Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Ice Storms Hit Parts of U.S.; U.S. Veteran Released from North Korea; South Africa Mourns Nelson Mandela; Man Wrongly Convicted of Murder Released from Prison; Homeless Man Learns Computer Coding.
Aired December 07, 2013 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Welcome to the NEWSROOM.
A storm system has lashed parts of the south and southeast. So far, Texas has taken the brunt of it. CNN's Ed Lavandera is live for us right now in Dallas. So, Ed, it's still looks like you're in the deep freeze in the Big D.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's like the largest ice skating rink that's ever been dropped down on any one location. It kind of feels like it. It's treacherous for a lot of people. In fact, this morning we heard reports and saw footage of a truck that was slid off the highway along Interstate 35 north of Dallas and into Lake Lewisville. Firefighters dove into the lake trying to rescue the driver but they could not do so. So that really tells you the story of how treacherous it is on some locations as you try to drive around north Texas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: It's a nightmare of ice, sleet, and wicked cold. This winter storm has inspired the most haunting descriptions, Ice- pocylyse, and north Texas ghost towns left entombed in ice. Trees encased by freezing rain are buckling under the sheer weight of ice, bringing down power lines and leaving more than 250,000 homes without power across Dallas/Ft. Worth. Crews are trying to salvage the lines still working, and the roadways are a hazardous mess.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go slowly. Watch out for the person in front of you and make sure that you're ready for the road conditions ahead of you.
LAVANDERA: There have been hundreds of accidents across the region, cars slipping and sliding off roadways, three people in Texas and Oklahoma killed in weather related crashes. On this lake north of Dallas the ice crushed this marina, collapsing the roof on the boats floating underneath. And the winter storm has canceled about 2,000 flights across the region, including 90 percent of the flights scheduled to depart Dallas/Ft. Worth airport on Friday.
Just two days ago this same area was basking in the glow of 80-degree weather, but it all disappeared in a matter of hours. After sun went down, the polar express arctic blast swooping in leaving behind layers of ice and crunching sounds of slush.
LAVANDERA: So right about now you probably wish you could escape the frigid temperatures by jumping into that back to the future in DeLorean, taking a trip back in time. We actually don't even need to go back that far, just a few hours, like 3:52 on a Wednesday afternoon here in downtown Dallas, a beautiful day for a walk in the park, sunglasses on, not a cloud in the sky.
Ed Lavandera from the past is here to tell you that everything is going to be OK. You will warm again in the future, I hope.
Most schools and businesses shut down on Friday. The Dallas Marathon and holiday parade were also canceled, the first time those events have been called off. But still quite a few ventured outside. Better to slip and slide on a hillside than on the highway. It will take several days for temperatures to rebound and for the ice to melt away.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: And Fredricka, forecasters are saying those temperatures will probably not get above freezing until late Sunday, maybe even into Monday, so all this ice that you see behind me will take some time to melt away. So until then, this weekend will be a treacherous and difficult situation.
WHITFIELD: It will be, indeed. Thanks so much, Ed Lavandera. Let's find out just when that big thaw might be coming. Is it right around the corner? Alexandra Steele in the CNN Severe Weather Center. So Alexandra, give it up here.
ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, Fred, Ed without even realizing explained meteorologically why we had that ice storm in Dallas, and why we have it is because it was 80 degrees a few days before. And there was so much warm layer, warm air at the surface the cold layer was so slim. That's what came down from the sky, was warm, warm, warm, warm, and then it froze on the surface because it was a very shallow layer of air, very different meteorologically setup than what we have now.
Now we have an ice storm developing on the eastern seaboard. But the good news, tomorrow and Monday, we're going to watch temperatures rebound into the 40s. So tomorrow is the ice day and then Monday temperatures will warm up significantly. So this ice won't stay.
So here's the timeline. As we head toward tomorrow. Here comes the ice delineated in the pink and snow and the rain. And then as we head from Sunday night into Monday morning, it moves into the northeast of New England and moves out. Timing-wise in the cities, let me show you what we're going to expect. Here's Washington, D.C. We do have a winter storm watch there. In the morning tomorrow will be snow and sleet and then change over to freezing rain and sleet tomorrow night, one to two inches of snow, maybe a quarter of an inch of ice. Again, Monday, temperatures will warm up.
Philadelphia, we'll watch in the afternoon the snow and sleet come in. And then at nighttime we're going to see the rain come in, maybe one inch of snow and sleet combination. And in New York City, it's really a Sunday night affair, starting off as snow, changing to sleet and then changing to rain, maybe an inch of snow and sleet. So, Fred, we'll talk more about the timing of this but also interior area, Fred, along that I-81 in Virginia, Roanoke, that will be the hardest area hit with ice.
WHITFIELD: OK, folks are going to have to be real careful. Thanks so much, Alexandra Steele, appreciate that.
All right, Merrill Newman, the 85-year-old American captured and locked up by North Korean authorities earlier this fall is now back on U.S. soil. Accused of alleged crimes during his time fighting in the Korean, the U.S. war vet was mysteriously released overnight. Why? Well, North Korean state media says it's because of this video where Newman appeared to apologize for his alleged crimes. Joining me now, CNN correspondent Dan Simon from Palo Alto. So has Mr. Newman made it home yet?
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He hasn't. He has not come home. Apparently they have some alternative arrangements in place. He landed a couple hours ago at the San Francisco international airport. He looked terrific. He seemed to be in good spirits. This is a guy who is 85 years old who had been in custody since the end of October, and this is what he said just moments after landing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MERRILL NEWMAN, RELEASED BY NORTH KOREA: Good morning. I'm delighted to be home. I want to thank the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang and the American embassy in Beijing for all their help. It's been a great homecoming. And I'm tired but I'm ready to be with my family now. And thank you all for the support we got, and very much appreciate it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIMON: Well, Mr. Newman was an intelligence officer during the Korean War and did some top secret work. Apparently he had a burning desire to go back. And it's clear a he said the wrong thing to someone and he was taken into custody. As you said, he was accused of war crimes. No one knew what was going to happen to him. He did give this sort of stilted apology a few days ago, and then just suddenly, the North Korean government just decided to release him last night, and the official word is they released him for, quote-unquote, "humanitarian purposes."
WHITFIELD: We're glad he's home and we know his family is as well. Thanks so much, Dan Simon near Palo Alto.
Meantime, the world is remembering Nelson Mandela. And as plans for a memorial take shape, the son of another civil rights icon is remembering the man who helped end apartheid.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Plans for a week of mourning for Nelson Mandela are coming into focus. In Johannesburg today hundreds of people are celebrating the life of the former South African president outside his home. Mandela died Thursday, he was 95 years old.
The tone will turn tomorrow for a day of prayer. Mandela's memorial service will be held Tuesday. His body will be lying in state from Wednesday through Friday, and Mandela's funeral and burial will then take place next Sunday, the 15th.
Earlier today I talked with Martin Luther King III about the mark that Nelson Mandela left on the world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN LUTHER KING III, SON OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: He personified more than anything else and taught us the power of forgiveness. Love and forgiveness is -- was the essence of Nelson Mandela. Dignity, dignified presence.
I remember for example on one occasion there were a number of us in Atlanta at the Ling Center, and it was his second visit to Atlanta. Maybe a few thousand people outside. As he came outside, everyone was trying to get his attention. He went directly to a young kid about five or six years old because he understood the future is as it relates to young people, and if I can make an impact on this young man's life, and that's what -- that's when he lit up. You know, he saw the people and was like, nice to see you all, but I'm going to focus on the children.
WHITFIELD: I've heard similar reflections like that, that he managed to look in a room, be in a room, see everyone, look them in the eye, but find someone in the room who, by some standards, might not be as significant as some of the bigger names in the room and would gravitate toward and would reach and always have something poignant if not very simple to say.
KING: Well, again, when you think about the fact that a person had an experience for 27 years being confined in jail could have harbored hatred but chose to relinquish and release that and lead a nation for all people. He could have focused specifically just on black South Africans but they were the majority. But he focused on everyone in his country, making his country a better place for all South Africans.
WHITFIELD: At one point did you ever see parallels between your dad and Nelson Mandela, because the world likes to make lots of comparisons, but for you, this is your dad, and then to see this man and what he was doing for the country of South Africa and how he touched people worldwide, what similarities or what parallels have you been able to make?
KING: I think there are some parallels. For example, of course, they both won the Nobel Prize. Both of them worked for peace throughout the world. They also both worked in the struggle for liberation for people. They also both stood as had tremendous integrity. So I think there are a number of parallels.
And I would say the final thing is that each of them, not just -- I mean, dad was killed early, became an iconic figure. Mr. Mandela over time after he came out of jail became iconic and became the president of the country.
WHITFIELD: He was particularly meaningful if your country. I understand in your mom's kitchen there are family pictures or there had been family pictures, and the only non-family member in that photograph was Nelson Mandela.
KING: Actually the night when the ANC won. My mom went to a party in South Africa and he pulled her up on the stage and you see them dancing. It's a great picture.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right, remembering Nelson Mandela, again, a week-long celebration of his life beginning next week.
All right, all of a sudden the White House has a new version of a meeting between the president and his controversial uncle.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Today is the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was 72 years ago today. The Japanese surprise attack killed more than 2,000 American service-members. The attack brought the U.S. into World war Two.
President Obama is having a hard time explaining a meeting with controversial relative. For some time the White House has said the president never met with a Kenyan uncle who was in the United States illegally. But now it has a new version of what happened. Here's CNN's Brian Todd.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredericka, which is at an uncle of the president who has gone through some legal problems with immigration and other things. And it's about an impression the White House has given that it's keeping this uncle at arm's length. But White House aides now say they weren't doing that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TODD: He's a 69-year-old man who works at a liquor store near Boston and is now caught up in the president's latest political migraine. The man's name Onyango Obama, also called Omar, the president's uncle. "The Boston Globe" previously cited the White House as saying the president and his uncle had never met. But the White House press secretary now says this --
JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president said that he, in fact, had met Omar Obama when he moved to Cambridge for law school and he stayed with him for a brief period of time until his -- the president's apartment was ready.
TODD: In recent days the uncle said Barack Obama stayed with him for three weeks in the 1980s. Why the differing accounts?
CARNEY: Back when this arose, folks looked at the record, including the president's book and there was no evidence that they had met. TODD: Jay Carney says it was when he asked the president in person that the president acknowledged he had stayed with his uncle. It could be simple semantics, but the White House was first asked about the relationship a couple of years ago after the uncle had been arrested for drunk driving and it came to light that he was fighting deportation. That's given ammunition to Republican critics.
ANA NAVARO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It just goes back to this thing of the White House not being completely forthright with facts with the public. It's what's contributed to his trustworthiness numbers going way down.
TODD: And political observers say something else could be lingering.
MATT BERMAN, "NATIONAL JOURNAL": I think it definitely does raise an interesting question about whether or not the White House is coming through with this idea that he has relatives that have trouble with DUI or immigration problems or whatever else. But there are so many politicians out there that have had similar relatives with similar issues.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TODD: A White House official pushed back on the idea that the president is not comfortable with those members of his family, pointing out he wrote extensively about them in his book "Dreams From My Father."
WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Brian.
A lot of people stop and give a dollar or loose change to the homeless. It happens all the time. But coming up, how one man provided real change with not only a helping hand but also a computer.
And tomorrow at 9:00 eastern time, CNN will air a powerful documentary, "An Unreal Dream." It tells the story of Michael Morton who was robbed of 25 years of his life. The day after Morton's 32nd birthday, the year in 1986, Morton's wife was attacked and killed in their Texas home. Michael Morton was at work at the time and had no motive. Yet he was charged, tried, and convicted of murder. Now freed with help from the Innocence Project, Morton spoke with CNN's Chris Cuomo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL MORTON, MURDER CONVICTION OVERTURNED: I am probably the personification of the old axiom you remember from school about you can't prove a negative. How do you prove you didn't do something?
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: How rough was it inside?
MORTON: I never liked it, but I got used to it.
CUOMO: How long did it take you?
MORTON: Probably 14 or 15 years. CUOMO: Fourteen or 15 years?
MORTON: To get where I was used to it.
CUOMO: Are the first years the hardest?
MORTON: The first years are hard just because it's a shock and it's new, and it's constant adjustment, constant recalibration.
CUOMO: You say "I always thought that I would get out." What fuelled the hope?
MORTON: It's difficult for me to say whether it was just faith that I knew I was right and I wasn't guilty, that this would work out, or just that I didn't know how deep I was in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Morton was exonerated in 2011 thanks to DNA testing, testing that was not available back in 1987. You can see the full story, "An Unreal Dream, The Michael Morton Story" tomorrow on CNN at 9:00 p.m. eastern. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Actor Paul Walker is mourned by millions of fans, but one California couple, well, he holds a really special place in their hearts. Kyle and Kristen Upham were engaged in 2004. Kyle was just back from a tour in Iraq and about to head back for another one when the couple decided to go ring shopping. Kyle wanted to do it up right, but the money just wasn't there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTEN UPHAM, RECEIVED AND ENGAGEMENT SURPRISE FROM WALKER: We started looking at rings and whatnot. And he kept wanting me to go bigger and I kept saying, no, look at the prices.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Well, there was another shopper in that store with them, and then they all struck up a conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UPHAM: When he found out Kyle just came back from Iraq, just I remember seeing the look in his face. It kind of transformed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: So the mystery man, Paul Walker. Kyle and Kristen left the jewelry store empty handed. But before they got too far a clerk called them back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UPHAM: One of the ladies came out holding a bag and just simply said, here's your ring. And I -- I think both of our mouths had dropped. Still to this day the most generous thing everyone has ever done for me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: And the ring, $9,000. The clerk kept Walker's secret all of these years until Monday, confirming what the Uphams longed suspected.
A mystery man leaving huge tips at restaurants across the country. Well, that person strikes again. This week, this time in Washington state, when the bartender read the receipt and saw the $5,000 tip, $5,000! He double-checked with the tipper to make sure it wasn't a mistake. The man has been signing each tip with the Instagram user name of "Tips For Jesus."
So if you passed a homeless man on the street would you give him a dollar or just keep walking? One computer programmer had a different idea. Instead of money he gave one homeless man a laptop and the chance to turn his life around. Here's CNN's Bill Weir.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is Patrick, the kind of driven computer whiz who starts companies in college. He came to New York hoping to meet someone in tech that would buy his ideas and change his life. He just didn't know it would be the homeless guy on the walk to work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He just has something about him. And the first time I remember thinking in my head like, uh, you know, who is this guy?
WEIR: This is Leo. As a kid he was obsessed with science, Astronomy, chemistry, physics. But then he fell in with the wrong crowd, became a father too soon, and two years ago first lost his job and then his home.
What did you think he wanted?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't have anything, man. You got the wrong guy. No, you know, he just said, hey, this may sound strange. I put you an offer. I can either give you $100 and you spend it however you want to or I present you with this brand new laptop and teach you how to code. And instantly I just said, in my mind, door number two.
(LAUGHTER)
WEIR: He would write code for hours, for days, on the banks of the Hudson or in a corner nook in Patrick's office. At night Patrick would go home and Leo would go back outside. Shelters just aren't his thing, which all seemed fine until winter blew in.
WEIR: How do you stay warm on those really bitter nights? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go to the train station, bundle up with tons of blankets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's getting really cold. I keep telling him, I'm good, man, let's keep going.
WEIR: Patrick just wanted to get him employed and housed ASAP, but Leo had other priorities.
What is it you wanted to do with this information he was teaching you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make the world a better place.
WEIR: See, he is a passionate environmentalist. His heroes are scientists who brave the rugged outdoors.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what life is supposed to be like.
WEIR: Coming outside?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I want to be around plants and trees and I want to breathe as much oxygen as possible.
WEIR: Since he's really worried about a changing climate he decided to use his new skills to create a carbon cutting app called "trees for cars."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These would be riders in the same area who want to ride with you.
WEIR: OK. If you make money off of this app, are you going to g go get an apartment?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, of course. Trump Plaza Hotel.
(LAUGHTER)
WEIR: But even if he never makes it to the plaza, he still has friends like these city workers looking out for him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I tell guy, don't judge no one. You never know what a person went through.
WEIR: And then there is his infectious inner peace all the money in Silicon Valley just can't buy.
How do you manage to keep a positive attitude?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Faith, prayer. It works. Try it.
WEIR: Bill Weir, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right, much more of the newsroom straight ahead. Hello again. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Here are the top stories that we're following.
A cold snap is gripping the central parts of the country knocking out power for hundreds of thousands of people, grounding flights, and plunging many states into bone-chilling cold. So how long will it last? We'll tell you next.
