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More Rain, Wind And Mud in California; Growing Up On Prescription Meds; New Measure Of Prostate Cancer Risk; You Finger Length And Prostate Cancer; Extreme Global Weather; Baby Boomers Time To Retire; A Potential Pardon for Billy the Kid?; Mexico's One and Only Gun Shop; Farve Fined $50,000; Remembering 'The Miracle On Ice'
Aired December 29, 2010 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm T.J. Holmes. Look at what we're looking at.
So much of the attention has been focused on snow, but do we have a rain situation we need to tell you about, going on right now. It's rightly so. We have been focusing so much on the northeast, all the flight delays, all the snow piled up, people can't get around in their neighborhoods and New York and what not.
Yes, we'll continue to follow that story and all the developments there. But, let's start with what's going on out west. The folks out there, in California, have got some huge weather problems of their own we need to tell you about. Yes, there is some snow up in the mountains in California. But, right now, they have the issue of rain.
A lot of people stuck in it, literally, right now. The mud out there. In particular, we're talking about the town of Highland, that's just east of Los Angeles. That's right at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains. At least five homes have been lost to mudslides. That was just before Christmas. A new storm, now, is the threat. It's bearing down, coming down today.
Our Casey Wian is standing by. I hope you can hear him. I see him standing in the middle of some mud, right now. Casey, I hope you can hear me OK. If you can't, go ahead and take it away.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, I don't know if you can hear me. I'm having a little bit of trouble hearing you. But you can see some of the cleanup effort that's going on behind me. We've got dozens of men from the California department of corrections, and we've got lots of earth moving equipment. They just desperately trying to get some of these flooded streets cleaned up.
Even though the rain is very, very light, right now, and local officials believe that, if they are lucky, the worst of this latest storm has passed this area. The ground remains very saturated from last week's rains. They had to conduct 26 rescues of people last , and one official described it to me this morning as a miracle that they did not suffer any significant injuries and no fatalities.
Right now, we've got more than 150,000 sand bags that have been distributed throughout this town. They are just trying to protect the town from any more rain - Tony. Or, sorry - Don.
HOLMES: Well, we'll try T.J. That's all right. Casey - that's all right, my man. Casey has some issues out there - hearing out there, in the middle of everything. He's in the middle of having a few technical issues out there, as well. But it's a mess. And you can show me the mess. Sometimes this causes problems with our equipment. But they've got a mess going on out there, right now.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, let's take you to the region first and kind of give you an idea. Southern California, there's I-5, Los Angeles. Highland, well east, still San Bernardino County but, well east.
But, now, what you have, you have these washes that come out of the San Bernardino Mountains and you - it brings in the rain. This two-inch rainfall was not the problem. The 10-inch rainfall that they had last week is the problem. OK. The water is still very saturated. The ground, here, still running off. And then, all of a sudden, you get another inch or two of water to come down on the of the water that's already in the creeks and streams - and our Casey Wian, right there on Old Green Spot Road. That's where the flooding is still coming down through these washes and then to - downstream.
So, where do we go from here? We go to where the rainfall is - where the rainfall is finally, finally ending. It has rained all night in most of L.A., all the way down to San Diego where the heaviest rainfall is. I will take you right down. I can zoom you right into highland. Put the road on. And there you go. Still raining right now. So, that was probably, part of the reason, for the live shot problem. And it's snowing out in the mountains. And they could pick up another two feet of snow up in the southern Sierra. But it's about done. They've got about three more hours of rain, and, then, it's finally over.
LAX is seeing some travel delays. The northeast, obviously, still seeing some travel delays. It is all part of a storm system that will develop in the west. That's where the trough is. It's a low pressure. It runs across the plains, it collapses the Dome in Minnesota, and then it runs down and picks up Gulf moist, and dumps itself up on the east coast.
HOLMES: We're about to go through that process, again, with this storm we're seeing out there.
MYERS: We very well may. Except where the trough is setting up for this one, it looks like Minnesota is back for the snow, not a nor'easter for the northeast. OK, so that's - there's something good here.
Here are the rainfall totals for the last couple of days here from Three Peaks there. And then Oakland, California, at about 1.62. It continues for this area. It won't stop for quite some time. I'm going to open up this map for you. At least high pressure is in control of the east coast for now. For the next five days, it is rain and snow free in the northeast. And New York City, by New Year's Day, will be almost 50 degrees. Let's not melt that snow too fast because, then, what happens?
HOLMES: You've got a new problem.
MYERS: Then we have another problem, right? We want to melt it nice and slow so that the drains are nice and open. And, I know, there's been so much complaining about the sanitation department and whatever else. Not moving snow and not doing enough. What you can do for your country, ask not what they can do for you --
HOLMES: OK.
MYERS: -- get out there and make sure the drains are cleaned near your - where your street is. You know if you have a drain in front of your house or not. Get that drain clear of snow and ice so that when the water starts to melt off the snow, it can go down and not up.
HOLMES: Very good information. People may not think about that. Yes, you're waiting for somebody to come rescue you. You can do something on your own that could cause a - or help your whole neighborhood out.
MYERS: You have a thousand people trying to get all the snow done. You've got thirteen million people that can do just a little bit.
HOLMES: Just a little something. First off, we're going to be talking to you, coming up really soon, a lot of this about the snow and this huge storm and a lot of people, naturally, start thinking about - oh, is global warming to blame for this? Well, we've got a little conversation, some debate, coming up about that in just second. We'll see you here shortly.
All right. Listen to this, folks. A statistic, maybe, you never really thought about. But let me share this with you. More than one in four kids you see out there every single day on the street - one in four takes some kind of prescription drug on a regular basis. If not, possibly, every day. That's according to Medco. That's the largest US manager of prescription drug benefits and reported in the "Wall Street Journal."
Now, we're not just talking about, you know, a lot of kids have asthma, that's a prescription medicine, a lot of those. We're not just talking about those inhalers. We're not just talking about, you know, ADHD. So much talking about those pills. That's not all we're talking about.
I've got a chart here to show you that, yes, there are plenty of those out there, but parents fill so many more than just that. They've filled more than 45 million asthma prescriptions for kids and teenagers in 2009. Twenty-eight million for young kids under 10 years old. Prescriptions for hyper activity meds topped 24 million last year. Most went to older kids.
But I want to you see what else kids out there are taking. Using research from the firm, IMS Health the Journal reports more than 9.6 million prescriptions were filled, last year, for anti-depressants for kids. More than a million of those were for kids under the age of 10.
Also, what about anti-hypertensives (ph)? Well, these - this is to treat hypertension. You're not supposed to know the term until your hair thins out, you know, you need reading glasses, possibly. In 2009, more than five million prescriptions for anti-hypertension were filled for kids who can't even legally drink beer.
Data like this, to say nothing about the conditions of the kids or the motives of the doctors, but many drugs that are fully tested on grownups are never tested on children. When they are, the Journal says researchers, often, are surprised by some of the side effects or issues with dosing.
Now, what's the best advice for parents? You need to keep a close eye on your kids. Research the meds yourself. Do it extensively and make sure you ask plenty of questions.
Coming up next hour, we're going to be talking to a doctor. This doctor is the medical director out in Los Angeles, for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, also a psychiatrist, going to be talking about that - this particular topic. It tells us about alarming statistic you hear out there about these kids and about these drugs that they are taking. So, that conversation coming up.
Also, people often go have their palms read, you know, maybe your future can be told in that palm. Some people can read that for you. Well, now, there's some real palm reading going on, some hand reading, I should say. A new study out from the UK has found a possible link between the length of your fingers and prostate cancer.
Our Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now with some details. Elizabeth, what do I need to paying attention to on my hands here?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: T.J., we can call it finger reading. What you can do, and this is for men and women - just, kind of, a fun little party trick. Take a look at your hand and you'll notice your index and your ring finger, on either side of your middle finger, are probably different lengths.
Now, what's interesting is that for some people the ring finger is longer, for some people the index finger is longer, and for some people they are about the same length. These British researchers took a look at finger length and tried to see if they could make any connection to prostate cancer risk. And I'll get to why they did that, in a moment.
But what they found is that men that had longer ring fingers were more likely to have prostate cancer. And men - conversely, men who had longer index fingers were 33 percent less likely to have prostate cancer. And there have been similar findings, also, in a Korean study with the differences they use. And it's very odd, but this is what they're finding.
HOLMES: It is very odd. It's a little disturbing. As I look at my hand, here, both of my ring fingers and my index finger - I like red meat, I've got a family history, and I'm black. So, you throw that all together, I'm not having a good day, Elizabeth Cohen. I have the risk factors. But as far as the fingers go themselves, why, necessarily, would there be a connection?
COHEN: OK. I'm going to tell you about the connection, T.J., and, then, I'm going to tell you why you shouldn't panic. But first, we'll talk about the theory behind this connection. And it's just a theory, at this point. They do know that men who have more testosterone running around their systems tend to get prostate cancer more commonly.
So, they know that. And there's some suggestion that men whose ring fingers are longer also, perhaps, were exposed to more testosterone in the womb. Women and moms have testosterone in their systems and there's some thought that the more testosterone in the mom's system, the higher the ring finger.
So, it's, kind of, a marker for how much testosterone the baby is exposed to. So, when you put that together, that's when you get the testosterone-finger-prostate cancer link.
But - now can I tell you why you shouldn't freak out? Is it time?
HOLMES: OK. Because you know I'm freaking out. Go ahead.
COHEN: OK. I know you're freaking out, so I'm going to tell you why you shouldn't. This is, really, just a theory, at this point. I mean, when you see these statistics, it doesn't mean, for sure, that men with a longer ring finger are more likely to get prostate cancer. So, that's one reason not to freak out.
The other reason is that there's, really, nothing you can't do anything about this. I mean, you were born with your fingers a certain length. There's nothing you can do except follow all the recommended guidelines about when to get screened for prostate cancer. And you mentioned the family history. That means you're going to do something differently than a man who doesn't have a family history.
And if you go to CNN.com/empoweredpatient, we have all the advice there about what you need to know about prostate cancer screening and what every man needs to do.
HOLMES: OK. Good information there of all those risk factors. Throw one more in there. But like you say, don't freak out, just yet. Just do what you're supposed to do. Don't go see your doctor and have that conversation.
COHEN: exactly.
HOLMES: Elizabeth, we appreciate you. Good to see you, as always. Thanks so much.
We're just about 11 minutes past the hour now. We've seen a lot weather wise this week. Of course, the snowstorms in the northeast that really crippled travel up there. We've seen flooding, mudslides destroying neighborhoods, as well. What's going on? Often times, people see major weather situations and they think, can this be global warming? Is it? We have a couple of experts coming up next. We'll talk about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. You've seen scenes like this play out the last few days, have you not? This is in the northeast, of course. A big blizzard covered the region, several feet of snow in some places. The Bronx, in particular, streets and cars still covered, at this point, with snow. Ten thousand plus flights have been cancelled due to this storm, since Saturday, since Christmas Day.
Then you head out west. See what's going on in California. About 100 homes have been damaged or destroyed in San Bernardino County because of flooding. Water and mud caused at least $17 million in damage there.
What about over in London? Hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded just before Christmas due to that snowstorm over there. Also, 200,000 passengers were stuck at Heathrow airport after planes were grounded, flight were canceled.
Then, let's head down under. Australia had to declare a disaster zone, in some parts, due to flooding. At least 20 communities have been evacuated and major flooding is headed to two additional cities right now threatening another 45,000 more residents. That is just a quick snapshot of the extreme weather we have seen across the globe over the past seven days.
So, why are we seeing all this whacky weather? Is it global warming? A lot of people, often, ask that question and I'm going to ask it now to a couple of folks. So, one of them being Peter Webster. He's a professor at Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech. He is joining me via Skype. Sir, thank you for being with us. Also, our own Chad Myers is standing by, as well.
Gentlemen, thank you both for chiming in here. People often have that question. Mr. Webster, I will start with you. Is it as simple as saying yes no? What we're seeing right now, would you say it's attributable to global warming?
PROF. PETER WEBSTER, EARTH & ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES, GA TECH: There's no answer. I would say probably not. I think one of the terrible things that -- one of the great problems that we have in science at the moment is trying to determine what is global warming and what is natural variability. And to look at a number of recent events -- and I'll go back as far as the Pakistan floods and the fires in Russia, the Australian bad weather, these have happened many, many times before. And to be able to say that is global warming or not is extremely difficult.
HOLMES: Well, Chad, let me bring you in here. We see some of these things. And at the time, yes, we see feet of snow on the ground in some parts of the Northeast and people can't -- you know, short memories. We can't think back to the last time we had a storm like that or something. But what we're seeing now, is this necessarily historic or it's just an extraordinary storm?
MYERS: T.J., I think I'm older than you. I can remember storms like that. Remember back in the good old days when you walked back uphill in the snow both ways to school?
No, there have been storms like this before. And there will be storms like this in the past. And will global warming be the culprit someday down the road? Maybe. Our point of view is just right now too short. From where we have had satellites, to where we have had computer models, to where we've known about weather is just too short of a period.
I want to ask the doctor, though, because I know you're asking him about the current weather now. The doctor is an expert. Dr. Webster, on hurricane variability and how global warming can be affected or not affecting the hurricane intensity, the number of storms we see and the like, that's more of a global scale, not this local scale. What do you say about that? What do you say about what we can expect in the next few years with hurricanes?
WEBSTER: I think the -- we publish a paper back in 2005 which, I guess, unfortunately, was two weeks after Katrina hit New Orleans and, therefore, it got a lot more attention than it probably should have. And what we showed was that there had been an increase of intensity during the 30 years of warming sea surface temperatures, which had been attributable to global warming.
What we don't know, of course, is what happened in the -- back of the '20s and '30s during a similar period of warming, was the intensity increasing then. I think our studies, especially for some of the ocean basins, have been -- have been OK. But the attributing something directly to global warming is a difficult thing to do. Even with something on a 30 year period.
MYERS: It's -- I was chastised by all the people on Wikipedia and all these other things and that they write about something I said about a snowstorm that happened in Las Vegas a couple of years ago that said you can't blame global warming on this snowstorm and everybody was saying that I didn't believe in global warming. It didn't exist. That's not what I was saying. I was saying, you can't blame one event or even a number of events on global warming. Are your seeing that? Would you agree with that or do you see something different?
WEBSTER: I agree with that. What we do know, this has been an extraordinary period of time, where the (INAUDIBLE) number of blocking events around the northern hemisphere. And one of the problems that we had with our climate models is that they don't seem to be replicated in the future climates, that these models project. So that's something that we really have to work out.
And I think we've got an opportunity here because rather than concentrating on the last 30 years, from 1970 onwards, maybe we should be going back to the 1930s and 1940s where we do have good data. Not the same global scale as we have now and we didn't have satellites, but we might be able to attribute -- find out what is global warming and what is natural variability.
I will add one thing, by the way, that -- what is very peculiar at the moment are these series of storms in California, because we are in the middle of a La Nina. La Nina is normally associated with bridging (ph) up the coast of California and lack of rainfall, normally droughts.
MYERS: Yes.
WEBSTER: So whether or not there's been a small change in the structure of La Nina like we found with the El Nino, the warm phase, where it's more in the Central Pacific now than the Eastern Pacific, we'll have to wait and see.
MYERS: We, as Americans, think that America is like the whole world. But there's an awful lot of teleconnection going on in other parts that we don't talk about. La Nina, El Nino. We know about those things. You know all these other variables that are going on, North Pacific, South Pacific. What -- do you see changes in that because of global warming?
WEBSTER: Again, hard to say. What we're having now, a very similar circumstance is with these great oscillations (ph) just caused by variations of sea surface temperatures. Slow oscillations of sea surface temperature. And what we're seeing now is quite similar to what occurred in the '50s.
But you must remember too that if global warming, as it occurs, may not occur uniformly everywhere. It's going to project onto these patterns, perhaps. So one might see an emphasis on this. But again, one of the problems we have is that the models, which we hope will replicate the future climate or sort of predict the future climate, don't seem to have the same oscillations that we see nationally in the data that we do have.
So we really have a problem here that is enormously hard to understand the difference between the slow creep of sea -- of temperature that we may be seeing and what has occurred in the past. So until we -- let me tell you why it's important, because if we do have a small increase of temperature, these oscillations on top of it can make periods of very infamat (ph) warmer weather or even periods of colder weather, which we may be seeing now.
MYERS: (INAUDIBLE).
WEBSTER: The fact that I'm not talking now about annual means (ph).
HOLMES: Well, Mr. Webster, and Chad as well, good conversation. I'm glad I let you two guys, you two experts on this field, have that conversation. And interesting for me to listen to. Hopefully for our viewers as well. But it's clear that more study still needs to be done. Despite some thinking, the jury is no longer out on this. But, still, you have -- still some more research needs to be done. Mr. Webster, we appreciate you.
Chad, I'll be talking to you again here shortly.
Gentlemen, thank you both.
MYERS: Thank you, doctor.
WEBSTER: Good-bye.
HOLMES: All right. Well, the wave of baby boomer retirees we've been dreading for years. It's here. Are they ready? Is the system ready? We've got a real reality check coming up for you next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. With the start of the new year, 79 million baby boomers will hit retirement age over the next two decades. Got a big problem here, though. Many simply have not saved enough to stop working. CNN Money's Poppy Harlow, following this story for us, joins us now from New York.
Poppy, hello to you.
Is it possible for you to do something for me here at the beginning?
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Sure.
HOLMES: Help us wrap our heads around just how big this problem is.
HARLOW: It's a massive problem. And I'll break it down for you this way. Starting in January, and that is this Saturday, T.J., 10,000 baby boomers in this country are going to turn 65 years old -- that's typical retirement age -- every day for the next 19 years. So that gives you a picture of the magnitude. Do the math. That is, as you said, 79 million Americans.
The problem here that we're face is that a lot of those people, most of them are not prepared at all for retirement. The reason is a combination of things. First of all, it's a lack of preparation. Poor financial planning. They didn't save enough. You need hundreds of thousands of dollars for a middle class person to retire on to have sort of the same lifestyle.
Also what they were faced with is this huge financial crisis converging in the last three years. So, overall, the stock market, if you look at it over of the last decade, it hasn't improved whatsoever. We're back where we were 10 years ago. The housing market collapsed in the last three years, so a lot of the retired people who took out home equity loans or had a lot of their wealth tied up in their home, a lot of that is gone. And their pensions are disappearing.
So the mindset for these people, T.J., is, OK, I'm just going to work through my retirement. And I want to show you how many people actually think that's the case now. Wells Fargo polled 2,000 Americans and 72 percent of them said clearly they just expect to work throughout their entire retirement.
But here's the problem with that, T.J., we're still at near 10 percent unemployment. So where are they going get the jobs? A lot of these older people that got laid off, if you're 55 or older it's been proven it's harder for your to get a job, especially if you have been unemployed. And that really compounds this problem. Take a listen to more on that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEX HARRIS, MANAGING EDITOR, CNNMONEY.COM: When you're over 55 and you've been unemployed for six months or longer, it's just that much tougher to get back into the workforce. And what that means is, it makes it -- you know, nothing hurts your savings more than being unemployed, because you have to tap that savings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: So they're living on their savings, T.J., and then at the same time it's harder for them to get a job because, say, they may have made more money or they may not have the skills for the new workforce. So they're really being hit hard. And another sort of scary statistic that I got from the AARP is, they said that older workers right now, T.J., are facing the single highest unemployment rate they have in this country since the 1940s -- T.J.
HOLMES: Oh, that is a tough picture. Running out of money. Millions going to be hitting the age. And 10 percent unemployment just about.
HARLOW: Right.
HOLMES: What are they supposed to do? What are the other options?
HARLOW: You know, first of all, completely tap those IRAs and those 401(k)s. If you have a company matching your 401(k), you better be putting in all of that money to at least get the company match. The bottom line, according to retirement experts, is that it's all about saving. It's not just about investing, it's all about saving. If you put away 10 percent of your income at 20, 30 years old and on, you're going to be OK. If you wait till you're 40, 50, you have to put 20, 25 percent of your savings away.
Want to show you something quickly before we wrap up here. There is this very neat retirement calculator on CNNMoney.com under personal finance. I did it. It's never too early to start, T.J. You literally plug in your age, your salary and your savings. It's going to tell you how much you need to put away for retirement starting right now so you're not in the position that so many of these baby boomers are -- T.J.
HOLMES: Where is that again, CNNMoney.com, you said?
HARLOW: CNNMoney.com, personal finance tab right there. HOLMES: Personal finance.
HARLOW: Yes.
HOLMES: All right, good info. We appreciate you, as always, Poppy. Thanks so much.
HARLOW: You got it.
HOLMES: And to our viewers, be sure to tune in to "Your Bottom Line, Christine Romans, each Saturday morning, 9:30 Eastern Time. And then "Your Money" with Ali Velshi Saturdays at 1:00 Eastern and Sundays at 3:00.
Want to take a look now at some stories that are making headlines. Nearly 75 homes have been damaged in floods and mudslides in the southern California community of Highland by the latest storm. Hundreds of volunteers have rushed in to help clean up the mess, which could total more than $17 million according to San Bernardino County sheriff's department.
Also in the Northeast, it could take a few more days to clear the backlog of passengers at airports as frustrated holiday travelers battle the after effects of that massive blizzard. Air traffic is beginning to get back to normal today in some spots but the storm has caused about 10,000 flight cancelations since Christmas Day, including more than 1,300 yesterday alone.
Also, a rescue operation was delayed in Wayne, Michigan, where two people are believed trapped in a building that exploded. Rescuers had to wait until the gas main that appeared to have caused the explosion was cut off. The city's mayor says one person was rescued from that building.
Well, the president is on vacation. That means our Ed Henry is work. We've got the stakeout coming up next.
You see Ed standing by there. But after the break, we're going to have him explain why the president was a bit ticked off and also why Ed has ticked off the locals. You got to hear this coming up after the break. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Oh, goodness gracious. At least one thing can be said that's very different about President Obama's vacation in Hawaii this year. It actually has something to do with terrorism of all things. The "New York Times" reports that he's making sure a glitch last year is not repeated this time around.
Our senior White House correspondent Ed Henry is on stake-out in Honolulu. Ed, good to see you, as always. We'll get into how the president was a little perturbed about something that took place and also how you have kind of upset the locals, as well. We'll get to that in a second.
But, tell me, the President not too happy about something that happened on his last Hawaiian acceleration.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you mentioned that "New York Times" story about the fact last year when there was that attempted terror attack by the underwear bomber on Christmas Day. The president was trying to get on a secure phone line to get to John Brennan, his counter terror advisor back in Washington. He got frustrated because the lines were not always clear. He had to go through an operator. So they've really beefed it up this year.
In fact, I did an interview yesterday with Ben Rhodes, one of the president's national security aides who said to me pretty much the same thing that "New York Times" is reporting today, which is look, he was not happy last year so they've beefed things up. And what Ben Rhodes says is that the beach house the president is renting now basically has the same kind of secure communications that the White House Situation Room has back in Washington. Phone lines, video lines, the president could sort of have a live hookup by video with his national security advisor, with the secretary of state, you name it.
But also really fascinating is at this hotel on Waikiki Beach, Ben Rhodes and other White House officials who are here, basically have the same hookup, as well, in a hallway just down from where I am. And the first tipoff I had, the fact that they had secure communications in this hotel was not just that there were these long cables running down this hotel hallway that otherwise looks pretty normal, you see these secure lines. But, secondly, there's a giant paper shredder in the middle of the hallway.
You've probably been to a lot of hotels on the road. There are not too many hotels I've seen, not too many Sheraton's, not too many Holiday Inn's that have a paper shredder in the middle -- and I've seen guys at all hours of the day putting through these papers after they've briefed the president by secure people or fax or whatever the case may be. Shredding paper. That's a pretty good tipoff that they've got pretty secure communications now and they've solved that problem, that thing the president was mad about last year, T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Our Ed Henry was on the case. Oh, so perceptive, as always. Noticing that the paper shredder does not belong in the hallway.
Ed, good stuff there.
Let's get to this other point. You are a guest of the people of Hawaii right now. So why are you taking your beef to the people of Hawaii? The local paper there -- the local paper -- you give the background a little bit and I'll fill in some holes here. But, again, kind of in the local paper talking about reports the being done and some of the shirts possibly that you're wearing and then you fire back at them.
HENRY: Well, you know, they're in part, the "Honolulu Star- Advertiser" is mad at you, T.J., and some of the anchors, because they're saying that when you introduce the live shots you talk about Hawaiian shirts and they prefer that they be called aloha shirts. So, you know, they're also going after you.
So I took to our blog -- CNN.com/1600report -- and basically said look the "Star-Advertiser" newspaper is dead to me and here's why. They went on the say certain unnamed TV correspondents are doing all of these reports in these aloha shirts full of fluff and that there's not a lot of substance.
Well, OK, look, the president's not doing a whole heck of a lot. I got to admit, there's not a lot of substance here, number one. But, number two, this is a newspaper that yesterday on the front page, the entire front page had one story -- it was about Ahi tuna. It wasn't exactly hard-hitting journalism.
HOLMES: It was an economic story, Ed.
HENRY: It was an economic story -- all right. Yes, all right. It was about the economy.
But then secondly, they took a pop at myself and some of my colleagues for not staying near, closer to the president. He's about 10 miles away in Kailua. And the reason for that is Kailua is a really small town. They don't have a giant hotel like they do here at Waikiki Beach, to handle the media, handle the White House staff, who as I noted are staying here.
And every day, a pool of reporters goes to Kailua. In fact, my colleague Swan Kai (ph), she's in that pool from CNN Today, over with the president while he's doing his workout. Again, there's not like major breaking news going on when the president lifts some weights or gets on the treadmill, but we're there in case, in all seriousness, some news does break out, like I mentioned, and you and I were talking about. Last Christmas Day we had that attempted terror attack. It's important for us to be here just in case.
Anyway, long story short, the editorial ended by saying, all is forgiven with the TV correspondents as long as we pay our bills at the hotel, buy a lot of stuff. And, look check there. We're going to pay our hotel, we're going to pay taxes. We bought plenty of stuff. So we're boosting the local economy. So no hard feelings from the paper. No hard feelings from me, either. I got the aloha spirit, man. Hang loose.
HOLMES: When do you leave Hawaii?
HENRY: I'm actually leaving tomorrow because I'm going to be anchoring "JKUSA" on Friday night. And so I'm going to leave you a tape for the Stakeout tomorrow if you're going to be there on business.
HOLMES: OK. I can't wait to see your Hawaiian -- oh, excuse me, your aloha shirt in that report tomorrow.
Ed, good to see you --
HENRY: My aloha shirt. I don't know if you saw the hula dance yesterday but the moves were pretty good. HOLMES: Yes. I won't sleep for days after seeing that video.
Good to see you, as always, Ed, my man. Take it easy. We'll talk to you again soon, buddy.
HOLMES: Coming up, it's the stuff of legends. Billy the Kid. He made his way, literally shot his way into the history books. He's been talked about in movies, in books, you name it. But now, one governor thinking about pardoning Billy the Kid. Why?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Happening right now. A new storm is drenching California. Communities still cleaning up from the floods and mudslide from last week. The state is putting out sand bags to try to divert water from the already damaged neighborhoods.
Also, air travel in the northeast is returning to a normal schedule somewhat today. But there's a backlog after almost 10,000 flights were cancelled since Christmas Day. There are more reports of travelers being stuck on planes and set upping for hours on the tarmac at JFK International, at the height of the blizzard.
Also at least one person has been rescued after a furniture store exploded this morning in Wayne, Michigan. Two more people are believed to be trapped. Authorities say the explosion was most likely caused bay natural gas leak.
Listen to this number -- 161 law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty as of Monday. We're talking about federal and local level. Now that number is up almost 40 percent from 2009, which had the lowest tally we've seen in 50 years, with about 117 deaths. Now mainly here traffic accidents are to blame for the deaths this year. But still, 60 officers were fatally shot, including this Georgia trooper Chadwick LeCroy. A gunman shot him twice in the face on Monday night during a traffic stop.
And right now, there's a debate going on, a very interesting debate, heated debate going on in New Mexico, about whether another cop killer should be granted a pardon. This cop killer didn't kill a police officer this year or last year or in the past 10 years. This was a long time ago in the old west, talking about 100 years ago. Billy the Kid. Legend has it that the time controversial gun slinger, killed some 21 men, including law enforcement officers. But historians say it's closer to maybe nine. But the New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has hinted since he was elected eight years ago, that he might grant the outlaw a posthumous pardon because of a promise supposedly made more than a hundred years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NEW MEXICO: I'm not going issue you a blanket pardon for Billy the Kid, because he did kill, for instance two deputies when he was escaping from the Lincoln County Jail. The issue is whether a predecessor of mine, Governor Lew Wallace who wrote Ben-Hur in effect kept his promise to pardon Billy, if Billy presented testimony on a murder case. That's the issue in the case of a sheriff named William Brady. So, you know, I'm looking at all the documentation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now, Billy the Kid was eventually convicted in Sheriff William Brady's death. He was sentenced to die for it, but as you heard, the Governor there explained, he escaped from jail in 1881, killing two deputies. Another sheriff, Pat Garrett, later killed Billy.
Some of Garrett's descendants oppose any pardon for Billy the Kid. Governor Richardson is going to decide, he says, by Friday the 31st. He has to make the decision then. That is when his term as governor ends.
Well, it is a country, you have been hearing a lot about as far as it being gripped in a drug war fueled by an endless supply of guns. At the same time, this country only has one gun shop. We'll take you there next as we go "Globe Trekking."
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HOLMES: Time now for us to go "Globe Trekking" and our first stop, Mexico. The government reports that nearly 12,500 people have been killed in drug-related violence this year. More than 30,000 have died in the drug wars since President Felipe Calderon took office four years ago, including 15 killed at a carwash back in October. You see some of these pictures here.
But Mexico, listen to this, has only one gun store in the entire country. That's in Mexico City. "The Washington Post" reports that it's operated and staffed by the Mexican military on a military base. To get inside, potential buyers must present a valid ID and pass through a metal detector, yield to a security wand and surrender cell phones and cameras.
But that's not all, listen to this. They also must submit references, present proof that their income has been earned honestly. Also, their record must be free of any criminal charges and their military obligations, if any, completed with honor.
The Mexican government says it's captured more than 93,000 weapons over the past four years and that 90 percent have been smuggled from the U.S.
Easy to see how this could happen. Compare Mexico's one gun shop to the more than 6,600 federally licensed firearm dealers in the U.S. At least 14 million guns are believed to have been sold in this country last year alone.
Well it has been called the number one sports moment of the 20th century. Coming up, we'll hear from the man behind "The Miracle on Ice."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: A bit of breaking information out of the sports world. The NFL says it will fine Vikings quarterback Brett Favre $50,000 for failing to cooperate with an investigation over whether he allegedly sent inappropriate messages and lewd photos to a New York Jets employee.
Commissioner Roger Goodell says he did not find that Favre violated policies relating to workplace conduct and also said that forensic analysis could not determine that it was in fact Favre who sent those questionable photos to Jenn Sterger. Goodell did, however, say that Favre was not candid during the investigation, so he notified the quarterback he was, in fact, being fined.
Well, in February 1980, the world was on edge. Fifty-two U.S. citizens had been taken hostage in Iran, and after the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan there was talk about a U.S. boycott at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. But then, "The Miracle on Ice" in the winter.
The U.S. Olympic hockey team took on the Soviet Union in the semi-finals of the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid. The opponent, the Soviet Union, the team that had won the Olympic gold every year since 1964, and the U.S. team amazingly beat the USSR, 4-3, a game that's officially been recognized as the number one sports moment in history.
Well, when is now the captain of that legendary team? He scored the winning goal and he talked to CNN's Alina Cho.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE ERUZIONE, CAPTAIN, "MIRACLE ON ICE" TEAM: Well, I think I remember most the atmosphere in the arena, the atmosphere in the locker room for us as a team enjoying it and really cherishing the opportunity we had to represent our country, to compete in the Olympic games.
And at the time, we had no idea what was going on around us. We had no idea the country was watching the way they were. And, you know, even 30 years later, somebody will come up to me a story about what it meant to them. It's still been a pretty special moment for a lot of people.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and I mean, I think we need to remind our viewers that this was so much more than a game, wasn't it? I mean, this was really -- I don't think it's an understatement to say this was freedom versus communism. This was just a little sliver of the Cold War being played out on a sheet of ice.
And did you feel that when you were playing the game?
ERUZIONE: Not really. I mean, we knew the atmosphere in the arena was patriotic and we knew as an Olympian it's such a great honor, like I said earlier, to represent your country. But to us it was a hockey game. It was an opportunity for us to capture one of the greatest medals you can achieve in sports and that's the gold medal.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: Eruzione says when he gets together with his teammates, they don't sit around and talk about the game. They actually just try to catch up, see what's going on in each other's lives. He says now he does motivational speaking, started a new company with some other Olympians.
Get a quick check now of some of the stories making headlines.
Air traffic in the northeast starting to return to normal schedule, but still got a backlog after almost 10,000 flights were canceled after a blizzard hit over the weekend. Some passengers were stuck on the tarmac for hours. New Yorkers also upset that many streets still covered in snow.
Well a military plane crash in Russia today killed the entire 12- member crew. It went down south of Moscow during a training exercise. Investigators say they've already found one of the plane's flight data recorders as they try to determine what went wrong.
Also, a salmonella recall involving cilantro and curly parsley has expanded. J&D Produce in Texas said it's concerned about cross contamination in its processing facility. Tests showed contamination in Michigan and Canada. So far, no reports, though, of anyone getting sick. The case is one of two apparently unrelated cases of salmonella contamination. A separate outbreak involving alfalfa sprouts has made about 100 people sick.
Well they were rescue victims and boy they're heroes now, aren't they? We'll look at the incredible experiences the Chilean miners have had following their ordeal.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN ALL-PLATFORM JOURNALIST: I'm Patrick Oppmann in Seattle, Washington and the story I covered in 2010 that left the biggest impression on me took place 6,000 miles away from where I am right now, the rescue of 33 trapped miners in Chile.
I got to cover most of the men's long ordeal and it was truly amazing to see how they kept their spirits up, as did their family members, many of whom moved into Chile's Atacama desert to be closer to the rescue operation.
When those men finally were able to escape from that mine, it became a worldwide event. But in spite of their new found fame, the miners that I got to know said they really just wanted to return to the lives they led before the accident. And some of the miners actually told me they hope to go back to working in Chile's mines.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: As we told you earlier this week, in the 2.5 months since their heartbreaking rescue or breathtaking as well, the miners have been toast of the world, even appearing on CNN "HEROES TRIBUTE" on Thanksgiving night.
The 33 along with families and rescuers are going to Disneyworld next month for a six-day, all-expense paid vacation. They'll also serve as grand marshals of the Main Street parade.
Well, they're going to get their chance to go to Disney world, right? What about Disneyland? They actually stopped selling tickets at Disneyland. We'll explain why in today's "Odds & Ends."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: In our "Odds & Ends" today, check this out. A lot of people have called it the happiest place on earth. Well, for two straight days, Disneyland had to close the entrance turnstiles because the California park was filled to capacity. Park spokeswoman says the park stopped selling tickets just two hours after it opened. It's fairly typical for the park to be busy during the holidays this time of year but they don't usually have to call their doors that often or that early in the day.
Well a Michigan couple, they want a baby, they want a baby bad. So bad that they have put out sort of an ad campaign to do it. Wendy and Josh Roga, they have put up a billboard on Interstate 75 advertising their efforts to adopt. Also handing out flyers around town, even made some T-shirts. The couple said they signed up with an adoption agency and got approved, but we're told it could be years before they would get a child. So the couple hopes the billboard approach will help them find a birth mother quickly.
Also, in Portland, Oregon, if you ever needed a reason to move, this man has one. He says he is a prisoner in his own home after being burglarized about 10 times in the past 10 months. That's an average of, yes, one a month he is going to get robbed. Bob Fullerton is his name, he says he's lost everything from car parts to an expensive gun collection, and all of these break-ins totaling up to about $50,000 in losses. His home was most recently broken into on Christmas Eve.
