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Truck Plunges Into Icy Water; Thousands More Flights Have Been Cancelled; Bitter Cold After Epic Storm; Egyptian Vice President Wants Dialogue; Zach Walls Three Minute Speech On Same-Sex Marriage; Report Showing Failures In Preventing Fort Hood Massacre; Obama States When He Became A Christian; Arrest In Bellagio Heist; Inside A Revolution In Egypt; Record Low Temperatures in Texas as Fans Prepare for Super Bowl; Rubble Recycled to Concrete

Aired February 03, 2011 - 13:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Suzanne, thank you so much, and you have a great afternoon.

And we're going to pick up some of the coverage you've been involved in, including what you were just talking about with Arwa, Egypt.

I want to, also, bring you back here, to the United States, to talk about the weather. As if the snow and ice weren't bad enough. They were the epic storms that hit the 30 states, this week. Well, they dragged a huge blast of arctic cold air behind it as far south as Dallas. Wind chill readings were at or below zero, today, long after the sun came up.

In northeast Oklahoma the actual temperature was subzero when a truck plunged off a bridge and crashed through an ice covered river. Six people were rescued but two did die.

Look at this. A new storm , right there, in the gulf. Houston could get four inches of snow. That's ten times what Houston gets in an average year.

Take a look at the size of the storm. It goes way up beyond where we're even showing you. Chicago got more than 20 inches. The third biggest snow, on record, but Lake Shore Drive is open again. O'Hare airport has few, if any, delays although thousands more flights have been canceled. Let's go over to Chad and get a sense of what's going on. You did warn us that there was more coming.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGY: This is more a rain, snow or sleet event. Kind of an icy event. I don't believe, for a minute, that Houston's going to get four inches of snow.

VELSHI: It doesn't really matter. If it gets an inch, it's going to -- it's going to shut schools.

MYERS: Right. The difference between this and this is just one day, because it's all going to melt anyway. But it's -- they're even canceling some schools around the Houston area in fear of this forecast. And, I think, it's more fear. I think what they have to fear is fear itself, because this is going to be temperatures right at 32. Could be a little bit of something, maybe, in the morning.

VELSHI: What happens here? What is the blue that becomes pink?

MYERS: This is all rain. This is a rain, snow mix, maybe even closer to the snow, a sleet mix, and that's what's going to happen, up here, in Atlanta. The air is so dry. If you ever go to the doctor and get a shot, what is the first thing the doctor does to your arm?

VELSHI: He's going to freeze it, yes, yes.

MYERS: Puts a little alcohol on there. Why does it get cold? Because it evaporates. It's evaporative cooling. When the rain tries to run through, and go down through a dry atmosphere, it cools the atmosphere. So, even though it's 36 in Atlanta, when it tries to rain through it --

VELSHI: Why it's going to go down, OK.

MYERS: Temperature's going to evaporate and temperature's going to go down. Air evaporates, the water evaporates, temperatures -- and that's what we're seeing, here, that evaporative cooling making sleet on your wind shield. That That makes sleet on your windshield. That little bit of rain, and, then, it warms up above 32. So, this is just a mix. We call it some kind of random winter mix.

VELSHI: Is it going to go higher than this?

MYERS: It doesn't go much higher than this. We haven't had a lot of rainfall for that. It kind of skirts on up towards Raleigh. Does not get back into --

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: We'll get wet here?

MYERS: Yes, we will get -- back here. And we're going to talk about this.

VELSHI: This is Australia?

MYERS: A major mess in Australia.

VELSHI: Yes, yes.

MYERS: I'm not going to do , right now, but this was a category five hurricane that hit the areas that had so much flooding, a couple weeks ago.

VELSHI: This is -- we'll talk about that a little later. All right. Chad's on top of the weather for us.

Let's go to Egypt, now, where the new prime minister, today, apologized, fervently and publicly, for what he called the catastrophe in Tahrir Square. But the catastrophe continues. Unlike yesterday, Egyptian troops, today, maneuvered themselves between anti-government demonstrators, in the center of the square, and pro-government protesters, on the fringes. But that didn't stop the violence, much of which, now, seems focused on journalists. All day long we've gotten word of reporters and photographers arrested, detained, attacked and harassed, sometimes by people in uniform, sometimes by mobs. The U.S. state department says it condemns such actions.

I have to show you a horrifying scene from yesterday. A police van speeding through a crowd. Take a look at this. A crowd of demonstrators. Watch what happens. Wow. Mowing down people in its path. This video was shot by an Egyptian scientist and posted on Facebook.

Egypt's new vice president spoke out, today, as well, promising elections in September. That was expected. And inviting all opposition groups to join a dialogue, in the meantime. The transitional regime, also, is freezing the assets of some ex-cabinet members and barring them from leaving the country. And we'll have extensive coverage of all of this, throughout the next two hours, beginning six minutes from now.

Bobby Ghosh joins me from "Time" magazine with a look at his upcoming cover story on the revolutionaries. And, later, CNN's Arwa Damon joins us with a look outside Tahrir Square in Cairo. What's going on in the rest of that massive city?

Well, our "Sound Effect" today is Zach Walls. He's a 19-year-old University of Iowa student who spoke about his family in the Iowa house of representatives. He's the child of a same-sex couple. He opposes house joint resolution six, which could allow the state to vote on whether to ban same-sex marriages. His three-minute speech, at a public hearing this week, is going viral across the Internet. Here's a bit of it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZACH WAHLS, STUDENT, UNIVERSITY OF IOWA: If I was your son, Mr. Chairman, I believe I would make you very proud. I'm not so different from any of your children. My family really isn't so different from yours. After all, your family doesn't derive its sense of worth from being told by the state, you're married, congratulations. No. The sense of family comes from the commitment we make to each other, to work through the hard times so we can enjoy the good ones. It comes from the love that binds us. That's what makes a family.

So, what you are voting, here, isn't to change us. It's not to change our families. It's to change how the law views us, how the law treats us. You are voting, for the first time in the history of our state, to codify discrimination into our constitution. A constitution that, but for the proposed amendment, is the least amended constitution in the United States of America. You are telling Iowans that some, among you, are second-class citizens who do not have the right to marry the person you love.

So, will this vote affect my family? Would it affect yours? Over the next two hours, I'm sure, we're going to hear plenty of testimony about how damaging having gay parents is on kids. But in my 19 years, not once have I ever been confronted by an individual who realized, independently, that I was raised by a gay couple, and you know why? Because the sexual orientation of my parents has had zero effect on the content of my character. Thank you very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: Want to see more of that? Go to my Facebook page, Facebook.com/alivelshicnn. I posted the whole thing.

Hundreds of people packed that Iowa state House for the discussion on the resolution. It was, eventually, passed. Sixty-two lawmakers voted in favor of the measure. Thirty-seven voted against it.

A new report released, within the last hour, shows failures by both the Army and the FBI in preventing the Fort Hood massacre. Army Psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan accused of killing 13 at the Texas base, in 2009. The report says multiple warning signs were ignored and that Hasan's military evaluation reports were sanitized to minimize his, quote, "Obsession with violent Islamic extremism." A pentagon spokesman tells CNN, the department is taking steps to significantly improve its ability to thwart internal threats.

Although some may question his faith, President Obama made it clear at the national prayer breakfast, this morning, that he is a Christian. He says, his journey, began more than 20 years ago, while working as a community organizer on Chicago's south side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARAK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It was through that experience, working with pastors and lay people trying to heal the wounds of hurting neighborhoods, that I came to know Jesus Christ for myself, and embrace him as my lord and savior.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Also, at the breakfast, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, he says, she continues to improve from last month's gunshot wound to the end.

In Las Vegas, a judge's son is accused of pulling off a brazen heist at the Bellagio Casino. He is identified as 29-year-old Anthony Carlio. The "Las Vegas Review-Journal" reports his dad is a city judge. You may remember seeing this video of a man wearing a motorcycle helmet running through the Bellagio. Police say, he robbed a craps table of $1.5 million in casino chips in December. They arrested Carlio, last night, after he, allegedly, tried to sell the chips to undercover officers.

And the problems, now gripping Egypt, are manifest, but what about solutions? We'll look at potential outcomes of the upheaval, after a break.

We're, also, asking for your comments on two stories on my blog. First, a new survey ranked Jesus and President Obama on equal footing, when it comes to teen role models. By far, most teens picked someone they personally knew as their role model, like their parents or an uncle or a sibling, but Jesus and the president each received 3 percent of the vote. Who would you pick as your role model? You can go and vote on that.

And the other question I want to ask you, the husband of Gabrielle Giffords, a lawmaker shot in the head in Arizona, is an astronaut scheduled to be on a space shuttle mission in April. Should he go or stay on earth with his wife? Head to my blog, CNN.com/ali, to give your opinion on these two topics, and we'll read your comments throughout the show.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: It blew up, quickly, but the pressures in Egypt took decades to build and will, surely, take some time to resolve. The upcoming issue of "Time" magazine takes a look at the revolution, how it came to be, and what the revolutionaries want. Bobby Ghosh is "Time's" deputy international editor, has authored much of this coverage -- this cover story. He joins me, now, from New York.

Bobby, good to see you, again.

BOBBY GHOSH, INTERNATIONAL EDITOR, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Hi, Ali.

Bobby, what's the point? I mean, when you are writing about this, you got a cover story in "Time." The whole world has been watching this live coverage. What is the takeaway that you are bringing to your viewership about what has happened in the last 10 days, in Egypt, following what happened in Tunisia and what is happening next? What -- how big a deal is this?

GHOSH: Well, it's a huge deal, and our package of stories, what they do is, essentially, put all of this into context. We have Fareed Zacharia explaining where this came from, and what it means to the Middle East. My story looks at, who are these people who made this revolution happen? How did they pull it off?

VELSHI: And that's, really, a question we have, because we're still, as we see these pictures of thousands of people in the squares, in the streets, who are these people?

GHOSH: Well, it's a remarkable group. I mean, there's a small core of political activists, but the vast majority of the people we saw in the squares, and in other cities across Egypt, over the past week, were first time protesters. Were people who had never been to a political demonstration in their lives, and, yet, they were able to get together. They were able to be disciplined. They were able too much a positive message. And, until they were provoked a couple of days ago, they were, mostly, peaceful. And, really, quite remarkable that they pulled this off, that they brought a dictator of 30 years, practically, to his knees.

And, not only that, what they've done has already had ripple effect. They've frightened the king of Jordan frightened into firing his government. They're persuaded, indirectly, the president of Yemen into promising that he won't stand for re-election. So, this group of people, hundreds of thousands strong, that did not exist as a group ten days ago, has, essentially, made history happen in the Middle East.

VELSHI: Bobby, what is the thing that they, or we, may not be thinking of? What is the unintended consequence five or ten years down the road of these revolutions?

GHOSH: Well, I think, they're looking at it from a purely positive aspect. They are hoping to get freedom. They are hoping to get better government. They are hoping to get rid of a lot of the corruption under which they suffer. They want food prices and food availability to improve. They want jobs. Those are the things they want.

Of course, as we see with revolutions elsewhere in the world, once you have achieved your first objective, which is to get rid of the tyrant or the authoritarian figure, then comes the really hard job of governing. How do you get all these different groups that have participated in this revolution? How do you get them to work together? Who emerges as a leader? And how much patience does the rest of the populace have for these new people? Are they going to give them the time that it will take to undo all the damage done, over 30 years of Mubarak's rule, and create a new Egypt?

Once the momentum gets going, we've seen, in other parts of the world, people begin to get a little impatient. They want change. They waited a generation for change. They want it now. And, sometimes, for new leadership, it's not always easy to deliver that.

VELSHI: How do we -- how do we enumerate how much of Egypt is worried about that particular outcome and how many of them would just like Mubarak to stay because they think he's kept a lid on things?

GHOSH: Well, it's really hard to know. In the melee that has taken place in Egypt now, it's hard to know -- it's hard to judge the proportions. It's clear that there's a very strong sentiment among a very large number of people that want him to go. And this is not something that's just happened over the past week. We've known this from opinion polls and from other soundings journalists have taken over the past couple of decades.

There is now, we're beginning to see in some of the reporting emerging from Tahrir Square, there are some people who are saying, look, we've already won. The guy is going. Maybe we back off a little bit now. Maybe we let him wait until September. Maybe we need this transition.

There is certainly a number of people who are saying that. And it's possible if these clashes continue, the violence continues over several days and weeks, that that group will grow. That people will say, listen, we've got to get back to work. We've got to put food on our table. We've got lives to live. We can't afford to have this violence continue. It's possible, though, that that sentiment will grow. But right now, it seems that the overwhelming sentiment is Mubarak's got to go. He's got to go now.

VELSHI: This is a volatile situation. It is continuing to evolve. It's quite dynamic. So it will make good reading for everybody who is watching this and following it as eagerly as we all are, read and get some background on it.

Bobby, thanks very much. Always a pleasure to see you. Bobby Ghosh is the deputy international editor at "Time."

It's day 10 of the demonstrations in the streets of Cairo. What are these protests doing to businesses, small and large, in Egypt? It's got to be disruptive. We're going to take a look at this rarely examined aspect of the uprising when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: As demonstrators flood the streets of Cairo, businesses with -- business and business owners with ties to Egypt are watching these developments very closely. CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow joins me from New York.

Poppy, tell me about the Egyptian-American entrepreneur who you sat down with.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: I will. You did it again. You called me Poppy dot Harlow.

VELSHI: I know. I know.

HARLOW: You always do that.

VELSHI: You're like -- you know, you're just -- you're a multichannel journalist.

HARLOW: Ah, I see. Thank you, Velsh. I appreciate that.

But, no, on a more serious note, you're right, that the business aspect of this is not getting a lot of attention, but the lack of economic prosperity and hopes for their future is really what drove a lot of these people to the streets in Cairo. It's why they're still there.

But we spent the day yesterday, Ali, on the outskirts of New York City with a guy named Dr. Mahsoud (ph). He was born in Egypt. He moved here to the U.S. in 1984. And he runs a big pharmaceutical business between the U.S. and Egypt. He's in Cairo every few months.

But he talked to us about, first of all, what he thinks economically led to this crisis and also, and most importantly, what solutions he thinks are needed. What is need to be done in Egypt in order to change the situation there in the long term. So take a listen to part of our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. HOSSAM ABDEL MAKSOUD, EGYPTIAN-AMERICAN BUSINESSMAN: I visit Egypt often and you see the gap between the rich and the poor getting wider and wider. Sooner or later you knew a crisis was going to come to surface. One of the biggest problems is the persistent unemployment. And for some reason, although we've seen growth in Egypt since, you know, 2004, this success and this economic growth did not trickle down to the average Egyptian.

HARLOW: From your point of view, someone who's done very well in a capitalist society, what are the economic reforms you think would help most?

MAKSOUD: End the bureaucracy a little bit.

HARLOW: Too much red tape?

MAKSOUD: Too much red tape. And there is no really straight, direct, clear guidelines for investors. In my opinion, giving a young man -- an educated young man who finish and spend a lot of time in college and school, a job is what leads to security and prosperity in any society. You know, they have to have skills, as well as education.

HARLOW: What's your vision for the future of Egypt?

MAKSOUD: You know, Egyptians, in general, are very resilient and we have a heritage and I think after this, you know, after the dust has settled, I see was more freedom in the country and more opportunities. I see a prosperous Egypt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So, Ali, bottom line, in the future he sees prosperity in the country. But the irony really that we talked about is, in the short term, they're fighting for really economic freedom and a chance for their future and jobs. But the fighting and the chaos in Egypt has meant the business has literally ground to a halt in that country. The businessman that you just heard from his business just not operating. His relatives are in the streets trying to block their businesses from being looted right now. So the irony is that it's actually hurting their economic future, at least for -- for at least six months, a year to come.

VELSHI: All right. So the GDP, the amount that people earn on average or produce on average is about $4,000 per person. Very disparate.

HARLOW: Very low.

VELSHI: I mean there's really not so much of a middle class as there is people who are very wealthy and a lot of people who are very poor. What's the cost of living like in a place like Egypt?

HARLOW: Right. You know, that's exactly what Dr. Maksoud said is, he saw the middle class shrinking and shrinking and shrinking. When he was a child, his family was middle class. That was 40-some years ago. Not the case anymore. You either have extreme wealth or you don't have it.

What he said, and this was an interesting analogy, he said he went out to dinner in New York with some business people that came to visit him from Egypt and they were so shocked that they said to eat dinner in New York City is less expensive than in Egypt. So if you compare the average income of someone in this country, what we're making, and the cost of living here, it is lower than the cost of living for the average person in Egypt. They're dealing with 17 percent inflation on their food prices, Ali.

VELSHI: Wow.

HARLOW: And they were -- 17 percent for food and they rely on subsidies from the government. Everything from wheat, to their heating bills, to gasoline for their cars. And the government, for the past five years, has been cutting back those subsidies more and more and more, leading to the anger, leading to the uprising, not making enough money, not affording to live and they don't have the jobs, Ali.

VELSHI: All right, good story. Thanks very much for bringing it to us, Poppy Harlow of money.com.

HARLOW: You got it.

VELSHI: Lots of stuff. You go to money.com, you'll see her quite a bit.

Be sure to tune in, by the way, to "Your Bottom Line" Saturday morning at 9:30 Eastern with Christine. "Your Money" airs Saturday at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and a special time just this Sunday 4:00 p.m. Eastern, which is an hour later than usual.

All right, 24 minutes after the hour. Let me get you up to speed on our top stories.

The number of Americans filing for first time unemployment benefits eased more than expected last week. The Labor Department said today that there were 415,000 initial jobless claims filed. That was 42,000 fewer than the week before and better than the 425,000 that economists had expected. The report comes a day before the government releases its widely anticipated monthly jobs report.

Egyptian troops have maneuvered themselves between anti-government demonstrators in the center of Tahrir Square and pro-government protesters on the fringes. But the violence continues. Some focused on journalists. All day long we've had word of reporters, photographers arrested, detained, attacked and harassed, sometimes by people in uniform and sometimes by mobs. Also, a journalist for Egyptian state run TV said she'd quit today because of intimidation. We'll hear more from her shortly.

It could take days to dig out from one of the worst winter storms in decades that hit 30 states. Chicago got its third biggest snowfall on record, nearly two feet in some areas. While the storm has moved on, there are still some serious concerns. Driving is dangerous. A lot of roads and highways still covered in snow and ice.

Look at this. A new storm building right here in the Gulf. Houston could get four inches of snow. That is 10 times what Houston gets in an average year.

Well, I just told you about this woman. She had a senior post with Nile Television. That is the state run TV in Egypt covering the people power revolt in her homeland. Today, she took a courageous step. She'll tell us about it right after this. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: You have many choices as to where you are going to get your information about anything to do in the news specifically about Egypt. It's all over the major satellite channels here in the United States and around the world. It's all over the Internet. There is no shortage of information.

But if you live in Egypt, there is one channel that is run by the state called Nile TV. It's a state run TV channel. There are other channels accessible to Egyptians, particularly those who have the ability to pay for satellite TV. Well, there is a Nile TV journalist who walked off the job because after years of being -- and she was senior -- after years of being with that station, she felt that she had to tell the truth. In an interview with CNN International, she talks about the people's revolt and why she quit her job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAHIRA AMIN, FORMER SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, NILE TV: Well, in front of the TV building, it's like a war zone, John (ph). You can just see military -- around a dozen military tanks out there and they've been there since the start of all this. And the rallies that took place in front of the building were the pro-Mubarak rallies, not the anti- regime protesters. They didn't get -- well, they only got to the building in the first couple of days and they tried to storm the building but they were pushed back by the army.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're calling them lies, you're calling them propaganda. Walk us through how journalists who know the truth, as you do, put lies and propaganda on the air.

How does that work? Are they getting orders from above? Are they getting authorized statements that they can't depart from? How does it work at a time like this?

AMIN: It really is the self-censorship. Most of -- they have been -- you know, people are too scared to tell the truth and this is built-in inherent feelings that many Egyptian journalists have because of the detention and the arrests systemic. And we hear about -- we hear every day a different story.

But I haven't been intimidated all these years. I have been telling the truth, so I managed to get away with it until now. But then I just -- you know, this time around I just couldn't tell the truth. So I walked out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What about the Egyptian press is this are you being interviewed by other Egyptian journalists? Can newspapers in Egypt speak the truth and report the events as they see them? Are journalists working for anyone able to simply tell the story they want to tell right now?

AMIN: Some of the independent press are but there is a limit. There's always this feeling and the red line are there. But it's mostly the self-censorship that is keeping the journalists from revealing the whole truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VELSHI: And it is almost time for a big showdown between Green Bay and Pittsburgh. Ahead, we'll tell you about the special love affair between one of the teams and their fans. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Thirty-four minutes after the hour. Happening now, the State Department says the Interior Ministry of Egypt seems to be involved in rounding up and roughing up journalists in Cairo. All day long correspondents from all over the world have been arrested, detained, attacked, and harassed.

Earlier, Egyptian troops positioned themselves between anti-government demonstrators in the center of Tahrir Square and pro-government pro protesters on the fringes. But that didn't stop the violence.

On top of all the snow and ice, a blast of Arctic air has moved in behind the massive storm that hit 30 states this week. As far south as Dallas, wind-chill readings were at or below zero today, long after the sun came up.

Meanwhile, a new storm brewing in the Gulf of Mexico that could dump 4 inches of snow on Houston.

And a Norwegian politician says he has nominated WikiLeaks for a Nobel Peace Prize. He cites the web site's contribution to democracy and freedom of speech worldwide. WikiLeaks publishes documents alleging corporate and government misconduct. Critics have accused it of endangering national security.

Steelers and Packers fans counting down to the Super Bowl, just now three days away. They probably didn't count on the weather being cold or as cold in Dallas, as it is back home.

Mark McKay braving the frigid temperatures joining us from Arlington. It looks OK. I see a little bit of what looks like snow or ice on that ridge behind you. But, boy, it's cold down there.

MARK MCKAY, CNN ANCHOR: It sure is, Ali. Yes, the roads are improving here. They were iced over when we arrived early in the week. After both teams arrived, shall we say, getting around north Texas was a bit difficult. Better today. And North Texas experienced their worst and most frigid temperatures in 15 years. And certainly the players aren't affected by this, Ali. They are practicing indoors, might I add. Both teams, of course, hail from cold weather cities. You want cold, head to Green Bay, Wisconsin.

And to really find Green Bay you have to go two hours north of Milwaukee. But to truly find Green Bay the smallest home to a professional sports franchise this the country, you have to meet the residents of that home. The fan base is certainly legendary. There are more than 86,000 fans on the team's waiting list for season tickets wishing they could get into Lambeau Field each and every Sunday. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DESMOND BISHOP, PACKERS LINEBACKER: The display of passion that goes unmatched throughout the league. And when you have that, it makes you play harder because you know it's like you're almost playing for your family.

AARON RODGERS, PACKERS QUARTERBACK: The first thing you look at, there's no owner. So a lot of the fans consider themselves owners and personally invested. And a lot of them are personally invested in a team.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKAY: Now to explain what Aaron Rodgers said, the fans do own the team, here's a bit of history for you. In 1923, the Packers were on the brink of bankruptcy, so they decided to sell shares to the community, making them the country's only publicly owned nonprofit major professional team.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRAIG HANSEN, PACKERS SHAREHOLDER: It's like their neighbors. It isn't like they're owned by some distant owner. It's like they're owned by the community. So it definitely feels like we're part of the team and they're a part of us.

NAN BRIAN, PACKERS SHAREHOLDER: It's a small town and, therefore, it belongs to Green Bay, but it also belongs to the whole state. And I'm an owner of the Green Bay Packers. How much better can it be?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKAY: And because of that unique setup, Ali, Packers fans truly have a vested interest in the outcome of Super Bowl Sunday back there at Cowboys Stadium.

VELSHI: It's a unique setup but the shareholders don't really get anything out of it.

MCKAY: No. They get no dividend checks. They don't even get discounts on games to Lambeau Field. But they get the satisfaction of having a team, first of all, because they may not have had a team in Green Bay, Wisconsin, if this setup wasn't set. And they get the satisfaction of victories and perhaps yet another Super Bowl trophy.

VELSHI: Mark, two teams that are rich in tradition. Lots of fans around the country. Some of them, as we've described, might be having trouble getting there.

What are tickets going to go for?

MCKAY: Well, actually I just got off the phone. I know you are a numbers guy, Ali. I got off the phone with a communications director from Stub Hub. He says this is going to be the top-selling event in Stub Hub history, so that's really not a surprise. The basic face value for a ticket is $1,200, Ali. The average price down a little bit it's $3,500 selling right now. $15,002 has been the top individual ticket sold. That's for a 50 yard line seat. If you are a high roller, sort of like Jerry Jones, the owner, you can get a partial suite. Somebody already has a partial suite for $75,000.

So the economy not affecting the Super Bowl.

VELSHI: Chump change. Unbelievable. All right, Mark, good to see you, as always. Stay warm. You'll have fun either way but you do look a little cold.

Mark McKay in Arlington, Texas.

Only part of the upheaval in Egypt, by the way, is playing out in Cairo's Tahrir Square, which we've been showing you. You've seen that picture for days. But there's a starkly different view of events from outside the square. We'll have a live report from Cairo after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Another day of incredible events unfolding in Egypt. More bloody clashes between anti-government protesters and supporters of President Mubarak.

Fresh reports of journalists being attacked and arrested. In the thick of it all our open Arwa Damon joins us on the phone from Cairo, because, , Arwa, if you didn't know anything about Egypt and you've been watching TV for the last 10 days, you'd think Cairo is all this square outside the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square. This is a massive, massive city, I assume with people who have to go about their business, who are not necessarily involved in these protests.

You've been outside of that square and are talking to Egyptians.

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): That's right, Ali, although the impact of what's happening in the square is really reverberated throughout the entire city. Streets are pretty much deserted. Most shops are closed. ATMs aren't really functioning. There's a fuel and food shortage.

But we did manage to get into an elite sporting club where we met some residents of Cairo. Some were just looking for a sense of normal. Others were there just to get together with friends before, in fact, they, too, were going to be heading down to the demonstration grounds.

But at this social club, even though it was fancy, high society, people on the surface appearing to be enjoying themselves, it was all a facade. Everybody who we spoke to deeply disturbed about what's happening. Some of them feeling very passionately about events. They themselves have been taking part in the demonstrations, especially if the demonstrations began to turn horribly, inexplicably violent and bloody. Emotions really running high.

One woman telling us that no matter what, they were going to be standing side-by-side with the demonstrators. Others concerned, of course, about the financial economic impact this was having on Egypt. Worried about the future and reputation of a country that they say they do love so much, a country that doesn't deserve to be going through this.

One woman, Ali, though, had something very poignant to say. And she is a human rights activist, she has a 19-year-old son. And she said if I have to be honest, this is my responsibility. This is my generation's fault because we chose to sacrifice good governance for what we thought would be stability. And now it is our youth who is bleeding out there, fighting for rights that we should have actually been the ones to fight for and give down to them, Ali.

VELSHI: Very interesting. All right, Arwa, thanks very much for bringing us the story from outside of Tahrir Square. And I know you'll continue to cover it in Cairo.

Arwa Damon part of our extensive team of journalists on the ground in Egypt.

Parts of the United States are starting to dig out of the aftermath of a winter storm that grounded thousands of flights and left hundreds of people stranded.

In Chicago, Lake Shore Drive, you're looking at it now, has been reopened after many drivers were forced to abandon their cars right in the middle of the blizzard that left more than two feet of snow on the city streets.

Remember, the $1.5 million robbery at the Bellagio Casino back in December? Well, Las Vegas Metro Police tell CNN that Anthony Carleo, the son of a Las Vegas city judge, has been arrested in the case. The robbery drew national a attention because the suspect wearing a black motorcycle helmet was caught, there he is, on security cameras as he made a getaway. He escaped with a pile of casino chips.

President Obama visited Penn State University today touting his green jobs initiative. The president says the goal is not to hand out money to those looking for it but instead challenge America's greatest minds to come up with solutions for affordable, clean energy alternatives.

Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed in the Haiti earthquake last January. Nearly all of that rubble is still in Haiti. Now imagine if you could recycle the rubble of those broken buildings into useable building materials. It's been done. We've got a live demo of how it could help Haiti rebuild right after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Remember the earthquake in Haiti? Three hundred thousand homes were destroyed, 30,000 businesses were destroyed. You saw, those buildings were not built to withstand an earthquake, so there's just rubble all over this.

Just a year ago last month, Haiti was hit with one of the most devastating natural disasters ever recorded. That rubble is 20 million cubic yards of rubble. Let me give you a sense of a cubic yard, it's three feet by three feet by three feet. To put it in perspective, it's about the size of a dishwasher, OK? Imagine 20 million of these dishwashers as rubble in Haiti.

And today's "Big I," we want to show you a way to turn that rubble into actual building materials for Haiti. And I want to introduce to you from Georgia Tech, Reginald Desroches and Kimberly Kurtis who have been working on this.

Welcome to both of you, thank you for being here.

For those of us who are not builders, I don't understand what the problem is because the rubble obviously came from building material. But typically, when a building collapses, they just put that into a landfill, you don't use that rubble again.

You've been working on some way, Kimberly, to actually reuse the rubble?

PROF. KIMBERLY KURTIS, GEORGIA TECH: Yes. In Haiti, in particular, we found a way to use the rubble as part of the reconstruction efforts.

VELSHI: This is it your sort of example of the rubble, right?

KURTIS: This is an example of the rubble. And then we found it was so weak, and that's part of the reason why there was so much debris, that it was easy to crush and we could use it as aggregate in new concrete. Although the real challenge here was because it was so weak, would it make concrete of a sufficient quality that would withstand future earthquakes.

VELSHI: And is that why people don't use rubble from destroyed buildings to build more buildings? Is that typically what it is, that you can't make it as strong?

PROF. REGINALD DESROCHES, GEORGIA TECH: Right, that's typically what it is.

KURTIS: It's typically a big challenge. We thought, though, with some smart engineering, we could overcome that.

VELSHI: Tell me about the engineering. We know that at Georgia Tech you do that.

KURTIS: That is what we do.

So our first thought was to take a scientific approach and to really examine the materials that they're using in Haiti.

We know that they have two different sources of sand that they use. We wanted to see if both of those sands could produce concrete of sufficient quality, so we characterized the sands for their important properties.

And then also obtained rubble material from Haiti, crushed it and characterized that material, as well.

And then we used American design techniques, the American Concrete Institute design standards in order to properly proportion new concrete based upon the properties that we now understood in the (INAUDIBLE).

VELSHI: And what did you come up with?

DESROCHES: This is the actual rubble.

VELSHI: That's the actual rubble. So you put this all together and you created a -- you were able to be create and test a concrete that worked?

KURTIS: In the end, we took concrete that only had 1,300 pounds per square inch strength and we essentially more than doubled that strength for a new concrete. So we achieved a much stronger material from a relatively weak debris material.

VELSHI: I understand you're from Haiti.

DESROCHES: I am from Haiti.

VELSHI: Have you gone back?

DESROCHES: Eight times since the earthquake. During my fourth trip, I collected the rubble, put it in my suitcase, brought it back to see if we can reuse it.

VELSHI: What was your thoughts? I mean, initially, did you have any sense it had been done before and that it might work?

DESROCHES: The people were so concerned that it was so weak that there was no way recycling it you can get strong concrete.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: But I'm assuming the advantages of this is that there's a whole lot of it.

DESROCHES: There's a whole lot of it and they're having a hard time figuring out where to put it and how to get it into landfills. And so, if you can reuse it, you can make good concrete and stronger buildings.

VELSHI: Reginald, how complicated is this process that you guys have looked at to make a stronger concrete than the rubble?

DESROCHES: It's not that complicated. I think you have to --

KURTIS: One of the principles we wanted to use in our research was trying to use techniques that could be employed in Haiti. We didn't use any fancy equipment. It something that could really be taken and applied right away.

VELSHI: And ultimately, what we're talking about is grinding it up, combing with it with the available sands.

DESROCHES: Using the right proportions.

KURTIS: I think you just showed a video where we even showed graduate students, Josh Grecian (ph) and Bret Holly (ph), they were crushing it with a hammer, an ordinary hammer. The material is so weak, you're able to do that. Sieving it with standard sieves to get the right sizes. And then using the proper proportions.

VELSHI: Have they started sufficient building? I know that there's temporary housing being built. Is there enough going on?

DESROCHES: They're starting slowly, I think. Right now, they're starting to look at rebuilding, they're starting to think about recycling, but most of the recycling efforts right now are using them as fill in roads. And we showed that you can actually it not only as fill, but actually in rebuilding homes and buildings.

VELSHI: What a great thing. If that -- if it turns out they've got all the building material or at least to rebuild so much right there and it can be handled with low-tech material, using the sand that's available because that's OK and the rubble that they've got that you're seeing there, that is a very hopeful message for Haiti.

Thank you for all you do at Georgia Tech. We love having you over here to show us -- make us smarter.

All right, by the way, if you want to find out more about the incredible research going on at Georgia Tech, I'm posting a ling to them on my blowing, CNN.com/Ali. Really remarkable stuff.

Egypt's new vice president says the Muslim Brotherhood is invited to be part of the government dialogue with opposition groups. Wolf Blitzer is going to tell us about this right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for a Political Update. Wolf Blitzer joins us now with the latest news hot off the CNN Political Ticker.

Hey, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": There's a lot of political news, always happening. Obviously Egypt, though, dominating what's going on.

I just want to point out, you know, I listened carefully to the new vice president of Egypt, Omar Suleiman, Ali, to the interview he gave to Egyptian Nile TV, which is the official state TV there, and he made three important points that I just want to underline before we get to some other political stuff.

He praised President Mubarak as "our father." He said he will stay in office until September, the next scheduled elections. He's not going to run for reelection, his son or any family member won't run for election. But he did say Mubarak would stay in office, this is Omar Suleiman, the new vice president of Egypt.

He also lashed out at what he called foreign governments who are interfering in domestic Egyptian affairs. And then the third point, Ali, which is very worrisome to you and me and all of us who are journalists, he lashed out at the foreign news media he said from, quote, "brotherly countries," whatever that means, brotherly countries who are endangering Egyptians right now.

And we've seen all of these attacks on foreign reporters, including our own CNN reporters over the past few days. So that's a worrisome statement coming from the vice president of Egypt in this interview with Nile TV. It was a very long interview, I watched the whole thing.

A couple other points. The president of the United States, President Obama, he briefly mentioned Egypt when he spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast this morning here in Washington. Let me play that clip of what the president said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Even as we pray for Gabby in the aftermath of a tragedy here at home, we're also mindful of the violence that we're now seeing in the Middle East, and we pray that the violence in Egypt will end, and that the rights and aspirations of the Egyptian people will be realized, and that a better day will dawn over Egypt and throughout the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: In that same speech, he got personal, too, speaking about how he turned toward Christ and his Christianity some 20 years ago. He went into more depth on that than he has in other public comments, at least in the past few years.

Finally, one other item crossing the Political Ticker right now, Ali, the senior senator everywhere Florida, Bill Nelson, Democrat, he's up for a tough reelection campaign next year. He's now urging his colleagues in the Senate to pass a Sense of the Senate resolution urging the U.S. Supreme Court to expedite a decision on the health care constitutionality.

As you know, a couple of federal judges have now ruled it unconstitutional, forcing individuals to buy health care insurance. He would like to see that speeded up so there's no question where that stands -- Ali.

VELSHI: All right, Wolf, thanks very much for that. Great coverage of Egypt. You know so much about it. We're learning a lot from listening to your coverage of it as well. Thanks very much.

Your next update from "The Best Political Team on Television" is just one hour away.

As if the snow and ice weren't bad enough, the epic storm that battered 30 states this week has dragged a huge blast of arctic cold air behind it. As far as south as Dallas, wind-chill readings were at or below zero today long after the sun came up.

In northeast Oklahoma, the actual temperature was subzero when a truck plunged off a bridge and crashed through an ice-covered river. Six people were rescued but two died.