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Salt Trucks Keeping Highways Clear; Rail System Moving After Delays Tuesday; Strong Winds May Cause Delays; Weather Outlook; Black Friday Shopping Tips; OJ Simpson's Request for a New Trial Denied; Arizona Couple Charged with Holding Three Sisters Captive for Years

Aired November 27, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Great to be with you, all. I'm Brooke Baldwin on this Thanksgiving eve.

Got to talk about cold and snow and ice and rain and wind. Combine all these facts with one of the busiest travel days of this entire year and you might imagine chaos on the highways and airports this Thanksgiving holiday. Guess what? At least for now, most places are in much better shape than anticipated. Airports are reporting relatively few delays or cancellations. That's great news for you today. Millions of air travelers are getting in, getting out, getting on with their lives.

And of course, there are plenty of challenges out there. Just take a look at some of these pictures. This is Akron, Ohio. Drivers in this neck of the country here have to deal with several inches of fresh snow. Same story across western Pennsylvania, up into Upstate New York where up to 10 inches of snow has fallen there. And we're being told more snow is possible later on this evening.

That could all change very quickly, especially if those winds pick up. That's part of the story here today. Let's take a look. Our correspondents there standing out there in it for us. They're strategically placed to keep on top of it for us on this Wednesday. Shannon Travis is watching those interstates near Pittsburgh, Alexandra Field is at Penn Station in New York, and Alina Machado is at the world's busiest airport in Atlanta. So, left to right we go.

Shannon Travis, let's begin with you in Pennsylvania. It looks cold. It looks snowy. Tell me how those interstates are looking.

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, I have to be honest and tell you that I'm one of those nervous travelers who's hoping that they make it home in time for some stuffing and some turkey and in time for Thanksgiving. Look at this. I mean it's snowing. It's been snowing here on and off in Pittsburgh all day since we've been out here. It doesn't seem to be sticking that much. I mean the road that we're on right now and the roads that we've been watching have been pretty clear, but that's in part due to the crews that have been out salting the roads, clearing the snow pretty quickly.

It is accumulating though. Take a look at just some of the snow on the grass behind me. I mean we've been kind of, you know, feeling it, playing with it a little bit all day. It is wet and it's sticking. Obviously a concern for many reasons, not just on the roads, but on the power lines weighing down.

Take a look at those roads that I just mentioned behind me. These roads we've been monitoring all day. They've been moving pretty steadily, although the cars seem to be driving a little bit slower because there is some concern for ice. Everybody, obviously, wants to make sure that they travel safely.

The transportation officials that I've spoken with in this county, Allegheny County, have told me that they've pretty much dodged a bullet here, but there are other counties, Brooke, that are not that far away, not doing as well. Beaver County, Lawrence County in Pennsylvania as well have been seeing some up to 12 inches of snow. Crews are out in full force there. But here, as you mentioned off top, it's been pretty smooth going. So not only all the travelers on the road, but certainly this traveler, we hope that we get out of here (INAUDIBLE).

BALDWIN: We wish you well, Shannon Travis, and knocking on wood for you right here in studio seven. Shannon Travis, we'll check back in with you. Here is hoping smooth sailing for folks there in Pennsylvania.

To the rail system and people at New York's Penn Station, they are hoping, they are praying it will not be a repeat of yesterday. I mean just look at this wall of humanity. Massive delays for most of the evening because of a disabled train. That's the picture I'm talking about. Look at that, all the crowds there waiting. Alexandra Field.

I mean Penn Station is a tough place to sort of maneuver on a normal day. I've done it myself. It's tough. Tell me how today looks.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And you'd expect the same today. And Penn Station is full of people, just as you would imagine it would be, but no one should be stuck here waiting too terribly long. One hundred and forty thousand people are expected to ride Amtrak trains today. That's a lot. But Amtrak says that service is running well here in the northeast. There have been no major interruptions. There were weather related delays earlier today between New Haven and Boston. But when we talk to people who are out traveling today, they say they were prepared for this. They knew that there would be some holdups along the way and they're just trying to take it all in stride. Here's what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: And what were you thinking when you decided you were going to head out on the day before Thanksgiving?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I didn't want to head out the day before Thanksgiving, but had I classes and stuff, so I had to leave today.

FIELD: Have any reservations about heading out on, you know, one of the busiest travel days of the year?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.

FIELD: Did you have any concerns about weather, delays, crowds?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a holiday. You just expect it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: We've been keeping our eyes on the big board here at Penn Station all day, along with a lot of other people. There are 15 or 16 trains currently scheduled to leave the station. Right now, only three of them are running late or delayed. So if you're coming to Penn Station, you actually have pretty good odds it seems of getting out of here on time.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: I like what that woman said, listen, you're traveling the day before Thanksgiving, you just roll with it. Alexandra Field, thank you very much at Penn Station.

And now let's talk airlines because they are still recovering after all that bad weather caused thousands of flights to be delayed or cancelled. Let's go straight to the busiest airport in the world. Alina Machado braving those winds in Atlanta for us, outside the airport.

Alina, set the scene for me.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, definitely windy, you can see by the way my hair looks right now. It's cold. But some good news, the sun's actually coming out.

Delays here are minimal. We were inside a little earlier and we saw some delays, departure delays popping up on flights heading to Philadelphia or New Jersey. But overall, things are looking really good here. It's busy. It's the busiest travel day of the year. And you can see that walking through the terminal here. You can see that out here. Cars lining up to drop people off, to head wherever they're heading for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Brooke, overall, good news here in Atlanta.

BALDWIN: Good, good, good. Alina Machado, thank you very much. Thanks to all three of our correspondents. We'll be keeping close tabs on all three of them throughout the next couple of ours. But some airports, they do expect a surge of passengers this afternoon. And if the winds, that's the big story, if they continue to pick up along the East Coast, we could suddenly see a lot of delays, a lot of cancellations and a lot of stranded people hungry for their turkey.

Chad Myers, talk to me, in the CNN Weather Center. I see the map behind you. How's it looking (INAUDIBLE).

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's called the misery map. Flight Aware -

BALDWIN: The misery map. MYERS: And Flight Aware makes this misery map for us so that we can just talk to you one-on-one here. Four hundred and fifty-seven flights are delayed right now. Now, there are 6,547 planes in the sky right now. I went dark?

BALDWIN: You're going dark.

MYERS: I work - I do my best work in the dark with my microphone on. You can't imagine how good I am with my microphone off.

BALDWIN: Keep rolling. Keep going.

MYERS: There you go. Twenty-four cancellations altogether. And Atlanta right now, you have 48 of those flights are delayed.

Here's what delays look like. Philadelphia, the longest, about two hours. LaGuardia, JFK, Newark, between 30 minutes and 45 minutes. So that's always - maybe gives you an extra minute or two to get to the plane if the TSA lines are long. You don't have to worry about getting there exactly on time.

There's what's left of the delays. And all into the warnings. And here you go into the rainfall. It's still raining in New York City, but the -- I would say the snow is picking up in parts of Maryland, also into parts of western Virginia and parts of Pennsylvania. That's because the cold air is working its way back into the system, but it's almost done.

D.C., one to two hour delays. Metro D New York, that's the same. We've already got that. And Philadelphia two hours. We're already there.

Here are the winds for tonight. Thirty-eight miles per hour. The winds are not too bad in New York City or Boston right now. You're almost in the eye of this thing. You know you think about the eye of a hurricane not very windy. You're almost in the eye of this low. The winds will pick back up again tonight and even for tonight and tomorrow, tomorrow morning, wind gusts could be 36 miles per hour. And, Brooke, because we've talked to you ad nauseam about these balloons out there, the threshold is 34.

BALDWIN: We care about the balloons, Chad.

MYERS: Thirty-four. We can't have 36. It has to be below 34.

BALDWIN: OK, so flirting with it.

MYERS: Yes.

BALDWIN: Flirting with it, Chad Myers, thank you. We'll talk and check back in with you here momentarily.

Meantime, three of our other CNN correspondents, they are racing as I speak from New York to Washington, D.C., one by train, another by air, and one by car. Who will win? We will check - we will check in. This looks like live pictures. This is Brian Todd's camera. Brian Todd and crew heading somewhere on an interstate down in D.C. Also ahead, a chilling story out of Arizona. Sisters held captive for two years inside their home. And all that time, they never saw one another. You will hear what the neighbors are saying as this news has broken and who is suspected of keeping hem prisoners in the first place.

You're watching CNN. Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Gap is getting kudos today for a response to a vandal's racist and ignorant attack on one of its ads. First, let me just show you the ad here for just context. So this features a Sikh American actor. Right before the Gap logo it says simply, "make love."

Well, someone decided to spread hate instead. So now you can take a look at what happened to a copy of the ad. This was posted in a New York City subway. The vandal changed "make love" to "make bombs."

But it doesn't stop here. Adding insult to ignorance, the vandal also scribbled, "please stop driving taxis." Really? A picture of the defaced ad ended up on Twitter, on FaceBook. The folks at the Gap responded right away asking for the location of said ad and the company went a step further, changing its Twitter background to the original picture.

The man who tweeted the photograph is Arsalan Iftikhar, founder of themuslimguy.com. He says the response has been overwhelming.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARSALAN IFTIKHAR, FOUNDER, THEMUSLIMGUY.COM: We've received tens of thousands of messages on Twitter and FaceBook, you know, thanking us for pointing this out. You know, showing solidarity with the Sikh model, whose name is Waris Ahluwalia, who is actually an actor and a fashion designer. He's been in movies with Luke and Owen Wilson.

You know, it really has been a wonderful, wonderful outpouring of support for the Gap and for the social media campaign. And I truly hope that people -- whenever people see any sort of racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, Islamaphobic statements made anywhere on social media, that they'll share it with their friends to let people know what's going on out there so that we can help make America a better place for all people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And let me add this. Some members of the Sikh community have started a FaceBook page thanking Gap for featuring a Sikh model in its ad campaign.

And if you have not already started your holiday shopping, get out your comfortable shoes. Get ready to join the fray. Tens of billions of people are expected to hit the stores the day after Thanksgiving. And this year you might be able to snap up a great deal or two in a place you actually might not expect. Chief business correspondent Christine Romans has some Black Friday tips for all of us.

Hey, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Everyone knows that people like to shop at the mall or at the big box stores on Black Friday, but have you thought about buying a car? The automakers want to get into the Black Friday act now. They're saving some of their best deals to lure shoppers into showrooms. This is according to "USA Today." General Motors, Ford, and Hyundai are hoping to drive you into buying what they have left of 2013 models so you can expect some aggressive deals. Cadillac offering discounts on all models. GMC offering $5,000 off certain Sierra models.

Also, don't feel like you have to get out to the mall in a frenzy this Friday because, you know what, prices are almost always better in December. On clothing and seasonal items in particular, those can be priced lower during the second week of December.

And if you decide you want to stay home, you're going to have a lot of company. Forrester Research says that online holiday sales are expected to rise an astonishing 15 percent this year to nearly $80 billion in November and December. And Consumer Reports says 56 percent of Americans won't even go to the mall at all over the next four days.

One big important piece of advice, if you get a deal, if you decide to buy and get a deal, you've got to pay it off right away. If you keep it on a credit card, it won't be a deal. You'll be paying more in interest, late fees, and the knock on your credit score. So be very careful that the deals don't go bad for you.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Christine Romans, thank you very much.

Coming up next, a chilling story out of Arizona where this couple is accused of holding three sisters captive for years and years. We will tell you how police rescued these girls. We're on the case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just in to CNN, another big headache for the president's signature law. Small businesses looking to buy Obamacare for their employees online will not be able to do so for another year. That gives the administration a little bit more time here to fix the web feature. All of this said, businesses can still buy insurance through a broker and keep in mind, what we learned just recently here, that the White House is promising that the vast majority, something like 80 percent or so of users will be able to have a smooth experience on healthcare.gov by the end of this week.

A Nevada judge has denied O.J. Simpson's request for a new trial on the kidnapping and robbery charges that put him in prison nearly five years ago. Simpson argued that his previous legal team didn't represent him well, but the judge disagreed with that, saying he failed to prove his claim. Simpson was initially sentenced to up to 33 years in prison. A parole board reduced the sentence earlier this year. Simpson still faces at least four more years behind bars.

And a stepdad may have tried to stab two of his stepdaughters, and that is not even the worst allegation here facing this Arizona man. Fernando Richter and his wife Sophia are accused of keeping the children captive in their home to the point where the two younger girls say they had not seen their older sister for up to two years. The Richters were in court this afternoon. The daughters are 12, 13, and 17 years of age. Our affiliate, KPHO is reporting that the girls allegedly were fed once a day and deprived of much more than food.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. MIKE GILLOOLY, TUCSON POLICE: All three juveniles were extremely dirty, as I mentioned, and malnourished and stated they had not bathed within the last four to six months. They were kept in filthy living conditions separately and told patrol officers they had not seen each other in almost two years and were kept separate within the bedrooms within that house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Awful.

CNN'S Paul Vercammen is working this one for us today.

And so, Paul, just how did police even learn about this? How did they find these sisters?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it all started with, they responded to the house with a story the father was then chasing these girls with a knife. And apparently, according to police, the girls were able to break out of the house, go through a window, and then went to a neighbor's to talk about what had happened to them in detail. They said that they had been held captive for a long time, that they were fed once a day, and according to the neighbors and police reports, they were unkempt and they were filthy.

More details emerging. The police chief saying, just a short time ago, that the girls were held psychologically and technologically, quite an extensive system, surveilled 24/7, according to the police chief. The house was extensively alarmed. The ducts were sealed off. Towels were placed under the door, and loud music was piped in, ostensibly so you couldn't hear what the girls were saying.

Now, these girls are of two were 12 and 13, and another, 17. Apparently, according to the police chief, they were in adjoining rooms but did not see each other for a long time. When they were reunited, the indications were that had not seen each other because there were remarks about appearances changing. And that soar of thing, as you saw earlier, the couple, Fernando Richter, and Sophia, had been arraigned by video today. Bail set for him at $100,000, for her $75,000. A whole host of charges, ten against him, nine against her including all sorts of forms of abuse, and police say, Brooke, they expect more charges to be filed.

BALDWIN: Let's listen to the police chief. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF ROBERTO A. VILLASENOR, TUCSON POLICE: Medical evaluations were done for the children to make sure that there were no immediate medical needs that needed to be addressed. After all of the forensic evidence was obtained, photographs and the evaluation, they were allowed to clean up. Obviously, they were fed. And then our highest priority was placing them in a safe, secure environment where they could remain together. We did not want to separate them again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And Paul, who are these parents? What do you know about them? What charges are they now facing?

VERCAMMEN: Well, what we know about the parents, according to police, they had been together for about ten years, and of course, he is the stepdad. We should also say a little bit about where they had lived. They lived in this house, this house of horrors, they're alleging, since August of 2013. Before that, they lived in Catalina, Arizona, and police are presuming that this sort of imprisonment went on for two years before that.

One possible indication, the oldest daughter, the 17-year-old, had a satchel. They found in that satchel a journal. And according to police, there is a year and a half of copious notes in there about her imprisonment. And another little aspect of this, they say they also heard that she had kept a picture of Enrique Iglesias in the journal, and it was like obviously taken away from her. And when they gave her the picture back, she was overjoyed.

All these details just unfolding right now. And of course, police combing over the journal for any more evidence, Brooke.

BALDWIN: My goodness. Paul Vercammen, let's stay in close touch with you as more of the details emerge there. Appreciate you.

And now this. Right now, three CNN correspondents, they are racing through a messy mix of snow and rain and wind. One's on a plane, one's on a train, one's in a car, just to see who can make it from New York City to our nation's capital first. It's a pre-thanksgiving endurance test, if you will. A race against time and one together and so we have Nic Robertson. He hopped the plane. Lisa Desjardins is somewhere on a train, and Brian Todd and crew are on the highways in a car.

So, our fearless reporters may be battling snarling lines and cranky fellow travelers, slick roads, traffic, and a powerful winter storm. It is a long, a lonely slog. They left CNN's Manhattan office at noon today, so here he is.

Golf clap for you, our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson. I see you in Washington, D.C. You know, taking your sweet time, talking to me here on TV, which I appreciate. How did it go?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I have got to be the luckiest traveler today. I didn't think I was going to make it. It was so slow getting up on the west side of central park through hitting all the red lights. We were about ten minutes to go before the flight closed, and we were still nowhere near the airport. And I just thought, this is it. No chance, no chance.

But we're still lucky. There were no lines at security. I went straight through there, ran the length of the terminal, got on the plane just before the doors closed. Now I'm looking at my flight arrived in there. The arrival time here, it is showing 2:20 p.m. arriving. But I have to tell you, the plane touched down about 15 minutes or more early. It pushed back from the gate early. The flight, though, very bumpy. The storm still up there. Too bumpy for beverages to be served. The flight crew stayed in their seats. Seat belts on for the whole flight. But from where I stand right now, lucky and a clean, easy flight, no delays whatsoever. In fact, coming in ahead of time, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Hang on, Nic. Because, you know, I give you -- I applaud you, but let's not get too cocky because this thing is not finished. You still have to, my friend, hop a cab --

ROBERTSON: Not finished.

BALDWIN: Hop a cab which is quite a feat.

ROBERTSON: I got to hop in the cop. Do you want to feel my heart rate right now?

BALDWIN: If I could, I would, Nic Robertson.

ROBERTSON: You're very funny.

BALDWIN: Nic Robertson.

ROBERTSON: No, it could all be lost.

BALDWIN: It could all be lost. I feel the drama. I don't want to hold you too much longer. I want you in that cab. Not that I'm, you know, I'm favoring you. I have love for Brian Todd and Lisa D. as well. So, Nic Robertson, wish you luck.

ROBERTSON: I know. I feel so sorry for them right now.

BALDWIN: We will be checking your twitter @nicrobertsoncnn.

Nic, thank you very much. We're going to let him go. This thing is not finished. So, we are going to talk to Lisa Desjardins. She is somewhere on a train, and Brian Todd is somewhere on the interstate in between both of them, in between New York and Washington, D.C. Who has the best chance? We're going to talk to the other two, Lisa and Brian, after this quick break. The great race home continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)