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Winter Storm Hits the Country; Pot Retailers Enter New Territory; Al Qaeda Militants Threaten Iraq

Aired January 03, 2014 - 14:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And we begin this hour with breaking news.

I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We will get into the nasty nor'easter affecting millions of people.

But first, news just in to us here at CNN. We have just gotten, I have it right here, this is the final coroner's report on the death of "Fast and Furious" actor, Paul Walker. The car he was riding in -- I'm going to quote this here -- "traveling at an unsafe speed, approximately 100-plus miles per hour."

Our digital reporter, Alan Duke, is live for us in Los Angeles.

And, Alan, I know you have been looking through this, as have I. What more are you learning?

ALAN DUKE, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: It's interesting to say that he -- that Walker was in a defensive position, as if he were bracing for an impact, it suggests. And the other interesting thing is something that we speculated on in the days and weeks after his death when we looked at video, and that is that it seems that they, Walker and Rodas, did not live very long after the impact, that there was very little indication that they had been breathing the fumes of the smoke, did not make it into their lungs in a significant fashion. So they did not suffer long, apparently.

Walker suffered a number of broken bones. If you want to read the report, these things I have to read, you know, as my job, but I wouldn't recommend anybody doing that unless they have to for their job because it is a very gruesome description of what happened to this popular actor.

BALDWIN: It is awful to go through the specifics of the evidence, the body examination, et cetera. Just tragic all the way around.

Alan Duke, thank you very much for that update here as we're learning more about the death of Paul Walker.

We also want to move on and talk about the weather because we knew the nor'easter was coming, and, boy, did it ever. It touched about a third of the country or approximately 100 million people in 22 different states. The front lines, New England. Look at this, heavy snow took the reins early this morning in Boston. The city got socked with nearly 15 inches. And it was so cold there, look at the outside of our CNN satellite truck. Frozen. Ice. Chatham, Massachusetts.

New York City got about 10 inches. The bulk of the snow, though, has come and gone. In Long Island, blizzard warnings lasted through the mourning, along with strong wind gusts, deep windchills, and, oh, yes, the wind.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ah, I'm surfing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Reporting live from Indianapolis, Indiana. As you can see, we are in a major snow storm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Look at those reporters out and about. A major storm indeed. The snow is tapering off now, but now the really cold weather moves in. CNN is all over this nor'easter with team coverage. We have Margaret Conley in Boston, where Logan Airport is seeing limited flights as I speak. Ashleigh Banfield out and about in New York City, crews there busy, busy clearing those roads. Poppy Harlow is live for us inside New York's LaGuardia Airport. Ted Rowlands, braving the bitter cold in Naperville, Illinois, just west of Chicago, bracing for more snow this weekend. So we'll get to all of you.

But let's begin in Boston, Margaret Conley.

You know, we heard from Mayor Menino, outgoing Mayor Menino, you know, saying, yes, his city was ready. By the time this is over, Boston could be looking at 18 inches, by tonight, is that correct?

MARGARET CONLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brooke, we've seen up to two feet of snow in some areas of Massachusetts. If you look down this street, people are shoveling. They've been shoveling since I got here. You can see it all the way down this whole stretch from where we're standing. We called the Department of Transportation earlier this morning. They have about -

BALDWIN: Margaret, forgive me, I'm going to cut you off. I'm going to cut you off. We want to stay with the pictures, but it's tough sort of hearing you and buzzing. So maybe we can work on the audio here. Let me come back to you, because I can see, by the looks of it, the shoveling and the snow, Boston is the story.

Let me hop over to New York while we try to fix that. New York City. The bulk of this storm has passed. Six inches fell in beautiful Central Park. Ashleigh Banfield, you have been out in it all day long with the hat and the gloves and the thick jacket. How is it looking right now?

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, ANCHOR, CNN'S "LEGAL VIEW": It's lovely. I have to say, the sun came out and the snow was glistening. The kids are all out of school. It's almost like a holiday, but not because it's still pretty nasty out on all the streets.

And then there's the issue of falling ice. We've been really cautious about even where we're broadcasting. New York City's a city of skyscrapers, Brooke, and there's ice falling from a lot of those skyscrapers. So people have to be careful.

I will say this, though, it's 18 degrees on the big CNN sign that overlooks the upper west side. That's eight degrees warmer than it was when we started broadcasting at 9:00 this morning. So it's looking up. It's getting warmer. The windchill is still cold.

At about 2:00 this morning, there was no place, Brooke, in the New York area that got warmer than zero with the windchill. That's cold stuff. Then it was the snow. You said six inches in Central Park. And just a wee bit to the left, on the upper west side, 7.8 inches, which is great for the 1.1 million kids out of school. All 1,700 New York schools closed.

And who did that? Well, the guy at the head of it all, the brand new mayor in town, the big cheese, Mayor Bill de Blasio. Get used to saying it. Bloomberg's out, de Blasio is in. And you know what he started his day doing, Brooke?

BALDWIN: What's that?

BANFIELD: Probably the same thing that everybody was doing, out in front of his house in Park Slope, Brooklyn, shoveling his front walk.

BALDWIN: Shoveling.

BANFIELD: I know. Do you love that? I do think it's a little crazy, though, that the big cheese is doing that when he had such a big issue to deal with here. But he did have a news conference not long after his shoveling and he did a response to - you know, he talked about the response, the New York City response to this storm, and he got his -- you know, his shout out to the city and the workers and the big apple and just how great this place is. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK CITY: I'm very proud of the people who work for this city. And we have the finest workforce anywhere in the country, and they're showing it right now. They have jumped to action, and the energy and professionalism is extraordinary. So I'm proud to be a New Yorker today, and I'm proud of the people who work for the city of New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Day three. It's day three on the job. I think things are going to get tougher. This is a tricky city to maneuver politically and elsewise.

All right, so let me just tell you what he had to work with today. This is astounding, 1,700 snow plows, 5,000 sanitation workers that were dispatched in the streets. Many of the plows affixed on the front of the garbage trucks. So garbage trucks going by, plowing the streets as well. And then you know what makes the roads less slippery? Salt and sand. They had 7,000 tons of salt at their disposal, and they got it done pretty darn quickly. Things were cleared fairly quickly. And, you know, you can see the city.

Hey, there's one of those things right there. Do you see it? There's the garbage truck with the plow by my side. Do you see it?

BALDWIN: I'm looking. And as if it were on cue, there we go, out and about.

BANFIELD: Yes, cool, huh? Yes, look at that.

BALDWIN: They were - they were ready to roll in New York City, and they're continuing to roll on through.

BANFIELD: Yes. Well, you know, they watch CNN, right?

BALDWIN: Well, of course. And, I mean, if Ashleigh Banfield says they're plowing through, they have to plow on through, obviously.

BANFIELD: Oh, Brooke, look at you. Happy New Year, sister.

BALDWIN: Ashleigh - Ashleigh, thank you very much for us there at Columbus Circle.

BANFIELD: Cheers.

BALDWIN: You know this nor'easter may be on the downswing, at least in Manhattan, but that has not been the case on Long Island. There is still plenty of snow to go around. A bit of good news as you look at these pictures. The blizzard warning has expired. New York City's airports trying - I should say slowly trying to recover. There are two runways open at JFK. CNN's Poppy Harlow is at LaGuardia Airport to update us on the situation there.

So, are people getting out? Are they coming and going where you are?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Some of them, Brooke. I mean baby steps. I can't emphasize enough how slow the progress is. Every few minutes we check flightaware.com. That shows us how many flights all over the country are canceled. I want to give you the number now because it is too high, 2,356 flights canceled in and out of the United States alone today. That is just a few away from all the flights canceled throughout yesterday, and it's just after 2:00 on the East Coast. So you see where I'm going with this, so many stranded passengers here, but a lot better than it was.

Earlier today we had zero visibility at JFK, none of the runways open. Now you've got two out of four open. We had a ground stop at Newark. Newark is now open. LaGuardia here is open. Boston, Rhode Island, Connecticut, they're all open, they're just really limited in terms of the flights going in and out.

So what does that result in? Even though they've got more than 200 plows and equipment on the runways here, and at the other major airports in this area, it results in thousands upon thousands of stranded passengers. When I walked in here this morning, I was stunned when I saw this line. I knew it was going to be bad, but I didn't know how bad it was going to be. Look at the line. It went on and on and on, wrapping around the corner, down the hallway here. Those were all people with canceled flights trying to get rebooked on whatever they could just on American Airlines, not on all the other carriers. We met one woman, Luciana Rodrigues, from Brazil. Listen to her story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: How long have you waited in this line?

LUCIANA RODRIGUES, FROM BRAZIL GOING TO CHICAGO: Three hours.

HARLOW: Three hours?

RODRIGUES: Yes.

HARLOW: From Brazil.

RODRIGUES: From Brazil.

HARLOW: Trying to go where?

RODRIGUES: Chicago.

HARLOW: You just got called -

RODRIGUES: Yes.

HARLOW: So I should let you go.

RODRIGUES: OK.

HARLOW: But how hard is - how difficult has this been for you just to get to Chicago?

RODRIGUES: Oh, well, probably we were going -- leaving on Monday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Probably not until Monday. That is the story I hear over and over here. And the big sticker, Brooke, when it is weather-related, the airlines don't have to pay for your accommodations, so people have to figure out where to stay here in New York City.

BALDWIN: Oh.

HARLOW: Are they going to spend the weekend at the airport? What are they going to do? Here's where a lot of people spent the night last night, 180 cots here in LaGuardia, in this central terminal.

BALDWIN: Wow.

HARLOW: And they were lucky if they could get a cot because a lot of folks I saw sleeping next to the escalators. BALDWIN: Look at this picture.

HARLOW: I know. And they were lucky -- those are the lucky ones. There were thousands of people here sleeping on the ground.

BALDWIN: It looks like a hospital, but it's an airport.

HARLOW: Yes.

BALDWIN: Wow. Poppy Harlow.

HARLOW: It's an airport. It's an airport.

BALDWIN: I couldn't believe that line.

HARLOW: Yes.

BALDWIN: Person after person after person. Poppy, thank you.

HARLOW: I know.

BALDWIN: Thinking about all of you in the airports watching us on CNN, wondering when you get out.

You know, speaking of the weather here, let me take you to Chicago because Ted Rowlands is live just west of the city in Naperville with a little bit of good news.

And when I say good news, that means Naperville is warming up. But, Ted, define warming up in Naperville for me.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're into single digits now.

BALDWIN: Wow.

ROWLANDS: I'll tell you, that woman who is coming -- the woman coming to Chicago on Monday, she might want to rethink that because it's going to be extremely cold on Monday when she gets here. We're talking highs at negative six, lows near negative 20. That's not with the windchill. That's just the mean (ph) temperature.

When we got out here this morning, it was 10 below zero. We had our t- shirt which we froze just to, you know, make people laugh.

BALDWIN: Look at that.

ROWLANDS: And it's getting a little bit -- it's coming back to life a little bit because now we're into single digits. But, boy, this morning, it was hard as a rock. It's been miserable here. We had the snow for two and a half days. Then --

BALDWIN: Can you feel your face?

ROWLANDS: Oh, yes. I think it's -- yes, yes, I can feel it, because as soon as I'm done with you, i curry into the live truck and warm up. But if you're out here for too long, no, you can't feel your hands, your feet, or your face.

So, you know, seriously, Brooke, it is a concern, especially looking towards Monday when we're talking about these horrifically low temperatures. Not just Illinois, we're talking Wisconsin, Minnesota as well. It's going to be tough for people to get though. Schools already have been canceled in Minnesota and I suspect more will be as we get closer to Monday.

BALDWIN: Yes, check on the elderly, look out for the little ones.

ROWLANDS: Yes.

BALDWIN: Ted Rowlands, thank you so much for standing out there and all of you. We thank you all for doing that for us today.

And coming up, you will see the entire forecast for the next couple of days with Alexandra Steele, as she'll talk about the brutal cold, when that is coming in, if it hasn't already in some parts of this - this country.

Let's move on and talk about the violence. It is surging in Iraq and al Qaeda is at the center of it all. We are digging deeper on this out of control situation there.

Plus, Clay Aiken reportedly considering a run for Congress. Find out who he's been calling.

And the results are in, as marijuana, Mary Jane, goes mainstream in Colorado, is this bigger than previously thought? We'll take you to a grow house, live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Now to some of the hottest stories in a flash. "Rapid Fire." Roll it.

We begin in California. A hiker who fell off a waterfall is safe thanks to a search and rescue team and a little air support. The hiker was airlifted out of the Angeles National Forest, this is near Los Angeles. And according to CNN affiliate, KCAL, the victim suffered a broken leg in that fall.

Also inviting homeless men to his birthday meal, embracing a severely disfigured man, and now even more proof Pope Francis is bringing good vibes to the Catholic Church. Visits to the Vatican roughly tripped last year. I'm talking about 6.6 million people attending events lead by the pope since his election in March.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLAY AIKEN, MUSICIAN (singing): If I was invisible, then I could just watch you in your room. If I was invincible, I'd make you mine tonight

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: What could be worse, insults from Simon Cowell, cable news pundits. According to a report in "The Washington Blade," Clay Aiken is considering a run for Congress. The "American Idol" runner-up, who is a Democrat, is apparently making calls to gauge interest in North Carolina's second district.

And day three, people are lining up to legally purchase and smoke marijuana recreationally in the state of Colorado. And let me tell you, so far, doing so seems to be going pretty smoothly. Users, look at this, calling this history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because you had to be in a special club to get this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But now -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The special club is everyone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To anyone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man, that's what I'm talking about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now I don't have to be like, (INAUDIBLE), do you want master cush (ph)? I'd be like, oh, let's just all smoke some weed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some weed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right. Here we go. Seemed like a quiet start to the new way of life in Colorado, but how about now, a couple of days in? CNN's Miguel Marquez is still in Denver, still surrounded at a grow house there.

I mean, you know, it's what you have to do for the job. And, Miguel, sales numbers, this is why we wanted to talk to you today, because sales numbers are now hot off the press. What's the scoop?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, we are at Medicine Man Denver, which is the largest single grow house and dispensary in the state, and they have been through the roof here, I think exceeding all expectations. This is the appropriately named green (INAUDIBLE), that's why we look a little green. These are all the mother plants for -

BALDWIN: You are green, my friend.

MARQUEZ: Oh, yes, it is not easy being green, let me tell you. Oh, actually, it's very easy being green in Colorado right now. BALDWIN: Yes.

MARQUEZ: But, look, they had 650 people they served in the first day. They had to turn folks away. They had 658 the second day. They're getting better at this, it seems. But they are making a lot of money.

It is a very, very expensive business, though. Keep in mind, the price for an eighth ounce of marijuana here at Medicine Man, which is among the lowest that we've heard around the state, is $45. But you tack on a hefty 36.22 percent tax on top of that. That's excise tax, that's sales tax, that's local tax. A lot of money changing hands here.

There's one report out there that the take for all of these places was about a million dollars on that first day. It would not be surprising if it was much higher than that. We're - I have several calls into different authorities in Colorado, trying to figure out if they have any hard numbers for across the state, what has come in. But it's happening so fast, it is hard to tell.

I do want to bring in Andy Williams, who is the CEO of Medicine Man here.

You have had a very, very busy few days. Thank you for joining us.

ANDY WILLIAMS, CEO, MEDICINE MAN: We have. No, thank you.

MARQUEZ: One big thing, though, this is a mainly cash business.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

MARQUEZ: Will the banks - I know the Treasury Department is talking about sorting some of this out. Do you think that they will sort this out so that you guys can operate more as normal businesses in 2014?

WILLIAMS: It's mandatory to do that and quickly. They really need to put a high priority on it and get it done. It's a public safety issue. It's not only me and other business owners around the state that are endangered by this, it's everybody around us. So if somebody burglarizes me or somebody robs me and they have a gun, it's not just me being threatened. It's everybody. And just one incident and -- I would hope there would be a public outcry before that to prevent it. So we've got to get it done.

MARQUEZ: Right. The other thing is you -- you grow about 5,000 plants now. You want to triple that in the next year. And how much -- you were able to make a one-time transfer from your medical stock to your recreational stock, which was about 60 percent, 65 percent before we -

WILLIAMS: Yes.

MARQUEZ: We go (ph) -- you started this. Did you transfer enough?

WILLIAMS: No, we didn't. I had no clue. I mean, I knew it would be big, but this has been enormous. The motion and it just brought so many people out. And I'm afraid I didn't transfer enough.

MARQUEZ: So how are you going to handle this in the days ahead? Will you run out of marijuana for recreational users?

WILLIAMS: Not anytime soon. And we'll see what happens with these -- with the pace of the demand over the next couple weeks. I think it will slow down and I think we'll be fine. But there is a chance if this keeps up like this, you know, we'll have to raise prices a little bit to slow down and so that we can make it until April when we start growing new plants.

MARQUEZ: That's the next question. So $45 right now for an eighth ounce.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

MARQUEZ: Plus that 32.22 percent. That - that's all inclusive of taxes. How much would you have to raise prices, do you think, in days ahead if this keeps up?

WILLIAMS: You know, we do it incrementally. We'd start slow and see how it affected the purchasing of the consumer, and we'd probably go to $50 at first. And then if it didn't slow down enough, then you go up to $55. But, you know, we're going to wait - we're not going to be raising prices in the near future.

MARQUEZ: All right, sir, thank you very much. And very good luck to you.

WILLIAMS: Thank you.

MARQUEZ: I hope you get some sleep.

WILLIAMS: I'm going to.

MARQUEZ: I'm going to send it back to you for now. Amazing, amazing how this industry is off to a very, very big start out here. Back to you.

BALDWIN: On day three. Miguel Marquez, thank you. Thank Andy for us as well for us in Denver there.

MARQUEZ: Yes.

BALDWIN: The man accused of killing a catholic priest was actually in custody the night before. We will tell you why coming up.

Plus, al Qaeda militants are making a bad situation worse. Right now in Iraq, we'll go to the magic wall here in the studio, and I'll walk you through exactly where we're talking about, how bad it's getting, and what the U.S. is doing about it. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just in to us here at CNN, the Justice Department appealing a federal judge's decision threatening the NSA surveillance program. The ruling back in December found the program is likely unconstitutional. Since then, another federal judge ruled the exact opposite, that the program is in fact lawful. This issue, which involved your phone calls, could land in the nation's highest court.

And the man who allegedly killed a catholic priest and left his body in a rectory in northern California had apparently been on a new year's bender. It is unclear whether he even knew his victim, the Reverend Eric Freed, whose body was found right around 9:00 Wednesday morning. Here is the man who is being held, Gary Lee Bullock, of Humboldt County. It turns out, he had been held on New Year's Eve for public drunkenness, but he was so erratic, he was actually sent to a hospital, back to jail, and then released. Police believe Bullock broke into the rectory at St. Bernard's Catholic Church and beat the reverend to death.

There is a bad situation now brewing in Iraq, specifically talking about al Qaeda. You remember, U.S. forces left Iraq back in 2011, leaving security in the hands of Iraq's armed forces. So now militants linked to al Qaeda are making a push for these two major cities, we're talking about Ramadi and Fallujah specifically, both in always volatile Anbar province, this is west of Baghdad. Hala Gorani is with me right now, CNN International.

And so just explain to us what's happening right now there.

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: All right. Well, for the first time, al Qaeda militants are holding territory in these key cities of Ramadi and Fallujah. This is why this is so important. And here we see sort of a satellite view of Ramadi, this very key city in the Sunni Anbar province. People remember Fallujah in the United States mainly because -

BALDWIN: The Battle of Fallujah.

GORANI: Exactly, U.S. troops were in the country after the invasion. This is where they had some of their more deadly and critical battleground battles against Sunni militants.

What's going on now is that the Shiite led government of Nuri al Maliki is having to fight against al Qaeda-linked militants in that province, in some cases shelling them and in other cases sending troops. But they're holding territory, Brooke, which is why this is significant.

BALDWIN: So what about the U.S.? Because you mentioned Nuri al Maliki. We have video of Nuri al Maliki, prime minister, visiting with Joe Biden. This was back in Washington in October. And so with U.S. troops now kind of out of the mix, what kind of, I don't know, influence would the U.S. even have today?

GORANI: Not much, to be honest. U.S. troops are out of Iraq quite simply put.

BALDWIN: Yes.

GORANI: In 2007, there was something called the awakening, where U.S. troops essentially convinced Sunni tribal leaders of fighting against al Qaeda militants. And it worked. It did turn the tide of the war around. It did pacify that region for a bit. What's happening now? U.S. troops are gone. These al Qaeda militants are filling the vacuum in some areas of the Sunni province. But this isn't just Iraq. Here's Iraq, right? But guess what's right here, Syria. These same al Qaeda-inspired militants that are holding territory here and here are also controlling territory here and here. This is a regional battle for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, as it's called ISIS.

BALDWIN: So - so be it a regional battle, and we know what's been happening here for way too long.

GORANI: Yes.

BALDWIN: So what happens as we look to spring, as we look into summer, specifically in Iraq.

GORANI: This is one of - specifically in Iraq, but I don't think you can say specifically.

BALDWIN: It's a regional (INAUDIBLE) point.

GORANI: Yes. Yes. My point being that this is now one of the most important forces in the Middle East determining what happens and what shape this region takes.

BALDWIN: Wow.

GORANI: These al Qaeda-linked militants, their methods, their ideology, they are fighting for a grand Islamic vision of the region. Very different from militants groups who want political powers within their own borders. And this is a big challenge everywhere and it's creating havoc everywhere.

BALDWIN: Wow.

GORANI: Yes.

BALDWIN: Talking about Iraq once again, Hala Gorani.

GORANI: Once again. And the situation, by the way, thousands of deaths this year. The highest death toll in years in that country. Things not getting better.

BALDWIN: Hala, thank you.

GORANI: Yes.

BALDWIN: We'll stay in touch. Obviously, Hala Gorani.

Coming up, it is going to be ice cold this weekend with several NFL playoff games on tap, but will any be quite as cold as the famous ice bowl? Remember the game dubbed the ice bow. This was back in 1967. We will talk to a referee who was there, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta on exactly how fans should protect themselves in the bitter, bitter cold.

Also, an escaped mental patient on the lam in South Carolina has been captured. He was placed in a hospital, accused of killing his parents. How he escaped and how police caught up with him so quickly, next.

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