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American Morning

Snow Shuts Down South; Airlines Cancel More Than 2,000 Flights; A Verizon iPhone at Long Last; Suspected Gunman in Court; Snowy, Icy Mess; DeLay Gets Three Years; Playboy Bares it All in Private

Aired January 11, 2011 - 06:00   ET

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


T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Well, hello there, everybody. And welcome to this AMERICAN MORNING for this Tuesday, January 11th. I'm T.J. Holmes.

ALINA CHO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

HOLMES: Good morning.

CHO: Good morning, everybody. I'm Alina Cho. Kiran Chetry has the morning off. Here are the top stories we are watching this morning.

Frozen over. Snow and ice shutting down the south this morning. Cars are spinning. Airlines scrambling as the freezing temperatures now moving to places like Atlanta. We'll have much more on the messy drive and those airline delays just ahead.

HOLMES: That was the south. That same storm, though, setting its sights on the northeast now and not just that. It's going to be combining with another storm to wreak havoc in some places. And yes, look at those pictures. Some of this is the leftover from the last big blizzard. And now a lot of city leaders here are answering questions about that last storm, the trash and the snow that was left behind. We'll see how the city deals with this next storm. Again, we're talking up to a foot of snow coming once again.

CHO: Yikes. And there's a lot to answer for. And we have some critical updates for you encouraging news about Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Her neurosurgeon says she is holding her own now and functioning at what he calls a high level, but she's certainly not out of the woods yet. We are also finding out more about the suspected gunman and a possible motive.

HOLMES: But let's start with this storm. The one that just hit the south. The place is not used to getting a lot of ice and a lot of snow and handling it, quite frankly. But we're talking about everywhere from Arkansas over to the Atlantic literally just about shutdown right now. And now we're talking about another storm. That major storm you can see on this map here, it's making its way up the east coast. You see it on the right side of your screen on the east coast.

Well, there's another storm system you see there to the left going to kind of meet up with this one and cause all kinds of fits. Snow is coming down in parts of Virginia. The Carolinas right now dumped a foot of snow, as you know, in parts of the south yesterday. New York, Boston, going to be next. And, of course, some of those places still trying to recover from the last blizzard that hit the northeast.

CHO: Yes. And the weather, of course, turned the busiest airport in the world basically into a motel. Many passengers spent the night at Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta. This is an airport you know very well, T.J.

HOLMES: Yes.

CHO: The icy storm has grounded thousands of flights. Get this, Delta alone canceled close to 2,000 flights yesterday and it's planning another 1,400 today.

HOLMES: And those folks are waking up turning on the TV and saying wow, they just caught me slobbering on TV while I sleeping at the airport last night. Yes, a lot of those folks are going to be waking up in the airport trying to get out this morning.

Drivers, meanwhile, maybe they'll try that. You can't fly, you'll drive. Well, not really. You're seeing these scenes of folks doing what they shouldn't be doing and --

CHO: A good effort.

HOLMES: Yes. That was one of the better efforts. Cars were spinning out, crashing. As you see here as well, a lot of them stranded just on the side of the road, just littered with cars. Police -- listen to this -- they stopped responding to accidents.

CHO: Wow.

HOLMES: If you're not hurt, if you're not trapped, we ain't coming. We told you not to be out there doing this and they have to. For the safety of the officers, they can't get to a lot of people. You see what some folks resorted to. But again, they just had to stop responding to some of those accidents.

CHO: Oh, that's one way to get around.

HOLMES: Yes.

CHO: You know, the rest of the south, it was a sheet of sleet that's for sure. Take a look at these pictures. Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina have all declared states of emergency. Government offices were shut down in at least three states. So many people in the region simply not prepared for weather like this. As you all know, T.J., they aren't dressed for it and they certainly aren't used to driving in it.

HOLMES: You know, that's even important note there. We don't have -- and this is out where I spend most of my time in Atlanta. We don't even have winter gear. Folks are telling me you need to bring out your winter boots. I don't have any.

CHO: You better get some. HOLMES: I need to get some. Well, our Jacqui Jeras is tracking the storm for us telling us where it's exactly going. Our David Mattingly, he's at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport where a lot of those folks are waking up in that airport today. And Rob Marciano live for us outside in Centennial Olympic Park.

Rob, let's start with you. That storm in the south is kind of moving its way out but the snow and the ice not really going anywhere any time soon.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No. Temperatures are still below freezing, T.J. So for the second day in a row, this city is shut down. There is practically no movement. As a matter of fact, it's worse this morning than it was yesterday morning and, you know, I'll believe it when I see it as far as temperatures climbing above the freezing mark. Hopefully that will happen this afternoon. But schools, of course, closed. Government offices and most offices are closed. People are obviously encouraged to telecommute if you can do that. But driving into work this morning was much more slick than yesterday and much more desolate as far as the number of cars that were on the road. They have streets that are blocked off that are just completely impassible and when you talk about skating rinks and we use that vernacular, that's quite literal in a lot of these streets. I mean, you're talking about ice that's one, two, three inches thick, impenetrable and completely, completely slick with practically zero, zero traction.

Mark (ph) of the buses here shut down again today. And you can see it's still -- it is still completely frozen in this area. But the other issue is interstate. If you're just trying to travel through Atlanta, well, the jackknife tractor-trailers, the video coming in all over the place north of Atlanta, east, south and west. This major corridor for commerce has been devastated by tractor-trailers trying to get around Atlanta and jackknifing and shutting down interstates, and we've got a number of portions of interstates that are shut down again today.

Up the road in Charlotte, a similar story to a lesser extent. They're a little bit better prepared there as far as clearing the road. But not here, T.J. and Alina. You mentioned that. Just don't have the resources. It just doesn't happen very often so when it does, you just kind of have to wait for it to melt. We're still waiting.

HOLMES: All right. Rob, we appreciate you. We're going to be checking with Rob again plenty throughout the morning. Thanks so much.

CHO: Oh, it's unbelievable, too, because Atlanta has a $10 million a year budget for storms like this.

HOLMES: Yes.

CHO: They think that they'll go through $5 million of it by the end of this storm. So, it's costing a lot of money, too. We want to get to the airline delays and right to David Mattingly. He's at Atlanta's Hartfield-Jackson airport. I'm afraid to ask, David, but what's it like where you are?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we see a lot of people trying to catch up on their sleep here. We've got passengers stranded at the world's busiest airport. That's what happens when you have the world's largest or the nation's largest airline, Delta, which is the big travel facilitator here. They canceled 1,900 flights yesterday -- 1,400 flights canceled today. But there are some signs of life as some flights are beginning to trickle out of here today.

Now the crowd here at the airport isn't as big as it was yesterday. That means some people did get out but other people may have been the lucky ones to actually find hotel rooms. Some of these people here are still waiting, hoping that their flight will get out today.

This lady was traveling from California. You want to go to Little Rock but you were told when you got on the flight that it wasn't going to get there, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. It wasn't going to get there until today.

MATTINGLY: You knew that you were going to be spending the night here in the airport. But what is the plan today?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The plan today is to leave at 9:00 a.m.

MATTINGLY: You're flight was originally scheduled for 7:00, though. It's been delayed?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

MATTINGLY: So let's hope that it gets out. So a lot of people in the same boat here hoping that the weather relents and that the flights start moving here and they start getting to their destinations. Back to you.

CHO: All right, David Mattingly at Hartsfield-Jackson airport, the busiest airport in the world. Lots of delays today.

HOLMES: All right. Let's turn to Jacqui Jeras in our extreme weather center. Jacqui, the other problem for a lot of those folks, Hartsfield-Jackson, the Hartsfield-Jackson not a whole lot of hotel rooms in the immediate vicinity of the hotel. You have to travel to downtown Atlanta and other places.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

HOLMES: And the roads are covered with all that snow and ice so you've got that problem. You're just stuck in the airport.

JERAS: You kind of are. You know, I drove on those roads yesterday afternoon to stay at a hotel so I don't have to worry about it in the middle of the night. And I will tell you it was nothing but ice everywhere. And I did see those jackknifed semi-trailers and even a four-wheel drive. It doesn't help you out very much in this type of situation because it's ice. It's not snow anymore, and we're still getting some of that freezing drizzle on top of it. You don't even see it here on the radar but we're getting some of it around Atlanta, over towards Columbia and into the Charlotte area. Raleigh, there you can see it coming down. And this is our area of low pressure down here that's going to be riding up the coast.

I want to show you the other part of this system. And this is a low that's been bringing wintry weather across the Midwest for the last 24 to 36 hours causing problems at Chicago O'Hare airport already there this morning. And those two systems are going to face together and become one big storm and that's why we're going to start to see that nor'easter.

We've got winter weather advisories and warnings that are in effect for 30 different states at this time. And that's just east of the Rockies, yes, believe it or not.

All right. Here's our area of low pressure and where we expect it to go along with that forecast. It's going to be hugging the coast and really the worst of this storm is going to start to intensify and pick up late tonight and into early tomorrow morning. The accumulations are going to be lesser across the mid-Atlantic states, higher into New England. We're expecting about eight to 14 in New York City. Boston maybe just a little bit more than that. Washington, D.C. should skate out pretty easy with two to four inches and Philly kind of hitting it in between. So another big go here across parts of the northeast. It's not looking good for travelers from the southeast to the northeast as this is really going to be impacting the entire country. Guys, back to you.

CHO: Jacqui, I think what they say in these situations is hunker down.

JERAS: That's right.

CHO: Jacqui, thank you.

HOLMES: All right. Well, as we're saying, more snow heading towards New York. The city still dealing with the last storm system. They're promising not to make the same mistakes again. At a hearing yesterday into what went wrong after that holiday blizzard, the Bloomberg administration apologized for the city's botched effort to plow streets. At that public hearing yesterday, how do you think things went?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are outer borough residents second class citizens?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We felt absolutely abandoned by government in this crisis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At some point you have to realize they were not plowing. OK. They may have been on some highways. They may have been in Manhattan, but they weren't in Queens. They weren't in Brooklyn. They weren't in Staten Island. They were not plowing where they should have been. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And where they should have been? A lot of people just didn't know where they were. Some of these sanitation vehicles. The city is trying to make sure they're better prepared and to keep up with some of those sanitation vehicles. They equipped a lot of them with GPS trackers. They improved the process also for declaring snow emergencies.

CHO: Well, it's not snow but rain that's causing all sorts of problems down under. We want to look at this video from Australia. Terrifying floodwaters there. Take a look. It's unbelievable. Swept that car away and it happened in Australia's Queensland state. You know, this has been a problem there for weeks. At least eight people have been killed in the floods so far. Another 72 people are missing. And there's also a real concern now about supplies. Right now, only helicopters are able to get to the tens of thousands of residents who are stranded.

HOLMES: And also, new this morning. And some good news. A lot of people concerned about the health of this popular actor. Well, he says he's doing all right.

Michael Douglas, who we're talking about here, he says he's beaten throat cancer. Oscar winner telling NBC the tumor is gone calling his treatment, quote, "a wild six-month ride." He said he lost 32 pounds during his radiation treatment, but he says he's working out now getting ready for his next movie role already, getting ready to play the famed pianist Liberace.

CHO: Oh, wow. Good for him. He's gained about 12 pounds of the 32 pounds that he lost during chemo.

HOLMES: Got some back.

CHO: Yes, so he's working out. So we wish him all the best in his recovery.

Meanwhile, a dramatic finish to the college football season. Auburn kicker Wes Byrum kicked a 19-yard field goal in the final seconds of the BCS title game giving the Tigers a 22-19 win over Oregon. It's my mom's alma mater. Too bad for mom. Auburn, by the way, caps off a perfect season with its first national title since 1957 and quarterback Cam Newton caps off his Heisman trophy season. He's almost certain to be a first round draft pick. That's if he decides to go pro.

HOLMES: Was your mom actually watching this game last night?

CHO: Probably not.

HOLMES: OK.

Well, also, there was a bit of an earthquake in the northwest over the weekend. But it's not what you would think. If you haven't seen this play, look at this. This is Marshawn Lynch (ph). CHO: Wow.

HOLMES: Just about everybody on the Saints had a chance to tackle him. Seriously. About eight people touched him. He still makes it to the end zone. Some are calling this the greatest run in the history of NFL playoff football.

CHO: Come on. Really?

HOLMES: Yes. This was special.

CHO: OK.

HOLMES: This is special. Trust us on this one, Alina.

But the earthquake came after the crowd got excited about this run. Qwest Field where they play there is known as the loudest place to play in the NFL. The crowd got so excited and jumping up and down that it actually measured as a seismic event equal to a small earthquake. One scientist said people as far as a half mile away could have felt all that shaking.

CHO: One of the best plays in history I guess it's not a surprise.

HOLMES: One of the best runs, yes.

CHO: Well, it's the news that millions of you have been waiting for. Today, Verizon is expected to announce that it will begin selling the iPhone. Big news. Our Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" this morning. But there's a caveat, right, Christine?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, big news because until now you've only been able to get the iPhone with AT&T service. At 11:00 in New York, we're going to find out if Verizon is actually going to be able to partner with Apple to offer this product.

And this is what we know. We know that analysts think that this could be a huge blockbuster for already a blockbuster AT&T sales. Maybe nine to 12 million more iPhones in 2011. AT&T sold 11 million in the first nine months of 2010. I mean, think of that. That is just incredible sales pace for a new product.

Here's what Verizon says. There's been a lot of concern about whether Verizon is up to the task of being able to have these data hogs on its network. This is what Verizon has done. They spent billions upgrading capacity. Absolutely I think we could handle it says a Verizon executive in "Business Week" last fall. You might not be able to chat and surf at the same time if you're on the 3G platform for Verizon, but we're still not clear exactly what that's going to look like.

AT&T already striking back. AT&T says, "The iPhone is built for speed. I'm not sure iPhone users are ready for life in the slow lane."

Oh, but clearly there are a lot of people, you guys, who have been using iPhone and complained about dropped calls and about patchy service and the like so this will give people more choices if indeed it's true. And we think it is true. No one is saying it isn't. We'll know for sure at 11:00. But it looks like Verizon is going to offering that finally.

HOLMES: OK. It has to be a good thing overall for the most part, right?

ROMANS: More choice is always good except if you are one of those people who doesn't have an iPhone and you're sitting there watching your own service slow down because of these data hogs. This big, you know, energy hungry -- I guess energy is what it is, but it's data hungry --

HOLMES: Hungry.

ROMANS: Bandwidth hungry iPhones on the --

CHO: And maybe prices will go down.

ROMANS: Maybe prices will go down. What we do know is that it looks like they'll be a $30 unlimited data plan. AT&T has a $15 plan for 200 megabytes and $25 for two gigabytes.

CHO: You're speaking in a different language.

ROMANS: I'm speaking -- I know. I know.

HOLMES: I just got the new iPhone, so I --

ROMANS: Did you? Do you understand? Once you get it, then you know. Then you know.

CHO: All right.

ROMANS: There you go.

CHO: Thank you.

HOLMES: Thank you, Christine.

CHO: Coming up, doctors in Arizona are hopeful now that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords will survive Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson. We'll get the latest on her condition and some new information about a possible motive.

HOLMES: Also, a new discovery in outer space. Way out there in outer space. We have a new planet. We'll give you details and let you know if we also discovered any little green men.

It's 15 minutes past the hour. One more here. This -

CHO: That's right.

HOLMES: -- this story you're about to tell us about here, Alina -

CHO: This is our favorite -

HOLMES: -- kind of threw me off.

CHO: This is a great story in cities like New York City and Chicago. Have you seen this? Have you been riding the subway? Well, thousands have been spotted on trains without their pants on.

Why commuters are going underground in their underwear. That's next.

HOLMES: Why? Why, Alina?

CHO: It is 15 minutes after the hour.

HOLMES: Why?

CHO: We're back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHO: Eighteen minutes after the hour. "She's holding her own," those words from Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' neurosurgeon. Encouraging news, certainly. It appears that everyone is now cautiously optimistic that she will survive Saturday's deadly shooting rampage in Tucson.

HOLMES: She's in critical condition but stable this morning, what they're saying. A doctor, again, saying, quote, "She's functioning at a high level."

Meanwhile, the president and the First Lady will go to Tucson tomorrow. They're going to be attending a memorial service for the victims of the University of Arizona.

The alleged gunman, meanwhile, Jared Loughner - take a look at him - in federal court yesterday. You can see his head completely shaved. And that is a man, folks, a bit of a smirk on his face. He is accused of killing six people, injuring another 14. That is his picture there.

If he's convicted of murder, he could be facing the death penalty.

CHO: Susan Candiotti live for us in Tucson this morning with more on what happened during Loughner's court appearance. Susan, good morning.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alina and T.J.

Well, you know, no one appeared to see Loughner smiling when he was in court the same way he was smiling when the sheriff's office took that picture a few days ago. But he walked into court, he was wearing chains, and each time the judge asked him a question he clearly answered in a loud voice, yes, that's including when the judge explained to him each charge against him and what the penalty would be. He was asked if he understood and he said yes, including when he was told that he faced a possibility of life in prison or the death penalty.

Now, the whole hearing took about 15 minutes and, in the end, the judge ruled that Loughner is a danger to the community and would be held without bond. There will be another hearing on the 24th of this month and it's highly likely that the next time a federal judge sees him it will be one from outside the State of Arizona. Why? Because one of the victims in this case is the Chief Federal Judge John Roll.

HOLMES: And, Susan, also, it's - I don't know if it's necessarily fair to say that Giffords and Loughner necessarily have a history together, but at least their paths have crossed before.

CANDIOTTI: That's right. A law enforcement source is telling CNN that in fact the two did meet about three years ago and it was at a similar town hall meeting. He asked her a question according to the source and it turns out that Loughner was not happy with the answer, and the source says it just kept on festering and festering with him.

And documents were also found at the house including some papers with some ominous words including, quote, "I planned ahead. My assassination and Giffords." We also - they also found a letter written in 2007, a form letter from Giffords inviting Loughner to one of those town hall meetings. And, obviously, we know that he took her up on that invitation last Saturday.

CHO: Susan, one more question - actually, two. Number one, I understand that Loughner's father has prepared some sort of public statement, but that has yet - not yet been released. Any word on that? And also, are Loughner's friends talking at all about what may have happened?

CANDIOTTI: Right. Well, the parents have not said a word. They've been holed up in their house since this happened. However, we are told that they have been cooperating with the FBI and we know that yesterday the FBI left the house carrying a duffel bag.

Now, the neighbors say that they seldom interacted with the Loughners, that they kept to themselves. But, of course, one of the questions everyone wants to ask them is was their son getting psychiatric help - Alina.

CHO: Susan Candiotti live for us in Tucson with that critical update. Susan, thank you.

Well, the hammer -

HOLMES: Yes.

CHO: -- faces the gavel.

HOLMES: Yes.

CHO: Tom Delay once one of the most powerful men in Washington sentenced to prison. But he's not headed there quite yet. We'll explain. HOLMES: Also, we go from Tom Delay to Britney Spears. Britney is back, but for the right reasons this time - her music. She has a brand new song out. It's been leaked. It's called "Don't Hold It Against Me." I believe? I hope when we play a little bit of it, you wouldn't hold it against us.

It's 22 minutes past the hour. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Twenty-five minutes past the hour.

We have a story coming about pants-less New Yorkers that you're going to have to explain to me in a second. We'll get to that in just a moment.

But first, I want you to say hello to a new planet. The smallest planet ever discovered outside of our Solar System. This, of course, is not actual pictures of the thing. NASA calls it the Kepler-10b. It's named after the spacecraft, the Kepler, that's been floating around out there (INAUDIBLE) -

CHO: It's not so small.

HOLMES: Well, yes. It's about one and a half times the size of earth, actually. So it's at least larger than this planet. But they have confirmed that it is a planet out there.

But they've had this information for a while. They've just been going over it for the past eight months. So now they can confirm they said the planet is orbiting too close to a star to support life, however.

CHO: Stay tuned. One more story until the pants-less subway riders.

Britney Spears is back. We know you missed her. You know, her brand new single is called "Hold It Against Me."

HOLMES: "Hold it Against Me".

CHO: It's out exclusively on iTunes until January 18th. Well, Ryan Seacrest gave us a sneak peek of it yesterday. It's hot. It's fresh. It's auto-tuned. Check it out.

HOLMES: Oops, I did it again. Those are the days, weren't they? No, I am pulling for her. She's been through a lot -

CHO: I am, too.

HOLMES: -- the past several years. I certainly want her to do well with her new music. And hopefully, you know, she had - she had some issues there. Maybe she can get everything together and make a huge comeback. I'm certainly pulling for her.

Now, other folks pulling their pants down.

CHO: That's right. HOLMES: They aren't (ph) pulling them down. They just leave them at home. Well, I don't understand this. You wouldn't believe that I've been asking the New Yorkers here in the room.

But take a look at this. This is the annual - I believe 10th Annual now. What's it called again? Pants-less - what is it? It's called -

CHO: The no pants ride.

HOLMES: No pants ride.

CHO: No pants ride.

HOLMES: It's the No Pants Ride of 2011. What you have here is New York City commuters, they go to work or wherever they're going. They take their pants off and they ride the subway or whatever else. Again, it's been 29 - 30 degrees here in town.

CHO: Maybe they want to show off the boxers.

HOLMES: And they did, yes. Some of them are awfully creative there. But, again, I've been asking the question over and over to you all. Why, Alina?

CHO: I don't know. I mean, you think they would do this in the summer, right?

HOLMES: You would think.

CHO: If they're going to do it at all.

HOLMES: Is there a summer version? Maybe there is a summer version of this.

CHO: You're asking me? Just because I live in New York -

HOLMES: Yes.

CHO: -- doesn't mean I know this.

HOLMES: All right. Well, congratulations. I think the 10th year -

CHO: Congratulations?

HOLMES: Yes. So pulling off. It's 29 degrees if you made it.

But also, coming up, we don't know if they're going to be taking their pants off here the next couple of days. We've got a problem brewing - another winter storm. The one that left parts of the south - that mess you've been seeing for the past couple of days, folks. It's making its way to the east now. We'll show you what people in the Carolinas are already dealing with. We'll also going to be telling you what people farther north are going to be dealing with as well.

CHO: And some health news that should be on your radar this morning. Having babies back to back. A surprising new study says if children are born too close together, they could face a greater risk of autism. We'll explain just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Hello again, everybody. Welcome back. Bottom of the hour here on this AMERICAN MORNING.

We'll give you a look at stories we're keeping a close eye on this morning. That includes the condition of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. She said to be holding her own this morning. That's according to her doctor, says she's functioning at a high level as well. She's still in critical condition but listed in stable but critical condition, at least.

This is the suspect's picture. That's Jared Loughner, made his first court appearance yesterday, smiling. This is the man facing death penalty, now accused of killing six people and injuring another 14 smirking in his picture.

President Obama and the first lady planning to attend a memorial service for the victims tomorrow in Tucson.

CHO: We have news on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, back in a London court this morning as he fights extradition to Sweden over allegations of sexual assault. Now, this procedural hearing is expected to clear the way for a full extradition hearing early next month. The U.S. Justice Department is looking at whether they can charge Assange for publishing thousands of government documents which exposed secret or confidential communications.

Also, we have at least five states right now that have declared emergencies. We're talking about weather emergencies. Ice and snow have paralyzed the South, thousands of people right now without power. Roads are closed. Thousands of flights are canceled.

The storm now is heading northeast. Another blizzard possibly is coming late this evening.

CHO: Possibly six to 12 inches in New York City alone tomorrow.

You know, the storm that turned the Sunbelt into the Snowbelt is now heading up the Eastern Seaboard and battering the Carolinas this morning.

Reporter Brian Mims with CNN affiliate WRAL is in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN MIMS, WRAL REPORTER: We received a good four inches of snow in the Fayetteville area. Here's an overpass, Rowan Street, crossing a freeway near downtown Fayetteville. You could see how it's encrusted with ice. There's a car going by rather slowly.

A city truck came by a little while ago and spread sand on the bridge. And if you look down here, this is the MLK freeway in fairly good shape. I don't know how well you can see it in the dark. But there's some slush on the pavement.

Transportation crews have been out throughout the morning scraping and sanding the main roads. I-95, the main thoroughfare in this area, is in pretty good shape though there have been a number of crashes overnight, some involving 18 wheelers.

We have no reports of power outages in this area. That's great news. And so far, this morning, no major accidents in Fayetteville area. But we still have some precipitation coming down. Some frozen drizzle and it is cold, not expected to get much thawing here today, Alina and T.J.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right. We're never going to be too far away from our weather story. It's a big story this morning.

Our Jacqui Jeras is coming up to tell us where the storm is headed. She's coming up in just a moment.

Also this morning, news that the vice president is in Afghanistan. He's there to assess the security situation there ahead of the planned U.S. troop withdrawal that starts in July. Vice President Biden got an update on the situation on the ground from General David Petraeus, as well as the U.S. ambassador there, Karl Eikenberry, also going to be meeting with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai. That meeting happens later today.

This is the vice president's first visit to Afghanistan as vice president.

CHO: Well, Hillary Clinton is making a surprise visit to Yemen this morning, the first time a U.S. secretary of state has been there in more than two decades. Clinton will meet with Yemen's president and lawmakers. She says the U.S. needs to broaden its dialogue with Yemen given the country's reputation as a haven for al Qaeda insurgents.

HOLMES: Major Richard Winters has died. You might not know that name, but there's a good chance you're familiar with this story at least. He is the commander of Easy Company whose service was documented in the popular "Band of Brothers" book and mini-series.

He was 92 years old. Major Winters took control of Easy Company on D- Day and led them as well through the Battle of the Bulge. Major Winters, 92 years old.

CHO: Yes, a long life.

HOLMES: He did -- a long life and certainly made a contribution.

CHO: A full one. He most certainly did.

Up next: a new study that says what you're doing right now could be bad for your heart. We'll tell you what it is -- just ahead.

HOLMES: Can you guess from the video? Also coming up, the Toyota Prius -- the Toyota Prius family is growing if your family. You might be interested. Those details are coming up.

It's 36 minutes past the hour. Stick around.

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HOLMES: Hello. At 39 minutes past the hour, welcome back to this AMERICAN MORNING.

He was at one point one of the most powerful and visible politicians in this country. Now, he's been sentenced to three years in prison, and no apologies at all from Tom DeLay. This is the man that was known as "The Hammer" at one point when he reined in Congress. Well, he remained defiant, facing the justice's sentencing.

And as our Ed Lavandera now reports, what was supposed to be years in prison so far at least amounted to only a few hours in jail.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tom DeLay was once one of the most powerful Republicans in this country. But now, he faces the very real likelihood that he could be facing up to three years in prison. A judge today in Austin, Texas, sentenced the former majority leader of the House to three years in prison after he was convicted back in November of money laundering and conspiracy.

Essentially, the charges against him what he was convicted of is funneling $190,000 worth of corporate donations into various PACs into the campaign coffers of various Republicans running for the state legislature here in Texas.

DeLay was sentenced to three years in prison. He faces probation time after that as well. His attorneys will fight and continue to fight the conviction, but the judge will allow DeLay to be out on bond while that appeals process continues.

DeLay left the jail in a crazy swarm of cameras, clearly very angry, refusing to answer any questions from reporters. And even his own attorney had very little to say, but the anger was clear over the sentence.

DICK DEGUERIN, TOM DELAY'S ATTORNEY: If I told you what I thought, I would get sued. This will not stand.

LAVANDERA: Prosecutors describe the sentence as fair, and they say it should send a clear message to all politicians of how they conduct themselves when it comes to raising campaign cash.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the message of this case is very clear and has been from the very first day. Corporate contributions in Texas are illegal and you can't give corporate money to a candidate directly and you can't give it indirectly. That's been the message all along. LAVANDERA: Again, Tom DeLay faces up for three years in prison. He will be allowed to remain free until his appeals process runs out.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Austin, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHO: Well, it's that time again.

HOLMES: Not yet.

CHO: Well, it is time to think about the race for president in 2012. And who's the favorite, that's what we want to know, for the Republican presidential nomination?

Well, according to a new Gallup poll, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is the most likeable. His net favorability rating, as they're calling it, of 30 percent is significantly higher than Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin. Now, Palin generates the most negative reaction among Republicans. But no surprise here, she is also the most recognizable.

HOLMES: Those are folks possibly at the top of the ticket, but already, yes, we're speculating about the person who might be number two, including the new Florida Senator Marco Rubio. He says, however, no thanks. He's not interested to anyone's suggestion he'd make a great vice presidential candidate in 2012.

Rubio still hasn't taken a vote in the Senate yet and he was eager to shoot down any of the V.P. speculation on the radio yesterday, says he's flattered but there's no way he'll do it. But that's, of course, what they always to say.

CHO: Until they do it.

HOLMES: Not interested. So, we shall see.

CHO: We shall see. You're right. Something to watch.

HOLMES: Yes.

CHO: Time for your A.M. house call this morning -- stories about hour health you definitely want on your radar, including this: a new study says having babies too close together increases their risk for autism. And the closer they're born, the greater the risk to the younger child. The National Institutes of Health financed a study found children born less than a year after an older sibling were three times more likely to be diagnosed with autism.

HOLMES: Also in health news -- we question wisdom of giving this to you while you are watching us, but study comes out that says actually a little less TV may be better for your heart. Researchers in London studied 4,500 adults and found that those who spent four hours a day in front of a television or a computer screen had a 48 percent higher mortality rate. Also, 125 percent greater risk of suffering a cardiovascular event. CHO: I think that might be because they're not exercising, is that right? I mean --

HOLMES: Everything to do with being sedentary, also have to do with job and stress and office and some things like that. But video games as well, sitting in front of the screen.

CHO: The same thing. It has nothing to do with watching us. I can tell you that.

HOLMES: It has nothing to do with us. We like to think we're good for your heart this morning.

CHO: That's right.

Still to come this morning, we are keeping a close eye on the major winter storm. Plenty of snow and ice in the Southeast and that storm is now headed -- brace yourself, T.J. -- to the Northeast. We're going to have a check on this morning's travel forecast right after the break.

HOLMES: Also, you know if the weather and ice and snow all on the ground, you know, if that's not dangerous enough, just try -- what is this, is he skiing or is this skateboarding? I guess I'll get the answer to that after the break. More of his stunt when we come back.

It's 44 minutes past the hour.

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CHO: Welcome back. Forty-six minutes after the hour. Good morning, Atlanta. Take a look at that. Twenty-nine degrees right now. Later, it's just going up to a balmy 33 degrees.

HOLMES: We're not used to that in Atlanta. And not used to this in Raleigh, North Carolina either. Thirty-one degrees there now. Thirty-five degrees only expected to be the high in later and that, Alina, we've been talking about this morning part of the problem even though the storm system has moved out of many parts of the south. That snow and ice not going anywhere for a couple more days, maybe even a weekend because still below freezing in a lot of those places for temperatures.

CHO: You know, it's incredible with the exception of Florida almost every state east of the Rockies has snow on the ground right now and the northeast, of course, but the storm is headed to the northeast, you know, the next 24 hours.

HOLMES: Let's head to Florida, shall we? A lot of people see the snow or used to kids who want to go out and have a good time. Maybe, they make a snow ball or two and toss at each other, but the folks in North Carolina, in particular Concord, they have found something else to do with all the snow. This is Rob Harris and his friends, they did something called street boarding is at least what they call it. I believe these are -- are these skis or --

CHO: It looks like a snowboard.

HOLMES: A snowboard, I should say then. A snowboard being pulled behind a vehicle it appears. We certainly don't recommend this at all, but a lot of people have been kind of having some fun with this.

CHO: Water skiing on frozen ice. We want to take a look at these pictures from -Reporter Spacey G. in Atlanta. Somebody should tell this guy that sled dogs are supposed to pull the sled, not ride on it, but that's OK. He looks like he's having a good time.

HOLMES: Right. And you know, everybody, this has been a major snow event in the south. We have had to pull out so many of our correspondents to help us cover this story. We've got our latest correspondent we'd like to introduce you to now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED KID: Hi. My name is Aiden. And today, we'll be introducing snow. Snow today and there's a lot of snow that there's some snow on everyone's boots where they go. So, everyone having fun out in the snow. Now back to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Thank you, Aiden Kate Isaac who report there from Lewisville, Texas by the i-Reporter but having a little good time with it with the comb as the microphone.

CHO: Is that what that was?

HOLMES: Still very cute.

CHO: I was in the real mic. It's 49 minutes after the hour. Of course, the big story this morning is the weather. We want to get a check of the weather forecast. Jacqui Jeras in the Extreme Weather Center for us in Atlanta. Jacqui, good morning. So, tell us, where is the storm right now and where is it headed in the next 24 hours?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. The center of the storm is actually off the coast of the Carolinas at this hour. And we've also got an area of low pressure across the plains states. And those two are going to come together to make one big storm and take a look at how much of the country is getting snow or freezing rain at this hour. We've got advisories which cover about 30 states. Yes. And that's just this to the Rockies and that's so much in the couple of problems that we have out west for today as well.

Let's go ahead and show you what we have going on in terms of the freezing rain and the ice which continues to be a problem, and even though, you don't see it down here across parts of the deep south, we still have a little bit of freezing drizzle and that's why we're going to continue to have problems. Take a look at this picture that we have for you out of Atlanta from the Department of Transportation, and yes, those are semis that are still stuck on 285 at this hour.

So, it is really still gridlock, and temperatures are going to barely make it above freezing. So, you're going to have a really small window, I think, if you absolutely have to travel today where we might have a little bit of melting, but it's going to drop like a rock again after the sun goes down, and we're talking about maybe Thursday and Friday before we start to see temperatures around 40 to 50 degrees to help with some of that melting.

All right. Let's show you where the worst of the weather is right now really along I-95 here from the North and South Carolina state line stretch on up almost into Washington, D.C. where that snow is going to start to come down. And then, we also have some snow which has been heavy at times especially right along the Ohio River here. And Chicago, you got some airport delays, by the way, as a result of that.

Arrival delays at Chicago O'Hare are about two hours at this time. And we're also expecting delays today, Philadelphia and D.C. metros. New York City, Boston, you're not going to get into this until probably after 8:00 tonight. So, things should be fine throughout most of the day today. Atlanta and Charlotte will still have problems over an hour that's if you have flights going on.

Cleveland, Detroit, and Cinci getting some snow today as well as Chicago, as I mentioned, and Minneapolis and then Portland and San Francisco out west having some issues there as well. Let's talk about the forecast track of this storm and where this thing is headed. It's going to be moving up through the mid-Atlantic today, so D.C. into Baltimore and Philadelphia should be getting your accumulating snows this afternoon.

Four to eight inches expected in Philly. A storm intensifies the height of this storm for the northeast really overnight tonight and into early tomorrow morning. That's when the highest snowfall rates are going to be the worst visibility and the worst conditions. And totals are going to be anywhere between, we think, eight and 14 inches for New York City, nine to 15, potentially, for Boston.

So, this is really going to be a true nor'easter and a big wallop for the northeast. Hopefully, we're a little bit better prepared for it this time around -- T.J.

HOLMES: And Jacqui, were those trucks, literally, parked in the middle of 285?

JERAS: They were, literally, parked still on 285. There they are. Back to back. You know, most of these guys have like beds and heaters, and you know, food for days in there. So, they're probably OK stuck in there. Hopefully --

CHO: Not that you want to be stuck there.

JERAS: Not that you do. Certainly, not a great situation, but, yes, it's going to take days for us to clean up from this thing. Still.

HOLMES: All right. Jacqui, we appreciate you as always. We'll be continuing to check in with Rob and Jacqui and the rest of our crew this morning covering this major weather situation. Thank you so much. Also this morning, a story that a lot of people were kind of relieved, I guess, to see. An update about actor, Michael Douglas. He says his tumor is now gone and that he may have beaten throat cancer. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta going to be talking about this incredible recovery coming up.

CHO: Look forward to that. And up next, the Toyota Prius family is growing. The automaker is unveiling a new model of the Prius, and it's good news if you've got a growing family. We'll have details just ahead.

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HOLMES: You saw pictures up there of people who are making the news today having to do with our news stories today. We didn't have a picture having to do with this next story. This next story has to do with "Playboy." So, we couldn't really put a picture up this morning, Alina, but we're talking about "Playboy" about to go private. What they're doing here?

Hugh Hefner, of course, the founder, he's reached an agreement to buy back the shares of the now publicly traded company that he doesn't already own. That will make "Playboy" a private company once again. The company has been struggling in recent years in part because there's so much free content out there now on the internet.

CHO: It's taking the company private. Getting married. Lots of news with Hugh Hefner.

HOLMES: Oh, yes.

CHO: And what's the plural of Prius? What do you say?

HOLMES: Prii.

CHO: Prii. Great one. You better figure it out because Toyota is creating a slew of new Prius models including this one right there. It's actually a station wagon. The new model is expected to go on sale later this year. It was unveiled yesterday at the Detroit auto show. Now, the new Prius, here's a reason to get it, will get about 42 miles per gallon in the city.

HOLMES: And it's just as attractive as the other models as well. Just three minutes to the top of the hour. Quick break. We're right back.

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