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Fending off Republican Challenges; Wildlife Mysteries in Arkansas; Raunchy Videos Sending Shock Waves Through Navy; Trending Online; Protesting Treatment of Wild Horses

Aired January 03, 2011 - 12:00   ET

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

JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour now. Let's take a look at the big stories.

Wildlife workers are trying to figure out what killed as many as 5,000 birds in Arkansas. At the same time, 100,000 dead fish have been found in the Arkansas River. The incidents are 125 miles apart. Authorities say they are not related.

Floodwaters cut off access to a city of 75,000 in eastern Australia today. Seasonal monsoon rains are behind the floods which have killed nine people and left thousands homeless in Queensland state. The flood zone, about twice the size of the state of California.

A week after New York's big blizzard, new questions about the city's response. Investigators are looking into reports four sanitation workers didn't plow the streets, but instead were drinking beer in their department car. Rumors have swirled that the city workers deliberately slowed snow removal to protest budget cuts.

Some of the theories about what killed the birds are related to weather, lightning strikes or hail. Let's check now with Chad Myers.

(WEATHER REPORT)

JOHNS: President Obama returns to Washington this week to face a new political reality -- a divided Congress. Republicans picked up 63 seats in the House. They'll have a 242-193 majority. The net gain in the Senate was six seats. Democrats will have a smaller majority, 53- 47 majority.

Let's bring in White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.

Suzanne, President Obama will be on guard right off the bat, fending off Republican challenges to his health care overhaul plan. And just how is he going to do that?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's really going to fight back here, Joe. We're talking about a New Year's resolution that really comes to defending his health care reform overhaul.

This is his signature legislation, and obviously they're looking at Republicans who either want to defund this through Congress, take away funding for particular aspects of it, or repeal it all together. Republicans have told us over the weekend, as a matter of fact, that they plan, at least on the House side, to do that, at least to try to do that on the House side -- not expected to happen on the Senate side -- before the president's State of the Union address by the end of January. And so they're clearly making a statement here that they're not happy with this.

The White House is going to be making equally a statement, the president coming out and speaking very forcefully about all the kinds of benefits, educating the American people about why this is actually good for them. So that is the strategy here.

And the other thing, Joe, that they're doing -- you being a lawyer yourself, or having a law degree -- the White House is going to be hiring some more lawyers to work on their behalf on all of these kinds of investigations and hearings that Congress is going to be holding in the next weeks and months ahead on various aspects that they think the administration has overreached when it comes to policies dealing with the EPA, when it comes to dealing with the criminal investigations and terrorists, those kinds of things. So this is a White House that very much is going to be on the offensive when the president comes back tomorrow afternoon -- Joe.

JOHNS: And we're already hearing from some congressional Republicans who are indicating that there are a lot of things they really, really, really want to get into on the investigation side.

But the big priority there at the White House for this president has to be the economy and how to get jobs going to get that unemployment rate down a little bit more. Can you talk a little bit about this priority and what the president thinks he can accomplish?

MALVEAUX: Sure. The president talked about it over the weekend, and he said essentially there are a number of things that he's going to be focusing on.

Number one is creating jobs. How do you do that? How do you create jobs?

A couple of things that he's looking at is reforming the tax code. This is something that perhaps some Republicans will be able to get on board with in some sort of bipartisan way.

He's also going to be looking at supporting alternative source of energy, innovation, investing, and education for the jobs that will exist, do exist, not the ones that have gone away and are not coming back. And finally, taking a look at government waste. What are some government programs?

You know the Republicans are calling for $100 billion in cuts immediately out of their own budget. What are the kinds of programs that could be slashed that are redundant or wasteful, or just plain aren't working, that the president can take a look at his administration and decide they can be eliminated?

The other thing, having taken all that into account, Joe, the president is going to emphasize that, look, Republicans, you're in charge of the House, there's going to be governing on both sides here. That means with responsibility comes some accountability here. Let's work together, and let's also take some responsibility for what we're going to see unfold in the next couple of months.

A very important couple weeks here as the budget, State of the Union, all starts to work its way out.

JOHNS: Potentially very, very nasty fight there as Republicans start talking about what needs to be cut, and Democrats start looking at programs, some of which are very important to some of their constituencies.

MALVEAUX: Absolutely.

JOHNS: Thanks so much, Suzanne Malveaux. And we'll stay in touch.

The fight to get the federal government to pay for health coverage for workers who rushed to Ground Zero on September 11th is now over. President Obama signed the $4.2 billion bill into law.

It guarantees coverage to those who helped clear the rubble and search for human remains. It also reopens the fund that provides economic relief to those harmed in the attacks. The bill was held up for years, with some Republicans suggesting it was creating a new entitlement program.

The bill is named after Joe Zadroga, the first person believed to have died from complications after responding to 9/11. Coming up in about 20 minutes, we will talk to Joe Zadroga's father about the emotional signing of the 9/11 bill.

Facebook just got a powerful friend, giving the company a dollar for every friend on the Web site.

First, though, our "Random Moment."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: Batman wears one. So do baseball catchers. Surgeons, too.

Now the "Random Moment of the Day" has discovered a cat that wears facemasks. That white thing on the chair with a cat is a bunny mask.

Mimi -- that's her name -- puts it on, tugging at it with her paw. Mimi even seems to mug for the camera. That's reason enough to make the cat in the hat a "Random Moment of the Day."

But look at that, and what you need to know about it is the person who shot that actually ran it in reverse. He put the mask on the cat and then the cat took it off, and he basically recorded it in reverse so it looked like the cat was putting it on.

So there you go.

Authorities in Arkansas are trying to solve a pair of wildlife mysteries. Testing begins today on some of the thousands of dead birds that fell from the sky in the town of Beebe. As many as 5,000 red wing blackbirds and starlings were found dead. The city has fired federal environmental services to pick up the dead birds.

About 125 miles away, officials are trying to figure out what killed about 100,000 fish near Ozark. The dead drum fish were found along a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River.

Ashley Blackstone of affiliate KTHV joins us now live from Little Rock.

Hello, Ashley.

ASHLEY BLACKSTONE, REPORTER, KTHV: Well, good afternoon to you.

A lot of new information that's coming in today. We learned this morning that the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission says that laboratories in Arkansas, Georgia and Wisconsin will be examining some of the carcasses of these birds. They were sent off to these labs today, so hopefully we should be able to get some results back in about a week.

Now, 3,000 birds fell in an area about a mile long and a half- mile wide. They basically blanketed streets, yards, and also rooftops. And officials say the flock could have been hit by lightning or high-altitude hail, or maybe even have been startled by fireworks.

Now, also new this morning, we have learned that this is actually not the first time that birds have dropped from the sky here in Arkansas. Lightning killed ducks in Hot Springs, Arkansas, back in 2001, and, also, hail knocked birds from the sky in Stuttgart, Arkansas, way back in 1973.

Now, again, like you mentioned, environmental workers finished cleaning up these birds yesterday. It took them about two days. They went door to door.

Again, though, starting today, those birds are being tested. So hopefully soon we'll be able to figure out this mystery as to what caused this bizarre scenario here in Arkansas.

JOHNS: Ashley Blackstone reporting from Arkansas.

Thanks so much for that.

Time to go "Cross Country" and check stories our affiliates are covering today.

A group of kayakers in Tomales Bay, California, catch a rare sight -- a juvenile gray whale swimming just yards from their boats. It's believed he broke off from a pod of gray whales migrating from Alaska to Mexico. A calf born in northern Colorado this weekend has rare black and white markings. He's part of an elite group known as panda cows. The farmer says this are only 24 more of these in the world.

And a new mom delivers twins in different years. Little Mason Karen Lewis (ph) was born at 11:59 p.m. Her brother, Aiden (ph), right at midnight, 2011.

Facebook has been friended in a big way. The nation's biggest social networking site has received a $500 million investment.

Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange with details.

Alison, how significant is this deal really?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Very significant, Joe.

You know what? Facebook is really playing with the big boys now.

The social networking site is now worth as much as $50 billion. This is one powerful company.

It's now bigger than many traditional media and tech companies that are out there. That's including Time Warner, eBay and Yahoo!

And would you know that there's no comment right now from Goldman Sachs and Facebook, the ones involved in this deal. But I'll tell you what -- maybe Mark Zuckerberg, the guy who started this whole Facebook, is probably chatting away with all his Facebook friends right now. He's probably really happy -- Joe.

JOHNS: He probably is.

But we also hear the SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission, is actually watching this deal very closely. Why are they so interested?

KOSIK: Oh, of course. And, you know, the SEC is really out there to watch for investors. And when a company grows and reaches a certain point like Facebook has, the SEC could wind up requiring it to publicly report what's going on with its books, with its finances.

And so far, Facebook has been flying under the radar as a private company, so it really doesn't have to report its earnings. It doesn't have to have those public conference calls, all of those things that these public companies that are listed here at the New York Stock Exchange would have to do.

But once Facebook hits 500 investors, if it even gets that far, even if it's still a private company, it must report its financial information. This latest investment by Goldman Sachs counts as one investor, bit the money is really coming from many clients. And what the SEC would want to do is make sure that all investors have all of the necessary financial information out there when they go ahead and actually put their money into Facebook in the first place -- Joe.

JOHNS: Well, you just told me something I didn't know about public and private companies. Thanks for that, Alison.

KOSIK: Glad I could help.

JOHNS: You bet.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

JOHNS: Great. Thanks so much.

Alison Kosik, at the New York Stock Exchange.

When we come back, we're going to take another look at those videotapes full of gay slurs, simulated sex acts in the Navy, an embarrassing situation now under investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: Raunchy videos are sending shock waves through the Navy. Images of sailors in sexual scenes and using anti-gay slurs were shown to the crew of an aircraft carrier during a war mission. The investigation centers on Navy Captain Owen Honors, who recently took command of the carrier.

Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr brought us up to date in the last hour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: After all the scandals in recent years, one more now. The U.S. Navy investigating the now-captain, now the number one man on board the USS Enterprise. He was the CO, the number two, back in 2006 and 2007, Captain Owen Honors, when he was responsible for making these videos which show a number of things we can't show you on TV -- some simulated sex scenes, some activities, some curse words. But we did clean up a bit of it so everyone can have a bit of a look at what we're talking about.

Watch and listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This evening, all of you bleeding hearts and you (EXPLETIVE DELETED) boy, why don't you just go ahead and hug yourselves for the next 20 minutes or so? Because there's a really good chance you're going to be offended tonight.

I just (EXPLETIVE DELETED) can't get that.

Finally, let's get to my favorite topic and something foreign to the gay kid over there, chicks in the shower. This is certainly the most popular video of any of the XO movie videos. It's also the one that's landed me with the most complaints.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: What was he thinking? Well, who knows really? But now the Navy investigating, and clearly not just this man's activities. But an aircraft carrier has even more senior officers on board. The captain at the time, admirals on board, Navy lawyers, sail with aircraft carriers. These videos were shown over the ship's video system, so an awful lot of people saw them.

Who spoke up? Who said something, or did all these senior people know about this and not say anything? And in that case, then what was the command environment on board the ship?

All of these things now being looked at. And, of course, it's so critical, because the Enterprise sales again for the war zone in just a few days, and Captain Honors currently remains in charge of the ship. We'll see how long that lasts -- Joe.

JOHNS: Got it.

So what is the Navy officially saying about this? And a related question is, how easy is it to get rid of a guy like this? Just, you're out, put somebody else up there?

STARR: Well, command in the U.S. military -- command, and especially of a ship of 5,000, is a privilege, not a right. So, of course he may just simply be removed from his command of the Enterprise. The Navy has every prerogative to do that.

What they said in the beginning was a bit odd. There was a statement issued when "The Virginia-Pilot," a local newspaper, first published the videos a couple of days ago, and it said that, "The videos were not created with the intent to offend anyone. The videos were intended to be humorous skits."

They were said to be training videos, but then the current Navy leaders saw the videos and knew that this was a problem, ordered an investigation, had a new statement which said, "Production of videos like the ones produced four to five years ago on USS Enterprise were not acceptable then and are still not acceptable in today's Navy. The Navy does not endorse or condone these kind of actions."

All indications, Joe, is that he was verbally reprimanded back when this happened, but what's at stake now, of course, is whether he is the appropriate person to be in command of an aircraft carrier of 5,000 people headed for a war zone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon there.

Taking a look at top stories.

Firefighters appear to have the upper hand on a six-alarm blaze that gutted this building in downtown Toronto. At least four firefighters injured. It took 125 firefighters and 32 fire trucks to get it under control.

Australia is still dealing with deadly flooding. Nine people have been killed across Queensland state since November, and they're bracing for more. Thousands are homeless in a flood zone that's larger than the state of Texas.

Wildlife workers are trying to figure out what killed as many as 5,000 birds in Arkansas. They also found 100,000 dead fish in a 20- mile stretch of the Arkansas River. Authorities say the two incidents occurred 125 miles apart and are not related.

As we told you earlier, President Obama has signed the 9/11 first responder health bill into law. The federal government will now guarantee health care for those who came running to Ground Zero.

Joining me from Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey, is Joseph Zadroga, the father of New York Police Detective Joseph Zadroga, who died from 9/11 service-related illnesses. The bill was named after him.

So thanks so much for joining us.

What went through your mind upon the signing of this bill considering so much water has gone over the dam?

JOSEPH ZADROGA, ADVOCATE FOR 9/11 FIRST RESPONDER BILL: Well, my concern at that time was that my initial thing was to get treatment for the first responders and compensation for the first responders, because prior to my son's death, the first responders weren't recognized as getting ill from working at the World Trade Center. And when he passed away, an autopsy was done on him, and doctors said it was 99.9 percent probability that he died from working at the World Trade Center.

And that's when the news and press took knowledge of the fact that he died from the World Trade Center, and my wife and I made a promise that we would become advocates for the first responders and get them health care and compensation so their families wouldn't have to go through what we went through for four years watching my son die slowly.

JOHNS: Yes. So now that it's enacted, I have to ask you, do you think there will be any lingering hard feelings, the residue, the fallout, in terms of sort of the emotional health of the families of people who worked at 9/11 because this thing seems to have just dragged out over years?

ZADROGA: Yes. Actually, it was over nine years from the day of the attack. And I can't speak for everybody out there, but I'm sure there will be some lingering thoughts about if they got the proper health care.

I even think about it that, if my son would have gotten the proper health care when he first got sick, which was just three weeks after the event, you know, he might even be alive today. Maybe not, but maybe he would have had that chance to be alive today.

JOHNS: And I guess the other question to you is if the United States is now in the position of doing the right thing for people in these kinds of situations, do you think, as some have argued, that had it opens up some broad new federal entitlement or program at a time of spending cuts in the government? Do you think that was the kind of priority the government should have set?

ZADROGA: Well, I don't think it was an entitlement. It's something that heroes deserve just as if they're in the military, when they're discharged from the military. If they're injured while in the line of duty, they're taken care of the rest of their lives. And that's what these guys were -- and women. They were heroes that went down there that day, and they knew that it was dangerous and they could possibly get sick, and yet they still stayed there.

So I don't think of it as an entitlement program. I think it's something that they deserve.

JOHNS: Joseph Zadroga, thanks so much for joining us. And all the best to you.

In parts of the South and Midwest, difficult cleanup is under way. Tornadoes that tour against the Ozarks on New Year's Eve killed at least seven people. The debris is scattered for miles. Dozens of homes flattened, thousands of others are without power.

In New York, piles of garbage are still sitting on the streets after last week's monster blizzard. Police say trash bags left on one curbside may have saved a man's life. The garbage apparently broke the man's fall after he attempted suicide by jumping from the ninth floor of a building in Manhattan.

Trash collection is expected to resume today.

So that's pretty incredible. You have a bunch of trash piled up on the streets of New York City, and it actually gets credit with saving a life.

Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm speechless.

JOHNS: I know. Who knew?

MYERS: The only great part is that it's been cold. So, you throw that trash out in July, and it sits out there for 10 days.

JOHNS: Yes. And the smell is tremendous.

MYERS: You don't want to go into the city, literally.

JOHNS: That's for sure.

MYERS: So, at least it has been slightly frozen.

OK. Here we go. What do we have going for today?

(WEATHER REPORT)

MYERS: Are you ready for this? Are you ready? In one hour and 31 minutes, we will be as close to the sun as we will get for the rest of the year.

JOHNS: But it's not going to be hot. How could that be? the closer to the fire you get, the more likely you are to get burned, I used to think.

MYERS: Oh! Oh! Well, the problem is our angle of the sun is too low. Our angle's like this. That's where the sun is.

JOHNS: I see.

MYERS: But it will be a hot day in South America and Australia because they're going to get all that close sun today, as well.

JOHNS: Yes. I like the part when we're tilted toward the sun so we can --

MYERS: Hold on, hold on, hold on -- let me get that for you. Right there. Now it's summer!

JOHNS: Now, that's what I'm talking about!

(LAUGHTER)

JOHNS: All right.

MYERS: Talk to you next hour.

JOHNS: Great. Great. Good work.

(LAUGHTER)

JOHNS: Good work, Chad Myers.

New year, no job. Indicators point to a hiring boom in 2011. We're talking live to CNNmoney.com's Poppy Harlow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: A lot of people are starting this year the same way they were starting last year, looking for work.

CNN's Poppy Harlow joining us now from New York. So Poppy, what is the outlook for jobs in 2011?

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: It's a whole lot better than 2010, I'll tell you that, Joe. Looking at the numbers here, what most economists are saying is we should see 2.5 to 3 million jobs created this year. That would be triple what we saw last year.

We had a good indicator last week. What happened is that those weekly unemployment claims came in for the first time in more than two years at below 400,000. So, that was a big boost for confidence there. And also what we're seeing is that job openings in this country rose 17 percent from June to October, so those are both very good forward looking indicators for us. Now, that said, we have to talk about the long-term unemployment crisis in this country that is far from over. The latest numbers showing us 15.1 million Americans - 15.1 million -- still unemployed. A lot of those long-term unemployed for more than six months or a year. And it is going to take years, even according to Fed chief Ben Bernanke, for the U.S. unemployment rate to get back to a more normal level that is around five percent.

On top of that, Joe, most economists that you ask say, look, unemployment in this country is going to hover or be above nine percent for a very long time. I want you to take a quick listen to the chief economist of Standard & Poor's and his take on unemployment heading into the new year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM STOVALL, STANDARD &POOR'S EQUITY RESEARCH: Basically you could call it a half-speed recovery. Our feeling is that we'll continue at that half-speed rate, mainly because unemployment is likely to stay above nine percent through the middle of 2012.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Above nine percent until the middle of 2012. That's a long ways away, especially for people suffering without jobs right now. Joe, on Friday morning this week, we are going to get that all- important December jobs report. What's expected, 135,000 jobs will be added. That's a good thing. A lot better than the November number.

But the unemployment rate, Joe, is still going to stay, it's expected at 9.7 percent. And I think the fundamental problem here is that so many companies have learned to operate very, very efficiently, do exactly what they did before with fewer workers, so will they hire in the way they did before the recession? That's really the big sticking point, Joe.

JOHNS: So talking about modest job growth at best.

HARLOW: Right.

JOHNS: The other question, though, is you can't imagine that if there was going to be an influx of new hiring, it's not going to be across the board, is it? There are certain sectors where you'll see more job growth and others you're not.

HARLOW: That's exactly right. And that's what we see through the recession. So, the big hiring areas, you've heard this before. Education, we always need teachers, professors and also the health care industry. That has been booming. You're going to see hiring month after month in those sectors.

This is changing in 2011. It is expected that that there will be more manufacturing jobs. As people get careers, they're going to buy washing machines. They're going to buy cars. They're going to buy things they couldn't before, so manufacturing should pick up. That will be a bright spot. But what one economist tells us won't pick up is state and federal jobs. We know how much states are facing budget cuts right now. That's where you'll see not only no job growth, but probably more jobs lost.

And what CareerBuilder is saying is the areas that are going to see the most growth in 2011 are the following. Sales obviously, I.T., information technology, customer service, engineering and again, they say health care. And the government is projecting 50 percent growth when you look at home health aids and 22 percent growth when you look at nurses. And those numbers are by 2018.

So, if you're looking for a job, looking to go back to school, if you have a college degree, you have a much better, much better chance of getting a job. Health care is really, again, just like 2010 the industry to be in. But Joe, I will tell you, we've looked a lot at people over the age of 55, people that are trying to work through retirement. If they have been unemployed for quite a while, they're having the hardest time of anyone right now trying to get a job in the new year.

JOHNS: And it continues that way. A lot of people think because you've been out of work for six months, you've already lost certain skills. The market's kind of passing you by. A very scary situation.

Poppy Harlow, thanks so much for that great reporting. Looking into the job market for 2011.

HARLOW: You got it.

JOHNS: She was one of the Hollywood original divas. We'll get new details about health worries for Zsa Zsa Gabor.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: Stories making headline in the entertainment world. Going to get you caught up now.

Zsa Zsa Gabor's representative says the actress will have to have part of her leg amputated. She has cancerous lesions below the knee. The 93-year-old actress has been confined to a wheelchair for the last eight years.

Chuck Barry doing better today after giving the world today after giving the world a scare this weekend. The rock'n'roll pioneer collapsed during a concert in Chicago. Barry is 84. He's recovering at home in Missouri.

Lindsay Lohan is just hours away from the first day of the rest of her life. At least that's how she phrased it on Twitter. Lohan is scheduled to be released Tuesday from Betty Ford Rehab Center in Palm Springs.

Want information on everything breaking in the entertainment world? Watch "Showbiz Tonight" at 5:00 and 11:00 on HLN.

He's had a few miscues and misunderstandings. Embattled Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele fights to keep his job.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: The battle for chairman of the Republican National Committee is the focus of our political update this hour. Mark Preston, part of the Best Political Team on Television, live from the National Press Club in Washington.

Mark, we talk a lot about Michael Steele on TV. He's sort of been a continuing theme. But the question is, should people care? Does this really matter to the average Joe on the street? In Iowa or wherever.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: You know, Joe, it does matter. And arguably, this is the most important political story of the next couple weeks and has been for the past couple of months after the election. And the reason being is that the next chairman of the Republican National Committee, Joe, is going to be charged with doing two things. One, raising upwards of $425 million to try to help defeat President Barack Obama in 2012.

In addition, it has to be the person -- has to be in charge of attacking President Obama. Republicans on Capitol Hill, and certainly those (INAUDIBLE) Republicans who have just taken back the majority in Congress, cannot seem to be too partisan. They can't seem to be obstructionist, and they can't seem to be training all their political fire on President Obama.

And then, of course, Joe, you have those candidates who are running for the Republican presidential nomination. They will be focused on attacking one another. So the next chairman of the RNC, Joe, will be responsible with bringing together what has been a disparate party at times, those Tea Partiers, the regular RNC officials, the RNC people, bring them all together under one tent. So a very big job, Joe.

JOHNS: Yes, and this guy is going to have a very tough time, too, is he not. There is some reporting out there, I think Politico and some others, suggesting a majority of RNC members are opposed to him. So does he have any chance at all of win?

PRESTON: Well, I think it will be an uphill battle for Michael Steele to win another two year term. Look, he came in two years ago promising to try to bring the party together. He said he would reach out to minority communities. He would really try to help expand the Republican Party. Some would say that he's done a terrible job leading the Republican Party and, in fact, Republicans did so well despite what he's done. He's very gaffe prone. He has said thing has have upset party leaders. He's not considered a very good fund-raiser. We should expect to hear from him, Joe, in the next 15 or 20 minutes, defend himself from his critics.

Now, there are four other people that are running for chairman. They'll be on the stage right behind me. They'll be presenting their plan about what to do. One of them is the Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus. He was a close ally of Michael Steele, Joe. However, he has parted ways with Michael Steele. He is now challenging him. So over the next couple of hour, we'll see what happens here at the National Press Club. But again, one of the most important political stories certainly of today and for the next couple weeks.

JOHNS: Great, thanks so much for that, Mark Preston. And we want to keep in touch with that story. You're right, that's one of the big ones.

For the latest political new, go to cnnpolitics.com.

Sitting in their trucks accused of sipping cold beers instead of cleaning up snow. Now four New York sanitation workers could be in a lot of hot water. We're taking a look at what's trending.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: It's been two weeks now since a "Spider-Man" stunt man was injured after falling more than 20 feet during a Broadway performance. Christopher Tierney's father tells CNN his son will be released from rehab this week and return to his home in New Hampshire. The 31-year- old suffered several broken bones and a skull fracture. But his father says Tierney is anxious to get back to the show.

If it's trending online, we're tracking it. CNN's Sandra Endo is here with the web's top stories.

What are you looking at, Sandra?

SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Joe, a lot is trending on cnn.com today. And one of them is really drawing the outrage of a lot of people that were caught up in the blizzard in New York City. Four people were supposed to be managing the snow cleanup effort after the blizzard hit New York City last week, but now four New York City sanitation supervisors are under investigation, Joe, for allegedly buying beer and sitting in their car instead. Can you imagine? All that snow falling --

JOHNS: No.

ENDO: Yes, not cleaning up the mess while local New --

JOHNS: Well, you know, the other thing -- the other thing is, we had people talking about supervisors suggesting, oh, don't work to hard because, you know, we want the major to take some heat over these --

ENDO: Right, and let's collect the OT, right?

JOHNS: Yes. It's like "Animal House" up there.

ENDO: I know.

JOHNS: Maybe it's (INAUDIBLE).

ENDO: Well, now there's an investigation, Joe, and a New York City local paper says that those four sanitation supervisors were just saying that their car ran out of gas. I don't know. They're going to take the videotape, I think, at a local store to see if they were the ones, in fact, buying the beer. But actually this story, yes, it's so amazing. All these comments were getting on cnn.com. Take a look at some of them.

Turtle995 writes in saying, "sounds like a cool job. Are they hiring? Where do I send my resume?"

JOHNS: Yes, that's right. Yes, great work if you can get it.

ENDO: Yes, exactly. Another from bailoutsos. "If the beer was from a local microbrewery, well, they were just supporting the local economy."

JOHNS: Oh, that's hilarious.

ENDO: A lot of (INAUDIBLE) -- yes, probably New Yorkers out there commenting and weighing in.

And, Joe, yes, another one people just can't get enough of is this mystery. Thousands of birds falling dead from the sky in Arkansas.

JOHNS: Yes, that's right out of a Hitchcock movie.

ENDO: It's trending on cnn.com.

JOHNS: That's right out of a Hitchcock movie.

ENDO: Yes, it's really eerie. I know, Joe. And this happened on New Year's Eve, of all times.

JOHNS: Creepy.

ENDO: And here's some comments on cnn.com. Here's one of them. "What made thousands of birds fall from the sky? I think you're searching for the word gravity." Another writes in, "I'm fairly certain this is either a biblical or UFO event. There's no other explanation."

JOHNS: It's like, well, when you think about it, though, I mean it's -- how many plagues can you have in one area? They had the -- they had this, they had the tornado, they had the fish (INAUDIBLE).

ENDO: Yes.

JOHNS: All right around the first of the year, you know.

ENDO: Yes, 100,000 fish. And actually one more comment we can get to talking about those dead fish, as well. Take a look. "Dead fish issue. It either means the end of the times is upon us or Ohio State is going to beat Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl tomorrow night."

JOHNS: Oh, oh, oh, yes, right, or the Egyptian plagues are upon us. I don't know.

ENDO: Yes.

JOHNS: All right, well, thank you so much, Sandra Endo. And, you know, I'm going to take that comment about Ohio State under advisement. I'm sort of a fan.

ENDO: All right. You got it.

JOHNS: You bet.

The government's wild horse roundup out west has animal activists fuming. CNN's John Zarrella heads to Nevada to see what's going on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: Animal rights activists are outraged over methods the federal government is using to round up thousands of wild horses. CNN's John Zarrella headed to Carson City, Nevada, to see it for himself.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Joe, if you take a look at the Nevada state quarter, what's on that quarter? A wild mustang. There are actually more wild horses in Nevada than any other state. But the wild horses have become the center of a controversy between activists and the federal government.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA (voice-over): There is no Secretariat, no Sea Biscuit, no Black Beauty. Here they have no names. None needed. In their eyes, you see who they are -- rugged, powerful, independent. They are the wild mustangs of the American west.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So out here, you hear it all the time, a cowboy will say, you know, the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man.

ZARRELLA: Woven generations ago into the fabric of this land, they've become the focus of lawsuits, even protests as far away as New York.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Help save America's wild horses.

ZARRELLA: The horses are at the center of a tug of war between the U.S. government, chasing them down with helicopters, and animal rights groups who want it stopped.

RICHARD "KUDO" COUTO, ANIMAL RECOVERY MISSION: The roundups of the wild horses and burros in the United States is a true holocaust of the animal world.

ALAN SHEPARD, NEVADA BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT: We can't let one, say the horse, impact everybody else by taking all the feed, all the water, all the -- do damage to that habitat.

ZARRELLA: The disagreement is clear-cut. The Bureau of Land Management, BLM, is charged with caring for and manage nearly 40,000 horses and burros roaming on 26 million acres of the west. But while this federal land, your land, was set aside for the horses, they don't have free reign. The land is considered multiuse.

SHEPARD: Wildlife, life stock, recreationists, mining interests, whatever.

ZARRELLA: The BLM insists it must reduce herd sizes because the land can't support the numbers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This ain't Kentucky blue grass.

ZARRELLA: So it holds roundups. Last year, the goal, remove 12,000 horses. That's right, 12,000. And taken to holding pens.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is our land. We want the horses on here, most of us.

ZARRELLA: Armed with cameras and recorders, the activists document what they see as brutal round-ups. Here, a helicopter chases one single burro. Eventually knocking it over. It staggers off.

Here you're looking at steam rising from the backs of chased down, exhausted horses. The BLM says less than 1 percent of the animals die in these round-ups. Activists say that's 1 percent too many.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA: The Bureau of Land Management insists it has absolutely nothing to hide at these round-ups. We went along on one of those round-ups and tomorrow we'll show that to you and you can be the judge of whether they have anything to hide.

Joe.

JOHNS: John Zarrella.

That's it for me. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ali Velshi.