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NYC Still Digging out From Weekend Blizzard; Torture at JFK Airport; Southern California Residents Digging Out After Last Week's Flooding; Clooney's Satellite Solution; "Spider Woman" Out; Sleep Apnea Treatment; Politician with a Shovel

Aired December 29, 2010 - 08:00   ET

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


JOE JOHNS, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Good morning. It is Wednesday, December 29th. I'm Joe Johns.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good to see you this morning.

JOHNS: Good to see you.

CHETRY: I'm Kiran Chetry. We're still digging out here in New York. We have a lot to talk about this morning.

JOHNS: Cold feet, wet socks.

CHETRY: Oh, yes. Absolutely.

A lot of people are saying it's just simply torture on the tarmac this morning for people at JFK. Hundreds of passengers forced to spend up to 11 hours stranded on planes after long overseas flights into JFK. Once they make it inside the terminal, they're describing it as pure chaos. Thousands of people trying to find a way home this morning.

JOHNS: Across the northeast, complaints are piling up as high as the snow drifts. In Brooklyn, New York. This video from above tells the story. Streets are still unplowed three days after the storm and Mayor Mike Bloomberg under fire for his city's response.

CHETRY: In southern California, residents still trying to dig out after last week's flooding. Five homes were destroyed, 75 others damaged and there's a projected price tag of more than $17 million. The worse part may not be over yet. The National Weather Service is predicting more rain is on the way.

JOHNS: And we all know New Yorkers are a tough breed, but the blizzard of 2010 has pushed them to the brink, a lot of them anyway. Streets are still choked with snow and plenty of people can't get to work, three days after the storm.

CHETRY: Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING, we had a chance to talk to New York State Senator Carl Kruger. He's from Brooklyn and he's demanding that someone be held accountable for the failed response to the blizzard, especially in his borough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CARL KRUGER, NY STATE SENATOR (via telephone): Bus service disappeared. Subways dried up. Three-hour delays for critical response of EMS.

CHETRY: Right.

KRUGER: Thirteen hundred pieces of emergency equipment stalled dead in the snow. We have to look at our city in a broad sense. You know, if we're supposed to be prepared for any kind of an attack, any kind of an emergency, what kind of message are we sending to my folks here in southern Brooklyn where we can't even get ourselves through a snowstorm?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Well, Mary Snow is live on the streets of Manhattan this morning with more on the fallout, especially in those outer boroughs, Mary, when we showed the overhead shots of Brooklyn. I mean, it literally looks like a tundra.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It does. You know, Kiran, we were out in Brooklyn yesterday reporting on this story and we were in a SUV and got stuck on one of those streets that had not been plowed -- and there are so many of those streets still blanketed by snow.

And New Yorkers are furious. They're asking, why is it taking so long? What happened here? And they're taking aim at New York's mayor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (voice-over): In the boroughs outside Manhattan, streets are still blanketed with snow, leaving New Yorkers like Lance Owen of Brooklyn on edge.

LANCE OWEN, BROOKLYN RESIDENT: Years, years and years and years, I've lived here and never have I seen it like this.

SNOW: Emergency crews like this fire truck in Manhattan face challenging conditions. Hundreds of buses were still stuck and stranded by Tuesday morning and there was this videotape of cars damaged by a plow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God.

SNOW: The Department of Sanitation says the incident is now under investigation. City Councilwoman Letitia James, a Democrat of Brooklyn and chairwoman of the sanitation committee, has scheduled a hearing into what happened. She gives the city's response a failing grade, starting with Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

LETITIA JAMES, NYC COUNCILWOMAN: New Yorkers are angry. New Yorkers are angry that there's a disconnect between those of the outer boroughs and the mayor of the city of New York and his administration. And to me, it's just another reflection of a mayor who's basically out of touch. SNOW: Asked about the response from angry New Yorkers, the mayor said, he's angry, too. Adding the city is doing the best it can.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), NEW YORK: We won't get to everybody every time. We will make mistakes. But we have to continue plugging ahead. Yelling about it and complaining doesn't help.

SNOW: But Bloomberg wasn't the only politician under fire. In neighboring New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie, a rising star in the Republican Party, gained attention to the fact that he's on vacation while a state was hit with the blizzard. And his lieutenant governor was vacationing as well. Leaving the state in the hands of the state Senate president.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're both gone. Shouldn't they be taking care of the state?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hard for me to talk bad about the governor because he's one of the greatest governors we ever had. But I'm sure he's been in communication and the state's getting cleaned up.

SNOW: The governor's office answered criticism, saying the response to the storm is the same as it would be in other circumstances. Adding, "We are Northeastern state and we get plenty of snow, including heavy hits like this, and we'll get through this just as we always have."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: Now, another New Jersey politician is gaining attention but for a different reason and that's Newark Mayor Cory Booker who's using his Twitter page to take complaints or pleas for plows and then send out teams to respond to those people. And also, he's been out on the streets digging out the snow himself. So, certainly this blizzard is creating a political scorecard here in the Northeast.

CHETRY: Mary Snow for us this morning, the fallout continues as does the snow on the ground in a lot of these outer boroughs -- thanks.

JOHNS: Well, at least it stopped. That's the one good thing.

CHETRY: Yes.

JOHNS: I saw the sun yesterday.

If you haven't seen this YouTube video, making the rounds. Take a look. It shows a New York City sanitation workers trying to free a plow stuck in the snow and in the process doing some damage to an SUV. Ouch! Look at that.

CHETRY: There went the bumper.

JOHNS: Wow. How much damage? Well, New York's WABC went to the scene and as you can see, both the SUV and the vehicle in front of it were actually pretty banged up. Do I hear a lawyer being called? Look at -- yes. Who's that talking? I guess the owner of the SUV? CHETRY: No. It's apparently people were shooting out of the apartment window. But do we have other video of -- a close-up, is that what they're saying, of WABC at the scene?

OK. Here we go.

JOHNS: There you. All right.

CHETRY: So, this is the video. That's the aftermath of what happened.

JOHNS: You know, they say this happens occasionally, you know, because of plows moving around cars or what-have-you. This isn't the first time this kind of thing has happened.

CHETRY: No. And we'll see what the fallout is.

JOHNS: That's a lot of damage.

CHETRY: Yes, yesterday -- yesterday, they said they were investigating that and that they were going to look into who that driver was. So --

JOHNS: Wow. All right. OK. So, we begin now with torture on the tarmac. Passengers on at least six more international flights spending hours stranded on the tarmac at JFK after landing last night or early this morning.

CHETRY: Lufthansa flight 404 from Frankfurt as well as Air France flight 008 from Paris and Aeromexico flight 404 from Mexico City -- all three spending more than six hours on the tarmac after touching down. And then there were three other flights from Tel Aviv, San Salvador and Seoul, spending up to nine hours on a tarmac before passengers were allowed to deplane.

Our Susan Candiotti is joining us live from JFK this morning.

Have you gotten any answers from anyone there about why this is continuing to happen?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No solid answers but additional information about even more flights that were stuck on the airport -- on the tarmac all night coming in, international flights here to JFK.

The sources of some of this information coming to us from people involved with the air traffic controllers that are telling me that one flight that came in from China that landed around 8:30, 9:00 last night, finally got the clearance to move to a gate around 5:00 this morning and then -- get this -- because the crew had timed out onboard the aircraft, that meant that a tug had to come in and tow the plane to the gate before they could finally deplane at around 5:00, 6:00 this morning.

But I'm also hearing from that same source that there were other issues with other airlines including Alitalia and others. Now, we are still trying to talk to the port authority to find out why this is happening. But generally speaking, according to some sources, it is because these planes are landing and obviously they don't have gates cleared. The question, of course, is: why is that still occurring?

Yesterday, we were hearing that the port authority was saying it was up to the airlines to find out before they took off and before they landed here to make sure that they had space available.

But we still have to get to the crux of this. Is it a personnel issue? Have workers been unable to get to the airport, ground crew that could help the situation out? Those are the answers we hope to get.

We can tell you this. There is one bit of bright news. In the last hour or so, I've been inside baggage claim here at the international terminal and talked to a number of passengers from a number of different airlines that are saying they landed with minimal delays. So, this would have been within the last couple of hours.

So, it would appear from anecdotal information that things seem to be correcting themselves at this hour now that the sun has come up.

Back to you, Joe and Kiran.

JOHNS: Susan Candiotti, so, I'm wondering if there's flip phone video or whatever that people can send us that we can put on TV to sort of describe and show the conditions on some of these planes. I you see anybody with that kind of thing, tell them to send it our way. We do have some photographs there from inside the terminal.

CHETRY: Yes. People were taking pictures of --

CANDIOTTI: Exactly.

CHETRY: -- the luggage piled up and people waiting. Thanks so much, Susan, by the way.

A lot of people are also asking, you know, this Passenger Bill of Rights that they had talked about with the airlines. What happened to that? I mean, does it -- can it help these poor passengers?

Alison Kosik is "Minding Your Business" this morning.

Hi.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi.

I mean, this Passenger Bill of Rights, it still exists. It went into effect in April and it means for these domestic flights, if they sit -- they can't sit on the tarmac more than three hours or these airlines are going to be fined $27,500 per passenger. So, these domestic airlines don't want to do this.

But what you're seeing, what Susan was just talking about where all these international flights that were stuck on the tarmac for six to nine, almost 10, 12 hours. And what they're doing, it's legal. It may not be right, but it's legal.

CHETRY: It doesn't apply to the international flights at this point?

KOSIK: Exactly. This Passenger Bill of Rights does not apply to international flights and that's what we're seeing here. Now, they can have self-imposed limits. They have to post these limits on the Web site, you know, and they have to -- they usually have to abide by them.

The DOT says that can fine them. But, you know, it's questionable whether they can hold them to that.

JOHNS: One of the things that I can't quite clear up in my mind is whether this is a function of the airlines simply taking off without a place to put the plane or whether it's someone in the tower who's holding them back. I mean, who is it that you want to go and ask why did you do that?

KOSIK: You know, I was asking the same thing. We are having a problem getting those answers. But the fact is, is that these airlines, with these international flights, they can sit on the tarmac for as long as they want.

The DOT really has no say in it at this point because the Passenger Bill of Rights is not in effect and it won't be most likely until the spring. But, you know, at this point, the DOT says they're going to investigate the situations and the DOT is telling people that, you know, if you see an incident that you don't like what's happening, go ahead and report it. And they say they will go ahead and investigate it.

It may just be a matter of not having gates ready because these gates at these airports are literally snowed in. They're blocked in and haven't been, you know, made available for these airplanes to deplane these people.

JOHNS: So, it sounds like a little bit of everybody to blame there at the end of the day.

KOSIK: Yes. I think so. I think so.

JOHNS: All right. Great. Thanks so much, Alison Kosik.

KOSIK: You got it. OK.

JOHNS: Jacqui Jeras now in the extreme weather center.

And, Jacqui, I guess the question for you is, what's it look like in Atlanta? And what's it look like everywhere else?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, up and down the Eastern Seaboard, things are looking fantastic, in fact. We don't expect any weather-related delays. You know, we're going to have to watch New York City. The FAA thinks there could be a couple of minor delays this morning because the winds, they're gusting up to about 17 miles per hour right now, driving down that wind-chill factor, too. But I think, overall, it's going to be really be smooth-sailing across most of the Northeast.

We do have some delays at White Plains right now. These are departure delays and this is due to logistics. This is not due to the weather. So, we'll continue to monitor that for you throughout the morning and into the afternoon, if necessary.

We do expect weather-related delays in Chicago, Milwaukee due to some fog. We got rain and low clouds in Dallas and Houston. Phoenix and Las Vegas because of rain; snow in Salt Lake City; and Los Angeles and San Francisco getting that rain and those strong winds, as well.

Now, while the East Coast dies down, things are going to be kicking up across parts of the West and this western storm will be our big focus the next couple of days before racing several inches of rain across parts of northern California, several feet of snow can be expected into the higher elevations and this is going to head into the Wasatch and as well into the Rockies.

And then as it heads the east, it will be a rain event, because it's picking up some heat to go along with it. It's already warming up across the Southern Plains. Look at that, guys, Houston, Texas, today is 69 degrees. You got rain but, hey, you've got 69 degrees. How about that?

CHETRY: That is the place to be today, the only orange spot on your map. Thanks, Jacqui.

JOHNS: I'm ready. Thanks, Jacqui.

Any given Tuesday, the Eagles and Vikings play the first Tuesday NFL game since 1946, that game that was postponed Sunday in anticipation of the Northeast blizzard.

CHETRY: Yes. And doesn't that field look so much better than it would have on Sunday night?

JOHNS: Yes, it sure does. I take that any day. "This seat reserved for non-wussies." Of course, that's a reference to Governor Rendell, critical of the fact that they actually moved the game. People had a lot of fun with him at the length.

CHETRY: He laughed himself and he said we turned into a nation of wusses. If it were in China, they would have played the game.

JOHNS: Of course. But they don't have this kind of football in China much anyway, do they?

As for the game, there you go -- the Vikings upset the Eagles who will still be playing in the playoffs anyway, score was 24 to 14. Michael Vick, the guy everybody's watching got hurt but stayed in the game. Brett Favre did not play. CHETRY: Nope. Vick sacked I think six times.

JOHNS: Ouch. I know. Tough game.

Well, he -- after all the games he's had that have been very good, I guess it was time to have a bad one.

CHETRY: Still in the playoffs, though.

Well, actor George Clooney has a plan for Sudan. This is pretty interesting. He wants to use satellites in space to try to draw attention to and stop the violence taking place on the ground. We're going to have more on that coming up.

It's 14 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: Google teaming up with actor, George Clooney and the U.N. --

CHETRY: Oh, yes. Well, first, we'll quickly show you some live pictures from Brooklyn this morning.

JOHNS: Oh, there we go. Gotcha.

CHETRY: I mean, it looks like a tundra. You see the main artery there clear, but those side streets have not been plowed, and this is 50 hours and counting since the last snowflake fell. We're still seeing quite a mess. The politicians in New York under fire this morning for allowing this busy Borough to stay unplowed.

JOHNS: Yes. Pretty incredible. It reminds me of flying a helicopter over Alaska.

CHETRY: Did you do that?

JOHNS: Yes, I did. I did once.

(LAUGHTER)

JOHNS: No fear, right? OK. Now, come on.

All right. In other news, this is where I began. Google teaming up with actor, George Clooney, and the U.N. to launch a satellite surveillance program to monitor violence in Sudan. Images from space will capture any signs of conflict on the ground.

The satellite technology will be used next month during a referendum on independence for Southern Sudan. Attacks in the Western Darfur region have killed hundreds of thousands of people in the last seven years.

CHETRY: It has been a passionate cause for George Clooney.

JOHNS: Absolutely.

CHETRY: And something that he has been fighting for years to try to remedy.

Meantime, the Ford Motor Company is expected to announce a new feature for next year's cars. This is a parental block on Howard Stern. Parents will be able to block up to 16 (INAUDIBLE) channels on Sirius satellite radio including those featuring Stern, Playboy radio, hip hop nation and raw dog comedy among others.

JOHNS: I can't imagine why you'd want to block any of those.

CHETRY: So, kids, kids, hope your parents stick with the Chevy.

(LAUGHTER)

JOHNS: More problems for the biggest Broadway production of all time. Natalie Mendoza, who played one of the spider women in "Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark," is leaving the show before it even officially started. She suffered a concussion during the musical's first preview performance last month. She hasn't been back to the show since Spider-man stunt double, Christopher Tierney, fell 30 feet off of a platform and suffered a broken vertebra last week.

CHETRY: How many of you last year sent a Happy New Year's text and then you realized it didn't actually get to anybody until noon the next day? Well, now --

JOHNS: Why does that happen?

CHETRY: Well, it's because their jammed up because of how many people do that. Well, now, apparently, it's going to get a little easier to communicate on New Year's Eve, at least, in Times Square. AT&T is planning to expand its Wi-Fi hot spot in Times Square ahead of the countdown. So, you won't feel to help (ph) your text messages. Tweeting will be a whole lot easier.

JOHNS: Wow. Well, who knew? OK.

Will Kate not plus eight -- royals say they won't hire any help after they get hitched. Are you buying it? That's coming ahead. Your "Morning Talker."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: Safety officials in Maine are trying to figure out what caused a chair lift to derail at Sugarloaf Mountain Ski Resort sending five chairs crashing about 30 feet to the ground yesterday. Eight people, three of them children, were taken to a hospital, and another 150 people were stranded on the chair lift. Some, for as long as two hours, dealing with 25-mile-per-hour wind gust.

CHETRY: Yes. Very scary situation. Hard to imagine just sitting on a chair lift heading up a mountain and then suddenly the skiers in front of you literally fall off. That's exactly what happened to Robb Atkinson yesterday. He's a CNN employee, and he was actually on that lift when this happened, and he joins us live from Maine this morning.

Thanks for talking to us again, Robb. I know it was a scary situation. We just want to confirm, everybody turned -- no one has major injuries, right? Everybody looks like they're going to be OK?

ROBB ATKINSON, RESCUED FROM CHAIR LIFT: From what I understand, from Ethan Austin, the spokesperson here at Sugarloaf, it seems that the most serious was transported to Portland Hospital by helicopter immediately after the accident. I don't have a condition on him, but I do have some breaking news. After speaking to Ethan, he gave me the preliminary report on this accident and the investigation.

Preliminary report says that wind was the cause of the derailment. Final report will be put out sometime later today, but it kind of goes to what I was saying when I was on the chair lift. I felt a gust of wind. There was the bump and then the screaming and people falling to the ground. So, that kind of makes sense to me.

JOHNS: So, Robb, this lift we're told was something like 25 years old, but we're also told that that had recently gotten a clean bill of health. Is that your understanding?

ATKINSON: It's regularly inspected. They -- Sugarloaf, itself, does weekly inspections, and sometimes, daily inspections on these lifts, according to the spokesperson here. I'm not sure when the last yearly inspection was done. But again, this is total freak accident.

You know, I was reading that since 1973, there have only been 12 fatalities on ski lifts and of -- it's an amazing number when you figure 12 deaths out of 40 billion rides on ski lifts. So, really, this is just a freak accident and nobody up here has ever seen anything like this before.

CHETRY: And you said it's going to be business, as usual. I mean, that lift may be closed, but people are still going up the mountain, people are still skiing. What if there are other wind gusts like this today? I mean, is there, you know, is there -- are they making any changes?

ATKINSON: It doesn't appear to be making any changes at this moment. I'm going to step out of the shot for just a moment, and you can see the lift is full. This is the super quad. This is one of the newest lifts they've installed here at Sugarloaf a few years back, and it's running at full capacity.

I can tell you it is crowded here today. The accident is not keeping people away from the mountain at all and, you know, they just had 22 inches of snow up here. It's incredible skiing. Sugarloaf is really one of the gems of the northeast. So, people are coming up to experience it.

CHETRY: That 22 inches of powder is what probably saved all of those people from getting more seriously hurt. Robb Atkinson for us this morning, thank you so much.

JOHNS: Appreciate that, Robb.

Home prices plunging, they're falling even faster than economist predicted. So, what does that mean for you? Alison Kosik, "Minding Your Business." (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Twenty-seven minutes past the hour right now. Talking about a steep plunge in some of the values of housing.

JOHNS: Right. And anybody who's trying to sell a house, at least in certain markets, is got to be driving them crazy right now, Alison Kosik.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes. I mean, you said it. I mean, if you're looking to sell your house, I don't know if you want to think about it. I mean, if you're a first-time home buyer, hey, it's great. I mean, it's like a big, big sale. But I mean the fact of the matter is, the housing market as a whole just is really getting crushed.

I mean, housing prices continue to fall. Prices in 20 cities fell more than 1 percent in October from September. This index that came out yesterday covers 20 cities as a whole. Take a look. Six of the biggest cities reached their lowest levels since the housing market imploded in 2006 and 2007. They include Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Portland, Seattle and Tampa.

JOHNS: Why?

KOSIK: There's a huge glut on the market.

JOHNS: Why those cities? Any idea?

KOSIK: They're the ones who are really having problems with these foreclosures. There's a lot of properties on the market and what does that do? It's simple supply and demand equation. There's a lot of supply, less of a demand. A lot of people not looking to make a commitment and buy houses these days.

CHETRY: And you can also have, you know, a great, fantastic house, but if every home around you is in foreclosure --

(CROSSTALK)

KOSIK: Exactly. And for baby boomers, this is a real huge problem. I mean, you know, a lot of these people have put their life savings into their homes, and they've been hoping to retire. You know, they just have all of their savings wrapped up in their house, you know? And you think about it, with Social Security, you know, the claims that they're making, if they file as early as 62 years old, they're going to be getting a lower rate on their money than if they waited until full retirement at 66.

So, this just adds to the problem. And then you talk about the medical bills piling up and the fact that their retirement savings, look at how stocks are doing. The retirement savings are in the tank. You know, since 2000, the S&P 500 which closely mirrors your 401(k) has only been up about 4 percent since 2000. So, you know, a lot of procrastination. People who just haven't planned well in advance to put money away. It's kind of like the poor planning that we all kind of are victims of.

JOHNS: And the thing about it though, even if you plan pretty carefully, you would have still lost a lot of value.

KOSIK: Oh, yes. But the fact of the matter is, you know, we were never big savers, anyway.

JOHNS: Right.

KOSIK: I mean, during the height of our economy, we were, maybe, saving 1 percent. You know, now that we kind of got stung with this recession, the savings rate went up to about 5 percent. I mean, it's unheard of, but you know, we had to sort of learn the way and lessons learned hard, maybe a little too late for these baby boomers. They're not going to be able to retire early. They're going to have to keep on working, kind of work until you drop.

CHETRY: And it's going to be tough. It's a bit of a waiting game right now to see if it will stabilize.

KOSIK: It is.

JOHNS: And all this debate about whether you raise the Social Security retirement age and may be moot because people aren't going to be able to retire until like 68, 69.

KOSIK: Exactly.

JOHNS: Yes, well, tough life. Thanks.

KOSIK: It is. Come on have a little more feeling.

(LAUGHTER)

JOHNS: I'm in that --

KOSIK: We're all living longer. Maybe we can work a little bit longer.

JOHNS: Talking to myself.

CHETRY: I know, right? That's good.

JOHNS: All right, it is 30 minutes after the hour.

Complaints of New York area are piling up as the snowy streets unplowed, thousands stranded up able to get to work. And in New Jersey hard to find someone to complain to since the governor and lieutenant governor skipped out of town on vacation before the snow started to fall.

CHETRY: Well, at New York's airports, it is pure chaos, thousands of people stranded desperate to find a way home. These are some pictures of people at the airports, forced to sit on tarmacs all night with little food or water. And the effects of the blizzard are being felt at airports across the country with a domino effect triggering all kinds of delays in San Francisco, delays in parts of -- middle of the country, Chicago's O'Hare as well because of this.

JOHNS: One delay that's over is in Alaska, the Senate race. A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit there challenging Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski's write-in victory. Tea Party candidate Joe Miller claimed many of the write-in ballots had Murkowski's name spelled wrong and should not be counted. Murkowski's election will be certified tomorrow and she'll be sworn in for a second term next week.

There are a lot of people bumming in Brooklyn this morning. About 2.5 million New Yorkers in the borough and looking for the snowplows, still.

CHETRY: Yes, 50-some hours after the last snowflake fell thousands still stranded and probably in a worse situation than before because of how much the snow hardened. We're looking at live pictures of WABC overhead shot of some stranded motorists there in Brooklyn. Meteorologist Chris Knowles is live in Brooklyn this morning. We're seeing in this picture someone trying to push the car out. That's probably a scene repeated time and time again today.

CHRIS KNOWLES, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Kiran, take a look right now. There's a car buried underneath here somewhere and try getting this out snow out. It's not powdery anymore. It's encased in case and sitting that way.

We're seeing plows on streets that have been paved. The problem is abandoned cars blocking some of the side streets. Take a look at this. This is Lucie Harris. Lucie found your car. Congratulations.

LUCIE HARRIS, BROOKLYN RESIDENT: Thank you very much. I've been watching it get snowed in from across the street where I live.

KNOWLES: How long are you been trying to get this out? What's the situation?

HARRIS: I just came out this morning. I thought that I should give it a start and slowly unearth it.

KNOWLES: Can't be easy shoveling with it packed inn.

HARRIS: Not too bad. It's not too bad. And I have many days to go before I need to get it out.

KNOWLES: Hopefully warmer weather to get you out. Thank you, Lucie. Good luck to you. Watch that back.

We have seen the plows come down. They tried to get a side street. Right now, we are on the avenue block and you can see it's paved. However, on some of these side streets, for example, this is 13th street. One block over on 12th street there's an abandoned cab. We saw the guy give another crack at it this morning with no success. The plow came up, saw it, turned around and went down the one way street the other way. So they're finally now in the Parkside neighborhood, but it's a while before they can move the snow. Where are you going to put it? Already cars are encased on the avenue blocks and it's the same deal on the side streets so where is that snow going to go? It will be warmer today but it's not going to melt that fast, Kiran.

CHETRY: Yes. They need something more than the typical plows, right? You are talking about bulldozers or other heavy construction equipment.

KNOWLES: You saw in some of the previous storms that they have actually taken and dumped this snow and melted it in this special equipment. I don't know if that's the plan here or not, but as Jacqui has been mentioning, the northeast is expecting a slight warm-up throughout the week, a gradual warm-up.

But is that going to come at a price? Will we get flooding rains perhaps this weekend from the California storm she's been talking about so the problems continue to add up here.

JOHNS: Chris Knowles, thank you so much for that and stay warm, my friend.

CHETRY: Yes. Stay warm out there. I know. Just looking at the mountains of snow that are piled up on each side of the street where he is and all over and I kept thinking to myself, when this melts what will you do?

JOHNS: Yes, exactly.

CHETRY: This is another live picture in Brooklyn this morning of people trying to dig out. That's quite a task. There you go. You're going to need to push a little harder, guys. Good luck this morning, because that's not fun.

JOHNS: All uphill.

CHETRY: It's 38 minutes past the hour right now. This is one that will have you scratching your head this morning. We know that unfortunately infidelity happens and divorce happens, but now could you go to jail on top it?

He snooped out his wife. He found out she was sleeping with her ex- husband, and now he could go to prison. A man in Michigan is facing felony charges for reading his wife's e-mail to confirm his suspicions she was having an affair. Leon Walker now faces up to five years in prison if convicted under the invasion of privacy.

The prosecutor is using a criminal statute typically applied to hard core hackers. The case is making headlines across the country and raising the questions of conduct online.

Joining me now for some perspective, two of our favorites, attorney Paul Callan and psychologist Jeff Gardere. Thank you for joining us this morning. So this is this Michigan prosecutor that is using this statute that's been applied to domestic cases in the past. What do you think?

PAUL CALLAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Wow. This is a highly unusual use of a criminal statute. All 50 states have states that prohibit computer hacking, and usually when they prosecute these cases it's some technological guy who's broken into a big company's computer system and damaged it or stolen something.

CHETRY: Right. Are you hacking if you know the password?

CALLAN: That's the question. The prosecutor here has said that this husband who was looking at his wife's e-mail by using her password without her permission has violated the statute. He could go to prison for five years if convicted by the jury on the case.

CHETRY: Morally speaking he claims the reason he wanted to do this was she had a son with her first husband. The second husband is the one that she was apparently cheating with, and the third husband is the one who did the hacking. He wanted to warn the first husband she was cheating with the second husband because their child he felt was at the risk.

JEFF GARDERE, PSYCHOLOGIST: What came first, the chicken or the egg? Was it that he suspected she was cheating or that he suspected that something was going on and the child was perhaps at risk?

Bottom line here, and I think you and I may disagree on this, I really do not believe morally, ethically, spiritually, relationship-wise that you should be reading the e-mails of your spouse, even if you think that they may be cheating.

And if you think they're cheating, chances are they are, and therefore, you're wasting your time trying to hack into their e-mails. There are some things that are sacred, and privacy is one of those things.

CHETRY: I want the ask you about that because they say coming up in contested divorce cases 45 percent involve a discovery of texts, of e- mails, of perhaps cell phone videos. And so, what happens now? I mean, people -- there's a new realm of possibly getting jail time on top of the divorce?

CALLAN: In getting ready for the segment I was talking to matrimonial lawyers, and this is the bread and butter now. They have one spouse spying on the other by going into the computer looking at the e-mails, and that's how they show grounds for divorce.

But can you prosecute somebody and put them in prison for reading a spouse's e-mail? And of course you and I were having a little discussion before we went on the air about the issue of, is this legitimately an invasion of somebody else's privacy, or because you're married do both -- you know --

CHETRY: I don't agree with Dr. Jeff. And the reason why is your work can read your e-mail, right? CALLAN: Yes.

CHETRY: And employer can read your e-mail at any time to see if you're doing the right thing by the company. If you're in a marriage contract, a legal contract, can't the other people see if you're doing right by the contract?

GARDERE: The difference is, one, is a work contract. It's an obligation in that way. When we're talking about marriage, we are talking about having faith in someone. And if you really do believe that they're cheating on you, then there's something fundamentally wrong with that marriage to begin with.

And so I see this as a lot of negative energy being put into spying on your spouse. It just cannot be healthy.

And my experience as a shrink has always been, if you're looking for something, you're going to find something. If you don't find something, you're never going to rest looking for something. You talk about jail time, well, it's double jail time, because jail time is going to an actual prison, but the previous jail time is being in a bad marriage.

CALLAN: You know, from a legal standpoint, when you take that marriage vow, there's nothing about e-mail in it. So I think what you're saying is --

CHETRY: It's 2011. You didn't think you had to worry about your kids sexting either.

GARDERE: That's true.

CALLAN: You don't say love, honor, and read each other's e-mails. That's a deal to work out with your husband or your wife.

GARDERE: And I think that's a great point she's making that, yes, you didn't have to worry about kids sexting a couple of years ago. But it's not a parent-child relationship. This is an adult-adult relationship and, therefore, we should treat each other in that way.

CHETRY: You're right. Trust --

GARDERE: Two wrongs don't make a right.

CHETRY: Trust and loyalty are obviously the foundations of any successful relationship, a marriage on top of that. But let's say you're in an abusive relationship and you have to find some proof so that you can get out of this and maybe you're not financially the breadwinner of the family. Should you start to go to jail for trying to produce evidence to allow them to divorce?

CALLAN: You know, it is a close question here. One way to look at this, say in order to get proof of financial irregularities you would forge your spouse's signature for medical or legal records. That would still be a crime even though you were doing it for a good reason. So I don't think that just because you're motivated by a good reason that makes it noncriminal.

But on the other hand, in this case, this guy says she was using a laptop computer that I owned. Why can't I look on my own laptop computer to see her e-mail?

CHETRY: Is he going to do jail time?

CALLAN: I think it will be thrown out of court. I think it's an overreach by the Michigan prosecutor and it raises real privacy issues. And a lot of people I have spoken to have said, you know, maybe we need protection of our e-mail. Maybe people shouldn't be allowed to snoop in other people's e-mail accounts.

GARDERE: I think --

CALLAN: But is it criminal? I don't think it's criminal.

GARDERE: I don't think so either. I think there's some deeper emotional issues going on. He married a woman. This is her third marriage. She's cheating with the second husband. There's issues with the kid with the first husband where she was beaten.

So there's deeper, deeper psychological issues that he and she have to really take care of. Let's keep it out of the criminal realm an look at what's going on as far as the relationship here.

CHETRY: We wish them all luck.

GARDERE: They need all of it, believe me.

CHETRY: Dr. Jeff Gardere, Paul Callan, thank you.

CALLAN: Good to be with you.

CHETRY: We'll be right back. We're going to take a quick break. It's 45 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Yes. I don't think there's any pushing that big rig out.

JOHNS: Yes, there's a problem.

CHETRY: No we're still looking --

(CROSSTALK)

JOHNS: -- not good.

CHETRY: -- where we're still looking at live pictures out of Brooklyn today where they're still struggling 50 hours after the last snowflake fell.

JOHNS: I think he could use a little bit of salt, sand, chains and a big push.

CHETRY: That's right. Good luck.

JOHNS: And luck.

CHETRY: By the way, the other car we showed you, the little tiny, was it a red Ford Escort? They got out, they did. I mean, at least they got out of the shot.

JOHNS: Correct.

CHETRY: Who knows how long until they stalled again?

JOHNS: Exactly. Yes, well, it only took like two or three guys to push that. Imagine how many people it would take to push this.

CHETRY: Exactly.

Well, it's 48 minutes past the hour.

Our Jacqui Jeras is keeping track of it all for us. So we're still living in the nightmare here in New York but in other parts of the country they're dealing with a whole other system.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, they are. And that one eventually is going to impact everybody across the continental U.S. and it will be a warmer storm for the east but still bitterly cold across parts of the west.

This morning we're waking up to some wet conditions across the nation's south midsection and that's where we're focusing our forecast today across parts of Texas where we're getting some heavy showers and thunder showers just moving into the Houston area.

We've seen some spotty rain across Dallas, across Arkansas right now heavy rains just west of Little Rock and Memphis starting to get wet. This is going to pick up as we heading into the late morning hours.

Now, high pressure controlling in the east, though, it's beautiful, it's a great day. Lots of sunshine, temperatures will be warming up. So we're going to get to melt off some of that snow but we're going to freeze right back up in the night time hours. So be aware the next few days, black ice will be a problem on the roadways.

Now we will see that rain continuing across the south central part of the U.S. for today nothing too heavy but enough to impact your drive.

Here's our West Coast storm as it makes its way inland. It's already dumped about two to three inches across the bay area. There's a lot of moisture content with this thing as we've got that subtropical connection once again and that's why we'll see those numbers so high.

The rain really picking up now into the L.A. area; we're expecting to see a good couple of feet of snow into the Sierras. The winds will be a huge factor with this storm as well. Check out some of these gusts from last tonight; 106 miles per hour in Pyramid Lake, Nevada. Reno, 70; and 60-mile-per hour gusts in San Francisco so that can take down power lines and trees, so be aware of that damage.

Those winds will continue to be a problem throughout the day today. A little calmer but still pretty wicked at 60 miles per hour. And we are very concerned about flooding as well as mudslides as the ground already so saturated across parts of the west.

The system makes its way towards the east. The snow will be picking up today across Utah into the Wasatch Range. Four to ten inches on the Valley Floor and Colorado gets on in the action later today. And notice we've got a winter storm watch in effect for you in Denver. We don't think you're accumulations will be too high but we will expect to see a lot of blowing and drifting snow along with the system, as well.

It will be a rain maker for you guys across the east when it gets there by the weekend. And the best thing I can tell you, it's going to warm things up across the east the next couple of days.

CHETRY: It will melt some of that snow, as well. Jacqui thanks.

JERAS: Yes.

JOHNS: It can melt a lot of it, as far as I'm concerned.

CHETRY: Do you snore?

JOHNS: I --

CHETRY: You've heard?

JOHNS: I take the fifth.

CHETRY: No. I know sometimes when I'm out like a light, it just -- it just happens to you. But they say that there may be a cure in store, a new pacemaker for your tongue that's being test so that could finally give the 12 million Americans who do snore, a good night's sleep.

JOHNS: I don't know who you're talking about.

CHETRY: Well, me either. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: All right. We're looking at live picture again in Brooklyn. This is a big rig that was stuck and here's another street view. What is that? What could that be? A UFO?

JOHNS: A salt truck?

CHETRY: No. It's a --

JOHNS: They exist.

CHETRY: Right. JOHNS: They're alive, they're alive.

CHETRY: It's actually a snowplow and salt truck on one of the roads in Brooklyn. They don't look too happy getting video of them this morning. But you know what? I bet you the residents are quite happy. Where are they going to put the snow? That's another question at this point. But hopefully they can get some of those streets cleared.

JOHNS: Hopefully.

CHETRY: Yes.

Meanwhile, it's 54 minutes past the hour right now.

Time for your "A.M. House Call"; this is just maybe the secret to a snore free sleep. The AP is reporting a device similar to a pacemaker is being tested for the tongue, it would send a mild electrical shock to the tongue of those who --

(CROSSTALK)

JOHNS: Ouch.

CHETRY: -- suffer with sleep apnea and those mild electrical shocks would keep the tongue from relaxing and blocking the airway. I've a feeling it might keep you from relaxing in general when it comes to sleeping but --

(CROSSTALK)

JOHNS: Yes, you would think and then what would it do to your taste buds if you're getting electrical shocks in your mouth?

CHETRY: Its mild electrical stimulation --

(CROSSTALK)

JOHNS: Yes.

CHETRY: -- but it's obviously a big problem, 12 million people they say suffer from sleep apnea. That's usually you know, when you stop breathing several times throughout the night and you snore a lot because of it.

JOHNS: Right, right and speaking of taste buds, food versus sex. Now, what do you think?

CHETRY: I don't know where you're going with this one. But just go ahead, keep going.

JOHNS: Right, ok, ok. There's a new survey that says women think about eating far more than they think about having sex; 25 percent of women surveyed said they think about food about once every half an hour or so. And just 10 percent think about sex every 30 minutes. Huh? What do you think?

Many women also said it's because they feel like they're constantly on a diet all the time.

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: Sure.

JOHNS: Now, I wonder why didn't they ask that question of guys.

CHETRY: Because it would just be 100 and 100.

JOHNS: Right. They think about --

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: Right? It would be tied.

JOHNS: -- food all the time and sex all the time.

CHETRY: Yes, they just fantasize which one first.

Fifty-five minutes past the hour right now.

Up next, a politician with a shovel and the voters he serves are digging it. There's Cory Booker, Newark mayor he is --

(CROSSTALK)

JOHNS: On the job.

CHETRY: -- right out there.

JOHNS: He needs a cape.

CHETRY: Yes, you Twitter and you send him a tweet. And say hey, my street's messed up. He'll be out there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Well, in New Jersey, Newark to be exact, Cory Booker, the mayor of the town is taking matters into his own hands. He is actually hitting the streets with a shovel.

JOHNS: And he's using the twitter feed to rescue the stranded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR CORY BOOKER, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: We're in a state of emergency here in New Jersey.

Are you trying to go straight? Stop. Go ahead.

I also have a great Twitter feed of residents who are letting me know what's happening; letting me know if they need help.

We've gotten diapers to people, delivered food. One pregnant woman who was going into labor or at least thought she was. We got there before the ambulances could and we actually got an ambulance unstuck. We got a major snow plow here stuck. There is every need on streets throughout the city. So this is a real point of leverage here as they say. It looks like we're making progress. This is one -- one heavy guy. If we can get the one truck out, it can go on and help dozens of other blocks tonight.

If you want to get a lot done, you have to give up something to get it. Today what I'm giving up is sleep and also a functioning back probably after a few more days. I'm sure I won't be able to get out of bed as easy as I used to.

I'm just inspired frankly though because whenever you see a crisis, you see the best in people. And so many people are coming together in Newark. Every time we stop to help people out, more and more people jump to help push a car, help get someone unstuck and that's very inspiring.

Maybe there's a lesson in snowflakes. Individually we're a little weak but when we stick together, there's a lot of strength there.

Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: There you go. He's out there putting his money where his mouth is.

JOHNS: Amazing. We have to see how his back is tomorrow.

CHETRY: Well, we saw him jogging in that documentary. You know, he is fit.

JOHNS: Yes. Good luck.

CHETRY: At least he's doing something, right?

JOHNS: Exactly.

CHETRY: All right. Well, that's going to do it for us. So glad to see you today.

JOHNS: Thanks. So glad to be here.

CHETRY: We'll be back here bright and early tomorrow.

JOHNS: Yes, bright and early.

CHETRY: After you get a nap.

JOHNS: I need one.

CHETRY: "CNN NEWSROOM" with Alina Cho starts right now.