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Toyota's Moment of Crisis; Tea Party in Nashville; Ugly Economy Gets Uglier; Monster Storm to Hit Northeast; Wall Street Reacts to Jobs Report; Pizza is King on Super Bowl Sunday

Aired February 05, 2010 - 09:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much, guys. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Friday. Got to say wish we had better job news to end the week on. Maybe next week.

That incredible shrinking job market, well, it's even uglier than the experts thought, but hold on, there is some good news, too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think they should have let you out in the first place?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I'm a menace. You know, mom said I don't seem to work well with others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, guess mom was right. Good behavior rules got her son out of the slammer. Some allege bad behavior sent him back, a whopping 12 hours later.

It's your car, it's his name, his heritage, his business. The monster recall pushes Mr. Toyota himself to the microphone. Well, Kyung Lah is in Japan with more on Mr. Toyota's apology. Oh and guess what, another model has been red flagged.

Forecast for Nashville, partly seen with 100 percent chance of venting and some snow. Mary Snow with the tea party movement's first national convention.

And if Reynolds Wolf is all bundled up in the near neck of the woods, well, you know the weather is up to no good. He is covering the hard, cold, winter gut check in the east for us.

It's a moment of crisis. That's the description straight from Toyota's top man. And it's not getting any better. We reached another day and another model in question.

In his first news conference since the massive recalls first began, the carmaker's chief executive says, "I'm sorry" for the safety concerns that now dog Toyota owners around the world.

However, Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder, says there's no cover-up here and they've been transparent with the safety problems. He says his company is cooperating with U.S. investigators. (INAUDIBLE) will example the possible braking problems on the new Prius hybrids now.

The same brake systems are also in the latest models of the Lexus hybrids. Those cars now in question.

As you can Toyota's problems are staggering. 8.1 million vehicles have now been recalled for the gas pedal problem.

CNN's Kyung Lah joins us now on the phone with the newest information from Japan -- Kyung.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, Kyra, what we did get today is an apology of the grandson of the founder of Toyota Motor Corporation. He said he sincerely apology but he did not intent to make his customers uneasy.

But what we did not get and we had thought might happen would be a recall of the Prius. That did not happen. What Mr. Akio Toyoda said is that he will plan on setting up a global committee to examine his company to examine all these problems and try to prevent them in the future.

They are going to collect information and try to make sure they don't have any more quality control issues. He did say we would fully cooperate with U.S. investigators. And we did acknowledge they have a massive problem as a company, they have a huge problem, he said, and we need to win back the trust of our customers.

When asked specifically, where have you been for the last two weeks? Have you been hiding? Have you been putting out your vice president to do your dirty work for you? He said this is not what you imagine. What he was trying to do is try to get the people who specifically knew about issues to get out in front and talk about this.

Certainly, this is late on a Friday night. This was hastily arranged around 6:30, 7:00 Tokyo time. We were informed that there's going to be a news conference two hours outside of Tokyo starting in two hours. So we barely made it. And now there's another question, why did you hastily arrange this? And he said we're trying to get out and talk to customers now -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: No doubt. There had to be some panic going on there, as well. Kyung, what about the Lexus now?

LAH: The Lexus is a Lexus hybrid model. It is a version -- it's called the HS 258. So if you own this particular version of the Lexus, you want to pay attention because it has the similar braking system with the 2010 Prius.

And so Toyota says what they're looking at is the Lexus and whether or not this has a similar software problem that the Prius has. What Toyota points out, though, is that they have not received any specific complaints about the Lexus brakes and that they are looking at this simply because of the design similarities with the Prius 2010. PHILLIPS: All right. Kyung Lah live from -- on the phone with us, rather, from Japan. Appreciate it, Kyung.

And we've been all over Toyota's accelerator problem, now let's show you the fix. If you take your recalled Toyota in for repair, this is the steel shim. You'll see it in just a second. It's a mechanic -- there you go. There it is right there. That's what the mechanic will actually install.

It's about the size of a postage stamp. And you won't see it because it'll just be attached to the lower backside of your gas pedal. It's supposed to reduce friction and wear inside the pedal assembly and actually prevent the pedal from binding.

Well, we're not going to take our eyes off this story. So stay with us for the latest information and if you're away from your TV set, well, just go to CNN.com/toyota. There you can actually find the latest developments and see if your car has been recalled.

Now take a seat, Mr. Brown, or should we say senator? Republican Scott Brown was sworn in to the Senate yesterday. He says he's ready to get right to work. Brown brings the balance of power to 57 Democrats, 41 Republicans, and two independents.

Tea party support might have help Brown get elected, but it looks like the movement still has some work to do getting its message out. A new CNN Opinion Research polls suggest that 40 percent of Americans either don't know what the tea party movement is or don't know enough about it to form an opinion.

One-third know what it is and they like it. Just more than a quarter have an unfavorable view.

So who are the tea partiers? No, they're not a bunch of protesters dumping Earl Gray into the Boston waters. They're thousands strong whose voice and numbers continue to grow. The question is, are they a legitimate new party or just a growing movement of rebel rousers? And what's next?

Mary Snow is live in Nashville at the first ever tea party convention.

So, Mary, what is their impact?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, you know, they're trying to -- and they describe it like harness all the venting that you just mentioned and move it forward into the political movement.

Let's take a -- set the scene here, though. You know, unlike some of the tea party protest we've seen in the past year, take a look at what's going on right now. People are lining up getting their breakfast. It's in a very civil manner.

This is at a resort. And people have to pay $549 to attend this convention. They're going to be attending workshops like this one, conservatives who want to win. Who are the people who are here? About 600 strong. They describe -- many of them describe themselves as conservatives. We did find a Democrat who wants to run for Congress coming to this conference.

A lot of them say they have never been politically active before. Their big issue, government spending. But among this tamer tone at this convention, there were some explosive remarks last night when it was kicked off.

Former Republican Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo addressed the group. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM TANCREDO, FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: People who could not even spell the word vote or say it in English...

(CHEERS)

TANCREDO: ... put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House. His name is Barack Hussein Obama.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: Now you heard the reaction in the crowd there last night to those comments. I asked one of the organizers about those comments, and he said he found them problematic, because he said that they don't push the dialogue forward, but there are certainly people here I spoke with who said they had no problem or saw any controversy with those remarks.

Now besides the speeches, most of the day people are going to be going to workshops. This to learn how to organize about the grassroots movement, and many of them say that they hope to take what they learn here back to their communities -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's interesting. You mentioned yes, this group is all about no to big government, no to wasteful spending, but $500 plus per ticket?

SNOW: Right, and that has caused a lot of controversy within -- you know the tea party movement is so big. It's made up of so many different groups around the country. And some really bristle at the idea of having any kind of leader. And that was also controversial because former Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, is going to be speaking here tomorrow night.

That ticket is an additional $350. And there was controversy about the money that people are paying and whether it's a real grassroots movement. Now, both the organizers here and Sarah Palin say that there -- she's getting a speaking fee of $100,000, that they're going to put that money towards conservative causes.

PHILLIPS: All right. Mary Snow, thanks so much. And we will continue to follow the convention throughout the weekend. Well, how the heck do you miss nearly a million jobs during the recession? Boom, just vanished. Apparently our experts did. Just minutes ago a new measure of just how bad the economy is, and it isn't good, folks.

CNN's Christine Romans in New York.

So how do you miss a number like that, Christine?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Because we always have revisions, and so there's always this tweaking of these numbers. So I'm going to tell you, Kyra, when you've had a labor market in such utter distress as ours, we haven't since the early 1980s.

That means it was just so bad and so ugly that they couldn't capture it accurately over past months. And now they finally have a very good gauge of just how bad it was. And so here is the overall bad picture.

In the recession we lost 8.4 million jobs. We thought it was something like 7.2, it's 8.4 million jobs. So what these numbers from the Labor Department today tell us it was much worse than we thought overall, but -- but, it has stabilized in recent months, the past three months or so.

And the unemployment rate in January fell to 9.7 percent from 10 percent. We lost 20,000 jobs just in January. We thought maybe we would create some, but we didn't. We lost 20,000 jobs, and now you put this all in the big picture. You've got a really horrific two or three year period, but as the Labor Department points out, you've got in the past three or four months, a real stabilization in how many jobs have been lost.

Let me show you just for January what was happening in the industry that you may work in. Construction lost another 75,000 jobs. This is a pick up. This shows you the construction industry is still kind of in trouble and losing a lot more jobs.

Transportation warehousing lost 19,000 jobs. There were some gains in temporary workers. And as we've told you many, many times, Kyra, when you start to see companies tiptoeing in to hire temporary workers, it means they're starting to feel a little bit better.

So far that temporary help is not translating into full-time help, though. We still want to see that.

Retail jobs, 42,000 created. Health care, 15,000. No surprise there. Government jobs, 33,000. A couple of economists this morning telling me they think census hiring is the reason. And you're going to see more job creation like that in the months ahead.

So what does this mean overall? Well, I've been asking economists. We've been getting all these e-mails from economists. They're saying look, it means the labor market was abysmal for the past couple of years. It means you might still not have a job and it's going to be still hard to get a job, but it is thawing. It is starting to thaw out and those mass, mass layoffs that we saw exactly a year ago, they seemed to have slowed or stopped.

So job creation, many economists say, is just around the corner, and that hang in there, because they think the jobs growth will come in sometime here in the early part of the year.

Back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right. We're hanging in there. Thanks, Christine.

Well, right on the heels of this talk of jobs appearing, President Obama is talking about creating more jobs today. He's going to meet with small business owners in Maryland to push that message.

We're told that the president is expected to announce a plan to help small businesses with loans. He is set to speak about 12:30 Eastern. You can watch it right here on CNN.

They got $800 million of your money, so what did the Federal Air Marshals have to show for it? Four arrests. That's all. So what's the deal? We're going to try to get to the bottom of it.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And I'm coming to you from the salt yards in Northern Virginia, am getting ready for some heavy snowfall. Hard to believe, but where we stand, by tomorrow we could have up to two feet of snowfall. All the story coming up in just a few moments right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Snow shovels selling out, snow plows gearing up, people hunkering down. A monster storm about to slam into parts of the northeast, and it could bring it to its knees.

Heavy snow and blizzard conditions are expected, so you better pack your patience if you're traveling to or from that part of the country this weekend.

CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf live in Alexandria, Virginia where they're bracing for the worse. When do we think it's going to hit, Reynolds?

WOLF: Still looks like it's really going to start getting under way later on this afternoon and tonight. And tomorrow, we can still be sitting here with several feet of snowfall here in the D.C. area.

You know, Kyra, we keep talking about these numbers, but one of the biggest numbers that we have to really roll around in our head is the number of -- really just the money. When it comes back to money. I mean didn't think that Virginia, the state of Virginia's budget is about $79 million for snow removal. They've already passed that. Already spending $84 million. And this storm that we're dealing with, well, you know, we still have a ways to go so we're going to be adding to those numbers.

At this particular yard, we're in Northern Virginia. Virginia Department of Transportation. We've got a couple of silos here that are filled with salt. We got some that are filled with sand. And over here we got really cool dude we met a while ago. His name is Mike Hare.

Mike is up here. He's been working for quite a while.

Mike, how are you doing, man?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Real well.

WOLF: Want to ask you. What kind of day are you going to have today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 12 or 14-hour day.

WOLF: And just doing this. Just filling up trucks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All day, yes.

WOLF: How many do you think you're going to fill today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we have 100 or so.

WOLF: Are you from the area?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, from -- actually Atlanta, Maryland.

WOLF: OK. So you've -- but you've seen this kind of snow before. You've seen this kind of elements.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I've been with the company 17 years so.

WOLF: Seventeen years. You know, it's funny -- thanks so much and have a good day.

We talked to so many guys here from this particular lot. So many of them have been veterans, they've been here for 10, 15, 20 years. Many of them are expected to work 12-hour days. So it's going to be a long day for them.

Many of them are not going to be able to get home, because of course the roads are going to be clogged in many spots. And when it comes to these roads, Kyra, they really have it down to a science.

Yesterday many of them were out putting down the saline solution. Then what they do is they get that salt, that's the second layer of the sand, and then simply after that what they're going to do is load it up many trucks with sand, not to put the sands on the road, but for the sand to actually give way to some of those trucks when they drop the blades and really are removing that snowfall. The snowfall, we're talking again, could be several feet before all is said and done. Keep on mind on average, each year they get about 16.6 inches of snowfall. We're talking about a record snowfall, again, mind boggling.

Possibly getting close to 28 inches that they had back in the 1920s which is the two-day record snow. So let's see how it turns out. Certainly these guys are geared up. They're coffee up, they're out on the roads right now. We're going to see more of them coming through. But later on today it's just going to be pushing the snow off the roads and certainly they have their day cut out for them.

Let's send it back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right, we'll keep talking, Reynolds. Thanks so much.

Let's bring in meteorologist Rob Marciano.

So, what are you seeing? What can you add to what Reynolds has there?

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Got it. Thanks so much, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: OK.

PHILLIPS: Michael Jackson's doctor is ready for his mug shot, but now there's confusion in the legal process. Even the doctor is asking when.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, don't expect to see a mug shot of Michael Jackson's doctor today. Dr. Conrad Murray expected to be charged in Jackson's death. The problem is, he just doesn't know when.

Law enforcement sources say that criminal charges will be filed, quote, "in the near future." Negotiations between the doctor's attorneys and prosecutors over his surrender actually broke down last night.

We now know what killed actress Brittany Murphy. The Los Angeles Coroner says her death was an accident. It was caused by a combination of pneumonia and prescription drugs. Murphy was found dead in her Hollywood Hills home back in December.

And in Chicago, former governor, Rob Blagojevich, has been reindicted. The new 24-count against Blagojevich's alleged attempt to see the U.S. Senate seat previously held by President Barack Obama. There are no new allegations in it. Prosecutors hope to avoid delaying his trial which is now set for June 3rd.

The Amish, they're known for staying out of the spotlight, well, now they're smacked up in the middle of a very good cause. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: A number of deaths from the earthquake in Haiti is just staggering. The government there is now telling us that 212,000 people have died, but admits that's not a final count either. 300,000 says were injured and more than a million are now homeless.

And there's a new sheriff in town. Former President Bill Clinton headed back to Haiti this time with more power. He's already the United Nations' special envoy to Haiti. Now he's in charge of overseeing relief efforts and even reconstruction. I'll be President Clinton's second trip to Haiti since the quake.

Kidnapping is the charge. That's what's facing the 10 American missionaries arrested in Haiti. They're also facing the possibility of life in prison. These missionaries were caught at the border with 33 Haitian children. They said they had permission. The judge has three months to decide whether to prosecute the Americans or let them go.

Making their mark. Amish carpenters in Berlin, Ohio. They're putting in long hours to build homes for people in Haiti, who are now living in makeshift tents. The pre-fabricated homes will measure 8 feet by 16 feet, and will included mattresses, linens and other household items. The first 52 housing kids are expected to arrive in Haiti in two to three weeks. The effort is being coordinated by the Ohio based Homes for Haiti Project.

Yes, the last line of defense in the skies, but Federal Air Marshals may find it hard to defend what is going on in their own offices. We investigate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, stocks took a beating yesterday. The Dow actually fell briefly below 10,000, and today we have a new report -- there is the opening bell. The economy kicked off 2010 with 20,000 job losses in January.

Stephanie Elam at the New York Stock Exchange. Are we going to see more selling this morning? What do you think?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know, starting off here, we got a little bit of green on the screen, and two hours ago, Kyra, we had stock futures showing that we were on our way to another sell-off, but then we got that jobs report, and the stocks moved off of those lows. Employers cut 20,000 positions last month. No doubt that was a disappointment. The expectation was to see a job gain, but the unemployment rate, it dropped significantly, from 10 percent down to 9.7 percent, and we have not seen unemployment that low since last summer.

So, the reason there was this discrepancy was because of based on two different surveys; one checks with businesses and the other checks with households. Also, I got today, we got more job cuts to tell you about today where that Shell is flashing 1,000 positions in the Houston area, and Los Angeles is cutting 1,000 city workers, and another market sell-off overseas could come into play today. Markets in Asia tumbled overnight, and European markets are lower as well.

There are lingering concerns at countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal already be in weight down by high debt, and the cost to find debts all of these is going through the roof. Bottom line, it raises beers about the global recovery and the prospect for U.S. exports to Europe.

Let's go ahead and show you the numbers in the early going. Got them up there on the board right now. You can see, we barely managed to stay above 10,000 yesterday, but right now, we are up 10 points in 2010 just about in NASDAQ higher as well by about eight points at 2133.

And one final, though, here Kyra is last Friday before the Super Bowl, pizza makers are going to be working overtime this weekend. Pizza orders typically jump 35 percent on Super Bowl Sunday compare to any other Sunday, and industry group says, Americans eat about -- get this, 30 million pizzas on the big game day.

PHILLIPS: Don't forget the beer.

ELAM: Yes, that has to go with that, too. Something about the Super Bowl makes people over eat. I don't know what it is.

PHILLIPS: And over drink. So, who are you rooting it for?

ELAM: I got to go with the Saints. Man, they never got it before. Go, Saints.

PHILLIPS: There you go. I'm with you 100 percent; although, I love the Colts. Love my friends there, but you are right, got to go for the Saints.

ELAM: Got to go for the underdog.

PHILLIPS: So amen. Steph, have a great weekend. We'll be talking to you again.

ELAM: OK, sounds good.

PHILLIPS: All right. His family, his name, his business, and now his deepest apologies, Mr. Toyota himself held his first news conference since the recall snowball started rolling. He said, "I'm sorry for the safety concerns". He denied that there is any kind of cover-up going on, and says the company is cooperating with U.S. investigators as they examine possible breaking problems on the new Prius Hybrid, and guess what, the new Lexus Hybrid as well. They have the same break system as well, red flags there too.

There are 8.1 million vehicles now recall for the gas pedal problems. If you are a Toyota mechanic, you might want a long vacation after all this is over. CNN Susan Candiotti talks with the Toyota mechanic in New Jersey who is just trained on the fix. It's a preview of what your mechanic will be soon doing. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You can see that the service stay here filled with cars. The thing is all the ones that you see right here are mainly rentals, a few others, and the reason for that is this. Toyota only now is starting to instruct all the mechanics on how to make the fixes that you were just describing. So for example, at this particular dealership, it was only this morning that they sent a couple of their top mechanics to learn how to do that repair.

One of those, Mike Gauge (ph), he just finished up that training and now he is here working on a car. Again, these are mainly rentals they are starting to work on now until they can get the customers in.

Mike, show us exactly what we are looking -- what you will be repairing?

MIKE GAUGE, MECHANIC: The pedal, and we'll be put in the bar.

CANDIOTTI: It was loosening up a little bit now, right?

GAUGE: Yes, we took it out.

CANDIOTTI: We will come around and get a better shot of that. Let's go around to the other side, so we can get a closer look at that replacement bar that you are putting in there now, the reinforcement bar, as you put it. All right.

GAUGE: Yes.

CANDIOTTI: So, this is first of all, just give us the rundown.

GAUGE: This is how it is in the vehicle.

CANDIOTTI: This is where the foot goes, obviously.

GAUGE: Moves like this.

CANDIOTTI: Got it.

GAUGE: And it will go right in the back there.

CANDIOTTI: And so that reinforcement bar will slip in there.

GAUGE: Slips right in behind that stopper, and the customer won't even feel any change in the pedal as it'll be the same.

CANDIOTTI: And the idea is what, to reduce what?

GAUGE: It reduces the friction inside the pedal.

CANDIOTTI: And why don't we want the friction?

GAUGE: Friction causes wear.

CANDIOTTI: Wear? In which case...

GAUGE: And when the parts wore, that's when they were having the sticking issue.

CANDIOTTI: Earning to step. Now, this whole repair should take you, with practice and time about how long?

GAUGE: Half hour per vehicle.

CANDIOTTI: Got it, and what do you think the days and weeks are going to be like for you?

GAUGE: We will be working some overtime.

CANDIOTTI: A lot of overtime.

GAUGE: Yes.

CANDIOTTI: I mean, is it tough to try to get that done. Are you feel like you' re going to be swamped by this.

GAUGE: No, we'll make some money and work some overtime.

CANDIOTTI: And that's true too, and are you convinced that this is going to be do the trick?

GAUGE: That's what the engineers say. They design the fix and we put it in.

CANDIOTTI: Right, and not only that, you are also going to be doing the -- you're talking about that, the pedal that was sticking. What about the floor mat recall? That pedal...

GAUGE: That's where we'll reshape the bottom of the pedal so it doesn't catch on the floor mat when it comes back.

CANDIOTTI: And you'll be doing that, too?

GAUGE: We'll be doing that also.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: There's the advance for the mechanics. We'll be getting lots of overtime, as can you see, and if you have a Toyota and still have questions, just go to cnn.com/toyota, the latest info on the problem and the recall is there. There seems to be a new wrinkle in the story every day, so make sure you check out that site for all the updates.

Big funding, little results. Bosses playing games. Workers filing complaints, and the Air Marshals, the service was established to look after you, but apparently, it can't even take care of itself. CNN's Drew Griffin investigates.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the widespread allegations, discriminations are so bad that members of Congress are demanding to have a DHS, the Department of Homeland Security Investigation of this for fear that this is effecting the very security mission this Air Marshals are assigned.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN (voice-over): The Federal Air Marshal's mission, protect America's commercial aircraft from future terrorists attacks, with a nearly $1 billion budget, how many attempted terrorists attacks have the Federal Air Marshals foiled? None that we have been told about. They did shoot and kill one man, a person at Miami's airport with mental health issues who claimed to have a bomb in a backpack.

As far as a rising terrorist or anyone else?

REP. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR., (R) TENNESSEE: I have the statistics for last year that they made four arrests for an appropriation of over $800 million. It came out to more than $200 million per arrests. It's just ridiculous.

GRIFFIN: So what's going wrong? Air Marshals, CNN talked to for this story described a federal agency in chaos, where bored and frustrated Air Marshals focus more on internal squabbles then watching for bad guys. The Marshal says, "we not show their faces."

UNKNOWN MALE: We don't have managers that provide training or provide leadership or do anything other than produce conflict.

UNKNOWN MALE: How can you say you're protecting the public when you are playing games?

GRIFFIN (on camera): Look at this dry-erase board in an Air Marshal's office in Orlando, Florida. CNN was told managers use the board to keep track of how many minority Air Marshals had been disciplined. Employees told CNN, managers were awarding each other, scores for their harassment activities. The Transportation Security Administration says it's investigating and that all employees are entitled to be treated in a fair and lawful manner.

(voice-over): But Orlando is not the only example. All over the country from Las Vegas to Seattle to Cincinnati, Air Marshals have filed official complaints claiming age, gender, and racial discrimination. In Cincinnati alone, 20 percent of the office filed complaints according to their lawyer. Six marshals say they were then retaliated against in the workplace with undesirable assignments. Managers allegedly spent nine months at an unknown cost to taxpayers investigating whether one female Air Marshal had her car registered in the Property State.

SHANE SIDEBOTTOM, ATTORNEY REPRESENTS AIR MARSHALS: At the conclusion in that, she was notified that the car in question belonged to a different Air Marshal, so they were dropping the inquiry. My almost 1-year-old child would probably be better at picking up the phone and dialing the driver's license bureau than these guys are.

GRIFFIN: Then there is the story of this woman, a girlfriend now wife of an Air Marshal who complained to the Department of Homeland Security she was followed, photographed, and investigated by the Air Marshals, all because she says her then-boyfriend had a workman's comp claim.

MEGAN, WIFE OF FEDERAL AIR MARSHAL: The American safety is being put, you know, on the back burner, because we are 40 miles away from the airport investigating private citizens.

GRIFFIN: Despite repeated requests, the Federal Air Marshal service and TSA declined to give CNN an interview. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee believes the Air Marshals program put together hastily after 9/11 now needs to be reinvented.

REP. SHEILA JACKSON-LEE (D), TEXAS: If we got those kinds of problems, we need to get a ready broom and sweep it out. The only way we're going to insure the security and safety of the American people is that we have staff PAR excellence, and I know they're out there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: The Air Marshals, themselves, do say their agency is dysfunctional. It is not performing the security job that it should, and along with this growing chorus demanding a change in management of the Federal Air Marshal Service, Kyra, quite frankly there's a growing chorus asking whether this agency needs to exist at all.

PHILLIPS: Drew, thanks, and the law found an old friend on Facebook. Seriously, a fugitive might as well have sat on a flatter or a velvet pillow and just delivered himself to authorities with a bow on top. His chances of getting into the genius club, not so good.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Checking in top stories. American missionary who illegally entered North Korea on December is being released. North Korea state-run media says that letting Robert Park go after quote, "repentance of his wrong doing. Park reportedly told relatives he wanted to sneak in the North Korea to deliver a message of love and forgiveness to Kim Jan Yo (ph).

Show me the videotape. That's with the judge in North Carolina saying he's threatened a hold of former ex-presidential candidate John Edward in contempt today. The judge wants Andrew Young to turn over a private videotape from Edwards' mistress. Young's attorney argued the tape was left at home. Young rented for Edwards' mistress.

That makes sense.

Watch this landing in an airport at Opa-locka, Florida. Believe me, this is not how you want to arrive. Nose landing gear on the coast guard plane actually failed to come down and lock like it's supposed to. Two crew members were onboard. Luckily, they weren't hurt.

All right. Want to check cnn.com now, our news poll section. Right now, sometimes you know, we try to make sure that we are hitting all the right stories for you. And looking at cnn.com and the news poll gauges the most popular stories at the minute. We are, of course, on top of these two stories. Cnn.com has a rise on the U.S. headed for a week rally. We got Stephanie Elam, of course, the New York stock exchange. Also, Toyota the apology but to know new recall.

You know, they're investigating the Lexus now with possible problems with that car. So boy, it's just not a good time for Toyota. And then here is one of the talkers of the day. That effort to save -- remember that banker that was checking out the gorgeous model there during a live shot? Apparently, there's a huge campaign to save his job.

Another big talker here on cnn.com news polls, an inventor unveiling a $7,000 talking sex robot. Those were the stories you're logging on to. It updates every 15 minutes. We'll keep checking it for you.

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PHILLIPS: Well, there's definitely no mountain high enough for these courageous snowboarders. They've overcome challenging disabilities and this weekend they are hitting the slopes in California Sierras for the first annual Live Beyond Limits Snowboarding Camp. As one braver boarder put it anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

It's one of those feel good stories Rob Marciano we could not let go by today.

MARCIANO: I love it. I love it. Olympic is right around the corner as well. And you know those inspiring athletes right there making -- making you feel good about well, the snow that's going to be coming down across much of the eastern part of the country.

Let's talk about it Kyra; a big time storm that's rolling through this part of the world. I think I put this in play, but if not then we'll just kind of pan around.

Chicago, you're getting a little bit of light snow, just look how big this thing is, back through Kansas City. Here is where the basically mama low (ph) is, the upper level low. And then we've got a little -- a little (INAUDIBLE) that's kind of taking shape down across parts of the south.

Look at the deep moisture from the Florida panhandle beginning to stream across Georgia into the Carolinas and then up into the colder air where it's beginning to fall as snow. As a matter of fact, some of the snowfall totals in through this area of Western Virginia, upwards of seven inches already. So and parts of western and North Carolina as well.

So it's coming down at a pretty good clip. And we expect that to continue as we go through not only today, but tonight and really not coming to an end until tomorrow. Because we'll have a coastal low that kind of rides up this way and feeds in moisture from the Atlantic Ocean. So here are some of the snow right now that's coming down. An interesting part of what's going on here and folks who are dealing with the budgets are not very happy about this. Here are the some of the budgets for either states or cities, for snow removal.

In Maryland, they typically account for $29 million and they've already spent $46 million. And Philadelphia, they didn't even budget for it; they've spent $3.5 million. In Baltimore County they budget $6 million and they've already spent $7 million. Well, they're going to probably spend about that much again today with this storm that's coming through.

Look at those watches and warnings, actually all the warnings for the most part -- back from parts of Ohio and all the way to the northern part of New Jersey and even in through southern Jersey and Delaware, we've got a winter -- a blizzard warning that's in effect. So wind is going to be a big issue as well.

Here's what were expecting: 16-24 inches in D.C.; 12-18 inches in Philadelphia; 4-8 in New York and these are all subject to change a little bit depending on the track of this thing. If it goes further north, New York gets more. If it goes further south, New York gets less.

And perhaps the storm -- this is the second one of the season Kyra, so that just kind of blows my mind away. Back over to you.

PHILLIPS: All right, Rob. Thanks we'll keeping talking about it.

Well, I don't know what do you think? Do you think it's weird to cram 75 bottles of lotion in your pants and make a run for it? I mean, it is important to keep your skin hydrated in winter and that stuff does smell really good.

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PHILLIPS: So you wonder what this guy's Facebook status is now. A fugitive from western New York made it really easy for the law to find him. All they had to do is basically friend him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPTAIN RICHARD PODGERS, LOCKPORT, NEW YORK POLICE: If it wasn't for criminals like him, our job would be a lot harder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Apparently Chris Frego (ph) smile, probably not as wide right now. Last fall he was facing assault charges outside Buffalo and then he took off. Well as the detective said, he put all his info on Facebook and MySpace, even posted a picture of himself from Lockport's most wanted. It didn't exactly take the bloodhound to sniff him out, the law found him right where he said he was, Indiana.

And talk about not learning from your mistakes, a woman, also from the Buffalo area, has had her driver's license suspended not once, not twice -- count them -- 24 times for not paying her fines or answering a summons. Now, you name a law, she's pretty much violated it; speed, leaving the scene of an accident, failure to keep right, no insurance. Well, now a judge is saying if she doesn't come to court, she's going to jail. Twenty five strikes, you're apparently out.

All right, back to my earlier question. Do you think it's kind of weird to go into a bath and body works, cram 75 bottles of lotion in your pants and make a run for it? Weird or not, it's not exactly legal. Police in Springfield, Mass., say they arrested this guy for larceny.

He allegedly had 75 eight-ounce bottles of lotion on his person. So what exactly was he going to do with all that lotion? The goods allegedly spilling out of his pants like clowns out of a Volkswagen. And how the cops catch him? How about the 600 ounces of moisturizer wearing him down, slick move.

You know, we've got a lot going on today here. Let's check in with our team of reporters and see what stories they're covering for you. Let's go ahead and start with Elizabeth Cohen -- Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Your baby's DNA is in a lab somewhere and you probably don't even know it. I'll have more on that at the top of the hour.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Mary Snow in Nashville, Tennessee, for the first ever TEA party convention. Who's here and what do they hope to accomplish? We'll have more on that in the next hour.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm meteorologist Reynolds Wolf in northern Virginia. In the D.C. area the flakes are beginning to fly at what may be a historic snowfall. The salt trucks are out; road crews say they're ready. The full story is coming up.

PHILLIPS: All right, thanks guys.

Also ahead a lot of buzz about the war flick "The Hurt Locker" after its nine Oscar nominations this week. We're actually going to talk with best actor nominee Jeremy Renner and take you from the battlefield to the box office.

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PHILLIPS: Celebrating their super Saints. Fans in New Orleans are getting pretty jazzed up ahead of Sunday's Super Bowl. Oh, yes, the Colts will be there too. CNN's John Zarrella has more on the impact to the Crescent City.

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JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You hear it in the music, in the tone of the song. The people of New Orleans are feeling good. IRVIN MAYFIELD, JAZZ MUSICIAN: New Orleans is such a thoroughly authentic American city, and the American story is always triumph over tragedy.

ZARRELLA: Seems everyone is celebrating their saints, a flag flying, the cravings of a sweet tooth.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: What we've got are saints special party tray, which is of course you see I got lots of black and gold on there (INAUDIBLE). It's been a big pick-me-up all across the city. No matter who you talk to.

ZARRELLA (on camera): You've got the candy store right here where you can get all your saints game day chocolates and right across the street here on Magazine Street is dirty coast where you can get your saints T-shirts.

UNKNOWN MALE: It's really true. People on Sunday basically do treat going to the saints game as a religious experience.

ZARRELLA: This is the gin chilly (ph) neighborhood of New Orleans. The building behind me still boarded up, the grass overgrown, the house over here still completely gutted on the inside. It's a neighborhood that's been slow to come back, but city officials say, even here, the saints have had an impact.

So how much water was here?

MARLON DEFILLO, ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT, NOLA POLICE DEPT.: Eight feet, eight feet of water that came into this area.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): New Orleans assistant police superintendent, Marlon Defillo has never seen anything quite like it.

DEFILLO: We're seeing a reduction in crime.

ZARRELLA: Really?

DEFILLO: We're seeing a reduction in violent crime. We're seeing a reduction in property crime, and...

ZARRELLA: Since the saints have been winning.

DEFILLO: Yes, yes.

ZARRELLA: The saints success has refocused attention on New Orleans, the pain it still feels, the pride it always had, the resolve to move forward. It feels good now, but what about after Sunday?

DR. HOWARD OSOFSKY, DEPT. OF PSYCHIATRY CHAIR, LSU: It's a very good thing for people to celebrate and know that they have had the strength, and they can have fun.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: Yes!

ZARRELLA: Vendors selling black and gold on every corner. (on camera): They've thought of everything. Look at this, even a Saints Snuggie. Fits good, too.

MAYFIELD: It's not about win or lose. We've got to win. It's called the Superbowl for a reason.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): John Zarrella, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)