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Massive Snowstorms Moves East; Remembering Sandy Hook; House Passed Budget

Aired December 14, 2013 - 16:00   ET

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

ROSA FLORES, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rosa Flores. Thank you so much for spending part of your Saturday with us. We have a lot to cover, including this: we're following a massive winter storm that's blanketing a third of the country. Check this out.

Snow and ice stretch more than 1,000 miles. In Missouri, slick streets caused cars to overturn and several crashes near Springfield. And in Buffalo, thanks to four days of lake-effect snow, people there are dealing with 3 to 4 feet on the ground, and even more is expected.

CNN's Alexandra Field is driving from New York to Boston to check on conditions and she joins us now live now near Hartford, Connecticut, and Alexandra, how is it looking?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosa, it definitely gets worse as you go farther north. I know that we left New York City around 1:30 and you certainly have some snow there. They're expecting three to five inches, but we're heading for Boston where the forecast calls for eight to 14 inches of snow, so this is a slow-going trip up Interstate 84.

A lot of the cars have been slowing down periodically as we get through patches of road where the snow has begun to stick. We're also seeing some highway signs that advise people, you know, to take caution, that the roads are slippery, again, this is the first time that a lot of people are driving through the snow in the northeast here after, you know, the summer and the spring. We haven't seen this here yet this fall.

So winter is coming early, a full week early here. And you can see right in front of me through our windshield camera that cars are slowing down as we approach Hartford, people are trying to take their time and navigate these roads. We've seen plows out though. There are salt and sand trucks who are out and they preparing these roads before they stick. The brunt of it really begins to stick.

Again, we're heading towards Boston where they're expecting some of the largest snow totals, up to 14 inches of snow. The Massachusetts Emergency Management agency has been preparing for this storm and specifically preparing for the cleanup. Utilities are on alert. Airports are on alert. Plow trucks are being ready to be deployed across the state. So we're going to see what we get. We're told that the heaviest snowfalls should start to come around 6:00 or 8:00 tonight. We should be arriving before that. This is typically a four- hour trip. We're not sure how long it will take since we are definitely slowing down today, going about 40 miles per hour on our trip from New York to Boston. Rosa.

FLORES: Alexandra Field, live for us, thank you so much. We appreciate that.

Now, the U.S. is not the only country dealing with the cold weather and snow. Check this out, Prince Harry and a group of servicemen and women brave temps as low as 31 below zero to hike to the South Pole. Three teams of seven were supposed to race 200 miles for charity, but organizers called off the competition aspect of that because of those conditions.

In Jerusalem more than 15 inches of snow on the ground. Roads in and out of the hilltop city had to be closed because of those conditions as well. And in Egypt, yes, I said Egypt, snow coated the streets of Cairo. Now, according to reports, it's the first snowfall in more than 100 years. Many people tweeted pictures of their wintry-like wonderland in that area.

We're also watching two places in the country right now, places where people are hurting today because a disturbed young man brought gun into schools and started shooting. This is Centennial, Colorado, 10 miles from Denver, where a teenage girl is in critical condition at this hour, shot by another student who then killed himself. Plenty of unanswered questions there. We're expecting more information from police very soon. We'll be live from Centennial in just a moment.

Also today the people whose lives were wrecked by the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting are reflecting one year since that terrible day, 20 kids and six adults died there violently and senselessly last December 14th. The people of Newtown, Connecticut, are grieving privately today.

Police outside Denver say they'll probably never know the real reason a high school senior opened fire inside his school yesterday. Because he's dead. He's identified as Karl Pierson, 18 years old, a boy scout and school athlete. Witnesses yesterday say they heard Pierson looking for a faculty member when he was walking the halls and also shooting.

Our Ana Cabrera is outside the school right now, and police are going to update us in about an hour. What are we expecting to learn at that time?

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now, Rosa, there are still many unanswered questions. The motive, we hope to learn new details about exactly why this student came into the school yesterday with a shotgun. We also hope to learn more about him specifically and also where he got that gun, what hands did it have to pass through to end up in his. You can see there is still plenty of investigation to be done here at this school, with the school completely cordoned off by crime scene tape.

The sheriff telling us that the teams of investigators will be combing meticulously through this school, at least through tomorrow. School is closed on Monday to give them a little extra time to process the scene. There are two other scenes they're also continuing to do searches today. The house where the suspect lived, again, the suspect identified as 18-year-old Karl Pierson, as well as his father's home.

And, again, they're looking for any types of clues in to the planning that may have gone into this, not only did he have a shotgun, but they also recovered two Molotov cocktails, incendiary devices, one that had been ignited or had been sort of detonated and had sent out a bunch of smoke throughout the school. The second one that was also found in the school, but did not detonate, that they were able to confiscate.

Fortunately, those devices didn't do any - if any damage, we're told it was only very minor. And they're also hoping - we're also hoping to learn more at this press conference about the 15-year-old victim who was shot. While the 15-year-old girl doesn't sound like was the intended target, she was somebody in the path of gunfire when those shots rang out, is in critical condition in the hospital at last check, underwent surgery last night.

Lots of thoughts and prayers for her as students here continue to cope with this tragedy. And they tell us, you know, it's very surprising, very shocking to them, but there's a lot of gratitude on their part saying that this could have been a lot worse if things weren't handled the way they were. Listen to this -

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DYLON STUTUZ, WITNESSED HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING: All the teachers handled it very well. My coach Russ is a security guard, and he handled it I think like a super hero. I saw him in a dead sprint. He had no fear. Same with the police officer at our school. They took it very well and they knew what to do in our situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: And you heard that student talk about sort of a heroics that he witnessed and heard about happening here at the school. We know the sheriff also saying that he attributes a lot about the situation not being any worse to some of the training that has been done since Columbine, and that massacre that happened back in 1999.

There's been some very diligent training among law enforcement as well as drills within the schools to prepare for situations just like this. And so that law enforcement is now trained to go directly to the shooter, not to wait for other law enforcement backup to go there directly, try to isolate the threat, and prevent any other deaths or injuries from happening.

That's what happened and, again, one student dead, the shooter himself. One other injury. And that was all. So, it's still a developing investigation, Rosa. We hope to have even more information for you when we join you again a little bit later following that press conference scheduled in about an hour.

FLORES: It's a difficult time. Ana Cabrera, live in Colorado for us, thank you very much.

Now to the East Coast where people are remembering another school shooting. A very deadly one that happened one year ago. President Obama and the first lady lit candles at the White House this morning in honor of the 20 kids and six adults who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut. At the time President Obama called it the worst day of his presidency and promised major changes to make sure that there would be no more Sandy Hooks. That's a promise that's been difficult to keep.

Brianna Keilar reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Newtown was supposed to change everything.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can't toll late this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them we must change.

KEILAR: President Obama addressed a memorial two days after the shooting that took the lives of 20 children and six staff members. He directed Vice President Biden to come up with concrete proposals to reduce gun violence, and public sentiment fueled a bipartisan effort to pass a federal law to require background checks for all gun purchases.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: The amendment is not agreed to.

KEILAR: But in April, it failed.

OBAMA: This was a pretty shameful day for Washington.

KEILAR: President Obama promised to push on.

OBAMA: This effort is not over.

KEILAR: One year after the shooting those efforts have happened on the margins of the issue. Obama has taken 23 executive actions. Vice President Biden announced a $100 million mental health initiative, a handful of states have installed background checks or bans on high- capacity guns, but more than a dozen states have actually loosened laws.

COLIN GOODARD, VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTING SURVIVOR: I still have three bullets with me today and a metal rod in my left leg.

KEILAR: Colin Goddard was injured in the Virginia Tech shooting. Despite the setbacks he thinks a lot has been accomplished.

GOODARD: We now have an ATF director, the first one in seven years. That's huge. We have more records getting into the background check system to make it work properly. We have research again from the CDC studying how people are killed with firearms.

KEILAR: But Colin and other gun control advocates are frustrated by Congress' inaction on universal background checks.

JOHN FEINBLATT, MAYORS AGAINST ILLEGAL GUNS: We have to start making calculations about saving lives rather than calculations about people's political future. But 90 percent of people believe in background checks.

KEILAR: At the White House, there is no new push for gun violence legislation, and without Congress' cooperation, officials seem resigned.

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: In the end there's a limit on what a president can do. Other actions require congressional movement.

KEILAR (on camera): A ban on plastic undetectable firearms just made it through Congress, but when it comes to universal background checks there are no plans to take that up.

Brianna Keilar, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: And still to come, when it comes to protecting students, are schools doing things any differently a year since Newtown? We'll be talking about that next.

And here's a live look at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Stay with CNN for the latest on this nasty winter storm that is making for a miserable weekend. For, hear this, a third of the country. We'll be back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FLORES: And there is that marvelous shot. Thank you so much for being with us, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Looks like a wintry mess, perhaps a wintery wonderland. But we do know that our Alexandra Field is headed to Boston right now, so she is weathering the elements for us, and we'll have her later in the show as well.

And now to this. Today we're talking about two separate school shootings. One is still a fresh crime scene. The other is a tragic part of modern American history. Centennial, Colorado, and Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. Add to that Virginia Tech and Columbine. These are all watershed events of the past 15 years.

Now, I want to bring in Kenneth Trump, he's an expert in school security and has written books on classroom killings and crisis prevention. Kenneth, thank you so much for being with us. We just saw a report on the frustrations that President Obama has in making these major changes aimed at preventing these tragedies.

Now, despite yesterday's shooting in Colorado, are schools any safer right now you think?

KENNETH TRUMP, SCHOOL SECURITY EXPERT: I think the frustrations now lie in many levels. You're dealing with one level with school safety couched in the gun control and gun rights debate particularly after Sandy Hook, but at the ground level and the schoolhouse level, we hear from parents all the time who are frustrated, school administrators who are frustrated with the limited amount of resources that have been allocated, the number of federal programs were eliminated that came up after Columbine. But at the local level it also has to be a school board issue, and parents can do the best advocacy in their own backyard with their own school board superintendent, and principal. And really what we need to do we need to make sure that schools are focusing on the proven, reliable, best practices.

Just as a couple of examples, in this year after the Sandy Hook shootings, we've been in schools that had - ones that had a crisis plan dated in 1999, and we're in the year 2013 and it wasn't documented as updated. We walked through one school one morning as children ran the hallways past nearly a dozen people, and no visitor I.D.s, people didn't say good morning, may I help you. They say good morning, but they let a stranger walk right past.

So there are a lot of the things that we need to do that may not cost tons of money, but it really require an investment in our people, in our training students and staff, in working out our crisis plans, having conversations, working with first responders and doing a number of other things with our drills and day-to-day preparedness.

FLORES: Kenneth, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate that.

TRUMP: Thank you.

FLORES: And still ahead, some compromise in Washington this weekend. But now House Speaker John Boehner is taking heat from Tea Party Republicans over anew budget deal. Why this could be a turning point for the GOP. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FLORES: Welcome back. Now, there's no doubt about it this Congress is one of the least productive ever, but the House actually did something before heading home for the holidays. It passed a budget.

The measure still has a big hurdle to go in the Senate. Now, let's try to put all of this into some perspective. Let's try to do what some are calling a do-nothing Congress into perspective with Professor Julian Zelizer. He's a historian at Princeton University, and, professor, let's start with the Republicans, shall we?

Now House Speaker John Boehner this week admonished the powerful conservative groups that have pressured the GOP over key issues like the government shutdown. After this week's budget deal he lashed out at his critics on the right. Take a listen -

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), HOUSE SPEAKER: It just comes to a point when some people step over the line. You know, when you criticize something and you have no idea what you're criticizing, it undermines your credibility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Now, professor, this is a big deal. Is this a watershed moment? Is this a big shift, do you think?

JULIAN ZELIZER, HISTORIAN & PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: It could be. You see a speaker who is very frustrated with his own party privately. He feels emasculated. This year he's not been able to control his Congress and he's watched his party's approval rating tumble. He's taking a stand. He's trying to seize control and he's trying to regain the agenda from a faction of his party that has really dominated Congress for the last year.

FLORES: And he's lashing it out at this group. Do you think that the Republican Party can survive without these conservatives?

ZELIZER: Well, I think it can, because he has a big ally in his corner, business, and business is even running campaigns against some of these Republicans. It will be a tough battle.

FLORES: It's not going to be easy.

ZELIZER: These are very vocal opponents and there's a lot of Republicans who believe the party has really moved in the wrong direction in the past year.

FLORES: So do you think we'll see less cooperation, more confrontation, more less things done perhaps in Washington?

ZELIZER: Maybe. I mean, polarization is still very strong. The budget deal that just passed is a small deal but it takes the budget off the agenda for a while. So now there is room because of that to deal with issues like immigration. That's the question can he corral the Republicans now that the budget's gone around a really much bigger issue in some ways that the nation has been waiting for a solution.

FLORES: Since you mentioned immigration, I'm curious, because I know the talks have been about piecemealing immigration. Do you think that would still be a piecemeal type of I guess legislation or what would you - what would you say?

ZELIZER: Well, that's what the speaker is going to try. That's what some Republicans want. But I think an immigration bill without the path to citizenship is just not going to be satisfactory, and so I think he's going to have a problem on his hands.

The question, again, will be internal Republican politics or many Republicans who say pass this bill, pass a full bill, and let's not be the party that stops immigration reform.

FLORES: Professor, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate your time.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

FLORES: And still ahead, take a look at this little guy. He just got back from an incredible journey to space.

Plus, " Sanjay Gupta MD" is just moments away. Sanjay, what do you have for us this week? DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Rosa, we're going to be talking about mental health today, something that we usually hear about in the wake of some big tragedy, but what is daily life like for someone who lives in a household, someone who has a mental illness. We'll dive into that.

Also, how do you survive if you're stranded in some of this wintry weather? A remarkable story out of Nevada. What can we learn from it? That's at the bottom of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FLORES: We're keeping an eye on that massive winter storm moving into the northeast. Live pictures right now in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Columbus Circle in New York City. You can see the snow falling there. We're going to keep checking on the conditions and stay on top of that storm throughout the night.

Thanks so much for being with us. No winner last night in the $425 million mega millions lottery. I didn't win. I'm sad about that. So, the jackpot has grown even more. Now $550 million. The next drawing is Tuesday. So, how close did you come to winning? Here are those winning numbers -- 19, 24, 26, 27, 70 with a megaball of 12. Your chances of winning are slim, though, one in 259 million. Better odds of being hit by an asteroid. But eventually, well, somebody's got to win, so you've got to buy that ticket.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) is on the move. The first Chinese lunar probe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: China has become just the third country to take a soft landing on the moon, Beijing's newest spacecraft landed there today. It carried a six-wheeled lunar rover equipped with four cameras and two mechanical legs to dig soil samples. It's called the Jade Rabbit, a name the entire nation voted on. Within the next decade China hopes to open a permanent space station in the earth's orbit.

Iran's newest astronaut is a monkey. Take a look at him, he's so cute. His name is (INAUDIBLE) which means auspicious and luck. And he's the second primate Iran has sent up and supposedly brought safely back to earth. Iran's state news agency said the mission lasted just 15 minutes and brings the nation one step closer to sending humans into space. The U.S. State Department said it can't confirm that report.

Next hour we'll go live to Centennial, Colorado, for a police update on yesterday's school shooting.

Plus -

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not interested in how much punishment he gets. I'm interested in taking away things that are important to him and replacing them with things that are in his best interest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: A psychologist defends his actions for recommending a teenager get probation and rehab after killing four people in a drunk driving crash. More on how affluenza defense worked and became a national conversation.

I'm Rosa Flores, I'll see you back here at 5:00 Eastern when CNN NEWSROOM continues.

But, first an up-close and very personal look at one family's battle with her son's mental health. "Sanjay Gupta, M.D." starts right now.