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American Morning

Stolen Baby Reunited with Family After 23 Years; Congresswoman Giffords Goes Outside: Will Move to Houston for Rehab; Child Sells Toys for Giffords; Google Gets A New CEO; Santorum on Obama's Abortion Stance; Mafia Crackdown; Cell Phone Road Block; IPads Required At School

Aired January 21, 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: Good morning. Ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING, mom and daughter back together for the first time in 23 years. How a stolen baby solved her own crime and got the family reunited.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Getting some fresh air, looking through an iPad and now off to her next stop. A remarkable recovery. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords off to Houston this morning and that's a picture of her getting to see the outside in her hospital bed for the first time.

HOLMES: Also, kids, might be getting another snow day today. Yes, snow, sleet, slush all over the northeast. You're going to have a sloppy commute no matter if you're driving or flying.

CHETRY: Also, the biggest mafia bust in New York City history. All five crime families, more than 100 suspected mobsters including 30 made guys. Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is going to be here to tell us how the Feds were able to take down the mob.

AMERICAN MORNING starts in just a minute. Hope you join us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Right now, Gabrielle Giffords continues her incredible recovery. This morning the congresswoman is getting ready to leave the hospital in Tucson and head to Houston for rehabilitation.

HOLMES: Also this morning, a potential Republican candidate for president says President Obama's stance on abortion is, quote, "remarkable for a black man." Now, that potential candidate is explaining himself.

CHETRY: And kidnapped as an infant, a daughter reunited with her mom, 23, and dad 23 years later. We're going to hear how she solved her own crime in her own words.

HOLMES: Hey there, everybody. Happy Friday to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes. Glad you could join us here for this AMERICAN MORNING.

CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Now the weekend may be coming a little bit early for kids out there in the northeast.

HOLMES: For kids, another snow day.

CHETRY: Yes. Some classes already being canceled across the northeast. We'll get you updated on the weather in just a minute. But first, this story was amazing. We first told you yesterday. Now, we have some pictures of the reunion, a baby stolen when she was just 19 days old back with her family. And this morning for the first time, we're seeing them altogether, mom, dad and daughter. And we're also hearing from Carlina White who was kidnapped from a hospital in New York in 1987. She basically solved her own crime. She never believed that the woman she was with was her mother. She says red flags went off in her teens when the person she called mom wasn't able to produce a birth certificate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLINA WHITE, REUNITED WITH MOTHER AFTER 23 YEARS: You know, I started typing in Yahoo and Google like different articles, like anything that pulled up in 1987 which any child missing. And I came across the article and the baby picture just struck me because even though I didn't see my baby picture when I was that young, looking at it looked like my daughter. So I just kept -- I mean, I stayed on that article for like a good two hours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Amazing. So she got that baby picture. That missing baby looked like her daughter.

HOLMES: Just amazing how somebody could find themselves, if you will, after all those years.

CHETRY: Well, we're going to get a live report, more details. We're going to hear more from Joy, her mother, and also Carlina coming up from Alina Cho.

HOLMES: And we told you, kids might get another snow day. We have another storm system we're dealing with. And I couldn't believe an e-mail I got. I had to do a double take, didn't think I was seeing it correctly when I heard what the temperature was going to be in Minnesota today.

But take a look at the picture. The northeast is the area under the gun right now. Another snowstorm but this is live right outside where we are here in New York, Columbus Circle. Our Jacqui Jeras in the extreme weather center.

Jacqui, I've got the e-mail I think from one of your producers there talking about 42 below.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. That's the temperature in International Fall, Minnesota, right now.

CHETRY: Wow. JERAS: Forty-two below, yes. Wind chill indices all across the upper Midwest, dangerously cold. And you can get frostbite in like 10 minutes when conditions are that cold. So it's really brutal. The northeast having brutal weather as well, not nearly as cold but snow, yes, once again. You're waking up to that, how about that?

The snow is going to be heavy at times. In fact, an inch per hour. It's going to start to taper off as we head through the morning, so that's some good news. The morning commute is going to be really rough and then getting better by the afternoon for you in Philadelphia, New York City. Boston, we could put down a good four to eight inches of snowfall and that's not going to wind down until later in the day for today.

Now, the storm system then is going to be making its way up the coast. The heaviest accumulations will be in northern parts of New England. We could get almost a foot of snow in some of those locations and then that cold air is going to be filtering back behind it.

All right. Are you ready to see it? There it is T.J., 42 below in International Falls. Fifteen below for you in Minneapolis, even Chicago below zero this morning. But the wind chill index like I mentioned as much as 35 below and some of those bigger cities. So dangerously cold and that's going to continue to filter its way off off to the east. Get ready.

CHETRY: Yes. We were wondering at what point is it just so cold it doesn't even matter. Negative 42, negative 11, I mean it's unbelievable.

JERAS: I think the record is like 60 below. 60-ish, maybe 63.

CHETRY: Wow. All right. Stay inside today if you're there. Thanks so much, Jacqui.

HOLMES: Thanks, Jacqui.

CHETRY: Well, a lot can happen, of course, when you're driving on slick roads. Watch to the right of your screen here.

We have a jeep hitting a patch of ice and then hitting the guardrail in Oklahoma City. We're told the driver was not hurt. In fact, he later pushed the jeep back upright and drove off on his own. That's the jeep owner for you.

HOLMES: My goodness. Also, in the Midwest, they got a lot of this stuff first that the northeast is starting to deal with now. Take a look at that. Gorgeous, indeed, but it is a pain to deal with. Kansas City there still digging out. Some areas got up to eight inches of snow.

CHETRY: Well, less than two weeks after surviving a bullet through the brain, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords will arrive in rehab today. She's going to Houston and she's actually doing so well that she was able to get some fresh air and have physical therapy outside yesterday in Tucson. There is the picture. She's standing with her husband. She's in her hospital bed. I'm sorry. He's standing next to her. And she's able to look out over the beautiful mountains of Arizona.

We're also told that she's flipping through an iPad and that with some assistance she is standing on her own. Her husband, meantime, is guaranteeing she'll make a full recovery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK KELLY, REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS' HUSBAND: I'm extremely hopeful that Gabby is going to make a full recovery. I've told her that. She recognizes it. She's a strong person, a fighter. I mean she is a fighter like, you know, nobody else that I know. So, I am extremely confident that she's going to be back here and back at work soon. I've been telling the hospital staff that they should expect to see her walking through these halls and into the ICU within a couple months. I'm sure of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: As optimistic as he sounds, as great as some of the updates have been, the doctors still warning here, she's got a tough road ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. G. MICHAEL LEMOLE, CHIEF OF NEUROSURGERY, UMC: Now the congresswoman continues to do very well neurologically. You've heard everything out there, like, for example, she is beginning to stand with assistance, she's scrolling through an iPad. These are all fantastic advancements forward. They do indicate higher cognitive function. But I do want to caution everyone, that she has a long road ahead of her and rehabilitation will be very important. We've started that process here. We hope to continue that process to -- at the next facility where she visits.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: That's next facility you're seeing it there, Memorial Hermann in Houston, Texas. The family said they looked at several rehab facilities. They chose this one because it specializes in head injuries like the one Giffords' has and also because of its proximity to Tucson as well, not too terribly far away.

Meanwhile, we will have one of our reporters live for us this morning from Tucson with the latest there. And also another one, our Elizabeth Cohen, our medical correspondent. She'll be at the rehab center for us reporting as well this morning.

CHETRY: You may remember this one we told you about. The one letter to Gabrielle Giffords that brought her husband, tough astronaut almost to tears. It was from a nine-year-old boy, Isaac Saldana, from Craycroft Elementary School in Tucson. And it came with a cash donation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK KELLY, GABRIELLE GIFFORDS' HUSBAND: It was like $2.85. So, we're going to -- I sealed it back up. We're going to get his lunch money back to him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's not easy to make an astronaut cry. What do you think about that?

ISAAC SALDANA, DONATED MONEY TO REP. GIFFORD: Surprised. Really, really surprised.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: There's Isaac right there. You know, Mark Kelly wasn't entirely right. It actually wasn't Isaac's lunch money. What he did was he collected a bunch of stuffed animals, put them in his backpack, went to school and sold them because he wanted to be able to raise some money for the congresswoman. He actually got in a bit of trouble for that, but he got a pass when the school found out that it was all for a good cause. A little entrepreneur with a big heart.

HOLMES: They accused him of just pushing toys around the school.

CHETRY: I can give you this bunny for a quarter.

HOLMES: Yes, it was for a good cause. Well, I'm glad they did the right thing there.

Still on the Tucson -- part of the Tucson story here. The president, you may remember, had to cancel a trip, an economic trip he was taking to Schenectady, New York. Well, that trip is back on. He's doing it today. He is actually going to be going to a plant and the birthplace of GE, as you're seeing here. We're going to be talking about the economy, of course, jobs as well. Also while there, he's expected to name the GE CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, to replace Paul Volcker as the head of his panel on economic advisers.

CHETRY: Also new this morning, two veteran police officers in Miami gunned down in the line of duty. Authorities say the detectives were serving a warrant on a murder suspect yesterday when he suddenly opened fire. That suspect was also killed in that shootout.

HOLMES: And the FBI saying it is one of the biggest mob busts ever. Maybe the biggest bust. A hundred and twenty-seven alleged mobsters all rounded up yesterday. They had raids in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Italy, a part of this as well. The charges run from drug racketeering and extortion to gambling and murder. The Justice Department also said some of the crimes they're accused of date back some 30 years.

CHETRY: And Berlusconi must go, at least that's what some of the demonstrators were trying to convey yesterday in Rome. Prosecutors claim that Berlusconi had sex with a teenager and abused his power trying to cover it up. The Vatican says it is watching these protests as well. HOLMES: Also take a look, it is believed to be the largest rocket to ever take off on the West Coast. But there you're seeing it at the Vanderburgh Air Force Base. This happened just yesterday. People as far away as 50 miles said they could hear this thing. It is some 23 stories tall. And there it is, going up into space.

Now, I can't tell you a whole lot about what it's doing because it's said to be carrying some secret spy satellite equipment up in space. So that's all I can give you right now.

CHETRY: What do they say, 23 stories?

HOLMES: Twenty-three stories.

CHETRY: That is a big rocket.

HOLMES: It's the largest on the West Coast ever.

CHETRY: Do a lot of spying with that one.

HOLMES: Coming up here next on this AMERICAN MORNING, Google is getting a new boss. But does that mean a change was necessary because the company is in trouble?

CHETRY: Also, two issues that get people fired up. Of course, abortion and race. Wrapped into one remark by a former senator and possible presidential candidate in 2012. Rick Santorum on why the president's race should influence his view.

HOLMES: Also this morning, maybe the kid has been asking for an iPod -- iPad, you keep saying no? Well, now, the kid has an excuse. It's required at school.

It's 10 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Thirteen minutes past the hour now. It was a parade route. All right. It's a parade that's, of course, like any parade you've ever seen. You've got children going down the street, innocent folks in the community. The FBI is trying to figure out why somebody would put a bomb on a parade route on MLK Day. We're talking about Spokane, Washington. This investigation continues now.

A lot of talk was about neo-Nazi, whether or not they had something to do with this. But the FBI saying so far saying no evidence of that but they are at this point looking into it. Local human rights advocates are suspecting that, but again, that is not the case right now so far as the evidence is showing. The bomb was diffused. Nobody was hurt. It did have a remote detonator attached to it, however, and the FBI says this could have killed several people.

CHETRY: Well, sometimes a hot air balloon has a different plan. And this was the case in Melbourne, Australia, where -- what they were supposed to try to do is land on the beach, then the winds picked up and it forced a splash down in the middle of Port Phillip Bay. None of the 11 people on board the hot air balloon were hurt. But there were no lifejackets in the basket. The balloon company says it will now consider adding them.

Yes, when you're sailing around in the air that close to the water, maybe you need them.

HOLMES: An idea.

I don't know what you do about this situation, though. Take a look at this video. Take a look at this boat. Somebody is on it. They are trying to get home.

Now when I first saw this and maybe you're thinking too, why in the world would they do this? They had another option here. This is down off the coast of New Zealand, actually. The boat had another route it could have gone but it chose to go through these treacherous waters. Why? The guy had been out fishing for a week. They were itching to get home to their wives and to their families, so they took the most dangerous and treacherous route available. They did make it through, but just barely as you see with two boats. Nobody was hurt amazingly.

CHETRY: Wow. If you get seasick, that's not a pretty sight.

A glimmer of good news when it comes to the economy. According to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, which we're seeing for the first time this morning, more Americans are feeling optimistic about the economy. Here's look.

This month, 24 percent of those polled say that the economy is in good shape. That's a - that's a good thing? I guess far less people felt like that last time. Seventy-five percent say they don't think the economic conditions are good right now. But, last year, only 18 percent thought the economy was in good shape and 81 percent thought the economy was poor. So, I guess, some baby steps.

HOLMES: Some baby steps, but a lot of cities and towns, we've been talking about this week, are just in the red. We know this. But now, we got more evidence of it, in Iowa, in particular, and what they've had to cut now, free preschool is the situation there. $1.1 billion budget gap there.

They're trying to make up some of that money. Republicans there said this is a way to do it. It was tough, it's tough for a lot of families, certainly, to deal with, but $500 million is going to be saved over the next three years, but a lot of states and cities trying to figure out what to do. And sometimes programs like that end up having to go, unfortunately.

But those are the ones that have so much money attached to them. You can nickel and dime here and there, but unfortunately programs like that end up getting cut.

CHETRY: Well, with so many states struggling to stop the red ink, especially California, they have a $17.9 billion budget gap, in fact the largest in the country right now. Policy makers in Washington are reportedly meeting behind closed doors to consider whether states should be able to declare bankruptcy.

Proponents say that for some states it is the only way for them to get out from under these crushing debts. Critics, though, say it would impact pensions and, of course, the municipal bond market.

HOLMES: I want to turn to Google now, a big shakeup at the top. The CEO is stepping down, being replaced.

Our Stephanie Elam, "Minding Your Business" this morning, and you hear this initially, Stephanie, you think, well, he must not have been doing a good job, or they must be in some kind of trouble. Not really?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Not really. If you take a look at SEC filing, it's - this is where this news sort of was hidden in there. You take a look, you also see that they reported their earnings, they - fourth quarter earnings, they came in at $8.4 billion, up 26 percent. Sounds like they're doing OK.

HOLMES: They might be doing OK.

ELAM: I think the scope's OK.

HOLMES: Well, so they - they just have a high bar if he wasn't getting it done, right?

ELAM: They really wanted $10 billion.

HOLMES: OK. Maybe that's it.

ELAM: No. I'm just kidding.

But when you take a look at what's going on at Google, you know, they've said for a long time that they've run the company like a triumvirate between the co-founder Sergey Brin and also Larry Page. At this point, Eric Schmidt says, you know, he has some other things he wants to do. In his tweet that he put out about it, he put, quote, "Day-to-day adult supervision is no longer needed," is what he said.

Larry Page will now become CEO. He held that title before and Sergey Brin would no longer be president, but they're saying at this point they want to work on different things and the - to get things approved at the company was taking too long and so, because of that, they feel like they can go ahead, make these changes, things can get through the chain faster, and it's more competitive out there in Silicon Valley. They've had a lot of top Google people leave the company recently, going to competitors, even like Facebook, which is pretty much right across the way there.

So it's - it's really a case of where they're making changes to see how this is going to make it better. As you know, Larry Page, who was CEO before, he is a billionaire, and he makes $1 a year, you know, just ceremonially. I mean, you know -

CHETRY: $1 a year, salary a year (ph).

ELAM: Right, because, you know, you don't really - you don't really need money when a billionaire, and he owns a helicopter and he knows how to fly it.

CHETRY: That's awesome.

ELAM: I think it's at Moffett Field, actually, since - T.J., since (INAUDIBLE).

HOLMES: Yes. It's there, right there.

ELAM: Right there off the highway.

HOLMES: (INAUDIBLE). But again, this doesn't mean they're necessarily in trouble. And, again, they're trying to get back to their roots, in a way. You know, they had - they were "The Little Engine That Could" in the beginning, now they're the big dog and now they're trying to backtrack a little bit.

ELAM: Well, and also, you want to keep that growth going, no matter how much you make.

CHETRY: Right.

ELAM: You don't want to stop growing, right? You want to keep the business moving forward.

Of course, as the days move forward we're probably going to hear more about what exactly was going on with Eric Schmidt, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

CHETRY: Right.

ELAM: You know, people are going to want to know -

CHETRY: There's always a back story.

ELAM: There's always a back story.

CHETRY: But they're also trying to expand in the smartphone market, with the Android very popular. So, moving beyond just -

ELAM: Right. Beyond the search engine.

CHETRY: -- (INAUDIBLE). Right.

ELAM: Right. Exactly. You got to innovate to stay on top, right? So that's what we're seeing.

HOLMES: Stephanie, good to see you this morning.

ELAM: Good to see you, too.

HOLMES: All right. We'll talk to you again.

ELAM: All right.

CHETRY: And still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, the Metrodome's roof has fallen. We know that part. Remember this? We saw when that 17 inches of snow just came rolling through.

But it might actually take a lot longer than they initially expected to get it back up any time soon.

HOLMES: Also, this morning, President Donald Trump? Well, why not?

It's 19 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: They got a lot of snow in Alberta, Canada, so much, in fact, this rink collapsed - the roof, actually, on it did, under the weight of all of this snow. There's a look. I want to see this closer. Yikes. That is a lot of snow.

No one was injured. Crews, though, had to clear the snow after skaters noticed wood splinters on the rink.

HOLMES: Well, in our theme of snow collapsing things, let's turn to the Metrodome. The roof there - and you remember this video. This was back December 11th, that weekend, the weight of the snow after that blizzard there, just collapsed that roof. And you've probably seen these pictures by now. That kind of ruined the last three or so games of the - the Vikings' season there.

Well, now it's threatening to cause a problem for the upcoming season. They're trying to figure out if they can repair this thing or they need to replace it altogether. If they have to replace it altogether, that process is going to take about six months.

CHETRY: Wow.

HOLMES: And they need to have it ready by August. So they need to make up their minds pretty soon what they're going to do.

CHETRY: And this is interesting because when this first happened they said, oh, it's a lot worse than it looks. We just - we just have to replace one of those panels and blow it back up again.

HOLMES: Yes.

CHETRY: And I guess it was a lot more damage than they thought.

HOLMES: Oh, yes.

CHETRY: Well, the Jets fans are gearing up for their Sunday showdown with the Pittsburgh Steelers. They packed Times Square. They had a little playoff pep rally. Yes, they all went out to Times Square, Mayor Mike Bloomberg leading them in the familiar chant "J-E- T-S - Jets, Jets, Jets!" Everyone was decked out in green and white, including the famous Times Square ball, and, of course, we know the Empire State Building as well. The winner of the Jets-Steelers AFC championship game then gets to move on to the Super Bowl. That's going to be a great game. I can't wait.

HOLMES: My goodness, you sound excited -

CHETRY: I'm excited.

HOLMES: -- and your "J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets." That was admirable as well.

The Packers, on the other hand, they didn't necessarily get a celebration like that. This is all they got.

CHETRY: They got great snow.

HOLMES: No. It's Green Bay. It's a smaller area. They don't necessarily have a Times Square they can get everybody together.

But, hey, this is one Green Bay fan. He painted his snow-covered yard in Packer colors. You got the green, you got the gold. Displaying his team spirit. But hey -

CHETRY: We have some yellow snow too around our area, but not for the same reason.

HOLMES: Why is that?

CHETRY: I have a dog.

HOLMES: Oh, I'm sorry.

CHETRY: Well - is that bad to say? Sorry.

Meantime, President Obama's offering a prediction on the NFC title game. He likes, of course, his hometown, the Bears.

HOLMES: Of course he does.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think we've given this to a few papers in Chicago and Wisconsin, the president's prediction that the Bears will win the game 20 to 17.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Twenty to 17. All right. See if he puts money on it.

If the Bears do win, the president says he'll go to Dallas. He'll cheer them on in Super Bowl XLV and he would actually be the first sitting president to do so.

HOLMES: Did you tell the president to put some money on it? You want the president to gamble? Did I hear you right?

CHETRY: I mean it's - it's football. You're - chips. Or put some tokens on it. Tokens.

HOLMES: OK.

Speaking of the president, on a much different note here, a potential presidential candidate is calling out President Obama on the abortion issue and saying he can't believe the president's stance because the president is a black man. We'll explain this, coming up.

CHETRY: A little bit later, trying to disconnect distracted drivers. We're going to tell you about a new technology that actually forces you to hang up when you're behind the wheel if you just can't do it yourself.

Twenty-five minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: We're getting close to the bottom of the hour. Thank you for this shot, WLWT in Cincinnati, Ohio. That's a shot of the Great American Tower at Queens Square, Queens City Square, there in Cincinnati.

It's going to be a bit cold there today, but don't worry, it's going to warm up. Twelve degrees right now. You're going to get up to 17.

CHETRY: Hey, at least they're not getting snow. They're pretty much in the clear.

HOLMES: And it's not 42 below.

CHETRY: Yes. Exactly.

HOLMES: There was that.

CHETRY: Time for us to check our top stories this morning at half past the hour.

There are snow emergencies in towns and cities across the northeast right now. This storm is stretching from New Jersey all the way up to Maine. They say it's going to be over for the mid-morning hours. There will be some - some snow totals, though, piling up in some of these areas. Some places could see several inches before it's all over.

HOLMES: And in a matter of hours Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords will be checking out of the hospital that has cared for her since she was shot. She'll be heading to a rehab facility in Houston.

You're seeing a picture, one of the few we have seen, that they've released, but that's her husband, Mark Kelly, standing on the left of her hospital bed that was rolled outside for her to take a look at the mountains in Arizona and also just to get some fresh air. But her progress continues.

CHETRY: Amazing.

And also, she was taken when just 19 days old, never gave up, though, in trying to find her real family, and she did it and now they're back together. Twenty-three years later, we're hearing from the woman kidnapped from the hospital when she was an infant and how she, herself, found her mother.

HOLMES: Oh, coming up, we need to tell you this now, we've been kind of throwing some people off. That was some shocking, some would say, comments from a former U.S. senator, saying that it is, quote, "Remarkable that a black man," speaking of the president, "would have that stance on the abortion issue." He was linking abortion rights and also the civil rights movement.

You're seeing his picture there. Rick Santorum is who we're talking about.

CHETRY: Yes, he's a former senator and potential challenger to President Obama in 2012 and he's now explaining what he meant.

Jim Acosta is live for us in Washington. Rick Santorum is extremely pro-life and he's made no secret of that, and he's been -- he's been very outspoken about his views on the topic.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And so much for civility in politics, right, Kiran and T.J.?

Former Pennsylvania senator and possible Republican presidential candidate, Rick Santorum, is doubling down on his comments that President Obama's race should somehow make him an opponent of abortion.

Here's how Santorum put it in an interview that was posted on a conservative Web site earlier this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANTORUM (R), FORMER U.S. SENATOR: Is that human life a person under the Constitution? And Barack Obama says no. Well, if that person, human life is not a person, then I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say, "No, we're going to decide who our people and who are not people."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, asked to explain his remarks, Santorum released a statement to CNN and other media outlets defending his comments saying, quote, "I am disappointed that President Obama, who rightfully fights for civil rights, refuses to recognize the civil rights of the unborn in this country."

And then last night, Santorum, who is a contributor to FOX News, again said there's nothing wrong with what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANTORUM: I'm not apologizing. I don't think there's anything to apologize.

I would agree with you that when I use the word "black," all of a sudden, it gives people a reason to say, ah, he's trying to make some sort of racial comment. I was not. I was trying to talk about a historical fact of how the Constitution was interpreted and how it's interpreted today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: So, he's not backing down there. And there is wide speculation that Santorum will run for president. He has already set up a political action committee across the country, and he's hiring staff members in New Hampshire which, as you know guys, is a very key primary state.

HOLMES: Jim, this is actually, a lot of people might be shocked by the comments, but it's not the first time we have heard abortion rights opponents actually link the civil rights issue --

ACOSTA: That's right.

HOLMES: -- to abortion rights. It's not the first necessarily. But how could this affect him down the road?

ACOSTA: You know, you're absolutely right, T.J. He may have not put this in the most artful fashion, but this is something that you hear about in the pro-life movement, the anti-abortion rights movement. That they see the unborn as having civil rights and they see no difference, no distinction between the civil rights of the unborn and the civil rights of minorities, say, across the United States.

And how this plays out in 2012 is kind of interesting because if Rick Santorum gets into the race for the president in 2012, you know, obviously, he's not going to be the frontrunner but he's going to demand a lot of attention. He's got this political action committee set up. So, it's going to be interesting to see how much money he's raising after making these comments and sort of like a Tom Tancredo, how he was on the issue of illegal immigration in the 2008 race, Santorum could sort of pull the other candidates in his direction, or at least try to pull the other candidates in his direction, on the issue of abortion.

So, we'll have to see how all of this plays out. This could have been a calculated move on Santorum's part. We're going to have to see how this plays out in the coming weeks -- guys.

CHETRY: All right. Jim Acosta for us on this topic -- thanks so much.

HOLMES: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: You bet. Sure.

CHETRY: Well, another potential challenger to President Obama could be Donald Trump and his deep pockets. Yesterday on "THE SITUATION ROOM,' sounded like he may want to make a go of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Are you still thinking about running for president of the United States?

DONALD TRUMP, CHAIRMAN & CEO, THE TRUMP ORGANIZATION (via telephone): I'm giving it very serious thought.

BLITZER: When will we know if you're going to be a candidate?

TRUMP: Some time prior to June.

BLITZER: Prior to June. And what's the main point that you're going to be working on, whether or not you think you can win, is that right?

TRUMP: Well, it's all jobs. I mean, it's all jobs.

BLITZER: And just to be precise, you'd run for the Republican presidential nomination, is that right?

TRUMP: I'm a Republican. I'd run as a Republican.

BLITZER: As a Republican. Can you give us a ballpark, how much of your own money you might be willing to invest in a presidential run?

TRUMP: A lot. If I decide to do it, a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Well, Trump also said something has to be done about OPEC, skyrocketing oil prices and he called China our enemy.

HOLMES: Well, "don't ask, don't tell," we are learning just how much that policy costs this country in a monetary way at least. A new study out there says that it cost taxpayers some $193 million, between 2004 and 2009.

Now, how is this possible? Well, it says that on average, that came to almost $53,000 per service member that had to be kicked out because of this policy. Of course, the policy that banned gays serving openly in the military. That was the cost of actually getting them out, the process, and also the cost of training a replacement.

As you know, the president has signed into law a repeal of "don't ask, don't tell."

CHETRY: Coming up, the FBI versus the Mafia. We have details on the dozens of alleged mobsters caught in this large dragnet.

HOLMES: And I can't imagine anybody wanting to do this, but there are some out there who are trying to fix their iPhones on their own. Well, if you're one of them, it just got a little tougher.

It's 35 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Thirty-eight minutes past the hour.

Some of your favorite shows and movies, "Godfather," "Good Fellows," "Sopranos" -- yes, they make mob life look pretty sexy on TV.

CHETRY: Right. Glamorizing the whole thing.

HOLMES: Glamorizing a bit.

CHETRY: Well, the FBI, though, says that they've never actually seen a bust like the one that went down this week.

Jason Carroll joins us now with new details. I mean, the big question, why now? Because some of these crimes they're alleging -- I mean, these went back to the '80s.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They felt they had enough evidence to move at this particular point. So, they went in, ended up being the biggest they've ever seen. I want you to listen to some of these names -- some of the names that we have here.

Those arrested, Tony Bagels, Vinny Carwash, Junior Lollipops, another one was Meatball. They almost sound like they've been pulled from a Hollywood script. They're just four out of some 127 alleged mobsters pulled off the streets and arrested in one of the largest FBI crackdowns of its kind.

Federal and local authorities handcuffed suspects in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Italy. They targeted alleged members from the five largest organized crime families including the Gambinos and entire leadership of the Colombos. Charges included murder, extortion, and drug trafficking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: The reality is, it is an ongoing threat, a major threat, to the economic wellbeing of this country, in addition, to being the violent organization that it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Well, some of these crimes date back to 1981, and include what the Justice Department calls classic mob hits to eliminate rivals. The arrests are based on 16 indictments. One defense expert who has defended crime bosses in the past questions whether or not these charges this time will hold up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARRY SLOTNICK, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I've tried those cases, and I've watched the juries come back and say, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty. It's not an easy case to try.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Well, the U.S. attorney's office is confident the charges will stick in court, and they say they've made a serious dent in organized crime, especially among the new generation of leadership that was coming up through the ranks. You know, it took 800 members of law enforcement to bring all of these guys in. And it was all the way through the ranks, we're talking from the lowest levels, bookkeepers, all the way to some of the leaders of some of these families.

CHETRY: It was also interesting to hear Attorney General Holder put it in economic terms as well. He said, you know, you have $500 million or more going to mob tax essentially, you know, this underground extortion, and that it's actually going to mean more money.

CARROLL: You know, the other thing that's interesting, a lot of people thought, you know, as years had gone by that the mob had sort of gone quiet.

CHETRY: Right.

CARROLL: And this is another example of no, they had not gone quiet. And we had been looking at them and trying to figure this out for some time.

HOLMES: All right. Jason, we appreciate you this morning. We'll talk to you again.

CARROLL: OK.

CHETRY: Well, it has certainly been a week of tributes and reflections, 50 years after President John F. Kennedy's inauguration. And to mark that event, a special ceremony was held at the Kennedy Center in Washington last night.

President Obama spoke briefly, calling Kennedy a visionary leader who made important strides in nuclear disarmament, in space exploration and in civil rights. Adding that because of Kennedy, it was possible for him to become president of the United States.

Still to come: snow in the Northeast, some brutal cold in the Midwest -- Jacqui Jeras is in for Rob this morning with the travel forecast right after the break.

HOLMES: Also coming up, George Clooney is revealing something about his health, a scare. He contracted a disease that kills so many in Africa.

It's 41 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Picture right now, Washington, D.C., nation's capital. Sun is coming up again. A pretty shot this morning. And they're OK. A little bit of wintry weather, a little bit further up north.

HOLMES: OK. They're OK weather-wise.

CHETRY: Right.

HOLMES: Didn't know if you meant by those folks in Washington there.

It's not quite the same picture here in New York City. You see the snow coming down. It's been going at it a bit overnight, got a few inches in some places. People had a tough time getting into the city. But we'll go ahead and transition to the next picture.

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: This is New Haven, Connecticut, 27 degrees, 33 a little bit later, and, boy, that was not fun coming in today. I wasn't all the way up there in New Haven, but coming up from the Northeast, we had about -- we had, it was just a messy commute. It was a lot of slushy snow.

You only had a five-block commute. So, you didn't realize. But it was pretty bad out there.

HOLMES: It was treacherous for me.

CHETRY: Your five-block commute. We had to take it block at a time.

All right. Forty-four minutes past the hour here.

HOLMES: This is probably a good idea. Some of you folks who text and you make the phone calls while you're driving, this might be for you. T-Mobile is trying something out. You could get a new service on your phone that will disable it from ringing or giving you any kind of alert when the phone is moving in the vehicle. You get what we're saying here? So, even if somebody calls you, you won't hear the phone ring.

Instead, it will get taken right to voice mail, or if a text comes through you, you won't get the alert, you'll just get the text and you'll never know until you stop the car. This service will cost you about $5 a month. Other companies might be about to get on board as well.

CHETRY: I can see a lot of parents buying that for their teenagers, right? If I'm paying for the plan, you're not going to use the phone while you're driving.

HOLMES: Give the kids two weeks, they will figure out how to disable it.

CHETRY: Really?

HOLMES: Yes. CHETRY: All right. Textbooks are out, iPads are in, especially at one private school in Tennessee. Next year, the fourth graders through 12th graders at Web School in Knoxville will be required to have an iPad. That's right. Required. And for those who don't, you can lease one for about $20 a month. School officials say they want the tablets to, eventually, replace all textbooks.

HOLMES: All right.

CHETRY: You think that's ridiculous?

HOLMES: I think that's ridiculous. What is wrong with a book these days? The iPad is fine. It's a nice, wonderful gadget, that is really changing the way we do things, but to tell a kid they have to, textbooks are gone? Really? Folks? I mean, apple has such a hold on us.

CHETRY: I know. I mean, that is interesting that there's one company that makes one product that's now becoming required.

HOLMES: Required.

CHETRY: That is interesting. But, you know, it could -- we'll see this change. We'll see it go through some iterations. A lot of people are saying that college textbooks thing of the past. You know how much you spent on those things?

HOLMES: Yes.

CHETRY: I spent 100 -- I got a job just to pay for the textbooks, forget the other stuff. And, now, you can maybe download course material and you don't have to pay for it. That may be a good thing.

HOLMES: My goodness, a fourth grader. All right. We got -- speaking of --another Apple story for you here. They got a hold on us this morning as well, don't they? The new iPhones, some people, OK, we talked about or at least Apple is saying we don't want people to be repairing these on their own. We want it tougher. But really what we're saying here, they don't want people to be able to jailbreak these things, if you know what I mean?

A lot of you all who do it out there know exactly what we're talking about, but they have replaced the more common Phillips head screws with something that's tamperproof, a different type of screw, that makes repairs and the repair tools, rare and expensive, so they're making this just a little more difficult. Some of the tech types out there are upset. Some of them say we want to be able to repair the phone if needed and not have to go to Apple. Apple saying no. We got it.

CHETRY: Yes. They're going to need to come up with the screwdrivers for this new one. They will probably. But in the interest of fairness, we are getting all of our information today on PCs. OK?

HOLMES: I'll take an iPad if you want to send one.

CHETRY: Yes, right. IPads are not yet required here.

Forty-eight minutes past the hour. Let's get a check of the weather headlines this morning. Jacqui Jeras, there was a tale of two commutes this morning. T.J. was laughing because all of us that were coming from the Burbs, it was a little b it messy this morning, and in the city it wasn't bad.

JERAS: No problem. OK. That's good to know. Good report there, guys. You know, the snowfall totals should stay relatively light in the northeast, at least, you know, for you in New York City. You get a little farther up the coast, and then, we're talking about some serious snow. So, this system has intensified as it makes its way up the shore and probably peeking out up here into the Canadian Maritimes.

We're dealing with mostly drier conditions now around Washington, D.C., Philadelphia starting to taper off, and New York City, we think after the morning commute, yes, nice timing for you there, right. It's going to get heavy throughout the day, Providence. Boston could get a good inch an hour out of this snowstorm, and the temperatures are going to stay pretty wickedly cold. And this is the same system, by the way, that brought all the snow across the plains yesterday.

Yes, Glen Carbon, Illinois had 12 inches of snow, Edwardsville about 11.5, and St. Louis had about 9.5 inches of snowfall. What are we going to get out of this one? Maybe three to five out of New York City, four to seven, we think, in the Boston Area, Portland, you're talking about 8 to 14, and we could get a little more as you head into northern parts of Maine. So, it's going to put a good dumping for a few of us. And thankfully, this is a pretty fast-moving system or those numbers would actually be even higher.

Now, the big picture for today then shows you this is a main feature across the east. Showers and thunderstorms across parts of Florida, just south of I-4 Corridor. At this hour, bitter cold arctic air, this is a major arctic plunge for you, folks, across the nation's midsection, and we are talking about temperatures in the double digits, below zero, not to mention the wind chill factor right now. So, it's 42 below in international falls, minus 15 in Minneapolis, check out Chicago, minus 2, and today, you're going to barely recover and just stay into the single digits as you head into the afternoon hours.

Then, arctic air is going to spread eastward, but I don't think it's going to be nearly as cold once it heads towards the East Coast. We're also tracking another big storm system that could impact parts of the northeast and the south by the middle of next week. I know, you don't want to hear another one because travelers don't love it, and today, we're expecting to have some problems in Boston, New York metros, over an hour.

Philadelphia, it should get better into the afternoon as well as the D.C. metros, and then, we'll have some problems across parts of Florida because of those thunderstorms that we've got spring in the south. It's 80 degrees in Miami today. Check out this video that we have for you, guys. Got to warm you up after that cold story. A turtle release. The Miami Sea Aquarium released two green turtles yesterday. They rehabilitated them. One had a hook in the mouth, the other one was hit by a boat. And there they go, back to the sea. Aren't they cute?

CHETRY: So adorable. Good as new. They do such great work there rehabilitating these animals. So, off to the water once again.

JERAS: Love it. They're so adorable.

CHETRY: Sometimes, I wish I was a sea turtle. Eighty degrees.

JERAS: Eighty sounds good today.

CHETRY: Beautiful down in Miami.

HOLMES: I just wish I was down in Miami.

JERAS: They've had some fog, though.

CHETRY: See. It's not perfect everywhere. Jacqui, thanks so much. And by the way, we just got our own little I-report from Christine Romans. She's supposed to be traveling today. She says she's at Newark, and she says I don't see nothing going anywhere. Her flight still officially listed on-time, but when she says that to the gate people, they laugh.

HOLMES: Oh. Poor Christine, Christine -- she's watching, I'm sure. Christine, we hope you make it out of there. We'll check in with her again.

Coming up here this morning, it was the reunion we've been telling you about and all the world is talking about. Now, we have pictures, a reunion, 23 years in the making.

CHETRY: Also, more on the biggest mafia bust in history. All five New York crime families, some suspected made men, all of them swept up. We're going to be speaking with former New York governor, Eliot Spitzer, who tells us whether this will cripple organized crime and how difficult it may be to get a guilty verdict in many of these cases. Fifty-one minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: We're getting close to the top of the hour here. We have just gotten some news from George Clooney, the actor talking about malaria. He says he got it, twice, and he's telling our Piers Morgan about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERS MORGAN, CNN HOST: George, I was going to start this final segment with you by asking about the glory of being George Clooney, but you've just told me that you've got a bout of malaria. Doesn't sound that great? GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR: Well, you know, even with malaria, it's just good fun.

(LAUGHTER)

MORGAN: I mean, you're looking slightly overheated now. I thought it was down to me, but it turns out it's actually this -- I mean, you do get malaria quite regularly, do you?

CLOONEY: No. I've had it twice. This is just -- I just, you know, some -- I guess the mosquito in Juba looked at me and thought I was the bar.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Talking about the mosquito in Juba, Sudan, of course. He's done some work there, but a couple of bouts with it. Smile on his face. Clearly, he's doing OK and recovering from it, but dealing with a bout of it. But, George Clooney, you can see that full interview with our Piers Morgan 9 o'clock eastern right here on CNN.

CHETRY: Yes. And it's amazing, I mean, he took in ten days, he was laid up for ten days, getting better because of it. I mean, didn't malaria takes the lives of thousands of people each and every day, and you know, we're lucky in this country that we have treatments. But, yes, no joke. George Clooney, putting his money where his mouth is. It really went there and dealt with the consequences. We look forward to watching that tonight. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES (voice-over): Good morning. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is about to leave the hospital in just a matter of hours. She'll make her way to a rehab center.

Also, an emotional reunion 23 years in the making. You will see it and hear from the family this morning on this AMERICAN MORNING.

HOLMES: Good morning to you all. A beautiful shot in New York City.

CHETRY (voice-over): See, there's the snow.

HOLMES: Central park in the background. The snow is coming down. Columbus Circle right outside where we are here at the time Warner Center in Manhattan. It is going to look like that for several places today, some worse than others. Schools are being closed right now. Travel is going to be a problem for you if you're on the road or you're trying to get into the skies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)