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Student Wounded in Shooting at Northern Illinois University; Golf Writers' Association Boycotts Woods' Announcement; Continuing Investigation into Austin Crash; More Frightening Toyota Tales

Aired February 19, 2010 - 10:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, shots are fired at a college campus in Illinois this morning. It's one of our top stories. A student is wounded in that shooting at Northern Illinois University. That's in the city of Dekalb, just west of Chicago. That shooting took place near a residence hall and police have a suspect in custody now. They say this appears to be an isolated incident. You may recall in February of 2008 a man shot 21 people killing five of them in the same place.

Is she insane? Well, this is Professor Amy Bishop of the University of Alabama Huntsville and she's accused of killing three colleagues on campus earlier this week. Her attorney has now come forward saying he can't remember those shootings. As a matter of fact, he's already labeling her a paranoid schizophrenic.

Commercial passenger flights to Haiti, started again this morning. They'll be sharing space with these cargo planes, bringing supplies into the country. They were suspended when that earthquake hit last month. American Airlines plans three flights daily from Miami to Port-au-Prince.

Well, everybody is talking about it. One hour from now Tiger Woods apologizes for his sex scandal, but let's get real just for a minute. We've seen this movie before with other high profile jocks starring. And not always completely coming clean either. Remember Mark McGwire, busted for steroids?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Me or any other player to answer questions about who took steroids in front of television cameras will not solve the problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And then you had take two, Kobe Bryant accused of raping a woman in Colorado.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KOBE BRYANT, NBA PLAYER: I'm innocent. You know, I didn't force her to do anything against her will. I'm innocent.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: And don't forget that flashy new ring that his wife was wearing as she sat by her man. Then there's A-Rod dodging questions about steroids just a year ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX RODRIGUEZ, BASEBALL PLAYER: I know that I'm in a position where I have to earn my trust back and over time I'm confident that at the end of my career people will see this for what it is, a stupid mistake and a lesson learned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now it's Tiger's turn, his apology on his own terms. CNN's Susan Candiotti is joining me live from Ponte Vedra, Florida.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. Of course everyone is waiting to hear what Tiger Woods has to say. The media presence, by the way, has been growing minute by minute. We're going to pan over just a little bit here to show you just some of the media outlets that are set up. In front of me and out of your range of view is an army of satellite trucks. We've got reporters here from all over the United States and as far away as Mexico, Norway, Japan, all over the place waiting to hear Tiger Woods' expected apology.

The question is will he be able to win back his fans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): With Tiger Woods' personal and professional life mired in the rough, can an apology get him back on course?

LAUREN MACKLER, AUTHOR, "SOLEMATE": This new image that he has is in complete contradiction to his wunderkind, golden boy image he's had since he was really little. So I'm sure that it's a very humiliating and devastating and embarrassing experience for him.

CANDIOTTI: His agent says the world's most infamous golfer knows it's time for him to make amends and today's mea culpa is step one.

LARRY WOODARD, VIGILANTE ADVERTISING: Potential sponsors really are looking for Tiger to accept the baggage that he has, take those bags, and walk out of the room with them and change into his golf clothes and win in a spectacular fashion.

CANDIOTTI: Those bags have been following him since the car wreck heard around the world. On his web site, Woods admitted cheating on his wife, Elin. His agent says Tiger has been in therapy for his problem. Until this photo of him jogging emerged this week, Tiger has gone virtually unseen.

KATE COYNE, EDITOR "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: He has done a masterful job at staying completely under wrap.

CANDIOTTI: "People" magazine reports the couple has been living apart. Elin and their two children in the couple's sprawling Florida mansion and Tiger in a home in the same private development.

COYNE: She kept things very normal for the kids. She continues to take them to their classes and lessons and play dates.

CANDIOTTI: The scandal also has cost him financially. Accenture and AT&T dropped their sponsorships. Though Nike and EA Sports are hanging tight. But will wife Elin stand by her man?

COYNE: I think most people are going to be very surprised if she's at this press conference, that it would be just humiliating for her.

CANDIOTTI: Humiliating for her and annoying for some players on the tour like Rory McIlroy.

RORY MCILROY, GOLFER: I'm sick of hearing about him.

CANDIOTTI: The PGA Tour is standing firmly by his side, without Tiger ratings and revenues sink. Could a comeback make him more popular than ever?

WOODARD: More people know him than knew him before. More people will be curious, than we were before.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: And among those curious people, reporters. But most of us won't be in the same room when Tiger makes his statement. We are going to be about a mile away inside a ballroom in that building over my shoulder. And we will be watching on closed circuit television.

Tiger Woods will be about a mile away at the PGA Tour clubhouse. There will be some pool reporters there, but Tiger Woods has said he's not going to answer any questions. However, the PGA commissioner is expected to be talking to us afterwards.

And in a news conference yesterday or the other day, he said that he isn't sure when Tiger Woods will be returning to golf and he's not sure as well whether he has completed his rehab. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll track it, Susan. About an hour away.

Not everybody is on board with Tiger Woods' rules, by the way. We're going to talk with one of several sports writers who's boycotting the event. Stay with us, we'll have Tiger Woods' apology for you at 11:00 a.m. Eastern right here on cnn.com.

So Tiger is all the talk on our blog this morning. We're asking you whether you'll accept his apology and why or why not. Dozens of you already weighing in. Go to cnn.com/kyra, post your comments. I'll read some of them later this hour.

Joseph Andrew Stack was mad as hell and wasn't going to take it any more. Investigators now believe Stack carried that anger to the extreme with an attack on the Internal Revenue Service. Here's what we know. It's believed the 53-year-old Stack deliberately flew a single-engine plane into an Austin, Texas building with IRS offices. Plus investigators say it also appears stack set his own house on fire before taking off.

And it looks like he was on a suicide mission. Stack and one other person in that building were killed. 13 others were injured. CNN's Ed Lavandera has more for us.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here at the crash site in Northwest Austin, firefighters have returned to the scene going floor by floor, presumably to put out some of the hot spots of this fire that burned so intensely throughout most of the day on Thursday.

But the investigators continue their investigation. They are not saying much about what they have learned about Joseph Stack. Most of what we've learned has come from friends and neighbors that knew Stack and also from his rambling six-page posting, what appeared to be a suicide note on a web site registered in Stack's name.

In that note he talked about rambling on and on about his anger and frustration with the IRS and the federal government as well. But federal authorities aren't talking much about that at this point. We do know that his house was on fire at roughly the same time that his plane was flying into the building here in Austin, but authorities aren't even confirming whether or not he set that fire at this point. We do know that his wife and stepdaughter were not inside the home at the time. In fact neighbors had told us that they had seen the wife and young child running up to the home as the home was becoming engulfed in flames.

It was a quick sequence of events here. Everything happening within about an hour's time on Thursday morning. But investigators say they will continue to look into Joseph Stack's background. But whether or not they release much more information today, we'll still have to wait and see. Ed Lavandera, CNN, Austin, Texas.

PHILLIPS: It's the biggest show in Vegas today, and headlining, President Barack Obama. Not everyone is rushing for a seat to see the president. Why the mayor says he's got better things to do.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: All right. We want to see the most popular stories right now on cnn.com that you're clicking on to. We're going straight to the news pulse part of cnn.com. And I have to admit I thought it was going to be Tiger Woods. That's usually what the most popular story is right now, but it's not.

Look at this, TV pitchman may get jail time. Kevin Trudeau, do you know him? Have you seen the commercials? Well, he may have served 30 days in jail after being cited for contempt of court. And second most popular story right now, this is something Nancy Grace did on her show on HLN. Police arresting a man by the name of Jesse John Crow in the death of his newlywed wife. Nancy Grace has been all over this story. And then this is something we showed you yesterday actually when the plane rammed into that building in Austin, Texas. This gentleman here happened to be close to the scene and he saw that people were close to the windows when this plane had gone through the building. He just pulled over, saw that no rescue workers were there and started helping to bring people out of that building so they would survive.

Check that story, third most popular story right now on cnn.com. Every 15 minutes we update it. It's called the news pulse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

PHILLIPS: The jackpot for Las Vegas. President Obama delivering it personally this morning. What's he got? Well, more than a billion dollars for states hit hard by the real estate flop. Nevada leads all states and Las Vegas all cities in foreclosure rates, but it's enough for a city where casinos are king.

CNN's senior White House correspondent: Ed Henry has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jim Murren knows what it's like to be in the eye of the storm. Creditors came this close last year to shutting down his sprawling, $8 billion City Center Hotel and Casino project. So he sympathizes with embattled senators like Harry Reid.

JIM MURREN, CEO, MGM MIRAGE: Republicans, Democrats are voting them off the island.

HENRY (on camera): Did you feel like you almost got voted off the island last year?

MURREN: I think the company almost got voted off the island. I do. I mean, we were hours away, hours away from filing bankruptcy.

HENRY (voice-over): Now business is picking up and Murren thinks Reid can survive too.

MURREN: It's like counting Las Vegas out, which everyone did last year, right. Now we're coming back and I think he's going to come back too.

HENRY: But Reid has not been helped by the president taking verbal swipes at sin city twice in the past year.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college.

HENRY: The casino magnate says the comments had been taken out of context. And even though he's a Republican, he voted for Mr. Obama and is looking forward to welcoming him to City Center. (on camera): A big part of whether City Center succeeds on what happens with the latest Cirque du Soleil show here. Viva Elvis. It's really interesting because there's been tons of Elvin Shows that been done with impersonators obviously. This one they're trying to make totally different. They want to make it a transformative experience that only touches lightly on Elvis' career but really goes beyond the music, gets into his life.

You can see TCB is his motto, taking care of business. Something a lot of people in Vegas are trying to do right now. Let's go into the theater and take a look.

(voice-over): Amid final preps for Friday's world premiere, the artistic director admits he's on edge.

GENE LUBAS, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, "VIVA ELVIS": It's a Vegas party, so we're hoping that it's going to, you know, bring them in, fill the seats.

HENRY (on camera): Do you feel that anxiety as you get ready to open?

LUBAS: Of course, of course.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY: A subplot here is that the colorful democratic mayor, former mob lawyer Oscar Goodman, is furious over the president's comments about his city, going so far as to say Mr. Obama is a, "slow learner" who should say he's sorry to sin city. I asked Robert Gibbs about whether the president plans to apologize over his Vegas comments, he was non-committal, saying stay tuned.

Ed Henry, CNN Las Vegas.

PHILLIPS: When a giant pile of federal money opens up every state in the country tries to grab some. So why wouldn't they? So one year into the stimulus, which state got the most for a so-called shovel-ready project?

Josh Levs, you've got the answer to this, right?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I do, yes. We've looking through it. This is one of the biggest questions we get from people out there. Everyone heard about the shovel-ready projects in their towns. Everyone has complaints about roads in their cities and we were wondering where the biggest pile of cash went to get those roads fixed under the stimulus.

Ladies and gentlemen, here it is. We're going to take the map. Let's take a look at which city in America got the biggest stimulus road project in the country. We're zooming all the way in now to Dallas, Texas. And the project there, Kyra, $250 million to fix up one stretch of road that's going to have 24 lanes on it.

Now, I could tell you about it but I'm lucky I have an expert here because my producer here, the stimulus desk, Rachel Streitfeld is actually from Dallas and knows a lot more than I do. So Rachel, talk to us. This stretch of road, what's it about and why is it so important?

RACHEL STREITFELD, CNN STIMULUS DESK: It's $259 million of stimulus money. It's about $1 billion project.

LEVS: OK.

STREITFELD: It's about 8.4 miles. And most people are going to DFW Airport have to take this stretch of road. If you're trying to get to the airport at a bad time, all you're going to see is brake lights. It's a major headache.

LEVS: OK.

STREITFELD: I'm sure it's caused a lot of people to miss their flights.

LEVS: So anybody in Dallas who needs to get to the airport will know this road?

STREITFELD: Yes.

LEVS: So you (INAUDIBLE) ever been there. One more quick thing that's interesting. They're taking the stimulus money but they are also still charging a toll on the road. What's that about?

STREITFELD: Four of those lanes are going to be toll lanes, so people - it's causing some controversy because the whole project is paid for by taxpayer dollars and people are saying why do I have to pay tolls to drive on this road.

LEVS: Yes.

STREITFELD: I'm already paying for the road.

LEVS: Through tax dollars.

STREITFELD: But the Department of Transportation says they're sure in 20 or 30 years there's going to be congestion on that road...

LEVS: Right.

STREITFELD: And they're going to regulate it with tolls.

LEVS: Oh, that's why, to reduce congestion. So money helps reduce congestion. That's why Rachel, thank you very much. Let's show up on the screen, We make an (INAUDIBLE) of these. Each time take a look at a project for you and this one here, the $250 million, total jobs 50 so far, hundreds more jobs are expected.

So, Kyra, in the sweepstakes for who gets the biggest stimulus road project in the nation, there you go, the answer is Dallas, Texas.

PHILLIPS: OK. Dallas, Texas. And we're also hearing a lot from our viewers every day on this.

LEVS: It's amazing. You and I were talking about this the other day. I think on the blog alone we have hundreds of comments right now. Let's show how you can weigh in. You've got my page cnn.com/josh, also CNN.com/kyra gets you there. A lot of people debating this out on my Facebook entry and twitter pages, too, JoshLevs, CNN. Go ahead and let us know what you think, also your questions, we're still here, still getting answers for you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Josh.

Rob Marciano, a lot of nasty weather in the plains states today.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it's starting to ramp up. A little storm rolling into the plains. It got out of the rockies, dumped about half a foot of snow and through that part of the but it's just kind of the precursor of some storms coming to the west coast.

East of the Mississippi we're looking good, high pressure for the most part in control. And you're looking at temperatures that are warming up a little bit. It still have that northwest flow off the Great Lakes so a little bit of lake-effect snow and certainly on the cool side across parts of the northeast, but generally we're looking at temps that are getting closer at least to average.

All right. One, two, three red ls on the map. That is the beginning of a parade of storms that's coming into the west coast. The southern expanse of the storm track is picking up a little moisture across Texas. We had a couple of inches of rainfall from San Antonio back down to brownsville the past 24 hours. This is going to stay mostly south of i-10. Kind of split away from this storm system which is creating some problems from Kansas City north to omaha where it's turned from rain to snow. Some of this sleet mixing in and in some cases a little bit of freezing rain.

So some slick roadways here but it will move quickly through the area. I don't expect to see much more than maybe four, five inches of snow and sleet and freezing rain mix here but in many cases that's going to be enough to do the trick. So just be aware of that. But the next system that's going to come into the west coast is going to bring a moisture stream that at least to the southern part of the intermountain west will mean a lot of snow. 6 to 12 inches expected across the southern Wasatch. Up through Park City and solitude and those areas, it's just a winter weather advisory at this point. Then you go south of i-70 we're looking for 12 to 24 inches, might see 36 inches. That means three feet of snow across parts of the higher terrain of the San Juans.

So places like Durango, Purgatory and telluride are going to get hit pretty hard and they will take it. No new snow expected for the Olympics, Kyra, still continuing their mild weather. But it looks like they have got enough at least up in Whistler for some of the Alpine events later this afternoon.

PHILLIPS: Not only a great place for the Olympics but a great place to ski.

MARCIANO:: It is.

PHILLIPS: I know you concur.

MARCIANO: I've been there.

PHILLIPS: Yes, I know. Thanks, Rob.

Well, Iran says it doesn't want to build a nuclear bomb. That's the word from the Supreme leader. His comments come right after a U.N. report says the opposite. The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog says Iran is defying orders about its nuke program and maybe working on a nuclear warhead.

A new name for the mission in Iraq. The Obama administration is changing it to operation new dawn. No longer operation Iraqi freedom. A senior administration official familiar with the plan says it will take effect in September. That's after the scheduled withdrawal of U.S. troops.

"Endeavor" heading home soon. The shuttle scheduled to break away from the International Space Station today. It will take two days to get back to earth. While they were up there the astronauts installed a really cool observation room with really big windows. Basically a high-tech sun room.

You could be gaining weight by not sleeping enough.

And Toyota's hot button issue of the day could have put your safety at risk.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Millions of people who suffer from asthma take them Adair, Symbicort, Foradil and Serevent (ph) but now the government is putting new limits on these asthma drugs because the FDA says they contain an ingredient that relaxes muscles around stressed airways and may mask signs that a serious asthma attack is brewing. So the FDA ordered new labels saying that those drugs should only be used a short time.

And a new study finds people who take ibuprofen may be 40 percent less likely to develop parkinson's disease than those who don't take it. Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health; however say more research is needed to pinpoint how and why ibuprofen works.

Sleeping more and losing weight? It sounds downright dreamy, doesn't it? But health experts say it's a dream that can be realized. They say sleep deprivation interferes with metabolism, triggers bad eating habits and makes us eat more. Experts say uf you're getting five hours of sleep a night, boost it to seven and watch the pounds waste away.

Well, your schedule at work also can determine how healthy you are. Researchers says that people with flexible schedules had better blood pressure levels, an area less likely to feel stress in their lives.

Hitting a brick wall on Wall Street. That's what's keeping stocks from gaining ground. We're going break it down, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, it looks like Congress is going to get their shot at Toyota's top man. Akio Toyoda says that he will testify after all. Earlier this week he said no way. The House oversight committee is looking into the accelerator recalls, as you know, and they want to know what took so long. It's one of three congressional hearings on Toyota scheduled for the next two weeks and we'll be there.

Another concern for Toyota drivers, actually for more than just Toyota drivers, how do you stop a car that has no key?

CNN's Deborah Feyerick checks it out for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wally Brittany was driving his 2007 Toyota Avalon last August and had just merged onto interstate 5 in San Diego when the car started acting strangely.

WALLEY BRITHINEE, TOYOTA OWNER: That's where I noticed the acceleration, that the engine was speeding up and I was - my feet weren't on the gas pedal.

FEYERICK: Brithinee, that's where I noticed he says the car had jumped and I was my feet from 50 to 70 miles an hour, seemingly on its own, and he was starting to panic.

I believed I pushed the stop button to try to get the car to stop. And I can even push it now and the car is still running. You know, it's not stopping.

FEYERICK: Like many new models, the Toyota Avalon has no key. Instead a push button activated by a small transmitter or fob turns the car on and off. Brithinee had not read the car's lengthy manual cover to cover and had no idea that in an emergency the only way to stop the car was to hold down the ignition for three seconds.

FEYERICK (on camera): (INAUDIBLE) Wasn't surprising?

BRITHINEE: Well, what's surprising was to be totally feeling like you are out of control and somewhat helpless.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Toyota says that the three second delay is a safety feature to prevent accidental engine shutoff while driving. The company acknowledges the feature may not be well understood.

Five years ago 19 car models had key (UNINTELLIGIBLE) systems. Today that number has soared nearly 140 have push buttons not traditional keys, and those push buttons vary from car to car.

FEYERICK (on camera): Everybody takes for granted that driving a car is something simple. But because of the changes it's not as simple as you may think it is.

BRITHINEE: No, it's become a far more complex thing with far less standardization across many manufacturers. And it leave open a lot of potential problems when an emergency situation arise and you have no idea how to control the car from a fundamental level.

FEYERICK: Ken Brauer is editor and chief of the popular auto website, Edmunds.com.

BRAUER: There should be a standard way to stop the car that everyone knows as intuitively of turning the key used to be.

FEYERICK: So far the government does not require those standards, but an automotive industry group says it is working on developing a uniform keyless system so that all models shut down the same way, especially in an emergency.

We don't have how to turn a car off if it's accelerating out of control, for example.

BRAUER: And I think you will see that. That is coming.

FEYERICK: It did not come in time for California highway patrol officer Mark Sailor and his family involved in a fatal crash. The officer may not have known about the three-second shutoff rule in the Lexus sedan he was driving.

Toyota denies the keyless starter was a contributor in that sudden acceleration accident. That incident happened a week after Wally Brithany's (ph) incident, which he describes as frighteningly similar.

FEYERICK (on camera): Did that accident validate what you had experienced?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it definitely validated it and reinforced the feeling that I had to do something to find a solution. Yes, it was clear there could have been a really horrible outcome as it was in his case for him and his family.

FEYERICK: Brithanee finally managed to stop his Toyota by shifting gears enough to control the vehicle. He traded it in for a 2009 Avalon after two Toyota mechanics failed to find the cause of the acceleration.

(on camera): One thing to keep in mind, if you do shut off the ignition you lose power steering and braking, making it hard but not impossible to control your car.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Drivers faced with unwanted acceleration have been advised to brake firmly, shift into neutral and guide the car to a stop. Then turn off the ignition.

After soaring in 2009, stocks are off to a pretty rocky start this year. Why have they had such a hard time holding on to gains? Take a look at the Big Board right now, live from the New York Stock Exchange. Dow Industrials down almost 23 points.

CNNmoney.com's Poppy Harlow went right to the source, traders at the New York Stock Exchange. She tried to find the answer.

(BELL RINGING)

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: It's been wild the past few weeks. What do you attribute that to? What's going on?

DAVID HENDERSON, DRU STOCK: I think there's a lot of anxiety out there and people are unsure. When they get fearful, what's going on in Washington, what's going on in Europe, what's going on in China, they put everything together and are uh-oh.

HARLOW: (INAUDIBLE) All the traders I've talked to, they (INAUIBDLE) uncertainty. They say the market does not like uncertainty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. It certainly doesn't. It absolutely does not like uncertainty.

TEDDY WEISBERG, SEAPORTSECURITIES.COM: When you have uncertainty, it creates volatility. No matter where the uncertainty comes from.

KENNETH POLCARI, ICAP EQUITIES: There's still plenty of issues in this country that we have to deal with. Economic issues, housing issues, job issues. That coupled with what's going on in Europe and also, let's talk about it, what's going on in Iran clearly has added to the volatility.

ALAN VALDES, KABRIK TRADING: Land mines exploding every month, it seems. Last month it was Dubai. This month, it's Greece.

HARLOW: But it's all of these crises outside the U.S.

VALDES: We're such a global market. Anything can spur it.

HARLOW: The run-up we saw in 2009 is not going to happen again this year. Are you worried about that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no, no, I'm not worried about it. I think there's a big difference between where we were a year ago and where we are today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a chance for the long-term investment to get on board and that the sparkle (INAUDIBLE). UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Life will go on. I think the glass is actually half full, not half empty. It's going to be slow and there are going to be speed bumps along the way, but I think the overall direction if not up certainly will be sideways, and there's nothing wrong with sideways.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And talk about rocking the House. The push to take a rock star to Capitol Hill.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROB MARICIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, I'm Rob Marciano in the CNN Severe Weather Center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MARCIANO: That's the latest from here, Kyra, back over to you.

PHILLIPS: Thanks so much, Rob.

Shots are fired at a college campus in Illinois this morning. One student wounded in that shooting at Northern Illinois University in the city of Dekalb just west of Chicago. The shooting took place near a residence hall. Police do have a suspect in custody. They say this appears to be an isolated incident.

It's what everybody is waiting for. In just a few minutes, Tiger Woods making that big public apology. And it's pretty much a media circus there in Ponte Vedra, Florida. That's where Woods is expected to talk about his infidelity and plans for the future. He's getting some flak over it because he's expected to speak before a small handpicked crowd and is not taking any questions.

You usually wants teachers to keep an eye on your kids, but in Pennsylvania, they may have gone too far. The Lower Marion School District is getting sued for spying. Parents say one high school is using web cams embedded in school-issued computers at home. The school district says it only activated the web cams to find missing laptops.

Well, they write about golf for a living, but right now they want nothing to do with golf's greatest player. The Golf Writers Association is boycotting Tiger's talk. The group's president, Vartan Kupelian, just one of the writers saying, Tiger Woods, not my headline today. Vartan, why boycott?

VARTAN KUPELIAN, PRESIDENT, GOLF WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA: Well, our concern is that this is a major international news story, and we're not being allowed access, and we're not being allowed to ask questions.

And I think that's important. We should begin by saying that the Woods' camp has never called this a press conference. It's a statement that he's making. Just to give you a bit of background, they invited us to send in three representatives of our organization as pool reporters. We didn't feel that that was a number that we could live with. We negotiated for more. They increased it to six. It still wasn't enough. Our position remains all or none at all...

PHILLIPS: So, Vartan, let me ask you this. Why didn't you just accept the invitation, go in there and holler out your questions?

KUPELIAN: Well, you know what, that's impolite. That's not the way to do it. You don't want to be shouting out questions. That's not what we're about.

Look, the misconception is we're not covering. We are covering. We're covering it from the media center here behind me. As long as we're not going to have the ability to ask questions, as long as we're just going to be standing there like props, there's no point of us being in the room. I think hat's another problem...

PHILLIPS: What do you think about the writers that are going?

KUPELIAN: Well, you know, those are the three news services, as far as I understand. I sympathize with those three guys. If their bosses say that they have invites and they have to go, then they have to go. Their editors said they have got to be in there, they have got to be in there. I'm certainly not going to hold that against them. That's their decision.

PHILLIPS: Okay. Let me ask you another question. I mean if you look at -- scandals surrounding athletes, right -- Michael Vick, A- Rod, Mark McGwire, Kobe Bryant -- nobody ever boycotted those statements. Why Tiger?

KUPELIAN: Because I think that the way that Tiger has dealt with the media in the past perhaps has been a problem, that he's limited access. As we all know, he's a very private person. As we all know -- we didn't know nearly as much as we thought we knew about him until Thanksgiving. So, I think this is an entirely different situation.

As I recall, Kobe's statement was a press conference, was more of a press conference. This is not a press conference. It's very limited in scope and size. And that's -- you know, as I say to clear up the misconception that we're...

PHILLIPS: Go ahead.

KUPELIAN: We are covering the event, we're just covering it from in here, from the media center. As I say, there was no point. If we can't ask questions, if we can't have our people in there, there's just no point in being there. We can do just as well and cover the story just as well from in here.

PHILLIPS: Sure, I understand. I'm just trying to understand why boycott it. Is it a symbolic move more than that it's going to impact anything? I mean, like I said, I mean -- or is it infidelity that just is more controversial? is it what he did that is more appalling than, say, a Mark Mcgwire on steroids or a Kobe Bryant with alleged rape?

KUPELIAN: Yes, I think you're right. I think that we are hoping that at the end of this that we will have a better relationship, that they will understand us better, that Tiger will have a better feel for what we are and what we need to do and the kind of access we need to have to the greatest golfer in the world, probably the best athlete of his age. Yes, we're hoping that we can send a message here and say, look, we need to have you do a better job communicating with us.

PHILLIPS: All right. Vartan Kupelian. Of course, we are following the story no matter what, including the boycotted writers like yourself. Vartan, thanks.

And that brings us to today's blog question. We did ask whether you'll accept Tiger's apology. We found out there's a lot of Tiger fans out there, actually. But here's what you said.

O.K. says, "Don't need his apology. He said the issue is between him and his wife. He should be having a wife conference so he could apologize to her." Good point.

Michael says, "Golf fans will welcome him back with open arms. The only apology he needs to make is to his wife. I just love to see him play the game, and in that respect, he has never let me down."

This coming from MML. "Personally, I think all of this is none of anyone's business. It has nothing to do with his golf status. He is the greatest golfer ever, and that is all anyone should care about."

Remember, we always want to hear from you. Log on to CNN.com/kyra to share your comments. I appreciate you writing in.

A rock star on a roll, and it could land him on Capitol Hill.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So what is Tiger Woods going to say, and do you really care? We're about ten minutes away from this live statement that he's going to give.

Richard Roth actually with the crowd there at the ESPN zone in New York -- well, maybe not so much a crowd. He's at the ESPN Zone in New York City. Richard, so by the likes of it, are there people gathering to see this and do they really care? What's the vibe?

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: People are trickling in here. There are some people from Virginia we spoke with who were disappointed in Tiger Woods' actions so far, and they have come to listen to what he has to say. A short time ago in Times Square, in the crossroads of the world, I spoke with Americans and asked them what do they want Tiger Woods to tell the American people?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I kind of want him to say he's sorry. I think he was an idol for a lot of people, and he was pure and good, and we look up to people like that. And he let a lot of people down. So he either fooled us or -- I don't like to be lied to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's nobody else's business, between him and his wife. If he wasn't a celebrity, they wouldn't be in his business.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Leave him alone. He'll get back to playing golf, and he's going to be awesome. He's going to win another four majors and pass Jack Nicklaus. Go, Tiger!

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

ROTH: Inside here at the ESPN Zone, a sports mecca in Manhattan, of course there are a lot of sports viewing locations. Tiger's triumphs at the Masters and other golf tournaments have been displayed on the monitors that surround me here in this location, and it's going to be very eerie to see towards on about 40 television monitors apologizing when normally he would be playing in that Accenture golf tournament out West. Back to you.

PHILLIPS: That's a good point. All right, Richard, keep us posted. Appreciate it.

Golden time in Vancouver. After more than 20 years, an Olympic moment worth its weight in gold.

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PHILLIPS: Singer, songwriter and what do you think, senator? An online campaign to draft John Mellencamp to run for the U.S. Senate is gaining some steam. They want him to replace Senator Evan Bayh, who's resigning. People are tweeting about it, and three separate Facebook groups have been set up. The largest one boasting about 2,000 members. Mellencamp's spokesperson says the musician has nothing to say about it.

Well, just one gold medal for the U.S. in Vancouver yesterday, but it was pretty much a biggie. Evan Lysacek won gold in men's figure skating. He's actually the first American to take that title home since Brian Boitano.

Now, we could say what would Evan lysacek do? But defending champ Evgeni Plushenko didn't go quietly. The Russian finished second but said, "I was positive that I won. But I suppose Evan needs a medal more than I do. Maybe it's because I already have one." There's a little punch.

He also took a shot over his failure to attempt a quad. That's a pretty big jump, saying, "Mow it's not men's figure skating, now it's dancing." A little drama there at the Olympics. Well, today we move back to the mountain where another American favorite hopes to repeat his own golden performance.

Mark McKay once again live in Vancouver. Mark, I think I butchered all those ice skating names.

(LAUGHTER)

MARK MCKAY: You did just fine, Kyra, nice job.

PHILLIPS: OK!

MCKAY: Hey, I can tell you, more than a week and a half after arriving here at the Vancouver games, another guy with a unique name, Ted Ligety, is ready to go. He's a U.S. skiier. He'll take part in the men's super-G (ph) race. Ligety more than ready to make a hair- raising run down whistler.

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MCKAY (voice-over): Ted Ligety is afraid of losing his hair. He had no concerns with the mullet after winning the World Cup Giant slalom season title in 2008, nor any doubts about the perm last year. But when it's suggested he might cut it all off if he, say, wins a couple of gold medals in Vancouver, well, he's afraid not.

TED LIGETY, 2006 OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: Two golds is quite the hypothetical. I've shaved my head once before, and I don't look good with a shaved head.

MCKAY: Four years after bursting from the gate at 21 for a hair- raising and head-turning gold medal run in the Torino Games, Ligety has firmly established himself as a medal favorite in Vancouver.

LIGETY: The ski racing conference is a huge aspect of it. I went on to win my first World Cup the next race, so I guess that worked for me.

MCKAY: Teammate Lindsey Vonn, who actually gave him the mullet, has seen changes to more than his hair.

LINDSEY VONN, 2010 OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: From the time that he won the combined at the Olympics in Torino, he had much more self- confidence, and I think that's just continuously grown over the last few years.

MCKAY: Ligety was one of the few bright spots for a dismal U.S. ski team performance in Italy. Since then, he has accumulated 23 World Cup medals in three different disciplines, and he's still only 25, a toddler among ski racers.

LIGETY: I'm not just a single, one-dimensional skier now, I'm more events and more of a threat in more events.

In the future, it would definitely be nice to be compared to the likes of Phil and Steve Mayer and Bode Miller.

MCKAY: He's already compared to Miller, who's trying to regain his edge after time away contemplating retirement. That leaves Ligety clearly marked as the men's team's best bet for gold.

LIGETY: I'm definitely saying Bode is still more of a favorite than I am, just because he has that experience.

MCKAY: Experience usually counts for a lot in sports, but gaps can be made up quickly when hurtling downhill at 75 miles an hour.

LIGETY: It's been crazy. If you told me when I first made the team I'd be sitting here having won a giant slalom title already and a Olympic gold medal, I would have laughed at you, I guess.

MCKAY: But that now leaves him and others with much higher expectations.

LIGETY: One medal would be great, two would be phenomenal. So, I definitely would be very disappointed if I walked away from the Games with no medals. Definitely I feel like I should be winning medals now.

MCKAY: And he'll worry about the hair cut afterwards.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCKAY: Ligety was supposed to compete in the first of his four events here at the Vancouver games on Tuesday of this week. Kyra, weather got in the way. It won't today.

PHILLIPS: Is he more anxious about no hair or no medals? I'm kind of confused. He seems nervous about both.

MCKAY: I think he's nervous about both. He's just anxious, period, Kyra. He says he's been holed up in a nice apartment up there in Whistler, a condo, but he says being in a condo is not being in the Olympics. He wants to compete. He's anxious to go down that mountain today.

PHILLIPS: Well, we're definitely going to track it. Thanks so much, Mark McKay, great work from Vancouver.

Tony Harris, you're the man with the hot hour, boy. Tiger Woods with his big statement.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, pretty controlled, huh?

PHILLIPS: Mm-hmm.

HARRIS: You know, we -- do we have a live shot yet from Ponte Vedra? I don't think we can even show you a live shot -- there it is, the window just opened moments ago. We'll see what he has to say, Kyra. Any minute now.