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Drivers Rescued after Maryland Water Main Break; Obama to Release Report on Dealings with Corrupt Governor; Portland Airport Reopens after Weather Delays; California Takes Drastic Steps to Close Deficit
Aired December 23, 2008 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The weather is cold, bitter cold, and the water is high, and fast, and not where it's supposed to be. This isn't your typical flood, and these aren't your typical rescues.
Of course, typical can still mean trouble. A yuletide storm train delivers snow, ice and misery from one end of the country to the other.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That last time she threw the snowball at me, it will stay with me forever.
NGUYEN: Sometimes snow is magical and, if a miracle isn't in the cards for little Sophia, a little Christmas magic will do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Hello everyone. I'm Betty Nguyen, live at CNN world headquarters, right here in Atlanta. And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM. So let's get right to it, shall we?
Trapped by rushing water. This is probably not how these commuters thought their morning would go. Quite dramatic, though, the situation in Maryland, a suburb of Washington. Now -- or in a Maryland suburb of Washington.
A huge water main break left several vehicles and the people inside them just stranded. A helicopter and rescue boats, they rushed to the scene, racing to get everybody to safety.
But here's what one rescued woman told our affiliate, WJLA.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of a sudden just a gush of water came along with boulders and parts of trees, and -- and I tried to turn to get out of it, and -- that was it. I couldn't. My car just got blocked in, and the water was going over the top of the car. And then the fire department finally came and got me out.
(END VIDEO CLIP) NGUYEN: Can you imagine that? Well, CNN's Brian Todd is there in Cabin John, Maryland. He joins us now live. What a morning it's been and some lucky people whoa were actually able to get rescued from that, Brian.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Betty. We're going to show you a very dramatic scene here in the aftermath of all this.
The water main break still causing a lot of problems here. Just a few minutes ago a power line snapped. A fallen -- a tree essentially fell on it, snapped the power line, came down into the road. Something happened to cause even more water to come down. You can see it right behind me. There's even more water coming down than there was just a little bit ago, and the water's a lighter brown color now. So we're not sure exactly what kind of problems that caused up the road from here.
You can see two of the vehicles that were stranded this morning. They're still there. They're trying to figure how to extract some of these vehicles. There you see some boulders that are crushed up against these two cars. There are at least three or four more cars down the street there.
And this has been a problem all day. You can see the water still gushing down River Road here in Bethesda at a very, very rapid rate. It goes about 600 to 800 feet down a steep hill here. And we're told that the flooding at the bottom of the hill is not so much of a problem right now, because at the bottom of the hill drains into a creek which then drains into the Potomac River. So flooding at the bottom not a huge problem.
But the water main, as you can see, they have not been able to shut off the main valve that broke this morning. They're trying to get to that. In the meantime, this is still a problem for rescue workers as they try to extract these vehicles.
We did catch up to one earlier today, and he talked about how problematic this was for them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. FRANK DOYLE, MONTGOMERY COUNTY FIRE AND RESCUE: We train for river rescues every day, and we train for flood rescue on a road. But you never expect to find something like we found today with the amount of water coming down River Road, with multiple cars stuck.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: And we're told that nine victims were pulled from these cars. We're told that they're all OK. Some of them were treated for hypothermia, but no major injuries among them.
Again, the schools in Montgomery County have closed down. They've shut off water to some of the residents across this street and in that neighborhood. On this side of the street, one of the people who lives here just came and told us that their water's still on. They don't have much water pressure, and they don't know when their water is going to be shut off.
A lot of people here, Betty, are going to be without water right around the time of Christmas. It may last for a couple of days.
NGUYEN: And those are not the kind of ripple effects that you want to see from this.
OK, Brian Todd, joining us live. Thank you.
And just in time for the Christmas crunch, a blast of frigid weather threatens to keep a whole lot of Americans from making it home for the holidays. Parts of the U.S. are dealing with some of their worst-ever snowstorms.
Check out these incredible scenes out of Geneva, Ohio. Look at that. Along the country's northern border, the snow cover goes pretty much all the way from New England to the Pacific Northwest.
And for many holiday travelers, it is a total nightmare. Until just a short time ago, these folks were stuck at the Greyhound station in Sacramento. North of there, from Portland to Seattle, no buses are going in, and none are leaving. Dozens of stranded passengers in Seattle are having to wait it out at the bus station or in homeless shelters.
And talk about piling on the misery. There are tens of thousands of power outages across the country. In several Massachusetts cities, the lights went out during last week's big ice storm. So they've been dealing with that for a little while now.
Our Chad Myers is tracking all of this frigid weather for us. He joins us in the severe weather center.
And, Chad, you know, really, we expect, you know, winter weather, but, boy, it seems like a lot of people reeling from the effects of it at this time.
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And we are -- if you want to go onto Google Earth, you can actually check the traffic for about 100 cities across the country. I just picked Chicago, because it's snowing. You can see many of the roads that are going less than 15 to 20 miles per hour. They're marked in red.
So if you want to try to avoid some of this, you can check and look at all the cities you have to drive through and figure out where the worst traffic is already -- Betty.
NGUYEN: What's that Web site again?
MYERS: Google.com.
NGUYEN: Love it.
MYERS: And it's just on the top of the Google map. NGUYEN: Yes.
MYERS: You go and click on "maps." You go up to the top, you'll see "traffic." You click on "traffic," and it will show you the traffic for a bunch of cities.
NGUYEN: And then you can avoid those red areas.
MYERS: Don't go there.
NGUYEN: Yes. Red means don't go there.
MYERS: Exactly.
NGUYEN: All right. Thank you, Chad.
MYERS: You got it.
NGUYEN: All right. So they are very random but very scary. A series of rush-hour shootings in the Dallas area has left two people dead. It all started yesterday at about 5:40 p.m. local time. Police say the suspect pulled up to a car at a red light and then opened fire. He drove on, targeting three semi-truck drivers.
Far from the president-elect's Christmas vacation villa in sunny Hawaii, his staff back in snowy Chicago is preparing to release its Blagojevich report. That is the in-house review of any and all contact with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich over the U.S. Senate seat that he allegedly wanted to sell.
CNN's Ed Henry is keeping watch all the way from sunny and warm Honolulu, smiling there, of course.
So as I ask you about this, I want to know, expecting any bombshells to come out of this report?
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Not really, Betty. What's interesting is Democratic officials familiar with the report say that it's going to essentially show there was some contact between the governor, Rod Blagojevich, and Rahm Emanuel, the incoming chief of staff for Barack Obama. A little more contact between Emanuel, maybe other Obama aides, with Blagojevich's aides. But bottom line, they say, there was no wrongdoing in these conversations.
I don't think it's going to be a surprise for anyone to believe that an internal investigation by team Obama, about team Obama's conduct, is going say there was no wrongdoing. That's not a surprise.
But again, there still could be lingering questions about what all this contact means and were any Obama aides involved in this so- called pay-to-play scandal in Illinois, when independent investigators down the road potentially look at it?
A short while ago, Vice President-elect Joe Biden was meeting with reporters about the economy, and CNN producer Eric Adimler (ph) asked him, will this report exonerate team Obama? (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOE BIDEN (D-DE), VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT: Oh, I think the -- I don't think there's anything to exonerate. And it's been clear that the president-elect has had no contact with Blagojevich and/or anyone on his team, that he's asserted, and you'll soon find in the report being released today, that there has been no inappropriate contact by any member of the -- the Obama staff or the transition team with Blagojevich. And I think the report you'll see will reflect that this afternoon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: So I think the key is, this report is an attempt by the Obama transition team to sort of turn the page on this controversy.
But, again, the final word won't come from them. It's going to come from the prosecutor in this case, Patrick Fitzgerald, as this ongoing criminal investigation plays out in the months ahead. But it's important to stress that, at this point, Fitzgerald has given absolutely no indication that there was any wrongdoing, criminal or otherwise, by team Obama -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Well, let me ask you this. Since we don't have all the details of this, any chance that there are some people that may be connections between Obama's team and Blagojevich that may not officially be on the staff roster, that we may see in the future?
HENRY: Well, that is something that could come up. We have to see the entire report. It's expected to come out at about 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time today. We'll be combing through it, of course. It likely will focus on just the transition team, people like Rahm Emanuel.
But you're right. There could have been -- and I stress could have been; we don't know that -- intermediaries between team Obama and Blagojevich that might not be officially on the pay roll that would not be covered in this report. Again, that's why an internal investigation by team Obama about team Obama is not the final word on this.
So moving forward, if the prosecutor -- and I stress if -- looks at other people and finds some intermediary that maybe was caught up in wrongdoing, again, that could expose a team Obama, and by then, it will be the actual Obama administration.
But at this point, there is absolutely no credible allegations that there was any criminal wrongdoing by Obama aides. I think the broader issue for the Obama transition team is a political exposure. If they get wrapped up at all in this pay-to-play stuff, even in a cursory way, how does that square with the change message that Barack Obama talked about? It's more about political exposure, I think, than criminal exposure, Betty.
NGUYEN: All the transparency, as well. All right. Ed Henry joining us from a beautiful Hawaii. Looks -- you look a couple shades darker today for some reason, Ed.
HENRY: Yes, I'm starting to get there, but I'm still wearing sunscreen.
NGUYEN: That's good. Protect the skin. All right. See you later.
HENRY: All right.
NGUYEN: Well, the boss may be on holiday, but as Ed just mentioned, the second in command is on the job. VP-elect Joe Biden chaired a meeting today of the next administration's top economic advisers. And they're busy trying to craft a recovery plan that could top $700 billion.
Now, over the weekend, Biden told interviewers a mammoth effort is needed to keep the economy from, in his words, "absolutely tanking."
OK. So snowed in, in Portland, Oregon. Let's get back to this weather outside, because it is frightful. How often are they snowed in there in Portland? How often does that happen? You know what? It is happening right now, and it is really frustrating for holiday travelers.
Reporter Kyle Iboshi with our affiliate WKW joins us now from Portland International Airport.
All right. How bad is the backup there? Should we even ask?
KYLE IBOSHI, WKW REPORTER: Well, Betty, good news and bad news from Portland, Oregon. The good news is the Portland International Airport is open once again after being closed for the past two days because of a brutal ice and snowstorm.
The bad news: the lines. Take a look behind me. You can see hundreds of customers lined up here at Alaska Airlines' ticket counter. This line zigzags all through the airport, ticketing area, and terminal, as well.
Half of these customers are scheduled to head out today. They're checking in. The other half are customers who had flights canceled over the past two days and are now trying to rebook and find another plane to their final destination. Certainly a challenge for the passengers and also the airlines.
Many of these passengers have been stranded here for the past two days with nowhere to go. They found places to sleep below chairs, on tables, even on a dry spot of carpet.
Luckily through all this, everybody is keeping their wits about them. It's obviously a stressful time, with the holidays coming up and with thousands of people traveling, but also the weather and questions about whether or not their plane will be leaving or not. For the most part, though, they're holding on an, now that the airport has reopened, heading to their final destinations. NGUYEN: Hey, that's one step to getting there. OK. Thank you, Kyle. Do appreciate it.
So if you think the third quarter was bad, wait until you see the fourth. That is the bottom line of a final government report on third-quarter GDP that brought us the best-known gauge of economic health.
The nation's gross domestic product slipped half a percent from July through September, but almost certainly has fallen much more since then.
The housing market sure hasn't turned the corner either. Sales of both new and existing homes fell again last month, and more than expected, in fact. Prices sank again, too.
And the only thing on the rise, it seems, is the percentage of American who think the economy's in terrible shape. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll finds 93 percent of us describe conditions as poor. Two-thirds say very poor. But we haven't lost all hope. A majority says things will be better a year from now. That's a little good news.
Well, for more details on those housing numbers and a look at how investors are reacting, let's go straight to Wall Street and CNN's Susan Lisovicz on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Hello, Susan.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Betty.
Well, we are seeing some losses in the stock market. But fortunately, nothing compared to what we've seen in the housing market yet.
Again, November, new home sales down nearly 3 percent. The biggest, slowest pace in nearly 18 years. October the previous month revised lower. Existing home sales, the biggest part of the housing market, meanwhile, falling more than 8.5 percent. Low prices, we know they've been declining. Not helping out. This is where the credit crisis really matters, because a lot of folks just simply couldn't get mortgages. Median sales price, $181,000. That is down 13 percent from a year ago, and that, yes, is the biggest drop on record, Betty.
NGUYEN: All right. Susan Lisovicz joining us live.
Look at the big board, though, Susan. Looks like it's down 48 points? Forty-seven now?
LISOVICZ: Forty-seven points. The NASDAQ is down 9.
Also, I just want to mention, real quickly, Betty, that GM and Ford shares are down 16 percent yet again today. The credit rating agencies are saying that basically, that that little lifeline, and they mean little lifeline, because of the time span that the federal government gave on Friday, or the Bush administration, I should say, is not open-ended support. That bankruptcy is something that looms for all three of them in the future.
Standard & Poor's among those saying that yesterday, and we're seeing the follow-through today on those stocks -- Betty.
NGUYEN: All right. Got you. Susan Lisovicz joining us live. Thank you, Susan.
Well, you know, things aren't so great in the Golden State either. California is about to run out of money. And state workers soon will have to take time off without pay each month.
So here's a question for you. Would you take a pay cut to help your fellow workers hang onto their jobs? It's an issue that we're focusing on right here in the NEWSROOM.
Plus, she has always dreamed of a white Christmas. Now a dying Georgia girl gets her wish. You do not want to miss with heartwarming story.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Betty Nguyen.
NGUYEN: All right. We know this. When the money dries up, the spending shuts down. Right? Well, the city of Watsonville, California, is suspending many non-essential services and laying off workers, because it just cannot afford them any longer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In light of the whole situation, nationally speaking. It's just -- it's like this -- it's a trickle-down shutdown.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Well, the shutdown there covers libraries, rec centers, street repairs, but not garbage, water, police or fire. The city blames a drop in sales tax revenues and aid from the state.
And speaking of California, things aren't so golden in Sacramento, either. Painful moves are in the works to help close a gapping deficit.
Here's CNN's Dan Simon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Diane and Ray Lovesee have spent a combined 60 years working in California state government.
RAY LOVESEE, CALIFORNIA STATE EMPLOYEE: And it seems like we're getting kicked.
SIMON: Getting kicked, he says, because of Governor Schwarzenegger's mandate that state workers, all 235,000 of them, be required to take two days of unpaid leave each month, starting in February.
The pay cuts are part of a belt tightening, as California struggles to deal with its astronomical $42 billion deficit. The Lovesees say it will result in a combined $400 pay cut each month.
DIANE LOVESEE, CALIFORNIA STATE EMPLOYEE: It's going to totally destroy us. We'll probably lose our vehicle next.
R. LOVESEE: We might have to go down and apply for food stamps.
SIMON (on camera): That bad?
R. LOVESEE: That bad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sign (ph) the budget. Save our state!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sign (ph) the budget. Save our state!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sign (ph) the budget. Save our state!
SIMON (voice-over): About a dozen state workers voiced their displeasure towards the governor as he held a news conference in Los Angeles.
Schwarzenegger's order also requires state agencies to reduce their payrolls by 10 percent, a move that could lead to massive layoffs.
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: Now, I hate to lay off any state employees, may I remind you, because those are hard- working people, and they all have to provide for their families. But we are running out of cash by February. So I have no other choice.
SIMON: The cash situation is so dire the state has pushed the pause button on nearly 2,000 public works projects. Many schools, roads, levees, all on hold.
SCHWARZENEGGER: Now, the craziest thing about this is that here's President-elect Obama, who is talking about an infrastructure package to rebuild the whole United States, to put people to work, to stimulate the economy, and we here at the same time are canceling infrastructure projects. Is that not ironic? Is that not crazy?
SIMON (on camera): And the situation has gotten even more tense. The California state controller has informed the governor that the state of California is less than 70 days from running out of money.
Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: You know, we were talking about this gaping deficit in our morning meeting. And it really led to this question. If you're faced with it, right? You see people being laid off and having to cut back. Would you, in fact, take a pay cut to save jobs at your workplace? Would you be paid less money so that the guy who sits next to you or the woman who sits next to you won't lose his or her job? Is that something you're willing to do?
E-mail us: CNNnewsroom@CNN.com. We're going to read some of those answers a little bit later in the show.
All right. So tracking one of the riders on America's Orphan Trains, how it changed his life and his future son's. Part of the CNN series "Focus on Giving."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: It is that time of year when hearts are open to helping other people. So CNN has pulled together a series called "Focus on Giving," and today photojournalist John Torigoe profiles 89-year-old Stanley Cornell. Now, he was part of a program most of us have never heard of, one that relocated parentless children.
Here's Stanley remembering the Orphan Train.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STANLEY CORNELL, RODE ON ORPHAN TRAIN: They called it the Orphan Train riders that rode the trains looking for a mom and dad, which I did, my brother and I. And now that she's passed away and she's passed away.
These are the ones that are in Colorado that are Orphan Train riders. Now we can only account for about 15.
My first feelings I remember standing by my mother's bedside when she was dying, and she died from tuberculosis. She knew she was dying and she probably said, "You've got to be good to your daddy" and all that. That's the last I saw of her.
The state sent out someone to check on us to see if he was making enough money to take care of us. Well, he wasn't. So they told him that he'd have to give up the boys.
So this is a picture of Vick and I just about that time we was in the orphans' home.
It was kind of rough in the orphans' home. The Children's Aid Society was a wonderful thing for taking those street urchins.
This is the type of engine train that took us out of New York City, out to Wellington, Texas. That's where our dad happened to be in town that day. He just bought him a new Model T Ford. Our friend that was with us said, "You've been wanting two boys. You got two girls. Mr. Dieter (ph), you ought to go down and look those boys over."
We was the last ones holding hands together in a circle, in the motel lobby of that hotel, because there was a blizzard outside. That was December the 10th, 1926.
This is a picture of my mom and dad now that give us a home, Dale Dieter (ph) and Ethel Dieter (ph). They treated us just like we was new gold in the USA, just like there's no one quite like us. We was really accepted in full faith. We lived on the farm. We had our own ponies to ride to school.
DANA CORNELL, STANLEY'S ADOPTIVE SON: The Orphans' Train was actually amazing. How many children were actually on all the Orphan Trains, the areas that they went to, which is all over the United States.
S. CORNELL: That would be -- that pick that up? Yes. Sounds like old times.
D. CORNELL: I don't think Vick and Stan could have had better parents.
S. CORNELL: Well, this new home really hits the spot.
D. CORNELL: I kind of can relate to that, because Dad adopted Denison (ph) and me.
S. CORNELL: I knew what it was like to grow up without parents. We had a good, good home.
Very grateful. Definitely. Always will be.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): We have rode the Orphan Train. Take us in. We need a home. We need a name. Take us in.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: That is quite a story.
And listen to this one. A flooding on a river road caught everyone by surprise. Rushing water plus frigid temperatures equals one dangerous situation this morning in Maryland.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: It's 31 past the hour. Here are some of the stories that we are working on here in the CNN newsroom.
The internal report finally coming out at 4:30 Eastern. The Obama transition team releases its view of staff contacts with Rod Blagojevich. The Illinois governor accused of trying to sell the Senate seat that had belonged to Barack Obama.
Messy weather could hold up lots of holiday travelers. Freezing rain's forecast for parts of the Northeast, the Midwest and the South. A ray of sunshine, though, in the West. Things have cleared a little bit, but stranded buses and planes, they are starting to make the trek.
Well, looks like a flash flood, but this was actually a water main break in a Maryland suburb of D.C. Several cars trapped this morning. Rescue crews had to use a helicopter and boats to pull people to safety. Now, I do want to let you know that everybody did make it out alive, but with temperatures in the 20s, at least three people had to be treated for hypothermia.
Let's take a closer look at all of this. Our Josh Levs joins us now. And Josh, I understand that a reporter actually played a role in all this drama?
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, in all the craziness that's going on there, you pick up these little moments. This is a really interesting one that happened there. We have some video to show you what was going on. It's kind of incredible.
Obviously, when the news about this situation broke, there were lots of reporters, lots of cameras that went to the scene. And one thing that happened is that there was one woman trapped in a car who was holding up a sign. And these reporters from WJLA were able to close in on the sign, and they were able to see what she was holding up.
It was a piece of paper in which she wrote her husband's phone number. So, they called her husband, this WJLA team called her husband, told him the situation, and said that this woman was trapped and that she was going to be getting to safety, that rescuers would be coming.
Apparently, they kept him apprised of everything that happened, and now she is safe. and thanks to this team being able to close in on that one piece of paper, her husband knew every step of the way everything that was was going on, Betty.
NGUYEN: All right, so this was a water main break. I mean, how big of a break? It had to have been a huge one for this to happen.
LEVS: It was huge. When I try to put it in proportion, let me just tell you this. They're telling us that the diameter of this water main break was 66 inches. Now, think about your height. I'm 6'1". So, that diameter's about seven inches shorter than me. It's very, very big.
And, the authorities say when they looked at the road, they were finding that it was four feet deep, this water. So, obviously, even if you have a big SUV, it's going to get pretty far up there. Smaller cars could be destroyed by that much water. In fact, SUVs might be as well.
So, it's clearly a massive amount of water. And it was so sudden because of that really wide diameter there.
NGUYEN: And you have a map actually that's going to show us where all this took place and what the road usually looks like when all that water's not there?
LEVS: When it's all not there. Yes, let's zoom in on the board. I want to show you a couple things. For those of you who don't know the area, Potomac is over here. Bethesda is over here. It was right along here. So, this is a major area (INAUDIBLE) take the road into D.C., for D.C. commuters. Now, let's go here. This is from Google. It's so cool. This is what the road usually looks like. I pulled up the actual stretch of road where this happened today. It's a normal commuter road. Usually apparently the traffic, you know, at certain hours is moving fine. And obviously today it looked quite different.
And really quickly, if you know the area well, let's go in here. This is the stretch of road where it happened. It was called River Road between Bradley Boulevard and Seven Locks Road. River Road right there. Let's end on those pictures again of what the road usually looks like.
You can check that out, and more information obviously, Betty, at CNN.com.
NGUYEN: And today we see why it's called River Road.
LEVS: Yes.
NGUYEN: Unfortunately.
LEVS: There you go.
NGUYEN: All right, thank you, Josh.
Well, a wintry mess in Indianapolis to tell you about as much of the country just shivers through some record-setting cold weather. I want to show you some video right now. Pipes, they burst at Martin University, and that caused millions of dollars in damage in the school's main administration building. Computers, furniture, all of it ruined.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's terrible to just walk in here and see water was literally rushing out the doors. There's water on literally both level, standing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Right now, students are scheduled to return to class from their winter break on January 2, but that might have to be delayed because of all the damage.
Well, this nasty winter weather is taking a toll on a whole lot of travel plans. Our Chad Myers joins us now from the CNN weather center. A toll is right. A lot of people just stuck at this hour.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and getting stucker, because now we're seeing freezing rain develop, as we knew it would. We couldn't go from 4 degrees above zero to rain today without there being a band of pink in the middle, which is the transition between here it's snowing and all of a sudden here it's raining. In between here, it's not.
Indianapolis right now, you have 28 degrees and rain. Those two things don't go together very well. All the way down through Bloomington, you just have to watch your drive today for sure.
Here's a shot from St. Louis. Looks like you could fire a cannon through the city right now. About, what, three or four cars on the downtown streets. OK, a lot of businesses are closed down there, but it's because it's raining and 31. You can't even get there.
Just stay home, at least for another couple of hours. It does warm up and it turns to rain, but for now, these bridges and overpasses and even some of the walkways are getting very icy. You don't need to be taking a fall two days before Christmas. Betty?
NGUYEN: Yes, absolutely not. Thanks, Chad.
MYERS: You bet.
NGUYEN: You know, we have been talking a whole lot about Illinois governor and the president-elect, and that U.S. Senate seat that connects them. Well, in about three hours, the Obama staff in Chicago is due to tell all about conversations or e-mails with Rod Blagojevich or his aides pertaining to a new junior senator from Illinois.
Well, joining me now with his perspective as a veteran observer, that is Chris Fusco. You see him right there. He's state government reporter with the Chicago Sun-Times. Chris, Joe Biden said today that no one on the Obama team did anything wrong. What are you hearing?
CHRIS FUSCO, REPORTER, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: Well, I think that's been the drumbeat that the Obama campaign has been putting out for the past several days since this scandal broke. There's no indication there is going to be any pointing of wrongdoing in this document to anybody with President-elect Obama.
I guess the question is, until we see the document, we don't know if there might be some omissions of kind of go-betweens between both staff, of both the governer and the president-elect.
NGUYEN: Well, that's what I wanted to ask you about, because since we had not seen this criminal complaint, there may be some names out there that maybe even the Obama team hasn't made the connection just yet, because they're not official members of the staff?
FUSCO: Yes. And I think two points in that regard. Number one, the president-elect indicated through The New York Times this morning, at least somebody telling them, that this was going to be compiled from memory and not tape recordings from the U.S. attorney's office.
Number two, the complaint references in particular one union official who Blagojevich says in the court document based on a wiretap that he believed to be an emissary to Senate Candidate One. Well, Senate Candidate One has been widely identified as Valerie Jarrett.
Now, if the document's focusing on communications between the governor's staff and President-elect Obama's staff, somebody like an emissary might be overlooked and therefore driving future speculation about what talks were had and those kinds of things. NGUYEN: Yes, and so obviously, we're just going to have to wait to see the report today and also compare that with the criminal complaint. But in the meantime, though, is there any kind of concern over the fact that this is an internal investigation by team Obama?
FUSCO: Well, I mean, I think, you know, this is a campaign, you know, that built itself on transparency and openness. And I guess you get to weigh that with the fact that there's also a criminal investigation going on. You know, the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago has had some say in when this document can be released and probably what can be said in it.
So, until we see the full criminal case against Blagojevich -- we haven't seen the indictment yet, we've only seen a criminal complaint -- we're not going to know I think everything about this.
NGUYEN: And early on, when we learned about this, the people were trying to make some kind of a connection, wondering if Obama aide Rahm Emanuel had any kind of ties to this. Have you heard anything on that front?
FUSCO: Well, I mean, we fully expect based on several media reports that, you know, the chief of staff-elect is going to be referenced in this document. I don't think we're going see any indication whatsoever, however, though, that he did anything wrong.
It makes a lot of sense that President-elect Obama would be sending Rahm Emanuel in to talk to Blagojevich's people, even if it's only in a perfunctory level about what's going on with the seat.
NGUYEN: Is the time at all suspect to you? I mean, this is what, a couple days before Christmas. Releasing it now. A lot of people aren't watching, they're traveling. Is this a way to kind of take the spotlight off it?
FUSCO: Yes. I think a lot of people are going to draw that conclusion. And I guess, what I'd rather is I'd rather not be reviewing it at 9:30 this morning than at 3:30 Central time this afternoon. So I guess we are going to have to let the public decide whether this is some sort of tactic or not.
NGUYEN: Yes. And we've got to see what it says, too.
FUSCO: Exactly.
Chris Fusco, reporter with "Chicago Sun-Times," thanks so much for your time today. We do appreciate it.
FUSCO: Thank you.
NGUYEN: OK. So they have advertised to help you lose wait, but they could have a devastating impact on your heart and your body. Important new warnings about some popular diet pills.
And from the unemployment line to the front line of the work force. A career coach finds a warm spots in this frosty economy. The hot jobs of 2009, coming up in our next hour.
NGUYEN: So you are thinking about dropping a few pounds now or maybe even after New Year's?
Well, the government says you need to stay away from certain diet pills online. Here to help, our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.
All right. So when you hear that you think, my goodness, which ones are they talking about?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Twenty-eight of them.
NGUYEN: Really?
COHEN: Can you believe it? Twenty-eight of them. I have to say, in nearly two decades of covering FDA actions I have never seen anything like this.
The FDA saying do not take 28 different kinds of diet pills. Not because they don't work, but because they contain some really potentially dangerous stuff.
Let's take a look at what's in some of these diet pills that you should not be buying.
First of all, Meridia. That's a prescription drug that they're putting in these over-the-counter pills, sometimes in mega doses. Way more than a doctor would ever give you.
Also, a drug called Rimanabant, that's not even approved to use here in the United States.
Also a seizure drug. An anti-seizure drug in a diet pill called Phenytoin, also sometimes in mega doses.
And then this last one, it's not even a drug. It's a chemical. It is a suspected carcinogen and it's called phenolphthalein. And all of these things put together has caused the FDA that these products are a great risk to public health and that you should stop using them.
Now, the problem is the people who make them, they're not taking them off the internet and out of stores. They're just telling the FDA, they're kind of telling them to go away, basically.
And so the FDA is considering criminal action.
NGUYEN: Well, this is kind of jaw dropping when you look at some of those ingredients. How do they get in there in the first place and end up on store shelves?
COHEN: It's not known. Many of these were made in China.
And let's -- to put it bluntly, the over-the-counter supplements are not regulated the way prescriptions are. Prescription drugs or, FDA inspectors in factories, and all that kind of thing. These are largely unregulated. The FDA does not have a lot of police power with these drugs and people say, something like this is a long time coming.
NGUYEN: So you in fact need to protect yourself. We're looking at 28 different types of diet pills. How do you know which ones?
COHEN: If you go to fda.gov, you will see the list. Again, these are sold on the internet and they are also sold over-the- counter; fda.gov, they have the entire list.
NGUYEN: All right. Very good information. You know it's that time of year people saying I'm going to pig out over the holidays. Starting first of January, it's diet time.
COHEN: Right. And I would say read the labels to see if the ingredients-- but they didn't list it in the ingredients. They just put it in and didn't list it. So, go to the website.
NGUYEN: Got you. Thank you, Elizabeth. Do appreciate it.
OK, so it is a lucrative and highly intimate enterprise. Some women are making thousands of bucks doing it, and it is all perfectly legal.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Some women short on cash, are looking inward to earn extra money selling their eggs or becoming surrogate moms. It is a lucrative business, and experts say, as the economy has tanked, the number of women donors has skyrocketed.
Here's our Randi Kaye.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The ads are everywhere. College newspapers, in Craigs List.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): I would love to give somebody a chance to have a child. I'm also looking to pay part of my way through school.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Compensation for surrogacy would allow me to stay full-time, which otherwise would not be an option.
I am a medical studen, musician and am quite athletic. I am charging a significant fee.
KAYE (on-camera): That is how thousands of women in today's tough economy earn extra cash and lots of it. They're donating their eggs. It pays as much as $10,000.
Women willing to carry a baby as a surrogate mom can rake in even more. Thirty grand in some cases. KAYE (voice-over): At 26, Courtney Smith has lots of bills to pay. She's a wine steward at a high-end Manhattan restaurant. But says the economy is hurting business, and as a result, her bank account.
She's already cut back on eating out and cab rides. She'd get a second job, but she doesn't have the energy or the time. So she plans to donate her eggs.
She first did it two years ago, when money got tight.
(on camera): So how much were you paid when you donated your eggs?
COURTNEY SMITH, EGG DONOR: I was $7,000.
KAYE: And how did that feel?
SMITH: It felt good. I mean, feels good to have money. And I paid off a student loan.
KAYE (voice-over): Courtney provided these baby pictures so recipients can see what their child might look like. Once matched,usually with a couple unable to have their own children, donors like Courtney take hormones for about two weeks to stimulate ovulation. A doctor then removes the eggs from the donor's ovaries. The recipient gets the eggs to fertilize them; the donor gets the money.
Debora Spar author of "The Baby Business" says she would never let her daughter donate.
DEBORA SPAR, AUTHOR, "THE BABY BUSINESS" I worry that women are deciding to sell their eggs too quickly, that they are being perhaps overly driven by the financial concerns here.
KAYE: Spar is concerned about the women's health. Ovaries can be overstimulated, which she says can be dangerous.
SPAR: It is one woman giving birth to a child who is genetically the child of another woman. It is sale of our most intimate products.
KAYE: Courtney says sharing her DNA doesn't bother her. She has no emotional connection to her eggs, she says. And she doesn't think she'll have any regrets knowing a child that is a part of her, who she'll never meet, is out there.
Kathy Bernardo started a donor agency in Manhattan.
KATHY BERNARDO, STARTED DONOR AGENCY: I don't want people to lose sight that this is a treatment for infertility. Infertility is a disease. And this is one of the most effective treatments there are.
KAYE: Courtney was recently anonymously matched with a recipient who will pay her $8,000. The maximum recommended by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine is $10,000, though some recipients place private ads like this one, offering much more.
Bernardo says the number of donor applicants at her agency has doubled in recent months.
BERNARDO: As the news has gotten worse and worse, the interest in egg donation has increased.
KAYE (on camera): What gets somebody picked?
BERNARDO: Attractiveness is No. 1. That you have to be attractive and it's a beauty contest to a certain degree. But also education, high test scores, ability in music and sports and things like that.
KAYE (voice-over): Most women say the money is secondary, that it's really about helping others.
Courtney says, those women are kidding themselves.
(on camera): Would you donate your eggs if you weren't getting paid for them?
SMITH: Personally, I don't think that I would if it was for a stranger.
KAYE (voice-over): Most women who donate are under 30, when their eggs are healthiest. They can donate every three months, but no more than six times altogether.
Courtney will keep doing it as long as she needs the money. But she does plan to save some eggs to have her own child one day.
Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Well, you might be surprised who is using surrogates to become parents. Among them, celebrities and single dads. We're going to take an in-depth look next hour.
Also, snow in the wintertime, many say that is nothing new. But for one little girl, it is a gift of a lifetime.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: You've got to hear this story, proof that no good deed goes unpunished. A Connecticut man bought 130 $10 gift cards inside Wal-mart -- 1,300 bucks worth of gift cards, $10 each, OK? Then he went outside to give them away in a Santa suit. A nice gesture, seems like it at least. Well, the guy is unemployed on top of all of this, but for Wal-mart the Secret Santa was more like a suspect Santa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARRY GOLDBERG, SECRET SANTA: They asked me, well, where did I get these cards? Well, I bought them from your store 20 minutes ago. Well, what are you doing? I said, I'm giving out gift cards. It's the holidays. It's -- the right thing to do is to give, isn't it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: All he was doing was helping other people out.
Well, Wal-mart claimed Goldberg was soliciting. Here is their statement saying -- quote -- "While we appreciate the customer's patronage, we understand that he was interrupting the flow of foot traffic in the store's vestibule."
Well, retail rival Target did not miss this opportunity. They told Goldberg that he could swap the Wal-mart cards for Target cards and then give them away at their store. Quite a story.
And listen to this one. This is one story for you.
A 4-year-old terminally ill Georgia girl got her Christmas wish a little early. And despite living in a state that doesn't get much snow, she awoke to see her yard turned into a winter wonderland.
CNNs' Brooke Baldwin brings us Sophia's story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A snowy surprise for Sophia.
SHIRLEY LANGFORD, SOPHIA'S MOTHER: Get daddy. Go ahead. Get daddy.
BALDWIN: A 4-year-old who dreamt of a white Christmas. It is a welcomed gift she definitely deserves.
Just before her third birthday, doctors discovered a cancerous tumor on her brain.
WAYNE LANGFORD, SOPHIA'S FATHER: My stomach started hurting and I still have the same ache in my gut today, a year and half later. So yes, your life changes forever. I mean, you just -- it changes utterly.
BALDWIN: Sophia has endured months of chemotherapy and radiation. She has also lost some of her sight and most of her hearing.
S. LANGFORD: She asked me to sing a lullaby after she lost her hearing, and I had already started to sing it. And she said mommy, sing me a lullaby. So I had to stop and then put my lips against her ears so that she could feel the vibrations.
BALDWIN: Four brain surgeries later, these parents realize this is a battle their daughter will likely lose. In October, doctors gave Sophia anywhere from two weeks to two months to live.
S. LANGFORD: Here we go.
BALDWIN: That is why this snow is so special. S. LANGFORD: That laugh when she threw the snowball at you, will stay with us forever. Each laugh is just that important to us.
BALDWIN (on camera): Seeing snow during the holiday season may not seem like a miracle to most, but we are in Georgia where this stuff is the hard to come by, unless you make it yourself.
(voice-over): That is one of the things these employees from a Georgia state park do during the winter. They caught wind of Sophia's story and wanted to help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd definitely come out no matter what the temperature is and be a part of that.
BALDWIN: One snow machine, 30 tons of snow and four dump trucks later, Sophia got her winter wonderland.
KELLEY SWANN, STONE MOUNTAIN PARK: Knowing that we were able to be a part of her wish and her family's wish is -- and make a little girl's dream come true -- is just exciting and very fulfilling.
BALDWIN: Sophia's parents find fulfillment in providing their little girl with joy and laughter for the rest of her days.
W. LANGFORD: It is cliche, but everyday is Christmas.
S. LANGFORD: Thank you.
BALDWIN: As long as they are filled with smiles and perhaps a sudden Georgia snowfall.
Brooke Baldwin, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: What a story.
Well, there are many organizations helping children like Sophia. If you'd like to help, go online to braintumorkids.org. Our own Kyra Phillips is a big supporter of this group. Others are curechildhoodcancer.org and mycampsunshine.com.
The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
