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American Morning
Accused Kidnapper in Custody; Fergie Scores Royal Invite; Fire And Gas Evacuation; The End of Cursive Writing; Fire Now Out, Gas Shut Off
Aired January 24, 2011 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everybody. Top of the hour here on this January the 24th. Glad you could be with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm T.J. Holmes.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. We have a lot of top stories to tell you about. First though, the woman who was accused posing as a nurse and stealing an infant from her mother 23 years ago. Today that suspect will be in court facing federal kidnapping charges.
HOLMES: Also, parents out there, how would you feel if your child came home with a report card showing you the child's grades, but also your grade? Yes. Teachers are grading you on how well you parent. We'll tell you what state is proposing this, and why some states, it's a pretty good idea, and other states, this is the dumbest thing they've ever heard.
CHETRY: And it seems like the airlines have found another way to nickel and dime you. Hold on to your wallet. There's still room for more fees. We're going to break down some of the new charges that you could see when you take to the skies in the near future.
HOLMES: Also, a lot of people stayed up to watch the final four of football last night. . One quarterback is getting criticized for quitting on his team. We'll show you the tweets that question his toughness, coming up.
CHETRY: We start, though, with new developments in a story that had everyone talking last week, an accused kidnapper under arrest and due in court later today.
HOLMES: She's suspected of snatching Carlina White back in 1987 from a hospital and then raising the child on her own. You're seeing a video, a picture there of the actual suspect.
Our Susan Candiotti is following the story for us.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you.
You know, that baby was only 19 days old when she was stolen from that hospital. CNN broke the news of Ann Pettway's surrender to the FBI on Sunday. She'll face a federal judge on kidnapping charges today.
Whether she is cooperating, we don't know. What is clear is that the search for her picked up steam Saturday when an employee at a pawnshop recognized her from media reports. She showed up in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to try to pawn some jewelry. She didn't like the price she was offered and left after just a few minutes. Cops were called to the store and police told me how they confirmed it was really.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DET. KEITH BRYANT, BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT POLICE DEPT.: They were able to obtain some video of surveillance from the store and they -- based on what they observed and what the photographs that we had of her -- they confirmed the fact that it was her in question.
CANDIOTTI: And she came in by herself?
BRYANT: She came in by herself, yes. And she turned around and she left, you know, on foot. The clerk advised the detectives that he didn't observe her get into a car. You know, he immediately jumped on the telephone and called the police department and made him aware of his sightings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: Now, we don't know what happened in between, but the next day, Sunday, yesterday, Pettway then turned herself in to the FBI.
CHETRY: And some -- and she did actually this by reaching out through Facebook. This is bizarre as well.
CANDIOTTI: Yes. We learned from a law enforcement source she reached out to police on the Bridgeport Facebook page and then turned herself into the FBI.
HOLMES: And any reaction just yet from the real family or the fake family to the surrender?
CANDIOTTI: Well, not yet. Of course, we've been reaching out to them. Perhaps, they'll be in court today. And we can talk to them as well. But we do that the birth mother has said that she'd really like to get some answers from the woman who is accused now of stealing her baby.
Maybe, now, she'll get some answers.
CHETRY: Right. All right. Susan Candiotti, I know you've been following it and you'll keep us up-to-date on this. Thanks so much.
CANDIOTTI: You bet.
HOLMES: Thanks, Susan.
Well, I'll take you to a Wal-Mart where two people were killed. This is just outside of Seattle, about 15 miles outside of Seattle. Two people killed after police were called because a man was acting strangely there. They got there, tried to question him, he turns around and opens fire. Two sheriff's deputies were injured here as well and another young woman was killed in the parking lot that police right now believe was tied to the suspect.
CHETRY: Police in Detroit say that a gunman walked into their precinct and started shooting. In all, four officers were hit. Everyone is expected to survive. The suspect, though, was eventually shot and killed. A female officer was shot in the chest. She was saved, though, from injury by a bullet proof vest. The city's police chief says it's time to start reevaluating security for Detroit police.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RALPH L. GODBEE, JR., DETROIT CHIEF OF POLICE: light of what happened in Tucson, Arizona, obviously, with Congresswoman Giffords and with this incident, of course, we have to take a step back and reassess security procedure at each one of our facilities. We want to still maintain a community policing format. We want to engage our public. But by the same token, incidents like this are very sobering.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: The worse injury, a police commander shot in the back. He had surgery and his prognosis at this point is good.
HOLMES: Well, the famed fitness guru Jack Lalanne is dead at the age of 96, died of respiratory failure due to pneumonia. According to his agent, this is a man who many of you will know from so many stunts he pulled, if you will, throughout his life. Even in his later years, at one point doing 1,000 push-ups in 20 minutes. He even slammed the link of the Golden Gate Bridge at point and he did all of these stunts even to his later years.
He was the founder of the modern fitness movement, and was talking about getting America moving and eating right before everybody got into working out and eating right. But, Jack Lalanne, 96 years old.
CHETRY: Yes. They start -- they say that he started the fitness craze when doctors were telling people not lifting weights was actually bad for your heart. I mean, that's how much things have changed.
HOLMES: But he was the one that started it all. He was in great shape even into his 90s.
CHETRY: Yes. He said the worse thing you can for your body is to not use it. And he lived that everyday.
Well, meantime, 94-year-old Zsa Zsa Gabor is back home this morning, a week after having her right leg amputated. Her husband has putting their 28-room Bel Air mansion up for sale to help pay Zsa Zsa's medical bills. The home once belonged to Elvis Presley.
HOLMES: And the State of the Union address tomorrow is going to kind of resemble maybe a middle school assembly. Everybody is trying to figure out who are the cool kids you need to sit next to. But some call this really a matter of the odd couple meeting, the dating game.
We got at least 50 members of the House and Senate now onboard with this idea of trying to promote more civility by doing a simple bipartisan gesture of Democrats and Republicans sitting together. You're just seeing a few of the faces there who have decided that they've got a date for tomorrow night.
How about Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin and Illinois Republican Mark Kirk? Don't they make a cute couple?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: My new Senate Republican colleague from Illinois, Mark Kirk, and I are going to sit together. I'm bringing the popcorn. He's bringing a coke with two straws. We are just kidding, of course.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: That's so cute the way they're talking.
It's -- 72 percent of Americans at least on the latest CNN/Opinion Research Poll do favor this type of seating arrangement.
CHETRY: Although, the folks on Twitter this morning are saying, that's all fine and good, but actually, work together to get something done, too. How about that?
Well, the next stop, Dallas for the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. They have a date in the big "D," Detroit for Super Bowl 45. It's on February, it's 9th, right? February 9th.
HOLMES: Which Sunday, is it 6th or 9th?
CHETRY: The 6th?
HOLMES: Yes, the 6th?
CHETRY: Man, time flies.
Well, the Packers punch their Super Bowl ticket with 21-14 over bitter rivals, the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship. And as for the Steelers, the Jets didn't look like they showed up for the first half of the game. They build a big lead and even though the Jets had a big comeback in the second half, it was not enough. And the Steelers held on 24-19 for the victory and for the AFC title.
I'm checking the calendar, just making sure.
HOLMES: Just making sure we got the date right. Nobody is going to miss, though.
We'll get back to the Bears here now. Maybe they would have a better chance if their star quarterback was in the game. That's Jay Cutler there limping off. He didn't play most of the third quarter. He didn't play the fourth quarter at all because of a knee injury.
But, now, a lot of people, and as of those people, I mean, some out in the media, but also some players, NFL players, are questioning his toughness. They said, hey, this is a shot at the Super Bowl on the line and you're not even getting in the game.
Well, one of those criticizing was Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew, said, quote, "When the going gets tough, quit. All I'm saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee. I played the whole season on one."
Here's another tweet for you coming to us from the Cardinals' defense end, Darnell Dockett saying, "If I'm on Chicago's team, Jay Cutler has to wait until me and the team is out of the shower, get dressed and leave before he comes in the locker room."
Again, these are attacks people questioning his toughness. But what do you do? Nobody knows what's going on with that man's body, but him and certainly, I don't know if it's right to question his heart in that big game.
CHETRY: Yes. I mean, I'm sure they're already just very depressed because of the loss and because of the fans saying, quite unhappy, though.
HOLMES: Yes.
CHETRY: So, poor guy.
All right. Well, the camera never blinks, what about Jets quarterback, Mark Sanchez? What a yucky was he doing? There you see it. It looks like picked his nose and then proceeded to use his teammate as a Kleenex. Yes, that was backup quarterback Mark Brunell's jacket. Brunell knew what hit him.
HOLMES: Backup quarterback is kind of a junk job sometimes.
CHETRY: Come on.
HOLMES: It is.
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: Hey, it comes with the job sometimes. Be a star and you won't get that.
Let's turn now, a lot of things we're seeing out of D.C. this morning. It's going to cause a problem. A live picture out a water main break. Do we still have that picture up? I do believe, and there it is.
This might not look so bad. Two vehicles involved there in this car accident, we understand. I believe there was an injury, I believe, involved.
But this is actually shutting down the inner loop. This is in Maryland in particular. But the loop is a big deal on a rush hour. But this -- what looks like a minor deal is going to turn out to be a big deal for a lot of people trying to get to work.
CHETRY: They say the water is actually freezing on the highway because it's so cold there as well, that it's actually running on to the Beltway and freezing there. This is in Prince George's County. So, I guess you are happy at a couple of the high schools in the area. They're on two-hour delay because of the water main break.
HOLMES: But again --
CHETRY: On top of snow days and everything else.
HOLMES: They got to make them up somewhere.
CHETRY: Yes.
HOLMES: We'll see.
CHETRY: Amazing video to show you out of Ontario. A car with a dash-cam captured this shot. A tractor trailer, check out the left side of the screen, crashing through the guard rail, losing control, dumping 30 tons of sand. Happened on a Friday morning.
Several other vehicles were involved. No one was hurt, though. The truck driver, though, is blaming the accident on poor driving. There you see him just barely missing another big rig as he slams through that guard rail. He's actually been charged with reckless driving.
Let's check in with Rob Marciano. He's keeping an eye on the weather for us. And we're expecting some more stormy weather is making its way South and then up the East Coast.
Hey, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys.
Sub-freezing temperatures are the big story, along with the Beltway water main issue. Nineteen degrees in D.C. right now. So, that's enough to freeze water on road in a hurry. So, issues there. And then temperatures really drop off the table as you go a little bit further to the north.
Thirteen below right now in Syracuse, New York. It's minus two in Boston. But you factor in the wind and the wind chills are frightening. Minus 27 in Syracuse. It's 21 degrees below in Albany and Boston. And eight degrees below zero is what it feels like now with the wind in New York City. So, you know, cover up the skin as you head out the door today. It's certainly dangerously cold in those spots.
A little bit of moisture heading into that cold, but very dry air. And this is not really going to amount a whole lot. So, I'm not too much worried about that. What I'm more concerned is what's developing across parts of the South. And heavy rain will be falling across the upper Texas coastline into southwest Louisiana today, and this will be developing into a major rain and then snowstorm for parts of the Southeast and eventually the Northeast as well.
Another shot, believe it or not, of cold air dropping in from Canada after a brief warm-up yesterday and today across the Upper Midwest.
We'll talk more about -- we'll try to give you some details of what this thing is going to do across the Northeast -- rain, sleet, or snow, maybe all of them come (INAUDIBLE) Thursday.
CHETRY: Nice grab bag. All right. Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right, guys.
HOLMES: Well, he is a high-profile Republican who supported Senator Obama in the last presidential election. But this time around, he's not so sure if he's going to support him again.
Eleven minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Fourteen minutes past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
As you know, the president has got a big day tomorrow night. The State of the Union is coming up. This is his second since taking office.
And we are getting an idea of what he's going to be talking about. You could probably guess anyway. But his focus is going pretty to be all about jobs and the economy, and dedicating his next two years in office to getting this country back to work again. You can also expect him to focus on unity and civility as well.
Again, it's 9:00 Eastern Time. Of course, you can catch it right here on CNN.
CHETRY: Well, among those who will be watching the president's speech closely is retired general and former secretary of state, Colin Powell. He was a major Obama supporter in 2008, crossing party lines. But Powell tells CNN that he's not ready to back the president or anyone else for that matter in 2012.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, FMR. U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I will always vote as I have throughout my life for the person I think is best qualified to be president of the United States. And I don't adhere to a single party line. So, I'm not committed to Barack Obama. I'm not committed to a Republican candidate. I will see who emerges. Right now, I do not see on the Republican side any one individual who I think is going to emerge at the top of the pile.
So, it is going to be an interesting 2011 and very interesting early 2012 as the primaries begin and they separate themselves. But I am not committed to any candidate until I see all the candidates and finally see who the two candidates are who are going for this position.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Powell says the president has addressed some campaign promises but that he still has a way to go.
HOLMES: Will the person going head to head with President Obama in the election be Mitt Romney? Well, if you believe this latest poll out of New Hampshire, he would be. Former Massachusetts governor won the New Hampshire Republican Party straw poll. He came in at 35 percent. Behind him, Congressman Ron Paul, then Minnesota governor, Tim Pawlenty at 8 percent, Sarah Palin at 7 percent, and then, Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann who's starting to make some noise and get some attention at 5 percent.
CHETRY: And what about former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani, 2008 presidential candidate as well. He talked about his presidential ambitions. His interview will see only on "Piers Morgan Tonight." Giuliani says that he's more likely to run in 2012 if Sarah Palin makes a bid.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PIERS MORGAN, CNN HOST: Would you be more tempted to run if she wasn't?
RUDY GIULIANI, (R) FMR. NEW YORK MAYOR: maybe the opposite.
MORGAN: Really?
GIULIANI: Yes. Maybe the opposite because, you know, my one chance if I have a chance is that I'm considered a moderate Republican.
MORGAN: Yes.
GIULIANI: So, the more Republicans in which I can show a contrast, probably, the better chance I have.
MORGAN: You become the acceptable face of the Republican Party.
GIULIANI: I don't know if I'm acceptable, but the question is way I got elected the mayor of New York City was not being acceptable. It might my slogan was, you can't do any worse.
(LAUGHTER)
GIULIANI: Things are so bad, you need me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: You can see more -- oh, go ahead.
CHETRY: No, I just thought that was funny. That's a great slogan. Can't get any worse, pick me.
HOLMES: Well, we'll see what else he has to say about his ambitions in 2012. You can see more of Piers Morgan interview with former New York mayor tonight 9 o'clock eastern right here on "Piers Morgan Tonight."
CHETRY: Well, more trouble for "Skins." Advertisers are jumping ship right and left on this new MTV show that some critics say is basically child porn. Another company yanking its commercials.
HOLMES: Also, she was considered a royal outcast, but can Fergie now check her mail to see if an invitation to the royal wedding is going to arrive? It's 18 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-one minutes past the hour right now. "Morning Talker" time. She has been persona non grata, I guess, since divorcing her prince in 1996. So, they still live together. It's an interesting little dynamic there. But Sarah Ferguson, the duchess of York is invited to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Royal insiders say William insisted that Fergy be invited. She'll accompany her two princess daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, to the April 29th wedding. Fergie won't be welcomed, though, to a dinner dance hosted by Charles, Prince Charles in Buckingham Palace following the ceremony.
HOLMES: You know, that's nice of Prince William, though.
CHETRY: It's interesting that his dad is not going to invite her to the after party.
HOLMES: Well, she gets go to the wedding. That's a big deal for her because she pulled some weird stuff there for little while.
Also, Donald Trump is going to be a granddad for the third time I believe it is, but his daughter, Ivanka Trump, she has announced she is pregnant expecting her first with her husband, Jared Kushner. Again, Donald, this will be his third grandchild. Congratulations to that.
CHETRY: Well, Wrigley is the third major sponsor jumping ship now on "Skins," the controversial MTV show. First told you about this last week. Well, the Parents Television Council wants the government to investigate the show for exploitation and child porn. Wrigley's says that they're suspending advertising because "Skins," quote, "It was never our intent to endorse content that could offend consumers." Taco Bell also pulled its ad last week, and GM puts "Skins" on its do- not-buy list. HOLMES: There is a thing out there that says you don't bring a knife to a gun fight. But in this case, don't bring a knife to a hammer fight. This happened with a clerk at a convenience store, listen to him describe what happened when somebody tried to rob him with a knife.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLEN ZIRBE, HIT WOULD-BE ROBBER WITH HAMMER: I got a knife and I want your money out of the cash register. And I said what did you say? He repeated it. The third time he repeated it, I hit him in the head with a hammer. I expected him to drop, but he didn't. He must have head -- I hope he's got a headache.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now, the suspect is still out there on the loose when all you have to do, I would assume, is find the guy with the big bruise on his head. Now, according to the clerk here, he said he did not hit him with the head of the hammer. You see how he's holding it there. He hit him with the handle of the hammer.
CHETRY: See, that's he -- would have caught him if hit him with the other end.
HOLMES: Yes. That's a different story.
CHETRY: Well, this video has a lot of people talking this morning. Animal lovers says this is ridiculous, shouldn't this, extreme sports with your pet. But it's an iReport that was sent in of tandem paragliding, this woman and her fiance over Hawaii, but you take a closer look. They're not the only one on there. Yes, they have their dog strapped to the bottom of their tandem paraglide equipment there.
She says that she goes paragliding everyday and wanted to include the dog so they had a special harness made just for the dog. Now, the dog doesn't look too thrilled there, but there are some video when he's back on solid ground. His tail is wagging like crazy.
HOLMES: He's pretty excited.
CHETRY: Yes.
HOLMES: Maybe he enjoyed it, maybe not. Family, pets, he's part of the family, taking along as well. You take your kids along, right, when you fly. New airline fees having to do with your carry-on and your kid. Christine Romans is going to explain this next. It's 24 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Breaking news right now. You're looking at video from Fairport Harbor in Ohio. This is about 30 miles outside of Cleveland where right now they have told this entire village of Fairport Harbor to evacuate because of, perhaps, a gas explosion of some sort. They say there've been multiple structure fires and a severe smell of gas in the area, and they are trying to get people out.
HOLMES: And again, this is suddenly odd. They confirmed at least five different homes there are on fire and no one has a good idea of why if more can add up on fire, but if they have to evacuate the area, we're talking about 3,000 people who might have to leave the area. We do not have word of injuries, necessarily. But we're also told that all 17 fire departments in this particular county have been called out and are on the scene now to try to deal with whatever they're dealing with, and they're not quite sure yet.
They have a suspected gas leak, but something is causing this. And you certainly talking about a very dangerous situation. The one we saw in California several months ago where essentially a whole neighborhood was leveled because of a gas leak and explosion there, but now, we're talking about what sounds like, again, we don't know for sure, but this is the only suspected thing. It's possibly a gas leak, but at least five homes on fire in the area. Something is going on there.
CHETRY: Yes. And apparently, they're trying to evacuate a senior center as well. The temperatures are quite cold in the single digits, in some cases, and maybe in the low teens there, but we'll keep our eye out for what's going on in Fairport Harbor outside of Cleveland this morning.
Meantime, Christine Romans is here of "Minding Your Business." Another Monday, another week, another airline fee. What is it at this time?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hold on to your wallet when you hold on to your baby on the airplane. No, look, there's a really interesting list from America watchdog of the new fees you could see in 2011. And top on this list, right now, if you have a child under 2, you know, you can take that baby onto the plane, it sits on your lap. Everyone is happy. They'll pay anything. Well, imagine checking the baby like you check a bag fee, right?
You bring the baby on your lap and maybe you have to pay something. This is among the things that these particular group things could be the airline fees that are next. An infant fee of charge to hold the baby. Ryan Air already does this in Europe, 30 bucks each way to take the baby. How about an in-person check in fee? If you don't check in with your hand held device before you get to the airport, you do it at the airport, maybe a fee for that.
How about a credit card fee, a fee for actually using the credit card to make the purchase? This is also something that some European airlines are already doing or internet convenience fee so if you don't get the check in free or the credit card fee, you get an internet convenience fee. How about a checked bag fee that's not just $15 or $25, but $15, and then, another fee on top of that for how many pounds it is, paying for the weight of your bag? These are all things that could be coming to an airline near you.
Although, I will say, in fairness, to the airlines, so far, they're been pretty good about checking all the baby gear and not charging you, at least, in my personal flight experience, but we'll see what could become. The whole problem you guys is rising fuel prices. Fuel costs around -- the cost of all kinds of commodities are up. And you're probably going to see a lot of different ways the companies are going to try to recoup this, either fees on the one hand or you could see higher food prices.
The CRB Index of some 19 commodities, everyone things from coffee to cocoa to soybean oil, to heating oil, all of these are going up pretty sharply, up 23 percent since August. You look at sugar prices, guys, they are up 90 percent in the past six months. Wheat prices are up 95 percent in the last six months, oil prices up 20 percent in the last six months. All of this means that food companies, restaurants, airlines, everyone trying to figure out at what point they can pass these prices on to the consumer.
So far the restaurants haven't been able to do it because we are so picky after the recession. We're very price sensitive as consumers and they're been trying to absorb it. But bottom line takeaway for you is as you prepare your family budget I think you can count on spending more for a lot of things you are using every day.
CHETRY: I have noticed food prices going up.
ROMANS: There is no way they can absorb wheat prices going up 95 percent. And this is going to be a story you're going to see on the front page of newspapers around the world because this becomes a food security issue especially for poor countries. You are going to be talking about food prices and food shocks I think.
HOLMES: You gave us some good news about the employment situation this year but now we have some other things we need to worry about as well.
CHETRY: People are starting to feel it. You need a job to afford the sugar.
ROMANS: There you go.
CHETRY: Drink your coffee black, half a cup.
HOLMES: Thanks, Christine.
At the bottom of the hour on this "AMERICAN MORNING" we are keeping our eye on a weather situation, a couple of stops to tell you about. One is going to be hitting the south, the other in the northeast. In places it will feel like below zero. This is dangerous weather, and two deaths are reportedly linked to this weather. Again, the south could be seeing another storm that could bring more snow.
CHETRY: A car chase ending with a Utah state trooper punching a driver in the head, a 58-year-old woman. The driver is now under investigation. He broke the driver's side window and hit her five times. Police say the woman was speeding. Video shows they had to ram the car to stop her and she refused to open the window.
HOLMES: It was the story everybody is talking about last week. There is an update. The fake mom is in custody. We told you the story of Carlina White who was taken in 1987 at 19 days old. She was able to link up with her real family. Now her fake mom, Ann Pettway, is in custody. She will be in court today to face charges.
CHETRY: Also, Tucson shooting suspect Jared Loughner will be in federal court in Phoenix this afternoon for his arraignment hearing. So far he has only been charged including murder. So far he's only been formerly charged with three counts of attempted murder.
HOLMES: And meanwhile the congresswoman he is accused of shooting, Gabrielle Giffords, we saw her transferred last week from Tucson where she had been the hospital over to Houston were she will do rehab. But doctors will not let her do that rehab full time just yet.
CHETRY: She is still in the ICU this morning. Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us. She was in Houston for the arrival of the congresswoman and now you're back in Atlanta. So she is still in intensive care they say because of this fluid on the brain. What's the situation?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Let me actually show you what that looks like. All of us have some amount of fluid in our brain. That' normal. But when you have an injury like she had, the fluid can build up. Do you see that pink? That is actually swelling, and it puts pressure on the brain, and that is not a good thing. So she has a drain that comes out of her brain to outside the body to drain the fluid. As long as she has the drain in her head she can't get out of the ICU. She can't do full rehab until that drain comes out.
HOLMES: Elizabeth, there were so many little tidbits and updates about something new she was doing. What is she able to do these days?
COHEN: They are surprised at her strength on her left side. Let's listen to one of her doctors named Gerard Francisco.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. GERARD FRANCISCO, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, MEMORIAL HERMANN: At one point her leg was dangling from the bed and we asked her to bring her leg up. After a couple of seconds she brought her left leg up without any further delay.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: The fact she could lift the leg up was surprising to them. She doesn't have the strength to stand on her own. She also cannot quite speak.
CHETRY: When she does get into the rehab full time, the rigorous rehab, how long do they estimate the road to recovery is?
COHEN: They estimate that road to recovery is four to six months. That is an estimate. It could be shorter. It could be longer. I have spoken to people who have injuries similar to the congresswoman, and they say it has gone on for years and years. Every month they do rehab and physical therapy and it gets better and better all the time.
CHETRY: All right, Elizabeth Cohen for us, certainly everyone is wishing her the best hoping she makes progress. Thanks so much.
HOLMES: And meanwhile her husband Mark Kelly, the astronaut who has been by her side during this recovery, he wants to stay by her side, even if that means giving up a coveted spot at the State of the Union address. He was invited to sit next to the first lady in her box. You are used to seeing so many people sitting there. He says he would like to stay by his wife's side during this recovery and rehab and he will not make it there.
Meanwhile, someone who will make it -- the intern, Daniel Hernandez. He is the one holding her hand as Gabrielle Giffords was leaving the scene. He applied pressure to the wound and a lot of people are giving him credit for keeping her alive until the paramedics got there. We have confirmed that he, in fact, has been invited to the State of the Union, and he'll be sitting in the first lady's box.
CHETRY: So how about the big controversy after the "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom." Amy Chua saying Chinese moms know a thing or two when it comes to raising children to be smarter. We had a chance to talk to some children who were raised by their Asian parents about how it shapes them and whether or not it is the best way to parent. So Alina Cho is going to share of that with us.
HOLMES: Also this morning, you are used to your child showing up at home with a report card. What if the child brings home a report card for you? Yes. One state is proposing the parents get a grade. Is it a good idea? The pros and cons are coming up next. It is 36 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: We have an update right now on the breaking news this morning out of Ohio. Fairport Harbor, the village, they were worried about needing to evacuate 3,000 people because of multiple fires and the severe smell of gas. One of our producers spoke to the Lake County sheriff there, and they all fires are believed to have been put out and that the officials have been able to turn off the gas to the village.
Again, still no reports of injuries, but not any clear pictures as to what caused those fires and that gas smell in the first place. T.J.?
HOLMES: All right, Kiran, thank you.
Parents, listen up to this. Your kid comes home with a report card and maybe they get all A's, but you as a parent, maybe you are just satisfactory. Yes, it's possible. Florida has introduced a bill now, legislation, that would actually require the teachers grade the parents. What do "Perry's Principles" say about this? Joining us Steve Perry, CNN education contributor and founder of the Capital Prep Magnet School. I know you are loving this one this morning, Steve. Let's go back to the basic premise here. How much of what happens with a child outside of the classroom has an impact on their performance in the classroom?
STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR: What we know is that what happens in the classroom is what impacts the child's learning. Now, would it be nice if more parents knew more about how to help their children? Of course. But there is nothing in any teacher's training that would put them in a position to be able to effectively judge the parenting of one of their student's parents. So why would we even consider that?
HOLMES: Because at what in Florida they say they are trying to do is get an assessment, if something is not going right at home that correlates with what is happening with the grades in the classroom. Thereby they can make a better assessment and help that child in some way.
PERRY: They are not trying to do that. What they are trying to do is create more of a stir. What they are trying to do is create more of a cleavage between parents who already feel like they should be coming into school and those who already come in and are made to feel like they shouldn't be there.
If this legislator had the least bit of interest in engaging parents, what she would do is form an opportunity for parents and teachers to come together, not grade them. If getting a bad grade was impetus for people doing things right I would have an entire school of kids getting A's.
HOLMES: Let me put up on screen and give the audience an idea of what we're talking about here, the kinds of things they want to grade the parents on. The parents are not going to get sent to study hall. The parents communication, child's attendance, child's homework and test prep, child's physical preparation for school, those types of things.
And again, the legislator -- you don't think the legislator is interested, necessarily, but they are trying to do something that can maybe help them help the child.
I know you are not a big advocate of anything other than an excellent teacher, but sometimes other people think, Steve, what happens outside the classroom, whether the child is well fed, whether they go to sleep on time, things like that affect what is happening in the classroom.
PERRY: T.J., I am a big proponent of solid proponent. In fact, anybody who is not taking care of your kids, I hope you have a horrible day, I hope your car doesn't stop. I hope you have to go out into the freezing cold like I do.
But that doesn't change the fact that I am hired to train teachers to educate children. That's what we do. That's our job. And if it is too hard for you, find another job. We have the responsibility to make sure that we educate parents to the ways in which they can be more helpful to their children, but not to grade them.
HOLMES: Wait a minute --
PERRY: Hold on. We have parents who are immigrants who don't necessarily feel it is their responsibility to come into a school, because in their minds, the countries from which they come, the school got it. The schools are responsible. Is their children supposed to send home a bad grade for their parents?
HOLMES: I say what you're saying, but even if at school, isn't part of your success is you know what is going on in your kid's life outside of the classroom and you can help the child better the situation? That is what they seem to be trying to do in Florida.
PERRY: No, that's not what they're trying to do. What they are trying to get you and I on television talking about something that has nothing to do with teaching and learning.
If they want to improve what is going on in the classroom, put more effective teachers in the classroom. If you want to improve what's going on inside the school, put better principals inside the schools. Do what we know works. Design schools that are more likely to be successful than to sit here and waste our time having conversations about people who are not necessarily the biggest impact.
HOLMES: Parents are not the biggest impact?
PERRY: Hear my point. Parents are important. But if your child gets a D on a test, is it your fault?
HOLMES: Maybe you didn't get them up and studying like they should have been. Maybe they didn't get in bed on time, get a breakfast, possibly, yes, it is the parents' fault.
PERRY: No. Where we are not taking real thought in this is we are not looking at the fact that different children learn differently. And if I am going to be held responsible for my child learning chemistry and I can't teach my child chemistry, then what am I paying the teacher to do?
HOLMES: All right, Steve, we can't finish it. I have to call you after the who again.
(LAUGHTER)
I have to get out of your office. Steve, good to see you, as always.
PERRY: Get out before I make you stand up like I do everybody else that's in trouble.
HOLMES: Kiran, please take this away. CHETRY: Right, you don't consider that punishment?
(LAUGHTER)
Well, bitter cold in the northeast, heavy rain in the southeast, and weather on the move. Our Rob Marciano tells us what we can expect coming up in the middle of the week.
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CHETRY: We have some breaking news right now happening in St. Petersburg, Florida, where a local affiliate is reporting police officers shot. They say that they are now investigating what happened on the city's south side that one and possibly two police officers may have been shot or have been shot actually and that crews have now surrounded a house in an area where they believe the suspects could actually be hiding out in the attic.
Again, this is breaking news so we're not getting many details right now. But we do know that they are now looking for a suspect that shot one and perhaps two police officers in St. Petersburg, Florida.
HOLMES: Well, we want to turn from that breaking news to give you an update on another breaking story we are watching this morning. This is out of Ohio, just about 30 miles outside of Cleveland, where an entire neighborhood, authorities were thinking about the possibility of evacuating some 3,000 people.
This is the bottom of your screen, ignore that part of it, there you go. Take that down, that's a different story we will get to in a second. But this one has to do with what they thought was a gas leak in a neighborhood that some kind of sparked at least five fires at five different homes in that area.
They do have the gas shut off at this point. But again, the police department or fire department was called out, 17 fire departments all together, that's all of them in the county, there for the possibility of evacuating.
We don't have word of any injuries there. There was the smell of gas reported in the area as well. But they had the gas out, but still they may be trying to evacuate some 3,000 people because of this gas leak.
And things are just going from bad to worse in Washington, D.C. The inner loop of the Beltway and a lot of the morning commute snarled up because of this. A water main break ended up shutting down the inner loop in -- in Maryland, Prince Georgia's county. And there are now a lot of traffic problems because of this.
They say the Beltway is closed between exit 15 and exit 11 because of it actually -- water drifting on to the roads and because it is so cold, freezing. They say that already one car accident attributed to that gas -- to that water main break, rather. So, quite a mess; a couple of area schools on a two-hour delay trying to deal with that as well.
HOLMES: Now, let's turn to Rob Marciano now. Rob, can you give us an idea just how cold is it in that area right now, in the Washington, D.C. Area?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's 19 degrees.
HOLMES: All right.
MARCIANO: So -- you know plenty cold to freeze water on the roadways even when it's moving. So you got the temperatures that are -- you know well over ten degrees below the freezing mark, and really doesn't -- of course, it doesn't matter what the wind is doing, that's going to freeze it.
Ten degrees right now in Philadelphia. Further north you go as this should be the colder it gets but the temperature is just falling off the table the farther north you go. Minus 12 in Albany right now and minus two in Boston; you factor in the wind and the wind chill. And what it feels like against your bare skin it feels like minus eight or eight below -- below zero in New York. Minus 21 in Albany, minus 21 as well in Boston -- these are dangerously cold wind chills that haven't really warmed up much in the past couple of hours and really won't warm up much in the next couple until you get into this afternoon and you get onto the sunshine it will get a little more bearable.
But it's dangerously cold for sure. 21 degrees if you're lucky for the high temperature in New York City. A little bit warmer in Atlanta and warming up a little bit across the plains which had drastically cold temperatures over the weekend. A reinforcing shot of cool air -- can you hear that? We've got a little construction going on down in the ATL.
Guys we're doing live TV. Thanks very much. Detroit to Cleveland this is very light precip happening. It shouldn't amount a whole lot. This precip down there across parts of upper Texas coast will increase in intensity and move across parts of the southeast. This is beneficial rain and it will be mostly rain we think. Even though there's been cold air in place.
We were fearing a snow and ice storm again, but it looks like the storm track from this system will be a little bit farther north. It will bring a little bit more warm air and it will be mostly rain at least until it gets to the Carolinas. The backside of this may bring a little bit of snow across parts of Tennessee and north Georgia. And the front side of this as it moves up -- up the coastline Wednesday and Thursday that brings in the sleet and snow mixture from D.C. up to New York City.
Like you guys haven't had enough yet this winter. It looks like you'll get a little more -- wintry precip as we get towards Thursday.
CHETRY: All right, well, we are used to it. I'm not saying we like it. Thanks Rob.
MARCIANO: You bet.
HOLMES: Thanks Rob.
CHETRY: Fifty-two minutes past the hour. We'll be right back.
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HOLMES: All right, well, some kids in Georgia upset about what they're being told they can and cannot wear to high school. This is Cross Creek High School in Augusta, Georgia. Students were actually putting together a protest because of an outright ban on anything camouflage -- any camouflage clothing.
Well, the principal is coming back now and wants to clarify his position. He's says, "I'm not saying you can't wear this stuff at all, I'm just encouraging you to keep that stuff in your lockers and not wear it around school in particular because of your safety." There were two students who are wearing camouflage gear when they were shot after getting off the school bus.
CHETRY: Well, elementary -- teaching elementary school kids cursive writing could be a thing of the past in Georgia. It's not been eliminated from the curriculum just yet. But the state's Department of Education decided perhaps cursive writing not the most important thing to include in its performance standards.
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CHERYL JONES, GA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DIRECTOR: We've seen all the kids with their thumbs on their -- they are texting and playing games. They are using the technology we have. At the time cursive was important that was the best technology that we had, was pen and ink on a piece of paper.
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CHETRY: Yes. Well, you still have to know how to sign your name, right, for important documents? They need your John Hancock.
Georgia education officials that say they don't want to spend resources on a skill that's becoming obsolete. This is scary stuff. They are still open to debate on whether to continue teaching the kids cursive.
HOLMES: We don't think about it, until somebody brings it but when was the last time any of us wrote something in cursive besides our signature?
CHETRY: Yes. My handwriting is getting so much worse, too because you just type everything, you know. When you don't practice then it starts to go.
HOLMES: I can never ready you the notes here.
All right. Just a few minutes to the top of the hour.
A quick break. We're be right back.
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HOLMES: Take a look here. A story we have been following this morning. You are seeing firefighters here. There are some 17 fire departments in this particular county in Ohio just outside of Cleveland where they were thinking about doing an evacuating some 3,000 people in a neighborhood because at least five fires they believe were sparked by a gas leak. They do have the gas off now to the neighborhood.
But not sure about the dangers still but you're are seeing pictures, an area of just outside about 30 miles outside of cleveland. No injuries to report.
CHETRY: Fairport Harbor; they were even concerned that at one point, they may have to evacuate a senior center. But it looks like they have solved it for now. Got the gas shutoff, so that's a big deal but the pictures -- not sure they're still dealing with the giving out the situation.
Well, that's going to do it for us. Thank so much for joining us. We'll be back bright and early tomorrow. Meantime the news continues, Randi Kaye's in the "CNN NEWSROOM" this morning -- hey Randi.
HOLMES: Hey there, Randi.
