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CNN Sunday Morning

Dead Heat in Iowa; Banana Sam Returned to Zoo; New Laws Go on the Books

Aired January 01, 2012 - 07:00   ET

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

E.D. HILL, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN Center, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

Happy New Year! Doesn't it feel good? Good morning. I'm E.D. Hill.

Fireworks exploding all across the world last night as people rang in the New Year from London to Sydney to New York. We'll take a look at how people celebrated across the globe.

Plus, we're just two days before the Iowa caucuses. And the latest poll numbers show that Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are neck in neck. So, what happens to the other contenders after Tuesday? We'll go live to Des Moines for the answers.

And my kids were so upset about this but I do have great news to report this morning. Banana Sam has been found. The squirrel monkey was stolen from the San Francisco Zoo. Find out where he was.

ANNOUNCER: From CNN's world headquarters, bringing you news and analysis from across the nation and around the globe. Live from Studio 7, this is CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

HILL: And again, happy first day of 2012.

For those of you that may have been up a little late at your own New Year's celebrations, we wanted to show you how the rest of the country rang in the New Year. So, we start in New York.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

CROWD: Five, four, three, two, one!

(CHEERS)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HILL: Now, the fireworks of the political kind. There are just two days left until the first official votes in the Republican presidential race, and it is a statistical dead heat. But as our political editor Paul Steinhauser reports, there may be a surprise ending in Iowa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, E.D., good morning.

A new survey here in the Hawkeye State is making headlines with two days to go until the caucuses. It's called the Iowa poll and it's put out by the "Des Moines Register." That's the big newspaper in the Iowa state capital.

Let's take a look at the numbers right off the bat. This was in Tuesday through Friday. There is former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney at 24 percent, followed closely by Congressman Ron Paul at 22 percent. That's basically a dead heat for the top spot here among likely Iowa GOP caucusgoers.

Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator at 15 percent. We've seen his poll numbers surging in this poll and another poll earlier on the week.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 12 percent. His gone the other way -- as Santorum goes up, he's going down.

Rick Perry, the Texas governor, at 11 percent.

But "The Register" breaks it down and shows what the numbers look like from the last two days, Thursday and Friday. Take a look at this. There's a change there. There's Romney again at 24 percent, he stays the same. But Santorum now in the number two spot at 21 percent and Paul at 18 percent.

This poll is considered the gold standard. It pretty much got it's spot on four years ago when former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee pulled the upset over Romney. That's why this poll, the Iowa poll by the "Des Moines Register" is much watched by all journalist and caucusgoers as well -- E.D.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Thank you very much, Paul.

Now to some other headlines this morning. Iran seems to be one step closer to becoming a nuclear nation. The country's semiofficial news agency reported scientists successfully built and tested their first nuclear fuel rod. Natural uranium fuel rods normally used for nuclear reactors. We will have much more on this developing story and implications for Iran and the U.S. later this morning.

An active duty soldier was arrested in Texas trying to get through airport security with explosives in his bag. It happened in Midland, Texas. The airport was evacuated but later reopened. Investigators say Trey Scott Atwater had a military grade explosive in his bag but wouldn't be more specific than that. He's reportedly heading to North Carolina after a visit in Texas.

And there were more fires set in Los Angeles last night. Extra firefighters and police are hitting the streets to deal with the recent rash of arsons. There have been more than three dozen so far. Almost all the fires started in parked cars. Many spread to nearby homes and buildings. And it's happened again in Beebe, Arkansas. Local reports say 80 black birds just simply fell out of the sky yesterday. This is video from last year when as many as 4,000 of the birds died. Experts say fireworks scared the birds making them run into walls, fly into trees and each other. Fireworks are being blamed again this year.

The city imposed an emergency ban on fireworks yesterday but not until as many as 20 birds had already hit the ground.

It is now just five past the hour. And Reynolds Wolf has our first check of the weather.

Hopefully, you're not going to hold my feet to the fire over my predictions with college football.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We'll get to that later. There's time for everything. We've got -- you know, we've got the rest of this hour to get through. But a full hour later on, you're not going to get away. OK? You're staying here, so we're going to be able to chat about your picks.

One of the picks you're going to have today with weather is going to be at least for the worst pick in the Midwest. Midwest is going to be clobbered today. We're talking about a combination of rain, of snow. And even that, some strong winds moving through places like, well, don't you it, Iowa.

We're going to be seeing along I-35 strong wind. You don't see much on radar. All the activity on radar is now moving into Chicago where it's going to start off with a little light to heavy rain, then snow.

Now, I'll tell you what? Although there's not a whole lot that's not happening in the state of Michigan, what we do anticipate in Michigan later on is that we can expect some heavy snow there. When I say heavy snow, about five inches in some spots, so just be prepared. So, switching from rain to snow.

Sorry Michigan, get ready for it. Expect rain to continue in Iowa.

Back to you, E.D.

HILL: And we go to Iowa right now. One of the political analysts watching all things Iowa joins me now from Des Moines.

Patricia Murphy is the founder and editor of "Citizen Jane Politics".

Patricia, now, as we heard earlier in report, the "Des Moines Register" poll has been a strong indicator of performance in Iowa. Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, all looking strong. In fact, Santorum moving ahead. Does this prove it's all about the organization on the ground when it comes to doing well there?

PATRICIA MURPHY, CITIZEN JANE POLITICS: Organization is crucial. Just as crucial is momentum. And what the "Des Moines Register" poll shows us is that somebody like Rick Santorum is on his way up and somebody like Ron Paul might be slightly on his way down. So, it's a very, very predictive poll, something that journalists watch all the time. It was the first time we knew that Mike Huckabee was going to do well in 2008. So, when the news came out that not only is Mitt Romney doing extremely well but Rick Santorum is doing well, too. It's exactly what these campaigns want to hear.

HILL: Feel free to move your hair out of your face. I understand. I've been out there in the winds also.

(CROSSTALK)

HILL: Yes. We aren't going to hold it against you.

Is this Santorum thing for real? Because, you know, I've been out there. I know the excitement of finding something new to report on during the political season. But, you know, I heard people saying, oh, his audiences doubled. And in many times, that meant like from 20 to 40 and a lot of that was media reporters.

So, is he really -- are you on the ground seeing that surge that we've been talking about?

MURPHY: Yes. I'm on the ground seeing that surge. I do think Rick Santorum is for real.

And the reason I think that is because I also went to Herman Cain's event when he dropped out, and I asked a lot of social conservatives there who they liked, who they're going to go to. The conventional wisdom is was that they will go to Newt Gingrich. And really, everyone had thought, they like Rick Santorum. To them, for social conservatives, he's the last man standing. He's the one they are interested in.

So, they don't want to go to Mitt Romney. They don't want to go to Ron Paul. And none of these other candidates who have had their booms and bust are still standing for them to go to. So, I do think the Rick Santorum momentum is absolutely real.

HILL: So, where does it go from here? Because, you know, everybody had been talking about Michele Bachmann taking Iowa, because it's her home state. Now, Santorum, if he does well here, goes on to New Hampshire. And that, of course, should be a natural strong spot for Mitt Romney, being the former governor of Massachusetts.

So, does Santorum have the same kind of momentum in New Hampshire and same kind of, you know, groundswell?

MURPHY: He doesn't have the same kind of momentum in New Hampshire but he is trying to play in New Hampshire. And that's crucial.

What he really needs to do after this if he does place really in the top three, he's going to have a big effort to get some fund-raising operations going because money follows momentum in all of these races. So, he needs more money to get more troops on the ground, to get volunteers organized. And really, what he and a lot of these conservatives are looking at is South Carolina. I think most of them have written off New Hampshire as Mitt Romney territory and now, they really want to make a play in South Carolina. That's certainly where Santorum is going to go from here.

HILL: You know, as we've said over the past couple of days, Iowa and New Hampshire to some extent are the place you sort of weed out candidates. You don't necessarily pick the winners but they weed out the losers.

I've heard that Michele Bachmann is just really low on cash. And now, she's certainly not looking good in the polls, if you believe the polls. Does she -- if she isn't in the top three, is this a go home?

MURPHY: I don't know if it's the top three. If she comes in dead last and that's where she is in the polls right now, I think that's when she has -- I think that's when she has to get out. It looks like that's where she's going to finish up.

She's running out of money. And as I'm sure you know, a significant number of her staff and volunteers have left her.

HILL: Yes.

MURPHY: So, she is running out of opportunities. This is where she needed to do really well. Like you said, she mentions everywhere that Iowa is where she was born. If she can't do better than last place in Iowa, I don't know where her campaign goes from here.

HILL: Well, that sort of sums it up.

Patricia, thank you very much.

MURPHY: Thanks, E.D.

HILL: All right. I'm going to talk about Banana Sam because my children were watching the program yesterday and were so concerned about him all day long, they wanted updates. Good news, the San Francisco Zoo welcoming back the monkey. We tracked his adventures on Twitter. And I've got the update and a few more monkey tweets when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: You know, there are some things you just don't do enough of in life. And here on the show, we thought, we don't go to the South Pole often enough.

So, we're going to say good morning. This is how scientists at the South Pole station rang in the New Year.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

HILL: I can see a little bit of skin. So, it couldn't be that cold, could it? No, no, no. They said it was actually pretty balmy. Temperature is only negative 12.

WOLF: Don't ever say that scientists don't know how to throw down. HILL: That's right.

WOLF: Because, you know, when you want to party, those are the guys to hang with.

HILL: And you know, you don't even have to use the refrigerator out there, no need to chill champagne or, you know, cold down the beer.

WOLF: Sit outside, give it a good 10, 15 seconds, and blam, you're ready to rock and roll. I mean, what's not to enjoy, a parka, and a nice of adult beverage, and you're subzero temperatures.

HILL: And then do the wave, whoa. OK, it's over to you, Reynolds.

WOLF: Oh my gosh. You know, a lot of people happy to be geologists. There's one story that they would be very interested in, that happens to be story that took place in Ohio, eastern Ohio. Let the earth shake when it will. Yes, 2011 rumbled to a close in eastern Ohio, a 4.2 magnitude earthquake hit only five miles outside Youngstown, rattling buildings and nerves but not much damage.

Isn't this typical? The quake dislodged some bricks from this chimney that you see here at a nearby McDonald's. It also created a few cracks in the walls.

The quick hit one day after the state announced it would stop work on a fluid injection well in Youngstown. Talk about timing. Concerns it might have contributed to a recent spike in seismic activity in the area. Crazy stuff.

You know, some crazy we're going to be seeing today is going to take place in parts of the Midwest. Not necessarily in Ohio, but rather back towards Iowa in terms of strong winds. But it's going to be the western Great Lakes where you're going to have some really rough first rain, then you got the snow coming in. It's all going to be one giant winter mixing bowl that's going to bring the rain first to Green Bay, southward to Chicago. And then as the system crosses Lake Michigan, it's going to intensify and bring anywhere from three to five inches of snowfall for parts of south -- definitely south Michigan, even into U.P.

And you can expect some delays in places like Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit. Detroit obviously with those snow showers. The wind could be an issue, too. Expect some backups in an hour or some places a little bit less, Cincinnati and Boston. Boston, it's going to be an issue with fog up by Boston Common and the Frog Pond, it's going to a nice day if you don't mind the fog. Fenway Park, man, how long will it take for spring and baseball to get here?

Take a look at the wind. This is what we're talking about, gusts up to 40 miles per hour, snow across parts of the heartland, the two to four inches of snowfall near Green Bay really can't compare to what you're going to find on the other side of the lake. Take a look up towards parts of, say, Travers City, 10 to 20 inches of snowfall.

Great skiing up in northern Michigan, highlands going to get more than that, maybe 24 inches of snowfall, have your snowfall forming south. Winds are even stronger when you get down towards St. Louis and into parts of Iowa, anywhere from 55 to 60 miles per hour. And we can expect that system to slowly crawl its way to the east. Right behind it, plenty of dry air in Texas and back over parts of the Central Plains. Pacific Northwest, it's going to be a rainmaker for you with a touch of snowfall there.

Your temperatures as we wrap this thing up quickly, my producer, Alicia Eakin, is going to kill me if I don't hurry -- 45 in Kansas City, 40 in Denver, 79 degrees in Los Angeles, what a beautiful day there, 61 in Atlanta, 78 in Tampa, 60 in Washington and New York ringing in the New Year with 53 degrees.

That's your forecast.

HILL: You're looking a little tired. And I know why.

WOLF: You know exactly why.

HILL: It wasn't the Auburn game. It wasn't the hooch late at night. It was your concern for the lost monkey, Banana Sam.

WOLF: Don't I look distraught?

HILL: You do, you do. Except now jubilation because Banana Sam is back home after a day on the lam from the San Francisco zoo where some vandal cut the wire and pulled him out. Someone found Banana Sam just playing about a park about 10 miles away, put him into the thir backpack and then called police.

Now, during all this, an anonymous person had created a Twitter account with frequent updates about Banana Sam. And even CNN made the Twitter feed. One of the tweets was, "I was excited about being on CNN until I found out it didn't stand for Capuchin News Network." Also this one, and just this morning, "Just telling the other monkeys what it's like out here. We all prefer the free prix fixe dinners in here."

Officials at the zoo say Banana Sam was in good physical condition, but visibly hungry, trembling, and thirsty.

WOLF: Unbelievable.

HILL: But now, everybody is going to go to the San Francisco Zoo to see Banana Sam because he's famous.

WOLF: Yes. What will he say to the monkeys in the cage, dude, you will not believe what I've been through. It was great -- a great time. Probably so. I mean --

HILL: In monkey talk.

WOLF: In monkey talk, he's going to write a bestseller.

HILL: How does that go exactly?

WOLF: You know, I'm not going to go. I'm not going to go there. With full sleep, yes.

HILL: Still ahead, a New Year ushers in new laws. We will have the buzz on mixing beer and caffeine.

And help for kids going to college. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Good morning. Just down the street here in Atlanta, the giant peach drop. But you're looking at New York, just down from CNN offices there. In Times Square, it was the giant ball dropping. A different scene this morning as I'm sure the cleanup continues.

Well, it's January 1st, 2012, time for a New Year, a new start. And this is America. That means new laws.

CNN's Josh Levs looks at some changes now on the books now as of today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are some of the laws that come from a serious place. But, you know, a lot of people find some laws more surprising, or let's just say unexpected.

One of them is about mixing alcohol with caffeine. There's a new law in California that's banning beer with caffeine added. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has said caffeine and alcohol is a public health concern.

HILL: What? They are going to sit in every bar -- what is that drink called?

LEVS: You're thinking of "Four Loko," right?

HILL: No, some drink they mix at the bar. You know, it's a big thing when you're 22, it's alcohol and coffee. And, you know, you get the buzz and this hyper.

LEVS: It could be going in that direction. You can't sell beer which caffeine has been added as another ingredient.

And there's another one, you know, we talk about --

HILL: There goes the fun.

(LAUGHTER)

HILL: I'm teasing. Go ahead.

LEVS: In California, we mentioned earlier about cough syrup.

HILL: Yes.

LEVS: This one, it took me by surprise. This is an over-the-counter cough medicine that contains what's called DSM, no longer sold to minors in California. That's Dextromethorphan. It's in a lot of offer the counter cough medicines. But there are some young people who have been using it as a recreational drug. So in order to try to avoid that, they are making it prescription only for minors now.

HILL: I've seen in some pharmacies have all that stuff now behind the counters, even if they could have it out.

LEVS: All right.

HILL: Just to be helpful, they are keeping the stuff back there and say, why do you want to buy that?

LEVS: Yes. And I got two more things to show you. In Oregon, they are going to require computerized breathalyzers for DUI convicts.

And, finally, one more from Oregon, that I think is really interesting and really nice in a lot ways. And that is that state colleges are waiving tuition for foster children up to age 25. If you're a foster child 25 or younger, no tuition and no fees for state colleges and state universities.

So, those are among new laws.

HILL: Good.

LEVS: You want to give them a fighting chance, you know?

HILL: You do. And there are -- you know, if you are in states illegally, there's a lot of benefits states give to you, why not give to foster kids. I like that. Anything to help kids who have already had a rough time of it. That's what we need to do.

LEVS: Yes. So, this is an interesting law. If it worked out in Oregon, you might have other states follow that law.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Josh was telling me about all this yesterday but he couldn't get through them all. There's like 40,000 new laws on the books in 2012. Some of them are very interesting and good. Some of them are totally stupid.

To find out about the new ones in your state, go to CNN.com/newsroom and you can read them all.

A legal issue is uniting five GOP candidates for president. Rick Perry started it and four others are joining them. Who are they suing and why? That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Twenty-eight past the top of the hour. Checking our top stories.

Four other candidates are now joining Rick Perry, suing to get on the ballot in the Virginia primary. All claim Virginia's election laws are too restrictive. It requires candidates to get 10,000 signatures from registered voters spread over every district.

Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum's names are now on the lawsuit with Perry.

Whoever does get the nomination will have to discuss and probably deal with Iran and the nuclear weapons issue. The latest news are very unsettling. The country's semi-official news agency reports that scientists successfully built and tested their first nuclear fuel rod, that is a key step for eventually a nuclear program.

Some New Year's Eve partygoers in Florida ran into problems last night. Their pirate-themed party ship ran aground off clear water. Fog apparently contributing to the problem.

And then to make matters worse, another pirate ship was sent out to retrieve the stranded people and it also ran aground. Probably, the navigators were a tad befuddled around that time at night.

Police in boats ferried about 100 people back to shore.

In the Philippines, hundreds of people faced a much more serious New Year's Eve problem. Fireworks and gunfire injured nearly 500 people across the capital of Manila. Eighteen people were hit by stray bullets fired into the air to welcome in the New Year.

Stay with us. "SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." begins in just a moment. But, first, we'll take a look at how the world celebrated a New Year.