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American Morning
Fireball Levels Homes; Congressman Resigns in Craigslist Scandal; Gift of Life; London Calling
Aired February 10, 2011 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour here now. Good morning and welcome to you all to this AMERICAN MORNING for February the 10th. I'm T.J. Holmes.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. A look at our top stories this morning.
A married Congressman abruptly quits just hours after a gossip web site posted a picture that he sent of himself without his shirt on, to a woman he met online. The flirty e-mail and the fallout on Capitol Hill, just ahead.
HOLMES: Also, Bill Gates selling off Microsoft shares by the millions? Does he think the company he cofounded now a bad investment? What is he putting his money into these days?
CHETRY: And she's 43 years old -- probably for some, that's not the age you think of for an Olympic athlete. But Dara Torres is not like most athletes. And she's swimming her way toward a sixth Olympic Games in London in 2012. She's going to be joining us later this hour.
HOLMES: We want to turn now to a developing story we've been following throughout the morning -- a deadly gas explosion in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The fire chief confirmed for us last hour that one person has been killed after two homes exploded. He now calls this a recovery mission and another five people are missing.
In all, eight homes were destroyed. Five hundred people ended up in shelters. The gas line has now been shut off.
Our Jaccii Farris of our affiliate WFMZ on the scene for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JACCII FARRIS, WFMZ-TV CORRESPONDENT: About eight homes were destroyed and about 30 something homes were evacuated along with a high-rise senior facility. Those seniors are back in the high-rise and things are kind of quieting down here in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Fire officials say that the explosion happened just after 10:45 last night at 13th and Allen Streets here in the city. Afterwards, flames as high as 20 feet engulfed an entire block, consuming the eight homes. Those six people are reportedly missing. And, again, hundreds have been evacuated.
Firefighters were worried about another explosion because of the gas, but UGI came in quickly and had the gas turned off.
Now, Allentown fire officials had to call in every single firefighter they had and reach into an agreement with some of their mutual aid agreements to help make sure there was coverage for this city during this disaster. Now, the fire has been brought under control, but firefighters continue to douse smoldering spots, hot spots, with water from a ladder truck because they are fearful that it could flame up once again.
That's the very latest from Allentown, Pennsylvania, I'm Jaccii Farris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: That is so scary on to so many people. You're just living in your home, just relaxing, doing whatever you do in your home, and, without warning, your neighborhood literally explodes. This is not the first time we've seen something like this happen and again, there is rarely any kind of warning.
You remember the huge one we saw not too long ago -- the fire that leveled a neighborhood in San Bruno, California. It was a natural gas pipeline explosion there. Eight people were killed. This explosion was heard for miles.
CHETRY: And now to Egypt and the new anti-government protest underway in Cairo, thousands are marching in the rain near Tahrir Square.
And meantime, workers across the country are staging strikes in support of the protests which are now in their 17th day. They are demanding better pay, working conditions, more transparency and they are wanting to put more pressure on Mubarak to resign. Demonstrators also continue to pack the square.
And this man, Google executive, Wael Ghonim, has become the unlikely hero of Egypt's revolt. He tweeted this overnight. "I am honored to represent 250,000 Egyptians to convey their demands to the Egyptian government, while collaborating with other activists. I promise every Egyptian I will go back to my normal life and not be involved in any politics once Egyptians fulfill their dreams."
He spoke exclusively to CNN, telling us that he's ready to die for the cause.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WAEL GHONIM, EGYPTIAN ACTIVIST: You are not going to stop us. Kidnap me, kidnap all of my colleagues, put us in jail, kill us -- do whatever you want to do. We are getting back our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, Ghonim was taken and held by Egyptian authorities for much of this protest. Taken off the streets, he says, by secret police, blindfolded and held. He has since taken a leave of absence from Google.
HOLMES: Well, a U.S. congressman has now resigned after a Craigslist scandal. He is married. GOP Congressman Chris Lee is now the former congressman. You see his picture there, accused of taking it and sending it to a woman online who was not his wife.
CHETRY: And Lee was considered a rising star in the Republican Party.
Brianna Keilar joins us live in Washington with more now.
Came out of nowhere, right? Probably surprised a lot of his colleagues.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A lot of his colleagues. This was really, T.J. and Kiran, a super swift demise of a political career.
Here's how it went down yesterday afternoon. First, the Web site Gawker posts a series of e-mails that it says are from -- they are between a 34-year-old woman here in the Washington, D.C. area that she has exchanged with someone on Craigslist looking for a date. A man describes himself as a 39-year-old lobbyist. He sends a shirtless photo of himself.
And Gawker says the woman does some searching around the Internet realizes the picture is of a congressman, Christopher Lee, as you said, a Republican. He's from Upstate New York. And she goes and turns over this e-mail exchange to Gawker.
Now, very suddenly, jut before 6:00 p.m. last night, Lee's resignation was read aloud on the House floor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The chair wants the following communication.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The honorable, the speaker of the House of Representatives, sir, I hereby give notice of my resignation from the United States House of Representatives that after 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Wednesday, February 9th, 2011. Attached is the letter I submitted to Governor Andrew Cuomo. Signed sincerely, Christopher J. Lee, member of Congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: So, this all played out over the course of a few hours. It was really warped speed. And just to be clear, this was an ad that appeared in what was really the dating section of Craigslist, the "women for men" section. And as you mentioned, Lee is married. He has a young son and his family was featured very prominently on his congressional Web site, guys.
CHETRY: His office isn't confirming the specifics from Gawker. But is Congressman Lee saying anything about that?
KEILAR: No, they are not confirming that these specifics are true. So, we're getting this from the Web site and it's really -- this is what happened in the afternoon and his resignation came quickly thereafter. But he did put out a written statement.
He said, "It has been a tremendous honor to serve the people of western New York. I regret the harm that my actions have caused my family, my staff and my constituents. I deeply and sincerely apologize to them all. I have made profound mistakes and promise to work as hard as I can to seek their forgiveness."
But I think it's fair to say right now guys that everyone is just in total surprise and didn't see this coming.
CHETRY: All right. Boy, Brianna Keilar for us this morning -- thanks.
HOLMES: We turn back to weather now, which has been dangerous in many parts of the country. Driving has been dangerous, especially in the Southeast. Pictures you're seeing here out of Little Rock, Arkansas. Some people just parked their vehicles on the side of the road. Some tried to go at a really slow pace, but many were slipping and sliding off the road and many needed help in many cases.
Meanwhile, we turn to Atlanta, Georgia, now. We got some snow on the ground there as well. It's supposed to be mostly sunny and 43 degrees later today. So that sounds pretty good right about now.
CHETRY: Sure does. Rob Marciano is in the extreme weather center for us this morning.
Hi, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, driving to work this morning snowing and obviously, you saw a little bit of dusting. You know, any other year, we'd be going bananas in Atlanta. But, you know, this is small potatoes to what we've seen and compared to what's been going on around the rest of the mid-south at least, from Memphis to Nashville, back through Little Rock and, yes, across parts of the Southern Plains, just unbelievable cold temperatures right now.
In many cases, all-time record lows. And these are feels like temperatures meaning the wind chills but, in many cases, there's not a whole lot of wind -- meaning that these are actual temperatures as well. And it's -- you know, it's not exactly balmy across the western Great Lakes. Minus 19 to minus 20 is what it feels like in Milwaukee and Chicago.
So, that's cold air behind this front and the front is moving quickly off toward the east, some snow across the Carolinas, North Carolina. On the beaches there probably up through Virginia Beach. Maybe Cape May as well.
This is going to miss the Northeast although you will remain chilly as we go on through the next couple of days. A bit of a warm- up coming for other folks this weekend.
Warming your hearts in San Francisco. Or just -- you know, a lot of folks have done some whale watching. We've got some video of some folks that just go out and look at some humpback whales.
Well, how about this? A pod of orcas. A pod of killer whales there. How is that for a little treat?
Sometimes you go out in these whale watching expeditions, you don't see anything and these folks got out there and were able to see a pod of killer whales that were doing their thing out there off the coast of San Francisco.
Sunny skies. It looks pretty warm. Killer whales are playing. You know, just trying to warm up the inside here when we talk about this unbelievable winter that we've had here across much of the country. Warm-up is coming up this weekend; we'll talk more about that in the next half hour.
CHETRY: Those are great shots. They look so free and happy.
MARCIANO: And friendly.
CHETRY: Yes. I wouldn't go that far, but yes, they look like they are enjoying themselves. Just keep it at a distance.
Thanks, Rob.
HOLMES: Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right, guys.
HOLMES: Well, our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is coming up next with something you'll find disturbing that more teenagers are suffering from strokes.
CHETRY: Also, is Twitter worth $10 billion? Christine Romans has new details on the company's worth and who might be interested in snatching up Twitter.
Ten minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Hey, good morning, Washington, D.C. Fairly nice day. Sunny, 32 degrees at least.
A big conference kicking off, conservative conference, the CPAC is kicking off today. We just got word a short time ago that Donald Trump himself, a late add to the list of speakers. This is, of course, where everybody has to go. You have to make a stop there if you're thinking about running for president.
He is making a stop, a late add. He, of course, has talked about the possibility of making a run in 2012. So, a lot happening in D.C. today, thousands, tens -- about 10,000 activists collected there.
CHETRY: And that will certainly make things interesting.
HOLMES: If they weren't already interesting enough.
CHETRY: If the Donald throws his hat in the ring.
Well, imagine sitting on the plane and hearing a knock from the cargo hold. This happened. The baggage handler got locked in the plane's cargo hold accidentally, obviously, on a U.S. Airways flight at Reagan National Airport. He watched as the worker just closed the bin door from the outside. So, they heard banging outside the fuselage.
The FAA says that he got out. And that the flight left ahead of schedule. I love how they throw that in there. There were no delays because we accidentally locked one of our baggage handlers in the cargo hold.
HOLMES: Have to throw that in there.
Many of you out there as well, you drink diet soda instead of the regular because you're trying to be healthier. But a new nine- year study now, of some 2,500 people say those who drank the diet stuff daily were 48 percent more likely to have a heart attack or stroke than those who rarely or never drink the diet soda. The study doesn't really know a cause here. No real cause and effect. They do need to do more research.
But one theory here is simply that many people who drink diet soda every day do so because they eat poorly --
CHETRY: Right.
HOLMES: -- in their lives day in and day out. So, that might be a contributing factor.
CHETRY: Yes. Well, they're getting the diet soda but they're also getting the Big Mac and fries.
HOLMES: Yes.
CHETRY: Well, according to the American Heart Association, every 40 seconds, someone in the United States has a stroke and while most patients are middle aged and elderly, there is a new CDC study that has picked up an alarming trend that stroke hospitalization among Americans as young as 5 years old have increased significantly.
HOLMES: Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is here with us now.
Sanjay, why?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, part of this might be the thing that we've been worried about for some time -- that this obesity epidemic is starting to have its ramifications, its consequences. You know, people say the generation of young adults living right now have a chance of having a shorter life span than their parents. Why? Because of exactly we are seeing now, the consequences of obesity.
Take a look at the numbers, specifically, here to break this down. When you talk about, in this case, this affected men and women, but men, for example, between the ages of 15 and 34, they had about 51 percent increased chance of having a stroke and a 47 percent increase men age 35 to 44.
So, this is a significant increase in these particular age groups and, again, it affects women as well. The types of strokes that they're having are strokes that are directly related to the poor lifestyle that we talk about all the time on this program, poor diet, high cholesterol, uncontrolled blood pressure. Things that we typically see in older adults are starting to affect younger and younger people, and this is what happens.
CHETRY: So, you talked about it. What do you do to reduce it then? I mean, you also have done stories about how shocking it is that young people are on cholesterol lowering medications, you know, at ages as young as 8.
GUPTA: It's a funny thing, Kiran, because, like I say, we talk about this all the time on your program, and you can almost hear people's eyes glaze over when you start talking about all the obesity related risk factors, but consider this. That about two-thirds of people in these, you know, younger age populations who have high cholesterol, cholesterol that is just way too high, simply aren't doing anything about it.
Two-thirds, according to a recent report. About half the people who have uncontrolled high blood pressure simply aren't doing anything about it. So, as much as we talk about it and get the messages out, people need to act on that. And prevention is key. You can prevent a lot of these terrible diseases from ever taking hold (ph), in the first place.
HOLMES: Remind folks they might be more familiar with the symptoms of a heart attack. I guess, some might be similar here, but what are the things you need to know if you think you or even somebody else might be having a stroke?
GUPTA: Well, the thing to remember, really, -- remember this acronym which is FAST, and I think we have the picture of it there. You can see Face is "F." You know, smile. Look for any kind of droop. Arms, hold up your arms and make sure one arm isn't weaker than the other. Speech, have someone say their name or simple sentence. And then, obviously, time, getting someone to the hospital as quickly as possible.
T.J., you know, if I was talking to you, for example, I'm examining you for a stroke, I would have you smile, for example, if you can just smile, and I'm looking at both sides of your face to see if you're having any weakness on one side or the other, holding your arms up. You do it kind of like this, hold your arms up and make sure one arm isn't drifting down in speech. So, for example, T.J., you say your full name, and I make sure you're not slurring your words or anything.
HOLMES: T.J. Holmes. I'm OK.
CHETRY: He looks like he's parting the Red Sea.
HOLMES: T.J. Holmes. Yes.
GUPTA: I don't know.
HOLMES: I think I'm OK.
GUPTA: You can't (ph) say your real name. I'm little concerned now. I think I'll check you out when I get there.
CHETRY: He's fine. He's in shape. And that's the other thing, too. You know, he looks like he's fit. He could be suffering from high cholesterol or high blood pressure or other risk factors, and we wouldn't know it because he looks so in shape.
GUPTA: There's a difference between fit and fat. You know, people can look extremely fit but still have a lot of these high risk factors, and there are people who, apparently, seem overweight, but actually, their risk factors are pretty low. So, don't get sort of conned into looking at someone and determining what their overall health status is.
HOLMES: All right. I think I have an appointment with you this weekend, doctor. So, I will --
GUPTA: As usual. Keep it this time. That's right.
HOLMES: I will see you soon. Sanjay, good to see you, buddy.
GUPTA: You got it.
CHETRY: He's your doctor?
HOLMES: He is my doctor.
CHETRY: Thank goodness. You're in good hands. Well, he said he didn't have any room for me.
Well, you've heard a story about the star athlete getting a life- saving kidney donation from his coach. They had the surgery Monday. We were all touched by just how incredible of a gift this was from the coach, how the hopes for the future are for the young player. Well, they're going to be here. We're speaking to them live coming up next. Nineteen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-two minutes past the hour right now. Thanks so much for joining us. We really want to get a chance to talk to these two, because yesterday, this was really the story of the day. College baseball coach donating a kidney to one of his star players. It's something a lot of us might not do or think twice about, but for the coach, he said he'd do it a thousand times over.
And they are in the hospital still. Kevin Jordan, they're in the bed, and Kevin is a freshman and outfielder for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. And his coach, Tom Walter is there standing next to him. Well, they are joining us live this morning, both Kevin and Coach Walter at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Great to see both of you this morning. Thanks for being here.
KEVIN JORDAN, BASEBALL PLAYER, WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY: No problem.
TOM WALTER, BASEBALL COACH, WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY: Our pleasure.
CHETRY: Kevin, let me start with you. How are you feeling? I mean, you're here. You're doing interviews. It seems like a remarkable recovery from getting this kidney transplant.
JORDAN: I've been real busy, and I'm kind of happy I'm busy instead of just laying in bed all day, but I feel -- feel fine. Besides being a little sore from the surgery, I feel better than I have been like in months.
CHETRY: And you had a congenital disorder that was causing you problems. You had to undergo dialysis. What is it like to feel now versus how you were feeling as the disease was getting worse?
JORDAN: Before I got on dialysis, the disease got worse. I was still trying to play baseball, and I was just constantly tired and, of course, being on dialysis during the school year, I was tired, and it's just the energy that I have now is so much different.
CHETRY: So, you feel a total difference in your energy level. That's amazing. That's so great just a few days after surgery. And Tom, I want to ask you, as well, about this. How are you doing physically?
WALTER: I'm doing great. I couldn't feel any better really. This is -- how I'm feel as far exceeded my expectations at this point. I'm going to be released from the hospital here in a few hours. I'll get back to Winston-Salem and get back to business as usual as quickly as possible.
CHETRY: I mean, when you tell people, you know, I'm going to go for it. I'm going to donate a kidney. I mean, what do doctors say? I mean, they probably gave you a laundry list of potential risks involved in the surgery. Does it make you think twice?
WALTER: No. Once I made up my mind, there wasn't anything that the doctors could have said. You know, I had done my homework, certainly. This is certainly not a decision that you make lightly and without doing due diligence. But, you know, once I made the decision, there wasn't anything that came up that made me second-guess that at any point.
CHETRY: And I know you have two little ones. You have an 11- year-old son and an eight-year-old daughter. What did your family say when you said that you wanted to go ahead with this and try to do your part to save Kevin's life?
WALTER: Well, I didn't tell my children until after the surgery, truthfully, just because I didn't want to worry them unnecessarily. So, I called them both, you know, at about 4 o'clock or 5 o'clock on the day of the surgery and got them both on the phone, and my daughter, Casey, said, dad, if you tell us you're OK, then we're OK. And I said, Casey, I'm doing great. And she said, well, then, we're great. And I've talked to them, you know, a couple times each day since then, and they've been very supportive.
CHETRY: Wow. That's amazing. Now, Kevin, your family as well, I mean, boy, this must be such a huge relief for them. Everybody in your family tried to get tested. Nobody turned out to be a match. And what was their reaction when they found out your coach was going to do it, step up and donate?
JORDAN: I could tell they're happy, especially my mom, because she -- I really -- I think both me and my mom thought we were going to be get matched, and she is pretty healthy, and my brother, he was going to volunteer to do it, and all along, coach had been volunteering and as soon as -- I think as soon as he found out my brother and my mom couldn't do it and when I told him that, he said he'd do it and I told my parents, coach said he'd do it, and he came down to Emory and got the tests.
I don't remember what day, but -- somebody called my phone and said coach is a match, and we were going to schedule surgery some time in February.
CHETRY: That's amazing. How is this going to change your relationship, you know, down the future? I mean, you owe your life to him. Obviously, you feel almost like he's a son to you for you to do this. And, hopefully, Kevin is going to be up and running and be able to play next year. What's that going to be like?
WALTER: Well, I think, certainly, I don't feel like I'll treat Kevin any differently than any of my players. They're all sons to me, you know, and they're all very important to me in my life, but Kevin and I will certainly have a little extra special bond, you know? Our blood runs together and that will be something that will certainly stay with us.
CHETRY: Well, I know you're eager to get back out there, Kevin, and you got a great prognosis for the future which is just wonderful news, and we wish you the best of luck. So, thanks so much for joining us. Kevin Jordan and Coach Tom Walter, really, an inspirational story for anyone that's heard it. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.
JORDAN: Thank you.
WALTER: Thank you.
CHETRY: T.J. HOLMES: All right, Kiran. Well, coming up, why is Bill Gates dumping Microsoft shares by the millions? What is he actually re- investing in?
Also, step into the airport, that body scanner, you're expose to do a little x-ray radiation, but is it dangerous? Twenty-seven minutes past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back. Top stories now.
A congressman's Craigslist scandal -- Republican Chris Lee stepping down and apologizing after he sent a flirty e-mail and a shirtless photo for a woman who was looking for a date on Craigslist. The married 46-year-old father of one stepped down only after three hours after the story broke. He said very sorry for, quote, "the harm my actions have caused my family, my staff, and my constituents."
HOLMES: Also, a deadly explosion in Allentown, Pennsylvania. A gas explosion is being described to destroy eight homes there. One person has been confirmed dead by the police chief there and another five still missing, but he's calling this now a recovery effort. Hundreds of people had to be evacuated.
CHETRY: Demonstrators in Cairo marching in the rain chanting "Down with Mubarak." In the meantime thousands of Egyptian workers staging strikes across the country in a show of solidarity with the protests, now in their seventeenth day.
HOLMES: And the Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano says this country's terror threat might be at its highest state since 9/11. She was testifying on Capitol Hill at a congressional hearing and told Congress that there was a bigger threat than bin Laden in Yemen.
Earlier this morning on "AMERICAN MORNING" I spoke to the former chief of the CIA's bin Laden unit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Were you shocked to hear the Homeland Security secretary be so blunt and frank?
MICHAEL SCHEUER, FORMER CIA COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: I was shocked to hear anyone tell the truth these days in either the Republican or the Democratic side. We are pretending as if this is not, for example, a religious war. Whether or not we like it, the people who are fighting us do believe they are defending their faith, and so their motivation, their endurance, their determination is something we haven't coped with in a long time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Instead of bin Laden this man they say is the threat. His name is Anwar al-Awlaki. He is a leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula based in Yemen. He was born in the U.S. and there is evidence in contact with the accused Ft. Hood shooter Nidal Hasan.
CHETRY: More than 15 million passengers have received full body scans at airports. The TSA has yet to release its finding on the safety of the x-ray equipment being used.
HOLMES: Some lawmakers calling this inexcusable. Our Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve is on this story for us. Good morning to you, Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, T.J. and Kiran. The Transportation Security administration uses two types of body imaging machines at airports. One type of them uses x-ray technology. The TSA says these machines are safe.
But some members of Congress want more information about the radiation they emit, and they are complaining that the TSA is not providing it in a timely manner. Congressman Jason Chaffetz is among those who want to review the machine's radiation inspection reports. He asked the TSA for them months ago but hasn't seen them yet. He and calls that, quote, "unacceptable and inexcusable. It and sends up a flashing red light," he says," that there might be something wrong."
The TSA says it will release the reports but is viewing them to make sure they don't contain sensitive security or privacy related information. In a letter to Congressman Ed Markie, another member of Congress who has concerns about the machines, TSA administrator John Pencil says a number of government agencies have evaluated the machines and concluded, quote, "radiation doses were well below the dose limit set by the government."
He also writes there has never been a case where malfunctioning equipment resulted in excess exposure. But Chaffetz responds it is not good enough for the TSA to simply say it is safe. The public has a right to know and should be able to access the data.
CHETRY: And does the TSA say how much radiation is emitted by these machine machines?
MESERVE: They do have some statistics. The claim that the radiation you get going through one of these machines is roughly equivalent to what you'd get in two minutes in the air at cruising altitude on an airplane. That is their position on this.
Jeanne Meserve for us this morning, thanks so much.
MESERVE: You bet.
HOLMES: Bill Gates selling shares of his company, the one he co- founded, Microsoft and selling what sounds like a lot. Christine Romans is "Minding your Business." That is conversation and stirs people up. It's his company and getting rid of stock?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: There is a lot of buzz about this this morning. Bill Gates is the biggest single shareholder in Microsoft, and for him to sell stock, many company executives sell shares to fund their personal endeavors like saving the world from malaria in Bill Gates' case.
This report says in February he sold five million shares on one day and then five million shares on the next day. When you look over the past 12 months, some 90 million shares he has sold, cutting his shares by more than 10 percent the past year.
He still owns 591 million shares according to information, and let me say that again -- 591 million shares. So, obviously, he is still a big, big stakeholder in this company. Any time the stock goes up and down it affects him to the tune of millions and millions and millions of dollars.
So again, he has pledged billions of dollars to his foundation. In many cases when you see billionaires who donate a lot of money or pledge a lot of money to something, how do they pay for those endeavors? They sell shares to do that.
Kiran had a good question about this Twitter evaluation. How do you value something like Twitter when it maybe has revenue but hasn't proven it's made a lot of money yet, and suddenly investment bankers and potential buyers of the company evaluating it at billions of dollars when you don't know how it will make any money?
Some of the most recent valuations out there, January of 2009 when it raised a little bit of money from new investors it was valued at $250 million, and in September 2009, a billion, in December, 2010, $3.7 billion. And now according to reports both "The New York Times" and "Wall Street Journal" it's worth between $8 billion and $10 billion dollars.
Who decide how much this is worth? It's 140 characters so we can talk and converse with each other. How is it going to make money? Recently made foray into advertising. What it's worth because of recent success of Facebook raising money and Groupon and others, and some who haven't made any money is going up. It sounds like a little bubbly to me like 2000, doesn't it?
CHETRY: I tried this celebrity endorsement through Twitter. Imagine, depending on how many followers you have you could be reaching millions and billions of people.
ROMANS: In my wildest imagination, I can't imagine somebody recommending shampoo make $10 billion. To me it doesn't make sense. But there are a lot of investment bankers out who think they have such a huge grip on how information is channeled and exchanged around the world that there is a huge financial possibility for these companies, and another company will be willing to pay that.
CHETRY: I get you. I still don't understand how you can slice and dice and package mortgages and send them of and hedge on them and make tons of billions of dollars.
ROMANS: Even people doing that didn't understand how they were doing that.
(LAUGHTER) CHETRY: Christine, thank you.
ROMANS: You're welcome.
HOLMES: Coming up, she is a 43-year-old mother and she is training for her sixth Olympic games. When is Dara Torres going to stop? We will ask her live. She is going to be here with us.
CHETRY: Also, tens of thousands of war widows angry and hurt by a very strange military policy, perhaps an accidental policy -- to collect survivor benefits, you have to remarry. We will be joined by Jason Carroll with more on what is going on and how Congress is hoping this time they can fix it. It's 38 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: It's about 20 minutes to the top of the hour here.
There is a military policy that is outraging many most didn't know about it. It requires military widows to remarry in order to collect benefits on late spouses. It affects tens of thousands of people.
CHETRY: A lot of people agree the rule doesn't make any sense. Jason Carroll is here to explain how this works. And it had good intentions?
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good intentions and meant to help, but instead it's hurting. They have been trying to change this since 2005. They have been at it for a while.
It's a federal law known as the "widow's tax" and affects some 55,000 military widows and widowers by requiring them to remarry after the age of 57 in order to collect their full survivor benefits. Those who remarry earlier than that miss out and those who never remarry lose out well.
Vivianne Wersel has been fighting to change this so-called widow's tax. Her husband died in 2005 in from a heart attack one week after returning from serving in Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VIVIANNE WERSEL, MILITARY WIDOW: To me, it's insulting that in order for me to receive something my husband worked so hard for and we worked as a team I need to be with another man and be married. That doesn't seem right. It's insulting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: Well, the law penalizes surviving military spouses like Wersel who are eligible for two types of benefits. The first is a survivor benefit paid for by the department of defense. The second is an annuity benefit provided by the Veterans Administration. The federal law does not allow these widows to collect a full amount from both benefits unless they remarry after the age of 57. Congress originally was behind the law, the thought being they were trying to help these survivors retain full benefits if they remarried later in life. Now two bills are being introduced, one in the Senate and one in the House, that would do away with the penalty. But Vivianne Wersel says this is not the first time Congress has tried to change the law.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's difficult to put up a fight. We have a bill every year for the past 11 years we fought Congress. We get the support, but we just never make it out the door when it comes down to who gets funded and who doesn't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: Wersel says one reason the legislation never makes it out of the door is the cost of implementing it, nearly $7 billion. Widows have been dealing with this since World War II. So maybe this time around, finally somebody will get it right.
HOLMES: Challenge any congressman to step forward and say, no, I would rather this stay in place for financial reasons and continue to have these women remarry after they have lost their husbands. Jason Carroll, we appreciate you this morning
CHETRY: The south is getting the last thing it needs, which is more snow this year. Brace for a messy morning commute if you're living in parts of the south. Rob Marciano has details coming up. It's 44 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Well, they can't get away from the snow in the south. We're taking a look at Raleigh, North Carolina where it's cloudy and 31. It's going up to a high of 46, which seems strange because they are also expecting snow.
HOLMES: Well, Rob can explain that. Can't you, Rob?
MARCIANO: Where are you guys? Raleigh, 36? No, they are done with the snow. Yes, you see the clear skies there? Yes, it took me a second.
CHETRY: Ok, well, it said snow according to Weather.com. I guess I should listen to RobMarciano.com.
MARCIANO: Boom. There you go. Wrong Web site.
HOLMES: Very nice.
MARCIANO: And as a matter fact, I wouldn't be saying that on the air. Because we tried to buy Weather.com a few years back and that deal went south. So --
HOLMES: I love it, Rob. MARCIANO: Anyway, I'll -- I'll get you out of that, Kiran. You guys, I'll see you tomorrow, hopefully.
CHETRY: It was nice knowing you. Hey, what's your personal e- mail account in case you're not here tomorrow?
MARCIANO: I'll Text it to you.
Good morning, everybody. And we do have, yes, there you go. Snow is gone there in Raleigh and we're looking at some sunshine trying to break through. It will be chilly, though, and temperatures will get into the 30s there.
So this is what's left of the storm that came through -- Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee. I mean, all of these states that typically don't get a ton of snow got it last night. And now we're seeing snow in places like eastern North Carolina and Dare County where you know, you typically you go there and enjoy the beaches.
As far as temperatures are concerned, minus 7 is what the temperature is now in Chicago. It's 16 degrees above zero in Dallas -- it's the actual temperature. They hit -- they hit a record low.
A number of record lows today being reported, let's go through some of those. Well, first off, the amount of snow that we saw in parts of Arkansas, two feet of snow. And the temperature -- that kind of helps kind of tool things off. So that's why we are seeing a lot of record lows this morning.
Little Rock to Huntsville and Nashville also seeing a fair amount of snow. Minus 27 -- these are actual temperatures without the wind chill -- minus 27 in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and Ponca City, minus 24. They also saw two feet of snow.
What do you do when you've got two feet of snow on your drive and you've got a pickup truck that -- let's say is rear-wheel drive? Well, check out some of these video, you kill two birds with one stone here.
You shovel your driveway. And you put the snow in the back of your pickup truck. That adds weight to the rear axle and, you know, it kind of helps you get through the snow a little bit better and you clear your driveway. Of course, it puts the neighborhood kid out of business, but that's what they're doing this morning across parts of northeastern Oklahoma under two feet of snow.
Guys, back up to you.
CHETRY: I think the neighborhood kids are sick of shoveling anyway by now.
MARCIANO: Yes, they may be -- they maybe on strike at this point.
(CROSSTALK) CHETRY: Any trick that will work, use it. Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right, guys.
HOLMES: Well, coming up, you want to stick around for the conversation I'm about to have with a woman who every time I see her, I'm required to ask her about her age. Yet she doesn't slap me anyway. Dara Torres is training for yet another Olympic Game. She is here to tell us why five is just not enough.
Stay here.
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HOLMES: That was just for you Dara. That song was just for you. When -- is five Olympics not enough? Well, when your name is Dara Torres, 12-time Olympic medalist, four of those, gold. She is now training for a sixth Olympic Games next year in London. She is right here with me live.
She is also a spokesperson for Susta, an all natural sugar substitute and doing a bit of whirlwind tour here in New York.
But good to see you it's been a little while.
DARA TORRES, 12 TIME OLYMPIC MEDALIST: Yes, it's been a while.
HOLMES: All right, I'm going to -- I'm going to put a name out to our viewers they may not know. I wonder if you know this name as well. The name is Oscar Swann. Do you know who that is?
TORRES: No.
HOLMES: All right. Oscar Swann holds the record for being the oldest Olympian to ever compete back in the early 1900s. He was 72. Is that what you're going for? You want the record?
TORRES: No. What about for women? What's the oldest for women?
HOLMES: I don't know.
TORRES: Ok.
HOLMES: Did you -- did you not have it yet?
TORRES: I -- I don't know -- I don't know what it is.
HOLMES: Ok, I think it's an equestrian, somebody in their 50s maybe.
TORRES: Ok, well, what about over a long time span like longevity?
HOLMES: That might be you.
TORRES: Yes, that would be good. I would be proud of that one. HOLMES: Ok, Dara, ok, your birthday is coming up what, April?
TORRES: Yes, April.
HOLMES: So you're going to be how old?
TORRES: 44.
HOLMES: 44, at some point, are we just -- is this just getting ridiculous?
TORRES: You know, you always ask me these things. You're the one that always ask me. Aren't you too old?
HOLMES: No, I don't say it like that.
(CROSS TALK)
TORRES: No, I know, but I know what you mean. But you know? It's -- it's like my book. Age is Just a Number.
HOLMES: Right.
TORRES: And I -- I definitely don't want to be one of those athletes that is on the top of their game and then goes downhill real quick. So I'm very leery of that and I'm very aware and I have to take things even a little slower now than I did training for 2008.
So if my body holds up, I think I have a shot at making it here.
HOLMES: How is it holding up?
TORRES: You know, it's doing pretty well right now.
HOLMES: How are you on time right now compared to the others out there?
TORRES: That, I don't know. But I have my first swim meet in a week. So we'll see --
HOLMES: Ok.
TORRES: -- what happens. It's just more of a training, you know, a stepping stone.
HOLMES: Ok, how -- how are your own personal times compared to what you were doing last year? A year before.
TORRES: Well, last year, I took the whole year off so -- so I'm just back into training. I had to have a major reconstructive knee surgery.
HOLMES: Yes.
TORRES: So I just started kicking in December so I know that it's still a process and I know I have a lot of room for improvement. So I'm just excited to get up and -- and start racing and see where it's going. And training is going really well right now.
HOLMES: Ok, the mind and the heart is still there. Is there ever a day you wake up and you feel like maybe this body is not where the heart and the mind is?
TORRES: Let's see, two days ago, my neck, I couldn't move it.
HOLMES: Ok.
TORRES: So -- and then about a month ago, my back was out. So yes, I -- I definitely have those days where -- where I'm like, oh my gosh, why am I doing this? But the days that I feel great are awesome.
HOLMES: Ok what are you -- you say oh, my gosh days. Do you ever think oh, my gosh in 2012 I'm going to be 45 years old in a pool now. There are -- the other swimmers if people just go down and look up the other swimmers on the team of '08, 15, 19, 21, 25, 41.
But I mean, you go through and you're going to be 45. There're going to be teenagers on that team you're competing against.
TORRES: You know, I just hope I'm not menopause by that point in time.
HOLMES: All right.
TORRES: If my menopause is delayed until after that, I think I'll be good to go.
HOLMES: I was not going to bring that up.
TORRES: I know you were thinking that.
HOLMES: I was not.
(CROSSTALK)
TORRES: Whatever.
HOLMES: Tell me here though. Let's get away from that for a moment. So many women look at you and find you an inspiration like wow, she looks great at that age. Tell me, how many days a week and how many hours are you in the pool?
TORRES: Right now I'm in the pool four days a week for a couple of hours and I do a lot of strength training, about an hour and a half a day, four days a week and I also do an hour stretching which is great for my body, helps my recovery.
HOLMES: You think that throws some women off some time because they see you and say, wow, if she can do it at that age -- but this is your full-time job.
TORRES: It is. And that's the deception a little bit. The last book I wrote I explained like you can look like this. What I said -- sorry -- the way I look people want to look like. You have to understand that I do this every day and I do this for a living. So I try to get them to realize that they can reach their goals and their dreams.
HOLMES: Ok. What would you look like if you stopped getting in the pool four or five days a week and swimming and the gym? What would you look like?
TORRES: You know, I wouldn't be as muscular but I'm very particular about what I put in my body. And I try to stay away from like sugars and calories and try to do all natural sweeteners like you mentioned at the beginning with Susta. And I also probably wouldn't be in the gym as much.
But I do love working out and I do like the way it makes me feel and the way I look. So, I would probably still be in shape.
HOLMES: Did you ever get a sense as well -- we're getting ready to wrap up here -- that, you know what, maybe I should step out of the way and let some of these other young bucks get in here and give it a shot even if you are able to put up a better time?
TORRES: Well, I'll never forget being in the locker room in 2008 in the Olympics trials and I made the 50-freestyle. And a girl comes up to me and says, you know, because of you I didn't make the Olympic team. I'm like, well that's really not because of me, you know. And you know what; to me whoever is the fastest gets to go. It doesn't matter what age you are.
HOLMES: What else can you do if you stopped swimming? I mean no offense. That sounded bad. But no --
TORRES: Yes. Thanks a lot.
HOLMES: What will you do after swimming? What would be your full-time job after that? You haven't had a job since '84, have you?
TORRES: Yes. Of course I have. God, he's brutal. You're brutal today. You know, I'm going to get back into television, so watch out.
HOLMES: We are always watching out. Dara, you know, I absolutely love talking to you. We have been doing this round and round for a few years now. The first meet that will test you is when again?
TORRES: Is next week.
HOLMES: It's next week.
TORRES: Yes. Grand prix.
HOLMES: We will talk to you then.
TORRES: All right. Thanks, T.J. HOLMES: Good to see you so much.
We are getting close to the top of the hour. A quick break and let her slap me. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: What a sweetheart, Dara Torres.
HOLMES: She's a sweetheart.
CHETRY: She makes you want to root for her, if you didn't already.
HOLMES: You can't help but to do so. We'll see what happens next year, going for the Olympics.
CHETRY: Good for her. Rock on.
Well, thanks so much for joining us today. We're going to be back here tomorrow. It is -- it will be Friday, won't it?
HOLMES: It will be. I know Kyra Phillips is looking forward to it maybe, as well.
Kyra, good morning to you.
