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American Woman Arrested in Iran; Autism-Vaccine Study: "Fraud"; People's Choice Award Winners; Oil Prices on the Rise Again; Consumer Electronics Show Launches in Vegas; Fifth Grader Becomes Youngest Person to Discover a Supernova; A Star Among Stargazers

Aired January 06, 2011 - 08:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. Top of the hour here now. Good morning to you all on this Thursday, January the 6th. I'm T.J. Holmes.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. We have a lot to talk about this morning.

First, more fuel to the fiery debate over whether vaccinating your children could ultimately harm them. A scathing investigation accuses the doctor who first reported a link between autism and a childhood vaccine, a fraud. We're going to hear Dr. Andrew Wakefield's response to that coming up.

HOLMES: All right. It's the first full day of work today, New Year. We've got a new Congress. House of Representatives, of course, is now controlled by Republicans.

First order of business this morning is going to be reading their instructions, if you will. They're going to read the entire Constitution, out loud, supposed to take a few hours and then the other challenge they're going to take on, trying to dismantle the president's health care reform.

CHETRY: And she is the youngest person ever to discover a supernova, an exploding star 240 million light years away. This morning, the 10-year-old Kathryn Aurora Gray is the envy of astronomers everywhere. We're going to talk to her later this hour.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

HOLMES: And this story coming to us out of Iran, trying to get more information about a 55-year-old woman who was reportedly arrested in Iran on charges of spying, arrested there, being accused of placing spying equipment in her teeth. Now, report we're getting is that she arrived there from Armenia.

Now, this -- I mean, we look further down the road and seen cases like this, in particular remembering the three American hikers who were taken in '09. One of them was released. Sarah Shroud, two others still there. But they were accused of spying as well.

So, now, it would appear we have another case where an American woman, a 55-year-old, reportedly has been arrested on allegations of spying is what we're getting. Reportedly told agents she'd be killed if she'd try to return -- if she'd return to Armenia, is what we're getting.

But the story is still developing for us right now. Not known right now when this arrest possibly took place. We're not getting official comment just yet, but we're keeping a close eye on the story for you this morning.

CHETRY: All right. We'll follow that.

In the meantime, we're also following some new outrage this morning over the doctor who first linked -- suggested a link between the measles, mumps and rubella, or the MMR vaccine and autism in children. In a scathing investigation that is out this morning, they're accusing Dr. Andrew Wakefield of elaborate fraud. Investigative journalist Brian Deer accuses him of falsifying the data for financial gain, for instance, that claiming some children had autism when, in fact, they were healthy.

This morning, this is what both Deer and Wakefield said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

ANDREW WAKEFIELD, AUTHORED RETRACTED AUTISM STUDY: I have read his multiple allegations on many occasions. He is a hit man. He's been brought in to take me down because they are very, very concerned about the adverse reactions to vaccines that are occurring in children.

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": Wait a minute, sir. Let me just stop you right there. You say he's a hit man and he's been brought in by "they." Who is "they"? Who is he a hit man for? He's an independent journalist who's won many awards.

WAKEFIELD: Yes. And he's, you know, who brought this man in? Who is paying this man? I don't know.

CHETRY: Did you have a financial interest in doing this investigation, Brian?

BRIAN DEER, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST, THE SUNDAY TIMES OF LONDON: I've been an investigative reporter working for "The Sunday Times of London" since the early 1980s. The point you have to remember about this whole issue is, firstly, that the -- it's not me saying this. It is the editors of the "BMJ," a prestigious international medical journal that very extensively peer-reviewed and individually checked the facts which put forward in our investigation this week.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HOLMES: All right. I want to bring in our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, joining us now live.

Sanjay, good morning to you once again.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

HOLMES: And help people who haven't been keeping up with this. They hear, OK, the doctor who started this all, now someone's saying it was fraud. This isn't the first time his findings had been questioned. In fact, they have been questioned throughout.

GUPTA: They really have, T.J., you're absolutely right. Twelve years ago is when this paper was published and almost immediately after that or within a short time, several of the co- authors essentially took their names off of the paper. Obviously, there was a lot of scrutiny of the paper. It was very a small study of just 12 children. Yet people paid attention to it because it seemed to in some ways give some support to people who are concerned about the connection between vaccines and autism.

Back early last year, in February of 2010, the paper was actually retracted -- so, you know, removed from the journal, which is a pretty big deal in the world of science. And that time it was retracted because of the concerns of shoddy science. It wasn't -- the methods weren't proper or unethical.

Now, this is a -- this is another step, T.J. They're saying this isn't just shoddy science. This is deliberate falsification, misrepresentation of evidence and that's what this "British Medical Journal" is all about and that's what's fueling this debate.

CHETRY: And the other question is, what then of any link between autism and vaccines? I mean, we have seen -- and this is, I guess, where it gets difficult. They've said, OK, as we've seen this vaccine schedule grow over the decades, so have we seen the cases of autism.

But is that link dead?

GUPTA: Well, first of all, with regard to the increase in vaccines, one thing to point out, just from a scientific perspective, is you're right. There have been more vaccines in terms of number added over the last few decades. But some of the vaccines we used to give a long time ago, such as the smallpox vaccine. Actually, even though it was just one vaccine, induced a much more profound reaction in the body than the vaccines in combination today.

So, based on that theory, we should have seen higher rates of autism before. Even though there's more vaccines, they don't cause the same profound reaction in the body as vaccines of the past. So, that's a little bit hard to put together.

I don't think to your question, Kiran, that what's happened over last couple of days is really going to change the debate much for people who are strongly believing one side or the other because Wakefield's science is already in question for some time. For people who are convinced that there's a connection between vaccines and autism, they weren't paying as much attention to Wakefield's, but it's a deeply personal issue for them. And I think the debate rages until someone can definitively say this is the -- this is the link. And we don't have that answer yet.

HOLMES: All right. Sanjay, we don't have it. A lot of people are looking for it. But the debate goes on.

We appreciate you as always this morning. Thanks so much.

GUPTA: You got.

HOLMES: Also, new this morning, students, faculty mourning the loss of their vice principal at a high school in Omaha, Nebraska. Vicki Kaspar was shot by a student at Millard South High School. The principal was also shot, expected to recover, however. Police say the student later shot himself in a car about a mile away from the school.

CHETRY: Well, the plot thickens in the mysterious death of former Pentagon official John Wheeler. We have access to new surveillance video. It shows him wandering aimlessly around a Wilmington, Delaware, parking garage, looking for his car just days before his body was found in a nearby landfill.

The parking attendant who had the run-in with him described the behavior as bizarre. She says Wheeler had and no coat even though it was freezing that day, was wearing only one shoe, carrying the other, looking as though as she said that he'd maybe been attacked. And when she asked him where his parking ticket was, he said it was in his briefcase but that his briefcase had been stolen. Authorities are still trying to determine exactly where Wheeler was killed.

HOLMES: And we're expecting testimony to get back underway this morning in Los Angeles to decide whether there's enough evidence to try Dr. Conrad Murray for Michael Jackson's death.

Yesterday, a paramedic and security guard testified Jackson appeared dead when the ambulance arrived at his home back in June of 2009. Prosecutors say Murray should be held criminally responsible for giving Jackson the powerful drug Propofol at home.

CHETRY: The head of New York City's emergency medical service has been demoted after a poor response to last week's blizzard. Chief John Peruggia is being reassigned.

During the height of the storm, ambulances got stuck in the snow, critically ill patients waited hours for help, 911 operators were swamped with thousands of calls that they couldn't answer. You know, some are asking today in New York papers whether this is just the beginning of heads rolling within the city management because of what happened.

I mean, clearly, the ambulances couldn't get there because the streets weren't plowed.

HOLMES: And, of course, a huge storm, no doubt, but you have to have plans in place for something like that. You know the city has to go on.

Rob Marciano, talking about snow in some of those pictures. That was that blizzard, the last one. We're talking about snow again. We're not talking blizzard quiet, are we?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No. But, you know, in some spots, it may very well feel that way. This is going to be a situation where, you know, your neighbor gets dumped on and the guy down the street might not get much snow at all. So, just be patient with the forecast and prepare for it.

Here it is at least for today. The system rolling across in the north is what's going to trigger things. It's hitting the Great Lakes with a little bit snow and there's a front down across parts of Florida. Obviously, it's cold enough for snow in New York, pretty much has been all month. Temperatures there right now in the 20s and we'll top out just in the upper 30s. So, you're not going to get out of 30s today and then the moisture is going to start to roll in tomorrow.

We think anywhere from four to 10 inches of snow in and around the New York City area. But notice the isolated areas of winter storm watches that have been posted, all the Long Island, southern coastline of Connecticut. But then kind of slicing up the Hudson Valley in through even the Finger Lakes just a little bit and Jersey might not get much of anything from this, depending on how this situation sets up which, again, could be kind of hit and miss.

Thunderstorms in parts of southern Florida today or central Florida, heading towards the south. If you are traveling today, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Salt Lake City and San Francisco are the highlighted areas. But if you're scheduled to fly out of the New York City metro airports tomorrow, especially in the afternoon, I think you may have to do some tap dancing.

Thirty-five degrees for a high temperature in New York today, 48 in Atlanta, and 63 degrees in Dallas.

Guys, back up to you. We'll continue to monitor the situation as it develops.

CHETRY: All right. Situation -- could mean more shoveling. Thanks, Rob.

HOLMES: Thanks, Rob.

Well, baseball's Hall of Fame welcoming two new members. Baseball writers electing second baseman Roberto Alomar and pitcher Bert Blyleven. It's been a long time coming for Blyleven. This was his 14th year on the ballot. Poor guy.

CHETRY: I like that. He's cute though (ph).

HOLMES: He was a great curveball, won 287 games, threw 60 shut-outs, fifth all-time in strikeouts.

Meanwhile, Alomar, he was a 12-time all star, 10-time Gold Glove winner at second base, helped the Toronto Blue Jays win back-to- back World Series back in '92 and '93. They will both be inducted at the ceremony on July 24th in Cooperstown.

CHETRY: This is, you know, baseball fans love to rage about the Hall of Fame.

HOLMES: I'm not one of them. I'm sorry. I'm basketball, football guy. Can't rage this morning, I'm sorry.

CHETRY: College ball, only not this.

All right, well, after the pomp and circumstance on Capitol Hill, lawmakers will get down to business today. They start with the reading of the Constitution and it just goes on from there.

Eleven minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Well, wife of America's top general in Afghanistan is getting a high-profile job of her own. Later today, Holly Petraeus will be named to head up the Office for Service Member Affairs. It's a branch of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Her job will be to protect military families from abusive lending practices.

HOLMES: Also, when you don't know, you speculate, and speculation is growing right now that President Obama may be close to naming William Daley his new chief of staff. Daley is an executive with JPMorgan Chase and he's a former commerce secretary. The president met with him yesterday. White House aides say the job has not been offered to Daley just yet.

CHETRY: We'll let the politics begin. Congress is getting down to business today. It's their first full day of the new session.

HOLMES: But we say "let the politics," we should say "let the work begin." That should be the case.

CHETRY: We wish we were saying that.

HOLMES: We wish we were saying that.

As you see here, she is handing not necessarily her gavel over but a gavel. That's going to be the one he uses. John Boehner relieving Nancy Pelosi of her duty and her gavel, if you will.

Our Brianna Keilar is live on Capitol Hill this morning.

Brianna, good morning to you. It's time to get down to work. But, first, we got some light reading this morning.

(LAUGHTER)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Some light reading. It's going to take at least couple of hours. That would be the reading of the U.S. Constitution on the floor of the House. This is one of the first things that Republicans want to do.

And what's so interesting, I was just talking with the spokesman for Speaker Pelosi's office, Democrats are going to be -- pardon me, former Speaker Pelosi's office, old habits die hard. Leader Pelosi is going to be participating in this, along with other Democrats, other Democratic leaders and this is a process that is going to -- as I said, play out for at least a couple of hours. The entire Constitution being read on the House floor, something according to the House historian's office has never actually been done.

So, why are they doing this? Well, the Constitution is playing pretty big in this House of Representatives now being governed by Republicans.

You will remember during the run-up to the midterm elections, you had a lot of Tea Party Republicans who are pointing to the Constitution and saying, you know what? We don't like what Democrats are doing. We think they're overreaching and the proof is right here in the Constitution.

Of course, guys, what's going to be so interesting is you know that Democrats and Republicans read into this differently in terms of what kind of authority they're given to move forward with legislation here.

Now, the other thing that's going to be, I would say, more of the substance, the substantive vote today is going to be a little bit of a belt tightening. We're going to be seeing a vote late this afternoon, maybe early this evening on a 5 percent cut of operating costs in the House of Representatives. That means that if there's a congressional office, a leadership office, a committee, they have to tighten their belt and cut by 5 percent how much money they spend to run things.

CHETRY: So, of course, yesterday, when we see all of the pomp and circumstance, the formal moments, we see, you know, this is really just a huge -- I mean, this is a moment in history, the new Congress, but then, of course, we all want to see the comedic moments as well. And there were a few when Speaker Boehner took over yesterday.

KEILAR: That's right. I know where you're going with this. And this is a pretty funny moment, I thought. One of the little bits of pomp and circumstance yesterday was a ceremonial swearing in where family members were there and taking pictures for the whole moment. And take a look at what happened, actually, when Speaker Boehner was taking a photo with a group. Look. He's saying come on, little girl.

CHETRY: Who's the girl? Is that part of his family?

KEILAR: We're trying to figure out exactly who this is. So, hopefully, I'll have an answer for you, but she's having none of it. And, of course --

CHETRY: The joys of toddlerhood.

KEILAR: Let's let this play out, right? You know that they're very stubborn. It doesn't matter that you're third in the line to the presidency. Tough, right? OK. So, look, the picture goes forward. It's a kind of a funny little moment. And just take a look at what the late-night show hosts did. They kind of had a bit of a field day with this one. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": Today, new speaker of the House, John Boehner, first orange speaker of the House we've ever had.

(LAUGHTER)

LETTERMAN: They're going to undo everything Obama did. Today, he told the Obama kids the dog had to go back.

JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": You could sense there was tension between, you know, between Boehner and Pelosi. I mean, it's subtle. Take a look.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God bless you, Speaker Boehner.

(CLAPPING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God bless you, Congress -- ah!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see that? Did you see it?

LENO: They're now saying our national debt will have to be paid off by our children. So, thank God for Kate Gosselin and the octo- mom. They're doing their part.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right. So, a few comedic moments there, a couple of them courtesy of late-night show hosts and one courtesy there of a very cute little girl who we're going to try to figure out exactly who that is for you, guys, T.J. and Kiran.

CHETRY: Yes, I love it. They all got the real buddy kids yesterday. Vice President Biden, also, right?

KEILAR: Yes.

CHETRY: One of the kids stole the script when he was trying to put Senator Widen, you know, officially get Senator Widen in there, and he had to pull --

KEILAR: Did you see --

CHETRY: From his pocket.

KEILAR: You know he has grand kids because that was a little -- that was a good little trick he used.

CHETRY: It was. It was pop-pop moment. I love it. All right. Brianna Keilar, thank you.

HOLMES: Thanks, Brianna.

CHETRY: Well, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi one-on-one with John King. It's an exclusive interview which airing tonight on "John King USA," 7:00 eastern on CNN.

HOLMES: All right. Starbucks is going to be changing some things. Not about their coffee, though. So, calm down there. They're getting a new look. We'll show it to you to see what your reaction is. It's got some kind of mixed reactions to it, so far.

CHETRY: Also, these teen vampires from the "Twilight" saga, you can't put these books down, I know.

HOLMES: Oh, yes.

CHETRY: Well, they cleaned up at the "People's Choice Awards." Got all the big winners next in our "Morning Talker."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Ah, great song from a great album, Eminem. And he was awarded for his good work.

CHETRY: People love him.

HOLMES: The people have spoken here. We'll get to him in a second, but the People's Choice Awards and the third installment of the "Twilight" movie saga "Eclipse," big winner from last night. Fans picked "Twilight" as their favorite overall movie and favorite drama. "House" was the top TV winner. That guy is great, by the way.

Hugh, Hugh Laurie, who was voted top dramatic actor. His character, Gregory House, was a favorite TV doctor. And then, like I mentioned, Eminem, he kind of dominated the music category. His song "Love The Way You Lie" won favorite song in the music video and also 175 million people voted as the part of these People's Choice Awards.

CHETRY: Amazing. A million people for the People's Choice.

HOLMES: And that's why a lot of those artists, they really appreciate those awards, as the people get to directly vote so it's coming from the fans.

CHETRY: Exactly. And then, people gets directly buy their music. And they get paid.

Well, Starbucks marking a major milestone. That's what they're saying. It's a major milestone. It's a new look. They're taking the Starbucks and the coffee, and I guess the print in the middle off of their logo, right? So, they're only using -- they're eliminating black. They're only using green and white now as their colors. And this is in time for their 40th anniversary on the new look. What do you think? Great, right?

HOLMES: I wasn't a coffee drinker before, but now that I see the new logo --

CHETRY: You're going to go for it, right? Get you a caramel macchiato now!

HOLMES: I don't even know what that means.

CHETRY: Extra hot.

HOLMES: What? I don't know what you said. Also, one more thing. Everybody jumps in your car. You have all those cords, you're trying to plug in and charge your phone. Wouldn't it be nice to just get in, drop it down on a mat, charges on its own.

CHETRY: Yes. It would be nice.

HOLMES: They are doing that now. Today, GM plans to announce as developing a power mat which delivers a wireless charge to their phone. The new technology could be available by sometime in 2012.

CHETRY: That was a brake light, but it's going to be cool.

HOLMES: Take my word for it, folks.

(LAUGHTER)

CHETRY: Well, a fifth grader has become the youngest person in the world to spot an exploding star while gazing into the night sky. She has a little star power herself. And we're going to talk to her up next.

HOLMES: Also, oil prices exploding. Why? For how long? Christine Romans, does it (ph) up after the break as we continue. Have a sip. Twenty-three minutes past the hour. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Twenty-six minutes past the hour as we've been showing you this week, the government's round-up of the wild horses out west. It has animal rights activists in a frenzy. They're very upset about this, but the feds say it needs to be done to control the wild mustang population. Animal activists, though, say that it's really a cruel process.

HOLMES: Yes, maybe some common ground here, though. The place they're finding that common ground, Nevada prison. Inmates and horses living and learning from each other. John Zarrella live for us in Miami with the story, an "A.M. Original." This is interesting that of all places, a prison. People are seeming to find some common ground.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, T.J., the saying out west is that the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man. But I was as surprised as anyone to find out that the place you're really going to see this in action was a prison outside of Carson City, Nevada.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Thomas Smittle, embezzlement. James Redmon, battery with a deadly weapon. Both are serving time in a Nevada prison. But not behind bars. They're in a saddle. THOMAS SMITTLE, INMATE: This program's forced me to look at myself, and I really had to grow up to be able to -- to be successful at it.

JAMES REDMON, INMATE: Biggest thing I've learned, so far, since I started out here is patience.

ZARRELLA: The program takes a dozen inmates, some have never ridden a horse, teaches them the ropes. Not just how to ride, but how to break a wild mustang.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back. Back. Back.

ZARRELLA: Each inmate is paired with an animal that until it was caught in a bureau of land management round-up had never been touched, let alone ridden. There is a near instant bond between man and mustang.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can se that we're so wild like a month ago, and suddenly, they're like kids.

HANK CURRY, PROGRAM MANAGER: You look for a kind eye.

ZARRELLA: Hank Curry runs the prison program. From the 1,000 mustangs housed here at the facility, Curry picks about 80 to be trained each year. He hand picks the inmates, too. They're not cut any slack.

CURRY: If you're going to trick me, you're going to lie to me, you're going to hide from me, we're going to part ways. And it's just that simple.

ZARRELLA: An unbroken mustang will sell for $125 if you can find a taker. Not these, they sell at auction for a premium.

ZARRELLA (on-camera): The horses go for anywhere from $1,000 $1,600. and at the most recent auction, one of the horses sold for $8,500.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): That's a testament to the program. Eight hours a day, the inmates work with the horses. One learning from the other.

REDMON: They're doing me a lot of good, and I'm doing them a little bit of good.

ZARRELLA: The program's success can be measured on two levels, shaping both man and mustang for life on the outside without breaking the spirit of either.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA (on-camera): You know, they say those auctions that they hold out there every three or four months on the horses they break are just really something to watch, and 8,500 for a single horse, wild mustang was the largest price, the biggest price they'd ever gotten. You know, unfortunately, this program is really only scratching the surface of the number of wild horses out there.

The government rounded up about 12,000 last year. Most of them will ultimately end up in the long-term holding facilities out in Oklahoma, and Texas and in the Dakotas. So, along with the other 40,000 wild horses that are already there -- T.J., Kiran.

CHETRY: Yes. And as you pointed out yesterday, perhaps, the bright spot is that they're going to be launching this new program, hopefully, this birth control program for the mares that might bring this down and that they may actually have less of this to do, the round-ups may be less this coming year.

ZARRELLA: Yes. That's the real big, big hope. That's what activist groups calling for for a long time. And now that the bureau of land management says, OK, we'll give this a try, you know, the animal rights groups, they're saying, finally, it is about time.

So we'll keep an eye only it and see how it shakes out over the course of the next year.

HOLMES: All right, John Zarrella. We appreciate you as always this morning. Thanks so much.

Another story developing story we are keeping a close eye on this morning is out of Iran, where reportedly a 55-year-old American woman has been arrested there. Apparently she's suspected and being accused of spying, possibly placing spy equipment in the teeth. She apparently arrived from Armenia without a visa. She reportedly told agents she'd be killed if she returned to Armenia.

This is a developing story, and we're keeping an eye only it, an American possibly arrested in Iran. No official comment just yet.

CHETRY: A stinging rebuke this morning to the study that linked autism and a childhood vaccine. Investigative journalist Brian Deer says that the author of the famous 1998 study on this, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, deliberately manipulated data for financial gain. Wakefield told Anderson Cooper it's a ruthless attempt to crush any attempt to investigate valid vaccine safety concerns.

HOLMES: Also, some people are starting to have to pay a price for what happened here in New York, the response to that big blizzard. First to go so far is the EMS chief, he's been reassigned. You will remember seeing the pictures, dozens of ambulances got stuck in the snow and they were unable to get to patients, and 911 operators dealing with a backlog. It took hours to get a response to people.

CHETRY: Former vice presidential candidate John Edwards has been left out of his late wife's will. She gave everything to her children, naming their oldest daughter executor and no mention of him in the document.

John Edwards admitted to an extramarital affair in 2006 and then his wife had to deal with the cancer recurrence. He later admitted fathering a child with another woman. She signed the will six days before she died from breast cancer last month. HOLMES: Oil prices are going up. You know how this works. Oil prices go up. That means driving to work is getting more expensive for you.

CHETRY: This time, though, not us to blame, I guess, you could say. Christine Romans joining us and little the U.S. consumer can do about it.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: At this point, gasoline prices creeping higher, above $3 a gallon. You've heard calls for as high as $5 a gallon. Some sources say a few years, you know, some say it's going to happen much more soon. We just don't know. You don't have any control over it.

First here, oil prices above $90 a barrel. There you go, up 92 cents a barrel yesterday. Seeing how this has gone over the past year, you can see oil prices have been gyrated and moving higher. And that's because the global economy recovering and people like -- countries like China, Brazil, India, Russia, many other countries use more oil as people drive cars and as the factories start humming again.

Even the chief economist for International Energy Agency, the global energy watchdog, concerned that high oil prices could hurt the global recovery, because it's going to cost more to run those factories and drive your car and heat your home.

"Oil prices are entering a dangerous zone for the global economy. The oil import bills a threat to the economic recovery. This is a wake-up call to the oil-consumers countries," that's us, "and the oil producers."

Also, new this morning in the energy patch, if you will, official commission report on what caused the BP oil disaster of last year. Spreading the blame around, not only to BP but to Halliburton, to Transocean, to the United States' government, regulators, to our government, industry, everyone, and saying that basically there's nothing in place today to prevent it from happening again.

BP shares, interestingly enough, are up in London trading because the blame has been so roundly shared around in this official report.

HOLMES: And not squarely on them.

ROMANS: Not squarely on BP, that's right.

CHETRY: You think it's not in the interest of any company to allow it to happen again, they want to self police after seeing the devastation and seeing the destruction caused by the oil spill.

ROMANS: You are right. Here's how it ties into the gas prices, right, because you have, for example, the former Shell oil president told me last week because of the uncertainty and the concern about the Gulf of Mexico, you have investments made in drilling elsewhere. U.S. energy production -- he's a supporter of drill, baby, drill, among other things and a crippling effect of the oil supply and getting the supplies when the world's gobbling up more. The BP story is not over.

HOLMES: Christine, thank you as always.

CHETRY: What are they going to come up with next? We always wonder. You have the iPhone, the iPad, 3D TV, like the Disneyland for tech geeks, they call it. The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas right now. Dan Simon will show us what's all abuzz this year, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: That was cool, a look inside the inner workings this morning.

HOLMES: It's scary sometimes how you see how it's all done.

CHETRY: They look like they're having so much fun out there. We're in here.

HOLMES: Having fun, too.

CHETRY: That's right. The Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. You go for other reasons, but some go for the gadgets.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: They can throw an event in Vegas, I'll show up to it. This is the VCR and the CD player debuted. What's the big buzz this year? Dan Simon tells us.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kiran and T.J., two million square feet of gadgetry. Every year the Consumer Electronics Show is like Disneyland for people that love technology. This year, you can call it the year of the Tablets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON (voice-over): Tablets, tablets, and more tablets It is the theme of this year's consumer electronics show, 50 new tablets being unveiled, all of them chasing the iPad.

PAUL REYNOLDS, "CONSUMER REPORTS": This year it looks like a lot of major manufacturers with tablets targeted at the iPad market adding features that the iPad doesn't have, and looking like by the end of the 2011 an well have a lot more tablets, viable ones for consumers to choose from.

SIMON: Next, 3D television. Consumers have not gotten excited yet but that might change with the newer more comfortable glasses. And no glasses? That technology has arrived, as well.

SIMON (on camera): That sign says it all. No more goofy- looking glasses to watch 3D and may be enough to get people excited about this new technology. We saw it firsthand. If you were here, you would really see these images in 3D and they think the technology will be common place in a few years.

CES always has its share of quirky stuff. This is the Coz-E, a Snuggy with a heating pad, and the family of Bob Marley coming out with a unique line of audio accessories.

ROHAN MARLEY, HOUSE OF MARLEY: Today, we are launching the House of Marley, a collection of electronic products which is headphones, docking stations, thing that is relate to music, electronically, you know, eco-friendly and environmentally friendly, you know.

SIMON: How do you think your dad would feel about these products?

MARLEY: He would love it to play his own music in his own stuff, you know? So he would love it. He would love this.

SIMON (voice-over): But perhaps the most unique thing may help you live longer. It's a device of using iPhone to take the blood pressure. Snap the device into the iPhone. Obviously, load the app. Just click the start button. And there you go. Your blood pressure right on the iPhone and then e-mail the result to your doctor.

Of course, not all of the products here will make it to market. We'll see what gets the most buzz over the next few days. More than 140,000 people expected to attend CES this year. That's more than in previous years. Kiran, T.J.?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: Pretty cool. It's hard to walk around with that cuff on all day.

HOLMES: OK, maybe. Cool stuff. Always cool stuff.

CHETRY: Are you into 3D TV at all?

HOLMES: I'm working on it. I'm working on it as we speak.

CHETRY: For football games, right?

HOLMES: Of course.

CHETRY: Of course. We know what to get you for Christmas.

Well, a fifth grader has become the youngest person in the world to spot a supernova. An exploding star, a star is born. We'll meet 10-year-old Kathryn Aurora Gray coming up.

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CHETRY: It's 44 minutes past the hour right now.

Forget mega millions. This 10-year-old Canadian girl hit the astronomy jackpot. This weekend Kathryn Aurora Gray discovered a supernova. She is the youngest person ever to spot one of the exploding starts. Kathryn joins us this morning along with her father Paul, who's an amateur astronomer from New Brunswick, Canada. And you clearly passed on the passion for this to your daughter. Congratulations, by the way, both of you, but congratulations, Kathryn.

KATHRYN AURORA GRAY, YOUNGEST TO DISCOVER SUPERNOVA: Thank you.

PAUL GRAY, AMATEUR ASTRONOMER: Thank you.

CHETRY: So tell us how you do this. How did you discover this? I understand it's pretty rare. Only about 30 to 40 supernovas are discovered by amateur astronomers each year. How did you do it, Kathryn?

K. GRAY: Well, my dad's friend that lives in Nova Scotia took a bunch of pictures of our stars and I used the program that my dad has on the computer. It takes one image from about three years ago, an image from New Year's Eve and takes and puts them together and one of the stars on the new picture but not on the old picture would start to blink and that's when you find out is it a Supernova, a comet or an asteroid.

CHETRY: That's pretty amazing that you were able to do this. Paul, you noted her beginner's luck in this, you say that it was her first time looking for them and that it was the fourth picture that she had went through of the night sky when she discovered it.

Explain for people just how rare that is.

P. GRAY: It's unbelievable how quick this happened. I thought when I found my first one 15 years ago that 56 hours of time was really quick and like lightning. She had practice back in the fall with some old data that I have given her of my previous finds and -- and previous images and she did really well picking the notes, we knew she could find them.

But no one expects that when you take your first 50 pictures of the night sky and -- and you -- you sit down at the computer and start checking them out, you know picture number four, ten, 12 minutes into your search that there's going to be a Supernova on that -- that image that nobody's found yet or nobody else has reported.

So it's quite amazing to sit there and realize, well, wow, like, this is unreal. So, really amazing.

CHETRY: It is amazing. And Kathryn, tell us how you got interested in this. I understand you heard at the dinner table the 14-year-old was the youngest to have found this Supernova and you piped up and said you know what I think I can start doing this. What made you interested?

K. GRAY: I wanted to be able to do something like this because I know most kids don't get the chance to.

CHETRY: And you got the chance to because of your dad. Is it fun to do this? To -- to try to compare the pictures and see what's different about the sky.

K. GRAY: What'd she say?

P. GRAY: Asked you if it's fun to do it?

K. GRAY: What?

P. GRAY: Is it fun to do?

K. GRAY: Yes, it is fun to do. I like -- I enjoy doing it.

CHETRY: You're so adorable. I'm sorry if you're having a little bit of trouble hearing me. What do you want to do when you get older? I mean, is astronomy something that you might be interested in going into?

K. GRAY: I just want to keep it -- I just wanted to have it as a hobby.

CHETRY: And -- and dad, what about you? I thought it was interesting to read that you at the time were the youngest at 22, at the age of 22 to discover a Supernova and for your daughter to best you by all of those years, must make you proud, though.

P. GRAY: It does make me proud. It's -- it's been quite surreal for me. My father was in my shoes 20 or 15 years ago driving me around and watching me doing interviews so it's been a quite a pleasant feeling to have a daughter now who's doing this to me like I did to my father.

It's quite enjoyable watching her do so well with the attention and so on. It's been really fabulous and hearing from people who say, telling us how their kids are so inspired now and so interested all of a sudden because of another girl their age has done something like this, it's been really great.

CHETRY: Yes and you should definitely get extra credit in school or something Kathryn for all this work. What it's been like to get all of this attention? What are your friends saying to you?

K. GRAY: Actually, I haven't been back to school yet so -- and most of them probably seen it on the news but I haven't talked to any of my friends yet.

CHETRY: Well, congratulations to you. An amazing find, you found that Supernova in your first hour of looking through these pictures. Congratulations, Kathryn Aurora Gray.

Dad, is her middle name Aurora because you thought she would be interested in stars? Or that's just a coincidence?

P. GRAY: Yes actually it's just a coincidence most of my wife, Lisa and myself always liked that name and we had it picked out as a possible name for a child and it just happened to be her middle name when she was born. And we really liked it, had a nice ring to it.

So that's where it came from. It turns out I guess to have double meaning after all. CHETRY: It sure does. Pretty cool. Kathryn Gray and her dad Paul Gray, thanks for joining us this morning.

P. GRAY: Thank you.

HOLMES: OK, she's adorable.

CHETRY: She's so cute.

HOLMES: She's adorable.

CHETRY: What did she say?

HOLMES: That is very cute.

We -- we can hear you over doing that. That was very cute. Congratulations to her. I didn't know the family history there that he was, as well.

CHETRY: He --

HOLMES: That's very cool.

CHETRY: Passing on the love of, you know, the sky and astronomy. Pretty neat.

HOLMES: That is very cool.

Well, we're coming up on ten minutes to the hour right now. Are you going to be looking up in the skies, there's going to be some rain falling on some of you and other parts of the country, snow a problem once again.

Rob Marciano coming along next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Oh, beautiful shot of downtown Atlanta, Georgia; probably about 48 degrees and sunny. Now here in New York, that would be called what?

CHETRY: Summer. No, I'm kidding. Be welcome this time of year. We were up in the 40s last week after that melting of some of the snow from the blizzard.

HOLMES: Ok.

CHETRY: So we enjoyed it for a couple of days.

HOLMES: And we're still talking snow a little bit. We don't want to scare folks here.

CHETRY: Yes.

HOLMES: -- Rob. For the most part nothing as bad as we saw on the past week or so; but still it could be significant for some folks. ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and may I remind you T.J. --

HOLMES: Yes.

MARCIANO: -- we had a white Christmas here in Atlanta.

HOLMES: Yes.

MARCIANO: But you know it's been quite an interesting winter for a lot of folks.

CHETRY: Yes, the south turned on its head right, with all the crazy weather.

MARCIANO: It doesn't take much, does it? It's 30 inches and forget about it. Yes, let's talk about the situation and the possibilities for snow across the northeast here the next couple of days. We obviously have temperatures that are cold enough for that. We're rising into the 30s today but no precip expected.

The storm system itself is gathering itself across the Great Lakes and that is kind a -- kind broaden out and tap into some Atlantic Ocean moisture. Not really becoming a nor'easter but kind of sit there and just kind of create enough instability where we're going to have some -- some snow.

And isolated areas of -- of heavy snow; where that exactly is, is going to be tough to call. I could tell you this though, behind this front not only across the northeast but the Deep South will get another deep freeze and we're going to get another shot of Arctic air getting all the way down almost to the Gulf Coast. So -- and then getting towards the beginning of next week we could see more snow in north Georgia.

Four to ten inches in the areas highlighted here. Your neighbor might get ten or 12. And you may get two inches that's how these -- how these narrow snow bands will probably set up with the situation.

Long Island, Southern Connecticut and much of the Hudson Valley and extreme northern parts of Jersey are right now under the winter storm watch and that may be upgraded to a warning as we go through tomorrow.

Today's forecast weather map shows you that storm getting itself together, the front going across parts of Florida, elsewhere, fairly quiet with the exception of the Pacific Northwest. And the Florida front yesterday produced a little rough weather across parts of the Florida Panhandle and also produce some decent rains across parts of Louisiana, including Lake Charles, Pascagoula, Mississippi. Our friends at Quillayute, Washington different system but certainly going to need some rainfall.

And the rains across the south were pretty much needed and the rains that are coming across central Florida right now you could use it, as well. If you are traveling today, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh because of the snow and low clouds you might see delays. Chicago, 30 to 60 minute delays; Salt Lake City might see some fog; a little bit of haze in San Francisco. New York Metros, D.C. Boston today fine. But if you're traveling out of the New York metros tomorrow, especially in the afternoon, there's probably going to be some delays if not some cancellations. You may want to call ahead and maybe try to get on an earlier flight or just plan accordingly.

Sixty-three in Dallas today; 48 degrees in Atlanta; and it will be 66 degrees in Phoenix. Pretty warm but not as warm as it is in the Cayman Islands. Showed you this footage earlier, still some pictures -- some still pictures of the "USS Kitty Wick" which is an old navy ship that they've decommissioned and yesterday they sunk it just offshore of the Cayman Islands to make it a reef and it will be good for the fishies and the tourists.

We have cool video of that happening. Tomorrow, we'll show the actually motion picture. Always fun to see a building implode and a sinking ship when it's planned, at least.

CHETRY: Yes. And even cooler to do some snorkeling or diving by it to see what it looks like after, you know, the animals come to make their new home.

MARCIANO: We might have to check that out.

CHETRY: Oh, yes. That's an assignment. We should all just do it together thought, you know what I mean.

MARCIANO: I like it. Take the show on the road.

CHETRY: Cayman Islands.

HOLMES: All right Rob. Appreciate you, buddy. Talk you again soon.

Well, we're talking about a ship sinking there, a boat was about to sink here, little bitty boat. There was a pretty big fish as we would say.

We're talking about a shark here. Look at this video we are talking about. This is the Indian Ocean. No stranger in this area to sharks necessarily. But a 15-footer came up on a boat that was about 5 feet. Not really but in comparison. Kind of looked that way but a great white shark began circling.

Now listen to how it all went down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: We're going to need a bigger boat. HOLMES: They need a bigger boat.

They high tailed it out of there. Nobody hurt here as you can see. Two of the men were actually swimming in those waters just a short time before that shark came up.

CHETRY: Boy, good thing they didn't know then what they did after the shark came to visit.

HOLMES: Four minutes to the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: That's going to do it for us. So glad you joined us this morning for AMERICAN MORNING. We'll be back bright and early 6:00 a.m. Eastern tomorrow.

HOLMES: Thank you for being with us. Time for us to hand it over to our colleague, Don Lemon, in the "CNN NEWSROOM," which starts right now.