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Times Square Gets Ready; New Year's Parties; Holiday Forecast; Colorado Legalizes Pot; Jahi McMath Given Another Week; Pope Pushes Wealthy Catholic

Aired December 31, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: And, of course, that is all - well, has the focus on New York Times Square. And in case you're wondering, the Times Square ball says it is set, even tweeting today, quote, "here we go again, we need to rehearse? Seriously, 100-plus years. I got this."

All right, let's check in now with CNN's Margaret Conley. She's live in Times Square.

Margaret, the entertainment doesn't begin for hours. So, how much of a crowd is there already?

MARGARET CONLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Martin, there's a crowd already gathered here at 47th and Broadway. And there's a lot of energy despite how freezing cold it is. There are people from all over the world that are here today. There is Daniel. Daniel is here from Mexico.

DANIEL, FROM MEXICO: Hi there.

CONLEY: Daniel, why are you here today? You said you wanted to be here as part of your bucket list.

DANIEL: Yes, this is definitely one of the things that I wanted to do during my lifetime. And I'm so excited to be here with everyone, with my family, with relatives all over the world. It's really nice to be here.

CONLEY: And what time did you get here?

DANIEL: Basically around noon. So we have been here for a couple of hours.

CONLEY: And how are you doing with the cold? Because how hot is it in Mexico right now?

DANIEL: Well, normally in Mexico, it would be like 70 degrees so far. But, yes, we're staying tight together here with a crowd to cheer up and be warm together.

CONLEY: Warm. And you have your parents here. And you also have your sister, Karen.

Karen, is it worth it? What do you think? KAREN: Definitely it's the best day of my life. I'm really excited about all of the crowd, the atmosphere, of course the ball drop. And I'll tell you something, Margaret, I brought all my family from Monterey (ph). Say hi!

CONLEY: So as you can see, there is a lot of energy. There is also a lot of security. There is NYPD all over the place. They are checking all the entrance ways. They're checking to make sure you don't bring in big bags. Also, no alcohol is allowed. But we'll be waiting here, Martin, as we wait for the countdown.

SAVIDGE: Happy New Year to you, Margaret. Happy New Year to all of your friends right there as well. Thank you very much.

Time's running out if you want to make plans for watching the clock strike at midnight. But if you don't have a problem spending some cash to party tonight, well there's some, well, plenty of extravagant options. Here's CNN's Zain Asher.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAIN ASHER, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE/BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: If you're like me and you still haven't made plans for New Year's, I have a few parties you might want to jot down. The question is, though, how much money are you willing to spend? Well, if you want to ring in the New Year at Applebee's in Times Square tonight, that will cost you $375 a person. Believe it or not, that is actually a pretty good deal when you compare it to some of the other prices out there. Ripley's Believe It or Not in New York is charging $995 a head for New Year's Eve. R Lounge in Times Square offers a better view of the ball drop, but that view will set you back $8,500.

And the Cameo Nightclub in Miami is offering 75 bottles of champagne and a meet and greet with the rapper Lil' Wayne for $100,000. Then there's the Dream Hotel downtown in New York City. You can buy a table for you and 30 friends. That comes with 20 bottles of vodka and 20 bottle of high-end Champaign. The kicker, you'll also be able to hang out with rap star Matt Tamor (ph) who's hosting. That shindig will cost you $40,000.

But if you are on a bit of a tighter budget, might I point out that the ball drop in Times Square is completely free as long as you don't mind sharing the night with 1 million of your closest friends.

Zain Asher, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: Zain, thanks very much.

Much of the nation will start the New Year the same way it ended it, in the cold. The eastern half of the country will see temps mostly below normal as the first storm of the new year brings snow to major cities, six to 10 inches in the big apple, 10 plus maybe in New England. Windchills in the upper plains and the Midwest have dropped below 30 degrees. Meteorologist Alexander Steele watching and looking ahead into next year's forecast.

Alexandra.

ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Martin.

All right, let's start things off in New York City for Times Square right now in New York. It feels like 20 degrees. Tonight it will feel like 16. Of course, we've got some strong winds out there. Boston, of course, if you're out there, of course the big library light show will be beautiful, but it will feel like five. So very cold there as well.

Atlanta, Georgia, if you're out there at midnight tonight, temperatures in the 30s. Certainly colder than average. To Chicago we go. They've had 11 inches of snow thus far this season. In the next, though now into Friday, they may double that. And we could see three to five inches alone tonight in Chicago. So it's going to be cold.

So New Year's Eve windchill, if you're going to stand outside, 21 in KC, 30 in Dallas, 29 in Washington, 7 in Boston.

All right, so here's the current temperature. We've seen this incredibly cold arctic air. Very strong winds. It's felt anywhere between 40 and 50 below zero windchill. Right now it feels like -- and this is the straight air temperature -- 15 below and 6 below in Bismarck.

So the arctic air is in place. It's going to drop south and drop east, make its way to the eastern seaboard. It will modify in scope though. But Friday will be the coldest day. Temperatures in the teens. So about 20 degrees colder from where we stand now.

So here there's a few scenarios. We are going to see a nor'easter develop. Now, a shift to this thing west or east 50 miles could change this dynamics completely. Scenario number one, the low, you can see, moves off the coast and we see the snow. The second scenario, we're going to see this, the low is a little bit farther east, less snow. Kind of an aggregate of the two. There will be snow. So take a look at some of these numbers.

In Boston, kind of the biggest winner, six to 10. New York City, four to eight. And this is the Thursday to Friday time period. And look at this, New York state throughway. If you're driving on that, how about a foot of snow plus. Again, this is the storm coming Thursday to Friday, Martin. So we're going to see it certainly from Boston points north and even into New York.

SAVIDGE: Yes, the new year starts off white up there.

STEELE: Yes.

SAVIDGE: Alexandra Steele, thanks very much. Happy New Year, by the way.

STEELE: You too, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Well, you need to make sure that you're with us at the top of the next hour because New Year in Dubai, that's in the United Arab Emirates, well, they want to set a new world record. They are aiming to present the largest fireworks display ever. And if this light show is any indication, well, it looks like that city is going to succeed.

(VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: That's just the warm-up. They never do anything low-key in Dubai. The big show, though, is just a little less than an hour away, 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time right here on CNN. Don't go far. They're going for a record.

Meanwhile, coming up next, amazing new video. The ship from the passengers that are stranded in the arctic ice, you know this story, well, we're now getting word about when they could be rescued.

Plus, a judge decides to extend the deadline when a hospital can take away the ventilator of a girl who's been brain dead after tonsil surgery. But the family says they have video showing the girl is still responsive.

And we'll take you live inside a pot dispensary in Colorado where tomorrow folks are expecting a high demand for legal marijuana. Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: The Obama administration has just announced a milestone of sorts. A December surge has pushed Obamacare enrollment past 2 million. At this hour, Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is providing more detail in a conference call with reporters. Updates as we get them.

Strong wind is delaying the rescue of dozens of scientists and tourists who remain stranded by the arctic ice. We're hearing it'll be at least another 24 hours before a helicopter can try to reach them. This morning, the passengers and crew aboard that stuck ship locked arms and walked across the frozen Antarctic, preparing a spot where the chopper to land.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROFESSOR CHRIS TURNEY, EXPEDITION LEADER: It's the 31st of December at 3:00 p.m. We've just heard the Aurora can't reach us, so we're (INAUDIBLE) preparing the helipad by getting the team to stomp down this snow and ice so the Chinese helicopter from Snow Dragon can reach us when the weather improves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Good to see they're all still in good spirits. When it finally does arrive, the chopper that is, it will air lift 12 people at a time and take them to a nearby Chinese ice breaker.

Crews in North Dakota, they're testing the air for toxic fumes after a fiery train crash forced hundreds of people to evacuate. Two trains collided yesterday just outside of Fargo. One of those trains was carrying crude oil and plumbs of dangerous smoke billowed into the air from a massive fireball. Look at that. Nobody was injured, fortunately. The fire was so hot, though, firefighters couldn't get close enough to battle it and they are basically letting it burn itself out.

A rocket strike on a passenger bus killed at least 25 people in Syria's capital city today. Reports indicate that men, women, and children were aboard that bus, and the wreckage has made it difficult to know the full death toll. The opposition group says that the strike came from a government-controlled military air base. It also says that a two-week offensive by -- on Aleppo, that is, by Syrian military members had killed over - or more than 500 people before the attack of today. And this comes as Syria missed today's critical deadline in the plan to eradicate its chemical weapons. Bad weather and security problems are being blamed for the delay in transporting the liquid chemicals to ships. Despite that delay, the U.N. special coordinator told Reuters that progress remains strong.

All right, (INAUDIBLE) countdown today in Colorado. It is a countdown to the retail sale of legalized recreational marijuana. 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, anyone over 21 can buy up to an ounce of pot at several licensed dispensaries. Sales taxes on the drug are projected to generate $33 million for the state this fiscal year alone. Pot shops are expecting high demand, unintended, and long lines tomorrow. Casey Wian is live for us in Denver and you're inside one of those dispensaries. So, how are preparations going, Casey?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Martin, they're really very busy. We're here at the 3D Cannabis Company in Denver, Colorado. And they are scrambling to get ready for this deadline that's less than 20 hours away.

I'll show you one of the things that they're doing. You see on this plant here, they've got tags that they have just put on to these plants. They just arrived about an hour ago. These are RF, radio frequency, I.D. tags that are mandated by the state. The businesses were hoping to get them earlier this week. But just like the UPS situation, which delayed a lot of folks' Christmas presents, these were delayed by UPS as well. But the retailers, most of them, do have them. They're putting them on 1,200 plants at this one retailer have to go on tonight before 8:00 tomorrow morning.

You can also look -- and we'll take another camera shot we've got inside where their actual retail operation will be, and you can see that the shelves are still empty. So they've got a lot of stacking that they need to do to get ready for the beginning of recreational sales tomorrow morning.

Now, you can see over here why those shelves are empty, because they're still packaging this marijuana in eight-ounce baggies, which is per state requirements. These are sealed and they have child proof bags that they'll be putting them in. All of the recreational marijuana will be sold in prepackaged form. It's a little bit different than the way the medical marijuana business has been working. And I can tell you, Martin, you know, long time ago, back in college, I remember seeing guys doing this, but they didn't invite television cameras in to watch them, I'll tell you that.

SAVIDGE: No, I bet they didn't. Kudos to you and the crew, by the way, because that is pretty fascinating to be able to see this live.

What sort of demand are they anticipating tomorrow when they open the doors?

WIAN: They're expecting very significant demand. They're expecting long lines outside. Even though it's New Year's morning, they're expecting very long lines. And here's why. Because there's different distribution channels for recreational marijuana and medical marijuana. There are limited supplies of recreational marijuana. So they're expecting that at some point, they don't know if it's going to be tomorrow, a week from now, a month from now, the supplies are going to run out and prices are going to go up. So they're expecting long lines outside of these stores tomorrow morning, Martin.

SAVIDGE: All right, Casey Wian, fascinating look. Thank you very much.

Coming up, the family of a 13-year-old child brain dead after complications from surgery to remove her tonsils gets a last-minute reprieve. But in situations like this, how does a family cope? That'll be coming up next.

Plus, billionaire Home Depot founder Ken Langone says wealthy people are upset by Pope Francis' position on capitalism. And he suggests donations may be at risk.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: The family of Jahi McMath can keep the 13-year-old girl breathing for one more week. Just before a deadline last night that would have allowed her ventilator to be removed, a judge extended his order, keeping the brain dead child on life support. The last-minute reprieve brought Jahi's mother to tears.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's all right. It's all right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told you I had (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tears of joy. Tears of joy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Jesus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's OK. You're going good, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told you we're -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told you it's OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God is - God is good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to get her out of here, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was feeling like my daughter --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: The family is now trying to find another facility to care for Jahi. She went in for a tonsillectomy and another procedure to try to treat her sleep apnea. Her family says that she hemorrhaged and then went into cardiac arrest. And according to the hospital, Jahi died December 12th. And this is what the hospital court documents say. Quote, "Ms. McMath has received neurological examinations by two separate physicians on staff at Children's, received two E-E-Gs which detected zero brain activity and three additional independent examinations by outside physicians not associated with Children's. All five practitioners have unanimously agreed that Ms. McMath is brain dead and that her condition is irreversible."

Yet, Jahi's uncle, who posted this photo online of his grasping her hand, told "The San Jose Mercury News" the family attorney has given a video to the hospital that shows Jahi reacting to her mother's voice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER DOLAN, FAMILY ATTORNEY: This child is moving. There can be an argument about brain death or not, but her heart is beating, and today she was moving when her mother was talking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: And, of course, our hearts go out to the McMath family. Joining me now is psychologist Eric Fisher.

And, thank you very much for being with us.

ERIK FISHER, PSYCHOLOGIST: Sure. Thank you for having me.

SAVIDGE: As we try to contemplate what this family is going through, and none of us can put ourselves really, truly in their shoes, what do you think they are trying to grapple with here?

FISHER: Well, I think what we have to look at is, grief is a very individual process that we all go through and there's no set pattern of the steps that people go through when they experience grief. The other thing is, we don't know other losses that this family may have had and regrets they may have had about those losses.

But having the responsibility to say, stop my daughter - having my daughter on life support, I can't imagine the responsibility. And having lost a brother at an early age in my life, I know what it feels like to lose a sibling and for my parents to see them go through the loss of a child. It's very, very difficult for anybody contemplating it.

SAVIDGE: So from that personal and professional perspective, what would you be advising or how do we handle -- how do we care for this family through this difficult time?

FISHER: The thing that's happened here is they've lost faith and trust in the hospital that was supposed to care for their child. And they feel like the hospital has taken their child away from them and wants to continue to take that child away from them. What is important to do is find people they can trust who potentially aren't in that system.

SAVIDGE: Who would that be?

FISHER: Well, it might be - it might be a clergy member if they're part of a church. It might be other physicians in other places. I mean they're trying to move her to New York, reportedly, for -- to another treatment center that would be willing to take her. And it might be that once they get her settled in a place and they continue to see the evolution of her state or the de-evolution, you know, the decompensation of her state that they're able to make a decision. But with all the emotion going on about them losing their daughter so unexpectedly, there is no plan for how you deal with something like this. It takes time to cope, and it takes time for everybody to come to a peace of loss, especially when you saw such a future.

SAVIDGE: This family's hoping for a miracle. But you seem to indicate what really is going to happen is reality will set in, in their own mind, and they will come to a personal realization. I mean is that what it is?

FISHER: Well, yes. In most cases, yes. I mean miracles do happen. We've seen them happen before. The chances of a miracle happening, according to what the medical doctors said, are very, very slim. But I think for a family to be wanting to hold out hope, we need to give them part of that process to work them through. I think, unfortunately, how a hospital looks at it is, is as a life and it almost depersonalizes it in some ways.

SAVIDGE: Right.

FISHER: But also you have - you have dollars that are going to this that are - unfortunately, we look at a life in terms of how many - how much money are we spending on life support. And that's a difficult topic to really consider too.

SAVIDGE: How far do you go as a parent is what it comes down to?

FISHER: Right.

SAVIDGE: All right, Erik Fisher, thank you very much for coming and talking about what is truly very painful for the family. Thanks.

FISHER: Absolutely. Thank you.

SAVIDGE: Coming up, Pope Francis, he may be "Time's" man of the year, but he's getting some criticism for his comments about the wealthy. A billionaire founder of Home Depot says that the pope's comments might discourage charitable giving to the Catholic Church. Really? We're on that story next.

Plus, CNN's Brooke Baldwin has a special look at how they're ringing in 2014 from New Orleans.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Brooke Baldwin. Walk with me as we are in the middle of the Spotted Cat, the legendary Spotted Cat here on Richmond Street. My job is amazing because we're ringing in the New Year New Orleans style. Check these guys out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: One of the nation's top Catholics says, no, Pope Francis, despite his concern for the poor, is not against the wealthy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARDINAL TIMOTHY DOLAN, ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK: The pope loves poor people. He also loves rich people. He loves people, all right. He's -- and he's not into the condemning game for anybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Cardinal Timothy Dolan, he says actually he has heard something disturbing from a Catholic benefactor. From this man, actually, Ken Langone. Langone is leading a drive to raise nearly $200 million to restore New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral. And he's told Cardinal Dolan that the pope's critique of capitalism so enraged one potential donor that the donor's holding back on a seven-figure contribution. Of course, some in this country have gone so far as to call Pope Francis a Marxist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSH LIMBAUGH, CONSERVATIVE RADIO HOST: The idolatry of money, urging politicians to attack the structural causes of inequality, and strive to provide work, health care, and education to all citizens. This is an unfettered, anti-capitalist dictate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: And that, of course, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

Joining us now from Washington, Eric Marrapodi of CNN's Belief Blog.

Hello, Eric. Nice to see you again.

ERIC MARRAPODI, CNN BELIEF BLOG CO-EDITOR: Hey, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Would this count to be big enough as a backlash? MARRAPODI: Look, any time you're talking about a seven-figure donation, that raises a lot of eyebrows, particularly there at St. Patrick's Cathedral. I spoke to a lot of people around the cathedral today. A spokesman for the archdiocese tells me that fundraising is still on track and they've actually seen a bounce recently. And it's the same thing you hear from a lot of Catholic organizations, that they're actually seeing a bounce in donations, an upward spike as a result of what we've been calling the Pope Francis effect. So, yes, it raised some eyebrows. And whether or not this anonymous donor is, in fact, going to withdraw that donation, nobody seems to know for sure because Ken Langone is the only person who knows who that donor is right now and he's not saying.

SAVIDGE: Right. Certainly bringing publicity. And maybe that's part of the purpose here. This investor and Catholic fundraiser, Ken Langone, he says that he has warned Cardinal Dolan on more than one occasion about the pope's rhetoric. Let me read you this quote. "I've told the cardinal this is one more hurdle I hope we don't have to deal with."