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Historic and Life-Threatening Cold; Flights Grounded; Cold Hits the Country; Tabloid Accused of Glorifying a Killing; MMA Fighter Fends Off Attackers

Aired January 06, 2014 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, there. I'm Brooke Baldwin. We are live outside of CNN World Headquarters here in Atlanta. I have to tell you, beautiful blue skies and sun above me, but it is cold, cold, cold in Atlanta. Tonight's low, we're told, five degrees. So just some perspective. And I have to tell you, I'm born and raised in Atlanta. The last time this city actually hit single digits, it was a decade ago.

Let me just -- a little show and tell, if I may, off the top here. We froze this towel. We are in Atlanta, folks, froze a towel. It is frozen solid like a sheet. And if you can take a look. We had this water bottle out about an hour and a half. Can you see the ice in the middle of that? Just to show you how cold is cold. And I know, Vivian (ph), I'm going to hand this to you, my dear producer, it is January. I know you're saying, it is supposed to be cold.

But hang on a minute because what is actually happening right here in the U.S. today is exceptional. This is cold and I'm going to get all weather nerdy on you today but this is just fascinating stuff. It's called a polar vortex. And it is now gripping two-thirds of this country. We are talking the coldest temperatures in at least 20 years. And in some places, records will be broken.

Look at these pictures. Lake Michigan, frozen over. A freighter called in to just break up the thick sheets of ice here. Millions of people are feeling this icy air.

Looking ahead just to Wednesday, nearly half of the nation will shutter in temperatures of zero or lower.

And even right here, as I speak, in the unusually mild deep south of Atlanta, Georgia, this will put it in perspective for you. The next couple of days right here in Georgia, where I'm standing, will actually be colder than Anchorage, Alaska. Just think about that for a minute. Atlanta, Alaska, it's colder here. The high down here, 27 degrees. Up north we're talking more in the range of 33, 34 degrees.

So we have you covered today as the weather is the big story. We have crews covering this across the country. Stephanie Elam with the picture of the day, live in Minneapolis with it is -- with the wind chill, 44 degrees below zero. So we'll get to Stephanie. Also we have Alexandra Field. She is standing by live for us in New York. Chad Myers, inside, he is tracking all of this from the CNN Weather Center. But let's begin with Stephanie Elam, who is standing, freezing, freezing cold. I am not even sure, Stephanie Elam, you can feel your face, so I will be quick with you. I understand the actual classification where you are in Minneapolis is -- it's dubbed a "particularly dangerous situation" warning. What does that mean?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's -- it's no joke here, Brooke. I would be happy to take one degree weather at this point. And I've decided also that polar vortex is now a curse phrase in my mind. That is just -- those are bad words. But it is so brutally cold out here that the police said that they have taken their focus and they've changed it off of just looking at crime and looking for people who may be in need of getting to a shelter, who need to get to a hospital. That's the priority right now.

The transportation department as well, looking to keep these streets clean. They're telling people to stay home. It is so cold here that they closed down the schools for cold. Not for snow, for cold. I was sitting with a woman who was born and raised here on the plane coming up here. She says she doesn't remember that ever happening before. The last time the schools were closed was '97. She says it just never happens. They're used to cold up here, but this is just so severe, they didn't want to take any chances.

And if you take a look at the river behind me, and you can see just how cold it is, it's pretty much all frozen over except for a little bit right there and you can just see how the wind is whipping off of it, completely frozen over. I've never felt anything like this before, Brooke. It's just unbelievable. And it's just very dangerous conditions out here and so they don't want people to take any chances.

BALDWIN: OK, we take our California girl and we put her in Minneapolis. I see how it goes. Stephanie Elam, you get the gold star for us today. Thank you so much. Now high tail it into that satellite truck and get warm, will you?

Let me take you from Minneapolis and tell you that some 2,500 flights have been canceled across the country. I know we talked a lot about flights over the last couple of days. This is still the story. Many in the bitterly cold Midwest with more than 500 of those cancellations happening at Chicago O'Hare. In fact, this is a live picture. And you can see again here, just frozen Lake Michigan. This is off to the right. An indication of how icy those runways are, how treacherous it can be to try to take off or land.

At New York's JFK, the tarmac was so icy yesterday, a jet -- imagine being on this -- a jet skidded into a snow bank while turning into a taxi way. All flights in and out, they were canceled throughout the morning.

So let's continue and talk about the fact that thousands of those JFK passengers, you know, they're sitting there waiting. I'm sure this is testing your patience if you're watching us from the airport right now trying to get out of New York. That is spilling over into Newark Airport and, of course, LaGuardia as well. Alexandra Field is at LaGuardia for us right now. And, obviously, Alexandra, a lot of flight cancellations. That has been the story that has been pervasive the last couple of days. We've just learned that JetBlue has just adopted an interesting strategy to clear the backlog in reducing the flights. Tell us what JetBlue has decided to do.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, there are a few factors at play here and everyone is trying to fix the problem.

First of all, let me break it down for you. We're at LaGuardia Airport. And if you look at that board behind me, those lines in yellow, those are the flights that are delayed right now. There are 3,400 flights that are delayed nationwide. JetBlue is a major carrier out of the northeast. They say the weather here has greatly affected them and they say that new rules concerning the amount of rest that pilots are required to get has also stopped them from offering more flights at this time.

So they want to catch up. They want to restore their service fully. So here's what they're doing. Sort of an interesting approach, Brooke. They say that they are going to stop their service into and out of New York City and Boston overnight tonight. They're going to start to ramp it back up tomorrow morning. And they say their service will be fully restored by 3:00 tomorrow afternoon. They say this will give them a chance to let their pilots rest. It will also give them a chance to service their equipment.

But it does, of course, mean that if you thought you were going to be on a JetBlue flight into or out of New York or Boston tonight, you are going to be waiting along with hundreds of other passengers who have had to find a little patience, let the frustration sort of simmer and hope for a flight. We've been seeing it for days now, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I know so much of the issue, not only the weather conditions, but the fact that the crews, the airline crews, can't even get to the plane to then take off and the backlog has been ridiculous.

Alexandra Field, thank you so much.

And, you know, yes, I know I hear you, perspective, it's winter. This is not breaking news. But with that comes, of course, the cold and the wind. But this is just different right now. Just ask meteorologist Chad Myers.

We are talking record lows. I mean here in Atlanta, I can't believe we're even talking single digits tonight. Tell me, how much worse does this have to get, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It gets down to seven right where you're standing tomorrow morning. So I know you just get out of there and get back in here.

BALDWIN: Whoo!

MYERS: Here's the deal. This happens all the time. I get it. I get it gets cold. But when it gets this cold, people die every single time. And I don't want it to be you. Don't go out to the car and drive around without something to protect yourself if your car gets a flat. I, one time in Nebraska, was 50 degrees below zero, trying to change a flat tire on a '73 Super Beetle that had lug studs. I was out there in the cold for maybe six minutes trying to get this tire changed. I couldn't get it. My fingers were completely frozen solid. They would not move. They would not bend. And so there I am, in the middle of the roadway, waiting for a policeman to come save me because otherwise it was just too cold for me to do anything. I warmed the car up, got it all (INAUDIBLE), got the tire back on, but that's another story.

Forty-three degrees below zero right now in Duluth. Thirty-nine degrees is what it feels like right now in Minneapolis. And now you take a look at this. It feels like 54. There's not even a wind chill factor in Boston. It's melting the snow there. Forty-seven in Hartford. It's 40 in New York City. And it's going to be cold in New York City tonight. So you go from 40 to 11. You go from 54 in Boston to 18 in just 12 hours. The cold air is on the way.

Now it's already in the south. I get that. Twenty-eight right now in Atlanta. That is colder than New York City. That is 20 degrees colder than Boston at this point. Nashville, you are 10 and your wind chill much worse than that. It feels like three below.

Now, if you understand, people have to be out there working the gates at these airports. They have to come in. They have to warm up. Your bags may not be waiting for you on the luggage carousals when you get there. Fourteen is what it feels like right now at Hartsfield Jackson Airport.

The low temperatures tonight in Atlanta, seven. I can't even believe this. I just got off of a flight from New Orleans yesterday and I got to New Orleans we were going -- I got off a cruise ship and was flying back to Atlanta. But United was just jammed. And I went, why are all these people standing in United? I didn't realize it was going to be this busy. That's because all the flights to Chicago were completely canceled. So, I know they say call ahead, log on and look. It's the quickest way. You may be calling and waiting on hold for a long time to figure out whether your flight is still going.

Our Brooke Baldwin's on her way back in here. She'll be back here in two minutes. Stay with us.

BALDWIN: Dennis Rodman heads back to North Korea with his team of NBA old timers. The squad that includes some former bad boys.

The body of the girl who went brain dead during tonsil surgery is moved. Find out what happened behind the scenes.

Plus, smoke pot legally in Colorado and your boss can fire you. Why the state's new boom gets shaky, legally speaking.

And a millionaire landlord thrown into a van and found dead. But "The New York Post" is suggesting he had enemies. Those stories and more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: And welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Just into us here at CNN, Mary Kay Letourneau, I know you remember her name, she spent seven years behind bars for raping one of her sixth grade students who is now her husband. Well, she has been arrested again. This happened in Washington State. We are told she failed to appear in court for driving with a suspended driver's license. Letourneau now has two children with her former student.

A New York City landlord is the victim of murder and kidnapping and now his family says he has also become the target of character assassination after this cover of "The New York Post" came out Sunday. You see the headline? "Who didn't want him dead?," sits beside the face of 39-year-old Menachem Stark. Stark is the father of seven and New York Police have released surveillance video of his kidnapping. Watch closely here in the circle. It took at least two minutes for his kidnappers to force him into a van, this was Thursday, outside of his office in Brooklyn. Friday, investigators found Stark's burned body in a Long Island dumpster. And now the search is on for this van. As police try to learn more about how he died, "The Post" really did some digging into how the landlord lived. And when you read this article, it quotes a tenant organizer saying this about Stark. Quote, "he pretty much ripped off the whole building." Stark's family said supporters say "The Post" headline glorifies Stark's murder. They have just held a news conference declaring a $25,000 reward for his killer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RABBI DAVID NIEDERMAN, UNITED JEWISH ORGANIZATION, WILLIAMSBURG: Nobody can describe the pain. And let me say the arrest is not going to erase the anguish of the family, of the community, of any decent human being who could see, who can hear or saw the picture of a lovely family, a blossoming tree, that has been cut to its branches. Children do not have a father. A wife does not have a husband. Why? What did he do?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joining me now, New York City Councilman Stephen Levin from New York. Also with us, senior media correspondent Brian Stelter.

So, welcome to both of you.

And, Brian, let me just begin with you. Let's take this story a step beyond this headline here. Tell me what we know. What happened?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST, CNN'S "RELIABLE SOURCES": Well, "The New York Post" did some great reporting -- you know, putting aside the headline for a minute -- some great reporting about this man. They quoted a number of sources saying that he owed people money and that he had made a lot of enemies, you know, angry tenants in his buildings and things like that. But that headline, I think, went too far and actually distracted from the news.

Now, "The New York Post" is defending it. Well, let me read the statement "The Post" put out because of all of these complaints. They said, "'The Post' does not say Mr. Stark deserved to die, but our reporting showed that he had many enemies which may have led to the commission of this terrible crime." You know, Brooke, I just personally think the headline distracted from the good reporting they did.

BALDWIN: Yes, they had a lot of information and a lot of sourcing and quoting.

Councilmember Levin to you. What do you -- your reaction to "The Post" headline? What do you want from "The New York Post"?

Councilmember Levin, can you hear me?

I'm going to go with no. OK, we're going to work on hopefully getting his earpiece.

And, Brian, there's been so much coverage on this specific investigation here. All the news coming out, not just on "The Post" headline, but some additional reporting.

STELTER: Right.

BALDWIN: Do you think it's helping the investigation, the fact that there's such a spotlight on this story there in Brooklyn?

STELTER: Well, I think it probably is. I think it probably is helping with the investigation. You know, "The New York Post" even wrote a story about all the outrage and about "The New York Post" story --

BALDWIN: Right. Right.

STELTER: About "The New York Post" headline, which -- which is a kind of clever thing for a tabloid newspapers to do. We also saw the other competing tabloid here in the city, "The New York Daily News," take some shots at "The Post." So even though there's this media angle here, it also, I think, puts more attention on to the investigation.

BALDWIN: And back to you Councilmember Levin, can you hear me now?

OK, I'm getting a no again. Thought you told me he could. We'll move along. Councilmember Levin, unfortunately we didn't have him. Brian Stelter, thank you very, very much.

STELTER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up, some new video just in of a bull hitting and then tossing a woman. You will see how this ends.

Plus, the home of an MMA fighter is invaded and he fights off not one, not two, four intruders, ultimately killing one. Should he be responsible given his skills as a professional fighter? That is next. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A bystander and an 1,100 pound bull, you have so see quite the close encounter.

(VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let me echo what you're hearing there. Ouch! The woman who was an employee of this bull riding festival in Costa Rica, watch it again, and there she goes. Apparently wearing the wrong color. Here's the deal. The bull zeroed in on her orange shirt, chasing her down, flipped her over the rails, into the crowd. She survived the whole thing. In fact she joked that she was terrified when the bull chased her, but was able to laugh about it afterwards. I don't know if I'd be laughing. I would be frightened.

Meantime, mixed martial arts right Joe Torrez's record, according to his sports website, is one win to five losses. Not so hot for the fighter, seen here in Facebook photos, but who cares because in the fight for his life, the one that really mattered, he came out on top. Deputies in New Mexico say the 27-year-old man fought off four men, including these two, who allegedly went after him at his home in New Mexico on New Year's Day. CNN's Rafael Romo is covering this story for us.

And so, Torrez, this MMA fighter, did he know these guys were coming?

RAFAEL ROMO, SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Apparently he did not. What we know, though, is that they had had an altercation the night before, this is New Year's Eve, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. And then these four guys, among them two brothers, decided to go to his home, just north of Las Cruces, and force their way into the home. Torrez wakes up and starts fighting them. When everything is said and done, there's Sal Garces, the oldest of them at 25 years old, lying dead in the road in front of the house.

BALDWIN: This is one of the intruders. OK.

ROMO: One of the intruders with multiple stab wounds to the chest. There's another one who was sent to the hospital and two who fled but were later arrested. It's just incredible the way it happened.

BALDWIN: Was this guy Torrez, was he alone in the home when they came over?

ROMO: He was not alone. He has his -- listen to this, two-year-old son with him and also a teenage sister in addition to his girlfriend.

Now the question that you probably are going to ask now, what's going to happen to the MMA fighter himself?

BALDWIN: Of course.

ROMO: Because, after all, he killed a man, right?

BALDWIN: Of course.

ROMO: His attorney says that he was simply doing what he had to do. Let's listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

C. J. MCELHINNEY, ATTORNEY FOR MMA FIGHTER: Essentially my client did what he had to do and did what any other person would do, he defended himself and he defended his family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Did what he had to do.

ROMO: Well, now two of the attackers, his younger brother at 19 years of age and one other already had prior criminal records, so they're going to be in jail. The other one is hospitalized. He hasn't been charged yet. And like I said before, the older one, the one who apparently led this attack, died in the incident.

BALDWIN: Rafael Romo, thank you very much.

Coming up next, Dennis Rodman. Dennis Rodman heading back to North Korea. But again this time, he took some of his former NBA buddies with him. It is quite a squad. We'll talk about that.

Plus, the nation's highest courtside sidelines same-sex marriage in one state. But what does that mean for other states? What does that mean for the hundreds of couples there who just got married? This is a huge development in a controversial case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Want to take you back to a story we chatted about just a couple of minutes ago. And just full transparency, we were having audio issues. We were trying to talk to New York City Councilman Stephen Levin.

So, Councilmen Levin, let me bring you back in. And just to remind the viewers, this is a story that pertains to the New York City landlord who was found dead in Brooklyn.

And much of the story has been spotlighted because of the -- the headlines in "The New York Post." So let's flash the headline up so people can see, "who didn't want him dead?" Critics saying this is glorifying his death. Wanted to have you on because what is it -- are you -- are you calling on "The New York Post" specifically for an apology? Do you want more than that?

STEPHEN LEVIN, NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL: Yes, Brooke, we are calling on "The New York Post" to apologize. Their headline yesterday was so unbelievably offensive and outrageous and hurtful to the family and the community that we think nothing short of an apology is warranted. Now, it's no secret that "The New York Post" profits on the pain of others. They've done it time and time again.

BALDWIN: It's a -- I mean it's a tabloid. It's a tabloid paper. Does that -- does that not change your mind? This is -- this is -- does that surprise you?

LEVIN: Well, for them -- for them to suggest that a man, a human being, a father, a husband, a member of the community, for them to suggest that he deserved to die is really a new low for tabloid print, even for "The New York Post."

BALDWIN: Have you heard anything back from "The Post"?

LEVIN: They issued a statement yesterday that was a qualifying statement. But really it's not enough. They have caused so much pain to this family and to the community. They really poured salt on the wounds of this community and family who just hours earlier buried this man. And for them to issue that headline is just so hurtful that we think that nothing short of an apology is warranted.

BALDWIN: OK. We will follow up with you, Stephen Levin, and we will see if you get that apology. Appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

LEVIN: Thank you very much, Brooke. Thank you.