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Cleanup From Floods and Mudslides in California; Mayor Michael Bloomberg Talks About Snow Response; Finger Length Linked to Cancer; Blizzard: Cost of Cleanup; Building Explodes; Celeb Engagement; Hot Off The Political Ticker; Newark Mayor Tweets and Plows; From Ice To Hardwoods
Aired December 29, 2010 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. Time to check big stories.
The West is getting another winter whop today. Boy, I haven't said that word in a long time.
An arctic blast from Alaska -- won't be saying it again for a long time -- will bring an inch of rain or more and wind gusts at 75 miles an hour. Downtown Los Angeles has seen its wettest December since 1889. Several towns in the region are still cleaning up from last week's floods and mudslides.
A preliminary investigation blames high winds for Tuesday's ski lift accident in Maine. Eight people were hurt when a cable came loose, sending several chairs tumbling 25 to 30 feet to the ground. Some 200 skiers were stranded on that lift. One, a CNN employee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBB ATKINSON, CNN EMPLOYEE: When the derailment happened, all of a sudden there was a gust of wind, and it was a bump. We felt a little bump, a strange bump you don't feel on chairlifts.
And we looked up and we saw the five chair lifts fall to the ground, and a big puff of white powder snow came up. And people then started screaming in horror that they couldn't believe what they saw. And, of course, we were worried that we were five chairs behind the tower. Everything hour the tower collapsed, so we weren't sure if our section was going to hold or not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Boy.
At least two people are believed to be trapped after a furniture store exploded in Wayne, Michigan today. A third person was pulled from the rubble and has been taken to an area hospital. Wayne's city manager says the blast was probably caused by a natural gas leak.
And wouldn't this be an incredible way for you to ring in 2011? The Mega Millions lottery for New Year's Eve is expected to reach $237 million. Nobody has hit the 41-state lottery's big jackpot in the last 14 drawings.
Round two for the waterlogged West Coast. We're talking about more rain, snow and wind today in southern California. Flooding and mudslides already caused a lot of damage, more than $10 million in Laguna Beach alone.
A lot of damage, too, in Highland. That is east of Los Angeles.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We feel very fortunate to have all these volunteers just help out without getting paid. They're just trying to do something good for the community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: All right. We're going to try to catch up with Casey Wian in just a couple of minutes. He is in Highland. That is just east, again, of Los Angeles.
The ground in southern California is so saturated, just going to the beach can be dangerous. A bluff -- we're going to show you the pictures here -- above the Pacific gave way in Ensenada, threatening a retaining wall. Engineers have inspected two homes at the top of the bluff so far. They seem to be safe, but beachgoers are being warned to stay away.
Let's get back to Casey Wian now. We've got him on the phone. He's in Highland, California.
And Casey, last hour you were telling us that the rain was tapering off. Give us an update on weather conditions and what's going on there.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It has been raining intermittently for the last hour or so, not very heavy at all, but the ground remains saturated. We shot some pictures earlier that maybe you can show now of all the efforts that have been going on in this area of Highland, California, for the last week or so.
A hundred and fifty thousand sandbags have been deployed in this town to try to protect some of these homes from further damage. Many residents were mandatory-evacuated last week. There have been no new evacuations this morning.
But I can tell you, the street I'm on right now, I'm at the corner of old Green Spot (ph) and Church Street, a residential neighborhood in Highland, California, and the water is still flowing down this street. We've got California Department of Correction inmates working feverishly to try to clear mud and debris away from this neighborhood. They're laying sandbags as I speak, and hopefully before long we can actually get you a live picture of some of this that's going on.
The good news is there are no new evacuations so far, and the town of Highland seems to be holding up significantly better than it did last week -- Tony.
HARRIS: OK, Casey. Appreciate it. Let us know when you get a signal and a picture, and we we'll get you back up on the air.
Let's get to Chad Myers now in the Severe Weather Center.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: We're waiting for Mayor Bloomberg.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Of course.
HARRIS: Yes. He's got a briefing scheduled. It was scheduled last hour. It's been moved and pushed and everything else. He is close.
All right. So you guys let me know. Do you want to take the mayor or do you want to take a break here and get back to him just in a second?
OK. He's there. He's at the microphone, so let's listen to the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg.
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), NEW YORK: Well, good morning, everyone. We are here in the Bronx at F&F Hardware to see how Nick Cosella (ph) and his staff are faring. And we are -- as we continue to battle back from the blizzard.
Nick, thank you very much for hosting us.
You should know that the store owner, Gary Jacobs, is out of town, but Nick has been nice enough to host us and to introduce us to the people that are working here. And what he said to me this morning is all his deliveries have been able to come in, and his customers, and this has been very good for his business. So that's good to know.
I know it isn't easy to be a small business owner or manager. And it isn't easy for residents either.
A lot of people are still having trouble getting out to work and to stores like this one, but Nick seems to be faring a little bit better. Not being able to get to the stores can mean lost income for small businesses and lost pay for workers. And at a time when so many families are struggling to keep up with the bills, the blizzard has not made life any easier.
Our city is using every single resource at our disposal, and many more that we have borrowed and hired to get the five boroughs back up and running, but obviously we still have a lot more work ahead of us. Over the past 24 hours, thousands of sanitation workers and other city workers have made steady progress. And I want to thank the private workers and laborers who are helping us dig the city out.
Yesterday, we hired nearly 700 laborers to shovel out bus stops and crosswalks. And today, we have hired about 1,200 more laborers to continue that work, and we'll do the same thing tomorrow. I will say that on Christmas Day and each day afterwards, when we called on our city workers to come in, they answered the call and we had phenomenal response. It was a little bit harder to get some of the private sector workers in on Christmas Day and the day after, but that's now been rectified, and they're helping as well.
We also had 28 giant front-end loaders from private contractors working during the night. They helped us dig out vehicles that have been stuck in the snow. There are still about 50 stuck MTA buses remaining, but that is down from 600 early yesterday.
City--wide, we think we have got 99 percent of primary streets plowed, 86 percent of secondary roads, and 66 percent of tertiary roads. There are still unplowed residential streets in five boroughs, particularly in South Brooklyn, where we've only gotten to 96 percent of the primary roads, 63 percent of the secondary roads, and 27 percent of the tertiary roads. And we also have some areas in western Queens and Staten Island that still need a lot of work.
These are all residential areas where, often, more vehicles are stuck in the snow and abandoned. And that's really been the key difference that we can point to so far between this snowstorm and others. An enormously larger number of stuck buses, trucks, cars. And if there is one car in the middle of a block, you just can't do anything. We even have to many times get a front-end loader in to shovel enough or dig enough snow out so that the tow truck can get in. And if you can't get the tow truck in, you can't get the car out and you can't plow.
Why that was different this time, we're not sure. We will do the postmortem afterwards.
In the meantime, what we're trying to do is get the resources that will let us get them out. The police department provided 70 tow trucks, and even drove out to the tow truck drivers' homes to bring them in so that they could help. And that has made an enormous difference.
To gauge the progress of efforts, on some of the smaller residential streets we did ask dozens of city employees in all five boroughs about road conditions in their neighborhood this morning. It's not exactly the broadest sample, but it was something we could do quickly and easily, and I thought interesting. And here are just a few examples which I think represent a small fraction of the hard work that our men and women in the Department of Sanitation have been doing.
I can report that here in the Bronx, Bowler Avenue (ph) in Baychester was plowed for the first time yesterday, and 238th Street in Riverdale was cleaned up as well. In Queens, our survey showed 76th Street, a side road at Howard Beach was plowed for the first time early this morning. In Bellerose, streets near Jericho Turnpike were also cleaned up overnight, and 150th Street and 12th Avenue in Whitestone have been plowed several times in the last 24 hours. In Brooklyn, a borough where we have seen perhaps the most serious problems, Pine Street in Fort Greene, which has been very sloppy last night, was down to blacktop as of this morning. And also, plows were out on Halsey Street in Bushwick at 9:00 p.m. last night, and again today, at 6:00 a.m.
64th Street, between 18th and 19th Avenues, in Bensonhurst, was plowed for the first time late last night. And at 9:30 this morning, a plow cleared Jefferson Avenue at Stuyvesant Ave. in Bed-Stuy for the first time. Previous attempts to clear the block were not successful, but thanks to a heavy-duty plow, it is now open.
Turning to the southern tip of Long Island, near the outer bridge, plows have been down Sharrotts Road before yesterday. And not until this morning was the roadway fully cleared.
However, Memo Street in the Princes Bay section of Staten Island still has not been plowed, and we have got to get to that. And even where streets have been plowed, such as in Elkingtonville (ph), there are areas where the streets are down to one lane of traffic. And today we will keep working to widen those streets. We also know that Elkingtonville (ph) has other problems, too, particularly on the north side of Richmond Avenue.
The good news is that beginning today, we will concentrate more and more equipment on the residential areas where the problems remain, and will not rest until every street in this city is clear, as it should be. And to aid us in that effort, street cleaning rules and meter regulations, as you would expect, will be suspended for tomorrow.
Now, we had hoped that our city might make it through the blizzard without any major tragedies. But sadly, I have to report that was not the case.
Medical emergencies are always scary, and a blizzard added another layer of difficulty and danger. In some cases, it took hours to respond to serious requests, and EMS could not only get there -- couldn't get there quickly enough, and my heart really does go out to those who experienced trauma and tragedy during the storm.
We take our emergency life-saving responsibilities very seriously, and I'm extremely dissatisfied with the way our emergency response systems performed. And as I announced yesterday, we're going to take a look at everything we did to see if it could be done better, starting with the communications and dispatching system. We have asked Skip Funk (ph), the leading expert on emergency communication in the city, and now our new director of city-wide emergency communications, to look at how and why the emergency system became overwhelmed.
We do know that on Monday, we received 49,478 calls to 911. That is the sixth largest volume in 911 history, and it seems these calls overwhelmed the system.
As of right now, there are zero stuck police cars. And the 911 backlog, I'm happy to say, is gone.
Now, obviously no emergency system is ever perfect, but New York does have the finest first responders in the world. And we just have to make sure that our communications and response system can keep up with them and give them the information that they need. That's a top priority for us going forward.
Before we take questions --
HARRIS: OK. It is really all about getting the streets cleared if you are the mayor of a major city dealing with a snowstorm.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg right now updating the snow removal effort in the boroughs. It will still be some time before those side streets are cleared. Most of the work right now concentrated -- and I think everyone would understand -- on the primary and secondary roads.
Central Park -- that's a very nice shot. Residential streets still very much a challenge.
Still to come, it seems the length of your fingers could reveal your risk for getting prostate cancer. Every guy on the set is checking the length of his fingers right now. That's what the scientists are saying.
Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen will bring you the details.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Well, we're all trying to figure this next one out. For centuries, people have read their hands to find out their fate. Now a British study finds a possible link between the length of your fingers and prostate cancer risk.
Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now with details.
And Elizabeth, every guy on the doggoned set is looking at and checking the length of their fingers and trying to figure out what this all means. And what did the study find?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, this is such a bizarre study, so let's get right to what exactly the results were.
All right. First of all, anyone can take a look at their hands and see that the index and the ring finger, the two fingers on either side of the middle finger, one is probably longer than the other. And it varies with different people. Sometimes the ring is longer, sometimes the index is longer, sometimes they're equal.
What they found in this British study is that men whose ring fingers were longer than their index finger were more likely to get prostate cancer. However, if their index was longer than their ring finger, and if the opposite was true, in other words, they were 33 percent less likely to get prostate cancer.
HARRIS: What?
COHEN: And it's just so bizarre, but that's what they found looking at thousands of people.
HARRIS: Well, as I look at my fingers here, why on earth would this be the case? How do you come up with this kind of linkage?
COHEN: All right. Here's the theory, Tony.
First, we will start with the finding. They have found that men who get prostate cancer tend to have more testosterone in their systems. They also have found that there may be a link between how much testosterone you were exposed to in your mother's womb and how long your fingers are.
I know it sounds weird, but the length of your fingers, it happens when you're in the womb. There is nothing you can do about it. And there is some evidence that shows that the more testosterone in your mother's system, the longer that ring finger is going to be.
And so there does seem to be some -- there is some sense here. But, you know, this is a study that's really in its infancy. We can't say for sure, oh, boy, you guys with the long ring fingers, boy are you in trouble. We would never say that, but it is certainly an intriguing theory, that your finger length may just be a marker for how much testosterone you have running around your body.
HARRIS: And there is nothing you're going to do about it. I mean, come on. Right?
COHEN: No, there is nothing you're going to do. So this is just sort of more interesting.
HARRIS: There you go.
COHEN: There's really nothing you're going to do.
But I do want to take this opportunity, Tony, to tell men that they need to talk to their doctor about prostate cancer screening.
HARRIS: Yes.
COHEN: I don't care how long your fingers are. I don't care if you don't even have fingers. You need to talk to your doctor.
I know men hate to do this. But if you go to CNN.com/empoweredpatient, you can learn everything you need to know about the discussion you need to have with your doctor. In fact, we asked four male experts what kind of screening do you get, and they told us.
HARRIS: Yes. Get to "Empowered Patient" often, because Elizabeth and her team do a terrific job with that.
Elizabeth, good to see you. Thank you. Good to see you again.
COHEN: Thank you.
HARRIS: Rain mud and devastation, it is happening again along the West Coast. And just take a look at all of this mess.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: So another storm system is drenching the West Coast. CNN's Casey Wian is with us now from Highland, California.
And Casey, you have been explaining to us throughout the morning that the showers have been kind of hit or miss, intermittent. But any rain in that area is going to add to that mess that we see behind you.
WIAN: Yes. Look at this mess, Tony. You can absolutely see what a week and a half of -- a week of steady rain, and then we have had two more episodes of rain since then, and what this has done in terms of the accumulation of water.
You can see this street behind me that these folks are desperately trying to clean up. And we've got sandbags here in front of these homes.
We've got workers from the California Department of Corrections laying sandbags. They are doing it throughout the city.
In the last week or so, they have put down 150,000 sandbags. They have put out k-rails throughout areas, trying to divert some of this water from some of these neighborhoods.
But as you can see, we have had half an inch to an inch of rain so far this morning. And we have got a street that is flooded. So it's working in some areas, it's not working in others.
The one thing that the community of Highland does have going for it today that it didn't last week is the fact that many of the storm drains were clogged last week, and that's what caused some of the major, major damage that we saw last week. They have been working to clear those storm drains out, and they have done a pretty good job of it.
So far, they have had no new evacuations. There were several evacuations of neighborhoods last week. And one member of the clean- up crew, if you will, told me today that everything is going smoothly, they're just sandbagging as many houses as they can to prevent any more damage should this rain continue and this mud come into these communities -- Tony.
HARRIS: Well, let's hope we get some help from the elements and maybe get maybe a week or so of some decent weather back in California.
Casey, good to see you. Thank you.
And the big dig is what we have been talking about a lot this morning as the Northeast tries to recover from the blizzard. JFK Airport is not a place you'd want to be right now.
A live report coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK. Let's take a look at the Big Board, New York Stock Exchange.
Three hours into the trading day, 12:30 Eastern time and the Dow as you can see is in positive territory up 29 points. Trying to get a quick Nasdaq number for you. Nasdaq, a 5 almost 6 points. We will continue to follow these numbers for you throughout the day. Here at CNN NEWSROOM.
So the blizzard in the northeast is not only causing problems getting around as you heard from the mayor just moments ago, the cost of the clean-up is literally killing budgets. I am looking at that item right now at cnnmoney.com. Poppy Harlow has the break down for us from New York.
And yes, Poppy, this is -- there are crews. There is overtime. Supplies, you are talking about a real budget buster here.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Yes, you name it. I mean, Tony, this was just the last thing that any city, especially the budget strapped cities along the east coast needed. That's a few days before we were into a New Year, but exactly what they got.
I have to tell you my street here on New York City just got plowed this morning. So not only are they behind schedule but we got this blizzard on Sunday. Not only was it Sunday. It was a holiday weekend. So think of the overtime that these cities had to pay their employees.
They also brought on private contractors. Even here in New York they were asking private citizens that had snow plows to come out and help. So this was a real mess on the streets, on the sidewalks and for the city budgets.
I want you to take a look at this map. We are going to show you cities in the northeast that have had to pay hundreds of thousands already. Danbury, Connecticut, they got 18 inches of snow. They had to pay almost a half a million dollars. That's what they're expecting just the clean up to cost them.
Look at Cranston, Rhode Island. The mayor of this town said if we get anymore big storms like this, this is going to clearly bust our budget. They only got 10 to 12 inches, Tony, $150,000. That's what they're expecting to have to pay just for the cleanup.
And then I want you to take a look at the State Of New Jersey, Rahway, New Jersey, 32 inches of snow. That's not a typo, 32 inches of snow. The most of any city in the State Of New Jersey. They don't even know what it's going to cost them. What they're hoping, Tony, is they can get some federal aid to help pay for this. Because cities only allot so much money to clean up snow in the winter and we're only a few days into the official winter season, Tony, and this is how much it's already costing them. Here is the kicker. These cities that are strapped their budgets have no choice, but to clean up the snow and pay as much as they have to get it cleaned up. They don't have any choice. They can't just forgo plowing the streets, Tony.
HARRIS: Right, so we spend a lot of time talking about the northeast. You know, there are a lot of people there, you know, -- in the northeast. Let's move it to the Midwest. Let's get to the Midwest and Minnesota. I know that's your home state. How much money is being spent there? My guess would be a lot.
HARLOW: So much more than any of the states on the east coast so far. Take a look at Minnesota, so far just since November, they have gotten 40 inches of snow in St. Paul. They have spent $1 million over their budget, Tony and I talked to the guy in charge of all the snow clean-up there in St. Paul this morning.
He said their budget is $2 million. So already this year they have spent about $3 million cleaning up all the snow and for each and every state that is facing this, Tony, their budgets, already they're cutting left and right.
They're cutting funding for teachers, education, city workers are cutting back and then they have this and they have no choice, but to have to pay for it. It was a great, great report. Our Tami Luhby of CNNMoney who you knew well did a great story. So you can check out a lot more of it here on the site, Tony.
HARRIS: So you tap into your contingency funds. You tap into your rainy day -- I'm sorry your snowy day funds, but you are using a lot of that money for other stuff as you just mentioned. Poppy, good to see you.
HARLOW: Exactly right.
HARRIS: Yes, thank you.
Days after the blizzard stopped New York's JFK Airport, they are still trying to clear the backlog of flights. Thousands of stranded passengers, planes left on the tarmac for hours. Overnight, a Korean air flight was stuck on the tarmac for nine hours and 20 minutes. Six and a half hours. That was the wait for Lufthansa flights and also Air Mexico flight and Air France as well.
Other international flights arrived without delay. Our Susan Candiotti live now from JFK.
Susie, if you can give us an update, what's the situation like now there now at JFK?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Tony. Well, the good news is they have more runways open. Four of them are open now to JFK. So that means more flights will be coming in and especially getting out. That will allow for more gate space of course.
But naturally it will take several more days to take care of the backlog that has been accumulating since the storm hit on Sunday. But overnight as you said, more than a half dozen airlines experiencing many, many hours of delays.
Once those planes landed on the tarmac were unable to get to a gate and that's because according to the airport, the airlines did not call ahead and make sure that gate space was available before they took off from their point of origin.
So when they landed here you know what happened. As a matter of fact, we spoke with one woman who got off Air Mexico flight who said that the flight here from Mexico City was just fine, food drink movies, but when they landed that's when the problem started.
Here's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They don't say the truth. They say OK, we have the gate. That's an hour and they say in two hours more and the - seven hours. That was the worst part of the story.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: Well, perhaps that was the worst part of the story while they were stuck on that plane, but then she said when they finally got off and cleared customs, which she said was a breeze, they had to wait for their luggage for two hours she said before they finally cleared out.
Plus in that particular woman's case, she got on one plane and her husband had to take another flight because of all the delays. She didn't know where he was at this time. We have one other - one other anecdote that's kind of interesting as well. A flight from one of the airlines from China came in and because they were stranded so long on the tarmac. By the time, a gate finally opened up the flight crew was out of time so they had to bring in a truck to tow the flight -- the plane into the gate.
Imagine that. Anyway, the bottom line is this. There has to be meetings according to all the officials involved here at the various agencies to try to figure out what they're going to do for the next time because as we have said time and again, this is only week two of winter. There could be many, many more storms ahead to say the very least.
HARRIS: I don't want to be a fly on the wall for those meetings. I want to tell you that. More than that I want you in those - those meetings. OK, Susan, good to see you. Thank you.
CANDIOTTI: That's great.
HARRIS: Yes, we'd love to get you there. Let's show you some of the video we're just getting in the CNN now. This is lives pictures now of the fire team, firefighters working over the site of the explosion we were telling you about in Wayne, Michigan.
At last report, if I recall it correctly, there were two people trapped in that building, which in part explains that the scene you're seeing as firefighters are going through -- looks like every inch of what's left of that building.
And these pictures are coming to us. I can't make out the affiliate. OK, it's DWIV and we appreciate your pictures from their news helicopter. But again, at last report, we were being told that two people were trapped inside that building and have they've been rescued? Is that the update we're getting?
They have been rescued and taken to an area hospital. We don't know the extent of the injuries. So we will continue to monitor this. I will turn around the story as best we know at this point and show you these pictures again on the other side of the break.
And also still ahead, which gorgeous Hollywood star has just announced she is tying the knot? That is in our showbiz update.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK. Let's get you an update on the breaking news story. We started telling you about this story last hour. We can give you an update here. Again, this is taking place in Wayne, Michigan. Our thanks to the news helicopter from WDIV. That is our Detroit affiliate for providing this picture for us.
We can tell you that at least two people have been rescued after a furniture store exploded earlier this morning in Wayne, Michigan. A third person we understand was pulled from the rubble and has been taken to an area hospital. Don't know the condition of that particular person, if there are any injuries, if they are serious. Nothing about the nature of those injuries at all. Wayne's city manager says the blast was probably caused a natural gas leak. We will continue follow the story for you.
Engagement news. Top star showbiz update. Entertainment correspondent Kareen Wynter joining us from Los Angeles.
OK, Kareen, who is tying the knot?
KAREEN WYNTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: You know, Tony, I think there's something in the air perhaps we're not talking celebrity babies. We're talking engagements.
While the latest ones, Reese Witherspoon, one of Hollywood's little darlings, the Oscar winner. She is going to get married for a second time. Let's hope the second time is a charm. Her spokesperson Jeff has confirmed to CNN, Tony, Witherspoon and her Hollywood agent, Jim Cuff. They're engaged and they're extremely happy. The 34-year-old actress and the 40-year-old agent, they've been dating for a little while almost a year and Witherspoon, she has two kids from her first marriage with Ryan Phillippe, which ended in 2006 after a seven-year long marriage. That was a long time.
But, you know, it's got to be nice for someone who does all these comedies -- so many romantic comedies to finally enjoy a happy ending here.
HARRIS: Doesn't she have a new one that is set to be released here soon?
WYNTER: I think so. She has a new movie coming out. She is busy. She is busy acting and now she will be busy planning her wedding.
HARRIS: There you go. Newly engaged Leann Rimes, right? Making some news, what's going with her, Kareen?
WYNTER: She's furious today. Leann Rimes, Tony, she's shooting down rumors that she is pregnant. She and Bo Eddie well, just got engaged over the holidays and now she is tweeting about internet rumors that she is expecting a baby.
She responded on her Twitter account saying let's just say we can't phrase it the way she did but she called all those stories baloney. She is evidently celebrating though her engagement, tweeting sun, bikinis, friends, food, celebration.
And she also added that it's going to be the best trip. The controversial couple, they started dating when each of them were actually to other people.
HARRIS: I remember that was pretty messy. Kareen, great to see you. Happy New Year to you.
WYNTER: Thank you, Tony.
HARRIS: If you want more information on everything, breaking in the entertainment world. You can watch "Showbiz Tonight" that at 5 and 11 on HLN.
Americans tell us about their confidence in the president's policies. A new CNN poll when we check the political ticker.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Closeout 2010 confidence and President Obama's policies, it's not where it used to be. Jessica Yellin, part of "The Best Political Team on Television," live from the political desk in Washington.
Jess, good to see you.
So we've got some poll results for us? JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's that time of year. A quite political week, so we've got lots of polls, right?
HARRIS: OK. Yes.
YELLIN: We -- and it shows that Americans don't have a lot of faith in our leaders to get stuff done. When asked if Americans think it's more likely that President Obama's policies will succeed or fail, only 44 percent say it's more likely the president's policies will succeed, 47 percent say it's more likely they'll fail. And that fail figure is up from a year ago.
But we also asked about the Republicans who are taking over control in the U.S. House of Representatives and whether they'll do a better job than the Democrats. Well, 26 percent say, yep, they'll do a better job than Democrats. Twenty-two percent say they'll do a worse job. And 52 percent say, guess what, they don't think it will make a difference.
HARRIS: Oh, my.
YELLIN: So it seems like Americans don't have a lot of faith in our political leaders to solve our problems. But here is one political problem that is getting solved. In Alaska, a U.S. district court judge has cleared the way for Senator Lisa Murkowski to be sworn in again for a second term.
That's because throughout the lawsuit by her Republican opponent Joe Miller against her, that means Murkowski, who waged that write-in campaign, will be certified as the next senator tomorrow. Her paperwork will be sent to Washington and she will be sworn in as a U.S. senator again next week when Congress comes back -- Tony.
HARRIS: Yes. So, Jess, I understand there's a bit of a political twist to this year's Rose Parade.
YELLIN: Yes. You know, I'm from Los Angeles, so I'm a big fan of the Rose Parade. It happens in Pasadena.
HARRIS: Yes.
YELLIN: And they have all those gorgeous floats covered in flowers. For the first time ever, they're going to have a Ronald Reagan float in the parade. They say it's the first time they've ever had a presidential float at all. And it's because this year, 2011, is the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth. So this float, we're told, is massive, 55 feet long, 26 feet high, I think, made of all flowers and leaves. It will be beautiful, I'm sure. And Ronald Reagan, for the record, was born February 6, 1911. That means he was an Aquarius.
HARRIS: An Aquarius. I don't think anybody -- yes, yes, the age of Aquarius. OK. Jess, good to see you. Did not know that. I don't think anyone would have a --
YELLIN: (INAUDIBLE).
HARRIS: Yes, not a bad choice at all.
For the latest political news, just go to cnnpolitics.com.
Newark's mayor, the tweeting politician. We will show you why he is getting such rave reviews after the blizzard. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: So check this out. The tweeting politician. Man, this is kind of a cool story. I've got to -- yes, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, first of all, he's a super star mayor to begin with.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. A 21-year-old guy.
HARRIS: To begin with. Young guy and leading up the city and doing a lot in education, in a number of different areas for the people of Newark, is getting rave -- that's a tough city -- is getting some rave reviews for taking charge of the snow cleanup, using social media. He answered resident's tweets directly to find out what streets need plowing. And, Josh, he got out there and he was --
LEVS: Yes.
HARRIS: Do we have the video? I'm not seeing it. But, OK --
LEVS: Yes, we've got video of him out there and helping people and reaching out and doing all sorts of things. And what he's been doing is he's been tweeting directly.
HARRIS: This is good.
LEVS: Residents are writing him, hey, what their problems are. He's been incredibly busy on Twitter. Let's zoom in. I'll just show you a few of the things. It's really fascinating.
HARRIS: OK.
LEVS: This is super local politics. Here's someone who wrote, please help my dad. He's snowed in at home and I can't get out to him from New York. And then he wrote please, please DM his number and address. And that means, please get send it to me as a direct message.
HARRIS: Right.
LEVS: These are the things he's doing. He's directly interacting with all sorts of resident there's. Here's another one. I need my block plowed. Mine is North 13th Street. And he writes, we got it earlier, but I know it needs more attention. Please be patient.
Let me show you one more here and then we'll go to some sound from him. He wrote, stepping off the streets for an hour or so to take a meeting I couldn't cancel. We still have dozens of trucks and hundreds of workers out clearing snow.
This is what he's been doing.
HARRIS: Man, that's good. Yes.
LEVS: He's been busy directly interacting with all these people who are saying they need help and he's out there literally shoveling himself. Here's one thing he said. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR CORY BOOKER, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: We've gotten diapers to people, delivered food. One pregnant woman who was going into labor, or at least thought she was, we were able to get there before the ambulances could. And we actually got an ambulance unstuck.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: And, look, I'll tell you this. You know, also a lot of people are seeing his sense of humor through all this. The kind of thing he's doing. The interactions he's having with people.
Let's zoom back into the board here. I pulled up some more of the tweets that you should check because he's been working through the night. Look at this. Saw you out there on South Orange. Put a hat on that head. Us baldies can't be going commando out there.
HARRIS: Nice.
LEVS: And he writes back, no need, I've got a hot head.
Let's get in a couple more here. My favorite thing, someone yelled at me today, hey, Cory Booker, I got your shovel ready project right here.
HARRIS: Wow!
LEVS: And I got one more. This is good. This is -- he writes, I feel like I got that yelled at me a few times today. And what is it that was yelled at him? Hey, Cory Booker, why did you even let it snow in the first place?
HARRIS: In the first place.
LEVS: Yes.
HARRIS: That's good stuff.
LEVS: These are the kinds of things he's been doing. And the video shows it as well. He's busy. He's helping. He's out there shoveling. He's out there literally helping individuals during this super micro local politics. And that's part of what you can see now, of what's happened in this new era. I mean this is something real about America, about the world in this era in which you've got this era of engagement, right, thing like Twitter. There aren't these levels between you and other people right now. Whether it's us, whether it's celebrities, whether it's officials, you can tweet them directly. They're checking it themselves. They're responding it themselves. All the middlemen are gone and you're seeing that in politics right here.
HARRIS: So political futures, as you know, can rise or fall based on your effectiveness, perceived effectiveness in getting the snow off the streets, correct?
LEVS: There you go. Yes, and look what's happening today, you know.
HARRIS: Smart politics.
LEVS: At a time that people are upset with some other government leaders in that region. Cory Booker's getting a lot of props.
HARRIS: Thank you, Josh.
LEVS: All right. You've got it.
HARRIS: From ice to wood. Watch how workers transform a stadium overnight. That's next. We're back in a minute. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Got to tell you, sometimes the best told stories are those told with pictures only. For today's "Favorites In Focus," CNN's Eddie Cortez (ph) show us how an NHL hockey rink has turned into an NBA basketball court overnight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The games end at 9:30 at night. We're starting at 10:00. We've changed this building over every night from hockey to basketball, basketball to hockey. This is what we call the third shift, the night shift. When everybody else is asleep, this is when this building can change from one thing to the next. It's extremely physical and very hard work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it is. It is hard work. Sometimes you get those two days off, you really enjoy those.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of people don't like working at night. Then, again, I know people that wake up at 4:00 in the morning to go to work and I don't think I could do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's 12:00 now and we've got hockey deconstructed. The ice is covered. The basketball court is still coming out. I have 15 cartloads.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're putting the pins in the floor pieces and putting the floor together like that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's 1:15 in the morning. We're about seven carts into our basketball lay down. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You get used to it. And you stay busy so the night comes -- the time goes kind of quick.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have a morning skate at 10:00. I have to have the ice ready for that. And the same thing for basketball, 10:00 in the morning, usually the first shoot-around unless there's a matinee game.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By 4:00 or 5:00 we usually get through.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basketball floor is down. Now we're heading into the final finishing touches.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have certain bleachers over here that has to come out. You just have to train your body to be up at night if you're not a night person.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is what is it. Middle of the night, I mean this is like, somebody has to do it. I'll take it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: "Favorites In Focus" brings you the stories behind the headlines. Don't miss this compelling half hour of television hosted by our Tom Foreman, 2:00 p.m. Eastern, New Year's Day. It is quality story telling the award-winning in focus CNN photojournalist team is known for. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Let's go. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with T.J. Holmes, in for Ali Velshi.
Doctor, all yours.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: You always have me nervous how you're going to come to me.
HARRIS: Because I'm not sure what I'm going to say myself.
HOLMES: OK. Tony, good to see you.
HARRIS: Just have to see you.
HOLMES: Good to see you as always, my man.
