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Two Terror Strikes Before Russian Games; Sign-Ups Surge Ahead of Obamacare Deadline; Colorado Legalizes Pot in Two Days; Antarctica Ship Still Stranded
Aired December 30, 2013 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Great to see you guys. Happy Monday. "NEWSROOM" starts right now. .
And happening right now in the "NEWSROOM", a second terror attack in Russia in less than 24 hours. With the Olympic Games in Sochi just 39 days away, growing concern about the safety of athletes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think if we don't see one -- an attempt on the Olympics I'd be very surprised.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Paralyzing cold gripping the Midwest, 45-mile-per-hour winds, sub-zero temps and it's only going to get worse.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The weather is a bit (inaudible) today. It's minus one and blowing snow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Oh yes, another setback for the latest rescue mission in Antarctica. We just got word that some of the passengers and crew on board that research ship will be evacuated by helicopter as soon as the weather improves. Meanwhile, their spirits are high.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's that on the horizon, Chris.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the icebreaking coming to rescue us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brilliant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Brilliant.
17 weeks of football comes down to mere moments. Rodgers on the field for the first time since the Bears broke his collarbone. Well, and he broke the Bears' heart.
And what's your top story from 2013. The votes are in and we will unveil your choices.
You're live in the CNN "NEWSROOM". And good morning, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Kyra Phillips in for Carol Costello today.
For the second time in two days, terrorists have struck in Russia sending a chilling message just weeks before the Winter Olympics there. At least 14 people died when a bomb exploded aboard this trolley bus during rush hour. The blast so great that it stripped the bus down to its frame. And just yesterday commuters were targeted at this bombing that killed 17 people inside the main train station in Volgograd, the city once known as Stalingrad.
It's more than 400 miles from Sochi, the site of the Winter Olympics in less than six weeks. But the message is ominous. Volgograd is a major rail hub and if you're traveling from Moscow or other parts of central Russia, you have to travel through there in order to get to Sochi.
CNN's Diana Magnay is in Moscow.
Diana, have there been any claims of responsibility to this point?
DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not yet, Kyra, and as you say, though, there was two -- a twin terror attack. And in October there was another attack in the same city. A female suicide bomber blowing up six people on a bus. No claim of responsibility of that either.
But what we have heard was in July, a video message from one of the main Chechen warlords who is Russia's most wanted man, a man called Doku Umarov. He has a $5 million reward on his head from the U.S. State Department. And he issued a statement saying that he would try and unleash maximum force to disrupt the Olympic Games which he describes as Satanic dancing on the tombs of our ancestors.
He was referring to the Muslim inhabitors of the town of Sochi who were there in the 19th century, pushed out by czarist imperial forces. But the message is very clear. That the troubled North Caucasus region which is effectively in constant civil war where the Russians are fighting an Islamist insurgency and while all the terror attacks that have taken place on Russian soil since 2000 have emanated from that terrorists in that region are ready and willing to strike against the Olympics, or to try and strike elsewhere to spread fear ahead of the Olympics. And that does appear to have been the case in this instance -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, we'll follow the investigation and we'll keep following this story as we lead up to that time.
Diana, thanks so much.
And your New Year's plans are about to get a lot colder, by the way. A strong arctic blast is heading down from Canada and will be here just in time so you can ring in 2014 pretty darned cold. Windchills reaching down to 30 below.
Jennifer Gray live in New York tracking the cold front for us -- Jennifer.
JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Kyra, yes, it is going to be very, very cold. That cold air is going to stay in place as well. We have highs below zero, and highs below freezing as far east as, say, Chicago, the Great Lakes areas, so we're going to stay very cold.
It's not going to go anywhere. Current temperatures right now, Kansas City 11, Minneapolis 9 below zero, Chicago one degree right now, when you factor in the windchill it feels like 10 below zero in Chicago, 20 below zero in Minneapolis.
We're going to track these cold temperatures because you can see keep your eye on the pink area, that's the coldest air and it's going to stay in the north over the next couple of days as we get into the middle part of the week, though, into the second half of the week it starts to usher towards the east. You can see New York City at 34 degrees on Thursday. Your high temperature on Friday 17, so temperatures are going to stay very, very cold.
We have this clipper system that's going to pull some lake-effect snow around the Great Lakes for Tuesday. It's going to be out of here by Wednesday and this is the one with the very powerful punch. You can see Wednesday night it is still in the Mississippi River Valley. It's going to push to the east as we go to the second half of the week so very cold air with that one.
For those of you ringing in the new year, well, the coldest temperatures like we mentioned are going to be up in the north, 39 degrees around midnight for Atlanta, so if you are ringing in the new year, though, in the northeast, 32 degrees in New York, Times Square at midnight, but when you factor in the windchill, Kyra, it is going to feel like 14 in Times Square ringing in the new year.
(LAUGHTER)
GRAY: Wow.
PHILLIPS: I have a feeling that won't stop anybody in Times Square. I've been there in New Year's Eve.
GRAY: Oh no.
PHILLIPS: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
GRAY: And a lot of folks will be all cozied up next to each other.
PHILLIPS: Oh yes. Lots of warm kisses with anyone you know.
GRAY: Yes. PHILLIPS: Jennifer, thanks.
GRAY: Exactly. All right.
PHILLIPS: Well, the most successful driver in Formula One history remains in a coma at a French hospital this morning. 44-year-old Michael Schumacher fell and hit his head on a rock while skiing this weekend. One of the doctors treating him says he was wearing a helmet and it definitely saved his life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JEAN FRANCOIS PAYEN, CHIEF ANESTHESIOLOGIST (Through Translator): I think that, given the violence of the shock, his helmet did partly protect him. Certainly somebody who had this kind of accident would -- without a helmet would not have reached this stage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Police are still investigating the cause of the accident. And doctors say it's still too early to determine Schumacher's prognosis. Schumacher's family did release a statement, though, thanking fans and doctors, saying, quote, "We would like to thank the medical team who we know do everything possible to help Michael."
Well, after a rocky start it looks like Obamacare is finally picking up momentum. More than one million people have signed up using healthcare.gov. The White House calls it a welcome surge with the majority of those signing up taking place in December.
Now coverage is set to kick in on Wednesday, but will people keep signing up or will that surge stall?
CNN's Athena Jones joins us live from Honolulu -- Athena.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kyra. Well, health officials say this welcomed surge was made possible because the federal exchange healthcare.gov is now working a lot better than it was when it had that disastrous rollout in October.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONES (voice-over): Healthcare.gov may finally be hitting its stride. Health officials say more than 1.1 million people enrolled in health plans through the federal exchange between October 1st and December 24th with nearly a million of those coming this month alone.
LAUREN REISIG, ENROLLED IN HEALTH INSURANCE PLAN: It changes my life.
JONES: People like Lauren Reisig, a 27-year-old marketing director from McLean, Virginia, who suffers from Crohn's Disease. She enrolled with the help of a government call center after running into trouble on the Web site. Starting January 1st, her premium is dropping from $1300 a month to $400.
REISIG: It gives me the option to possibly finally move out of my parent's house at age 27.
JONES: The government will release more complete numbers, including figures for Medicaid and state-run marketplaces next month. But this latest surge of activity puts overall enrollment on pace to meet this bold prediction made before Christmas.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I now have a couple million people, maybe more, who are going to have health care on January 1st. And that is a big deal.
JONES: What's not clear is just how many people still may not have coverage starting January 1st due to problems with the site the government has worked overtime to fix.
And not everyone is celebrating the numbers. California Republican Darrell Issa says too many people will be getting government subsidized care.
REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: There is 318 million Americans, one million getting on subsidized health care in many cases, probably another million getting on Medicaid as a result of Obamacare, and six million people who had plans they liked, they have been thrown off of it. I don't think there's anything to celebrate.
JONES: And while the surge in enrollment is good news for the Obama administration, it will likely still fall short of the goal to sign up 3.3 million people by January 1st.
Those who missed last week's deadline for coverage starting in January have until January 15th to sign up for plans that start February 1st. Open enrollment ends March 31st.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JONES: Now this week the White House will be working with congressional Democrats, outside organizations, and high-profile supporters of the health care law to share the stories of people who are now going to be covered under Obamacare and to tout the benefits of the law -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Athena, besides missing that, you know, sign-up goal, I mean, once coverage kicks in Wednesday there's going to be a lot of other hurdles.
JONES: Well, that's right. Administration officials are saying that they do anticipate there could be some problems on January 1st, January 2nd, with people showing up at health care facilities, showing up at pharmacies thinking that they're covered. But then finding out that they're not because of some problem with their application.
Now they say that they have robust contingency plan in place like having clear lines of communication with the insurance companies between the administration and the insurance companies but of course we'll have to see how it all plays out -- Carol.
PHILLIPS: Sure. JONES: Kyra. I'm sorry.
PHILLIPS: I'm sure we'll be talking a lot about it as well. Athena, thanks.
Well, a new poll suggests that the war in Afghanistan may be the most unpopular war in our nation's history. Even more unpopular than the divisive Vietnam War. According to a new CNN/ORC poll only 17 percent of Americans support U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. That's down from 52 percent in 2008. More people opposed the Afghan war now than ever opposed the war in Vietnam.
A majority of Americans say that they favor pulling out of troops ahead of next year's deadline. Since the war began in 2001, more than 2,000 U.S. troops have been killed.
And you've lived the stories and you made the call. We're going to run down your list of the top stories of 2013 according to all of you viewers who weighed in at CNN.com. The results a little later this hour. That's about a half hour from now.
And still to come on CNN NEWSROOM, legal weed, Colorado, and soccer moms. CNN's Casey Wian live in Denver where pot shops are preparing from big business from, well, the unexpected -- Casey.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kyra. Marijuana retailers expecting hundreds of millions of dollars in new business when pot becomes legal here in Colorado January 1st. We'll tell you where all those new customers are going to be. Coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Checking top stories now.
Investigators poring over newly discovered surveillance and YouTube videos to find a Michigan doctor who's been missing for three weeks now. Teleka Patrick failed to show up for work in early December and police found her abandoned car nearly 100 miles away. In the surveillance video Patrick is actually seen standing in a hotel lobby for just a few minutes before leaving and hopping on a shuttle bus. No one has heard from her since.
And a man suspected of robbing three banks across the country was also convicted of threatening President Obama in 2010. Police shot and killed 40-year-old Mario Garnett outside of Phoenix Banks Saturday morning after the latest of a string of robberies. Investigators believe that Garnett shot and killed a police officer in Mississippi while trying to escape another bank holdup on Monday.
And photo bomb by a shark. After a day of shooting photos at the beach June Emerson was looking back through her pictures, actually found this shot of a shark swimming by her son and a friend as they were playing in the water, just feet away. Shark sightings are pretty common in California's Manhattan Beach but still Emerson says she was pretty shocked when she saw the picture. And Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor will help ring in the New Year in Times Square tomorrow night. Justice Sotomayor will lead the final 60-second countdown and also press the ceremonial button to lower the iconic New Year's Eve Ball. A New York native, Sotomayor is only the third woman appointed to the high court and the first Hispanic.
Well, a big change for the nation in less than 39 hours. On January 1st, Colorado legalizes marijuana. Pot, by the way, is already the third most popular recreational drug in America. But come this Wednesday just about anyone in Colorado who wants it will be able to buy marijuana in stores much like alcohol.
Anti-drug crusaders argue that legalization will not only create more potheads, but it's going to lead to violence and also hurt our kids. But the controversial drug will be taxed and regulated from seed to sale, and as we speak hundreds of businesses are putting final touches on what they at least are hoping becomes a weed revolution.
CNN's Casey Wian is live in Denver -- Casey.
WIAN: Kyra, you know, marijuana sales for retail recreational use start, as you mentioned, January 1st, on Wednesday. But even before that date, this may be one of the most regulated businesses there is in this country.
Marijuana retailers have to be approved by both the state and local municipalities, cities. They have to go through all kinds of requirements, new packaging requirements. There's taxes, tracking requirements of their inventory. It's really a very difficult regulatory hurdle to overcome for these businesses.
There are about 250 medical marijuana businesses in the city of Denver, only 14 of those will be ready to sell retail recreational marijuana on January 1st. Eventually, this industry says it expects sales to double from about $300 million last year to $600 million this year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDY WILLIAMS, PRESIDENT, MEDICINE MAN MARIJUANA: I think 30 percent of the new business is going to be from out of state, and then we're going to have people like soccer moms coming in that like to smoke a joint after their kid's in bed. And then we're going to have a lot of people that don't have some ailment, that they can get a card and now we're able to come in and shop legally if they want to use marijuana.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIAN: Another concern for these businesses and for city officials, security. This is largely a cash business, and so, some of the marijuana retailers have hired armed guards. The city of Denver not talking about its security plans but say they are concerned about the prospect of people lining up outside these marijuana shops on January 1st with large amounts of cash they'll be watching closely, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Casey thanks so much.
Let's talk more about the angle about the cash business.
Joining me for more on Colorado and legal weed, Page Pate, a criminal defense attorney and constitutional attorney.
Thanks so much for joining me.
Just as Casey was saying there, I wanted you to get -- because that caught my attention about the cash business. Banks are stepping saying --
PAGE PATE, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right. Banks are afraid to do business with these retailers because under federal law, doing anything, any type of transaction with money that comes from illegal drugs is still illegal. So, if the banks were to take the money from the retailers, put it into account, and then maybe move it to another branch or another state, that remains illegal.
And we've seen the same thing with medical marijuana. Banks stay away from that business. And that's why it's all cash. That's why they need the extra security.
PHILLIPS: So, what kind of legal predictions are you making? I'm reading ski resorts are afraid of people smoking weed and they're on the slopes to drivers driving under the influence, families are freaked out about that.
What do you think?
PATE: Well, Colorado is trying to address all of that in the regulations they put forth that will go into effect on January 1. As far as driving under the influence, they set a specific level of five nanograms. If you've got that much THC in your blood, then you're driving under the influence and that's illegal.
They left it up to small jurisdictions and municipalities to prohibit retail operations in their jurisdiction. So, they're trying to do all of this to stay off the federal radar. The Feds are going to be watching.
Remember, it is still illegal to possess, sell, distribute marijuana under federal law. It's a schedule one drug. So the only way the Feds will stay out of Colorado, if Colorado puts into place these very strong regulations and follows them to a "T."
PHILLIPS: Interesting. So what about our kids? How are they going to regulate our children? I mean, I was reading that up to 60 percent of kids across the country now have no problem smoking pot. They see it as OK?
PATE: Well, it remains illegal under Colorado law for someone under the age of 21 to have marijuana. So it's still illegal to do that but the perception is going to change. Obviously now, kids will see the fact that marijuana is becoming legal in certain states. I think the fear of marijuana is going to go away to the extent it ever was there and perhaps we will see more children using marijuana, and that's one of the things that could pose a problem with this law because if the Feds think more kids are getting marijuana, other states see that happening in Colorado, there may be a back lash against legalization.
PHILLIPS: That's going to be really interesting to see how this plays out. I know a lot of people are paying attention to how this will impact crime and violence, and our kids.
PATE: Right. It's the first state.
PHILLIPS: Page, thanks so much.
PATE: Absolutely.
PHILLIPS: All right. Well, still to come -- a new plan to rescue stranded researchers in the Antarctic. Chinese helicopters going to help pluck them to safety, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Chinese helicopters en route hoping to rescue 52 passengers and four crew members from the ship stranded in Antarctica. That announcement follows another attempt by an ice breaker to reach the vessel, an Australian ice breaker turned around earlier today due to bad weather.
Senior international correspondent Matthew Chance has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The weather's a bit (INAUDIBLE) today it's minus one and blowing snow.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (overnight): Overnight, another setback for the latest rescue mission. The Australian icebreaker ship Aurora Australis forced to turn back to open water after worsening blizzard conditions made it too dangerous for the ship to continue.
It came close within 10 nautical miles of the stranded research ship before having to retreat back to 18 miles.
Research expedition leader Chris Turney had expressed concerns about harsh weather, working against them.
CHRIS TURNEY, PROFESSOR AND EXPEDITION LEADER: Unfortunately, the weather forecast has these sort of conditions to continue for the next few days.
CHANCE: All rescue efforts including air-lifting passengers by helicopter on hold until visibility improves.
The research team set out to study climate change in Antarctica and retraced the steps of explorer Douglas Mawson who studied life on the frozen continent a century ago.
On Christmas Eve, just 100 miles from where they started, their ship came to a halt, stuck in 10 foot high ice and they haven't budged since.
UNIDENTIIFIED MALE: What's that on the horizon, Chris?
TURNEY: That's the ice breaker coming to rescue us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brilliant.
CHANCE: The crew spotted the first rescue ship from China known as the Snow Dragon in the distance, but their hopes were quickly dashed. The icebreaker which was only about 6 nautical miles away from the trapped vessel couldn't get any closer due to the unusually thick ice.
A French icebreaker also en route to assist, but the mission became clear the ship wouldn't get farther than the Chinese boat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in the ice. All the well, happy Christmas from AAE.
CHANCE: Still, spirits on the boat remain high. Crew members and passengers channeling their energies in posts on social media, creating video diaries for family members and telling everyone that they're having a great time.
MARY REGAN, EXPEDITION MEMBER: It's my birthday today. It could be a better day to have a birthday with my 80-something new friends.
NICOLE DE LOSA, EXPEDITION MEMBER: We're going to have some singing on the ice, which should be fantastic as well. But it's absolutely spectacular here. It's like this magical winter wonderland.
TURNEY: The team spirit has been fantastic. It really has. And we carefully chose the people we had together. We thought would get on well. We weren't expecting such a severe test of the community spirit, but everyone's kept really good morale.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEWS: Spirit is keeping up, Kyra. Also, hope is keeping up as well, because even though this latest rescue attempt ended prematurely, there's a statement, I think you may have mentioned it, from the Russian foreign ministry, saying the decision has been taken to evacuate 52 of the passengers and four of the crew members by helicopters that are based on the Chinese icebreaker, the Snow Dragon who attempted to reach the ship a few days ago, but only if the weather changes and weather permits, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: So, Matthew, some folks have to stay on that ship, right? They can't completely evacuate it?
CHANCE: Yes, I think it's just a sense in which they want to end this nightmare I suppose for as many people as they possibly can without abandoning the ship to the pristine Antarctic environment. They have plenty of food on board already. Obviously, just 18 people left, a sort of skeleton crew, I suppose. There will be plenty more food and water so they could last several weeks on that ship. The ship itself is not in any structural danger so they want to wait for the weather to change, for the ice to break and for them to sail out of there.
PHILLIPS: You know those scientists, I mean, they want to finish their research. They do not want to let this mission go undone, yes?
CHANCE: Exactly, and they've been doing experiments on the water salinity, the salt content of the water, the temperature of the water throughout all this ordeal, and I expect they will be continuing to do that until the very last moment.
PHILLIPS: Oh, yes. Matthew Chance, thanks so much.
Still to come it's what one representative calls a, quote, "complex picture" about who is responsible in the September 11th attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
Now, a new report stirring more debate over what should have been done to prevent that attack. CNN's Jill Dougherty is following the story from the State Department -- Jill.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That Benghazi controversy hitting up again after an in-depth "New York Times". That after the break.
