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Snow, Ice From Midwest To New England; Entire High School To Be Tested For Tuberculosis; Target Contacts Customers After Massive Hack; Obama To Hold News Conference; Olympian Brian Boitano Comes Out As Gay; One On One With Mike Tyson

Aired December 20, 2013 - 10:00   ET

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

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And we're talking about places like upstate New York looking for over a half inch. That's the threshold we continue to talk about that means power lines goes down. That's going to be the concern of power outages, and again, that would be Sunday. Not the only side of this story. We have all the warm air, record breaking heat and a lot of moisture in the southeast. What does that mean? It means severe weather threat.

Tonight, we are talking about places like Little Rock back through Waco. But notice, tomorrow this is key. Pay attention. If you're anywhere from Memphis back through Louisiana, you have a moderate risk for severe thunderstorms, that includes tornadoes. This is key. Notice in December, you still can have tornadoes.

That's not the only story. A lot of metropolitan areas that are seeing this system here are just going to be looking for warm temperatures, record breaking potentially and light showers. Really the key is where are you and what is expected in your area? Not even close to the same for anyone.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Got that right. Indra Petersons, many thanks to you.

Also this morning, fears of a tuberculosis outbreak in California, 1,800 high school students and staff will be tested today for TB. This after 45 students in Palm Desert tested positive for possible exposure. Only one student has been confirmed with an active case. But the school says it's requiring the test out of an abundance of caution. And the risk of transmission appears to be moderately low.

CNN spoke to the principal of the school and a county health official.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY RAMIREZ, PRINCIPAL, INDIO HIGH SCHOOL: I also am a parent. I have a senior girl and freshman boy. And as a parent, I too am concerned.

DR. CAMERON KAISER, RIVERSIDE COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICER: Tuberculosis can be unpredictable and deadly disease. And even though it's not nearly as serious as it used to be, it's still very serious disease and have significant health consequences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Some parents are upset that it wasn't handled sooner by the district.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOEMI MUNOZ, PARENT: We'll be worried until we find out everyone is OK. It's going to be a tough one to get through this break.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It is. Today is the last day of school before winter break. Students cannot come back to class until they're medically cleared.

We've got a strong new reading on the American economy, the gross domestic product. The GDP grew at a rate of 4.1 percent. That's a fastest rate of growth in two years and much higher than the economists have expected. Markets have been higher on the news. The Dow is up more 60 points so far. We'll keep an eye on it for you.

Let's talk about Target. The nation's second largest retailer is in full damage control mode after one of the largest breaches in retail history. After as many as 40 million credit and debit accounts may have been compromised in a massive hack. The message reads in part, we began investigating the incident as soon as we learned of it.

We've determined that the information involved in this incident included customer name, credit or debit card number, and the code on the back of your card. Some Target customers are already spotting problems.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL, CREDIT THEFT VICTIM: It's $2,319.51 that they tried to get out of my account. I toured the United States and a little bit of the country.

GINA SEKULA, SHOPPER: You think you have money in your account and then you have nothing. You have beyond nothing, all because I went shopping at Target.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Under federal law, consumers who use credit cards have more protection than the debit cards because you know cash comes right out of those debit accounts.

Time is running out to get those Christmas gifts. If you played the procrastination card, you may be able to find a few good deals tomorrow on Super Saturday. Christine Romans is CNN's chief business correspondent. They really named it Super Saturday?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I know. I keep calling it the next date on the retail hype calendar. And you have six fewer shopping days this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Black Friday was pretty lukewarm that weekend. So there could be a lot of deals out there as retailers want you to get out there and spend money on this Saturday.

Here's what you can buy, toys and video games. Here hearing there's going to be pretty good sales for these kinds of things. The recent release on Xbox 1 and Playstation 4, you can expect some big discounts on the older models. Weirdly enough, Carol, this is weird but true. There are good deals this weekend on space heaters, dehumidifiers and air purifiers.

I don't know why exactly. But this is the time of the year when those -- they start clearing those out. I guess people buy them when it first turns cold and anything that's left starts to go on deep discounts.

COSTELLO: I know my mom would want one of those things. I should rush out and buy one.

ROMANS: They're so romantic.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Christine. I appreciate it.

A bit of developing news this morning, President Obama has scheduled a 2:00 p.m. Eastern press conference. This is interesting because many political analysts out there were wondering if the president would talk to reporters before he leaves for vacation. Later on he's leaving for Hawaii for a couple of weeks with his family for Christmas break.

Brianna Keilar is following this story. And I guess you could expect a lot of questions to come from reporters about Obamacare and other things, the NSA and Edward Snowden, et cetera, et cetera. Of course the big rub is will the president take questions from the reporters? So let's talk to Brianna Keilar and see if she has the answer. Good morning.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. I think we're expecting that. I don't have that officially at this point. But we do know that he will be addressing the press and certainly we do have a lot of questions for him. It's very customary for a president to do an end of year press conference. This one I think is going to be significant.

Because for President Obama it really has been such a tough year and obviously the hope for the White House is to close this chapter out and to start 2014 afresh. But I think you're right, we're going to expect that President Obama will get a lot of questions about NSA practices. We've heard about these recommendations that have come out from a review board.

We know as he leaves tonight with the first family to go to Hawaii, that he will be on his trip as he gets a little r & r in, he will be thinking about what changes he wants to make. He heard a lot of concerns from executives of big tech companies who were worried about their bottom line and obviously because their customers are worried about their privacy. I think that's going to be a big thing that Resident Obama considers on his vacation. And I think reporters will be wanting to know what kind of changes he's going to make on.

COSTELLO: Well, there's one bit of brightness, the GDP is up more than expected. My best guess, we'll start with that.

KEILAR: And you know the other thing that I think that plays into is that the economy is a big priority for President Obama. He has said for 2014 he want to tackle immigration, that's something he would need the assistance of Congress with. It's going to be a very heavy lift, but you look at two of his other agenda items, climate change and the economy. And those are areas where we would expect that he would circumvent Congress and try to harness some of the modest recovery and promote that further.

I think you'll see a lot of things running the gamut in the questions and seeing reporters pressing President Obama to reflect on this past year. It began obviously with his inauguration. But here just in the last few months, it's been especially bruising. Congress is rebuffing his request to use force in Syria, the government shutdown, the debt ceiling battle and of course the rocky rollout of healthcare.gov.

The question that still remains for that, as the administration has come on track here, more on track. It's obviously still very much a work in progress. The president will be making changes? We've seen staff shakeups. Are there going to be more? Is there going to be a punitive I guess releasing of somebody for the fact that it was such a terrible rollout and continues to be a work in progress.

COSTELLO: We'll talk more about Obamacare after the break. Again, the president is expected to hold a news conference at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Of course, CNN will carry that for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: As I told you before, the president will hold a press briefing in the press briefing room this afternoon, 2:00 p.m. Eastern. Of course, CNN will carry that live. Reporters will be free to ask questions of the president and that will be interesting to hear what they ask and what he has to say.

Let's bring in our chief national correspondent, John King. Of course, the president will probably talk about new tweaks to Obamacare and a bit of bright news about the economy.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think the president without a doubt will want to talk about that bright news. The economy growing that's something the president and his party, the Democrats has been eagerly praying for. We're going into the election year. It will be fascinating to hear from the president today, really interesting to see how long he hangs in there. There are a lot of questions to be asked whether about Obamacare or philosophical or staff changes at the White House, whether it's about the 2014 agenda or about the NSA. I could go on and on. It will be interesting to see how much energy he has for the back and forth. This has become somewhat of an annual tradition. It's very important for this president. If you look back at 2013, he was essentially 0 for 2013. He wanted a new jobs program and to do other things about the economy, none of them. And then he added gun control after Newtown. None of that was accomplished.

But he got nothing done in 2013. So now he has to think, do I want to be different in 2014? Do I want to reach out and have a compromise on immigration and on the job programs or because it's an election year, do I want to be confrontational and gin up the democratic position.

COSTELLO: There was a new tweak that came, what, yesterday and it leaves open a lot of questions. How many more tweaks to come?

KING: The Republican critics of this program say this is what happens when you build something so big and so complicated in their view it doesn't work. What the administration is saying it's so important and yes, it's big and complicated, that when you hit a hiccup or speed bump or disaster like the rollout, you fix it and move on and make it better.

Specifically what happened yesterday was this, remember, the president has had to admit that his promise, that if you like you're plan or doctor, you can keep that plan or doctor has turned out not to be true for a large number, a small number of the total population, but still, millions of Americans, but still millions of Americans.

Now the administration says about 500,000 still have been told their plan is being canceled and still haven't been able to sign up for a new plan yet. The administration is allowing them to take the catastrophic, sort of a barebones option within Obamacare if they can't find a better plan.

A lot of democrats are saying that's great, you finally give these people access to coverage and it won't cost them all that much money. But the critics say this is another moving of the goal post and dumbing down of the standards that the president set when they passed this.

COSTELLO: All right, John King, thanks for your insight this morning. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, former heavy weight camp to author and Broadway star, Mike Tyson tells his story to CNN's Rachel Nichols next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: North Korea sent a fax, yes, a fax, to threaten its neighbor to the south. The fax sent Thursday warned that North Korea would, quote, "Strike mercilessly without notice." North Korea is upset over demonstrations in Seoul, South Korea to mark the second anniversary of former leader, Kim Jong-Il's death. The south replay to the threat also by fax saying that if provoked, it said, it will retaliate. There are no reports of significant military movements in North Korea.

Just days after named to the U.S. Presidential Delegation to the Winter Olympics in Russia, former Olympic figure skates and gold medalist Brian Boitano has come out as gay. He joins two other openly athletes. Billie Jean King, who told CNN's Christiane Amanpour about the message that she would like to send.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILLIE JEAN KING, TENNIS LEGEND: I'm not big on boycotting. Usually it has to be a last resort. I think it's more important to go and be there and be involved and be committed to trying to help change and help let people also know if you're gay that you're not alone. If you're part of 9 LGBT community. You are not alone. We are there representing all of us that we're going -- that's very important right now because I know sometimes it must be really hard on them.

And I think with the outpouring of love and kindness and decency that people have shown throughout the world is going to help the community. And we don't like the fact that they're discriminated against. We don't want anybody to be discriminated against. It's human rights. That's what this is about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: President Obama is not attending the games. Russia's President Vladimir Putin dismissed the criticism of Russia's anti-gay laws as western values.

Author, Broadway star, boxing promoter, surprising new chapters in the life of the heavyweight champ, Mike Tyson, he's putting a new twist on the infamous moment when he bit off a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear. Tyson actually really likes Holyfield that's what he told Rachel Nichols.

Rachel went one on one with Tyson for an interview wearing tonight. They kissed and made up?

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I was actually at that Tyson-Holyfield fight. It was the first boxing match I remember so clearly watching that happen. And just smacking the guy next to me and saying, my God, he's eating him. That's all I could think of in that moment. It was a crazy night. But when I sat down with Tyson this week, he told me how troubled he was actually feeling then and not just then, but in the years before.

When everyone assumed he was on top of the world and knocking guys out in 30, 60 seconds, fans were hailing him as a hero. But he revealed to me there was a lot of unhappy notice under the surface.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE TYSON, FORMER PROFESSIONAL BOXER: I don't like that time of my life. All the money and success, I didn't get anything done. My kids never saw me. I was a horrible father. I'm accomplishing so much now as a human being that I could have ever done back then. NICHOL: Were you surprised you never killed anyone in the ring?

TYSON: I'm surprised no one killed me either. I'm glad things turned out the way they did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NICHOLS: We also spoke with his drug and alcohol use. He became a cocaine addict at one point. He went to rehab. He now says he's sober. He's got the show. He's starting the boxing motion business. He told me he's going to be a promoter much better than the guys that promoted him. When I asked Tyson the advice that he was going to give to the younger boxers, he says that he's telling them that the only entourage that you need is your lawyer.

COSTELLO: I'm just curious about the ear incident. Did he said he did it? Was it the heat of the moment?

NICHOLS: Yes. He says that Holyfield was butting his head. If you look back at the tape, that is a legitimate complaint and the official in the ring wasn't doing much about it. As he notes now, the recourse is not to eat your opponent. You should maybe try to get the official on your side or doing something else, file a complaint after the match. You shouldn't start biting people. He might be right about being unfairly treated in the ring. But as we tell our kids, we don't hit harder if someone hits you first. It's about person learning impulse control.

COSTELLO: But then again, someone is punching me in the face repeatedly, I don't know.

NICHOLS: Are you saying that I should be careful if you and I get into an argument? The choppers might come out?

COSTELLO: Cover your appendages. Rachel Nichols, thank you so much.

And you can watch the rest of the Mike Tyson interview on "Unguarded" with Rachel Nichols. That's tonight, 10:30 eastern on CNN.

Still to come, where there's smoke there's ire. E-cigarettes are added to the New York City smoking ban. We'll talk to a council member who helped lead the fight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: This morning, there are fears of a tuberculosis outbreak in California, 1,800 high school students and staff will be tested today for TB. Forty five students at Indio High School in Palm Desert tested positive for possible exposure after making contact with one student who has been confirmed to have an active case of tuberculosis. These are live pictures of the high school. The testing is out of an abundance of caution, court to high school official.

Joining me now to talk about this is Dr. Sanjay Gupta. How scared should the parents be? DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the good news that the chance of their children getting tuberculosis is pretty low. If you find out there's a child in your child's class who has active tuberculosis, I would be a little freaked out too. They've gone ahead and done testing initially and some of the earlier results came back higher than they expected them to. The screening test was a little bit more concerning, which is prompting those images that you were just showing.

COSTELLO: So 45 students test positive. What kind of symptoms who they have?

GUPTA: They may have no symptoms at all. If you've had an exposure at some point, it does not mean you had an infection. It means that your body saw the bacteria at some point. And as a result your inflammatory system is a little bit on high alert for it. When you do the skin test, it comes back positive.

It doesn't mean your infected or going to get sick, people who get if from somebody else typically are family members, prolonged exposure, like international flights, but it's very unlikely for these kids in this setting to probably infected.

COSTELLO: OK, so what if like -- I'm just trying to determine how dangerous this is if indeed you do get the full blown disease?

GUPTA: I mean, tuberculosis in and of itself is a bacterial infection that primarily affects the lungs.