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$5 Gallon Gas in 2012?; Elton John and Partner are Proud Parents; Plane Touch During De-Icing; Digging Out from the Blizzard; Where is Lorena Bobbitt Now? Looking to 2012; $800,000 Game Show Mistake
Aired December 28, 2010 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALINA CHO, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: 10:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 7:00 a.m. on the west. Good morning, everybody. I'm Alina Cho, in for Kyra Phillips this week.
And here are some of the stories that have us talking this morning. A heart-wrenching tragedy in New Orleans. Fire crews have pulled eight bodies from this abandoned building. The victims were apparently homeless and had gathered inside to stay warm.
Police near Miami, Florida say carbon monoxide may have killed five teenagers in their hotel room. Their bodies were found yesterday apparently a car was running in a garage next door.
And the man who dubbed himself "The Patriot Pilot" is now coming forward. His name is Chris Liu. And he's a pilot for American Airlines. He posted a video online showing San Francisco Airport security which he described as a farce. He got a lot of attention. Liu said he wanted to show the discrepancy in security checks for passengers and airport personnel.
But first this hour, how does $5 a gallon gas sound to you? It could happen by 2012. We are already at three bucks a gallon after all. CNN's Christine Romans live in New York with us with more on this. So Christine, honestly, five bucks a gallon, is this going to happen? Do you think it will?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, according to the former president of Shell, it will happen along the path that we are on right now for a couple of reasons. One of the reasons is the rest of the world is growing and growing strongly. Emerging markets are bringing people into their middle classes by the millions every single day, as those people get more money, they buy cars. They fill those cars with gasoline and they drive on the roads, also factories humming in China, in India, in Brazil, in Russia, brick countries, Brazil, India, China, they're growing strongly and that means their factories are using a lot of oil and you already got oil prices above $90.
John Hoffmeister saying that this could be a real problem for the United States. And here's why. He says if we stay on our current course, within a decade, we've got energy shortages big time. He says "Blackouts, brownouts, gas lines, rationing. That's my projection based upon the current inability to make decisions. The political driven choices that are being made which are non-choices essentially frittering at the edges of renewable energy, stifling production in hydrocarbon energy. That's a sure way to really hurt American consumers."
I'm going to speak with him in just a couple of minutes to get him to expound on these comments but he's very clear that the United States is not doing enough on its energy policy to be able to prevent, he says to be $5 a gallon gas. I talked to some other analysts asking, you know, this is farfetched, Alina, A couple of people tell me it's a worst case scenario. A couple of people telling me, "no, it's not far fetch but maybe not in two years, more like a decade." Don't forget we saw $4 gas just a couple of years ago. So here we are at $3 again.
CHO: I may be old, but I remember when it was 89 cents a gallon. Anyway.
ROMANS: Well, some people say that maybe we'll have $5 a gallon gas and we'll look back and say, "I remember when it was horrible when it was just $3."
CHO: Yes, exactly.
ROMANS: The same way we look back at 89 and 99 cent gas.
CHO: Yes, exactly. It's all relative. You know, I know there are some economic indicators coming out today, including some on home prices. So are you getting any insight on what we may see?
ROMANS: Well, in the home price numbers we got a Case-Schiller report that basically shows more price declines, actually kind of a stunning price declines, nothing really good out of the October number from these widespread declines in home prices. Again, some people are saying that now we're in a double-dip or we're very close to what we call a double-dip in housing, something very close to watch there.
We will watch to see if that hurts consumer confidence. So we know that the housing market has been weak and lackluster. The question is are consumers able to sort of get over that and start moving forward and say, look it's not a surprise. We know the housing market has been kind of rotten? Will that hurt consumer confidence? That's what we'll be watching for.
CHO: All right. Christine Romans with all the news that we need. Thank you so much.
ROMANS: Good to see you.
CHO: I'll see you again soon in person.
ROMANS: You too.
CHO: All right. Christine, bye.
Well, the holiday glow has faded, the beauty of a pillowy snowfall has turned downright ugly. The problems stacked as high as snow drifts in the northeast. The blizzard is gone. The horror stories just coming to light. Earlier, we spoke to an angry airline passenger who was stuck on the tarmac at New York's JFK Airport for some eight hours, and get this, the ordeal ended just a couple of hours ago, long after the worst of the storm had past.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRISTOBAL ALEX, STRANDED PASSENGER (ON THE PHONE): It was terrible. Basically what happened was we were running out of food and water, and the pilot came on to say that he had been arguing with the folks at the airport to at least let the police come on board to deliver some food and water. I guess he lost that fight. Nobody came on and we moved up to a gate and spent a couple of hours at the gate thinking we were going to come off and never did.
And apparently what happened was the customs folks went home at 1:00 a.m., and so everybody coming in international had to sit out there in the snow for, you know, all night.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: New York's Port Authority says the situation was unacceptable and it's investigating exactly what went wrong.
And we want to take a look at some home video now of what the northeast is dealing with as it digs out from as much as 30 inches of snow. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my god!
Are you out of the your mind?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: That's what we thought, too. The New Yorker who shot that video from his apartment window says that was the city's sanitation truck trying to free a snowbound front loader. The result, as you saw, pretty disastrous for the parked SUV. The city says it's investigating. In fact, here's the formal response "An accident of that nature is generally followed up by a supervisor who follows up by giving a comptroller's claim form to the damaged vehicle owner, who completes it, returns it and the matter is generally settled in their favor. This is unfortunate but not unusual during the snow season."
Brooklyn's councilwoman Letitia James talked with CNN's AMERICAN MORNING a short time ago. Here's what she had to say about the response to the incident.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LETITIA JAMES, CITY COUNCIL SANITATION CMTE., CHAIRWOMAN (ON THE PHONE): I find that unacceptable. Clearly, had the driver just exercised some caution, clearly, they could have not hit these cars. Clearly, this is exhibit A, a callous driver with no regard to the personal property, apparently he's just having his way and his will with this private car. And clearly the individual is subject to filing a claim with the comptroller's office and getting reimbursed for damages to his car and to all of the other cars that were impacted by his negligence or her negligence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: And here's a view of the storm as it descended on New Jersey. Take a look at the spinning hands of the clock there on the bottom part of your screen. Hour by hour, inch by inch, this time lapse photography captures the snow piling up. Of course, the real measure of the story is just how the region is coping today.
So we want to get a check in on some of yesterday's trouble spots. CNN's senior correspondent Allan Chernoff at LaGuardia Airport where airlines are scrambling to get back on track. Allan, you know, more than 4,000 flights cancelled just yesterday. Are you getting any sense that there is some real movement there with planes taking off now?
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: There's some movement but not nearly as much as you would normally have. I mean, you can see behind me certainly there is activity, and people trying to get through. And there are a lot of travelers here. so it looks as if things are almost normal. Well, not quite. Have a listen to this one little statistic.
During a normal hour here at LaGuardia Airport, a normal busy hour, there are 70 flights, arrivals and departures. The airport opens at 6:00 a.m., from 6:00 a.m. until noontime during a six hour span, today, there will be only 100 arrivals and departures. So just a little more during that six-hour span than they normally have during one hour. So we're really at a reduced schedule.
Obviously, we will be ramping up as the day goes on and certainly more tomorrow and even more the next day. So it's the lucky few who are actually getting out of here. Well, meet a family that is considered very lucky in these circumstances.
These are the Jalberts. They are used to snow. They're from Anchorage. You guys were originally planning to leave when?
WAYNE JALBERT, HOPEFUL PASSENGER: Monday morning.
CHERNOFF: Monday morning. OK. And now you you actually have just gotten a flight?
WAYNE JALBERT: Just got confirmed.
CHERNOFF: You must feel like you hit the jackpot?
WAYNE JALBERT: We win, better than we do with the lottery.
CHERNOFF: A happy story. Not only do you have a flight but they have been very accommodating? MARYANN JALBERT, HOPEFUL PASSENGER: Absolutely. Baggage fees were waived as well as extra days of car rentals. So we do feel like we hit the lottery today.
CHERNOFF: All right. Now, these folks were telling me just before we went on that, you know, they are so used to snow, to see New York stranded like this in the snow, seems a little pathetic, is it?
(LAUGHTER)
WAYNE JALBERT: Well, let's not say pathetic. A lot of New Yorkers around here.
CHERNOFF: They're being very diplomatic on camera but certainly up in Alaska, I think they can handle a little more snow than this. Maybe they're more used to it. Nonetheless, the airport, as I said, slowly beginning to get back to normal. Alina.
CHO: That is very, very good news. Allan Chernoff, thank you so much for the update.
Well, the same ferocious storm unleashed a different kind of problem on parts of Massachusetts. Flooding, to be exact. The stiff winds whipping off the ocean helped pushed high tide into low lying coastal areas. In fact, fire crews in Scituatte, Massachusetts had to inflatable boats to rescue several people from a row of burning beach front homes. The winds pushed flames from one home to another and the flooded streets cost fire fighters valuable time. Incredibly, nobody was hurt.
All right. So the worst may be over, but the storm is still lingering in one way at least. CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras joins us with a look at that and the current conditions. So we're talking about some winds?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, winds are a problem because they are still really strong. In fact, we could see some gusts that are strong enough to bring down some tree limbs and cause power outages. Our low pressure area is way up here in Canada. So it's pulled far away, and no more snowfall with this system but the winds will be gusting 30-plus miles per hour through the day today and it's also going to be driving down that wind chill factor. So be aware of that.
Take a look at what your temperature feels like. In Boston, feels like 11 right now, 25 in New York, 17 in Philadelphia. And the cold air in the wake of the storm stretches all the way down to the deep south. Look at that, it feels like 24 in Nashville, 23 in Atlanta, and there you could see freezing temperatures for you in Jacksonville. We did have a number of record lows in the state of Florida this morning.
We got some pictures and some numbers we want to tell you about from Florida. You know, we had several Arctic blasts hitting the state in the last month or so, and the Florida Department of Agriculture now is estimating that the crop damage is at more than $110 million, and that's just as of December 20th, it doesn't even take into account the cold snap that you are dealing with here for today.
The cucumbers are reportedly wiped out, eggplants, snap peas and peppers are also nearly at a total loss. Now, let's talk a little bit about travel and what you can expect for the rest of the day, there are a lot of cancellations as Allan mentioned. And we've got some delays now by the FAA. Look at this, JFK more than five hours, Newark looking at ground delays, that's if you are trying to get into Newark, more than eight hours, and Teeterboro, which was closed, looking at delays of just over an hour at this time. So make sure you call ahead.
We're still going to have problems with those winds blowing the snow back over the runways. Now, that low is going to pull away now in the next couple of days, and we can look forward to some decent conditions. In fact, we're going to start to get southerly winds pushing across parts of the east and a nice warm up could be expected. We're talking way above average by as much as 25 degrees potentially by the end of the week.
Now, the west coast, we got a storm system here, off shore right now, bringing in heavy rain and also some heavy snowfall. This is going to be a big problem into the already saturated areas as we could see one to five inches of rainfall in parts of California. The snowfall will be heavy here. We're talking about one to three feet expected, and the bulk of the storm is going to get started. We think late tonight and continue at least through Wednesday. It's going to head into the Wasatch. It's going to head into Colorado. In fact, it's going to head its way all the way across the country, Alina, and eventually hit the East Coast.
But I think we're going to be warm enough, knock on wood, this time around that it will be a rain event and not another blizzard.
CHO: And when will this happen?
JERAS: This will be late week, probably Friday, heading east.
CHO: Will I be able to fly out?
JERAS: Is that when are you leaving? You might have some delays, my friend.
CHO: All right.
JERAS: Hey, you got here, though.
CHO: Thanks a lot, Jacqui. All right. Jacqui Jeras, thank you so much.
Coming up, it's the one title Sir Elton John has wanted for a long time - dad. His years of waiting are finally over. We're live in London with the lowdown on the new addition to Elton John's family.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHO: Welcome back. Helping wild life from above. It tops our look across the country this morning. We begin on a frozen pond in Watonga, Oklahoma. That's where a pilot of a local TV chopper found a calf there slip sliding away to safety. The helicopter pilot, very smartly, used the down draft from the chopper blades to actually push the little guy out of harm's way.
Meet Bubba, a pit bull terrier that is constantly reaching new heights, if you will, for a Phoenix area roofing company by taking things one step at a time literally. Yes, this dog is a self-taught ladder climber. Bubba's owner says his house-scaling dog is a good rooftop foreman.
And out west now, to Los Angeles, where a suspected drug smuggler may want to consider the holiday - as in which one, before trying to hide drugs. Border agents say they found in a Florida man trying to conceal more than 14 pounds of cocaine in Easter egg candy two days before Christmas. He now faces a possible sentence of life in prison.
We have big news from actress Natalie Portman. She is engaged and expecting her first child. The 29-year-old actress met her fiancee Benjamin Millipied while preparing for her role as a ballerina in the film "The Black Swan." Millipied was the choreographer for the movie. He's also a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet. Portman is not revealing when the baby is due or any details about the wedding. Oh good for her.
Sir Elton John and his long-time partner David Furnish are now the proud parents of a healthy baby boy. CNN's Ayesha Durganee is live in London with more on the Christmas bundle of joy. Good morning, Ayesha. So what is going on? How did this happen?
AYESHA DURGANEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. So weighing in at a healthy seven pounds and 15 ounces, David Furnish and Elton John have named their new son, Zachary Jackson Levin and their celebrity friends are being quick to offer their best wishes. Liz Hurley has congratulated the couple on Twitter, writing that she can't wait for her first cuddle with Zachary.
CHO: That would be Elizabeth Hurley, of course, a very good friend of Elton John and David Furnish. Meanwhile, have they released a statement at all, Ayesha?
DURGANEE: Sorry, what was that?
CHO: Has Elton John released a statement yet?
DURGANEE: No. He hasn't made an official statement but for the time being, the focus is on his newborn son on Christmas day, and it was - it has been a struggle because Elton John, if you remember, last year, he tried to adopt a 14-year-old baby boy at the orphanage in Ukraine but his plans were thwarted because the country's laws that deemed him to old at 62 to become an adoptive parent and because of the fact that he was not married, even though that David Furnish and Elton John's civil partnership was formalized in 2005, the Ukraine does not acknowledge civil partnerships, but for the time being, the focus is on celebrating becoming fathers for the first time.
CHO: Well, we certainly wish them the very best. Ayesha, thank you. I had an opportunity to actually sit down with Elton John for my series "Big Stars, Big Giving" last year, and I talked about his charitable efforts. He has the Elton John AIDS Foundation, of course, and this year I had an opportunity to sit down with Halle Berry, who also gives back in a big way.
In fact, the Academy Award winning actress volunteers at a shelter for domestic violence victims, and for her it's personal. I talked with Halle Berry, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: In my special series "Big Stars, Big Giving" I talked to Halle Berry who is one A-list star bringing her a game to charity. For more than a decade, she has been spending her time and money at the Genesee Center, a shelter for domestic violence victims in Los Angeles. And for Berry, this is very personal. Domestic violence runs in her family.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHO (voice-over): It's been a personal crusade for Halle Berry for more than a decade, a secret that she has kept hidden for the early part of her life, watching her mother being abused.
(on camera): How does that shape you as an adult?
HALLE BERRY, ACADEMY AWARD WINNING ACTRESS: Well, you know, honestly, I think I've spent my adult life dealing with the sense of low self- esteem that sort of implanted in me, somehow I felt not worthy.
CHO: Do you know how many people in the world would say, are you kidding me? You're Halle Berry?
BERRY: I'm sure because that's Halle Berry. But before I'm Halle Berry, I was little Halle who was a little girl growing in this environment that damaged me in some ways and I've spent my adult life trying to heal from that.
CHO: This is amazing.
(voice-over): Part of that healing happens here at the Genesee Center, a shelter for victims of domestic violence in Los Angeles, where she volunteers and she often shows up unannounced.
BERRY: I come here sometimes and play with the kids and I see the children. So I'm just regular old crackers to them.
CHO: (on camera): Really?
BERRY: And I love being regular old crackers, I have to say.
CHO (voice-over): A far cry from the glamorous screen siren we know from the movies. But it is this work that Berry says is more important, more meaningful.
BERRY: Please help in any way that you can. I have a spot in my soul that understands the devastation that this causes a family and how hard it is to rebuild your self-esteem when you've suffered.
CHO: It's the reason why she's taking on a personal project, renovating these rundown apartments so women who flee their abusive partners have a safe, happy place to live.
BERRY: Happy. And where they can rejuvenate and feel hugged and loved.
CHO: And see what life can be like so they can dream of a better future.
BERRY: Well, we can turn these apartments around in two weeks.
CHO (on camera): Wow!
(voice-over): It's something she couldn't do for her mother, give strength to women who have been beaten, battered and broken down.
(on camera): What is your message to any woman who might be watching out there, who might be in a relationship that's abusive?
BERRY: Get out. Don't stay a moment longer. If there's no shelter, go to a friend, go to the police station, go somewhere but go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: Right now, we are following some breaking news here at CNN in St. Louis Lambert Airport. Two planes apparently touched wings during a deicing procedure and both are now undergoing inspections, which is obviously causing another big delay. We want to get the latest now from a passenger on the plane right now. Jesse Shipley, aboard the U.S. Airways flight when it happened. He joins us now by phone.
Jesse, I thank you for joining us. So what exactly happened? What were you told happened?
JESSE SHIPLEY, PASSENGER (ON THE PHONE): Ironically, my brother's plane, he's also going to Philadelphia, I'm on my way to Harrisburg, was deicing on the tarmac and we were taxing, I guess is the word around it to be next in line. And at this point my wing, the edge of it collided with the back tail wing of his and took off, not a piece of it but kind of like a knife on the edge of a stick of butter, cutting to the metal and part of it came off.
CHO: What did it feel like when it happened and how long ago did this happen?
SHIPLEY: About - what time is it now?
CHO: It's 10:30 on the East Coast.
SHIPLEY: 9:00, that time, about an hour and a half maybe. CHO: Yes and did you feel anything?
SHIPLEY: Not really, kind of just a little surreal to watch it happen.
CHO: Yes, so what's the situation right now? You're still on the plane?
SHIPLEY: Right now, yes, we got pulled back into the gate. My brother on the other plane got pulled back in and taken off eventually, and their baggage got taken off and their flight got cancelled. Right now, we were on a one-hour delay and I think they added another hour delay to it for inspection and there was a crew member out there but he left.
CHO: Are you getting any sense of when you might get back up in the air?
SHIPLEY: We're on another hour delay from what I hear from another passenger. We got pulled back in and we're allowed to deplane if we want but I'm just staying on the plane.
CHO: Jesse, did you ever, I mean, you didn't have any weather problems where you are right now. Did you ever think you would have this kind of delay?
SHIPLEY: Honestly, I kind of expected it. I have a bad voodoo with airplanes. Last Christmas I spent three days in a Philadelphia airport. So I wasn't expecting it but I'm not surprised.
CHO: Where are you headed?
SHIPLEY: I'm headed to Harrisburg via North Carolina.
CHO: OK. For vacation? Are you -
SHIPLEY: No, my parents live out here in St. Louis. I live in Philadelphia, I go to school in Shippensburg University, outside Harrisburg.
CHO: Got it. What are the odds of your brother being on the other plane? My goodness.
SHIPLEY: I don't know. I called him and I asked him, "are you (INAUDIBLE) ice right now next to the Delta plane? You're not going anywhere, you might as well pack up now because we just took off part of your plane."
CHO: Well, I wish you the best of luck in getting to your destination.
SHIPLEY: Thank you very much.
(CROSSTALK)
CHO: I'm sure you're anxious to get home. Jesse Shipley, thank you very much.
SHIPLEY: We received confirmation, there's no damage from the mechanic. So everybody gets back on, we're leaving.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We should have all this done within the next hour.
SHIPLEY: Within the next hour.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any other updates as soon as we received it. Thank you.
SHIPLEY: Did you get all of that?
CHO: I did get all of that. Thank you -- thank you so much. I'm sure that is music to your ears, Jesse.
SHIPLEY: Yes, it is.
CHO: I wish you the best of luck in getting to your destination, as I said, and happy holidays to you.
Jesse Shipley, thank you for calling in from the plane. We appreciate it.
Well, you heard from Halle Berry a moment ago. Coming up, another woman who is helping domestic violence victims. Her name is Lorena Gallo but you may remember her by her former married name, Lorena Bobbitt. She joins me live next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: Bottom of the hour now. Here are the stories grabbing our attention this morning.
Amazon says the third generation Kindle is the best-selling product in the company's history. Kindle replaces "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" which was at the top of the list.
The man who dubbed himself the patriot pilot is now coming forward. Chris Liu is his name. He's a pilot for American Airlines. He posted a video online that got a lot of attention that showed San Francisco airport security which he described as a farce. Liu says he wanted to show the discrepancy in security checks for passengers and airport personnel.
And the weather, as you probably know by now, is getting better in the northeast but it could take until the weekend for airlines to return to normal operations, maybe longer. Four thousand flights were cancelled just yesterday because of the snowstorm.
Across the northeast, there are two kinds of people, those who are snowed in and staying in and those who are braving it and digging out.
Chris Knowles is live in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, this morning.
Hey, Chris, good morning. Good to see you again. So again you got more than two feet of snow? Is that what you were saying?
CHRIS KNOWLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, 29 inches of snow. We're kind of over that winter wonderland portion of it, now just mounds of snow. And of course as the melting starts to take place, a new danger, falling ice from above. That's something to be especially aware of in the city and even small communities where we have the two-story roofs.
So 29 inches of snow, making it one of the top 10 worst storms ever here. The timing of this thing was absolutely crucial. Of course there's never a good time for 2 1/2 feet of snow, but for one local businessman, because it happened after Christmas, it made all of the difference in the world. Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE SPIEKERMANN, OWNER, MAZUR'S BAKERY: If it would have happened Christmas, even Christmas Eve, that would have been the biggest disaster because that's our biggest day is Christmas Eve.
KNOWLES: How much money are we talking about?
SPIEKERMANN: We're talking probably close to $40,000.
KNOWLES: That's a lot of dough.
SPIEKERMANN: That's a lot of -- that's a lot of dough. And I called my wife, I said listen, I'm not coming home tonight. I slept in the back next to the flour bags. And I was right next to the ovens so I was nice and warm because they were still running all night. We're making fresh breads and rolls, you know, for the customers that were still coming in.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
KNOWLES: Yes, bad puns aside, you know, Joe the baker, considering himself very fortunate despite the fact that he and his 60 odd employees were faced with digging themselves out before they could do their job over Christmas.
So over this next week, we're going to be seeing things return for what we can basically call normal. The trains, buses, et cetera, beginning to take their place. Now the streets out here are beginning to look a whole lot better than they were just a few hours ago this morning.
We're starting to see melting as we're expecting. Temperatures above the freezing mark, maybe even into the 40s by the end of the week. If that happens, Alina, we're going to be real excited about that. Back to you.
CHO: All right. Chris, well, go home and play with your kids in the snow a little bit if you have a chance.
All right. Chris Knowles, thank you so much for joining us.
KNOWLES: Yes. Will do. Her name is Lorena Gallo, but back then on news programs and the subject of late-night comedians, she was Lorena Bobbitt. She's remembered as the wife who employed a, shall we say, dramatic response to an abusive relationship with her then husband John Wayne Bobbitt.
But in the nearly two decades since then, she's started a new life. She's been in a long-term relationship 13 years strong, she has a 5- year-old daughter, and while she works as a part-time hairdresser and real estate agent, she says her true passion is counseling domestic violence victims through her organization.
A new name, a new family and a new mission in life, Lorena Gallo, formerly Lorena Bobbitt, joins me now from Washington, D.C. with lighter hair.
Good morning, Lorena. Nice to see you.
LORENA GALLO, FORMERLY "LORENA BOBBITT": Good morning.
CHO: Tell me about your organization, Lorena's Red Wagon. What is the mission?
GALLO: Yes. The primary mission about my organization is definitely to help -- the prevention of domestic violence through family oriented activities. And what we do is basically raise money to help the children and the families in need, and I go to the shelters, and I provide hot meals for them, for example, Thanksgiving, we did a food drive, and we served 35 families.
And another thing that I did was having a wrapping party which actually it was very successful for the past Christmas. We donated toys for the children and the shelter also.
CHO: That's wonderful.
GALLO: And the basic -- yes, yes, and you know it's wonderful to actually put a smile on a kids' face.
CHO: Yes.
GALLO: And you know, for the sad families, which are actually homeless in the shelters, and one of the reasons that they are there actually, Alina, is because I found out through working with the shelters that the families who are in the shelters are homeless because due to the abusive relationship, the women who are there.
CHO: Well, I know that you hope to open your own shelter someday.
GALLO: Someday.
CHO: But I have to ask you -- I mean obviously you were a victim of domestic violence yourself.
GALLO: I was.
CHO: But was there something specific that inspired you to do this because this is not a small undertaking?
GALLO: No. Definitely. And I was a volunteer in the shelters way back before. It's been 10 years ago. It's just that the organization has been for four years, so it's now known as Lorena's Red Wagon.
But basically, yes, that was because I was in the woman's shoes, basically. I was abusive -- I was in an abusive situation, I should said. I was a victim of domestic violence, and, you know, definitely that inspired me to help other victims, obviously, because I know the pain.
CHO: Sure. Of course you do.
GALLO: And I know the emotional -- you know that people leave and definitely the victims of domestic violence have.
CHO: Well, I have to tell you -- well, I have to tell you, you look fantastic, first of all.
GALLO: Thank you.
CHO: And so -- and I'm thrilled to be talking to you.
GALLO: Thank you, thank you.
CHO: You know, I have to ask you this. You know, I mean as you well know, there was a time when joking about the Bobbitts was a national past time.
GALLO: Yes.
CHO: I wonder after all of these years, are you finally able to laugh about it?
GALLO: I finally am. And it took a lot of time. It took a lot of years and definitely a lot of -- I went to a psychologist and thanks to the doctors, you know, the therapists, that I'm here and I'll be able to now basically start all over again and, you know, start a new relationship and have a family and, basically, I can laugh now, you know.
But it's not a subject of a laughing matter when we talk about domestic violence, though. It's a serious problem, and what happened to me was very bizarre, obviously, but I was a victim. I'm not a victim anymore, and that is the message that I come -- I have to come across and say it.
And, you know, domestic violence is a serious issue and it affects 32 million women -- people in the United States and it's a worldwide epidemic, it's a social epidemic, that if we don't do anything about it, then we face with a bigger problem in the future for our newest generations to come.
CHO: Well, I know -- I know that the best advice if you're in that type of situation is get out, go somewhere, just leave.
GALLO: Yes.
CHO: So Lorena Bobbitt, now Lorena Gallo, we thank you so much for joining us live today. And best of luck with Lorena's Red Wagon.
GALLO: Thank you so much. Thank you.
CHO: We're back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: As the first family vacations in Hawaii, the state's governor, Neil Abercrombie says he plans to do everything he can to prove that the president was actually born there. That's because so-called birthers keep challenging the president's citizenship hoping to keep him off the ballot in 2012.
Well, in an exclusive interview with CNN's Ed Henry, the governor talks about his plans to legally release Obama's birth certificate information to prove the president is a U.S. citizen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. NEIL ABERCROMBIE (D), HAWAII: I have the attorney general and the director of the Department of Health looking at what we can do to try and see what we can do in turn for an open process that will put those who want to disrespect the president and his parents in the proper light, which is to say they have a political agenda not worthy of any good American.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Abercrombie says he personally knows President Obama's parents and is doing this in part to also clear their names.
The latest CNN polls look ahead to the 2012 White House race. Already? And they suggest good news for President Obama. Not so good news for Sarah Palin.
Our deputy political director Paul Steinhauser is at the CNNPolitics.com desk with the results.
So I guess it's never too early to start looking ahead to 2012, is it, Paul?
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Never too early. And remember, you know, Alina, we're just a couple of days away from 2011 and that of course will bring the start of the 2012 presidential contest.
So let's take a look at these numbers. Let's start on the Republican side, and check this out here. We asked among Republican voters only, who would you be likely to support in 2012 for your party's nominations. We gave four names of people that are pretty familiar, you can see right at the top.
Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas who ran last time. Right below him, Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, who also ran. Newt Gingrich, at 54 percent, the former House speaker. And look at Sarah Palin at 49 percent. Of course she was John McCain's running mate.
Go to the next board. This is interesting. Forty-nine percent of Republicans now say they would be likely to support her. But it was a different story two years ago right after the last election when 67 percent said they would be likely to support her possibly if she runs as the party's nominee.
Remember nobody has announced yet.
Let's take a look at the other side of equation. The Democrats. And you know we've been talking about that tax deal the president made with congressional Republicans. How it hurt him with his own party. Well, look at the numbers here.
Overall, all Democrats, 78 percent, say they want Barack Obama as their man at the top of the ticket in 2012. Only 19 percent say another Democrat, and that 19 percent is the lowest since we've been asking this question for a while.
Go to the next board. Interesting as well. And you can see that among liberal Democrats, the people you think that would be upset by that tax deal the president cut with congressional Republicans that allowed for the wealthiest Americans to continue to get those tax breaks, well, among liberal Democrats, 85 percent say, yes, we want the president as our nominee in 2012.
And again, Alina, it's never too early because that next race for the White House is going to start heating up pretty soon -- Alina.
CHO: Yes. Especially in Washington. All right. Paul Steinhauser, thank you so much.
Well, the northeast, take note, brutal winter storms not just reserved for you. We've got some proof in your "Morning Passport" which begins in snow-blown China.
Just take a look at this video from Inner, Mongolia, where they're dealing with snowdrifts of unbelievable size and scope. The storm began a couple of days before Christmas. And at one point nearly 1,000 people and 700 vehicles were stuck on a snowbound highway for more than a day before their rescue.
More weather trouble down under, to Queensland, Australia, where near record-breaking floods have left half the area a disaster area. Hundreds have been evacuated already, more may have to head for higher ground as more rain is in the forecast.
And we'll wrap up down under in Melbourne where it's been a December not to remember for actor Hugh Jackman. Yes, that hurt. He took a cricket ball to the groin while playing in Australia.
And just two weeks ago, Jackman got a black eye trying to run a zip line stunt on the "Oprah Winfrey" show. The guy just can't get a break.
These people couldn't get a break, either. It was an $800,000 mistake. But that mistake, guess what? It wasn't made by the game show contestants, but by the producers of the show.
I spoke to the couple earlier. And we'll have them on next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: On the FOX game show "Million Dollar -- well, that was my BlackBerry. Sorry. On the game show "Million Dollar Money Drop," contestants were in reverse. They start with $1 million and they lose the money when they get a question wrong.
Well, contestants Gabe Okoye and his girlfriend Brittany Mayti got this question, which came first, the Sony Walkman or the post-it note? They waged $800,000 on post-it note. Wrong answer, says the host. They lost the money and eventually left the show empty handed.
But guess what? It wasn't the wrong answer. The show producers got it wrong. So earlier, I asked Gabe and Brittany how they felt about that, with all of that money that just vanished.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRITTANY MAYTI, GAME SHOW CONTESTANT, "MILLION DOLLAR DROP": So it was very traumatizing and it took us about 15 minutes to recover to even get back into the game.
GABE OKOYE, GAME SHOW CONTESTANT, "MILLION DOLLAR DROP": Right.
MAYTI: If you actually watch the game, we're kind of like, OK, like we didn't take it -- we were just so devastated because he was so confident and passionate about his answer.
CHO: Yes. That's right, Gabe. In fact, how sure were you at the moment that you waged that $800,000? I mean I would guess pretty sure if you're going to bet that kind of money.
OKOYE: Yes. I was very, very sure. I could have put my whole life on it honestly. And I was just thinking about all the facts that I knew previously and just looking at the other remaining, you know, possible answers, and then just made the best one that I could, and it ended up being the right answer after all.
CHO: Yes. That's right. In fact, you went home and you logged onto the Internet, right? You did a little research yourself. What did you find out?
OKOYE: Correct. I did find out that the post-it note was launched in 1977. And --
CHO: But you doubted yourself, right? Why?
OKOYE: Because I just thought that, you know what, maybe there might be some information that FOX actually knew that I was not aware of or that just wasn't posted on the Internet or something.
CHO: Now --
OKOYE: So I just thought, you know what, maybe I'm wrong. I don't want to come off like a disgruntled, you know, loser or contestant, so I just kind of just kept to myself about it.
CHO: I would say you guys are far from disgruntled losers. And, you know, I want to read a statement that FOX released. "Unfortunately the information our research department originally obtained was incomplete. We feel it is only fair our contestants Gabe and Brittany get another shot to play 'Million Dollar Money Drop.'"
So let me ask you this. Under what circumstances would you consider going back on the show or have you decided?
MAYTI: Do you want to take that one?
OKOYE: Yes. We haven't really decided on whether or not we're going to go back on to the show just yet. We don't even know what kind of circumstance we actually --
CHO: Let's say -- let's say they let you start right at the 8$800,00 mark again. Would you go back on?
MAYTI: Well, we're not even sure honestly if the show -- well, they haven't informed us or not if the show is even picked up for a second season. So that's just -- you know, we just sort of gave one option. So we're still undecided and still trying to take this day by day to see what we can do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHO: Great attitude. Well, we heard from the contestants. Now we want to hear from you. On our blog, Jesse thinks, quote, "The fair thing in the situation would be for the game show to settle it half of the prize money, $400,000."
Well, that's diplomatic.
Kelley feels that the couple should, quote, "go back on the show and if they win, great, and also whether they win or lose, they should be entitled to at least $50,000."
Where did you get that figure?
Tony says they should go back on the show, he writes. They should start at the $800,000, and at the next question, had their response been deemed correct, the fact that they are even considering a lawsuit is wrong.
And David says, quote, "They should get the money, FOX admitted the mistake. Now they need to pay up."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHO: Welcome back. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is blasting the NFL's decision to postpone Sunday night's Eagles/Vikings game until tonight because of the blizzard. Listen to what Rendell said on CNN's newest primetime program, "PARKER SPITZER."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ED RENDELL (D) PENNSYLVANIA: We're always accused of being liberals or progressives. But I think that sometimes we go too far in telling people what they can or cannot do.
My endearing memories are of Pat Summer all kicking a 50-yard field goal when I was 12 years old through the snow and driving winds to beat the Cleveland Browns and send it into the playoffs.
That's what makes football special. And as far as we fans go, it should have been our own decision whether we wanted to risk going down to the stadium.
KATHLEEN PARKER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you've toned everything down considerably. I think you said that we've turned into a bunch of wussies.
RENDELL: We have. You know --
PARKER: I couldn't agree more.
RENDELL: I mean this is the wussification of America.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: The wussification of America. There you have it, from Ed Rendell, the governor of Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia's Mayor Michael Nutter responded by saying that Rendell is entitled to his opinion but it is just a game, Sunday or Tuesday, what does it matter? And go Eagles.
That does it for me. I'm Alina Cho. See you right back here at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. But CNN NEWSROOM continues now with Tony Harris.
