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Dangerous Record-Low Temps Hit U.S.; Nightmare across U.S. Airports; Liz Cheney Drops out of Senate Race; Obama, Congress Face Off on Unemployment; The Dos and Don'ts of New Pot Law in Colorado
Aired January 06, 2014 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thanks, guys.
PEREIRA: Happy new year, Carol.
COSTELLO: Happy new year to all of you, too.
Happening now in the NEWSROOM, polar vortex, a life threatening surge of subzero air blasting America this morning. Temperatures plummet against some spots, 50 degrees below where they should be. This is the coldest weather in decades.
Plus Liz Cheney out. Breaking overnight and first on CNN, the oldest daughter of the former vice president to abandon her Senate bid. This morning she's telling us why.
And the push for benefits, President Obama gearing up, an all-out campaign for America's unemployed.
NEWSROOM starts now.
And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
Bitter cold and brutal winds for millions of Americans, history is about to be made just outside their frost covered windows. Today and tomorrow much of the country will see their coldest temperatures in nearly two decades.
Parts of the Midwest won't even get to zero today. A brutal finishing touch to the snowstorm that dumped nearly a foot of snow on Chicago. That one-two punch shut down schools there as well as in St. Louis and Milwaukee.
In Indianapolis, get this, it is illegal to drive today except in a most dire emergency. The so-called Red Travel Warning is the city's first since the legendary 1978 blizzard. The wind chill temperatures will feel like 45 degrees below zero.
Even the deep south will see wind chills well below zero. Atlanta is on a slow and steady slide into the single digits by tomorrow morning and believe me people are panicking here. It's insane.
We begin our coverage this morning with CNN's George Howell. He's in Green Bay and I have nothing to complain about when compared to the folks in Green Bay -- George.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, I would imagine not. Because here in Green Bay, it's colder in Green Bay, Wisconsin, than it is in parts of Siberia. But yesterday that did not stop some 77,500 fans from coming into the iconic Lambeau Field to watch the Packers play the 49ers with negative 11 degree wind chills. Right now it's negative 16 degrees with the -- degrees with the wind chill and the temperature. As you can see with this hood behind me continues to drop.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL (voice-over): Brutally cold arctic air is spreading a dangerous deep freeze over half the country. The frigid blast forcing schools and government offices to close from the deep south to the northeast.
MAYOR GREG BALLARD, INDIANAPOLIS: The temperatures that we're talking about are deadly. This is a combination that is unlike anything we've seen in a long, long time.
HOWELL: Nearly 140 million people will experience wind chill temperatures of zero degrees or below by Wednesday. Temperatures the country hasn't seen in decades. In fact, Chicago, St. Louis and Atlanta are all colder than Anchorage, Alaska.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The conditions are very bad. Roads are really slippery.
HOWELL: At Sunday's Green Bay Packers game against the 49ers --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know if you can be ready for this kind of cold.
HOWELL: Temperatures felt like a frigid 11 degrees below zero.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Under Armor, two hoodies, a coat, ski goggles, I got it all.
HOWELL: And it's not just the plummeting temperatures. A massive snowstorm battering the Midwest dumped up to 16 inches of snow in St. Louis. The iconic St. Louis arch barely visible under the onslaught of snow.
MAYOR FRANCIS SLAY, ST. LOUIS: This is a dangerous storm. Driving conditions range from difficult to impassable.
HOWELL: In Illinois the entire basketball team from Southern Illinois University got stranded in the snow. Returning home from a game, their bus caught in a powerful winter storm. The team was stuck on the interstate for six hours before a tow truck was able to dig them out.
But there's relief in sight. The subzero temperatures and snow will virtually be gone by Wednesday.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: And please allow me to clarify. My brain, a little scrambled from the cold weather. I'm told that the -- right now it's negative 16 degrees with the wind chill, negative 38 degrees.
So, Carol, it's cold out here fair to say and we're under a wind chill warning, you know, for a good part of the day. The best advice just to stay inside. If you have to be outside limit your exposure.
When we do these live reports for you, you know, I come right out before the live shot then I go right back in and, again, you want to be bundled up. You know, have the hat on, the gloves, the scarf. Layers help. Best way to get through this because right now it is very, very cold.
COSTELLO: I know. So get in the truck. I'm not going to even ask you a question. Thank you so much, George Howell.
Polar vortex. It sounds kind of sinister, doesn't it? It's not only ferocious but it's also pretty unusual to see it extend so far beyond the North Pole.
CNN meteorologist Indra Petersons is in the Weather Center.
Polar vortex. I guess most of us are experiencing that today. Oh yay.
INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. And since I'm indoors I will answer the question for you, Carol. Yes, a polar vortex, this is where all that cold there, picture the circulation, kind of hanging out of the poles. This is where we want to keep it.
Typically if it's strong we keep all that cold air at the poles. But sometimes this circulation weakens. Kind of picture a rubber band and just kind of relaxing. So a little bit of that burst of that cold air actually dips a little bit farther to the south. That is what we are dealing with right now.
And you know this. When you see temperatures anywhere between negative 40, even negative 65 degrees below zero, these are current temperatures right now, once you add in the wind chill. We have this very cold arctic air mass but there's also winds out there. That's the reason in Indianapolis they're saying it's illegal to drive because you have to remember there's a snow on the ground.
You've already have a foot of snow out there. You have 30, 40-mile- per-hour winds out there. Visibility is poor. And you don't want to be stuck in those conditions when there are life-threatening temperatures outside. That is the concern across the country today.
And it's not isolated to that part of the country. I mean, look how much of the country right now is dealing with these windy, cool temperatures. So chills really extending all the way down even to the southeast.
Let's talk about these temperatures and how below normal they are. A lot of people are saying it's Minnesota, they're cold. Not this cold. Right now the high today in Minneapolis is negative 13. That's their high. Even for them that's almost 40 degrees below average. And this cold air, yes, it is extending all the way down to the southeast.
Now notice national today the high 10 degrees. Single digits only St. Louis. Again, almost 40 degrees below normal, almost 50 degrees below normal for -- in Minneapolis there. Then you go into the southeast even seeing some sleet, saw that this morning, 26 degrees. That is your high today there in Atlanta, almost 30 degrees below average for this time of year.
There's one exception this morning. That's for a lot of us here into the northeast, we're seeing some rain and warm temperatures into the morning, 40s and even 50s.
Here's what's so unique about today. We're in the warm sector. The cold threats now that bring all of that frigid air that is moving into the region. So the rain is going to move out. Anything left on the ground is going to freeze and temperatures are going to be 60 degrees cooler by tomorrow morning.
What a temperature change, negative temperatures again even for us by tomorrow -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I just want to dive back into bed and get under the covers and never come out.
PETERSONS: I thought you said you want to die, I'm like some people are saying that, too.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: Thanks, Indra.
PETERSONS: Sure.
COSTELLO: Tears, headaches, chaos, you name it you're getting it at overcrowded airports across the country today, thanks to this nasty weather.
Just how much of a travel nightmare is it, you ask? Well, check out these massive crowds at New York's JFK this weekend. Imagine being stuck in all of that.
Expect more crowds and frustration if you're flying today. That's according to flightaware.com. It says more than 600 flights are delayed right now and nearly 3,000 flights have already been cancelled this morning.
Think things couldn't get worse? Think again. There were also two close calls at Chicago's O'Hare and New York's JFK when jets actually slid off their icy taxiways.
CNN's Alexandra Field is live outside of the airport.
I'm sorry about that, Alexandra, but take it away. ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don't be too sorry because it is, like Indra said, raining and in the 50s here. So I'm feeling sorry for the people who are out in the Midwest right now dealing with those temperatures. That said people inside the airport they've still got plenty to complain about.
A lot of passengers have been delayed for days now. Stranded in airports since Friday and now blizzard-like conditions and icy temperatures in Chicago are causing major delays at O'Hare International. And that's creating a ripple effect for travelers across the country.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FIELD (voice-over): Hundreds of stranded passengers camped out in airports over the weekend hoping to get moving again by this morning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I missed a whole week's work. I need to adjust to the time back in Melbourne.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to go home.
FIELD: But the blizzard conditions and icy temps slamming the Midwest and northeast are keeping airlines from getting back up to speed.
DANIEL BAKER, CEO, FLIGHTAWARE.COM: Now we have this storm hitting Chicago that is causing up over 50 percent of flights to be cancelled to or from Chicago O'Hare. So travelers all across the country are being impacted by this.
FIELD: A scary moment at O'Hare on Saturday when a plane slipped after its wheel slid off of the tarmac. None of the 145 passengers were hurt.
An icy runway at JFK Airport in New York caused this Delta plane to skid into a snow bank. Crews had to tow the plane with passengers on board back to the gate. No one was hurt.
Experts say the storm will continue to affect air travelers, warning that it could take several days for airlines to get operations back into the full swing of things.
BAKER: And not only do they need to get the airplanes in the right place, but almost more importantly they need to get the crew in the right place.
FIELD: According to JetBlue, it's not just weather. The airline's blog points to new pilot rest rules designed to avoid pilot fatigue resulting, they say, in fewer JetBlue flights. The airline advises it will take days, not hours, to finally get people where they're going.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to miss two days of a cruise now and I've been standing there for four hours.
FIELD: Once all those cancelled flights do return to the skies, experts say airlines will be faced with a lot of displaced passengers and a limited number of seats.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FIELD: Now, Carol, you mentioned that nearly 3,000 flights have already been cancelled today. Yesterday 3800 flights were cancelled. But we could still reach that number. The day is young. The weather is bad. And these cancelations continue to add up. So if you are flying, you do of course want to check your flight status before you head to the airport -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Good advice. Alexandra Field, thanks so much.
Talk a little politics now. She is the daughter of a Republican powerhouse and today Liz Cheney is calling it quits on a Senate campaign that not only caused ripples within the party but also within her family. Partly because of her stance on same-sex marriage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIZ CHENEY (R), FORMER U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: I do believe it's an issue that's got to be left up to the states. I do believe in the traditional definition of marriage.
CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS: Your sister Mary who is married to a woman put out this post. She said, "For the record, I love my sister," you, "but she is dead wrong on the issue of marriage."
CHENEY: Yes. And I -- listen, I love Mary very much. I love her family very much. This is just an issue on which we disagree.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The story you heard first here on CNN and this morning we're learning new details about what factored into Cheney's decision to drop out of that Senate race.
CNN national political reporter Peter Hamby joins me now. He broke the story.
Tell us what she said.
PETER HAMBY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Hey, Carol, yes, that's right. John King -- John King and I wrote the story late last night. We brought you the news first here on CNN.
We still don't know the exact reasons last night as to why Liz Cheney decided to drop her Senate primary bid against Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi. But we got a statement just this morning, just a couple of hours ago. I'm going to read to you why she says she's dropping out of the race. She says, quote, "Serious health issues have recently arisen in our family and under the circumstances I have decided to discontinue my campaign. My children and their futures were the motivation for our campaign and their health and well being will always be my overwhelming priority."
So the reason she's giving here, personal reasons, family reasons, you know, it's a shame if that's the real reason. She has to drop out of the race.
But look her campaign, Carol, was really rocky from the get-go. Last summer she was never really able to articulate a real compelling reason as to why she would be better in the Senate over Mike Enzi, and a lot of senators in Washington rallied to Enzi's side.
Liz Cheney's campaign was sort of riddled by a series of misstep. She only moved to Wyoming in 2012 after spending most of her life in Washington and Virginia so to answer -- she had to answer a lot of carpet bagger charges out there in the state.
She didn't have trouble raising money out there. You know, you can run a substantial TV campaign in the state for not that much money. But just she had a lot of perception issues that she was battling out there -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Yes, we're going to talk a lot more about this in the next hour of NEWSROOM.
Peter Hamby, many thanks to you.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, President Obama back in Washington and gearing up for his latest battle with Congress.
Our senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta is at the White House this morning with more.
Good morning.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. That's right. Barely on the ground, back in Washington for about 24 hours, President Obama already has a new battle on his hands over unemployment benefits.
I'll have details coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Checking our top stories, at 16 minutes past the hour.
Secretary of State John Kerry says the United States will not supply boots on the ground to help stabilize Iraq but will offer support in other ways. A series of weekend clashes between al Qaeda linked fighters and government troops are raising concerns about the country's stability. Fallujah was heavily shelled by the government over the weekend to expel terrorist groups. And this morning, Iraq's prime minister directed armed forces not to strike any more residential neighborhoods and appeal to residents to help expel the terrorists.
In New York, investigators are trying to determine the cause of a high rise fire. A 27-year-old newlywed was killed in the blaze and seven other people were hurt. Witness video obtained by CNN shows flames shooting out the building and large plume of black and white smoke.
New video just in today shows a helicopter rescuing dozens of scientists, journalists trapped under research ship in Antarctica. But in a bizarre turn, the Chinese icebreaker Snow Dragon got stuck after the rescue, an American icebreaker is on its way to try and help free that ship.
It's a new year in Washington, but for President Obama and Congress, things are picking up right where they left off in 2013, with a fight over extending unemployment benefits.
Our senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta has more now from Washington.
Good morning, Jim.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. After a rocky 2013 but a restful vacation in Hawaii, President Obama does have a chance for a fresh start with members of Congress, but he already has a new fight on his hands as you said over a key economic issue.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice-over): Back from vacation and paradise, President Obama found a chill in the Washington air and the president will soon learn if he can thaw his frosty relations with Congress as the White House pushes to extend emergency unemployment benefits.
Some Republicans in Congress are open to a deal with caveats.
SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: I'm not posed to unemployment insurance. I'm opposed to having it without paying for it. I think it's wrong to borrow money from China or simply to print up money for it.
ACOSTA: Same goes for House Speaker John Boehner, whose office signaled he, too, would support the extension as long as the cost is upset by other cuts. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was quick to say no deal.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORTY LEADER: We have never offset emergency spending. This foolishness, we have people that are desperate.
ACOSTA: The Obama administration is gearing up for an all out campaign for the benefits impacting the long term unemployed as part of the president's pledge to fight income in equality.
GENE SPERLING, DRIECTOR THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: We as a country have never, never over the last half century have we ever cut off emergency unemployment benefits when long term employment has been this high.
ACOSTA: This week, the president will host unemployed Americans at the White House. Democrats already eyeing the upcoming mid-term elections see an attractive contrast with Republicans.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: They are going to show themselves so far out of the mainstream, it's going to hurt them.
ACOSTA: But the president and Democrats have their own worries namely Obamacare. Just how the program's newly insured like their coverage in the coming weeks.
MITT ROMNEY (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's something which I think the American people are rejecting in large numbers. I think it's going to hurt the president and hurt the country and a lot of families.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: As for the move to extend those unemployment benefits for the long term jobless, the Senate is poised to hold a test vote on this issue later on this evening. That comes after a key -- another key vote on the economy. That is President Obama's pick to lead the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen.
And, Carol, it is not exactly clear whether or not Democrats have the votes on those unemployment benefits. They need about a handful Republicans to join them. It's not clear if they're going to will get them -- Carol.
COSTELLO: I'm sure you'll keep an eye on it. Jim Acosta reporting from the White House this morning.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM: think twice before you light up. Colorado's new marijuana law could cost you.
CNN's chief business correspondent Christine Romans has more.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. I'm going to tell you why after the break why if you legally smoke marijuana in Colorado, you can be fired from your job even if you're smoking on your own premises on your own time. I'll have that for you after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Colorado's new marijuana law means you can legally buy and sell pot, can you even grow pot in your own home. But that doesn't mean you get a free pass if your boss catches you smoking both on your off time. According to state laws, employers can still impose their own anti-drug policies and that means your job could go up in smoke if you're caught getting high.
Let's bring in CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans to talk more about this.
Hi, Christine.
ROMANS: Hi, Carol.
You know, companies have really been looking at this over the past couple of years as it looked this would become inevitable, right? The fact that you would be able to recreationally smoke put in Colorado companies for years have been pushing back on smoking, right. On alcoholism and substance abuse and the like and here's one other thing that they are trying to push back on.
And now, here's how. If they decide to impose their own drug free work zone, drug free employee standards, you can be fired for smoking marijuana legally on your own time. This is something legal experts -- there's actually case precedent here when medical marijuana was legal in Colorado, someone was fired who had prescription, was smoking pot legal legally, was fired when he failed a drug test and the state appeals court upheld that firing. They looked at it from all angles and this is what it looks like.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CURTIS GRAVES, MOUNTAIN STATES EMPLOYERS COUNCIL: Law says if your company doesn't like you're smoking pot off duty they can fire you.
Amendment 64 allows employers to have and enforce their drug policies which means that if somebody is inclined to do drug testing and marijuana is one of the drugs they test for, somebody comes up positive on the test, the employer can take whatever employment action they deem to be prudent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Yes, he's talking about something called Amendment 64. The audio is a little distorted because there are blowers in that grow house. Carol, this is going to be a really thorny, thorny legal territory for companies and workers as this law rolled out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Yes, he's talking about something called Amendment 64. It says the audio is a little distorted there because there are blowers in that grow house. But, Carol, this is going to be a really thorny, thorny still
COSTELLO: Well, it doesn't seem fair at face value, right? You can take a couple of drinks, go to work, you're not likely to be fired for that unless you're rip roaring drunk, right?
ROMANS: Unless you're tested for it, if testing for alcohol is one of the things they test for. But you're right. Marijuana stays in the system than alcohol does. Different kind of pick your poison.
With companies have been pushing back on all of that. They have been trying to push back on all of that and really have lowered the levels of drinking and drug using workforce over the past few years. And now many companies taking a look at what they can do, what kind of workplace policies they can put in place.
As one attorney told me a couple of weeks ago, companies want to make sure they can fire stoners, if they think stoners are not going to do a good job in their economy. So, they got the laws and legal precedent to be able to do it.
COSTELLO: Well, someone stoned comes to work I can totally understand that, right?
ROMANS: Well, one man's stoned is another man's recreational pot use, Carol.
COSTELLO: Perhaps so, Christine. Thanks so much.
ROMANS: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Still to come in the "newsroom" do airlines have a good accuse for thousands of delays in addition to the within weather, some say new FAA rules are also slowing them down. CNN's Rene Marsh has that side of the story.
Good morning.
RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. So, those new requirements that pilot must get contributing to flight delays that have you stuck in the airport right now. That's one airline is saying, is that a valid complaint or just an excuse.
We'll look at that, straight ahead.
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