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Man Who Fell Into Florida Sinkhole Thursday Presumed Death; Cuts Take Effect: What Happens Next; Arias Breaks Down at Murder Trial; Baby Boom in Northeast Thanks to Sandy; Unveiling of "Titanic 2"

Aired March 02, 2013 - 17:00   ET

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


ALINO CHO, CNN ANCHOR: And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hi everyone. I'm Alina Cho in for Don Lemon.

We want to get you up to speed now on the hour top stories, including this. President Obama and Congressional Republicans are pointing the finger at each other today over those forced government spending cuts. Last night, the President signed an order required by law that put into effect those $85 billion in automatic cuts. The cuts will come over time. We'll have a live report from Washington in the next few minutes.

Want to head now to Seffner, Florida. The site of that enormous sinkhole that opened up on Thursday night, that literally swallowed up a man while he was sleeping inside his house. You're looking at live pictures right now. Let's go to a news conference happening right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can't bring a lot of equipment on to the site. Any further work will need to be done from the perimeter. We're going to be bringing in shortly some heavy equipment to help us with that part of the process which is the demolition. Unfortunately, we have not been able to determine the whereabouts of Mr. Bush, Jeff Bush, who is a gentleman that was consumed by the sinkhole.

We've told the family that. And, again, we're expressed our sincere condolences to them. The -- as we reported throughout the day and last night, the sinkhole is extremely large. It's a huge chasm. Extending down 50, 60 feed. With all the equipment that we brought in and specialized help, we just have not been able to locate Mr. Bush. And so for that reason, the rescue effort is being discontinued.

We continue to bring in all of the necessities that the family needs. They're being provided with food and clothing and shelter. The Red Cross, I want to say special thanks to the Red Cross. They have been here throughout, providing for the needs of the family community. Also the Hillsborough County Crisis Center has provided counselors which at this point is something very necessary for the family.

So at this point, I'll be happy to take any questions. We have Ross -- here, who is our expert on the sinkhole issue. And we have others here who are going to ask your specific questions, so at this point, I'll open it up. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: When is the demolition going to take place?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: It's likely the demolition will begin tomorrow morning. I have no idea exactly.

INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: No, at this point, it's really not possible to recover the body.

(INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

We believe that that will be the case, yes. Again, we're dealing with a very unusual sinkhole. It's very deep. It's very wide. It's very unstable. And that's why I said that any further demolition can't even take place on the site. It needs to be done from outside the perimeter with huge equipment that we'll be able to reach in and bring out whatever we can of the house.

Now we have given the neighbors on either side the opportunity to go in and retrieve what they could, and the retrieve of what they could and within a short period of time. And whatever the demolition crew can bring out with the equipment tomorrow, from the Bush home, we will attempt to do that. But, again, this is a very unusual situation. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Do you know how wide it is at this point?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I'm sorry?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Do you know how wide it is at this point?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Let me ask Ross to come up and address that.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: It's still very columnar, and so it's probably about 20 feet wide at the top. It most likely builds out to a little bit wider than that, which is what the real concern is. Because it makes the upper section of it unstable. And the real problem with it is it's totally within the structure. So that if there is any additional collapse, and you have someone near it, they're at risk. They're for serious injury or death also.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: -- about 50 or 60 --

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: It's deep, yes.

CHO: All right. You're listening to a news conference live from Seffner, Florida, the site of that enormous sinkhole that opened up about 48 hours ago. We want to go straight to the scene now.

CNN's John Zarrella is there. And John, it appears that the headline is that they have called off the search. And they still have not located the body of Jeff Bush. Explain to us what we just heard.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, no. And you know, I think that it was pretty clear that that was -- from the get go trying to get his body out of there given, the nature of the sinkhole. And for all intents and purposes. You know, they never -- inside the house, so they never made any foret in there since the initial collapse. So, you know, the rescue effort that they talked about was really a rescue from the periphery to see if they could determine any sounds of life.

It wasn't as if people went in and tried to dig for a body. And I think the other head line, of course, on all of this is that that being said, that it is very likely that, you know, Mr. Bush, so you know, his body would remain in tombed in there and that there is no way they will ever be recover his body and that the demolition effort would begin sometime tomorrow as they start to tear the house down, piece by piece, and after letting the family try to get in and get some of the belongings out. So, those are the, you know, the news that is made this evening here -- Alina.

CHO: John, sinkholes obviously in Florida are relatively common, and yet I was struck by sort of the language they were using in that news conference, saying that this is an unusual sinkhole, it's deep, it is wide, it is unstable. You've covered these types of stories before. I mean, have you ever seen anything like this?

ZARRELLA: You know, no. I mean, you know, you've seen sinkholes, certainly, that have been a lot bigger. We have seen them swallow up entire lakes, we've seen them swallow up car dealer ships in the Orlando area, so they can be quite massive. But they can also be there shallow. In this case, it's, you know, very, very deep. It's not very wide at this point. You know, only about 20 feet across, he said. But the depth, you know, 40 to 50 feet, is a significant depth for that sinkhole. And that is one of the unusual things about it, is the depth that this sinkhole went down, and the fact that it sits directly over the house. And that the house hasn't collapsed.

CHO: Right. And John, I know they're watching that situation very closely. All right. And John Zarrella, live for us in Seffner, Florida. We know you're on top of this story. We'll check back with you in the next hour or so.

ZARRELLA: We want to head back to our top story now, the forced spending cuts that were once considered unthinkable are now officially in effect. President Obama signed that order last night as required by law. Now, Washington is bracing for the fallout.

Our chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash, standing by in Washington. Hey, Dana. Great to see you as always. You and I were both part of that press corps that was covering the fiscal cliff around the holidays, and I think everyone was thinking in terms of a Doom's scenario. But the reality with this is that these cuts are going to take some time to kick in, aren't they?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They are. And the reality is that, that is why they're being allowed to kick in. I mean, let's face it. That if these really were cuts that politicians and both sides of the aisle were going to hear about loudly, immediately, they likely wouldn't have happened. But both sides made a calculus particularly Republicans, that it was more important for this to go through and keep their promise on cutting spending and doing -- trying to do away with the debt and the deficit than not. So listen to what the blame game is -- is -- what's happening with the blame game, because it's continuing.

CHO: And Dana --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: Probably it would be a lot better ways to reduce that spending. Than by the formulaic approach by the sequester, but we don't intend to reduce spending a penny less than we all promised the American people we would reduce spending in August of 2011.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These cuts are not smart. They'll hurt our economy. And cost us jobs. And Congress can turn them off at any time. As soon as both sides are willing to compromise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Congress can turn them off. You might have seen the sound bite from Senator Mitch McConnell there, looking like he was in an airport. That's because he was, Alina. They're not here and they haven't been here since Thursday so Congress will not turn them off, at least in the next few days and probably even after that.

CHO: I know you always say don't try to get in the way of a member of Congress and his flight home for the weekend, right, Dana?

Meanwhile, if all of this sequestration news wasn't enough already, there's talk of sort of the next bit of fun and crisis that's on the horizon, which is a government shutdown. I mean, how soon is that likely to happen? And when are we going to start talking about that again?

BASH: Well, we're going to start talking about it right now. Of course. No time like the present. The deadline is 25 days from now. So really is around the corner. And the deadline is for the spending that is -- the bill that is currently in place to expire. So that is the time that Congress has to pass something else for the funding to keep going and the government. The good news that we heard out of the meeting yesterday with the president, Congressional leaders, frankly, the only news, was the President and the republican House Speaker John Boehner, saying that they neither wants the government to shut down.

So already this coming week, House Republicans are going to move legislation to keep the government running through the end of the fiscal year, which, of course, is September 30th. There are differences, though, shocker, between what the House Republicans want to do and the Senate Democrats want to do just in terms of basic priorities.

So we'll see how they work it out. But Alina, my sense is hearing from the leaders and talking to sources privately, they're going to figure out a way to work this one out. Because it is very different to shut the government down than $85 billion in spending cuts.

CHO: So, let's hope so. All right. Dana Bash, great to see you as always.

BASH: You too.

CHO: Eighty five billion dollars in cuts. Well, sounds like a lot. We're going to put that number in perspective, just ahead.

And take a look at this. Tanker truck explodes. But much more to this story than just those huge flames you see there. We'll tell you about it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHO: Thirteen minutes after the hour. Police say, a domestic dispute led to that fiery scene near Macon, Georgia. According to police reports, Nicholas Owens intentionally smashed his car into that fuel tanker after he have an argument with his wife. They say, Owens wanted to kill himself. Now, he did burn his legs in the fire but then got out and tried to leap from a bridge before being stopped by police. The tanker truck driver was not injured.

Let's cut through the fog and get a reality check on the spending cuts, shall we? Eighty five billion, certainly sounds like a lot of money and it is. But where are we going to see the cuts?

Our Tom Foreman is here in Washington. So, Tom, great to see you. I -- you know, I'm trying to cut through all of this. And is it safe to say that approximately a nine percent cut across the board is a good sort of overall way to sort of look at starting to talk about this? Break it down for us.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's reasonable to talk about it that way. But then you have to put it in context. For example, remember the sequestration is a ten-year deal. There's across-the-board cut right now but then for the remaining 90 years, we're talking about cutting the amount of increase, which most people would not consider a cut. So that will be a little bit different down the road.

But let's look at that number you mentioned in a minute ago. If you look at all this, the federal budget, $3.8 trillion what we're talking about. For all these different programs. And we're only talking about taking out $85 billion. So a lot of people have been sending me questions, saying, how is it possible that $85 billion can have an impact on all of this? The first way it has an impact is because we're not talking about all of this.

That $85 billion is really only coming out of part of the budget. It's coming out of this spending up here. It's not coming out of the entitlement programs, by and large. These are pretty much safe. And this is the bigger part of the budget, by the way. More over here than over here. But we're looking at discretionary spending, and we're trying to take it out of that. Discretionary spending has actually been getting somewhat smaller, and when you look at entitlements, you see a really important trend here.

Look at this, if you go to the next page here, this is just defense spending, this is one of the things in discretionary spending and look at overall defense spending since 1962. As a percentage of the total budget, it's been getting smaller. An absolutely number getting bigger, sure. But as a percentage of the total budget, it's been getting smaller. Look at the orange line here.

This is entitlements, the programs we're not addressing. Entitlements have been steadily getting bigger. As a portion of the total budget. So really, that's the issue here. Many, many people are saying the problem is neither party wants to attack the meat of the problem. Which is you have to talk about entitlements, as painful as it may or everything we're going through may not produce much result anyway.

CHO: Let's talk about the bottom line here. And how, because everybody is sort of asking the question, I mean, how is it going to affect me. Right? So, you know, there's a lot of people asking the question, you know, could this send us back into a recession. I mean, is that something that really is possible at this point? Is that what the smart minds are saying?

FOREMAN: Everyone is talking about. I'll give you the short answer first in the longer. And the short answer is, it's possible, it's not probable. And let me explain why. If we look at some of the indicators of a recession, gross domestic product is considered one of these. If you get two fiscal quarters in a row of negative GDP, where it's actually moving down, you have a problem. The last quarter of last year, we thought it had moved down by tiny sliver.

And then there was a recalculation just the other day, and apparently moved up by a tiny sliver. That's not good. It needs to be doing better than that. But nonetheless, it's not likely you're going to get two of these in a row right now. Doesn't look like that. If you did, that would be a real caution. But because it's not doing so well, we'll get a yellow for a caution. By the way, general indicators of what can determine a recession has come your way.

Employment, we all know the picture with that. Employment has not been getting worse, particularly, in the past few -- couple years, I guess. But -- particularly not in the past year. But it's not really getting better, either. So, it's kind of creeping along. And it could get worse under the sequester. So that also is a bit of a cautionary here. The sequester itself of course is a negative over here, that's obviously going to make some jobs go away, even if you just do the government jobs, that will be some going away and it is a problem out here.

The one real bright spot is housing. Housing is doing pretty good in this country now, a lot better than it was, recovering some value. More building and all of that. So what do we have a recession? To have a recession, you need to see two or three of these red/orange colors in here to say a recession is likely. We don't have that right now. This isn't good thousand news for the economy, but probably it's not a recession -- Alina.

CHO: And that is good news. And here's one question for you that you can answer. If I head to Washington, will you teach me how to use that magic wall once and for all?

FOREMAN: Sure. We'll have a blast. Nothing else to do here these days.

CHO: All right. Tom Foreman, great to see you. Thanks so much.

Well, it is said that if you want a true test of a relationship, take a road trip. But could you and your spouse endure a flight to another planet that lasted more than 500 days? That's next.

And later, you're riding a bus when the driver just passes out. So what do you do? Passengers jump into action. We'll show you the drama as it unfolds, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHO: In the '60s TV show "Lost in Space," a married couple leads a team planning to colonize outer space, but not everyone on that show had such unwavering faith in marriage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Whatever happened after he kissed her, anyway?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: They were married and lived happily ever after.

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Married, lived happily ever after?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: You are correct. It does not compute.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: Psychologist Wendy Walsh is here with us today. So Wendy, you know, this past week, you may have heard that this Mars mission was announced.

And the goal was to send not just any two astronauts, but a married couple, a man and a woman, to space. Five hundred days as you fly within 100 miles of Mars. One of the organizers of this mission is actually the first-ever space tourist Dennis Tito. He says and look at your screen there, "When you're out that far and the earth is a tiny blue pinpoint, you're going to need someone you can hug." So, is that really true in cramped quarters, just be with those you're close to?

WENDY WALSH, HUMAN BEHAVIOR PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, you know, ideally, Alina that this is important that we have somebody who is our secure base. Our primary attachment figure. Psychologically, that makes us feel good. It reduces anxiety, it can reduce our blood pressure, it can make us feel good. And so the point is, choosing the right couple, I guess.

CHO: Well, you know, I actually spoke to this one couple who you'll hear from tomorrow. It's not final that it's them, but they're in the running, certainly. You know, I ask them this, and I'm going to ask you, as well. And how do you not kill each other when you're in such tight quarters for 500 days straight? What are your tips for that?

WALSH: Well, I think they're going to have to choose a couple who has really good conflict resolution skills. You know the famous researcher on couples' conflicts, Dr. John Gotman, has that four- minute test, you know, where you put a couple in a room for four minutes, they try to solve a problem together, and he can predict with like 92 percent accuracy whether they'll be divorced within five years or not.

So, I think they should give them that test. And the main thing is, of course, you don't want to resort to violence, and most importantly, you don't want to resort to stonewalling or name-calling or putting someone down. You want to be able to talk things through.

CHO: I mean, listen. You know, sort of the technical aspects aside, I mean, something like this has never been done before. This couple I spoke to lived in the biosphere, but that was a three-acre sort of bubble that they lived in. I mean, this is by all accounts going to be a tiny -- I mean, have you even heard of smaller experiments being done like this before, where people are tested on whether they can deal with each other for any period of time in such tight quarters?

WALSH: This is a pretty tiny capsule.

CHO: Yes.

WALSH: So -- but, you know, if I'm in outer space and I'm nervous and scared, I would hope that I have enough of a secure attachment style to want to have someone with me. I definitely wouldn't want to be alone for something like that. I'm more interested to know how they're going to consummate this marriage up there. Because there will be other crew members and that's a very small capsule and there will be lots of cameras.

CHO: I did ask them about that though, Wendy. I did ask them about that.

WALSH: What did they say?

CHO: We're going to have to wait. We're going to have to wait. We'll tell you tomorrow. But we want you to stay right there. And I want you to wrap around this little one here. If you have low expectations of the future, your future actually may be longer, even healthier. We're going to break that little gem down for you in just a bit.

And later on, it's the "Titanic" as you've never seen it before. Find out how you can buy a ticket and get your own personal voyage back in time. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHO: We all know them. Curmudgeons, kill-joys. People who have, well, bad attitudes. Guess what. Despite their apparent misery, they may actually outlive you.

Psychologist Wendy Walsh is back with me. So, Wendy, this study really got my attention. It's from the American Psychological Association. It says that people who have low expectations are likely to live longer, healthier lives. I mean, it sort of flies in the face of everything that we are taught. Do you give this any credence?

WALSH: Well, I do. At least the people in this particular study that was done in Germany over a ten-year period and followed different age groups of people. There were some things that were expected, like when we're younger, we tend to be more optimistic and more idealistic. As we get older, we become more pessimistic. But the most interesting part is that about it 10 percent of the people who were more optimistic in middle age tended to have -- greater risk -- 10 percent risk for death or disability. Because they tended to take more risks.

CHO: No, it's really fascinating to me. Because I mean, you read all the time about people who have cancer, and you know, it was their good attitude that helped them heal and so forth. I mean, it really was -- shocking to me. But you're right. It's an extensive study. Forty thousand people aged 18 to 96. It seems to be at the crux of this is that it says that it's because -- it's not necessarily having a bad attitude. But, you know, having low expectations because you live your life more carefully. Right? As a result.

WALSH: Yes. And it's not considered mutually exclusive to say that having a positive attitudes can get you through healing a major, devastating illness. Of course, that's possible. What we're talking about here are people who have sort of pessimistic expectations about the future. And when you have somewhat pessimistic expectations, you tend to be -- you take better care of your health. You don't be jumping out of airplanes and bungee jumping and doing the high-speed car racing and stuff.

So, optimists who see just a beautiful, light, sunny future are less apt to kind of protect themselves. Great example, my brother who is very close in age to me -- we're all Irish twins these days -- I asked him what his cholesterol was, and he goes, why would I want to know what that is, then the doctor would tell me what to eat.

(LAUGHTER)

That's an optimist. That's how they look it.

(LAUGHTER)

CHO: Wendy Walsh, great to see you as always.

WALSH: Good to see you.

CHO: We'll talk to you again in a little bit. Thanks so much.

Half past the hour. We want to look at the top headlines.

The cuts no one in Washington expected would happen are now in place. Last night, President Obama signed an order required by law that put into effect $85 billion in automatic spending cuts. Those cuts won't happen all at once. But they will come over time. The president and congressional Republicans are pointing fingers at each other over their failure to reach a deal.

It's the worst possible news for a family in Florida. Rescue crews at the site of a sinkhole have called off you'll of their work to reach a man who fell in. It happened two nights ago. The sinkhole to too dangerous, too deep, and too unstable. It opened up and swallowed Jeff Bush, who was sleeping in his bed at the time. Emergency officials say the entire house could collapse.

Venezuela's president is fighting for his life, according to the vice president. Hugo Chavez acknowledged he had been diagnosed in cancer in 2011. The government has not said what kind of cancer Chavez is battling, but it says he is receiving, quote, "intense treatment" at a military hospital in Caracas.

The Baltimore Raven's Joe Flacco is getting a whopping paycheck, so much so, he is now officially the highest-paid player in NFL history. The new six-year contract for the Ravens' quarterback is worth -- listen to this -- $120.6 million. That's more than a million bucks a game. Flacco became a free agent at the best time ever, if you think about it. He was just named MVP at last month's Super Bowl.

We saw high drama and a lot of tears in the Jodi Arias murder trial this week. She faced tough questioning about the brutal murder of her ex boyfriend. But was the prosecution so tough that that tactic may have back fired? We're going to talk about that, next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tori Toth is prepping this house outside and in.

TORI TOTH, HOME STAGER & OWNER, STYLISH STAGERS: Home staging gets your house sold faster and usually for more money.

ROMANS: A study claims 73 percent faster. The idea, you've got to spend money to make money, usually 1 to 3 percent of the asking price.

Homeowner, Marissa Torres is in.

MARISA TORRES, HOMEOWNER: I'm hoping when we're ready to sell that this house will get top dollar and people are going to come in and have the "wow" factor.

ROMANS: Achieving that "wow" factor will cost her $7,000, if she acts on all of Tori's suggestions.

She has to de-clutter and repaint the kitchen.

TOTH: So I'm really trying to either pull out the gray or a lighter gray, so the cabinets stand out. You want to keep a minimum of three large appliances on your countertops. Another great tip, move everything off your refrigerator.

ROMANS: The living room furniture should be downsized and rearranged.

TOTH: This is a spacious living room, but it's not looking like that because there's large pieces of furniture in here. The rule of thumb is to remove more than keep it in here.

ROMANS: Same thing in the bedroom.

TOTH: If you have a master bedroom that has a sleigh backing, it's eating up six to 12 inches of your square footage in your home.

ROMANS: New hardwood floors will go in here, which will be staged as a second bedroom. But the biggest expense is redoing this master bath.

ROTH: So the tile that they had in this room was old and it was starting to crack. The bathtub had some cracks in it.

ROMANS: All in, it's a $7,000 gamble her realtor says will pay off. It's a bet this homeowner is going to take.

Christine Romans, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHO: Lawyers defending James Holmes are hinting they might go to trial with an insanity plea. Holmes is the man accused of shooting up a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado, last summer, killing 12 people. His defense team took issue with Colorado's insanity defense laws, and asking that part of that law be ruled unconstitutional. Prosecutors have not said if they will seek the death penalty.

Autopsy tests on an Illinois lottery winner have failed to provide any clues on how cyanide may have entered his body. The medical examiner says no cyanide remained, probably because of the amount of time since his death last July. Earlier blood tests showed that Urooj Kahn died from cyanide. Police are now investigating this case as a murder.

Well, it would have been a first, the first of mass murderer Charles Manson's followers to get parole. But it didn't happen. California governor, Jerry Brown, denying Bruce Davis' request. The governor says he is still a danger to the public. The State Board of Parole had recommended his release for good behavior.

Now to the trial of Jodi Arias. She is charged with first degree murder in the brutal killing of her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, back in 2008. She has been on the stand for nearly two weeks, as prosecutors chipped away at her testimony. During intense cross- examination, Arias broke down, and confessed to lies and cover-ups.

But some are now wondering if the prosecution may have been too aggressive and if that may have backfired. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUAN MARTINEZ, PROSECUTOR: Ma'am, were you crying when you were shooting him?

JODI ARIAS, ON TRIAL FOR MURDER: I don't remember.

MARTINEZ: Were you crying when you were stabbing him?

ARIAS: I don't remember.

MARTINEZ: How about when you cut his throat? Were you crying then?

ARIAS: I don't know.

MARTINEZ: So take a look then. You're the one that did this, right?

ARIAS: Yes.

MARTINEZ: And you're the same individual that lied about all of this, right?

ARIAS: Yes.

MARTINEZ: So then take a look at it. According to your version of events, you would acknowledge that that stabbing was after the shooting, according to you, right?

ARIAS: I don't -- yes. I don't remember.

MARTINEZ: I'm not asking if you remember, ma'am. I'm asking if you acknowledge that it would be you that did it. Correct?

ARIAS: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: On Monday, Jodi Arias' defense team will try to convince the jury she is not a murder, but acted in self defense.

Holly Hughes is here. She is a criminal defense attorney.

Holly, I have to tell you, I have a hard time buying this argument that the prosecution may have been too aggressive and that that may have backfired. The way I see it, you're watching a woman who has had at least three stories, if not more, about what happened that night?

HOLLY HUGHES, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY & FORMER PROSECUTOR: Yes.

CHO: I mean, isn't that enough? For the jury?

HUGHES: Well, it depends. Because, remember, the jury is made up of human beings, and they all come in with their experience. And Juan Martinez, prosecutor here, was fantastic when he honed in on actual crime. I think some of the folks who are saying he might have been a little rough were talking about other parts where he would nit- pick her on things that weren't really material. And it may have looked like bullying at that point. You want a prosecutor to home in on the murder -- you weren't crying when you did this, weren't crying when you did that, when you stabbed him, slit his throat. We all expect that.

But there were other times during this dance the two of them were doing this past week where he would -- it was trying to one-upmanship. And that looks to personal.

CHO: And you're alluding to her own history of abuse, Jodi Arias', right, and how the jury might have perceived that as abuse.

HUGHES: Right. What she says is abuse. Remember, it's all coming from her. Her parents didn't take the stand and say, yes, we abused her. And they're not going to, because they have been in the courtroom the whole time. So we know they're not subpoenaed as witnesses.

CHO: This is a fascinating trial and it's about to get more interesting, --

HUGHES: Oh, yes.

CHO: -- because Arizona is one of the few states that will allow the jury to ask questions.

HUGHES: Yes.

CHO: That is incredible.

HUGHES: It is.

CHO: What do you expect to come out of that?

HUGHES: Well, I'll tell you what. This is going to determine whether or not she gets the death penalty, because we expect a defendant to give the prosecutor -- he's trying to kill her. He's seeking the death penalty. We expect her to take him on. But if she tries to pull the same thing with the jury that she did with the prosecutor -- I was in a fog, I don't remember -- if she doesn't answer their questions that they're going to pose to her, then she is directly insulting their intelligence.

CHO: Right.

HUGHES: And she is not coming clean with them. And that's really going to be what trips her up. CHO: Look into your crystal ball.

(LAUGHTER)

HUGHES: OK.

CHO: How do you see this turning out?

HUGHES: I think that death is probably off the table. Because she has been on the stand so long, that she is personalized and humanized for some of the jurors. Somebody might think, yes, we know she did it, but she's salvageable. We don't need to put her to death. So we might see like a second degree murder come out of this as opposed to a first degree. There just might be one person who thinks it's possible she is telling the truth about this abuse.

CHO: It only takes one.

HUGHES: It only takes one to hang them. Yes. And as brutal as this killing was, no jury is going to let her walk away. I just don't see that happening. But I think when they get in there and start expressing their opinions with each other, they might reach a compromise of maybe a second degree, like, yes, she needs to be locked up for what she did, but given her history, if it's even a little bit true, let's not kill her.

CHO: All right. Holly Hughes, criminal defense attorney, thanks so much.

HUGHES: Thank you.

CHO: Great to see you.

HUGHES: Great to see you.

CHO: Join Anderson Cooper and Randi Kaye tonight for as special report on the Jodi Arias trial, "Sex, Lies and Audiotape," 9:00 p.m. eastern here on CNN.

And up next, baby boom in the northeast. Lots of newborns coming this summer, many of them thanks to -- you guessed it -- Superstorm Sandy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHO: A big storm hits, the lights go out, nowhere to go, no phone, no TV, what's a couple to do? Well, you know. Turns out Superstorm Sandy may be responsible for a baby boom.

Here's CNN's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meredith Swarmstet (ph) is 20 weeks pregnant. She and husband, Hank, are hoping to learn the gender of their baby. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The doctor will be right with you, OK?

CANDIOTTI: Down the hall, Stephanie Tish and her fiance, Brian, are also expecting.

UNIDENTIFIED DOCTOR: Everything going OK?

STEPHANIE TISH, EXPECTING MOTHER: Fine.

UNIDENTIFIED DOCTOR: Excellent.

CANDIOTTI: Meredith and Stephanie have more than their uneventful pregnancies in common. Both were stuck in a house without power during Superstorm Sandy.

(on camera): OK. I have to ask. And have you pinpointed the night, what? What happened?

MEREDITH SWARMSTET (ph), EXPECTING MOTHER: Not exactly.

HANK SWARMSTET (ph), EXPECTING FATHER: Not pinpointed. But we think we have a Sandy.

MEREDITH SWARMSTET (ph): Yes, we think we have a Sandy baby.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): The study's author says it makes sense.

(on camera): So you were without power for how long?

BRIAN BORUCH, EXPECTING FATHER: About a week.

TISH: About a week.

CANDIOTTI: About a week. That must have been tough when you didn't have power, especially at night.

TISH: It was. It was.

BORUCH: It was night all day long. It was night from 6:00 on.

(LAUGHTER)

CANDIOTTI: True. So what did you do to amuse yourselves?

BORUCH, FIANCE: Well, there was no TV.

CANDIOTTI: Are you blushing?

(LAUGHTER)

BORUCH: Not at all.

TISH: We just got closer, I guess.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Their doctor, Robert Rubino, says his Jersey practice had a huge Sandy spike. DR. ROBERT RUBINO, OBSTETRICIAN: It got to the point where we had to stop seeing new obstetrical patients to the practice.

CANDIOTTI (on camera): This possible baby boom is based on science. Honestly, there's a study about this. Researchers over the years documented an increase in pregnancies, not in areas where storm destruction was most severe, but in areas where damage was not too bad. And that appears to be what happened with Meredith and Stephanie.

(voice-over): The study's author says it makes sense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You may run out of power, but you're not running for your life. There's probably more opportunities for reproductive behavior.

CANDIOTTI (on camera): So are you thinking about names?

HANK SWARMSTET (ph): We've started to.

MEREDITH SWARMSTET (ph): We started to. But not Sandy.

(LAUGHTER)

TISH: Definitely, probably not Sandy.

(LAUGHTER)

But anything else, maybe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be a girl.

MEREDITH SWARMSTET (ph): Oh!

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Part of a possible baby boom that started when the lights went out.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, West Orange, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHO: Great story.

Well, you're riding on a bus when the driver just passes out. So what do you do? Passengers here jumped into action. We'll show you the drama as it unfolds, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. LAURA STACHEL, CNN HERO: There is a traditional African saying, "when you become pregnant that you have one foot in the grave." There are so many women dying in child birth in many communities, pregnancy is feared.

In the last quarter, four women actually died due to complications.

When I went to Africa, I saw these women who were coming in with complications and we didn't even have inadequate light to treat them.

Welcome to the world little one.

A lot of the clinics don't have any electricity. Mid-wives use kerosene lanterns, and may use candles. They use their cell phones to deliver babies.

Once I witnessed the things I saw, I had to do something about it.

My name is Dr. Laura Stachel. I'm helping to provide a simple and reliable solar lighting and power source so that mothers and babies can be saved during child birth.

Hospitals and clinics receive the solar suitcase for free.

So the charge controller is very important.

The solar suitcase provides medical quality lighting. It charges cell phones. It has a small battery charger for head lamps and for the fetal monitor that we include.

Perfect. That's it.

Mothers are now eager to come to the clinics.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This light is going to bring good changes. It keeps me going.

STACHEL: Turn this on, there you go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much.

STACHEL: You're so welcome.

I really want a world where women and their families get to celebrate birth. And I would love to be a part of making that happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHO: And talk about heroes, watch this.

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(SHOUTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: Some terrifying moments aboard that bus there in Poland. Passengers saved the day while the driver passed out behind the wheel. The women are being hailed hero, they took the wheel of the bus and brought it under control. Amazingly, no one was seriously hurt and the driver was all right. Well, if you loved the movie, you may love this, too, a chance to buy a ticket and take a ride on the "Titanic." That is right, a real one. We'll explain, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHO: Well, if the hit movie was not enough to pique your interest in the Titanic, maybe your own firsthand trip back in time will.

CNN's Tory Dunham has more on the unveiling of "Titanic 2."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TORY DUNHAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hollywood has cashed in on it --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(SHOUTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUNHAM: -- but the history of the "Titanic," speaks for itself -- the luxury, the size, and the disaster. What was dubbed as unsinkable, sunk. Now, a new "Titanic" will sail again.

CLIVE PALMER, CHAIRMAN, BLUE STAR LINE: We'll have radar and satellite, and air conditioning for everybody. But of course, we'll utilize the design and you'll have the same "Titanic" experience you would have had in 1912.

DUNHAM: Australian mining tycoon, Clive Palmer, revealed plans for "Titanic 2." The route, the fashion, the menus will all be the same on 2016's maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York.

The great granddaughter of the famed unsinkable Molly Brown, a "Titanic" survivor, sees it as a great tribute.

HELEN BENZINGER, TITANIC 2 CONSULTANT: You have Guggenheim and J.J. Astor standing up and Guggenheim saying in the smoking room, we're dressed in our finest and we will go down as gentlemen. That way of thinking is gone. And I think that is one of the things that this is going to bring back, is -- and maybe just for five days.

DUNHAM: The vessel sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg. More than 1500 people died because there were not enough life boats.

The looks will be mostly the same -- the four smoke stacks, the grand staircase and Turkish baths. But there are differences -- engines powered by diesel instead of coal, a helicopter pad and a higher bridge to see over the bow and, of course, enough life boats for everybody. Just don't call it unsinkable.

PALMER: Anything will sink if you put a hole in it. I think you would be very cavalier to say something like that.

DUNHAM: The superstitious may second-guess "Titanic 2," but history buffs may see it as a chance to sail back in time.

(on camera): The company says thousands have expressed interests in buying tickets, some even offering to pay a million. But according the company, the prices of those tickets have not been set yet.

At the Titanic Memorial in Washington, Tory Dunham, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHO: Those life boats are key.

I'm Alina Cho, at the CNN headquarters in Atlanta. CNN NEWSROOM continues just one hour from now.

THE SITUATION ROOM with Wolf Blitzer starts now.