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Storm Shuts Roads, Tests Travelers; Opting Out of Body Scan; Students Swarm Streets over Tuition; Calm Holiday Travel Day So Far; Sarah Palin Kicks Off Book Tour in Phoenix

Aired November 24, 2010 - 09:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 6:00 a.m. out west. We're following breaking news out of London right now where the streets are actually being overrun with students demonstrating against a planned university tuition hike.

They're disrupting traffic, shouting, holding signs that read "United and fight education, not segregation." Dozens of people already arrested. They're protesting against this government's plan to let universities charge around $14,000 a year. That's up from the current tuition cap of about $5,000.

We'll take you there live in just a few minutes.

And also, first comes the travel. Then the turkey. Then the shopping. And this year, some shoppers have a secret weapon. Smartphone apps. Big deals, special coupons and loyalty perks sent right to your phone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BERGERON, HOST, "DANCING WITH THE STARS": The winners and new champions of "Dancing with the Stars" are Jennifer and Derrick.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And Jennifer Grey brings home that mirror ball trophy. The 50-year-old "Dirty Dancing" star beat out Kyle Massey and Bristol Palin to take the title in "Dancing with the Stars."

Well, it's crunch time for families driving this Thanksgiving. About 40 million Americans hitting the road for the holiday and a paralyzing storm out west means the trek to whose -- whomever's house you're going to could get pretty nasty.

This is the scene from Idaho where brutal winter weather is sending cars skidding off the roads. And in Utah, well, you may better -- be better off on foot. Drivers have been put on notice to prepare for the long haul. Commutes could quadruple in a short period of time.

And that's a common sight. Spinning wheels and slippery roads testing a lot of holiday road trippers in Oregon. They're actually coping with pretty dangerous and cold blizzard-like conditions.

And it's a white Thanksgiving in Reno, Nevada, too, where near whiteout conditions forced actually the mayor to pull the plug on the holiday tree lighting ceremony. Now that storm is heading east.

Reynolds Wolf, it's making it pretty difficult.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. The timing isn't all that good. There's no question about it. Think about just your average family. You've got the minivan, you got the two kids in the backseat and the kids' seats strapped in like Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, and you got to make your way from point A to point B.

You've got a big snowstorm in the way. That is going to be a scenario for many people. A lot of airports are going to have trouble there, too. And Jacqui Jeras is going to have the latest on that.

But let's first really get a handle on that forecast.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WOLF: Now back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Reynolds, thanks so much.

WOLF: You bet.

PHILLIPS: Jacqui Jeras is over at the travel desk.

Jacqui, a lot of people looking to get on the road for Thanksgiving holiday. What's your advice?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Take it slow. And you know, if you don't have to go out on some of these really bad areas, it won't be a bad idea to delay your trip a little bit because we've got a lot of problems on the interstates. We've got problems in the airways as well.

Take a look -- let's start out, showing you some live pictures of some of the worst cities that we're dealing with from west to east today. There you see on the left-hand side of your screen, that's Atlanta. And I'd call it oh my-Lanta today. We've got a ground stop in effect there which means that airplanes from other cities are not taking off to get into Atlanta because we've had some major fog issues there this morning.

Our own Rob Marciano, by the way, made his way through security just about an hour ago and he said he had no problems. And he was selected, by the way, to go into the full body scanner. He said he had no problems. It only took him about maybe 10 minutes to get through security there.

That other picture that you saw there, that was Seattle and we've been dealing with, of course, icy conditions there. Eighteen degrees in Seattle right now. The windchill only 10.

While you're done with the snow, it's staying cold enough that that's going to stay on the roadways. So watch out for the secondary roads in particular where we could still have some slick spots. OK. Let's talk about some the other problems. Take a look over here. This is New York City. Nice picture of Central Park in downtown. It looks great out there today, doesn't it? But the winds are going to be kicking up this afternoon, so we do expect to have delays because of volume and because of the wind.

All right. Come down here. Colorado. We've got some snow coming down into western parts of the state. This is a great Web site. Cotrip.org. And you can find your road conditions. These purple lines here showing you that we have some very blustery conditions.

This is along I-76 as well as I-70 and out west, of course, if you're heading into the mountains. That blue means that there's snow and icy conditions here.

Over here, this is St. Louis, Missouri. And St. Louis, you've been dealing with heavy rain and thunderstorms and low cloud conditions here. Check out all the red that we have on the map. This is from traffic.com.

The jam factor on 270 right now from I-55 to I-40 is an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. So lots of congestion out there.

Also just a quick look at some of the main interstates that we're expecting across the country to have the most trouble today. I-95 north of Providence, I-75 from Atlanta to Toledo. Birmingham to Chicago, along I-65. I-20 Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and then also I-90.

So lots of places all across the country dealing with travel woes and a lot of that just mostly due to the weather -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: OK, Jacqui. Thanks. We'll keep checking in.

Well, if you're not braving the roadways today, maybe you're one of the millions of travelers heading to the airport. But before you fly, you've got to get through security. And you may want to keep your eye on the clock.

Protesters upset about those full body scans are planning to opt out, going for the TSA pat-downs instead. But that could get pretty frustrating for everyone in line. A full body scan takes 20 seconds. A pat-down about two minutes.

Homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve live at Reagan National Airport.

So, Jeanne, what do you think? How's it looking right now?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, this is amazing. This is the day before Thanksgiving. One of the busiest, if not the busiest, travel day of the year. And look at this.

There is absolutely no one in line here at Reagan National Airport. You can breeze right through. According to the TSA, this is the situation at many airports. They tell me that at Denver short rates. LAX, business as usual. BWI, that's Baltimore, Washington International, no waits. Only four people have opted out. Norfolk, wait times under seven minutes.

If people are indeed opting out of those body scanners because they have concerns about privacy, they don't appear to be doing it in large numbers. We've also talked to travelers coming into Reagan National this morning. Some from Boston, some from New York.

They also reported those airports, no significant delays. They went right through security. No indication that people are opting out in large numbers.

We have talked to travelers this morning, asked them about whether or not they're opting out. Here's a sampling of what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At the end of the day I think that security is security. It is their job to protect our lives and as a passenger, you know, I'm susceptible to it as well as anybody else. So I want my life to be safe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd rather just get to my gate and get on the plane and get home. You know? They're doing their jobs. It might be misguided but they're doing their jobs. I don't want to make it harder.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Now we also talked to one traveler who said, yes, she does object to the body scanners. She finds them very uncomfortable, an invasion of her privacy, but she doesn't feel that opting out is the thing to do on a busy travel day when people's tempers are short.

She's going to go ahead and go through that machine today and register her opposition in different ways.

And now early in the day things could still change but there was a new "USA Today"/Gallup poll. It indicates 71 percent of frequent travelers say they don't have significant problems with privacy when it comes to the pat-downs and body scans.

People appear to be willing to do in large numbers -- people anyway appeared to be willing to do what they need to do to get to their destinations today.

Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right, Jeanne, good news. Thanks so much. We'll keep

We've got breaking news out of London right now. Students taking to the streets stopping traffic protesting a huge hike in university tuition.

CNN's Atika Shubert joining me on the phone with the latest. Now, Atika, we saw the same thing going on just a few weeks ago where they actually broke into the parliament building. Are these the same students growing in force?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Basically, this is a sequel to the protest we saw on November 10th. Last time they broke into the conservative building that houses the Conservative Party headquarters. This time what's happened is they've marched down White Hall. They're now just about by Parliament Square and they basically taken over a section of the road here.

And it's an unruly crowd. It's not just university students. It's a bit disorganized. There's a lot of high school students here upset that they feel when they graduate the tuition fees are going to more than triple.

So what's happened now is they've actually lit small bonfires in parts of the road here. They've started attacking a police van. They already did actually. They (INAUDIBLE) with graffiti, rocked it back and forth. It's unruly but it's under control in the sense that police have been able to block off two ends of the road here. One at Parliament Square, one at White Hall.

They basically panned all the students in. But the students are basically being allowed to burn themselves out before police allow them to slowly trickle out and head back home. So far, none of the kind of property damage we saw last time. But again, it's an unruly crowd and it's a fluid situation.

PHILLIPS: All right. Got it. And Atika, yes, we actually -- we're looking at tape now of that police van. We were looking at it live a minute ago. You know, bring us up to date on the situation with that because it looks like it was getting a little hairy.

Now we're talking about tripling the tuition here. Right? Usually or in the past it's been $5,000. We're looking at possibly $15,000 now?

SHUBERT: Exactly. It's going to triple. And not only that, they're cutting the education budgets there by as much as 40 percent, so it's a double whammy essentially for students. And what's interesting here is that students say, you know, they don't have the kind of college fund that people save for in the U.S.

And so their parents have actually supported them coming out today, saying just be safe, but definitely go out and protest. Get the message out and students we have spoken to here say they all have the support of their teachers. They have been given authorized absences to walk out of classes. So this is not just a case of a few students wanting to get out and protest. This also has widespread support.

PHILLIPS: So keep us updated, please, on developments out there. We don't want to lose sight of the story.

As you can see, thousands of those students out there, protesting on the streets against the tuition hike. Our Atika Shubert following for us. She's there within the crowd. We'll continue to follow the live pictures and any developments as we -- as we get them.

Another developing story happening. North Korea claiming yesterday's shelling of a South Korean island with artillery was provoked. That surprise attack killed four and forced the evacuation of that island.

A news agency for the communist dictatorship says that South Korea has brought the region, quote, "to the brink of war by pursuing its policies of confrontation." The United States confirmed today it will start military drills with South Korea in the Yellow Sea on Sunday. Exercises are actually planned -- those exercises were planned.

Bristol Palin lost to a woman who's older than her mother and while Bristol was getting kicked to the dance curb, mama grizzly was kicking off her new book tour. Fans couldn't get enough. We're taking you to Phoenix next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, of course, we've got Reynolds Wolf and Jacqui Jeras working all things travel for us. Day before Thanksgiving. Live picture from LAX. Apparently, everything's pretty calm, cool and collected. No major backups, and everything running smoothly.

It was a bad night for Bristol. Good night for Mama. Sarah Palin's new book tour now officially under way. Kicked off last night in Phoenix. Her hand is probably pretty sore from signing so many copies of "America by Heart." A stream of people waited in line to meet her. CNN political producer Shannon Travis was there, of course. Shannon, Palin fever, I guess it's still burning.

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER: Palin fever is burning and strong. Not so much right now, Kyra, because the bookstore's closed. But this was not the scene last night, as you're probably seeing from some of those pictures.

There were lines and lines. Each time the line kind of thinned out, it would fill up again. Me and my producer were trying to figure out how long. We would say for at least about a good three hours, at least, that people were just in line waiting.

And Sarah Palin, she stayed, and she shook hands and signed autographs and kissed -- even kissed a few babies. That's pretty customary for a lot of presidential candidates, so that was the scene last night here in Phoenix as she kicked off her book tour. She's off to 15 other stops now.

PHILLIPS: So, let's talk about where the tour is going, shall we? Where do you think the hot spots will be?

TRAVIS: Yes.

PHILLIPS: What do you think will make it the most interesting for her and her fans? TRAVIS: Well, let's talk about hot spots, let's talk about color. The color red. She's visiting mostly all red states. Is she trying to secure, firm up a base for a possible presidential run? Don't know.

But let's talk about a few key presidential battlegrounds. She's got two stops in Iowa. Obviously, the first caucus is there. One stop in South Carolina, Republican -- first Republican Southern primary for a presidential run. So, if this is some kind -- if this is just a book tour, or if it's a presidential whirlwind tour, is anyone's guess, but she's definitely on the map, at least. It looks really, really interesting.

PHILLIPS: What do you think? I mean, she said she could -- recently -- what was it, with Diane -- or, no. It was Barbara Walters. She said she thinks that she could beat --

TRAVIS: That's right.

PHILLIPS: Obama right now. She's -- it's not like she's not talking about running for president.

TRAVIS: That's right. Is Sarah Palin going to run? Do you want to listen to Sarah Palin or do you want to listen to Sarah Palin? You just mentioned that she talked to Barbara Walters about that she could beat Obama. She mentioned in "The New York Times" magazine that her family is considering a run.

But listen to what Sarah Palin told Sean Hannity on his radio show yesterday, and I've got a quote here. They were talking about some of the polls that show her faring well in some of the early primaries.

And this is what she said, quote, "Yes, some of these polls are really good for primary runs, and that's encouraging. But if within the machine itself, the GOP machine feels threatened, some of those in the hierarchy, if they start attacking my potential candidacy and trying to erode a base of support and discredit or invalidate me and my record and my policies, then I will know that I would probably do more harm than good to the cause."

Let me just add this. She went on to say, quote, "The cause that we all need to be engaged in is stopping the Obama/Pelosi/Reid fundamental transformation of America. And if I get in the way of that cause, I don't need a title. I don't need a position. I don't need to run for office in order to affect positive change, in order to reach the goals that we have in the cause."

First time I've been hearing, and a lot of us have been hearing, any mention of her possibly not running. She's saying, hey, if she gets in the way, possibly, of the conservative cause of beating President Obama, that maybe she would step aside. So, interesting comments.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll be following it. I know you will. Shannon, thanks so much.

Well, Massachusetts pizza parlor gets duped. Someone plays a pretty cruel joke. Orders $3,900 in pizzas in the name of one of your most famous rockers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, we're watching, of course, the weather for you and all the travel details wherever you are around the country. This is Atlanta Hartsfield airport in Atlanta, Georgia. It's foggy. Oh, it's downtown. You're right. Working its way toward the airport. But it's not real -- it's kind of rainy and foggy and -- but so far so good at the airport. There aren't any major delays at this point at one of the busiest airports in the country. So, good news so far.

Let's continue to go Cross Country, shall we? Let's go to Kansas City, Missouri, where a 24-year-old mother jumped into the side of her car as a would-be carjacker tried to drive away with her six-month-old baby still inside. The gas station surveillance camera actually caught all the action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIE RICHMAN, CARJACKING VICTIM: I ended up busting out the window with my elbow and lost my footing, so I started getting dragged because I wouldn't let go of the car. And I just kept saying, "My baby, my baby, my baby."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The baby's father finally stopped the would-be thief by jumping in the car window and forcing him out.

Then, in Palm Springs, California, some day laborers are devastated after the city moved in to dismantle their makeshift homeless shelter. The shacks were built in the middle of a flood runoff area. One shelter had wood shingles and only a pebblestone walkway.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOUIS GUTIERREZ, HOMELESS DAY LABORER: We don't have a place to go. Hey? We cannot afford an apartment. There's no job right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The city says that the shelter was just too dangerous of an eyesore.

And finally, in Amherst, Massachusetts, a popular pizza parlor left holding the cheese and a bill for $3,900. A man wearing a Bob Dylan backstage pass came in, ordered 178 pizzas for his crew. The restaurant staff worked until the early morning hours preparing those pizzas, but the man never came back.

Everyone's been buzzing about "Dancing With the Stars." Let's see who took home the coveted mirror ball trophy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BERGERON, HOST, "DANCING WITH THE STARS": After ten weeks of hard-fought competition, the winners and new champions of "Dancing with the Stars" are Jennifer and Derrick!

(AUDIENCE CHEERS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Actress Jennifer Grey crowned the champion despite a ruptured disk in her spine and a partially torn knee tendon. 50-year- old Grey beat out Disney star Kyle Massey, who came in second, and Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, who came in third. Grey is perhaps best-known for her role as Francis "Baby" Houseman in the 1987 hit "Dirty Dancing."

So, are you ready for your Thanksgiving pat down or full body scan? The head of the TSA tells CNN he's looking into less intimate ways of confirming that you're not a terrorist. We'll get into that next. Plus, we'll ask about the airports where the enhanced security isn't in place. We want to know if those places aren't as safe.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Pretty busy day on Wall Street. Bloated economic reports being released because the markets are closed for Thanksgiving tomorrow. The most important number of the day, of course, weekly job claims.

Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange. Bell just rung.

Hey, Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

Hey, I've got some great news for a change. We found out that jobless claims tumbled to 407,000 last week. Gosh, you know, we haven't been in this range in two years. Claims for benefits fell 34,000 from the week before. And that's a really big dip.

You know we typically see moves of about 10,000 or so, so it's the best sign yet that layoffs are slowing. And we are getting close to that 400,000 mark. Analysts say we really need to drop below 400,000 for unemployment rates to chip away.

Other good news for workers. We're making a little more money. Personal incomes rose in October. That could translate into more spending which should in turn help the economy.

Those reports are overshadowing a weak number on orders for big-ticket items. Take a look at the number right now. The Dow up right now 81 points. The NASDAQ higher by 30.

And, Kyra, you know this. Thanksgiving is tomorrow and guess what? That turkey and stuffing are also going to come along with a hefty serving of drama at the dinner table. Ivillage did a survey showing that 68 percent of women are predicting they're going to see a big family fight during Thanksgiving.

In fact, more than 1 in 10 women say they're dreading the holiday because, you know, when families get together, you know how it is?

PHILLIPS: Why?

KOSIK: It's not all love and giving thanks. These things happen.

PHILLIPS: Why do you have to fight? Why are we predicting something like this? This is bad karma, Alison.

KOSIK: No, no. I'm not. This is a survey done by iVillage. But come on. Let's get real. This happens.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Yes, it does. So just try and leave the family drama behind.

KOSIK: They did a survey on it.

PHILLIPS: Yes. Oh, we want --

KOSIK: It's OK. Tell everybody.

PHILLIPS: We want to be more positive. There we go. We're not going to fight with our families, though, right?

KOSIK: Not at all.

PHILLIPS: OK. Good. Happy Thanksgiving.

(LAUGHTER)

KOSIK: You, too. Happy Thanksgiving.

PHILLIPS: All right.

Well, it's 9:33 on the East Coast, 6:33 out West. Here's some stories that got us this morning.

A lesbian flight nurse is being reinstated in the Air Force. Major Garret Whitt has been dismissed -- or Margaret Whit, rather, had been dismissed under the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Well, she sued and a federal court ordered the Air Force to reinstate her. The Justice Department filed an appeal. It's not seeking a stay of that order.

The FBI investigating threats made by an animal rights activist against a UCLA researcher. That group claims that they sent AIDS- tainted razor blades and a threatening message to the researcher because he uses monkeys for drug addiction study.

And it's official. Most Happy Meals and other fast food meals with toys will be banned in San Francisco unless they meet new health standards. The Board of Supervisors yesterday overrode the mayor's veto. That ban goes into effect December of next year.

The noise over the TSA security could get louder post holiday after agents pat down or scan people's stuff with turkey and pie. A new poll from the "Washington Post" and ABC showed that half the respondents don't think the enhanced pat-downs are even justified. The full body scans got more support. About two thirds said those are OK.

Well, the head of the TSA, John Pistole, says all this is -- all this is needed in this day and age to keep you safe. But he's also sensitive to your privacy.

John Roberts has actually talked with him earlier this morning.

And, John, we have to admit he's not hiding from the media. He is getting out there.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: I've never seen anybody out there as much as he has been. He's been on television almost every day this week. But that would be a clear indication, Kyra, that the TSA knows that it has a public relations problem.

Now Pistole was coming out today to talk about this opt-out campaign, which so far -- anecdotally at least we haven't seen manifesting itself to any great degree at the airports that we are in this morning.

But Pistole knows that he's getting some blowback and he told me this morning that there's a chance that when it comes to these pat-downs that people are looking at and saying, I feel like a criminal. I feel like somebody's groping me. Some people have even likened it to sexual assault. But maybe there may be some modification.

Listen to what he told me when I cited that poll that you just put on the screen there, Kyra, that 50 percent of people think that these are going a little bit too far. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN PISTOLE, TSA ADMINISTRATOR: That's the challenge, John, obviously that we're dealing with and we're looking at, are there less invasive ways of accomplishing the same outcomes? That is, providing the highest level of confidence for everybody getting on that flight that everybody else has been securely screened.

So that's the challenge. I believe that they are necessary and I believe that 71 percent of the public just in the Gallup poll I saw this morning agrees that we need thorough security and they understand the threats are real, and that we're trying to help them get safely home to loved ones.

ROBERTS: I think everybody agrees that we need to have good security because we do see these events happening every once in a while. It could prove to be catastrophic if they were to have come off. But you said just a second ago, we're looking at ways where perhaps this could be less invasive.

What are you thinking about? PISTOLE: Well, so what we are informed by, John, are the inspector general, the GAO reports, that did covert testing, have been doing for years, where they were able to successfully get through our security for several reasons.

One of the common reasons was because of a lack of a thorough pat-down and so trying to address those issues, we're working with them and security experts from around the government and the industry, private industry, to say, OK, if we modify these procedures, what is the risk tradeoff in doing that.

So that's what we're assessing, cognizant of all the concerns that have been expressed and just figure out the best way forward.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: So he's caught a little bit between a rock and a hard place. With all those government studies saying a thorough pat-down is the best way to detect explosives like the one that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had in his underwear, and at the same time being cognizant of the blowback that they're getting from the public.

But when I talked to him a little more than a week ago, Kyra, about the complaints that pilots were having, within a couple of days they announced that there would new screening procedures for those pilots.

Sow this come to a modification of the pat-downs? Maybe too early to say but certainly they're having those discussions about it.

PHILLIPS: Well, did you get to ask him about Thomas Sawyer, the gentleman that you had on two days in a row that was patted down with the urostomy bag and it leaked urine all over him? It was an awful story because Pistole called him, right? And -- Sawyer suggested speaking to the agents.

ROBERTS: Yes. He thought that -- Sawyer thought that he might have something to offer from a sensitivity training standpoint. And also from an informative standpoint. This is what a lot of people in America are dealing with. You need to recognize that, you need to be cognizant of it.

And Administrator Pistole said he had a great conversation with Sawyer and yes, he would like to take him up on his offer. So perhaps we'll see Thomas Sawyer traveling to a meeting in a not-too-distant future with TSA representatives to tell his side of the story and let them hear from a patient about what it's like to go through a pat-down that leaves you feeling so confused and embarrassed.

PHILLIPS: Yes. We'll see if it happens. John, thanks.

All right. So we know about half of Americans don't think that the pat-downs are justified and some people plan to boycott the full-body scanners. But do we have it any worse than the rest of the world?

Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Diana Magnay in Berlin. Now in this country when you go through security, you have to take off anything metallic, then goes through the X-ray scanners. You go through a gate scanner and if you beep, and even sometimes if you don't, you'll get the once-over with one of those wands.

Nothing as intimate as is going on right now in the United States. There is only one body scanner in this country and use at the moment that's going to test phase in Hamburg but already there have been various complaints about the fact that it seems to set off a lot of false alarms, that there are long queues in front of that body scanner. People also calling it a naked scanner. Calling it also a violation of people's privacy.

MALLIKA KAPUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Mallika Kapur in Hyderabad, the city in southern India.

We can't go inside the airport or any where close to it because of security concerns. Security at Indian airports is tight. Just to enter the airport you need to produce a printout of your travel documents plus a photo I.D. Once done with checking in, passengers have to form two lines for security. One for men, one for women and children.

For hand baggage, the usual rules apply. No sharp objects, no liquids. In fact, here in India, you're not even allowed to carry ordinary battery cells.

Regarding personal security, passengers are first frisked by a handheld device. Pat-downs occur sometimes but to be honest that's really quite rare.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Paula Hancocks in Jerusalem.

Israel has a very different approach when it comes to airport security than other countries. It has all the latest technology and the sophisticated machinery but here the human element is key.

Pretty much every passenger will be questioned, sometimes by more than one security officer, and some are strip searched. And no matter how distasteful it may be to civil liberties groups, Israel actively profiles passengers and makes no apology for it.

NERI YARKONI, FORMER HEAD, ISRAELI CIVIL AVIATION ADMINISTRATOR: You should profile. If you don't profile, you waste -- you waste time, you waste money and you might miss what you're looking for because you're searching for it on the wrong people.

HANCOCKS: Yarkoni says that behavior, intelligence gathering and statistics have to be taken into account as well as race. But there have been plenty of accusations of racism from Arabs and Muslims who say they found themselves on the wrong side of the profiling.

Another difference here, you won't have to take your shoes off as standard and you won't have to give up your bottle of water at security.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks to our international reporters. Now breaking news out of Detroit where we're learning right now that the computers have crashed at Spirit Airlines. You can imagine what that's created for travelers today.

Shawn Ley from our affiliate WDIV actually at the airport.

So, Shawn, what happened? What can you tell us?

SHAWN LEY, WDIV REPORTER: We have been here all morning and things, Kyra, looking a lot better right now but I can tell you from 4:15 on, I'm in the middle part here of our north terminal. This line was past me here as people were arriving to get on their planes and go on their Thanksgiving holiday.

Take a look over my shoulder now and you can see the folks at Spirit, they have been doing a pretty good job of reducing that line as best they can. You still got a significant line there. Before, though, we are talking about a line 400, 500 fliers deep.

The issue, Spirit overnight. They lost their computer system. They just told us that the system went completely down. That means if you're at home trying to log in and print out your boarding pass, you could not.

I've got a smart phone in the pocket. It says please stand by, our system is down. And every Spirit person behind the desk there, here's what they've had to do, Kyra. They've had to manually write out -- pen and paper, the old fashioned way -- every single boarding pass, hundreds and hundreds.

The good news here for the fliers, and they've really kept things under control as far as tempers and losing patience and everything. The flights here in Detroit were leaving, say, A39, 3010, 3011 -- they tell those flights no one is missing the flight. They're just boarding ever so slowly one passenger at a time.

As you can see, things calming down here. The line has reduced.

What's interesting is people arrived here two to three hours early overnight starting at 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. because they thought there was going to be an issue at the security check points. That has been the smooth sailing here.

Once you get to the checkpoint, people are going through. No one is delaying here. They just want to get on their flights and go. And Spirit says, the system wide all -- everywhere they fly, and particularly down in Florida, the system is down. So if you are flying Spirit you have to get here early, get in line in there, they're going to write you out one of those boarding passes.

Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: Got it. OK. Doesn't seem too crazy and that's the good news.

Shawn Ley, appreciate it. Keep us updated.

Well, Meghan McCain is taking on Sarah Palin. She says Palin's presidential plans are either genius or insane.

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CONAN O'BRIEN, TALK SHOW HOST: Good news about Thanksgiving, though. A company in San Francisco is coming out with what they call gluttony pants, specifically designed for overeating. In other words, Americans call them "Pants".

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KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: We've been talking a lot about those all full body scans and intrusive pat downs that's going on at the airports. But what do frequent fliers actually think about them? Our deputy political director, Paul Steinhauser has been looking at that. He joins us from the CNNPolitics.com desk. Quite a switch of topics today.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. Nice -- nice segue there from Conan O'Brien to this. That's why you get paid the big bucks, don't you know hey.

PHILLIPS: Yes, right.

STEINHAUSER: Now let's take a look at this yes, right. You just brought it up. There's a brand new poll from Gallup and "USA Today" came out last night. They questioned about 3,000 people but among those 3,000 they question about 700 people who say they've flown at least twice in the last year so they're familiar with the procedures.

Check this out. About seven out of ten -- just over seven out of ten say, they're not bothered by a potential loss of -- of civil liberties, of personal privacy, from these pat-downs. Only 27 percent say that it is not worth it; 71 percent saying, yes, it is worth it to go through this.

Let's go to the next one as well. And Kyra, this is interesting. They asked about the full-body scan; 18 percent said they were angry about that full body scan; 24 percent say they're bothered but not angry and 57 percent say they are not bothered.

But the anger level goes up Kyra, when you look at the pat downs, those pat-downs that if you don't go through the body scan and the pat-downs. And you can see that 29 percent say they're angry, another 28 percent say they're bothered but not angry and those who say they're not bothered at all drops to 42 percent.

You want to talk about segues let's move from that to the race for the House of Representatives. They -- I want to zoom right in here and I'm going to ask Jeremy Harlon (ph) our cameramen to zoom right in here. Brand new in the CNN Political Ticker; the House gains now for the -- they were gains by the Republicans in the House is now at 63 seats.

And this is after last night when Dan Maffei (ph), he's a Democratic congressman from upstate New York in the 25th Congressional District, he conceded to his Republican challenger. So that brings to 63. And that gain of 63, the seats the Republicans had picked up in the House. Kyra, that's the largest switch since the 1940s.

There are three races remaining, two in California, one in New York State, as well. And all three are Democratic congressmen and all three of the Democrats are leading -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Now, what's this deal between Megan McCain and Sarah Palin? I guess they won't be having Thanksgiving dinner together.

STEINHAUSER: It seems like there's not a lot of love between those two people. You know you were talking to Shannon Travis earlier this hour. He is out in Phoenix; that's where Sarah Palin kicked off her book tour yesterday. Prior to the kick off of that book by Sarah Palin, Megan McCain said this, "The way she is running for president is either sheer genius or ultimate insanity," -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: That's -- that's -- I'm going to keep my mouth closed. Paul thanks so much. It shall be you -- we shall continue. We'll keep talking about it, put it that way.

We'll let it all unfold live on CNN. Thanks, Paul. Happy Thanksgiving.

Be back in a moment.

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PHILLIPS: We're getting our "Morning Passport".

We begin in London where angry students are marching to the streets protesting plans to hike university tuition fees.

Our Zain Verjee is following it all for us out in London. So Zain, what's the latest?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kyra.

Well, imagine if you're in the U.S. and you wake up, you're in college and then all of a sudden, your tuition fees have tripled. You'd be pretty mad, right, Kyra? Well, that's what's going on here in London as well as across the country.

Look at these pictures the students are out; there are thousands of them, demonstrating against the rise in tuition fees. They're pretty mad. They've already destroyed one police van. They've been building bon fires on the streets as well. But it hasn't been as violent as it was before, Kyra.

The police are ready for this one. They've braced themselves you can see -- they're really establishing themselves in the line to prevent any demonstrations. They've threatened to arrest anyone that's out of line.

But people here are pretty mad, they're really worried. You've even got high schoolers out there too, they have been supported by their parents, teachers, even the schools. They're saying, you know what, go out on the streets and demonstrate.

That's what's happening right now -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, we'll keep following those live pictures, of course, Zain.

The second major protest we've seen on behalf of these students.

Now, you're also keeping an eye on the situation in North and South Korea. And I remember when you went there and reported from the DMZ. What's your take on all this?

VERJEE: You know, Kyra, that area is the most heavily fortified border in the world. I think President Clinton called it the most scary place on earth. Both sides North and South Korea, totally armed on either side of the DMZ to the teeth.

So when I went there, it's kind of like, it's a pretty weird atmosphere there. There's a lot of tension in the air. You've got both sides kind of intimidating each other. You know, they glare at each other. They stare at each other. They clinch their fists.

For example, you've got the South Koreans who try to intimidate the North Koreans and what they do is they put these bull bearings in their trousers so then when they marched it makes this thud, thud, thud sound.

So it's really just about one-upmanship (ph) on the DMZ there. I went to one little room which is exactly on the border, and here's what I saw.

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VERJEE: The most interesting thing in this room is actually this table. You can see a line sort of runs right through the middle of it. And the most fascinating and exciting thing about being here in this otherwise ordinary room is that this is the south. But when I step over this way, across this line, I'm in North Korea.

And if I open this door right here, which I can't because South Korean and American troops are guarding it and protecting us, we'd go straight into the arms of the North Korean military on the other side.

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VERJEE: And Kyra, you know, one of the things that strikes me, is that whenever there's any tension between North and South Korea, everybody looks at the DMZ and is a little bit worried and they say well, the tension is ratcheted up there. It really is something to keep an eye out for.

I remember one guy told me that even if a tree is cut down that could be enough to upset a side and it could trigger something much bigger -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, we'll be following these tensions. A number of people thinking it could be bigger. Zain Verjee, great to see you. Happy Thanksgiving.

VERJEE: You too.

PHILLIPS: Well, we're following lots of developments in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM. Let's go ahead and check in first with CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve -- Jeanne.

Jeanne Meserve, cnn homeland security CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, no sign yet that those opt-out protests are having a significant impact on this busy travel day. I'll have that story at the top of the hour.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Can you believe it guys? We're going right into the Thanksgiving holiday; an extended weekend. We've got a turkey of a forecast for you. Things are fine now towards the east and towards the west but in the center of the country is a mess of rain, sleet and snow that will affect millions of Americans. The complete forecast coming up.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Of course, that weather causing lots of travel delays right now, we've got airport delays in the northeast; an accident in Kansas City causing backups on a major interstate. We'll cover all of your travel conditions coming up.

PHILLIPS: All right, thanks, guys.

We've got to warn you, the next hour could get extremely nostalgic. Oh, yes, just let the '70s wash over you for a minute.

Reynolds, you remember this, Colonel Steve Austin? A little bionic and all iconic? Coming up, we're talking with Lee Majors. He's bringing "The Six Million Dollar Man" back to the new generation.

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