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Egyptians Answer Call for 'March of Millions'; Benefits for New Members of Congress; Up to an Inch of Ice Expected in St. Louis; The Help Desk; Talk Back; Blizzard Warnings In 8 States; Topless Activists Send Message

Aired February 01, 2011 - 12:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Well, top of the hour. I'm Suzanne Malveaux, want to get you up to speed.

Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters have packed Cairo's Tahrir Square at this hour. Egyptian soldiers set up checkpoints and roadblocks, but as the military promised it has not targeted demonstrators. Organizers wanted a million people to turn out today.

Opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei calls the Obama administration's strategy on Egypt "a farce." The Nobel laurite and former U.N. nuclear chief says you can't ask a dictator to change his ways.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMED ELBARADEI, EGYPTIAN OPPOSITION FIGURE: My message to President Obama, and I have lots of respect for him, I work with him in the last year of my tenure with IAEA, and I have a lot of admiration for him, but I tell him you need to review the policy, you need to let go of Mubarak. You need to be -- you shouldn't be behind the curve, you need to start building confidence with the people and not with the people who are smothering the people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: The ripples of revolution now reaching Jordan. Longtime U.S. ally King Abdullah fired his prime minister today and dismissed the government. He told the new prime minister to implement "genuine political reform."

Well, forecasters are calling it a monster. Some type of winter storm watch or warning is in place today from Colorado to Maine, and some areas will be crippled by an inch of ice. Others will be getting clobbered with one to two feet of snow.

Ice and whiteout conditions will make highway travel very, very dangerous. Officials are telling travelers, find a place to ride out this storm.

And airlines have already cancelled thousands of flights today. Meteorologist Chad Myers, he is tracking all of that.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MALVEAUX: Illinois is now the sixth state to legalize civil unions. The new law grants same-sex couples many of the legal protections married couples have. It goes into effect on June 1st.

Now you are up to speed in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Now back to our lead story, Egypt's millions march, the largest demonstration in a week of unrelenting calls for President Hosni Mubarak to step down.

Our Ivan Watson, he is on the ground live in Cairo.

Ivan, tell us, what has this been like for you? You're in the midst of this crowd. Has it been peaceful? Give us a sense of what it's like on the ground.

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Suzanne, the sun has set over the Egyptian capital, and there are still tens of thousands of people in the square. We're going to pan out and focus on one sign that really gets to the crux of this historic demonstration of people power against a president who's been in power for nearly 30 years. This sign that says, "People demand removal of the regime."

And earlier in the day, we were down talking to some of the people. Take a look at this piece of video from down on the ground with the demonstrators.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Opposition leaders are calling this a revolution, and it's hard not to get caught up in some of the excitement and the fervor here. People are still streaming into Tahrir Square, holding up all sorts of different signs. We've seen people drawing signs on the ground, determined to show them.

Here's a look at some of the things we're seeing, some of the messages we're seeing here. And the crowd chanting as well. There is no question that after days and nights of protests here in Tahrir Square, this is the biggest gathering we have seen yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Now, Suzanne, the people here are saying they want Hosni Mubarak to hear what they have to say. And it's not clear whether or not that message is coming across, though. Egyptian state television has said that the banks may start refilling cash into the ATM machines tomorrow. That will be a help to many Egyptians who say they're starting to run out of basic supplies and even cash.

An important point here, who are the opposition? Who are the people that are seeking to perhaps fill a vacuum if in fact they achieve their demands and get the president of this country to step down? And there is a group that has dubbed itself "The Coalition," a collection of opposition parties, secular opposition parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood, who have just put together a text that has called for several points. They are calling for the parliament to be dissolved, they are calling for a committee to be established, to establish a new constitution for the country, for a new transitional government to be put in place, and saying that the legitimacy of the president has been -- has suffered an irreparable damage as a result of these demonstrations.

And they're also calling on the military to protect the country according to the constitution. Important, because we don't really know an alternative yet to Hosni Mubarak -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Thank you so much, Ivan.

Obviously, we'll be paying very close attention to all of the developments there on the ground in Cairo.

Well, on another story, a federal judge in Florida says that the entire health care reform law is unconstitutional. Two federal judges have upheld the law now and two have ruled against it.

Our CNN legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, he says it is now the Supreme Court that's going to get the last word.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: He had to throw out the whole law, meaning every provision. Now, I think that is an extreme step. If this is upheld, if Judge Vincent's (ph) ruling is upheld, everything about pre-existing conditions, about keeping kids on their parents' insurance until they're 26, all that goes out the window, even though that's not unconstitutional.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Jeffrey Toobin predicts that a Supreme Court decision on the health care law could come in 2012.

Well, today is the first day that new members of Congress become eligible for government-subsidized health care coverage. And that takes us to our own Carol Costello for the "Talk Back" on this, maybe even some push back on it, too.

Huh, Carol? What are people telling you?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mostly, people are saying that they kind of like the idea of our legislators opting out of the federal health insurance plan.

You know, Suzanne, some say the best defense is a good offense. If you get KO'd in federal court by what some call an activist judge, you can strike back in the court of public opinion.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says, "Republicans ought to forego their taxpayer-funded health care coverage before trying to repeal health insurance reform for hard- working Americans." And that is a quote. In other words, if you believe taxpayers should not help those that can't afford to buy insurance, then why should taxpayers fund your health insurance plan?

Of course the flip side of this argument, lawmakers are employed by the government. And let's face it, it's not unusual for employers to pay all or part of an employee's health insurance. Still, at least 15 House Republicans did announce they will not accept government- funded health insurance.

So, the question for our viewers today: If lawmakers voted to repeal health insurance for their constituents, should they opt out of government-funded health insurance? Oh, "Talk Back" at Facebook.com/CarolCNN.

MALVEAUX: So, Carol, I understand that there were 15 Republicans that opted out of this. Tell us about that. Really?

COSTELLO: Yes, are they really taking a stand? Well, Dana Bash knows everything here in Washington, doesn't she?

MALVEAUX: She does.

COSTELLO: She actually called all 15 of those Republicans to find out --

MALVEAUX: I'm sure she did.

COSTELLO: Yes. She did. She called all 15 to find out, you know, what's the deal. Why did you opt out of this federal health insurance plan? And most of them did not opt out to take a stand, but I'm going to leave the rest of the story to her.

I want to hear what our viewers think, though, because it's a fun question. Ad we've already gotten a lot of response when we asked the question last hour. So, Facebook.com/CarolCNN.

MALVEAUX: All right, great. We'll be looking forward to that. Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Sure.

MALVEAUX: Well, here's a quick look at what's "On the Rundown."

Warning: do not travel. The National Weather Service says if you're in the path of that monster storm, you have got to stay home.

Also, a Tennessee pastor says no marriage certificate, no church baptism for your baby.

And guarding Egypt's ancient treasures. We're going to talk with the minister of antiquities up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX:

(NEWSBREAK)

MALVEAUX: A monster snowstorm is blasting the Plains. We are seeing whiteout conditions in Oklahoma. It could get even worse by the time it hits Illinois. More than 30 states could be affected.

Air travel is already a mess. At least 4,000 flights have already been cancelled. Airlines are trying to get the word out before people head to the airport.

Well, we have it all covered for you here. We've got the crews, including Reynolds Wolf. He's giving you firsthand accounts. We've got Chad Myers, who is monitoring the massive storm from our Severe Weather Center.

I want to start off with you, Reynolds. There's a lot of snow in a lot of places, but you know about St. Louis, and it's all about the ice.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, it really is. I mean, probably the best way to show you the ice is to, well, show you the ice. Let's take a look at this.

Here's one of the many branches that we have in the area, one of the many trees. You can see this thing is just coated. I mean, completely top to bottom with tons of ice.

And the amazing thing is, is how heavy this stuff tends to be. I mean, a tree that stands 40 feet can have up to four tons of ice on it. And, of course, when you have the winds pick up, which is exactly what we anticipate later today, and into the evening hours, a lot of these trees are going to bend, they're going to twist, they're going to break. And when there's broken branches, they're going to get on the roadways, you're going to have power outages, it's going to compound problems.

Some of the icing has been showing up on everything. In fact, every single blade of grass you have here is encased in the ice. It's really, really weird.

And this stuff you see here, this white stuff, that's not even snow. That's a little bit of these ice pellets that are now coming in.

So, the process, Suzanne, is really frozen rain first. Now it's the ice pellets. And now we're awaiting the snow.

Something else that we're not waiting on is the traffic. It has been actually been moving pretty well.

If you look down on parts of 44, people have been coming right on through, and doing about the speed limit. They have done some great work on the roadways. They treated them with sand, with some chemicals, some salt, too. But as the snow begins to pick up, and as the precipitation in many spots also starts piling up, we're going to see some issues.

Here's one of the big trucks we have right here.

John, I don't know if you can see it coming down the off-ramp.

One of the many, many crews we've seen that have been working around the block -- around the clock, really -- just out and about, keeping the roads in good shape. And they are really prepared for this particular storm. They had one back in 2006 that kind of caught them by surprise. This time, no surprises.

The big question is how much precipitation are we going to be seeing in this part of the world? Well, for that answer, we're going to toss to my friend, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MALVEAUX: All right.

Thanks, Reynolds.

Chad, thanks a lot. It's going to be a huge story.

So what do you want to see on CNN? We're letting you choose. That's right, we're letting you "Choose the News."

Vote by texting your pick to 22360. These are the choices.

First up, in a country as poor as Afghanistan, there are some mothers who are actually feeding their children the only thing that is available -- opium.

Option 2, the man in Florida is making a statement about conservation. He's literally sleeping in the lion's den.

Or option 3, these ladies in the Ukraine, they have got a very unique way to get attention for the causes that they believe in.

So vote by texting 22360. That's 22360. Vote 1 for babies; 2 for a night in the lion's den. Vote 3 -- oh, I can't say this with a straight face, but these topless protesters.

So you choose. It's up to you. We leave it in your hands.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Unbelievable pictures. A tense moment in Cairo's Tahrir Square as soldiers overwhelmed by protesters drew their weapons on one crowd.

You can see the fear that is frozen on this soldier's face. The crowd chanted, "The people and army are one!" quickly calming what could have been a deadly scene.

Michael Holmes is here with more of the international stories that are lighting up the radar, a segment that we like to call "Globe Trekking."

And Michael, you know, it's unbelievable. When you first take a look at that picture and what we just saw, the expression on his face, what is your reaction when you see that kind of fear written across the face of a soldier? Does this look like the kind of thing that is emblematic, what we are seeing taking place on the streets?

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, it's not, Suzanne. What it is, is it shows you that these guys are people. That is one scared young man. The crowd, he feels, is closing in.

It's not really. It's a supportive crowd of the military. He is panicked, he is scared.

I remember being in Iraq in '03, this was, and seeing a U.S. soldier about 18 years old manning a .50 caliber machinegun who had a crowd approaching and had the same look on his face. That's just fear. And it's not emblematic of what's happening around the city. It was a one-off, but interesting to see the human side of it.

MALVEAUX: Absolutely.

And Michael, let's take a look at the region. I mean, if you can give us the lay of the land, literally, how is this revolution spreading outward now?

HOLMES: Yes, I think it's interesting to take a look now at what the map looks like. And this is where it all started, Tunisia. Of course, I'm no Chad Myers, so I'm not touching anything. Someone else is running this.

Tunisia is where it all started. We saw the president flee. He went to Saudi Arabia.

Let's pull the map out and give you a better idea of the neighborhood.

So, you've got Tunisia up there, Libya. Not much happening there at the moment. Sudan, we saw demonstrations down there on the weekend.

And here, Egypt, of course, is where it's all happening -- Cairo, Alexandria, where our people are. Let's zoom in on that region a little bit more because I want to give you more of an idea of the neighborhood here.

And one thing that people don't often understand if they haven't been there much, it's small. We're talking small distances here. And I'm going to give you an example.

Syria, by the way, they're calling for a day of wrath -- or in America you'd say "wrath" -- on Saturday. Keep an eye out for that. But at the moment, nothing happening there.

When you look at where Egypt is, Alexandria and Cairo, well -- and Oman, Jordan, where we've just seen political unrest as well -- you go from Oman to Jerusalem, 45 miles. Cairo to Jerusalem, 260 miles. Jerusalem to Damascus, in Syria, 130 miles. Jerusalem to Gaza Strip, it's about 45 miles.

You're talking about small areas here, but a lot going on. Watch out for Jordan. As I say, they have fired the prime minister, got him to step down, put a new one in. They're very concerned about what happens there next.

And that's one we're keeping a close eye on, of course. Egypt, as well, where things are really teetering.

MALVEAUX: Having traveled that region, Michael, you know it is jam-packed, and the influence can be very widespread very quickly.

HOLMES: Absolutely.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you, Michael.

Well, with the events in Egypt, people are again focusing on America's dependence on overseas oil. President Obama, he keeps challenging companies to come up with clean, green energy sources. And that has opened up an opportunity for a small struggling Nevada town.

Our Tom Foreman is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Suzanne, with so much concern about energy supplies, many communities are trying to get on board in this green energy revolution. But the simple truth is some, like this one, are much better positioned to do that than others.

(voice-over): Out in the Nevada desert, the future is growing wild amid a sea of solar cells and the hopes of folks like Scott Crider with Sempra Energy.

SCOTT CRIDER, SEMPRA ENERGY: Right now we have about a million panels.

FOREMAN: He says he would not want this massive solar field anywhere else.

(on camera): Why is this such a good location for this sort of thing?

CRIDER: You know, first, there's a lot of available flat land. Second, it's incredibly sunny. And third, there's existing transmission lines that provide access to major markets throughout the western United States.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Those lines are near little Boulder City because it was settled at another time when energy and the economy collided, when thousands came during the Great Depression for another grand power-generating project.

(on camera): So why is this town here?

DUNCAN MCCOY, BOULDER CITY COUNCIL: This town is here because it was a federal reservation to build Hoover Dam.

FOREMAN (voice-over): That's City Council member Duncan McCoy, who says even though sales and property taxes are way down, the solar facility has brought hundreds of temporary construction jobs and desperately needed money because it leases the land near those power lines from the town.

MCCOY: This year we'll get about -- in the current budget -- about $2.5 million. That's about 11 percent of our city's general fund budget.

FOREMAN (on camera): That's pretty important money for a town this size.

MCCOY: That's pretty important money, and we can count on it.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Giving this town a real chance to build up a new future by looking to its past.

(on camera): They have only created a few permanent jobs so far, but as this industry continues to grow, they think it will be a solid base for jobs and revenues for a long time to come -- Suzanne.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Thanks, Tom.

Well, looters have begun plundering some of Egypt's treasures. We're going to talk to an archaeologist about what the country is doing now to stop it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Soldiers have been deployed all around this city, and the tanks are even parked here, at one of the ancient wonders of the world, the Great Pyramids of Giza.

(voice-over): An army officer insisted the pyramids are still open for tourists, but the soldiers wouldn't let us come any closer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Egypt is known as the greatest open air monument in the world. Now the army has stepped in to protect artifacts of ancient civilizations from looters.

That is our story that goes beyond the headlines, the fear that looters may raid museums and destroy Egypt's prized archaeological artifacts.

Joining me now by phone from Cairo is world renowned chief Egyptologist Zahi Hawass. And just yesterday, Mr. Hawass was appointed the minister of antiquities to protect Egypt's monuments.

Mr. Hawass, thank you so much for joining us here.

I've been to the Egyptian Museum. It is unbelievable, the amount of things that you have, those treasures representing 5,000 years of civilization. Some of it warehoused, some of it on display.

What is the state now of what's happening with those treasures? Are they safe?

ZAHI HAWASS, EGYPT MINISTER OF ANTIQUITIES: They are safe. I want to tell you that I was in the Cairo Museum Saturday morning, right after the march on Friday. And I could see the nine people who entered that night inside the Cairo Museum.

If you look at the faces of those nine people, they are like treasure hunters, they have no heart. People that you cannot see any culture inside them. And actually, they took the fire escape out and they (INAUDIBLE) rocks (ph) inside the Museum.

What was really amazing, the Cairo Museum was dark. They could not see the gold that they were looking for. Then they opened 13 cases in the Museum and they took the objects and they throw to the ground.

One case of King Tut's artifacts showing a beautiful statue of King Tut above a boat, above a tiger, they throw it to the ground. Seventy objects were broken. And when they left the museum with objects, they were caught by Egyptians. Not really by the police --

MALVEAUX: They were caught by Egyptians. Egyptian civilians you're saying?

HAWASS: Civilians, exactly. Young people that -- they met me on Saturday morning. When they came to the museum, I saw all the Egyptians around the Museum telling me, "Mr. Hawass, please protect our monuments. Please protect the museum."

MALVEAUX: So who's protecting them now?

HAWASS: What?

MALVEAUX: Who's protecting them now?

HAWASS: Now, the commanders of the Egyptian army are around the Cairo Museum, and there is nothing stolen from the museum. All the artifacts, we took them back, we restored them, and they will be in good condition. And I want to tell you also that there is another storage (INAUDIBLE) in Sainai (ph) that was broken by the Bedouins, and they took some objects. They return it today, 288 objects back.

MALVEAUX: Excellent.

HAWASS: The other five, in Egypt, like the bed of the king (ph) a swan in the south and also Giza pyramids, (INAUDIBLE) and Alexandria and all museums in Egypt are safe -- MALVEAUX: Mr. Hawass, we welcome that news. That's fantastic news. We look forward to seeing some of those antiquities obviously being restored, put back in place so that things as they were. Obviously, dear, dear treasures. Just priceless treasures. Thank you very much, Mr. Hawass.

Well, we are letting you "Choose the News," this next segment so keep the votes coming. Text us your pick at 22360. These are the choices. Vote 1 for the story of mothers in Afghanistan that are resorting to feeding their babies the only thing they have, that is opium. Vote 2 for the story of a man who's sleeping beside lions; he's trying to draw attention to the cause of wildlife conservation. Or vote 3 for the topless Ukrainian activists who certainly know how to draw attention to their social causes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: I want to give you some news that is just in, that is coming here. This is from Tulsa, Oklahoma. A casino roof collapsed. We're just getting information. This is from somebody who was at there at The Hard Rock Cafe, confirming to us that a partial roof collapsed in a portion of a casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma -- a casino, a hotel. This was at the height of the morning snowstorm, we are being told. This woman from The Hard Rock Cafe is telling us that workers noticed a portion of the roof had been damaged during the snow, and staff began evacuating guests and workers.

And they said it happened about 10:00 in the morning Eastern time. That it caved in, this roof, in one of the four zones of the casino. Chad, I imagine we'll see a lot of this kind of thing as snow continues to accumulate and people are in these facilities, they might be in danger.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: These are record snowfalls in many spots, so that's record weight on top of any flat building. That's what you had here. You had the snowpacking on top of this building. So far, only 12 inches in Tulsa - and I say that tongue-in- cheek, because that's a lot to try and walk through or shovel it. But the 12 inches on top of that would melt down to about one inch of water. One inch of water covering the whole top of the casino wouldn't be unusual in a rain storm, but in a rain storm it would run off. It would go into the gutters, go into the down spouts and out into the street. So, you would never get one inch of water on top of the roof.

Now that that one inch of water doesn't run off because it's packed up in the form of snow, that's when the weight came down. I got this story about, I don't know, about 11:40 this morning. Got an e-mail from Bruce Gaither from Oklahoma said we just heard this on the radio.

And here it is. There's Tulsa. It's still snowing and there could be another 3 to even 6 inches of snow in Tulsa before it finally stops. I-44 is a mess, I-40 is a mess. Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, all the way up to Chicago will be a mess later on today. This could happen in many spots. MALVEAUX: And Chad, real quick, what should you do? Just try to get the snow off as quickly as possible or stay out of the facilities?

MYERS: When I lived in Buffalo, we would shovel the roof. We would shovel our pools because we had these redwood decks around our pool. We'd shovel them off and the whole pool would collapse! If you're in a house and hear something starting to creak, it's time to leave.

MALVEAUX: All right. Chad, thank you much. We'll have much more on this quickly right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Charlie Sheen doing rehab in the comfort of his mansion. That tops our look at entertainment news. Brooke Anderson, host of HLN's "Showbiz Tonight," joins us live from L.A. Brooke, what's the latest?

BROOKE ANDERSON, CO-HOST, HLN'S "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": Well, Suzanne, there are more disturbing reports about troubled star Charlie Sheen and the fallout for his show, TV's top-rated sitcom "Two and a Half Men." Production on that series was halted indefinitely late last week when Charlie announced that he would be entering rehab.

Now it turns out, you said it, his rehab reportedly is not taking place in a traditional facility, but at his home in Los Angeles. His manager told people.com that Sheen is relying instead on professionals who will help him in private saying, quote, "Charlie has put together a team that he trusts to help get him sober once and for all."

A source familiar with CBS's schedule actually tells "Showbiz Tonight" that CBS has ordered two additional episodes of its sitcom "Rules of Engagement" to help fill the programming gap left by "Two and a Half Men." And Charlie's manager says CBS and Warner Brothers television will, quote, "Work around Charlie's sobriety schedule."

Suzanne, they seem to be seriously concerned about Charlie's health and well-being right now. Is Charlie truly serious about it? That's the question.

MALVEAUX: Well, we certainly hope that he gets better, wherever he does his rehab.

I know that there is a story, an ugly battle, that is taking place right now regarding Halle Berry. Can you tell bus that?

ANDERSON: Yes, this is really unfortunate. Halle Berry's custody battle is getting nasty. The actress announced she is quitting her upcoming film "New Year's Eve" to fight her ex-boyfriend for the custody of their daughter, who is two-and-a-half years old, sweet little girl. Her rep told "Showbiz Tonight" that Berry, quote, "has attempted to resolve these custody issues amicably with her daughter's father, Gabriel Aubry, directly, but given his lack of cooperation, Halle has no choice but to seek swift, judicial intervention." Reports say that Katherine Heigl has been hired to replace her in that film.

All right, good news now! Actress Christina Applegate is a mom. Sadie Grace LeNoble was born January 27th here in Los Angeles. It's the first child for 39-year-old Applegate and her fiance, musician Martin LeNoble. Suzanne, congratulations to them. And Sadie Grace, a beautiful classic name. No weirdness whatsoever with that one.

(LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: A little normality among all the weirdness. OK, thank you.

And for more on Halle Berry's custody battle, I want you to check out "Showbiz Tonight" at 5:00 and 11:00 p.m. Eastern on HLN.

Well, beating the Internet and cell phone blackout in Egypt, Google and Twitter have hooked up on a new feature to make sure that protesters remain plugged in. Silicon Valley correspondent Dan Simon is in San Francisco with a look at this tech trend. Dan, tell us about this new feature. I guess it turns voice mail messages into tweets?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Suzanne. We are live outside of Twitter's headquarters where some very innovative minds figured out a way to get around this very large barrier with this Internet outage in Egypt. Some engineers from Twitter, Google and a company called Say Now, a company that Google acquired just last week, figured out a way that if you call a number and leave a voice mail, that voice mail automatically gets uploaded to Twitter and you can listen to those messages.

I want you to listen now to a little bit of snippet of what we're hearing. Take a look.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'm speaking right now from Cairo, a few minutes. The only Internet access point that we had is shut down completely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mubarak pulling the police force back is a crime. Mubarak letting the prisoners out is also a crime. Mubarak is terrorizing his own people. He's a terrorist. He's a criminal. And the terrorists and criminals have to go out.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

SIMON: I had a chance to catch up with Jack Dorsey. If you don't know that name, he is the chairman and co-founder of Twitter. I asked him to reflect upon the growing influence of the service, especially when it comes to very important international news events. Here's what Dorsey had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK DORSEY, CHAIRMAN AND COFOUNDER, TWITTER: It's humbling how people are defining and redefining every single day. I mean it's -- it's amazing. We came up with it as a way to stay in touch with what the people we know are doing. And to visualize what's happening in the world.

And to have events like what's happening in Egypt or Tunisia or Iran happen every single day is just amazing. And the greatest thing about it is that it's a true utility. It's true, foundational technology where people can come to it and they can really make it whatever they wish.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIMON: Well, the speak-to-tweet service went up just yesterday afternoon and already, Suzanne, many hundreds of protesters in Egypt have already tweeted this way. You can check it out if you go to twitter.com/speak2tweet. Speak, the number two, and tweet. Pretty innovative, just popping up over the weekend. Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: Wow. So, Dan, this is something new that's in response to what's happened in Egypt, is that right?

SIMON: That's right. You know, this was where these engineers felt like they wanted to do something to help keep the people in Egypt connected. And look, they figured out a way to do this and call a number and, boom, leave the voice mail and you can go to Twitter and listen to all of these things that they would normally be able to tweet with texts but now they can do with their voices.

MALVEAUX: Totally cool. Thank you, Dan.

Again, if you want to listen to other protesters, check out this feature. Drop a voice mail. You can call the number on the screen or log on to twitter.com/speak2tweet.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Time now for "The Help Desk," where we get answers to your financial questions. Joining me this hour, Jack Otter, executive editor of moneywatch.com, and Carmen Wong Ulrich, she's the author of "The Real Cost of Living."

So glad you guys are here. We've got two good questions for you right now. The first one coming to us from Johnny in New York who writes, "my house foreclosed two years ago. It is sold, but I am still getting calls from the loan company. That is legal?"

What do you say, Carmen?

CARMEN WONG ULRICH, AUTHOR, "THE REAL COST OF LIVING": Well, it's not within their rights to harass you, definitely. But the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which really protects you from credit card and collection calls, is a little gray when it comes to mortgage lenders. What you can do them is get them to stop. You need to send a cease and desist letter to them and also send them all the new information about the sale of the home because if you don't do this, they may not stop and you need them to stop and find out that you no longer owe this loan.

ELAM: Yes, so you can move on with your life now that it's past.

ULRICH: Absolutely.

ELAM: All right, the next question comes to us from Michael in Massachusetts who writes, I would like to close the credit card I have. I don't fly that airline anymore, so their miles are useless to me and I think I'm interested more in cash rewards than miles or prizes. Can you recommend any resources to help find a new card?

What do you say, Jack?

JACK OTTER, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, MONEYWATCH.COM: Good call. Get rid of the branded airline miles card. It's easy to get miles, really hard to cash them in. Go for the cash. A lot of resources on this. There's something called cardhub.com, creditcards.com and bankrate.com. You plug in what you're looking for, it spits out some good recommendations. A shorter route, moneywatch.com. We just wrote about the best credit card for you. We'll tell him what to get.

ELAM: So, in general, just stay away from those airline mile cards?

OTTER: I think it's OK if they offer you points toward miles on any airline. I've done that recently and been pretty successful. The problem is, the airlines, they have like one seat a flight. You've got to get there 330 days in advance.

ULRICH: That's the problem.

ELAM: Right. Right.

ULRICH: Yes, right.

ELAM: OK. I just wanted to make sure we had that clear.

Thanks so much, Carmen and Jack, for helping us out today.

If you have a question that you want to get answered, please, send us an e-mail any time to cnnhelpdesk@cnn.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: The health care battle is getting personal today for members of Congress. They have a tough decision to make when it comes to their own health care insurance. Well, that's today's "Talk Back" topic.

Carol Costello, a lot of people, I understand, chomping on the bit on this one.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we got a lot of response to this question, Suzanne. Today is the first day new members of Congress become eligible for government-funded health care coverage. As in they're eligible for their federal employee health care plan. Unless, of course, they opt out. So that's the question today. If lawmakers voted to repeal health insurance for their constituents, should they opt out of government-funded health insurance? And as you said, Suzanne, we got a lot of response.

This from Christine. She says, "they do the work for us, after all. They should walk the walk if they're going to talk the talk. All they seem to be able to do is say 'no.' I would love to see them come up with something positive just once."

This is from Kim. She says, "absolutely. Why should my tax dollars go to fund their health care when I have none. As a matter of fact, if they're so anti-government, why are they working for the government?"

And this from Martin. He says, "if they do give up taxpayer- funded benefits, they'd still buy health insurance with taxpayers' money," because, of course, taxpayers pay their salaries, right? He says, "are they going to give up their salaries next? I don't mind them keeping their subsidized plans if it ends up saving us $940 billion over the next decade," which he says would be the cost of the health care plan.

So if you want to continue the conversation, we're on Facebook all day long, all night long. Facebook.com/carolcnn.

MALVEAUX: Carol, you're going to be on all night long on Facebook trying to keep up with all of this?

COSTELLO: I love talking to viewers. They have good ideas. They do.

MALVEAUX: We love the "Talk Back" segment because, I mean, it's just -- it's very provocative, it's interesting and so this is great. You know, I mean it kind of -- this whole thing about health care reform, whether or not they're going to actually repeal it or give up their own subsidies, it kind of reminds me of, you know, those congressmen and lawmakers who have -- they accept the stimulus money and then they say, we don't want the stimulus money, but then they show up at the signing ceremonies and the ribbon cutting and saying, hey, we've got the money. So people are looking to see if people are consistent. I think that's what they want from Washington, yes?

COSTELLO: I think people don't like hypocrisy and they're watching for it wherever it may come and they're now talking back, and that's what we like.

MALVEAUX: Yes, OK. Well, I can't wait to find out what we do tomorrow.

COSTELLO: I can't tell you yet.

MALVEAUX: Oh, not even me? All right, we're on air. Afterwards.

COSTELLO: I think we should talk football and Ben Roethlisberger, though, don't you?

MALVEAUX: Oh, yes, the Super Bowl is coming up. We've got to talk sports. We've got to do something like that. You've got to catch me up to speed on that one. OK, thanks, Carol.

Chad, monster of a storm.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

MALVEAUX: I mean this is going to be kind of a crazy, crazy couple of days, yes?

MYERS: Lost hundreds of flights to Dallas today. People -- you have to be thinking, people were probably on some of those flights to go to the Super Bowl. Now they're not there yet. Maybe it will clear up. So maybe you'll be able to get on a flight tomorrow. But snowing in Oklahoma. Snowing in Tulsa. Icing and then changing over to snow in St. Louis. This is going to be a big event.

Now I know it's snowing an icing here across parts of the Northeast. This is not even part of what we're worried about yet. This is just a small little piece that's going by. And this little piece -- here -- here's a live shot from Columbus Circle. Oh, great. Beautiful little raindrops on the glass. You know what the problem is? It's 30 degrees. I don't like raindrops and 30 and no one should.

Ice storm warnings north of the city all the way up into Westchester and the like, up that way. This is just a winter weather advisory. Probably temperatures, although at LaGuarda 30. You get downtown here and the concrete may be 33. You need to watch your step, though. In the city tonight, as soon as the sun sets, because that's when all of this water will freeze.

Look at these snow totals. These are amazing totals from Tulsa to Oklahoma City, which has already had twelve inches of snow on the ground. And then up here north of St. Louis, just right through Chicago, up into Detroit, into Ontario and then over to -- and then at three -- two days from now it's in New York City. But this is going to be one mess.

And even the president was in on this mess. He wanted to talk to all the peeps about, hey, what are you doing? Let's not get this wrong. Let's -- we know this is coming. Let's not say, oh, we didn't know it was a bad forecast, we, you know, because they knew it was coming. They wanted to make sure that all the emergency managers, all the people in this weather knew what to do and got it right this time.

MALVEAUX: All right, thanks, Chad.

And I don't know if Obama would say he's talking to his peeps, but maybe he would. Maybe he'd say, I'm talking to my peeps.

MYERS: Those are his men and his women that are out there. That's his workforce.

MALVEAUX: Absolutely.

MYERS: Yes.

MALVEAUX: And they're trying to get this thing right. Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: Sure.

MALVEAUX: Our team of producers, in the meantime, they are tallying your votes. Believe it or not, we have had a last-minute surge and an upset. That's what I've been told here. Choose your news. That and your pick, of course, that's up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: OK. Well, you voted, we listened. I understand there was an upset in our segment here, "Choose The News" segment. I guess it was the story about opium and now it's the topless protesters. Mom, I apologize, I know you're watching, but shame on you viewers, but that's what you voted for. These are fearless ladies. They found a sure-fire way to get their voices heard in the Ukraine. Here you go.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As political manifestos go, this one is pretty eye-catching. Meet the women of Femen, Ukraine's topless protest movement. "Our god is woman, our mission is protest, our weapons are bare breasts," they chant.

Weapons or assets first put to use in 2008 to protest against sex tourism. Now Femen's leader explains the agenda is broader and now focused on political issues as well. "In a country like Ukraine where authorities don't care about anything, the usual people don't have any way of bringing their thoughts to be heard. And we found that this was the only effective way for us to protest." They have certainly got plenty of publicity.

MAGNAY (on camera): You've got all sorts of publications here. (INAUDIBLE) from Germany, Spigel (ph), "The Sun," "Lastampa" (ph), "Newsweek," BBC and now CNN.

MAGNAY (voice-over): Anna Gutsol herself doesn't bare all anymore. In fact, only around 20 of Femen's 300 activists go topless for the cameras. A publicity stunt to highlight broader issues. We catch up with them outside the parliament.

MAGNAY (on camera): It's minus 7 in Kiev today, so there's going to be no undressing. But what they say is that in the recent cabinet reshuffle, no women were elected into the cabinet. And it's a bit like a male toilet, for men only.

MAGNAY (voice-over): Gutsol says that many of the people they've criticized don't like the attention that Femen's getting. "We feel they're scared of us," she says, "and that there's an order to arrest us and not let us protest. We've had 10 arrests since the beginning of 2009 and our website has been hacked into."

Pressure, she says, which only serves to galvanize the movement. All the more determined to deliver their message with a bit of bare- chested brazenness.

Diana Magnay, CNN, Kiev.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: That was your choice. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ali Velshi.

Ali.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Suzanne, great to see you. Great to have you in the same newsroom. We're looking forward to spending lots of time with you. Suzanne Malveaux.

MALVEAUX: Thanks. Great to see you.