Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Doctors' Update on Victims; Surviving a Brain Wound; Shooting Suspect Due in Court; Hot Off The Political Ticker; You're Hired
Aired January 10, 2011 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour right now. Let's check the big stories in the CNN NEWSROOM. Doctors for Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords plan to update us on her condition momentarily. In fact, they're doing it right now. Let's head to Tucson.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three other divisions within the department were put to task a couple of days ago, the Division of Trauma and Dr. Peter Reed, and the Division of Neurosurgery and also the Division of Asthma Surgery. We were put to task. We didn't ask for it, obviously, but I think when it happened we were ready. And we were able to deliver, in a way that is going to make our community and the state proud.
I'm happy to report that the victims are doing better. You will hear in a few minutes from Drs. Rhee and Lemole as to the exact medical condition of the victims. We have discharged two patients. Only two remain in the ICU. The rest of the patients are -- the remaining patients are on the regular hospital wards.
I also want to take the opportunity to make clear that Dr. Rhee and Dr. Lemole are the official spokespersons for the University of Arizona and the university medical center. All their designees, we observed yesterday that across the nation, many experts have been asked their opinions, and we appreciate that.
But, we cannot really go into speculation about long-term outcome and so forth and the only officials words are coming from Drs. Rhee and Lemole. As things seem to have stabilized we will have another press conference on Wednesday, 10:00, and here. If there are any changes, better or worse, we will inform you again.
We are making sure that we provide you with all the information. We're very open, very transparent. I would like to thank the many, many helpers, volunteers that have come to give us a hand, show us support. I would also like to thank the entire organization that we are serving for the support, and as mentioned, I am very happy to tell you that things have stabilized, and are looking better.
We'd like Dr. Rhee now to inform you of the medical condition of the patients.
DR. PETER RHEE, CHIEF OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE: Thank you, Doctor. Good morning to everyone. I'd like to make a couple of quick comments before I get into the nitty-gritty about what's going on. We all know that we can't undo the events that have occurred. However, the city of Tucson is obviously very heavily affected, and I'm proud to be a citizen of Tucson, as we've seen the amount of care and thoughts that have been coming forward, it's been tremendous and we're very proud of that.
The community, I think, is pulling through, through this very well. There have been tremendous amounts of offerings, and givings. A lot of food being throughout to the hospital, Chick-fillet even came out there a few minutes ago, and those types of activities are very well appreciated.
Right now, we have eight patients in the hospital, as the doctor also mentioned. Two of them remain in the ICU, however only one of those two is in critical condition. We have five people still in serious condition at this time and so that remains two people in good condition.
There's still some further subsequent surgeries that still need to be undertaken, and at this phase, you know, as far as putting things back together from a surgical point of view, that's all been done very well without too much of an issue. But very important part of trauma and trauma care and trauma system will now take over, which will discuss the person and the patient as a whole.
This is a time period when emotional issues are very important for us. So we're accustomed to taking care of things such as PTSE or post dramatic distress syndrome. There are things that are done with compassion and also there are issues with depression that take place. We have psychiatrists in house, social workers, the best ones in the country here, but we also have city and county facilities and resources, including victim witnesses and victim services from Pima county.
That's the part that we're going really be concentrating on. Sometimes it's not as news worthy, but is vitally important to take care of these patients through the spectrum of trauma care. I know that we all have a lot of interest on one particular patient, and for that I will let Dr. Lemole, the neurosurgeon, primary caregiver for that, give you an update. Michael?
DR. MICHAEL LEMOLE, CHIEF OF NEUROSURGERY, UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Thank you. Before I go into the details, I would like to again recognize the outpouring by the community. I was personally touched, my wife brought my children by to the memorial, and really, the looks on the children's faces said it all.
And it really spoke to the way the community has come together and the pain it is feeling, but the way it's trying to heal. So with that in mind, let me just say that with regard to Congresswoman Giffords' recovery, at this phase in the game, no change is good and we have no change. That is to say, she's still following those basic commands.
On top of that, the CAT scans are showing that there is no progression of that swelling. We're not out of the woods yet. That swelling can sometimes take three days, or five days to maximize. But every day that goes by, and we don't see an increase, we're slightly more optimistic. And so, with that in mind, I think we are going to proceed over the next few days to see how she does.
RHEE: OK, with that we'll try to keep it quite and short. Michael we'll take a few minutes of questions and answers for you at this point.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you tell us more about the commands that she's following? What the interactions are?
LEMOLE: What I don't want to do is get into the specifics, but as I said before when I say someone follows simple commands. It could be showing us their thumb, perhaps two fingers, gripping a hand, wiggling toes. All of those are simple commands that she can do, even though, for example, she has a breathing tube in place that would preclude more complex communication.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we've heard that she put up two fingers, is that true?
LEMOLE: Again, I don't want to go into her specifics.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Could you quantify the amount of swelling in the brain? And could you talk a little bit more any measures you all are taking to get that --
LEMOLE: So let me address a couple things there. First of all the way we do it is not really quantified. It's a qualitative assessment between the CAT scans to see if we see a change. Fortunately we do not.
As far as intercranial pressure is concerned, because there is a segment or a window of skull missing, the brain is relaxed. There is no need to put that pressure monitor in especially because she's doing so well.
If she weren't doing so well, of course, we would have that. But we haven't needed to put that monitor in and therefore we no longer need to treat with those medications for that pressure because we don't think there's an issue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doctor -- you gave us the general idea of the basic commands you're giving her. Is it important, twofold sense, one that she's responding to you, the cognitive understanding she has, and the ability to actually move certain body parts or are all these important in what you're looking for?
LEMOLE: Absolutely. It implies that not only are those centers of the brain working, but they're communicating with one another.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And for follow-up on the swelling. You say that each day that goes by, normally, when you have swelling are the first days more likely to have swelling than second, third, fourth?
LEMOLE: Swelling typically peaks around the third day. I've seen it go out to as far as 10 days, but most often in the third day. That's why we're much, much more optimistic and we can breathe a collective sigh of relief after about the third or fourth day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you say --
LEMOLE: We're getting close.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is she on a ventilator so she can't speak. Do you know if she would be able to speak?
LEMOLE: We can't say at this time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doctor, how often during the day, how many times do you reduce her sedation?
LEMOLE: There's no absolute number. We do that several times a day. We like to have the physicians around for that, but the nurses are also assessing her even with the sedation on and we're expecting to see other signs and reactions. So, there's no absolute set number.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- this is day three, so for today, what steps are you all going to be taking?
LEMOLE: The same steps we've been doing the last few days.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- can you go into that in more detail?
LEMOLE: The regular neurologic assessment, the evaluation, examination and the CAT scans which we're doing on a daily basis. At some point, we'll start to spread that interval out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To?
LEMOLE: To whatever is necessary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just a little quick clarification on the day. So what we do in surgery is we say she came in on Saturday so Sunday is post-op day one, and this is post-op day two today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tomorrow.
LEMOLE: Tomorrow is day flee.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're talking about the importance of the psychological (inaudible) what's - is there a way to tell?
LEMOLE: Are you talking about the congresswoman or the other patients?
At this point, we can't measure psychologic function nor will we try. I think the important thing is to make sure that the needs of the family are met and to make sure we're starting to anticipate needs down the road. Getting our crew involved to make sure she's starting to think about rehabilitation and physical therapy and all those sorts of things. But again, it's a little premature to go into the specifics for her. I think what Dr. Rhee was mentioning, not only the psychological health of the victims, their families, but also of the care providers. This has had a tremendous emotional impact on all of us.
RHEE: So, without getting too specific, we've had a whole variety of them, but we have had people who had an operation in the abdomen. We had one patient we had to look around the heart to make sure that wasn't injured, as well. But we've had vascular injuries, we've had orthopedic injuries, we've had extremity injuries, as well.
And also, some of these people who had severe torso-type injuries, their social being is also injured, as well. As their family members, some of their family members have deceased and they're going to go through the PTSD phase at this time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you confident they're all going to survive?
RHEE: Well, survive, yes, from a physical standpoint, but we've got to bring them back as a whole human being. That's what we try to concentrate on a trauma center. More than if you're just alive or dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dr. Rhee, just for point of clarification. You mentioned there are eight in the hospital, but you said two are in ICU. One in critical, and then you said five are in serious condition, and good condition. Correct me if I'm wrong.
RHEE: Yes. I think that was, I was counting on my fingers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So how many for sure?
RHEE: OK. So, yes there are two in the ICU, and there are six on what we call ward status. Eight patients total. One of them remains in critical condition. Five remain in serious condition and then there are two left which make it great and fair, right? That's eight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will any of these patients be having further surgeries or be discharging soon?
RHEE: Yes, many of them will have subsequent surgeries. Orthopedic surgeries, and then some of the patients had compartment syndromes and vascular repairs so that needs follow-up surgery later this week, as well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you do about Congresswoman Giffords' vision and where the bullet entered her head?
LEMOLE: As far as functionally assessing it, not in a position to do that at this time. What I will say is as I said earlier the track of the bullet is higher, away from the base of the skull where those nerves enter and exit, so that's a positive thing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So where it entered doesn't necessarily affect her vision?
LEMOLE: It could. It could. But, when we think of vision, we think about not only the nerve to the eyeball, and then the fibers, if you will, that go back to the part of the brain that processes all of that, but, the higher the trajectory, the hope -- the better the hope is that that will not be affected.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And have you seen any movement from the lower half of her body?
LEMOLE: Again, I don't want to go into those specifics regarding her case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you say whether she's progressed in her simple commands or are you asking more complex commands of her?
LEMOLE: We haven't moved to that stage yet. That kind of -- that kind of assessment would come, for example, when we remove the breathing tube.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you tell us, has she been able to visually recognize anyone? Have you seen a smile on her face at any point when she -- when you tell her what's going on?
LEMOLE: I've not witnessed that. But, without going into the details, sometimes that's very hard to do in this setting. The whole apparatus of the breathing tube sometimes precludes a lot of that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any recognition that she's had?
LEMOLE: Without -- without being able to fully uncover someone's face you can't really notice whether or not they recognize things at times.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How is the family doing?
LEMOLE: The family's doing very well and obviously they appreciate all the condolences and the well-wishers who are supporting them at this time in the community and the media.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When this is all over, how close to a normal life --
LEMOLE: Again, I'm not going to speculate on that. I've seen the full range of possibility.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How long will it be --
RHEE: It depends how long, when Michael's going to let me pull it out. No, we like to -- at this phase things are going very well. So, typically, about four or five days, when all the swelling is going to -- the worry about the swelling has gone.
And again the swelling in this situation is not typical of most swelling in traumatic brain injury, because Dr. Lemole did a craniotomy where he took off the skull. So he's got plenty of room to swell. In blunt traumas and other traumas where the skull is intact is where we really get concerned. The pressure is a little bit off of everybody, no pun intended here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How often do you update her family, and are you allowed to sit in there with her?
LEMOLE: Yes, the family's with her constantly and we update them all the time, and provide whatever needs that they have. So we concentrate on the full spectrum of trauma care here. It's not just for the congressman. We do this for everybody.
We've been getting, you know, we've been getting contacts from not just everybody in the city, but also nationwide, and also worldwide. So I just again want to take an opportunity to thank everybody who are wishing us well in this endeavour and sticking with us through this whole process and thanks for caring. With that, thanks, everybody. We'll talk to you later.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe before we quit there are two or three other announcements. We are planning to have the next press conference on Wednesday at 10:00. However -- however, if there is any change in the condition of any of the victims, we will have another press conference tomorrow.
So, if you want information about what we will release tomorrow, go either into the UMC, or the Arizona Health Science web sites. We will make announcements there. I also will take the chance to thank on behalf of Dr. Shelton, the president of Arizona, Mr. Burns, the CEO of Arizona Health Care to thank everyone from across the country who have supported us. Within the state, we like to thank the governor, Governor Brewer, for support --
COSTELLO: We're going to step away from this news conference right now, but you see there is some hope and optimism still attached to Congresswoman Giffords' condition. We're going to get into that a little more.
But we have a bit of breaking news to tell you about this from our Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve. As you know in the suspect's home there was a safe and letters and envelopes scattered all around the house. We have more information on what was written on some of those envelopes found in Jared Loughner's house and I'm going to read you what the latest is.
This is from a law enforcement source. He says the writing on the envelope found it in a safe, in the Loughner home, was scattered and everywhere. He said there was more than what was included in the affidavit yesterday and although he didn't give us the precise wording, he did believe there were additional pertinent documents beyond the envelope and the letter from Giffords' office also mentioned in the affidavit.
The source also confirms that Loughner met Giffords at an event in 2007. He asked her a question and wasn't happy with her response. He never let it go said the source. It kept festering. The source did not know the nature of the question. We're going to get to Jeanne Meserve as soon as she becomes available because of course, she's still working her sources when she comes up live -- when she's able to come up live, of course, we'll bring her to her.
Right now we want to go back to Tucson at CNN's Susan Candiotti. She's live outside the hospital right now plus CNN Ted Rowlands, he's live outside of the courtroom where the suspect Loughner is expected to make an appearance later this afternoon.
We'll check in with both of them in a minute as well. But I want to start with Dr. Jonathan Slotkin in Washington. He's a neurosurgeon at the Washington Hospital Center.
Doctor, again, thanks for joining us. As you were listening to that press conference, what went through your mind? Because, it sounded so hopeful.
DR. JONATHAN SLOTKIN, NEUROSURGEON, WASHINGTON HOSPITAL CENTER: Yes, there were a couple of things I think we picked up today that were quite important. The first is that we learned that the trajectory of the bullet was relatively high. So that would be a trajectory like this from back to front, rather than lower and that can possibly be very encouraging.
That could possibly spare some of the visual or sight control in the back, and also could possibly spare some of the speech control that would be lower down. And he did emphasize that on two different mentions and I think that's the most positive thing that I heard today. The other thing --
COSTELLO: They also talked about the swelling and the swelling was going down and maybe it will be completely gone in three to five days.
SLOTKIN: Yes. They talked about the two major ways that you follow swelling. One is the most important, which is how is she doing and the second is, what is the CAT scan look like? And on both accounts they seemed to tell us that she's relatively stable.
Now, they did point out when they did the accounting, we're really at 48 hours now. The peak swelling period is usually about three days. So we are not all the way out of the woods with the peak swelling right now.
COSTELLO: So, how optimistic should we be?
SLOTKIN: I would use the term that they have been using, which is cautiously optimistic. The fact that she's following commands at this early stage is extremely promising, but we have some challenges coming up over the next week to 10 days.
A major one's going to be getting the breathing tube out. You walk a balance between wanting to leave it in long enough, that she doesn't have problems with breathing if you took it out. But if you leave it in too long you could end up with pneumonia, which could lead to its own significant problems. COSTELLO: Of course it's good she's young, she's relatively young. She's 40 years old. She's healthy. She's not a smoker. All of those things help, right?
SLOTKIN: Yes. Her age, in the low 40s, is extremely helpful in this situation. The fact that she does not smoke, certainly decreases her risk of pneumonia and also the fact that she's not obese.
I think the biggest things that matter here so far, though, are the rapid surgery that they performed, which was within 38 minutes, they're saying. That would be an extremely rapid turn-around time and for everything I've heard here, this has been a textbook A- plus set of care that these doctors have provided.
COSTELLO: Dr. Slotkin, thanks for joining us this afternoon. We appreciate it.
SLOTKIN: Thank you.
COSTELLO: As I said, we're trying to get our Homeland Security reporter up on the screen for you, Jeanne Meserve. We also have other reporters standing by live, Susan Candiotti in Tucson. Also Ted Rowlands who is awaiting that court appearance by the suspect. We're going to take a quick break. We've have them all for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords still in critical condition following Saturday's shooting in Tucson. We expect -- actually we just had an update from her doctors. That happened.
There was a sense of optimism from her doctors. They said the swelling in her brain is going down and she's still showing signs of communicating in some physical way with doctors that also is good news.
Want to take you back live to Tucson and CNN's Susan Candiotti. Ted Rowlands is in Phoenix, by the way. He's standing by the courthouse where the suspect will appear later this afternoon. Let's start with you, Susan, because you found out some other intriguing information about the suspect. Tell us what it is.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jeanne will be reporting on that to a little -- further in a little while. But we also are learning before that, some of the information that was contained in the complaint up to now, we knew that there was some writing in that was found in the house, with him talking about assassination, you know, I'm ready, Giffords' name was on some documents.
But now Jeanne has learned that they're learning additional information that seems to indicate more about him specifically targeting her and she'll be able to provide that as an update. But this will become very important information for authorities, obviously, as they try to piece together this case.
Up until now they've been interviewing a lot of different people, trying to find out who knew him, whether he was working by himself. They have not been able to find any kind of evidence of that as of now even talking with extremist groups to see if he might be connected to them. They have denied it.
And so, for now, it's a matter of piecing together the time line of how this all came together and we'll learning about more of that, of course, as time goes on. There's a lot of work to be done, Carol.
COSTELLO: Absolutely. Ted Rowlands, are you there?
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
COSTELLO: OK, you're in Phoenix now, awaiting this court appearance. Tell us how it will go down.
ROWLANDS: Well, we're expecting it to be fairly short. Loughner is expected to appear at 2:00 p.m. local time here so about less than four hours from now, at the courthouse in Phoenix rather than Tucson. They moved his initial court appearance to Phoenix. It's unclear where the rest of the proceedings will take place whether it will be in Tucson or here in Phoenix.
He will be read his charges by Judge Lawrence Anderson. He's facing five criminal charges, the attempted murder of a member of Congress, two first degree murder charges against federal employees, John Roll, a federal judge, and Gabe Zimmermann, who was a member of Congresswoman Giffords' staff and then two attempted murder charges in the shooting of Ron Barber and Pam Simon, other staffers of Giffords.
Now what we're expecting is the reading of the charges and they'll also set a detention hearing, which is basically a bail hearing and a preliminary hearing date. He will be represented, we understand, it will be confirmed later this afternoon. He'll be represented by Judy Clark. This is the public defender that came in and defended Ted Kaczynski, the unabomber. So she has experience in a high profile, long case.
We expect that she will be by his side today in court, Carol. One of the interesting things that we'll be looking for is whether or not he says anything because up until now, according to local law enforcement, he hasn't said a word. He's invoked his Fifth Amendment rights whether or not he'll say anything in court, we'll have to wait and see.
He does have a history of disrupting his classroom at the community college that he attended. A courtroom and a classroom are very similar. Whether we'll have an outburst or whether he'll be silent we'll have to wait and see. It will be one of the things we'll be looking for when he does enter the courtroom for the first time.
COSTELLO: This is just initial appearance, though. He's not required to speak, is he? ROWLANDS: Well, typically in an initial appearance the judge will ask him, after he reads the charges, do you understand the charges? So there is usually a little bit of back and forth between the judge and the defendant.
And typically the defendant will just nod or say yes, but it will be interesting to see if he even does that or if he'll just maintain his complete silence, which we've led to believe by local authorities that he's had from the moment that he's been arrested. He hasn't helped this investigation at all.
COSTELLO: I don't know how they enter the courtroom, how the suspects enter the courtroom there in Phoenix. But I would imagine there's going to be tight security.
ROWLANDS: Absolutely and it's already in force here. You can see the front door of the federal courthouse here in Phoenix, they've got dogs out, and a number of federal officers are here. They searched our satellite truck when we pulled up here. So security is extremely tight. He will not enter the courtroom.
He'll go underneath and enter from a back way so he won't have any visible -- the public will have no opportunity to see him. In fact, we won't have any opportunity to see him, as well, until he enters the actual courtroom. So, he's being very well protected for obviously reasons.
COSTELLO: Are they allowing reporters inside the courtroom or do you have to watch by video?
ROWLANDS: No, we'll be in the courtroom, but we will not have any audio or the visual recording devices allowed so no camera in the courtroom. But reporters will be allowed to be in the courtroom and witness it.
COSTELLO: All right, Ted Rowlands reporting live from Phoenix today. Thank you so much.
A little bit about the weather, if you're planning to travel today, anywhere south, we're praying for you. We're going to talk a lot more about the weather and canceled flights all over the country. Nearly 1,700 flights have been canceled already. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: All across the Southeast, winter is hitting with a vengeance. Rapid snow fall blanketing much of the region today. Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, all declaring states of emergency, and the snow is not going to stop. More than 1,600 flights have been canceled. As you might imagine, airports in the Southeast oh, my goodness, they're disaster areas.
Martin Savidge is at Hartsfield-Jackson airport in Atlanta, and I bet you've been getting an earful.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you do, Carol, no question. When it comes to snowstorms and being delayed, this is the epicenter of misery right now, in the Southeast. And that's the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airport.
Take a look. This is the departure board. This just for Delta. And as you can see, if you're a passenger coming in to check your flight, well there's a lot of red-lettered "canceled" up there. In fact, flight after flight after flight is canceled. Although there is one peculiarity. If you really want to get out of here and get away from it all the flight to Anchorage, Alaska, is actually boarding. Go figure that one.
The terminal here is packed with people wherever you can find space. Wherever you can find a plug, because that's where your computer and entertainment system goes. And say hello to all these students here. They've all just come back from spending two weeks in Israel. They had made it back to the state where they go to school, but they had not made it the 75 miles up the highway where they have to go to get to school.
This is Leah Pepper. How are you doing?
LEAH PEPPER, STUDENT: I'm doing good.
SAVIDGE: How's everybody else doing?
PEPPER: We're doing good. We're a little tired. But for the most part, we're having a lot of fun just laughing and enjoying the madness.
SAVIDGE: Most people have a good attitude like you?
PEPPER: I think so. (LAUGHTER) I like to think good about people.
SAVIDGE: All right. So you're trying to get to school. The buses couldn't make it here because the roads are closed --
PEPPER: Right.
SAVIDGE: -- so what's the plan?
PEPPER: So, the plan is to go to the Mars (ph) station --
SAVIDGE: That's the train station.
PEPPER: That's right, the train station, and go from there to Chamblee. And we have some friends that are going to come pick us up on a bus to go back to school.
SAVIDGE: So, you've got some very brave friends that are going to go out on the roadway and come down and pick you all up.
PEPPER: Yes, that's right.
SAVIDGE: All right.
PEPPER: That's what we're going to do, and it should be fun.
SAVIDGE: It should be. We'll wish you good luck on that.
PEPPER: Thank you.
SAVIDGE: Safe travels to all of you.
But as you can see, a lot of people here are just eating what they can, sleeping where they can, and telling the folks who are waiting for them on the other end, they'll be home when they can.
COSTELLO: I just cannot imagine the misery. I know Air Tran cancelled all of its flights in and out of Hartsfield Airport, as well. So nobody's going anywhere. Oh, I feel for people.
We've been trying to find Rob Marciano. He's been out in the snow and the ice on the streets of Atlanta. Oh, there you are. Where have you been?
Oh, he can't hear me yet. So let's go to Chad Myers. He's a mess, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I have to whip up an ice storm to work with you again!
COSTELLO: I know. It's so good to see you.
MYERS: How is that possible? Carol, welcome to my city. You left and never came back.
COSTELLO: I'm here now.
MYERS: You're here now. You're stuck here! You can't leave.
COSTELLO: And there are no coffee shops open, and I'm upset about that.
MYERS: I get to close the airport and you can't go home to New York. Atlanta, ice still all the way up to Charlotte. It is going to be a mess from upstate South Carolina right on down where all of the ice is still raining. It's coming down, rain at 28 degrees. You can never have any fun.
Let me show you, here's my room with a view at the Omni Hotel.
COSTELLO: Ooh.
MYERS: Yes, that's not the shower door. That's my window! And then we can go and take you to a live tower cam off the top of the building. Oh, man. And you can still see every once in awhile a raindrop will hit, and this ice is still building up. We know that thousands of people are without power.
What happened with this storm, Carol, is that it came down as sleet for the most part here in Atlanta. And so shows sleet pellets bounced off the power lines and the trees, didn't gather on the trees and bring those trees down. But south of Atlanta -- southward, Macon and all the way up, even down through the Lowcountry of South Carolina, the ice is building now and power lines are coming down. And it's going to be ugly.
Are you going back home any time soon?
COSTELLO: No, not -- there's no flights! It's heading up --
MYERS: There's a nor'easter that's going to head right on up the northeast coast. This is 48 hours worth of snowfall. New York City, welcome to another 6 to 12 inches of snow! You know what, though, because that snow was kind of getting dirty up there, kind of getting brown, we've got to cover it up with brand-new covers of 6 to 12 inches of new snow.
COSTELLO: Look at you, glass half-full man.
MYERS: There could be 20 inches on Long Island.
COSTELLO: Get out. Get out! 20 inches?
MYERS: Uh-huh.
COSTELLO: On top of what they already have.
MYERS: I know.
COSTELLO: Ooh, it's going to be miserable.
MYERS: Where are you going to put it now? How much higher can you shovel?
COSTELLO: In the Long Island Sound. Put it right in there. Although that might be frozen over, right? No, not all of it, though.
MYERS: No, you can still get the Hudson.
COSTELLO: That'll work! Yes!
Hey, Rob Marciano, do you have your IFB in, which is the little earpiece we all use to communicate with others on our staff? Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Was I in an awkward shot where you were talking to me earlier and I was completely ignoring you?
COSTELLO: We love making you look foolish on the air. It gives us a few chuckles on a very cold day.
MARCIANO: It's what I do best. I've made a career out of it. I'm glad you enjoy it. Hey, Atlanta for the most part -- for the most part, is shut down. I mean, MARTA isn't running buses. At least not right now. They may try later on today.
But when you look at the roads like this. Here comes a cab. They're a little more brave than others. They come around this corner. Yes, go for it.
(CAR HONKS)
MARCIANO: Keep your momentum going there. This road has gotten a little bit more churned up. And that's good. Earlier today it was really, really glazed over and thick, thick ice. We've had some heavier trucks come through here and kind of bang it around a little bit.
But temperatures, as Chad I'm sure pointed out, still below freezing here. And we still have a light mist going on. Still a glaze going on. Not the thick, thick icing that we've seen in some other spots across the South. But this is such a widespread event, it's really encompassing quite a bit of real estate.
Power outages, about 6,500 in Georgia. Give or take. Similar numbers in Mississippi and Alabama. Schools obviously closed. The governor's inauguration has been downsized and moved inside today. So, historic event by the South's standards. That's for sure. And we'll keep the temperatures here below freezing tonight and tomorrow, so tomorrow morning, it's not going to be any sort of cake walk, either. So you've got people who live down here, don't have the skills to drive in this thing -- not that driving on ice requires skills. It's very, very difficult to do. They don't have scrapers. They don't have shovels. Kids really don't have sleds, so they probably had to make due with homemade stuff there. And certainly the plows have been a situation.
The resources aren't in the South for that. For Atlanta proper, there's only 16 trucks with sand, 11 plows. You've got help from Georgia Department of Transportation. They've got a few hundred of those. But in no way is there enough to combat this snow for this large a city.
COSTELLO: Yes, got to get out your Morton salt. Get out your Morton salt, and --
(LAUGHTER)
MARCIANO: Yes.
MYERS: Carol, they were sold out of pool salt.
COSTELLO: Pool salt?
MYERS: Not only the salt you put in the pool to make the a salt water pool. They sold out of that at all the Home Depots as well.
COSTELLO: The only good thing is if people do stay home. I mean, the town is a ghost town and nothing is open. Not even Starbucks.
MYERS: Yes, I know. I've been making coffee in the green room if you need a cup.
COSTELLO: Really? MYERS: But tonight, Rob seeing that slush, by sunset, immediately at sunset, it turns into a big block of ice again. If you can move now, that's great. But you will not move at 6:00 tonight.
COSTELLO: Okay. You have a very small window. You have all been warned.
MYERS; That's right.
COSTELLO: Oh. We're going to have our top stories in just a-- well, our top stories after a break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Checking our top stories now. Vice president Joe Biden has just arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit. He'll meet with Afghan president Hamid Karzai and U.S. service members while assessing the security situation there.
Southeast covered in ice and snow. Some are taking it all in stride, but in Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia, they're under states of emergency. Right now nearly 2,000 flights have been canceled. Roads and highways in some areas are simply impassable. Thousands remain without power in Mississippi and here in Georgia.
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords remains in critical condition but has stabilized. That from her doctors who just briefed us minutes ago. In the meantime, the suspect charged with shooting Giffords will make his first court appearance in just a few hours. Twenty-two-year- old Jared Lee Loughner faces a judge in Phoenix at 4:00 Eastern.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Big news out of the North American Auto Show in Detroit, and it's good news. Ford is hiring, and we're talking about thousands of jobs. CNNMoney's Poppy Harlow joins us from outside the show in Detroit.
Poppy, Ford is becoming America's favorite company.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Oh, well, I mean, exactly. This is the one of the Big Three automakers that didn't go into bankruptcy, that didn't take taxpayer money. And then, just about an hour ago they announced here at the North American International Auto show, Carol, that they are hiring 7,000 U.S. workers over the next two years. So by the end of 2012, 7,000 new workers.
They don't know exactly where they're going to be. We do know 1,800 of them will be in their Louisville plant. We already have that announced But the others will likely be across the Midwest and some of their plants in the South.
Now I want to put this in perspective for you. Because that is very good news. But let's look at the big picture here. The big picture is that from the end of 2007 till the end of 2009, Ford cut 20,000 jobs in North America. And if you look back a decade, they have gone from about 163,000 North American employees to now just around 70,000. So they've had major cuts. We are starting to see a pickup in jobs. We had a chance to speak with the CEO of Ford, Alan Mulally, about the hiring and why they're doing it now. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALAN MULALLY, CEO, FORD: Well, we're really accelerating the implementation of Henry Ford's original vision, and that is to operate in every country in which we serve the customers. So we have a great operation in the United States, like we do in Europe and Asia Pacific. So now, based on the strength of these products, we are actually growing the business. We're able to offer great opportunities for American workers here in the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: And, Carol, another big headline for Ford today. I want to show you some video of inside the auto show and also of the car and truck of the year announcement. Ford got that coveted truck of the year award this morning with their new Ford Explorer. That went to Ford. GM, the comeback kid story of 2010. Coming out of bankruptcy. The biggest initial public offering in U.S. history. They got the car of the year award here for the electric Chevy Volt.
And, Carol, that is the first electric car ever to get car of the year. So that is big news from here in Detroit. So what a difference a year makes. Being here last year, a very somber tone at the auto show. This year, a very optimistic look at what's ahead for this industry.
Carol.
COSTELLO: It's just nice to talk about something good. I know the big picture doesn't seem so rosy, but in the short-term, that's good news.
HARLOW: Right.
COSTELLO: The types of jobs that Ford will have open, these are for skilled workers, right?
HARLOW: These are for some manufacturing jobs, some assembly line jobs, and also these are for some white collar jobs. But a lot of these, Carol, are going to be plant jobs. And that's very welcome news in cities -- I know you're from Ohio, Carol. I remember driving down the highway in Ohio past that Lordstown plant where GM builds its Chevy Cruze and, you know, the entire town relies on these plants for their jobs. So news that a lot of these Ford jobs are going to come to plants is very, very welcome here in the Midwest, I can tell you, Carol.
COSTELLO: I know. I know. It puts a smile on my face.
Poppy Harlow, thanks so much.
Poppy Harlow reporting from Detroit.
Putting politics on hold for now. The tragedy in Tucson echoes across Capitol Hill. Details in our political update.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Lawmakers put politics on hold following the tragedy in Arizona. Mark Preston, part of "The Best Political Team on Television," live from the political desk in Washington.
Mark, what's crossing now?
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, Carol, good afternoon.
Yes, in fact, with the host of representatives not taking up the repeal of the health care legislation this week, that means we will not see dozens and dozens of pro health care rallies taking place across the country this week. Organizing for America, which is part of the Democratic National Committee, had planned these rallies to show support for the Health Care Act. However, given the light of the shooting, given the fact that Congress will not be addressing it, they have put these on hold. In fact, two of these events, Carol, were supposed to be in Arizona.
The whole macro issue of politics, though, is still very much prevalent, especially talking about the shootings. Who's to blame is the heated political rhetoric part of the blame. Well, some people are looking at Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor, for some of the things she has said in the past, but more specifically about a web posting that she put up back in the 2010 election season. This web posting had a map of the United States. It had bull's-eyes over the congressional districts of 20 Democratic House members, including Gabrielle Giffords.
So some folks are saying, look, Sarah Palin has really risen -- the height of this political rhetoric. However, her -- one of her political aide in an interview with Tammy Bruce (ph), a conservative, said that that's not the case and anybody that tries to put these two issues together, she says, is wrong and that she finds it appalling. However, the Palin camp does acknowledge that they probably did not explain it enough when this posting came out. They didn't do enough on the record to really explain that it wasn't intended to be gun sights, it was simply crosshairs. So, of course, we'll be talking more about that in the coming days and the coming weeks.
COSTELLO: It didn't mean to be a gun sight, it was simply crosshairs? That was their explanation?
PRESTON: Well, I'll tell you what, they also said it was a surveyor's mark as well, Carol. But, you know, I think, again, that's all going to be part of the discussion, what did she mean and is the rhetoric too high? I will tell you, a very prominent Democrat e-mailed me in the last couple of hours and this is what he had to say. It's really dumb for Democrats to be making a connection to Sarah Palin in the shooting. He said, in fact, that, yes, she has ratcheted up, but by doing this, it's really making her look like a sympathetic figure. So, unfortunately, Carol, politics are very much at play. COSTELLO: Well, and there's no evidence this suspect in Arizona ever looked at her websites. So, I mean, who knows, he could be completely just crazy.
PRESTON: Absolutely. That's --
COSTELLO: But Representative Brady is doing something about this supposedly, too, so this isn't over, this argument.
PRESTON: This is not over. We're going to see lots of legislation. And I think you're right to the point, there is no connection right now with Sarah Palin and this website. However, Bob Brady from Philadelphia is pretty incensed by the website. In fact, what he wants to do is offer legislation -- he told me yesterday that he plans to offer legislation that would make it a crime to offer -- for everyone to use a language or to use any kind of symbols that would be perceived as threatening or inciting violence against a member of Congress. So Bob Brady, when the House of Representatives comes back into session, will be offering this legislation. It will be interesting to see if everybody supports it.
Carol.
COSTELLO: So the politics are still going on, even in the (INAUDIBLE) of tragedy, it has not stopped.
PRESTON: For sure.
COSTELLO: Mark Preston, thanks so much.
For the latest political news, go to cnnpolitics.com. We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Ford is adding 7,000 jobs over the next two years. It was just announced, oh, a couple of hours ago. So is it a sign of things to come? A Federal Reserve official is predicting 3 million jobs will be created by the central bank's controversial $600 billion bailout program. That news came out today, too. But, if you are out of work now, you need a job like right now. So who is hiring, besides those people I just told you, besides Ford, that is? CNN's Christine Romans has the answer in today's segment "Smart Is The New Rich."
Hey, Christine. So who's hiring?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEN GARRISON, CAREER COACH, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY: All right. Good afternoon, everyone.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUISINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Here at the January meeting of the Job Success Club, job seekers aren't feeling a recovery just yet.
GARRISON: Well -- UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a start.
GARRISON: It's a start. And I think --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a start and it's expulsion. Yes.
GARRISON: Right, good experience.
A lot of people talk about how the market's getting better. But really what happens is, for each person, it's very personal.
ROMANS: Members of this group at Rutgers include a business analyst with 15 years of corporate experience. A dual engineering major laid off last spring. A recently graduated geography major.
ROMANS (on camera): People are getting hired. We're not creating enough jobs, but people are getting hired. Who is getting hired?
TIG GILLIAM, CEO, ADECCO: The more education you have, the better. And that's true in this job market, even more so than it was only five years ago. So it's the finance and accounting skills, the IT skills, the engineering skills, which greatly improve your chances of finding a job.
ROMANS (voice-over): It's leisure and hospitality and health care, too. Those fields saw the biggest job growth last month. But regardless of field, many job seekers say the toughest part is just getting a foot in the door.
SAM CHACKO, JOB SEEKER: The challenge for me, at least it's been, I know I have the skills but it's kind of frustrating because I don't know how to market myself to get employers to notice me.
ROMANS: And that's just what the members of the Job Success Club hope to figure out.
GARRISON: I mean the goal of the Job Club is that I'm the only person left. That would be the ideal dream, that I'm the only person sitting in the room.
Be really -- be really focused.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Christine Romans, thank you.
CNN NEWSROOM continues with Ali Velshi right after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
