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American Morning

Doping Allegations Brought Against Lance Armstrong; Deadly Fireball Explosion in Philadelphia; Budget Crunching Throughout America; Does Caloric Knowledge Affect Restaurant Choices?; Chinese President in Washington Today; Push for Health Care Repeal: Debate Expected Today; Stern Slams Jay Leno; Tax Season Begins

Aired January 19, 2011 - 07:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Good morning. Caught on camera. A deadly fireball explosion in Philadelphia. A gas main bursting, lighting up the night sky. That full story ahead.

Also, in the red and just flat-out broke. Cities across America are slashing budgets, including police budgets. How will your town keep you safe? It's all on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES (on-camera): Top of the hour here on this AMERICAN MORNING. Good morning to you all. T.J. Holmes here alongside Kiran Chetry. Glad you all could be with us here this morning.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, the 19th of January. Glad you're with us. We're going to talk about a lot this morning, including as Christine Romans referred to it the next possible financial crisis taking place in cities and towns all over the country trying to fill that budget gap.

Also ahead this hour, more and more restaurants are doing it, putting the calorie counts on their menus. But does it actually change your mind on what you are deciding to eat? Our Elizabeth Cohen will be here to talk about the surprising results of a new study.

HOLMES: Also ahead this morning, Lance Armstrong, he has been dealing with allegations of doping for years and years. Now there are new allegations and a new report claiming some new evidence about the doping allegations. That's coming up. We'll be talking to "Sports Illustrated" about the report.

CHETRY: Up first, this incredible video of a gas line explosion in Philadelphia. Crews on the scene trying to repair a gas main break when out of nowhere this. This is from WCAU, a station in Philadelphia. They captured all of this on camera when they were coming out to see what was on the scene. Sadly, one utility worker killed as a result of this explosion. Five others injured, some of them serious. We will have an update throughout the morning.

Tragedy in Tucson, this also captured on tape. According to "The Washington Post," they do have every moment recorded by nearly two dozen surveillance cameras at that Safeway store. CNN is working to confirm more of the details, but these videos reportedly show suspect Jared Loughner with a nine millimeter glock walking right up to Gabrielle Giffords the congresswoman and shooting her at close range in the head.

The tapes from inside the Safeway moments before reportedly show the suspect talking to a clerk struggling to hear, saying that he was wearing earplugs. The videos also reportedly show U.S. district judge John Roll getting shot in the back while trying to shield Congresswoman Gifford's staffer Ron Barber. Barber had already been shot twice. He survived. Judge Roll did not.

In the meantime New York Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy introduced a bill in the House last night that would ban high-capacity ammunition magazines like used in Tucson. McCarthy's husband was killed by a gunman who opened fire on a Long Island railroad back in 1993.

HOLMES: Congresswoman Giffords actually predicted she would be shot. That word coming to us from her husband, Mark Kelly, who has been by her side through this ordeal. He's talking more and more, granting interviews, talking to reporters yesterday. He said he talked about this possibly happening. She talked about it weeks ago fearing somewhere out in public that she could possibly be shot at one of those events.

He has been talking as well about all of the encouragement he's been receiving and talking about how remarkable her recovery has been. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK KELLY, REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS' HUSBAND: She gets a little bit better each day. She enjoys messing around with my wedding ring.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think she's trying to remind up.

KELLY: She does that normally. We might be sitting at a restaurant, she'll take it off, flip it from one finger to the other. She will do that now. She knows I'm there. She'll look at me, put her hand on my face, and taps it, which is what she would normally do.

I'm still in a state of disbelief. I look at her, and see what was -- you know, see what was done to her, and consider what recovery is going to be like for her, and it's going to be hard work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: You see here, the memorial outside continues to grow outside the hospital. People continue to leave signs, cards, flowers, candles, balloons, just to honor the victims and to keep vigil over the congresswoman who is still recovering. Mark Kelly says he walks by this every single day, says it's spiritual for him.

He also talks about all of the letters and warm wishes he has been receiving. One stood out to him that came to a little boy who wanted to help out and sent in his lunch money, $2.85. Mark Kelly wants to respond and makes sure that young man gets his money back, but he appreciated the gesture.

CHETRY: Amazing.

There is growing concern this morning about the places we call home, our cities and town across the country struggling to make ends meet, and if not they're drowning in red ink already. Here's a look at a map we want to show you, five cities with the biggest budget deficits. New York, number one, a deficit of $2 billion. That's followed by Washington, D.C., Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles, California, and San Francisco.

Number 13 is Camden, New Jersey, just outside much Philadelphia, a crime-ridden city that ranks as one of the most dangerous in the U.S. in fact number two right behind St. Louis, Missouri. And Camden took a severe blow when half of the police force forced to turn in their badges because of a budget cuts yesterday because of a $26.5 million gap, and firefighters I believe 67 as well.

Our Mary Snow is live with us this morning. They were trying to come to an agreement with the unions and they were unable to do that. And as a result, they had to turn badges in.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is such a huge challenge to keep Camden safe because right now, if you're in an accident and no damage to your car, don't call the police. The police officers have been reassigned so there is no more clerical or administrative duty.

And the chief of police says in order to fill the gap and fill that vacuum, he has been working with county, state, and federal agencies, including the FBI, to take an increased role in Camden to protect the city. Also, the Guardian Angels, which are volunteers, are volunteering to patrol the streets.

The mayor of Camden is Dana Redd, and she says it didn't have to be this bad. She blames fire and police unions for not making enough concessions. In her words, she says there is a sense of denial. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW, (on camera): What do you think people are expecting?

MAYOR DANA REDD, CAMDEN: I'm not sure what people were expecting other than this culture of disbelief, because Camden has always been bailed out by state government in the past.

JOHN WILLIAMSON, PRESIDENT, FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE, CAMDEN: Every person that has a set of eyes, ears, and a thinking brain can see and know that the city is in a fiscal crisis, the state is in a fiscal crisis, and the nation is in a fiscal crisis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: Now, that's John Williamson, the head of the police union in Camden. He says concessions were made, obviously, not enough. One of the sticking points is health care costs for the unions and they really have not been able to see eye to eye with city officials.

HOLMES: Some concessions not enough. Any chance they will go back and work something out?

SNOW: Now that it's come to this, the mayor is hopeful there will be last-minute concessions. She believes as many as 100 jobs could be saved but we still haven't seen that happen yet.

CHETRY: What a difficult situation they are dealing with mirrored in many cities across the country. Mary, thanks.

HOLMES: Let's turn to the other side of the table. Christine Romans, the cities can't do what the federal government does, which is either raise the debt ceiling or keep deficit spending. What can you do?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You can look to the state for a bailout, except you can't go to state for a bailout when the state itself is slashing budgets like crazy and trying to get its own house in order. So it's really a tough position they are in.

So here is what you can do. You gave police and fire cuts like you are seeing in Camden. This is a story that will be played out across the country. If it's not police and fire cuts it will be sanitation, education cuts. This is woefully felt already. We reported you about music classes that have been cut, extracurricular activities you have to pay for, pay to join the football team.

Raising taxes -- and it might not even be raising taxes but suddenly its higher fees for everything. Bottom line the takeaway for you, many of the services and perks of living in your town that you have been enjoying for the past 10, 15, 20 years, you might have to pay for them now. This will come down to family budgets.

It's going to mean paying to get to the pools, or fewer pools will be open. It will mean your school, you'll have to shell out more for a music class. This is how it will be felt on Main Street, a fiscal crisis that is still happening.

HOLMES: You said something a moment ago. We'll be looking for this for decades.

ROMANS: It's possible. You need to see a roaring economy come back and that will relieve some of the pressure. Right now --

CHETRY: We're hearing about foreclosures. This is all lost tax revenue. And we're talking about home prices bottoming out in the spring and recovering, but meanwhile these budgets --

ROMANS: And in some cases, city spending is based only assumptions of 2006, 2007 when things were a lot better. I want to show you a demographic. No question, these are the biggest states, I mean $17 billion in California. How could you come up with $17 billion? And by law, you have to. States have to balance their budgets. In New York, it's $10 billion. You are talking about lunch programs for little kids at school, kids who aren't maybe going to be fed at home. This is a nation that has to prioritize from the top all the way down to mayors like Dana Redd.

HOLMES: Christine, we appreciate you. Thank you so much.

We'll turn to Capitol Hill now. You might have heard something going on today. After all of that to get the health care reform bill passed, now they are voting today to repeal the thing. Let me tell you what Americans think about repealing it. A new CNN/opinion research corporation poll saying 50 percent of Americans in favor of getting rid of the whole thing, another 42 percent want to keep it.

Jim Acosta is live in Washington for us now. Jim, the voting today mostly symbolic?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pretty much, T.J. If there are no big surprises, Republicans in the House will deliver on a campaign promise today and pass a bill to repeal President Obama's health care reform.

The debate started yesterday on the house floor, and because Republicans have a big majority in the House the measure is expected to pass by a wide margin this evening. And even though it will likely go on to die in the Democratic-controlled Senate, the GOP leaders insist it's more than symbolic. Democrats argue that the GOP is just trying to score some political points.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN, (R) MINNESOTA: We are going to just check the box off and say we've had one vote and we're going to move on to other topics. We're staying full-square behind the repeal of Obamacare and our commitment to defund it going forward.

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, (D) FLORIDA: Every minute we spend fruitlessly debating the repeal of health care reform, which we know is ultimately not going to happen, is one less minute we are spending creating jobs and focusing on getting people back to work and focusing on turning this economy around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: That's about as testy as it got. It's worth reporting the tone so far in this debate was more policy driven than personal.

HOLMES: We'll take that at least. Jim Acosta, we'll check in with you again soon.

ACOSTA: You bet.

CHETRY: Picture yourself in an amazing rescue amid the landslide disaster that has not killed more than 700 people in Brazil. Search crews managed to save a man that's been buried in the mud for almost a full day. We'll have more on how they found him and how he's now doing, a live report from Brazil.

Also, closer to home, pacific northwest highway crews are still trying to clear roads blocked by the mud and trees after the mudslides over the weekend. Highway 6 is completely blocked near Portland, Oregon. Workers there are worried more rain is going to -- will hamper the efforts as they work to try to get things back to normal. But it looks like they have a long way to go.

HOLMES: It's 12 minutes past the hour.

(WEATHER BREAK)

HOLMES: Just ahead on "AMERICAN MORNING," new doping allegations against Lance Armstrong. But does that necessarily translate into any new evidence that he did anything wrong? A "Sports Illustrated" writer will join us.

CHETRY: Also House Republicans are putting their stamp on the new Congress with a vote to repeal the President's health care reform law. We're going to be speaking with Congressman Ron Paul about today's vote and about this critical meeting between President Obama and the president of China.

It's 15 minutes past the hour.

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CHETRY: Seventeen minutes past the hour. It's a big day ahead in Washington. The House is getting ready to go ahead with the vote to repeal health care legislation. Also, President Obama is in high- stake talks with China's President Hu Jintao. Talks that could affect your financial future.

We're going to bring in Congressman Ron Paul right now, Republican from Texas. He is going to be voting along with the most of the Republicans to repeal health care and also has a strong view on our relationship with China, which is why we wanted to talk to you today.

Congressman, good morning.

REP. RON PAUL (R), TEXAS: Good morning. Nice to be with you.

CHETRY: Great to have you with us as well. I want to ask you about the health care debate that's taking place because critics going forward with this say it's a pretty futile exercise. That it's not going to make it through the Senate, so why bother? What's your take?

PAUL: Well, I think it sends a strong message. I think most people realize that if it passes, it's not going to pass the Senate and the president wouldn't sign it but it represents what the people are saying and what they were saying in the last election. So I think it's very logical. I think it's very important. I think it tells us what we should do in the future. Though the whole bill probably won't be repealed anywhere in the near future, I think it might set the stage for cleaning up a lot of it, especially, you know, the mandate insisting that every single American has to get into this program. So I think it's very, very good. And I think I will get some Democrats to vote for it and I can't imagine any Republicans voting against it.

CHETRY: But it's not going to go through -- it's not going to get through the Senate. And it's certainly not going to be signed by the president.

PAUL: Right. You're right on that.

CHETRY: The interesting thing, though, is the president seems to be leaving the door open for at least some discussion on this. He said look, you know, the bill can be improved. But working toward repeal is sort of going backward. I mean, do you think that there's wiggle room with this administration to maybe get in some of the changes or some of the tweaks that you all think would make this better?

PAUL: Yes. Yes, of course. I don't think the government should be involved in medicine. Anything in that direction would help. And I think they backed off on the 1099. They realize how expensive that would be for small business people, so that looks like that will be taken care of. And I think the mandate would be important.

Many government programs I disapprove of, but I always think, if you're legally allowed to get out of it, it would be helpful. And right now, this bill, flip it over and say no longer can you legally opt out of a government-mandated system. So whether it's education or whatever, I always like the idea that we still have hope, and we can immediately opt out and fight for ourselves and opt for a free market answer.

CHETRY: I think it's interesting, though, because you said that you don't think the government should be in medicine. I mean, it is so deeply entrenched.

PAUL: Oh, yes.

CHETRY: I mean, between Medicare and Medicaid and everything else, it seems that that would be an impossibility.

PAUL: Well, it is. We can't -- we're not expecting to even push back on Obamacare, so it is a political impossibility, except the tragedy is it will disappear in the middle of bankruptcy. Because we do know that Medicare and Medicaid, as well as social security, are bankrupt. So we can't maintain it, and the only thing the government can do is defy it by messing it up, by rationing and cutting back services. So in the midst of a financial dollar crisis, it quits functioning, just like -- think about what happened in the Soviet system. You know, when they collapsed, they weren't thinking about how to provide medical care. They had a new system coming in rather quickly and opened up the doors to a market approach. So yes, no, it would be very difficult to systematically reverse it because the politics are so powerful.

CHETRY: Right.

PAUL: But the continuation of our policy today guarantees that it will fail completely. CHETRY: You've -- so turning to China, you have advocated a hands-off approach. You say we shouldn't be in the business of meddling with other countries, domestic politics. But as we look to China right now, China owning nearly $1 trillion in our debt, major trade imbalances, what message do you think the president needs to send today in his meeting with President Hu?

PAUL: Well, I would like the message to come out and say that we've learned the lesson. We should look to ourselves. Our policies have made it difficult for us to compete. And we can't go looking for scapegoats. We can't blame China for us spending too much money and printing too much money and buying cheap goods and doing so much to undermine our corporations here and our industries. So it's easier to start a business in China. They're more capitalistic in many ways than we are, so we should recognize our mistakes.

But to fight with China now, I mean, they are our third best partners. We sell as much goods there as -- more than anybody else. They're third in line. So I would say they're great customers and to argue that they're the problem, then we say, well, they're messing around with their currency.

What have we done for the last three years? First, we doubled, you know, the monetary base. Now we have QE-2. That's currency manipulation. Shouldn't we look to ourselves and say that we should have a sound economy? We should do everything we can to promote productivity here. But because China is flawed which they are, we shouldn't blame them. Besides, one thing that we do that they don't do is they're becoming a world power.

CHETRY: Right.

PAUL: And they're increasing their military power but they are increasing their influence by investments. We waste all this money and energy with our military empire and all the occupation, and they are buying up rights to oil and other minerals at the same time. We're just consuming our wealth by saying we're going to secure our oil in the Middle East. Just think of the horrible cost we're now in, only in lives, but in dollars, which compounds our problems, because that's inflationary. That causes the pressure on the Feds to even buy more debt. So I say look to ourselves. When we have a clean house and we have a perfect protection of civil liberties here in this country, then maybe we can preach to others.

CHETRY: It's always great to get your take. Congressman Ron Paul this morning. Thanks so much for joining us.

PAUL: Thank you.

CHETRY: T.J.?

HOLMES: All right, Kiran. It is tax season, of course. Did you know, folks, there are ways for you to file free. We'll tell you what you need to know.

Also, do you know how many calories are in the meal you're eating at the restaurant? Well, a new study says you actually don't care.

It's 23 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Twenty-six minutes past the hour now. You know, we have a new co-worker here. I keep calling a new co-worker.

Piers Morgan just started this week. New show, 9:00 Eastern every night right here. He started off with Oprah Winfrey. He had Howard Stern on last night. And Howard Stern seems to have a problem with Jay Leno.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERS MORGAN, HOST: Jay Leno said about you, when you made that call to move off to (INAUDIBLE). He had a bit of a poppy saying, well, now you don't hear about Howard Stern. And that was a big mistake to come off main street (ph).

HOWARD STERN, HOST, "THE HOWARD STERN SHOW": Jay, Jay -- Jay is insane. And Jay is a crook and the whole world knows exactly what he's up to. He steals a tremendous amount of material. He's not fit to scrub David Letterman's feet. I don't know why he's beaten David Letterman in the ratings. It's beyond my comprehension. America must be filled with morons who at night lay in bed. The ones who are watching him, they must be in a coma.

MORGAN: What did you think of what he did to Conan O'Brien?

STERN: He did a terrible thing to Conan O'Brien?

MORGAN: Isn't it just business, really?

STERN: No. It wasn't business at all. It is such a complicated -- did you ever read Bill Carter's book on it? Read that and then figure it out for yourself.

MORGAN: Yes, but what -- as a professional entertainer, isn't it lord (ph) of the jungle. I mean, if your ratings aren't doing great --

STERN: Of course.

MORGAN: Someone comes along.

STERN: But he had made certain guarantees to Conan. So this is your show. If I was Jay Leno, I would have manned up. I would have said listen, Conan, you think you're so good. I'm going to go to FOX Network or I'm going to go to ABC and I'm going to put my show on and I'm going to kick your ass. That's what a man does.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: It's a little more complicated than that. NBC wanted to keep Leno and so they promised, OK, you have to give up -- they wanted to have their cake and eat it too. They wanted both of them. HOLMES: I kind of like Howard Stern's (INAUDIBLE). Pretty simple.

CHETRY: Well, Jay Leno was being also, you know, loyal by staying at NBC. But anyway, it is not an -- I'm team Coco (ph). Don't get me wrong, but it was a tough situation.

Coming up, though, don't miss the entire conversation with Condoleezza Rice on "PIERS MORGAN." That will be tonight, 9:00 Eastern. We're going to take a quick break. Top stories, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back. Kiran Chetry here with T.J. Holmes this morning. And it is a nice day. Better than yesterday.

HOLMES: Yes.

CHETRY: Freezing rain on our way in. So today we'll just take the clouds. How about that?

Washington, D.C. also not looking too bad. The clouds will give way to some sun a little bit later. And we're talking highs in the 40s. We've been -- you know, feels like temperatures of single digits. We'll take that.

HOLMES: Oh, it's summertime now.

CHETRY: Yes. Bring out your Bermuda shorts. It's time to go.

HOLMES: We'll show you a couple of stories you might be interested to hear about. One of them about Sarah Palin. We've got new numbers about here.

CNN/Opinion Research poll out now says that 56 percent of Americans now have an unfavorable view of the former Alaska governor. That's an all-time high for her for an unfavorable rating of 10 percentage among women compared to three percentage points among men.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Apple setting a new record of nearly $27 billion in sales and $6 billion in profits, $6 million that can't be. A measly $6 million, come on, this is Apple, in the last quarter. The company sold a record 16.2 million iPhones. 16 million iPhones and 7.3 million iPads just in this quarter.

HOLMES: Also, sort of intrigue in Haiti right now. People still trying to figure out why in the world is this guy back in the country after 25 years in exile. We are talking about a Baby Doc Duvalier. He has now been charged with corruption and possible human rights violation. Baby Doc is the name. He was actually taken into custody yesterday. He returned there. He ruled the country for years, some 25 years ago and left after being forced out.

He's been accused by human rights groups of ordering the death of thousands of Haitians, and also he's been accused of stealing money from the government, lining his own pockets, his family as well. But he just surprisingly showed up this week and a lot of people trying to figure out exactly what he's up to.

As many of you know, it's that season, it's the tax season. Christine Romans here now. A lot of people filing their taxes. There are ways you can do this for free. You want to start with the catch?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Did you get your w-2s yet?

CHETRY: I got them online. It was interesting. I haven't opened it up. Too scared.

ROMANS: I haven't looked at it yet either. I put them all together and then open at the same time. All the 1099s are starting to come in. You're getting these things in the mail. Put them together, because, boys and girls, it's going to be tax time! We're going to talk about some free ways to -

HOLMES: (INAUDIBLE) Christine.

ROMANS: I'm just saying, you know, a lot of people aren't excited about taxes, but you need to be. So here is how to file your taxes for free. I want to tell you about something called free file. This is eligible for about 70 percent of taxpayers, you can go to irs.gov/freefile. You have to have a gross income of $58,000 or less, and this is - there are some catches, of course. You have to file a simple return and the like.

But if you want to try to file your taxes for free, you can go to the IRS web site and see this free file thing. You can also look for some other low-cost options for filing, turbo tax, complete tax, H&R block, Jackson Hewitt. A lot of the private taxpayers have a free version and then there are add-ons, depending on the complications, and the difficulty in what you want to do and what other kind of services you want.

Don't forget, additional charges can apply for more complicated forms. State income tax reforms, sometimes they'll give you, maybe a free federal filing, but then you're going to have to pay to do the state income tax return as well. We also talked last week about that tax thing, you can just use your smart phone.

CHETRY: Take a picture with your iPhone.

ROMANS: That's $14.99. If you're doing a 1040 EZ. Look around there a lot of different products. I mean, when I was in high school, they made us do a fake one, you know, you can actually learn to do a 1040 form. So I mean, you know, people still do their own taxes. But sometimes the more responsibilities you get, the older you get, the more deductions you have, the more kids you have, the more education expenses, sometimes (INAUDIBLE) you should turn to professionals for some help.

CHETRY: It brings back memories of my dad coming out with the huge files, you know -

ROMANS: I know. CHETRY: (INAUDIBLE) should do mine.

ROMANS: Does your dad still do yours?

CHETRY: My dad does.

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: But you know, even Tim Geithner got in trouble with his taxes. He was doing his own taxes when he was running the New York fed, and may have a couple of oversights that were a little problem during the confirmation process. Taxes are - they are tough. But these are ways to try to keep the costs down. You could spend a couple hundred bucks getting the taxes done.

CHETRY: Which is tax deductible.

ROMANS: Yes, you're absolutely right.

CHETRY: Yes, don't forget that.

ROMANS: Those things coming in the mail right now. Pull out your old crummy shoe boxes and get your paperwork in order.

CHETRY: Yes, Mrs. Romans.

ROMANS: You're welcome, dear.

HOLMES: Thanks, Christine.

CHETRY: Well, Rob is hitting the slopes but not in skis and not in the snowboards. The new cool cats. This is what they are up to now. They're snow biking.

HOLMES: But they are working, we'll explain that coming up.

Also, we've got new doping allegations against Lance Armstrong. But these new allegations, do they actually prove anything? It's 34 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. 37 minutes past the hour on this "American Morning." There are new doping allegations being raised now against Lance Armstrong in a brand new "Sports Illustrated" article. Now this article includes some unusual test results. It talked about teammates who say that Armstrong encouraged the use of performance-enhancing drugs, also schemes to avoid drug tests.

An investigation is under way right now by the fed. It continues to look at whether or not he was involved in an organized doping allegation. Armstrong has denied the charges. But David Epstein who co-wrote the article for "Sports Illustrated" joins me now. It hits newsstands today? Do I have that right?

DAVID EPSTEIN, STAFF WRITER "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED": Wednesday. HOLMES: Hits Wednesday. That is today. It's Wednesday. I know it's early. Stay with me. Good to have you here with us. Let's start with this. Did Lance Armstrong cheat?

EPSTEIN: Well, all I can do is stand by our reporting and let people decide on that. But I think we have some new allegations in there, and we report that he certainly tested abnormally high for testosterone, but those tests weren't reported as positive. So people have to make their judgments.

HOLMES: OK. Help us make sense of that. But allegations before, but what did you all dig up? You said you're going to let people decide on their own. So what's that new information that they're going to be deciding on?

EPSTEIN: So among the new information - we saw documents, "USA Cycling," in 1999, when Lance was in the Olympic athlete pool, requested testing data for a cyclist they didn't name, which is identified by his drug testing I.D. numbers. People familiar with those documents told us Lance Armstrong's test results. We saw them. Three of them were above the allowable limit. They were unable to be confirmed. And the person who is in charge of that drug testing was unable to explain to us why.

One of them, it seems was never even followed up on. The other two, he said it's a once in a blue moon occurrence that one wouldn't be confirmed. And for three with one athlete, he said, the chances are essentially impossible.

HOLMES: Now, let me put up a statement that we did get from Lance Armstrong, getting a response. I belief we got it from his attorney. But we'll put it up here on the screen for our viewers to see. It says, "The S.I. story full of false allegations that are very old, come from previously discredited sources. The reporter who wrote the story," talking about the co-author here actually who wrote the story, "has publicly stated that an indictment will likely be returned before or shortly after the Super Bowl. This is another baseless rumor and constitutes unprofessional journalism."

Now, on that point there, you are talking to me here now about a source that you're not naming, some tests that never confirmed on some samples that not necessarily have his name, but a number. Now, people hear that, it doesn't sound like hard evidence necessarily to them.

EPSTEIN: Well, people who were privy to who those numbers belonged to, indicated to us that those were Lance Armstrong's tests. There is other information. So we know the feds have information that Lance gained access to a drug that was only in clinical trials, it was never approved for use.

We know, because in November, one of his current teammate's homes was raided in Italy, and they found information that suggests Lance and his team, recently, have maintained a relationship with an Italian physician, Dr. Ferrari, who he previously said he cut ties with after allegations of doping. HOLMES: David, what would you say - what else does this man have to do. He continues to deny it - but what else does he have to do to convince people that "folks, I'm clean"?

EPSTEIN: Well, I think the proof's really going to be in the pudding. We're going to see - I'm not privy to a lot of things that come before the grand jury, but news or no news, whether we report on that, that's going to play out. So I think that the lasting question is going to be what comes from any potential trial.

HOLMES: I want to ask you here lastly and this might be a difficult question to answer. But it was talked about a little bit, not talked about it, some other allegations, Floyd Landis and some of the other stuff is coming about a federal investigation. This man has become a hero to people who have cancer, fighting cancer. He survived cancer.

His story no matter what has been remarkable. Nobody ever condones cheating. But the man has raised hundreds of millions for cancer research. You know, just in your opinion, is it possible that whether he cheated or not, this man has done so much good, as some would say "you know what, it's OK if he did a little of this, a little of that because his good deeds outweigh maybe the bad. What do you think about that?

EPSTEIN: I don't know. That's a philosophical question, do the means justify the ends? And my guess is probably there are people on the tail end, in retrospect, would probably say yes, but if they were faced with advising someone on the front end, who asked should I cheat to do this, they would probably say no. It's probably a point of your perspective.

HOLMES: It's a fascinating argument that some people were making. But you put a lot into this reporting. People can check it out, it hits newsstands today, I believe, right? The article in "Sports Illustrated."

David Epstein, we appreciate you coming in.

EPSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

HOLMES: All right. Kiran.

CHETRY: Well, they are telling us we are getting fatter and we still eat it anyway. There is a new study saying that people who see the mandatory calorie counts, still doesn't make a difference on what they choose to eat. So if that doesn't work, what does? We'll ask Elizabeth Cohen.

Also, some winter weather rolling through the northeast this morning. We're going to check in with Rob Marciano with the travel forecast, right after the break. It's 42 minutes past the hour.

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CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. A dramatic story of survival amid destruction in Brazil. Take a look at this -- rescue crews managed to find and save a man buried alive after a mudslide swept him away from his home. He was there for a day, stuck under the mud. And they were able to get him out.

Our Shasta Darlington in Brazil, this morning, where all of this happened.

Walk us through this dramatic rescue. It's amazing that they were able to actually find him amidst all the devastation.

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kiran. These are incredible images. This man was trapped below 13 feet of mud. Now apparently, the rescue workers heard some noises through the rubble, masses of boulders, rubbles, sticks, water. They dug for some three hours and they finally found him. Apparently he'd been trapped there for 16 hours (INAUDIBLE). He was face down, able to breathe, perhaps, because there was an air bubble.

They pulled him up, they had to put a neck brace on him to get him out of mud. But they managed to save him. He was alive. And this is really one of the few good stories that we've been hearing lately. Unfortunately, they're increasingly rare.

Now those massive mudslides and flash flooding occurred a week ago. So what people are finding more and more, unfortunately, are bodies. Here in Teresopolis, about two hours north of Rio de Janeiro. You still find streets like the one behind me, flooded with debris. Every afternoon we get heavy rains which are impeding some of the rescue work.

Yesterday, we talked to the head of rescue efforts in Teresopolis, his name is Major Carlos Falcone (ph), and he told us they are still finding survivors. But not so much these people stuck in mud, but clusters of houses that have been cut off, they have no access to telephone, electricity, light. They go out in helicopter, find them, take them food and water and they come back with more bodies. He said that he expects the death toll, which has already topped 700 to well exceed 1,000 by the time they're done with their work, Kiran.

CHETRY: And Shasta, the pictures are just devastating to see. And it just looks so hopeless when you talk about these daily rains coming in every day.

What is it about this year? Why is it so bad this time?

DARLINGTON: Well, Kiran, part of the problem is that Brazil is not that prepared for natural disasters. It isn't a country that's hit by earthquakes or hurricanes. But what they do have is this incredible landscape -- very hilly, very mountainous. And a lot of houses have been built -- many of them illegally, many poor neighborhoods clinging to the hillsides.

And it's not the first time that they've suffered from these mudslides. This just happens to be the most deadly in the country's history. Basically, a month's worth of rain fell in a day. And that's what happened. It hit not only the rich, but the poor. And they're going to keep pulling bodies out, probably for weeks to come, Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. Well, Shasta Darlington in Teresopolis, Brazil, this morning.

Thank you.

HOLMES: Well, about 12 minutes until the top of the hour now.

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HOLMES: Coming up, sometimes you just want to kick back and crack open a cold can of whiskey. Yes, that's the newest thing. Eight shots of whiskey in a can. That's just a brilliant idea.

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: Also there is a new study confirming that few jerks may spoil it for everyone else. We'll tell you how many people really get drunk at the ball game.

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HOLMES: All right. About seven minutes to the top of the hour here now. They put those calorie counts on menus, they're supposed to help you make better decisions. But it appears maybe you aren't.

CHETRY: That's right. I saw the -- did you see at McDonalds, the 20 McNuggets? They're 920 calories?

HOLMES: Why are you buying 20 nuggets?

CHETRY: Well, I mean, by the time my kids have some and I have a few and the dog, you know --

HOLMES: OK. The family pack.

CHETRY: Goes fast. Exactly.

Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now. So, they tried this out, they said, hey does this change your eating habits, and they found, no?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, first I want to know, how much does your dog eat?

(LAUGHTER)

CHETRY: Well, we give him a couple, the kids give him some, the next thing you know, 20, gone.

COHEN: That's right. I could see going through 20 nuggets. Well that's interesting. Maybe if the dog knew how many calories he was eating, he wouldn't eat so many nuggets. That's what you would think. But when it comes to people that doesn't seem to be true. This is a really interesting study they did in Seattle.

In the city of Seattle, you have to have nutritional labeling on certain menus. But in the burbs, you don't know. So they compared how people ate in Seattle, versus in the suburbs at one Mexican restaurant. And they found that the labeling that you had to have in Seattle, it didn't really make a difference. People still ordered high calorie foods. It didn't really seem to matter.

And we're talking about some pretty high calorie options. If you take a look, one of the items at this restaurant was 609 calories for a beef natural soft taco. Another 906 calories for a beef big time Mexi-burrito. So, apparently, even seeing those numbers didn't change what people chose -- Kiran, T.J.

HOLMES: But Elizabeth, if you want to do a study like this, isn't it a good place not to do it at a place called Taco Time? If people go there, they're going to eat Tacos. You're going to get a taco no matter what it says.

So do we really think that much about this study, given where the study was done?

COHEN: T.J., I think you make an excellent point.

HOLMES: OK.

COHEN: You may have an Master's degree in epidemiology or something.

HOLMES: Just in common sense, Elizabeth.

COHEN: Right, there you go. And sometime that's even better. Yes, that's exactly right. Maybe people who go to these kind of restaurants don't really care. You go there because you're just dying for that extra big burrito. Maybe that's it.

Maybe what it is, is the way that this particular restaurant did the labeling, it didn't kind of jump out in your face. Maybe at this restaurant, there aren't such great lower calorie options. So maybe the big time burrito is all you've got. There's lots of different answers here but I wouldn't take too much from this one study because it is just one restaurant.

CHETRY: But it is interesting. I mean, they're obviously going to be expanding this to see if it does work over the long run to just give people more information. Maybe they will still, you know, eat that big meal or eat that caloric meal but then watch it later on the in the day. I mean, at least they're being armed with some information about how much they're taking in.

COHEN: That's right. That's a good point. Maybe they found out it was 906 calories, they still ate it but they watched themselves later in the day -- CHETRY: Right. So they're having romaine lettuce for dinner.

COHEN: Right, maybe. Maybe. Yes, right.

But, it is interesting that several other studies, like at a Starbucks in New York City, they did find that it made a difference. The labeling made a difference, people did choose lower calorie options. So, this study is a little different from other studies. And other studies have found the labeling works.

HOLMES: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, interesting stuff there. But again, our advice to them, don't do it at Taco Time next time.

Elizabeth, good to see you, as always. Thanks so much.

COHEN: Thanks.

CHETRY: Thanks, Elizabeth.

We're going to take a quick break. Your top stories coming up in 90 seconds.

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