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More Snow in the South; Backlash Over Bath Salts; Banning Sexting at School in Southwest Washington; Smart Phones Versus Personal Computers; Patriot Act Extension Defeated; What Your Heart Needs More of; Rep. Giffords Speaking; U.S. Government Leaving Mortgage Business; Incumbent's Power & Pitfalls; Eatocracy with Richard Blais
Aired February 09, 2011 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm in for Ali Velshi, today, and you're looking live. Take a look at this. That's the St. Louis Arch, downtown St. Louis, overlooking the Mississippi River, and it is cold and dreary in St. Louis, as well as a big part of our country. They don't need to bother declaring a state of emergency in some parts of the country, especially Oklahoma. This one from last week, a storm is still in effect. So, this latest winter blast is small, by comparison, but still, it's prompting watches, warnings, and advisories from Texas to West Virginia.
And, once again, parts of Oklahoma have double digit snowfall, while temperatures fight to get above single digits. Can you imagine being in that for a prolonged period of time? Dallas, Fort Worth, could get another one to three inches, but, at least, the Super Bowl is over.
So, CNN's Ed Lavandera is back in his big coat and back in Oklahoma City. So, Ed, is it feeling like Ground Hog Day, right now?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I think I just wake up on this corner every other week, it feels like. But, you know, Oklahoma City is, kind of, bracing for something a little bit stronger. They've been, kind of, spared the brunt of this storm, at least, they think. Not as bad as in the northern parts of Oklahoma, where in places like Tulsa, they've gotten 12 inches of snow, again, this week. So, this is another brutal storm.
Really, it's been the story of temperatures and just how frigid cold it is. And, also, a story of just how dangerous it is on the roadways. Check out the video of a poor guy, we saw a little while ago, here, on the streets of downtown Oklahoma City. Kind of walking around and falls down. That's quite a fall.
It's, actually, interesting. Some state officials are saying that they've had some reports of 80 injuries, many of them -- people slipping and falling on the roads. So, not quite a laughing matter. I did that last week, as a matter of fact, and it took about a week to get the soreness out of my neck. So, a very dangerous situation in the roadways, and, really, the temperatures, Don, is what has a lot of the state emergency officials worried people. The snowdrifts have gotten up to about three feet, in some places, cars get stalled out, you get trapped in your car, there, for a long period of time in these frigid temperatures, and that can be extremely dangerous as you wait for rescue to come.
LEMON: Yes, and you know what, Ed? You talk about the snow, but we understand that some parts of Oklahoma, Tulsa, I think, expect to set a record for the snowiest month ever. Nobody's celebrating that record, I'm sure.
LAVANDERA: No, it's absolutely amazing. Rob Marciano was passing along, to me, some details. On average, a winter, here, in Oklahoma, gets about -- a little more than six inches of snow. They've more than doubled that, already, this winter season.
LEMON: Ah. Ed Lavandera, thank you very much. We turn now to our meteorologist Jacqui Jeras. The only question I have, Jacqui, what is going on, here?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's all part of a really complex weather pattern, but it, basically, allows arctic air to come in, you know, from time to time, throughout the season. It really doesn't move west of the Rockies. So, when that cold air is in place, we'll, often, get these southern tracking storms, like, here, in the Gulf of Mexico. So, that's why we're getting so much freezing-type precipitation in parts of the south.
And look at how much it's been done. Crazy. Total for Oklahoma, 20 inches in the last 24 hours. Seventeen in Hutchinson, Kansas; Burlington, 16, over a foot for you; in lower Arkansas and Amarillo had seven inches of rainfall -- snow fall. We wish.
LEMON: Amarillo, Texas, seven inches of snow? That's --
JERAS: Yes, they'll get snow in the panhandle. Yes, definitely. Well, here, you can see the height of the storm, and it's really kicking in across parts of Arkansas, right now. And take a look at the live picture out of Little Rock. It is coming down. An inch an hour can be expected, here, for the next couple of hours, so that can bring your totals up around eight inches or so.
And here's the track of the storm that's going to move right along the Gulf Coast and meeting up with that cold air. So, Nashville, Huntsville, even Atlanta maybe getting on some of this snow, late tonight. Moving up toward Charlotte and then exiting off the coast. The best thing we can, really, tell you, Don, is at least it's not going into the northeast.
LEMON: That's a problem for us.
JERAS: That's a problem for us, but it's going to be a wet snow. The worst will be overnight.
LEMON: Thank you, Jacqui Jeras. We appreciate it.
Hey, let's go on to other news, now. We're going to get to the backlash over bath salts, and the first thing that you need to know is that they're not really bath salts. They're similar hard drugs, though, entirely legal, in most places, and they're relatively cheap. When snorted or smoked, yes, people do that, they can cause a violent, almost psychotic, high, and that's why you see police in Louisiana, right there, taking them off store shelves.
CNN's Alina Cho has more, on this, from New York -- Alina.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Don. The name sounds innocent enough, bath salts. But don't let the name deceive you. Drug experts say they're just a synthetic version of cocaine or ecstasy, and that's per say. Their effects can be as powerful as using those drugs. Psychotic episodes, hallucinations, even suicidal thoughts.
And, in most states, you can buy these so-called bath salts legally. Now, Florida, Louisiana, and North Dakota, we should note, have taken action. They've, actually, banned the drugs. And Congress is, now, helping to do the same. Senator Chuck Schumer, of New York, recently proposed a bill that would put these bath salts on a list of federally controlled substances.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: The so-called "bath salts" are nothing more than deadly narcotics, and they're being sold cheaply to all comers, no questions asked, at store counters around the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: The drugs are available in convenience stores, smoke shops, and on-line, and, again, perfectly legal, in most states. They come in Kool-Aid type packets with names like, Red Dawn and Purple Wave, and they typically sell for about $20 to $80 a packet, relatively cheap. And that makes them particularly appealing to teen-agers. The salts can, then, be smoked, snorted, or ingested for a quick high. The White House Drug Czar recently put out a warning about these bath salts. The poison control center say, they've seen a sharp rise in calls about the drugs. More than 250 calls, Don, so far, this year -- Don.
LEMON: All right, Alina, thank you very much. I want to check some of your top stories, right now, on CNN. A school district in southwest Washington is upping the ante against students sexting, and they're playing around. The Kelso School District voted, unanimously, this week, to ban all explicit messages sent from students' phones on school property. That includes any sexual pictures, text messages and e-mails that students send. So, how will school officials know? Well, get this. Under the new code, school administrators will be allowed to confiscate and search student's personal cell phones. If a student is caught sexting, parents and police are notified. A second or third offense, that's a long-term suspension and even expulsion. The district's ban on sexting goes into effect, this fall. Stay tuned.
We all love our Blackberries and our iPhones, but do we love them more than our personal computers? Sure looks that way. The research firm, IDC, reports smart phones outsold personal computers in the last few months, for the first time. Worldwide smart phone makers shipped more than a 100 million devices, in the fourth quarter of 2010. That's an 87 percent increase from just the year before. Compare that to 92 million PCs that were shipped that same period. More than 300 million smart phones were shipped, last year.
Now to Egypt. Day 16 of the conflict, and no sign of the movements losing any steam. In fact, the crowds just keep getting bigger. Swarms of defined protestors taking over Tahrir Square, again, today. Now, some of them broke away to block Egypt's parliament and the prime ministry building. You're looking at live pictures, now, in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt. They say -- those protestors, they won't go away until President Mubarak does. Many of those protesters were galvanized, yesterday, when Egyptian activist, Wael Ghonim, address their -- them in Tahrir Square after being jailed for 12 days. CNN Correspondent Ivan Watson got an exclusive interview with Ghonim, earlier today. We'll hear from him, shortly.
An unexpected defeat for GOP leaders when they failed to pass an extension of three key provisions of the Patriot Act. The House voted 277 to 148 in favor of the bill, but that was short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass it. Twenty-six Republicans joined Democrats in opposes the bill, including new law-makers backed by the Tea Party. House Republics say they'll bring the -- bring the bill up, again, under rules requiring just a simple majority.
Do you need something more than love to keep your heart in good shape? And that something is a big part of your daily routine. You don't want to miss this story. We'll tell you what it is, right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: This next story applies to me and, I'm sure, a whole bunch of you. All of you multi-taskers, students, and night owls -- and insomniacs, who love the wee hours, this is especially for you.
According to a new study in a European heart journal, a lack of sleep may increase heart attacks or strokes. On average, people need between six and eight hours of shut eye a night to protect their health. The report says that if you get less than six hours of have disturbed sleep, you have a 48 percent greater chance of developing, or dying, from heart disease. And a 15 percent greater chance of developing, or dying, from a stroke.
But the study, also, found that you can get too much sleep. Yes, you can. Researchers warn that nine or more hours at a stretch may be a sign of illness, including heart disease. Or just laziness as well.
Our researchers looked at data from 15 past studies that included more than 470,000 participants from eight countries, including the U.S., Japan, Britain, and Sweden. Fannie Mae and Freddy Mack may be leading in the mortgage business. Who's suggesting it? What it means for you? I'll have that for you, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: This is just in to CNN. Some promising news when it comes to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her recovery. We're hearing that she is regaining part of her speech. Let's go now to our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, on the phone.
Dr. Gupta, what does this mean?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, this is obviously a very important development. And it means a lot in terms of one's overall brain recovery. What we've known so far, Don, is all the milestones that she's been passing over the last month now, it's a month and a day that this happened, this gunshot wound to the head.
Obviously she's in a rehab facility now. She was able to follow commands immediately after the injury. And she's been able to now eat solid food. She is breathing on her own.
The important distinction here, Don, is that following commands means that you're able to understand what someone's saying and execute a command based on that. When someone is talking now and able to say something that has meaning -- in this case -- I just got off the phone with her office, what the meaning -- what she was saying was asking for toast, for example, that obviously indicates of her ability to communicate is there. When people talk about speech, it's not just the ability to understand speech, but obviously the ability to express yourself as well. You ultimately want to prove or show that someone can do both. So this is a very important development.
LEMON: Doctor --
GUPTA: I will tell you that I just got off the phone with her office. They say that this actually happened earlier than this morning and that she has actually spoken even more since then. So it wasn't a one-time event, Don.
LEMON: As we get more information on this story, I have one quick question for you. Almost one month to the day, it happened on the eighth of January, this is the ninth of February, what does this mean as far as recovery for people who have similar wounds?
GUPTA: A great question. What I will tell you is this. That after brain injuries, whether they be from a trauma like this or even from a stroke, people can have recovery up to a year and a half even, 18 months after the injury. So what we know is that people who recover quickly, meaning they have a quick time course, their overall end point seems to be better. Now, she's had a remarkably fast recovery thus far and that bodes well for what her -- what her end points likely to be.
LEMON: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta with our developing news here on Gabrielle Giffords. Representative Gabrielle Giffords regaining part of her speech. We'll update you as we get more information on this story. In the meantime, let's talk -- let's go to Washington now and talk about the Obama administration is expected to deliver a proposal this week recommending a phase-out plan for government-sponsored mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Well, what could that plan look like? Our Christine Romans is in New York and she takes a look.
Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, HOST, "YOUR BOTTOM LINE": Don, the White House, on Friday, will lay out three options for phasing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the troubled and bleeding agency supported by taxpayers. Agencies responsible for so much of the mortgage market. How this is done is critical to the housing market, your house price and your ability to get a loan. It's a part of the economy still reeling from the economic crisis.
Nine out of 10 home loans are filtered in some way through the government, through Fannie or Freddie or the FHA. Now they don't give you a loan, Fannie and Freddie, they guarantee investors against losses if you default on your loan. Essentially they're an engine that keeps the mortgage market liquid and moving. Critics say this engine helped rev the housing market too fast. Supporters say, without the government involved, not everyone has access to the American dream of a home loan.
Now, there are three basic options. This first is to get the government out of the mortgage market completely. That's the first option. The second is to backstop loans -- backstop loans in some way have a government infrastructure or a government and a private infrastructure to backstop loans. And the third is to only backstop loans during periods of, quote, "market stress."
Now, keep in mind, this reform comes at a very fragile time. So the White House, of course, wants to clearly be very careful about what they're doing to avoid another leg down in the housing market.
Don.
LEMON: All right, Christine, thank you very much.
Be sure to tune in to "Your Bottom Line" with Christine Roman each Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, and "Your Money," of course, with Ali Velshi Saturday at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and Sundays at 3:00.
All right, updating the latest developments in our top stories right now.
Egyptian protests appear to be gaining momentum today with massive crowds, jamming Cairo's main square. They spilled over into a nearby compound housing government buildings. The state television says the growing protests forced the government to move parliament to another building.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano tells Congress the terrorist threat to the U.S. homeland has continued to evolve and may now be at its most heightened state since the September 11th attacks in 2001. In addition to al Qaeda, she says home-grown terrorists are a growing threat.
Another winter storm is moving across the southeast after dumping another layer of snow on the nation's midsection. Oklahoma has already seeing heavy snow. And the Dallas area could see up to three inches with watches, warnings, advisories stretching from Texas to West Virginia.
A sitting president has the advantage of incumbency when running for reelection. But incumbency can also have its drawbacks. Ed Henry will break it down for you next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Welcome back, everyone. Let's talk politics, specifically the contenders. President Obama has an edge on the 2012 competition. He's already in the White House, but incumbency can also have its negatives. Let's go to CNN's Ed Henry now to break it down -- break down the biggest 2012 contender, and that's President Obama.
Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, when we take a close look at the contenders for 2012, we obviously need to include the sitting president of the United States. But while incumbency has its privileges, it also clearly brings some challenges as well.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY (voice-over): Call it the power of the presidency, especially that 416-ton taxpayer finance jet that helps you rally voters, rake in millions and grab headlines from coast to coast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When he goes into local markets, I mean you've been all over with him, he sucked all of the oxygen out of the air.
HENRY: Allowing President Obama to road-test a potential 2012 campaign slogan, popping up on new t-shirts that say, "we do big things."
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can do what this moment demands and focus on what's necessary for America to win the future.
HENRY: But incumbency also has a downside.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They do bad things and the policies that they've imposed have not helped us, you know, get unemployment down to where it ought to be.
HENRY: The candidate of hope and change in 2008 was largely a blank slate. Now he has to defend a controversial record, which is why he tried to hit the reset button and focus on jobs in his State of the Union. But the crisis in Egypt is a reminder, sometimes incumbents set the agenda. Other times it gets set for them.
OBAMA: Our hearts are broken. And yet our hearts also have reason for fullness.
HENRY: While the Tucson tragedy was also out of the president's control, he rose to the occasion, and his approval rating has been on the rise, now hitting an impressive 55 percent. At this point in their presidencies, Ronald Reagan was only at 37 percent, Bill Clinton was at 47 percent. But after suffering big mid-term election losses, they were both reelected easily. This president has learned lessons from Reagan and Clinton and has made key adjustments after last November's shellacking, shaking up his staff and moving to the center on issues like tax cuts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In order to move forward, he had to do that deal. And I certainly don't think he caved.
HENRY: Some liberals fiercely (ph) disagree, but so far there's no sign of a serious primary challenge to the president. And he may also be helped by the Republicans' muddled field so far. But Ed Gillespie (ph) argues that tough competition could help the GOP, just like the Democratic primary of 2008.
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: Shame on you, Barack Obama.
HENRY: While the pundits warned that the long drama of Clinton v. Obama would hurt the party, just the opposite happened.
HENRY (on camera): And it made Obama better.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it made Obama -- when he emerged as the nominee, he was a stronger nominee for it.
HENRY (voice-over): By 2012, the president will have had four years of hand-to-hand combat, this time with Republicans. The big question now is whether those battles have once again made him a stronger nominee.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: Now, it's fascinating to examine some of the states the president has been visiting in recent weeks. Take a look at this map that we've put together. He's been to Indiana, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania. Tomorrow he goes to Michigan. What do all these states have in common? Obviously they're key battlegrounds for 2012. And so while the president has not officially announced he's running for re-election, make no mistake about it, when it comes to 2012, he's a contender.
Don, back to you.
LEMON: All right, Ed, thank you very much.
Could a painful surgery for breast cancer patients be eliminated? Some encouraging news that you'll certainly want to hear. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Happening now, winter weather watches. Warnings and advisories stretching from Texas to West Virginia as another winter storm heads across the southeast. Oklahoma and Arkansas have already seen heavy snow and the Dallas area could see up to three inches.
Egyptian protesters are to be gaining momentum today -- supposed to be gaining momentum today with massive crowds in Cairo's main square. They're spilling over into a nearby compound housing government buildings. The state television says the growing protests forced the government to move parliament to another building.
On Capitol Hill, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke tells lawmakers they need a quote, "credible program to reduce the nation's growing deficit." He warns that even after economic and financial conditions return to normal, the budget will remain on an unsustainable path unless Congress enacts significant fiscal changes.
Some big and bright news to tell you about in the fight against breast cancer today. New research shows some women with the disease may be able to avoid a painful and complicated surgery that's been common practice in treatment.
And CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now to tell us about this pretty remarkable and promising news.
It is promising.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is promising. It's a real change in how they treated breast cancer, because the things the doctors have always thought is, you go in, you get the tumor, and then you see if it's spread. Because you got a breast here and you've got a lot of lymphnodes right next to it.
So if it spreads to the lymph nodes, the thinking's been, let's take out like 12 to 15 lymph nodes. Let's take out a whole bunch of them just for margin of error. But now the thinking is, according to this new study, you don't help women. They're not more likely to survive the cancer if you take out all those. You can just take out the one -- that one closest and that's it. And then give them chemo and radiation.
LEMON: So again, why not remove? They think it's better not to remove the group of nodes?
COHEN: Right. The thinking has been, let's just take them, because why risk it? Let's just take it. But, the problem with risking it, and you can see those survival rates are very similar, whether you take a whole bunch or don't take a whole bunch, the reason why you don't want to take a whole bunch is that when you take all those lymph nodes out, women can get really painful swelling in their arm, they can have nerve damage. So you'd rather save the lymph nodes if you can. And this study says you can.
LEMON: All right. So when a woman has breast cancer surgery, what questions should she be asking her doctor? COHEN: Right. You really have to be an empowered patient here because doctors are going to disagree about this. Some doctors will tell you, let's take out a dozen lymph nodes. And others will tell you, you know what, one is fine, let's just take out the one.
And you're really going to have to ask your doctor about your particular situation, why is he choosing to do what he's choosing to do. And if you don't like the answer, if you feel like it's not on rock solid ground, you can consult another doctor.
LEMON: It's another step though, it's another step. Promising, as you said, in a way but --
COHEN: Right. And this isn't curing breast cancer at all. This isn't really -- there's none of that. It's just making the treatment easier to survive.
LEMON: And those nodes are important for your immune, system, right?
COHEN: Right. I mean, you want to keep them if you can. If you can keep the nodes you want to keep the nodes. And so if you can, why not?
LEMON: Thank you, Elizabeth Cohen.
COHEN: Thanks.
LEMON: Appreciate it.
If you're looking to get cooking on Valentine's Day, well, look no further. We've got chef Richard Blais back for this week's Eatocracy segment, and he's going to show us how to whip up one sweet and complete meal. I can't wait to eat up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Welcome back, everyone. Several major developments in the people's power revolution in Egypt. Tens of thousands of pro- democracy demonstrators again jam Cairo's Tahrir Square today and for the first time, spread their movement to the labor sector. Members of trade unions, oil workers, public transportation workers and some members of the state-controlled media either went on strike or joined the protests. The backdrop to this, an ominous signal from the new vice president warning the risk of a coup if the protestors don't back down and constitutional reforms fail.
And in an exclusive interview with CNN's Ivan Watson, a former Egyptian Google executive, now viewed by many as the face of the revolt, spoke out about his ordeal and the revolution.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Thirty-year-old Wael Ghonim is one of a group of young Egyptian activists who helped organize the first seminal protests here on January 25th, which triggered a popular uprising which has shaken the foundations of the Egyptian government.
He was released on Monday after spending a week and a half in solitary confinement, blindfolded, after being picked off the streets by four plain-clothed secret police. In an exclusive interview with CNN, he said time in negotiation with the Egyptian government is over.
WAEL GHONIM, EGYPTIAN ACTIVIST: I just posted it on twitter yesterday. This is no longer the time to negotiate, unfortunately. We went on the streets on the 25th, and we wanted to negotiate. We wanted to talk to our government. We were, you know, knocking the door. They decided to negotiate with us at night with rubber bullets, with police sticks, with, you know, water hoses, with tear gas tanks, and with arresting about 500 people of us. Thanks, we got the message. Now when we escalated this and it became really big, they started listening to us. WATSON: Ghonim said this was not a time for negotiations because there was too much blood that had been spilled. More than 300 people killed since the protests began more than two weeks ago, according to a recent report by the group Human Rights Watch.
When we walked with him through the streets of Cairo, he was approached by strangers who stopped their cars and ran up to kiss him, to embrace him, calling him a hero. He says that this movement that was begun was started by young, hip, internet-plugged-in Egyptians. He said the Muslim Brotherhood played no role in that initial January 25th uprising -- protest.
Take a listen to what he had to say.
GHONIM: They decided to negotiate with us at night with rubber bullets, with police sticks, with, you know, water hoses, with tear gas tanks, and with arresting about 500 people of us. Thanks, we got the message. Now when we escalated this and it became really big, they started listening to us.
WATSON: Ghonim is calling for the immediate dissolution of the Egyptian Democratic party. He has also suggesting that Mohamed ElBaradei could be a good candidate as it goes through a transition period. And he is very commited to his cause. He pulled out a sign that notarized power of attorney granting his assets to his wife, who is an American citizen originally from California, he says. He says he is ready to die to make Egypt a better country.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Cairo.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right, Ivan. Thank you very much.
To Italy now and a major setback for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Prosecutors today formally requested a trial of the embattled Berlusconi for an abuse of power and sex with an underage prostitute. At the heart of the case, claims that Berlusconi paid for sex with a nightclub dancer who was 17 at the time of the alleged incident. The prime minister has dismissed the accusation as groundless and says the push for a trial is a farce. He also says there was no abuse of power.
I want to update your top stories here on CNN. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is starting to speak again. Her spokesman says she has been able to ask for toast. Giffords is undergoing rehab in Houston after a gunman shot her in the head last month. The spokesman says that the rehab facility is doing a fabulous job of working with her.
Another winter storm is moving across the southeast right now after dumping another layer of snow on the nation's midsection. Oklahoma and Arkansas have already seen heavy snow. And the Dallas area could see up to three inches with watches, warnings and advisories stretching from Texas to West Virginia.
Some news from Capitol Hill for you. Democratic Senator Jim Webb of Virginia is throwing in the towel. Webb tells CNN that he'll retire at the end of his term. He was elected in 2006, beating Republican senator George Allen in an upset. We'll have more on this in our political ticker at 1:52 p.m.
And pirates have hijacked a U.S.-bound oil tanker in the Arabian Sea, about 350 miles southeast of Oman. The Greek tanker with a crew of 15 was carrying two million barrels of crude oil. One official says the hijacking marks the significant shift in the impact of the piracy crisis of the Indian Ocean.
All right. So, what's the way to someone's heart? You've heard that old saying, the way through someone's heart is through their stomach, especially a man, right? Well, then, this is the man to talk to. Just in time for Valentine's Day, too. Eatocracy with Richard Blais.
OK, so what is this? Valentine's food? Is it aphrodisiac food? Is it love food? What is it?
RICHARD BLAIS, CONCEPT CHEF, FLIP BURGER BOUTIQUE: It's all of the above, all right?
LEMON: OK.
BLAIS: We're talking about how to cook a valentine's meal for your loved one when maybe you don't necessarily know how to cook. I don't know what your skill level is.
LEMON: I'm all right.
BLAIS: You're all right. So these are all the things you can do really creatively, probably within one hour. Just go shop, but some ingredients and do something that's really going to go, wow, to your loved one.
LEMON: OK.
BLAIS: We're going to start with a beverage, all right? This happens to be a non-alcoholic beverage. Of course it'd be real easy. You go to the store, you buy some champagne for Valentine's Day. You toast.
LEMON: So it's non-alcoholic.
BLAIS: So it's non-alcoholic. The neat thing is this is kind of a new gadget I'm playing with. And this is the ISI Twist and Sparkle. So what it is is, inside of here is beet juice -- beet juice and raspberries. My Valentine's is going to be a little unusual.
LEMON: I do beet juice and pomegranate.
BLAIS: Pomegranate would work great. Raspberry pomegranate would work. So the neat thing here is I'm going to carbonate this, sort of make a faux champagne, because that was bubbly, right?
LEMON: Yes.
BLAIS: So we have our beet juice. I have one charge in here. And you can really see, kind of neat thing here, is it actually just carbonates. You could do this, put it in your fridge, sit down for dinner and then you have this beautiful faux champagne.
LEMON: This is awfully fancy. It won't do the same thing if you do like club soda or tonic? No?
BLAIS: Actually, it will. Whatever you put in here, it's going to carbonate. So this just happens to be a (INAUDIBLE). It's Valentine's Day, it's red. Red wine, you know, love, all of that sort of thing. Nice way to start with a non-alcoholic, bubbly drink.
And then we're going to move into, I think, a dish that's very much valentine's day. Oysters, right? They're aphrodisiacs people tell me. I'm not sure. But a neat way to make oysters happen and be creative about it is to top them with something really cold beause oysters have to be really cold.
So really here all I did was go buy some great oysters. I made a beach setting. Cinnamon stick is really some driftwood.
(CROSSTALK)
BLAIS: So you have this beautiful raw oysters, some cucumber. That's simple. And then I just bought some lemon sorbet. Bewcause lemon and oysters. That's like a beautiful person in jeans and a T- shirt. Really elegant, really simple.
LEMON: Lemon sorbet on an oyster. On the oyster?
BLAIS: Lemon sorbet right on an oyster.
Right like that and you can just -- you pop it. It's something you can just buy the sorbet, you shuck the oyster, it's in your fridge and that's something --
(CROSSTALK)
BLAIS: After the oyster, we have our beautiful, bubbly champagne to start our meal. We have our slurpy oyster. It's Valentine's night. Now we need to get into the meat of the menu, literally. To me Italian food is very romantic. That's Valentine's Day. Throwing together some soulful food.
Is it tasty?
LEMON: That is awesome.
(CROSSTALK)
BLAIS: You know what? Even if you have cocktail sauce, because I love cocktail sauce, too, throw it in the freezer, freeze it and just kind of shave it on top of your oyster. If that's the flavor you're going for, that's delicious.
Here's another one of my favorite little tools that everyone -- sort of reminds me of my mom. You know, this is a pressure cooker. It's going to release a little pressure here. There we go. We're going to make a quick bolognese dish, right? Italian food, really, that's romantic, you know? And you can kind of - how does that smell?
LEMON: Ah, that's nice!
BLAIS: It's delicious, right?
LEMON: Bolognese. That's my grandparents' name. They're from the Bolognese region --
BLAIS: Oh, right on! To me, this is like my ultimate comfort food. But it's a dish that traditionally cooks for hours, right? And so, your grandmother cooks it for hours, and it takes a lot of time. But by cooking it in a pressure cooker, this only took 15 minutes. But it's got that flavor and that soul to it like it's cooked all day long.
LEMON: So, you could do it with, like what? In a saucepan if you don't want to use this, right? But it takes awhile.
BLAIS: You can, but I'm trying to think of, hey, you just got home from work, it's Valentine's night. You don't really want to spend a lot of time prepping. You're just going to throw it together. So, a pressure cooker, a lot of people have --
LEMON: Or a slow cooker? Can I use this?
BLAIS: Sure. Yes. Absolutely. You can go for it. But that's a way to get a lot of soul to your food, a lot of sort of depth of flavor in a short amount of time. You probably have a pressure cooker -- or people do, somewhere under their cupboard, sort of hiding out.
LEMON: And it's got a rice cooker, too.
BLAIS: Yes, that works. And here's the dish, of course. I like to spend time on the presentation. Let the machines do the work, you know, and then you can have fun and sort of make it beautiful. So, that's our bolognese. And then we're going to move into what I think is the neatest part of the Valentine's meal.
LEMON: OMG, this is good (ph).
BLAIS: That's tasty, right?
LEMON: Wow!
BLAIS: You know, I'm a New Yorker so I think I have some rights somewhat to be somewhat of an Italian, because I was born and raised in New York.
LEMON: Artichokes?
BLAIS: That's just some Italian sausage and ground veal and pork and mushrooms and celery. The rest is on your blog, I think, actually.
LEMON: All right.
BLAIS: And now we're going to move into the best part of Valentine's -
LEMON: Wait, wait, hang on. That goes in here, right?
BLAIS: That's this.
LEMON: So, this thing. All right. So -
BLAIS: So, that's some rigatoni I cooked and then tossed it with all the ingredients that were in the pressure cooker. And now we're going to move into dessert. All right. And desserts, this is my favorite one.
So, again, we're going to come back to one of my gadgets. This is called a gourmet whip. And you've probably seen these. You go get coffee, they put whipped cream on your coffee, right?
LEMON: Right.
BLAIS: You took a step back. You're a little nervous there.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: I'm afraid.
BLAIS: All right. But what I have in here is actually cake batter.
LEMON: Your cooking -- I'm afraid of bad breath. I always do that when I --
BLAIS: We have three ingredients in here. We have eggs, we have flour, we have sugar. That's all that's in here. A little red food coloring. So, we're doing sort of a red velvet cake.
LEMON: Oh, I got ya. And then squeeze this. BLAIS: Squeeze in here. So, this is just a paper cup. All right. I call this dish Easy Bake Microwave.
LEMON: Can I try it?
BLAIS: It's got to cook first. You want to try doing it?
LEMON: Yes, I want to try doing it
BLAIS: OK. Put a little bit right on top of there.
LEMON: So, Easy Bake Microwave.
BLAIS: Easy Bake Microwave. That's just cake batter that's in there.
LEMON: How much? All the way to the top?
BLAIS: Yes, you can go. Fine. Perfect. All right. And now, how easy is this? We're going to use one of my favorite gadgets as well, the microwave. Everyone has one of these.
So, you want to do this, actually?
LEMON: Yes. Put it on what?
BLAIS: Let's do 30 seconds. Just hit 30, start on the bottom right there.
LEMON: Right here.
BLAIS: So, 30 seconds, and then I'm going to start the rest of the plate. So, I mean, baking a cake is something that takes a lot of skill, right? A lot of time? But really, we'll just put it in this. And we load it in the paper cup --
LEMON: Not if you just get one that you unfreeze at the --
BLAIS: That's true.
(LAUGHTER)
BLAIS: I guess you could -
LEMON: Or you could go to one of your restaurants.
BLAIS: This is for your loved one. You're really giving -
LEMON: Yes you want to, you want to put it -
BLAIS: You put your own touches on it. All right? So, that's cooking for the last five seconds. Of course, this is a spin on red velvet cake, so we need some cream cheese icing. This is just some cream cheese ice cream that we made.
LEMON: May I serve? BLAIS: Absolutely. I want you to see because this is kind of like the --
LEMON: Uh-oh. That one's bad.
BLAIS: That's all right. That's all right. You're fine, actually.
LEMON: It went over the sides a little bit.
BLAIS: That's fine. What I want you to do actually is just -- we're just going to unload it right on the table. Just turn it right upside down.
LEMON: It's good! It's like, you know, a little garnish on the side.
BLAIS: Exactly. They're not going to see the paper cup. Although you could serve it in the paper cup.
LEMON: Oh, rock on!
BLAIS: Look at that. That's an angel food cake in 30 seconds. All right. See how spongy it is and beautiful? That kind of works for Valentine's Day. So, we're going to do a little scoop of the cream cheese ice cream. Real simple.
And then we have one we just did right before we went live. Let's see. See? Yours looks just like mine. Mine has been sitting out for a little bit. So, this beautiful sort of - again, angel food cake, a pink velvet cake, with some cream cheese icing.
And really, this is all food you can do in an hour. This is cooking for 20 minutes. The oyster is raw, you bought some sorbet. The pasta takes five minutes to cook, the cake took 30 seconds to make. We made our own wine in 30 seconds.
LEMON: All right. I'm going to try it.
It is spongy. I don't have the right tools here.
BLAIS: That's all right.
LEMON: You want to try it? Ali, come over here.
BLAIS: You can eat it with your hands, too.
LEMON: My hands are clean. Try that. Tell me what you think.
BLAIS: Here you go. Nice and warm right out of the Easy Bake Microwave.
LEMON: Is it yummy?
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: I just saw Ali (INAUDIBLE). Thank you.
Richard Blais, congratulations. You have a baby girl.
BLAIS: A new baby girl. I have a two-and-a-half year old and a three-day-old.
LEMON: Three day old?!
BLAIS: Still wearing her bracelet.
LEMON: What is her name? Bree?
BLAIS: Her name is Ambriolotus. So, Bree could be for short. So, we have one girl, her name is Rielly. So we call her Rye Bread. And now we have Ambri. She can be Brie. She can be cheese. We have bread and cheese. I just need wine.
LEMON: Congratulaitons. That's your is Valentine's present.
BLAIS: Absolutely.
LEMON: That's the best of all. This is really amazing. I'm going to try some of this. Do you have any more of those oysters left?
BLAISE: We do.
LEMON: All right, good.
BLAISE: Awesome.
LEMON: All right.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: You should hear what people are saying in my ear.
All right. Nobody's getting any of this in the NEWSROOM, because we're going to eat it all! Thank you, Richard.
And for more on Richard's recipes and all things culinary - or culinary - however you want to say it -- check out our food blog. Opinions, poll, videos, ideas and interviews with the most fascinating people in food. At Eatocracy.CNN.com.
Cheers. Congratulations to you. Nonalcoholic.
(COMMERCIAL BEEAK)
LEMON: Beautiful live pictures of the Statue of Liberty there. OK. Time now for a CNN Political Update. Our senior political analyst, Gloria Borger, joins me from the political desk in Washington. Hi, Gloria. How you doing?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: How are you doing? actually, on top of the political desk. Sitting on top of the political desk in Washington.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: I know. But Mark Preston all those tall guys there, you have to sit up there to get to the camera height.
BORGER: Exactly, right.
LEMON: Hey, Gloria, let's talk about Democrats in Virginia. They're not that surprised by senator Jim Webb's announcement today. I just reported here on CNN.
BORGER: Yes. You know, it was interesting. A lot of Democrats were predicting he wasn't going to run again, and he didn't surprise them. He decided nah, one term was enough. But that kind of throws everything up in the air in Virginia. Very much a swing state.
Salivating out there to get back is George Allen, Republican candidate, who lost very narrowly to Webb in 2006. You know, this is tough for the Democrats because you've got more than twice as many Democrats up for reelection in the Senate than Republicans, so it's tough as it is. So, not having an incumbent probably doesn't help them very much, so they're not thrilled about that.
We also have a new development on health care today. As you know, Don, this is playing out in the courts right now. And Virginia officials have actually filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking for an expedited review of their case, saying that it's way too important to go through the regular process.
Our Supreme Court producer, Bill Mears, says this very rarely happens. But as you know, we're going to continue to see health care play out in the political arena in the Congress so we'll be watching it in both places.
Also tomorrow here right in Washington we've got the CPAC convention. That's the Convention of Conservatives. A lot of political presidential wannabes hanging out there. A couple who are not going to be there, Sarah Palin won't be there. Mike Huckabee will not be there. But we just learned that the keynote speaker is a new house Republican, Allen West of Florida. An Iraq war veteran backed by the Tea Party, one of two African-American Republicans now serving in the House. So, we'll all be interested in hearing what he's got to say. We'll be covering CPAC.
LEMON: So, Huckabee won't be there. He's one of the leading contenders. Sarah Palin falls further down on the list. But he's one of the biggest contenders. Not there?
BORGER: Yes. You know, it's interesting. CPAC is an interesting group. They have a straw poll every year, who's going to become the next presidential candidate. I think last year, Mitt Romney won it. You know, didn't really work out so well for him.
But, you know, it's a convention that is important for conservatives and maybe Mike Huckabee hasn't quite decided what he wants to do. A lot are trying to push him into the race, but we're not sure what he's going to do.
LEMON: It's early. There's still time. Oh, wait --
BORGER: And Sarah Palin may just be too big for it.
LEMON: Oh! OK. You said it. Thank you very much, Gloria.
Up next, some spooky ghosts pay an unwanted visit to a London amusement park. At least that's what some workers there say. That's coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. A spooky story out of London for today's "Odds & Ends." Check this out.
Officials at England's Thorpe Park relocated their brand-new Walter ride -- or water ride, excuse me -- called Storm Surge after workers there reported paranormal activity around the ride's new site. Paranormal activity like objects mysteriously moving about and sudden cold feelings.
A paranormal detection agency was called in. Can you believe that? And they suggested the spot was an ancient burial ground that may have been disturbed by all the construction workers.
There you go. Now you know.
All right. So back here in the States, some lawmakers in Maryland have an idea of how to raise money to cover transportation cuts. Slot machines, about 2,500 of them, at Baltimore's airport. Yes, who needs Vegas when you can go to BWI?
That's actually the third time the supporters have tried to push through the idea. They say slots beat the alternative moneymaker, raising the gas tax.
