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Bill Clinton Home from Hospital; Largest Offensive of Afghanistan War; Haiti Quake One Month Later

Aired February 12, 2010 - 09:00   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi. Hope you do. And yes, by the time you get here, there's going to be plenty of snow on the ground. So get used to it, buddy. See you soon. Have a great day, everybody.

OK, so if 10,000 people know about it, is it still a secret? TSA workers, thousands of them in fact, are getting access to classified info. The idea is to keep you safe, but is this the right way to do it?

Also, Jaycee Dugard -- remember her? Kidnapped as a girl, freed as a woman and mother? What was it like going through what she endured during those lost years? Well, we are getting an idea of that thanks to her diary.

And it is sad enough that a bank robbery suspect is in his 70s but the reason he allegedly did it is even sadder.

Welcome to the NEWSROOM, everybody. We got lots of stories coming up for you. First of all, we're following former President Clinton. He's kind of a new man today. Mary Snow is outside his home with the latest on that.

And if you're in Dallas today, it's going to look more like Denver outside because of all the snow. Jacqui Jeras is following that.

Then we're going to take you to Afghanistan with our Frederik Pleitgen. He is also following the defensive in that war.

But first, let's get you up to speed on former president, that being President Clinton, back at his Chappaqua, New York home this hour after being released from a New York hospital.

He was taken to Presbyterian Hospital late yesterday after complaining of chest discomfort. The 63-year-old former president had two stents placed in one of his coronary arteries.

Now the hospital's chief cardiologist says there's no evidence of a heart attack and no damage to his heart and that he should be able to return to work on Monday.

Stents are used to open a blocked artery.

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton were with him at the hospital and doctors call his prognosis excellent.

Well, let's get the latest on that with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He calls the insertion of stents simple plumbing. Let's to get more -- or on the former president's health and CNN's Mary Snow, as we mentioned, outside the home in Chappaqua, New York.

Mary, does -- it seems like, you know, it was a routine procedure for someone who'd had heart difficulties in the past. Will it slow him down any?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not likely, Betty. You know, about two hours ago we saw three cars enter the Clinton family home here in Chappaqua. It's about 30 miles outside of New York City. And you know his doctors last night at the hospital saying, you know, about two hours after this procedure he was up and walking around.

President Clinton's office released a statement this morning saying he's in excellent condition and that he looks forward to going to -- going back to work at the Clinton Foundation, and also his work on relief and recovery efforts in Haiti.

And as you mentioned, his doctors expect him to be back at work by Monday.

NGUYEN: Yes, Hillary Clinton, as well, scheduled to leave today on a planned trip to the Middle East. But has that been put off at all because of this?

SNOW: Right. Secretary Clinton did come to New York last night. And she was with President Clinton and her daughter last night. But the trip has not been put off. It's just been postponed. She's expected to depart tomorrow to the Persian Gulf. This is to give her time so she doesn't have to rush back to Washington.

NGUYEN: All right. Mary Snow joining us live. Thank you so much for that, Mary.

Well, it began like any other snowball fight. Then it turned into a brawl. Check this out. Students at a Dallas high school started throwing snowballs and wound up throwing punches.

One student had to actually go to the -- oh my goodness, look at that -- go to the hospital because of this. Now no school security guards could be seen during this fight.

A school spokesperson says there just wasn't enough supervision. Do you think? Because -- well, here's the reason why. They say 50 staff members didn't show because of the snow day.

Of course, we'll continue to follow all of this for you. And you know much of the Deep South is bracing for what could be the biggest snowfall in a decade. In fact, some areas could see up to eight inches of snow.

We'll be tracking this rare, powerful storm as it crawls eastward and believe it or not, this snowy image in Shreveport, Louisiana -- can you believe that? Shreveport, Louisiana. That just doesn't happen there.

Our affiliate there, though, KTBS, says the biggest problem hasn't been the snow but the ice that formed when it melted on the roadways. Now overnight icing closed parts of two major Texarkana highways, that being Interstate 49 and I-220.

Well, Alabama also bracing for 2 to 4 inches of snow. Northerners, they may laugh a little at this but in the Deep South, it is enough to cause some major concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. JUD BEEDY, DAPHNE, ALABAMA POLICE: If you are at a place where there's city workers or government workers or public workers or police telling you not to go, there's probably a reason for it. Try to avoid those areas because there's probably either iced over or there's been accidents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: All right, let's take you to Dallas now because they are breaking the records there. The city set a new one-day record for snowfall with 12.5 inches. So how's the area coping today?

Let's get the latest now from reporter Joel Thomas of CNN affiliate, KTVT. I used to work with him in Dallas, Texas.

Hey there, Joel.

JOEL THOMAS, KTVT REPORTER: You know, Betty, that just an inch or two of snow, as you were saying, shuts down Atlanta. Same here in Dallas/Ft. Worth. And here's the fallout when you set a 111-year record, your overpasses, bridges and side roads look like this.

Now we don't get enough snow up here in north Texas to have snowplows in any of the cities so we throw down sand on the bridges to get some traction as you go over them. That's that dirty brown streak that you see going down the middle there.

And there's another fallout from this, too. Notice that there's no traffic up here. Well, it's not just because this bridge in particular is bad to cross, take a look out here. This is a major intersection just south of Ft. Worth. It's Interstates 30 and 35 and this right now is our rush hour.

That's because basically it's an ice holiday here. Most schools are closed. The other fallouts from the snowstorm, car ports at homes and apartments have collapsed under the weight of snow. Hundreds of canceled flights over at DFW airport.

Power outages leaving 175,000 people without power through the Metroplex area. So for a lot of northeastern towns this may seem a trivial amount of snow but for here it's one we'll remember for the ages. Betty?

NGUYEN: No doubt. Not really a winter wonderland there with all those problems. OK, Joel, thank you so much for that.

You know, the rest of the southeast is now getting the snow that hit Dallas. Jacqui Jeras is in the CNN Weather Center. She is watching all of it for us.

This is some record breaking stuff, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, I mean a foot and a half of snow, Betty, that is just something -- I'm going to admit it. Something we didn't quite expect to see quite that much in the Dallas area.

And we're also seeing snow in places where maybe you wouldn't expect. In Mississippi, in Alabama, and now it's starting to move into Georgia as well. So this is a big deal and a big mess for much of the south.

What can we expect with this storm and the rest of the weekend? We'll let you know coming up with your forecast.

NGUYEN: All right, looking forward to that.

And on the east coast, the cost of the back-to-back storms still being tallied and the effects will last long after the last snowflake has melted.

Considering the lingering hit job market. Right? OK, consider all those problems. Now economists are predicting that between 90,000 and 150,000 jobs will be lost this month. They say the weather has kept people home from work and delayed hiring for others and it's somewhat tougher to estimate the loss of productivity from the shutdown of the federal government.

Now there have been four snow days just in this past week. The most frequently cited guess is that it's costing $100 million per day. But government experts say that's an old figure that doesn't make -- take into account today's option of telecommuting so the actual cost is probably much lower. We can only hope so.

Well, it could be the biggest offensive yet. Let's get to this. U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers gearing up for a major assault against the Taliban. We're live in Kabul with the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Welcome back, everybody. U.S. Marines are preparing to launch the biggest offensive yet of the 8-year-old Afghanistan war. Now thousands of Marines, NATO and Afghan troops, are massing around Taliban stronghold of Marjah which is in the Helmand Province.

Want to get more on that from CNN's Frederik Pleitgen who is in Kabul.

Fred, what is the strategy here with this offensive?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, basically, Betty, the preliminary operations for this big offensive have begun in this past week. What we've been seeing is that we've been seeing the Marines, also some British soldiers, and some Afghan soldiers take key junctions around the town of Marjah to try and prevent Taliban operatives from slipping out of there.

Now one of the interesting things that's been going on over the past days and weeks that we've been talking about is that this offensive is pretty much the worst-kept secret here in Afghanistan. It's been advertised by the U.S. Military.

And one of the things they say they want to do is they want to get civilians prepared for what's going to happen, to either leave the area or to get into their houses and stay there and be prepared to stay there for several days.

That's been the main objective to try and keep civilian casualties as low as possible. Now the other big strategy in all of this of course is to try and get Taliban who may not be hardcore Taliban, to leave the ranks of the Taliban, maybe turn themselves in, maybe turn in their weapons to try and get this offensive going with as few casualties on all sides as possible.

Now having said all that, Betty, the Marines say they do expect some very heavy firefights to be going on in the town of Marjah. They say this is not going to be an easy operation. And one of the things also, because this has been advertised in such a massive way beforehand, the Taliban have of course had time to prepare, to plant bombs in the area.

And that has been the number one killer of U.S. soldiers and marines in Afghanistan, really -- all the way. That has been those improvised explosive devices -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Yes, that's always been a very problematic there. So give us another idea, too, of -- you know, they're up against a lot right now. Some of the dangers that they face in this offensive.

PLEITGEN: Well, I mean, the danger starts first of as in almost all offensives here in Afghanistan with the terrain. The terrain down there is very difficult. There's a set of irrigation canals which were actually built by the U.S. in the 1960s that make this land very lush, they're very hard to cross even with tanks, even with breaching vehicles, the kind that the marines would use.

So just advancing in that terrain is very difficult. On the other hand now, you have an urban area that they have to move into. It's a very large town. About 80,000 people live there. And it's been under Taliban control for years really now so they have had time to prepare.

You're going to see booby trapped houses most probably. You're going to see improvised explosive devices planted in all sorts of different areas, and of course urban combat is always something that is very, very difficult to do. It's very difficult to do without trying to endure as many casualties as possible. So certainly it's a dangerous operation to start with, Betty. And then of course you have the new mindset of the U.S. military here in Afghanistan which means trying to keep the civilian casualties as low as possible, and that could mean more risks for American marines as they try to prevent casualties on the civilian side.

And maybe for instance not put a house under fire where they've been receiving fire from because there might be civilians in that house. So a very, very dangerous, very difficult operation in a very hard terrain.

NGUYEN: Yes, no doubt. Hey, maybe you can give us some more information on this, too. That security breach at the base in eastern Afghanistan yesterday? Have you learned even more about that?

PLEITGEN: That's something that's of great concern to the U.S. military and certainly something where we've also been getting information not just Afghanistan but also from Washington as well.

Apparently what happened late last night is that a suicide bomber managed to get onto a base, onto a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan, close to the Pakistan border, and blew himself up.

Now the Afghan authorities are telling us that he made it into the sleeping area. U.S. military has not been willing to confirm that. However both sides are telling us that five U.S. soldiers were wounded in this.

And the thing that makes this so very disturbing for the U.S. military is that apparently he was wearing a uniform either of the Afghan police or of the Afghan Border police so a major security breach there -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Hmm. OK. Frederik Pleitgen, joining us live. Fred, thank you so much for that.

Want to get back to this story now. Deicing alone may not be enough in Dallas. They just -- look at this. They got 11.2 inches of snow yesterday. That is a one-day record for the area.

It's also causing a big headache for travelers. Dozens of flights canceled out of Dallas today. And the same goes for Atlanta. Delta alone is canceling around 800 flights today. About 1,000 Delta flights had to be canceled because of weather on Wednesday and Thursday.

So pack your patience, folks.

You know, it's all part of a major winter storm that is hitting the southeast right now. And meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is live in the Severe Weather Center tracking it all for us.

OK, Jacqui, who's about to get hit next?

(WEATHER REPORT)

JERAS: So, you know, Betty, when you put it in perspective, you know, people in the north are going to be, like.

NGUYEN: Yes.

JERAS: Just a couple of inches of snow, no big deal, but when you don't have plows, you don't have the proper salting and sanding trucks, this is going to be impacting a whole lot of people and rough travel and best that most of you just stay home today.

NGUYEN: Yes, exactly. I was about to say, that is the best advice. Just stay inside where it's warm. OK, Jacqui. Thank you.

JERAS: Sure.

NGUYEN: Well, churches in ruins. Two more added to the list. Investigators in Texas sifting through the wreckage for clues trying to find who is setting the fires.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Checking top stories for you now. A candle light vigil at the University of Texas, El Paso. CNN affiliate KVIA reports that students gather to remember victims of a massacre across the border in Juarez, Mexico.

Fifteen people gunned down at a house party nearly two weeks ago. Police say the attack was carried out by members of a drug cartel. Two are under arrest. Another was killed in a shootout with police.

Two more church fires in Texas have been ruled arson. That brings the total to 10. The latest were near Tyler, Texas. Police believe an individual or a group is responsible for all of these fires. And all of the fires have been concentrated in east Texas but haven't been limited to any one denomination.

In Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy not running for re- election. Kennedy says his life is taking a new direction. The eight-term representative is the youngest child of the late Senator Kennedy. The "New York Times" reports that when Patrick Kennedy leaves office it will be the first time in half century that a Kennedy won't be serving in Congress.

Well, a veteran Republican congressman is also headed out the door. Senior GOP official confirms Florida representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart is planning to retire at the end of the year. Diaz-Balart is expected to announce that decision in just a few hours. He's represented the Miami area in the House since 1993.

Let's talk now one month later. Haiti quake survivors, they are still struggling. We're still seeing crowded hospitals but for different reasons than before.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, today marks one month since the deadly earthquake rocked Haiti. More than 200,000 died. For the survivors, though, it's still a daily struggle to get by. CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows us what it's like now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: What you're looking at is a long line forming outside one of the largest public hospitals in Port-au-Prince.

It's nearly four weeks after the earthquake, and a couple of things you'll notice right away. First of all, the majority of the patients here are not people who are injured in the earthquake. These are people who have chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, who are seeing a doctor perhaps for the very first time. Some of them in their entire lives.

The other thing you'll notice is that things are much more organized than they were a few weeks ago. Compare that to just two weeks ago. Here you see mainly quake survivors, patients who were dramatically injured requiring amputations. There was a lack of organization. There was a lack of supplies.

Certainly things have improved in a very big way.

You may be wondering like I was what happens to so many of those patients. Well, you're looking at it. Many of them end up here in what is supposed to be a temporary tent city. Just take a look around. I mean this is the condition in which people are supposed to recover from major operations.

I can tell you, back in the states, patients would be getting all sorts of different treatments. They might still be in the hospital. They would be getting dressing changes. But instead they're forced to recover in conditions like this.

It is dirty. There's a lack of medications. And there's a lack of food as well. Lack of good nutrition. And there's something else here that people are really worried about. It's rainy season. We saw our first rain this week in a month.

And with rain comes all sorts of potential infectious diseases. The World Health Organization says the incidents of measles goes up, the incidents of tetanus and the incidents of diarrhea as well.

But then let's take a look at this. I mean rainy season is pretty tough here. Imagine living in this. This is somebody's home in the middle of rainy season. Instead they opt for structures like this. Corrugated tin to try and protect them.

It's not to say that people aren't trying to help. In fact mobile clinics are going out into these tent cities trying to give vaccines in a country that has not seen nearly enough vaccines in the future.

So this is it. People are trying to recover in a temporary tent city that I can tell you is increasingly becoming more permanent. (END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now live from Port-au-Prince.

And Sanjay, are the patients released to the tent cities given supplies to keep their wounds clean and to try to prevent these kind of infections?

GUPTA: It's a really good question and the answer is pretty much no. You know it's interesting, you leave the hospital, and people typically get a discharge sheet, tells you what you're supposed to do, what supplies, what medications you might need.

Well, they're given the same thing here as well. A discharge sheet written in English. Many of them can't read English. Telling them to get supplies. There are no place to get supplies and telling them to continue to take their medications which they don't have.

So it's a real problem and the reason I wanted to highlight that particular situation, Betty, is because, you know, certainly the immediate phase of things, taking care of patients, performing life- saving operations, getting them that needed care, very important.

But without this longer term care which you are correctly alluding to, if you don't have that, it makes that more immediate care less meaningful. You have to have both. And right now they're in that chronic care phase. And there's a lot of work to be done in that regard.

NGUYEN: Yes, all right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much for that.

Well, you know it has been a roller coaster ride on Wall Street this week. The Dow dropped on Monday. Rose on Tuesday. Dropped again on Wednesday. And then rallied back yesterday.

So Darby Dunn who joins us now from New York, does this mean that we're going to have a down day today?

DARBY DUNN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Betty, we are expecting a lower open. And that's largely because of concerns, however, about what's going on in China.

For the second time in a month, China's central bank is forcing banks to increase the amount of cash they keep on hand. It's a way of tightening the money supply and it also limits growth.

Here at home, however, a sign of hope. Retail sales rose by half a percent last month. That is the fifth gain in the past six months and it shows that Americans are loosening their purse strings a little bit.

Well, Warren Buffett's company Berkshire Hathaway is joining the S&P 500 today and shares are actually affordable. Berkshire now has two classes of stock and thanks to a stock blitz the B class shares or baby Berkshire shares trade in the $70 range. That compares to Berkshire's A class shares which fetched more than 100 grand per share. The addition of the B share to the S&P 500 means that many Americans will own a bit through mutual funds that track the index.

And there's the opening bell on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial average closed at 10,144.19. And finally, Betty, if you are hoping to get a last-minute ticket to the Olympics, think again. Bloomberg reporting that Vancouver winter game organizers expect to sell all 1.6 million tickets and that will be the first time that the Olympics have sold out. At the 2002, Salt Lake City games, 95% of the tickets were sold. Back to you, Betty.

NGUYEN: Hey, that's not bad at all. Except for those trying to get a ticket. Okay. Thanks, Darby.

An elderly bank robber, get this, caught on tape. Find out what made this 73-year-old man take such drastic measures.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Robbing Peter to pay Paul. A Tampa man is behind bars for robbing banks to pay his mortgage. Police say 73-year-old James Bruce (ph) admitted to robbing three banks, and get this, all he asked for was $600 at a time. Now, he's being held on $22,000 bond. Police believe Bruce intended to pay the money back once he got back on his feet. He was finally caught after a neighbor called police, and that neighbor recognized him in surveillance video of the last robbery was shown on TV.

"The Washington Post" reports President Obama will help decide where to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. In November, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Mohammed's trial would be held in a civilian court in New York, but political opposition to that decision has intensified, forcing the justice department to consider other venues.

The Post quotes, "administration officials as saying the President will take an active role in that debate and work to secure congressional funding for the costly trial before bipartisan efforts to scrap financing gains momentum."

All right. So, here's a question about you and your safety. Which airport security employees should get access to secret intelligence information? Transportation authorities, they have some changes in store for you so let's get a closer look at this. CNN's Kate Bolduan is in Washington at the security desk. Kate, what kind of changes are coming into plays and who gets to look at all that information?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is very interesting stuff, Betty. This is thousands of airport security workers are set to get enhanced intelligence security clearance, secret clearance to be exact, and what this is? This is an effort by the Transportation Security Administration to really improve their effort to be able to detect and potentially stop any potential terrorists. Now, in all what we're talking about is 10,000 security workers that are going to be getting access, new access to this classified information, but it's not the people that you really come in contact most when you're at airports.

It's not the people at the checkpoint. The people who are doing the wanding or checking through your bags, it's their bosses that are actually the ones that will be getting this kind of clearance. People in more senior positions like managers, supervisors, and behavior detection officers. Now, TSA spokeswoman, she spoke with our security desk just a short time ago, and she gave us this statement. It's very interesting. She says providing clearances and corresponding intelligence information to the front line workforce empowers our employees to better execute their mission at the checkpoints and in other areas of the transportation environment.

They think this is very important and a progression as the workforce to improve their workforce. The TSA also tells us that what this really is. This is to help officers on the frontline detect anomalies in the system that they're looking at as well as also help them to try to connect potential dots and connecting potential dots in other aspects of the intelligence community is something that the Obama administration itself acknowledged was their failing in trying to stop and detect the Christmas day attempted attack.

In all, getting all of these 10,000 workers up to snuffing (ph), get their background checks and clearances all through. Betty, they say this will take two years, but this effort, this concept for this initiative was really developed back in July 2008, so this is something that they've been working on, and we're really now just learning more about.

NGUYEN: Okay. Learning more about it. Been working on it for a while. It is going to take a while for it to come into effect, but overall, is this going to keep us safer?

BOLDUAN: Yes, and that's a big question. I mean, when you think about 10,000 people having access to more secure and secret information, it does raise those types of questions. I spoke with one of an intelligence expert, James Carpano (ph). He said, yes. The brutal truth is that any time more people have access to classified information, there are potential for more leaks, but he, himself, said very honestly, he thinks that this effort will give people within the intelligence community more confidence in sharing information.

More confidence in maturity, he says. More certainty that the information will be dealt with in an appropriate manner, and he says it could actually help them to prevent more leaks because they now know the people have been cleared and have this clearance to have this type of information all be it. In two years, it will be 10,000 more people.

NGUYEN: All right. Kate Bolduan joining us live. Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, Betty. NGUYEN: Now, we're going to take you to this. Rallies, protests and more nuclear talk from Iran. All around celebrations marking the anniversary of the Islamic revolution. Let's go straight to CNN's Ivan Watson at the Iran to ask for the latest on this. Hey, Ivan.

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Betty. Iran's supreme leader is calling yesterday's state sponsored celebrations a big victory and show of unity and support for his government for the Islamic Republic of Iran. He also released about 950 prisoners in the show of magnanimity. That's a traditional thing you do every year at this time of year in Iran.

Meanwhile, the White House has cast some doubts on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claims to have enriched uranium up to a level of 20%. The White House Spokesman said this probably was politics, not physics. Let's take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He says many things and many of them turn out to be untrue. We do not believe they have the capability to enrich to the degree to which they now say they are enriching.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Meanwhile, at Friday prayers in Tehran today, and Ayatolla said there's no room for any opposition in Iran -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Has the opposition died down or has the government crushed it? What do they do now?

WATSON: That's a big question right now, because they were not able to get the numbers out, and they were very effectively crushed at least in Tehran from what we could gather by the overwhelming security forces.

Take a look at video of tear gas being fired at one of the key opposition leaders, Mehdi Kerubi. He run for president, and he used to be a speaker of parliament, and according to his son, he told us that he had suffered burns to his eyes, and his son was arrested before being whisked away from the scene. We spoke with one analyst who summed up that basically the opposition looked kind of disorganized yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEHZAD YAGHMAIAN, IRANIAN ANALYST: The Green movements for the Jihad, in my opinion, two major problems; one was the problem of the numbers and other was disorganization in terms of whether or not to show their signs. As a result, a lot of disarray and disorganization was created. Some are actually looking at this as a sign of the defeat of the Green movement. Others are saying that was only a tactical mistake, and that could be rectified easily.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WATSON: There were other protests reported at a number of other cities around Iran, but also we're now hearing reports of large numbers of arrests -- Betty.

NGUYEN: All right. Ivan Watson joining us live. Ivan, thank you.

Hollywood, getting a new look, and no, it's not vandalism. It's actually a fund-raising scheme to save the Hollywood Hills sign, but what is Sallywood?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Checking top stories for you now, 5,500 athletes going for the gold. The 2010 Winter Olympics begins tonight in Vancouver with opening ceremonies. The hosts are hoping unseasonably mild weather won't spoil some of the events.

Shuttle "Endeavor" astronauts. They are all back inside this morning. Two of them, though, completed a lengthy space walk just a couple hours ago. It was the first of three scheduled space walks. They connected a new storage room to the International Space Station, and it will house life support and water recycling equipment.

The iconic Hollywood sign has a new look now. Crews have started covering the sign with a new one. No, it won't say Sallywood. It will actually end up saying save the peak. It's being put up there by a conservation group that's trying to raise money to buy the land around the sign. They want to stop developers from building houses on the hill.

And a ten-mile march honoring the memory of 50 people killed in a deadly plane crash one year ago today.

America's winter vegetable garden took a major hit from last month's big freeze in South Florida. Most farmers there, they lost nearly half their crops, the tune of $286 million, the biggest losses tomatoes, beans and corn crops, and you know, we'll all be feeling that in the pocketbook. Florida's freeze also being blamed for a shocking number of manatee deaths. Two hundred killed in just a matter of weeks, according to the state lab. That's about 5% of Florida's known population, and biology say manatee is stressed by the cold could die later from disease. The state does have three clinics to rehab sick and injured manatees

All right. Let's see if Mother Nature can help them out a little bit, but it seems like so many people are just getting snowed in, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: They are. The good news, Florida not so much in terms of snow, a little bit into the panhandle, but it is going to stay pretty chilly here as you take a look at some of these numbers there in Tampa, 53 tomorrow. 62 in Miami, so this is pretty chilly stuff. The cold air comes in behind that front, so it is going to stay a bit on the nippy side. Here's the storm system that we're talking about as it is on the move, and basically, what we're seeing in Northern Florida, by the way, is just some sleet. A little bright banding as well call it. Those colors that you see there. Those reds and those oranges on radar as kind of an icy mix in this area. We've been getting plenty of snow. Louisiana, Mississippi, into Alabama. We're starting to get some pretty interesting snowfall totals.

These just in, and this is as of about 7:00 this morning. Six inches in Natchitoches, Louisiana, 5 inches in Monroe, Vicksburg 5 inches, 3 inches in Alexandria, and lofty at Louisiana; it has already had an inch or so on the ground. Do we have pictures, by the way, out of Baton Rouge Area? Do we have that cam? I guess, we don't have those, but the snow is coming down in Baton Rouge, and it's just amazing to see that kind of snow that far on down towards the South.

All right, let's go back to the radar here and talk a little bit more about this storm and its movement. We're really focusing in here on this I-20 corridor. And this is going to be the worst of the travel today. And this is where we're expecting some of the heaviest of these snow bands.

And it's you know, farther south than maybe necessarily you would expect. This is where I'm think the heaviest accumulations could reach somewhere on the range of four to six inches or so.

Ok. I guess we've got those Baton Rouge pictures now. And so let's take a look at that from WBRZ-TV. And there you see that snow continuing to come down. Big fat flakes, so our temperatures have been hovering right around 33 degrees or so.

You can see it's melting on contact on many of the roadways. And that's good news. But as temperatures drop on down tonight, we are going to start to see things ice-up quite a bit across parts of the south and that's going to be another concern.

Thankfully tomorrow's Saturday morning, so hopefully a lot of people, won't be out there and needing to get around. There you could see that snow starting to move into the Atlanta area. We've got either numerous, hundreds and hundreds of flights which have been canceled in and out of Hartsfield Jackson International Airport.

If you have to travel, you have maybe another couple of hours before I would advise you to try and stay put; the heaviest amount downtown and southward maybe two, three plus inches. And it's real tricky with this kind of a forecast -- Betty. Because just a couple of miles could make all of the difference in places like how much you're going to get in Montgomery compared to up towards the Birmingham area so we'll continue to watch this track as the snowstorm continues to develop.

The watches and warnings extend all the way through the Carolinas and then the storm moves off the shore later in the day for tomorrow. So a good 24 hours from now things will be looking a little better across parts of the south.

NGUYEN: All right, and let the time tick on because we need it to get out of here.

JERAS: Yes.

NGUYEN: Although, for some of us, it hasn't even arrived just yet.

JERAS: Right.

NGUYEN: Thank you, Jacqui.

You know we're remembering the victims of Continental Flight 3407, well, the commuter plane -- plane I should say, operated by Colgan Air, it did crash outside of Buffalo one year ago today and all 49 people on board were killed along with one person on the ground. Today friends and family members of the victims are marching in their memory.

Kyla Igoe with our affiliate WKBW joins me now live from Buffalo. And this has to be such a difficult day for those friends and family members.

KYLA IGOE, WKBW CORRESPONDENT: Exactly right. And you know it is just such an emotional day here in Clarence Center and for the entire western New York community as it is the anniversary of Continental Flight 3407 crashing down right here on Long Street.

Now, hundreds of people actually -- it's estimated around 500 people actually just gathered right here, did a solemn prayer and if you just take a look behind me, you can see a wreath that's placed where the plane actually went down. There's also rose petals and flowers scattered throughout the area as well as remembrance posters.

So again, there's just an outpour of support here in the community and again along with remembering those 50 lives lost, these families are really trying to change the airline industry. They really want to make tighter restrictions in aviation and they are just trying to get that message across today. So the big message of course today is remembrance and along with keeping those airways safe.

Reporting in Clarence Center, Kyla Igoe, back to you.

NGUYEN: Yes, we can see those long -- the route there as people were just filing in as they were marching today. Kyla Igoe thanks so much for that.

You know, it's not every day that you see missing posters for Legos. Well, folks, today is one of those days. Yes, the Lego artist put his heart into San Francisco and now he's watching eBay and Craigslist wondering if a thief will try to sell his plastic masterpieces.

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NGUYEN: All right, I got a question for you. Do you think the animal rights group PETA is going overboard with a new billboard campaign in Arkansas? Here's what it says, "Doggies multiple fly faster than the Duggars." Of course, the Duggars are a real Arkansas family with 19 kids and counting. You might have seen the reality show on TLC.

Well, PETA's message is to spay or neuter your pet or you could be looking at a lot more than 19 animals. Well, some people think the Duggar comparison is a bad one. Other one -- others, well, they say it's a good idea. Either way, PETA has to get the family's permission before the ads go up.

All right, if someone tries to sell you a big San Francisco landmark like Fioridella Square (ph) or part of the Golden Gate Park, don't buy it. There's a good chance it's stolen. Yes, probably you should point out that we're talking about the Lego versions. The Lego artist who built these replicas had most of his work outside his house locked up in his truck.

And wouldn't you know it, if someone punched the locks, stole all of it. And it took the man years to make these things. They're priceless to him. He's offering a reward for their return, no questions asked.

Well, it's shaping up to be a busy day for news around the country. Let's check in with our team of reporters to see what is developing. We'll begin with Mary Snow -- hey, Mary.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Betty. We're outside the Clintons home in Chappaqua, New York. The former president was released from the hospital this morning. Those who know him say don't expect him to slow down too much. We'll have that story at the top of the hour.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Why do some people have an easier time dieting than others? A brain study into self-control paid for by you is going to get some answers through half a million stimulus dollars. I'm Josh Levs -- I'll have that at the top of the hour.

JERAS: And I'm CNN meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras. Snow in the south, more than a foot of record-breaking snow in Dallas today. How much could you see in places like Montgomery, Alabama, and Atlanta, Georgia? We'll let you know coming up with your updated forecast.

NGUYEN: All right. Thanks, everybody.

Also ahead, abducted at age 11, freed almost 18 years later. Jaycee Dugard kept a journal of her ordeal. The chilling details of how she yearned to be free in her own words.

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NGUYEN: Yes, they don't look so crazy in love, they're just crazy at work but we do want to talk about love and Valentine's Day because it is on Sunday and we have some intriguing details about how much that we are willing to spend for gifts during these tough economic times and how much of us are finding romance.

A lady who's always lovely and in love no doubt, she's married she should be, she joins us from the New York Stock Exchange. Hey there, Stephanie.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: check. Good morning, Betty. Yes, you're right. Maybe those people didn't look like they were crazy in love, but some of those people back there could actually be dating because there's a new survey out that's from Career Builder taking a look at office romances. They're saying 40 percent of people that they surveyed -- they surveyed 5,000 workers -- say that they have dated a co-worker, almost 40 percent and almost a third of these people ending up marrying a co-worker.

We know some people here at CNN who'd done that.

Obviously taking a look at the secret of it, not many people were willing to keep it a secret either. Nearly 70 percent saying that they were willing to talk about it; of course 5 percent say that they have had to quit a job because of a bad breakup with someone that they worked with so that's not a good thing.

NGUYEN: That's never a good situation.

ELAM: Yes, never a good thing, especially in this economy. There's no quitting jobs.

NGUYEN: That's why some people say, you know what? I don't fish from the company pond because that can cause problems.

ELAM: Right. Exactly. A lot of people tell you not to do that because of that reason. So we figured if we looked at that, we should look at spending as well. It looks like, Betty, our loved ones are going to spend a little less on us this year and we're going to spend a little less on them.

This year a little over $63; 2009, everyone spent a little over $67, that's according to the National Retail Federation. But this shouldn't surprise you. Who do you think spends more on Valentine's Day? Men or women?

NGUYEN: You know I bet men spend more than women, right? Got to be right.

ELAM: You are exactly right; in fact about double. Look at that men spend $135, women spend about --

NGUYEN: That's the way it should be, isn't it?

ELAM: -- $72. Well, yes. And I also thing women try to do more throughout the year and men just look at one day -- special days. That's just my own personal theory.

Also, I should point out, for florists, this Valentine's Day is going to be a bad one because it falls on a Sunday. And you know, a lot of deliveries don't happen on Sunday, but FedEx to the rescue. They worked out a deal with Pro Flowers, that you can do overnight deliveries to get them there on Sunday. I'm sure it'll probably costs you a little bit.

NGUYEN: So no excuses. It's going to cost you a fortune I'm sure, right?

ELAM: But you know, people have a few more days. Here's your reminder, it's early in the day. I remind everybody to go out there and take care of your loved ones.

NGUYEN: Yes. Those gifts early and often, that's how we like them, right?

ELAM: Yes. Exactly. We're never mad at that.

NGUYEN: Never.

ELAM: I'll be on a plane with my husband on Valentine's Day so we'll be nice and close.

NGUYEN: Yes. It's very nice. Hey, you have a great one.

ELAM: Yes.

NGUYEN: Thanks Stephanie.

ELAM: You too, Betty, take care.

And that does bring us to our blog question today. We're asking how much are you spending this Valentine's Day and what are you spending it on? All you have to do is go to our website, CNN.com/Betty and respond to my blog or you can reach out to me on Twitter and Facebook at Betty Nguyen CNN and I will read some of your comments on the air live next hour.