop in their health care costs, 20 percent drop in employee absenteeism in just one year of changes that seem pretty simple.

And now on the ground in California making over Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Redondo Beach. Why did they pick them?

DAN BUETTNER, AUTHOR, "BLUE ZONE, "THRIVE": They sort of picked themselves. These beaches actually have about the same profile as the rest of America. About 60 percent are overweight or obese, and they have a leadership that works really well together. We're with the mayors yesterday, the superintendent of schools, the head of public health, the beach county health district, and asked us to come in and work with us for three years to make this a place where not only people live longer but they have higher levels of wellbeing and are happier.

CHETRY: You know, because you think they would be but you say they have high stress levels in these beach towns that even though they're experiencing a lot more sunlight and sun and water than we probably experience in most other parts of the country, they're not necessarily healthier. What's going on in these towns?

BUETTNER: Yes. Well, our partners on this health ways and Gelb did a survey of this area and we were quite shocked the find they have some of the worst levels of stress, anger, and worry than anywhere in America, same levels as Detroit and New Orleans.

And we're finding increasingly that your physical health and overall health are inextricably linked. Part of the intervention is bringing people together socially in a way to connect more and will relieve some of the stress. We're trying to relieve some of the traffic. Working with Dan burden, an expert of making cities built for humans instead of just car traffic, and we think that's an impact of not only obesity but stress levels.

CHETRY: You did some of this successfully in the past. You changed up the sidewalks, you allowed for more bike lanes, farmer's markets. What are the other things to be changing in the beach towns?

BUETTNER: That alone is huge. If you make a city more walk-able or bike-able, the activity level goes up by about 40 percent. And you don't have to have expensive gym memberships. You don't need to nudge people into doing marathons or triathlons, just making it easy to work and walk.

Another thing is we take a cue from Okinawa and cluster people in groups of five. Three best friends are obese, there's 150 percent better chance that you'll be overweight. So by helping people expand their social circle with the right group of people and setting it up so that they'll be friends for the long term, we're putting it in place a long-term strategy and people are more likely to be healthy.

CHETRY: Some of the tips in blue zones, you have to move naturally, have the right outlook, eat wisely, and belong to the right tribe. They're easing stress and nudging you into better habits. How do you change sort of long-held friendships or, you know, groups or just the way people are used to living with these places?

BUETTNER: Yes. You don't want to tell people to dump their old friends.

CHETRY: Right.

BUETTNER: But everybody lives on a continuum of people that don't want to change their health habits and then people running marathons and triathlons. Most of Americans, the 60 percent, 65 percent who are overweight and obese, if you show them an easy way to do it, they'll come aboard.

And our program endeavors to cluster the people who want to change their behaviors and habits and form friendships among them, because friends tend to be long term adventures. That's why we like it better than diets. Most people go on an exercise program. They don't stay on it very long. The average American burns fewer than 100 calories a day engaged in exercise.

So setting it up so it's easy to walk, easy for them to hang out with people who are active, we think that's a better strategy.

CHETRY: Wow.

BUETTNER: A silver buck shot instead of a silver bullet.

CHETRY: That's right, because you have to burn 3,500 calories to lose a pound. So if you're only doing 100 a day you have a long way to go. We'll see how the three cities do. We'll bring you back on and chart some of the progress, because this is a really neat initiative. Dan, thank you for joining us this morning.

BUETTNER: Great to see you.

CHETRY: You, too.

ROBERTS: A great way to burn calories is to go skiing. And if you love to ski, you are in luck this weekend. You hate shoveling snow, though, tough luck. You can burn calories doing that, too. Details ahead on what could be the biggest storm of the season about to hit the Midwest and the Ohio valley. Stay with us.

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ROBERTS: Oh, now, there's the best song that I've heard in a long time. 25 degrees right now and sort of overcast out there in Columbus Circle. Later on today in the streets of New York, it'll be 36 degrees. Oh it's going to be cold again today and colder weather coming for the weekend, too.

CHETRY: Yes, Reynolds Wolf has a look at all of it for us. A lot of cities big and small are going to be shoveling out this weekend. Hey there, Reynolds.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, you're absolutely right. Right now it's really calm before the storm. You just showed that shine at Columbus Circle.

Well, here in Atlanta, basically, the same situation. Skies are mostly clear for the time being. But the hammer's about to fall and it's going to fall hard for the eastern third of the country.

Let's go right to the weather maps. We're going to jump forward into the weekend. What you can expect is for this storm system out to the west to kick up its heels and pull to the east. As it does so, it's going to interacts with moisture from both the Atlantic and the Great Lakes. The result will be possibly some heavy snowfall right along the lake shores. But in parts of the Ohio Valley and into portions of the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky, we're going to have a possibility of several inches of ice.

Ice, of course, is going to cause some issues with power outages, roadways just blocked by tree branches and of course icy conditions can be expected along many of the nation's maybe to major thoroughfares.

But the ice and the moisture is only one component, the second is you have that cold air and that big shot of cold air is going to be felt in places like the Twin Cities come Monday morning; the temperatures at least in terms of the -- of the air temperature about 14 degrees. But when you have the wind factored in, 22 degrees below zero is what it's going to feel like outside; 20 below for Chicago and even as far as south as Knoxville, Tennessee it's going to feel like it's about 12 below, eight will be the air temperature. Now what's happening right now as we certainly have some of the cold air in place. In Pittsburgh, you've got temperatures mainly in the 20s and 30s, back in Boston, mainly teens, New York in the 20s, Washington, D.C. also in the 20s.

And -- but we -- I have a beginning of that storm really going to be cause its first imprint in parts of the western Great Lakes. We already have places like in Green Bay and Milwaukee, we've got the watches in effect. But for the Twin Cities, we already have the warnings also posted and everything is going to be making its way to the east.

Now, in terms of out to the west, we're going to have possibly some delays in San Francisco and San Diego but it's going to be Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit might have anywhere from a full hour to half hour wait due to the wind and the snow.

So it's just a little bit of a -- a light dusting at first but the heavier stuff especially Saturday and into Sunday we'll be feeling it Monday and Tuesday. Back to you.

ROBERTS: But none of that snow will make it to the coast, you think?

WOLF: You know, it's not going to be that heavy there, John. It looks like it's going to be the heaviest action right along parts of the lakeshores but the ice is going to be real the kicker. Ohio Valley needs to be on guard.

CHETRY: All right, Reynolds, have a great weekend. Thanks.

WOLF: You too.

CHETRY: Still ahead, a program that's using infants to teach children about kindness.

ROBERTS: It -- it has become an unexpected way to combat bullying in schools. Stay with us. We'll show you the program.

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CHETRY: You know earlier in the year we heard so much about the terrors that kids we're going through, bullying ending in really, really bad outcomes for parents and for students.

Well, we've been on the lookout for solutions, new ways to address the problem of bullying. A lot of people said, what if there was a way to keep kids from becoming bullies in the first place?

Well, for more than ten years there's a program in Canada that's been doing just that and the way they're doing it may surprise you.

For our series "Empowering Our Kids" we went to Toronto, Ontario to find the roots of empathy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CHETRY (voice-over): It's an exciting day in Miss Stewart's third grade class.

Ok so having a CNN crew here is cool but that's not the main event in this Toronto, Ontario classroom.

(on camera): They're getting ready to sit around the ground circle and for Baby Indigo to arrive.

(voice-over): But first, some hand sanitizer. Then, the star of today's lesson makes her entrance.

DENISE STEWART, TEACHER: Ok. So here's Indigo.

CHILDREN: Hello Baby Indigo. How are you, how are you --

CHETRY: She's just 4 months old but for the next 30 minutes Baby Indigo is the teacher. Helping these students learn about emotion. Reading other's feelings. In this case, Indigo's.

STEWART: Oh now, what is she telling us right now?

CHILDREN: She doesn't like it on her back.

CHETRY: The baby's visit is the heart of a program called "Roots of Empathy," a course that's proving to be an effective tool to combat bullying. Indigo and her parents will visit the class nine times during the year. A facilitator will make 27 visits to reinforce the lessons.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Up, up, up, up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How -- how are you feeling when she got sitting up? When she finally sat up?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Happy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Happy for her?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To do something new.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To do something new.

MARY GORDON, FOUNDER, ROOTS OF EMPATHY: The real importance of understanding how you feel and others feel really helps children navigate every social relationship in their lives.

CHETRY: Mary Gordon is the founder of "Roots of Empathy".

(on camera): How did you know that bringing a baby and the baby's mother into a classroom would somehow strikes a chord with the kids?

GORDON: There's something so engaging about watching a love between a parent and a baby. And since that relationship of attachment and attunement (ph) is how we all develop our empathy, I thought, well why not bring the teachers in? Our little tiny teachers and I just knew in my gut it was a by golly approach but now we have a scientific evidence of impact.

CHETRY (voice-over): Independent studies have found decreased aggression and an increased emotional understanding among kids who've been through the program. Translation, fewer bullies, more kids helping each other out.

Teacher Denise Stewart says she's seen a difference in the way her students relate to one another.

DENISE STEWART, TEACHER: It's a place for them to practice being open so when they move outside of the classroom they know what it feels like to be open, they know what it feels like to empathize.

CHETRY: The irony is that Gordon did not start out to create an anti-bullying program.

GORDON: I was just looking at how do we build more caring, peaceful and civil societies through our children.

CHETRY: Hard to imagine a more beautiful way to teach a lesson.

CHILDREN: Bye Baby Indigo, see you soon, see you very soon --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: So there are "Roots of Empathy" programs all across Canada. They've also spread them out to New Zealand. They've done one in Ireland. And also here in America in Seattle, Washington and since its inception, Mary Gordon says it's reached some 325,000 kids.

ROBERTS: So I'm intrigued. What -- what is it about interacting with a young child that teaches the kids to be nice to each other?

CHETRY: It is interesting. Because I asked Mary Gordon, well, would it work if you brought puppies to the classroom? Because everyone loves a puppy and everybody, you know, can sort of gather around it? She says it's more than just gathering around the baby. It's that they actually come to view how they treat others through the eyes of the baby.

So if you were mean to your friend, would you be mean to Baby Indigo? No way. Then why would you be mean to your friend?

And they also say that the baby becomes a focus of the classroom and so kids shed their inhibitions. So it's not even just the bullying but some of the kids who are very shy and don't speak up, they're maybe afraid to. There's no wrong answer when you're dealing with a baby.

ROBERTS: And do they just do it with kids who are sort of in the formative years as we saw there or can do it with older kids whose opinions and behavior might have already been formed?

CHETRY: Yes. They do it all the way to middle school. I guess the reason they don't do it at the high school level is because the kids aren't all in the same class. They have so many different periods and they're always changing in the classroom.

But yes, they do it for many different age groups and they find that it sticks and that the lessons that they learned from this little baby really helped them with having empathy and understanding where the people are coming from.

ROBERTS: Interesting program. It just so happened that they found this adjunct result to it, too. Wow. Great stuff.

CHETRY: Yes. How cute is that baby, by the way?

ROBERTS: Very cute.

CHETRY: Adorable.

ROBERTS: Fifty-seven minutes after the hour. We'll be right back.

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ROBERTS: That is going to wrap it up for us this morning. Thanks so much for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. And we will see you back here again after your weekend on Monday morning.

CHETRY: Yes. Good luck digging out for many parts of the country. We're expecting to get really stuck with a snow storm.

"CNN NEWSROOM" with Fredricka Whitfield starts right now -- hey Fred.