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Search for the Perfect Clock; Mystery Surrounding Passenger List; Standoff in Crimea gets more Tense; $1.2M Bond for Mom Who Drove Kids into Ocean; Questions About Identity Of Two Passengers; Search For Missing Malaysian Airliner; Ukraine Team Protests Paralympic Games; Harvard Going Dancing, Win Ivy League; Supreme High Court Considers Deadly Force In Chases; Winter Storms A Blessing For Farmers; Stocks Ended Mixed After Jobs Report

Aired March 08, 2014 - 11:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right hello, everyone. It's the 11:00 Eastern hour of the NEWSROOM which starts right now.

An urgent search and rescue mission is under way right now after a large passenger jet disappears on its way to Beijing. No one knows exactly what happened or where the plane is.

And now there are new questions about the identity of two of the passengers. The breaking story straight ahead.

In the Ukraine, tensions ratchet up. Russia now accuse of carrying out more aggressive bullying tactic against the Ukrainian military and Poland takes action to protect its consulate in Crimea.

And back in the U.S., a mother seen driving her children into the Atlantic Ocean faces an attempted murder charges. Hear what she allegedly told her children during those terrifying moments and the disturbing revelations about her mental state.

We start this morning with that frantic search for a missing Malaysian Airlines plane. The Boeing 777 vanished not long after taking off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia yesterday. It was headed to Beijing with 239 people on board most of them Chinese nationals at least three Americans are among the passengers. State media in Vietnam and China say the jet has crashed but Malaysian authorities are not confirming that yet.

Rescue crews from across the region are now searching an area of the South China Sea where the plane may have gone down. Search helicopters and airplanes are also being deployed. An official tells CNN a Vietnamese aircraft has spotted possible debris and an oil slick in waters off Vietnam and Malaysia.

We have correspondents covering this story from all angles. Richard Quest is in New York and David McKenzie in Beijing. Let's begin with you Richard, there's been a lot of confusion about the nationalities of at least two of the passengers. Malaysian Airlines says there is one Austrian passenger and one Italian passenger on the plane that is now missing but officials in Italy and Austria say that's not the case. Why so much confusion? What do you know? RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well it's not unusual for there to be some discrepancies on a manifest certainly when you've got large numbers of passengers involved. What's unusual here is that in the case of the Austrian and the Italian, the people on the plane seem to be traveling on passports that are being reported lost or stolen, which seems somewhat extraordinary in this day and age that two passengers on the same flight could be traveling on forged or stolen or lost documents.

And then you've got the issue of these passengers were flying to Beijing. Now you would have assumed that if passports have been reported lost and stolen and we don't know that they had been, but if they were, then of course the system of monitoring and the immigration and cooperation that takes place would have -- you would have thought, prevented this from taking place. So that's that side of it.

And there are discrepancies. There are questions about the manifests. And there are issues about these two passengers who did travel on passports that had been lost or stolen -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right in the meantime, I understand you actually met some of the members of this missing crew fairly recently while doing a story with CNN International. Tell me about the crew. Tell me about what you learned during that story.

QUEST: We were filming for "Business Traveler" flying from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur and the crew onboard appeared to be the same ones as on this flight, certainly the first officer. Malaysia Airlines has confirmed it was the same first officer, Farik Hamid (ph). He was a young 27, experienced first officer. More than 2,700 hours flying. And he was transitioning to the -- to the 777 fleet.

The captain when we landed and it was Farik who did the landing at Kuala Lumpur, when we landed the captain pointed out it had been a flawless perfect landing and also said that at Malaysia Airlines they went out of their way to ensure training up to captain standards.

And I think what he also meant is that before Hamid even got into the right-hand seat of a 777, he had certainly spent many weeks and months in the simulator as he transitioned from a smaller jet to a large wide bodied.

WHITFIELD: So Richard, let's talk about the fact that this plane is now missing with this crew onboard. If it's believed the plane went off radar somewhere between an hour and two hours after takeoff, how will that help investigators, whether it be the arsenal in the air or in the sea, try to locate where this plane possibly may be, if indeed it went down an hour or two after takeoff?

QUEST: Right, because it narrows the field of search. You look at where the plane last reported that it was. And every ten minutes or so the aircraft is supposed to tell the -- pilots tell air traffic control, in this case they were under the control of the Ho Chi Minh Vietnamese air space. And they tell you where you are.

Now it's just a -- imagine you've just called someone on your cellphone and say I'm at "x" heading in this direction at this speed. And then you're not heard from again within the next check call. So you start to work backwards. And that's how you do it. Well you know they were there, therefore, they were traveling in this direction at this speed and we didn't hear from them again, therefore, the search area -- now, it sounds relatively straightforward when I talk about it to you on the television. We are talking about a very large space of land and water in this case and that's why you now have navies and air forces from several countries that will be cooperating to find the wreckage if such it is.

And one other thing they will be helped possibly by the underwater locator beacon. This is attached to the flight data recorder. And it will be emitting a signal. Now, we've got several days of this signal so it's not going to switch off overnight, after seven days of it. And that will be a good indication.

It won't be easy. I'm not for a moment sitting here sort of saying it is. But they will find the plane. And I promise you this. Everything we've known so far they will also find what happened because planes do not fall out of the sky at 36,000 feet without somebody wanting to get to the bottom of why.

WHITFIELD: All right. Richard Quest. Thanks so much. And if of course in the South China Sea we understand that it is shallow so that ping actually could indeed make a difference in the search. Thanks so much.

We're also going to be having a report coming from Beijing, China momentarily because again 159 of the 259 people on board are Chinese national. So we'll bring you up to date on that end.

Now moving on to the crisis in Ukraine. A growing standoff between pro-Russian forces and Ukrainians shows no signs of letting up in Crimea. Tensions flared in Simferopol as armed men stormed the military office today, that's a day after another tense situation in nearby Sevastopol. Ukrainian troops there say pro-Russian force had tried to take over a base but the Ukrainians refused to surrender.

Also today, military observers from the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe were not allowed into Crimea again. That's three days in a row they've been kept out. Russia is denying any role in the standoff. The country's foreign minister said today the Russian military is not involved. He also said Russia is ready to talk. But that might not get very far since Russia has sharply criticized Ukraine's interim government.

All right all that seems to indicate things are ramping up instead of calming down. Correspondent Anna Coren is live for us now in Simferopol and has been seeing some of the tensions firsthand. Anna, what are things like right now?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPOONDENT: Well, Fredricka you're absolutely right. Things are ramping up. I would say that the military build-up of Russian forces are entering a new phase. According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry they are reporting convoys of trucks carrying Russian soldiers across the border heading towards Crimea. So that, of course is a grave concern to them. There was obviously that incident here at a military office close by where pro-Russian forces have taken over this particular facility with weapons, pushed people on to the floor, occupied several -- all the levels of this particular building.

And then there was the incident last night, Fredricka where an hour and a half away from here Simferopol the Russian troops, unidentified Russian troops rammed a truck into a gate. Gotten entrance on to this air force base and met some resistance, however, from Ukrainian troops. Apparently they formed a human shield. They retreated but then the local militia turned up and that's when things turned ugly.

They clashed with journalists on the scene and some had to be hospitalized. So certainly things are definitely becoming a lot more aggressive. There seems to be a great deal more animosity here on the Crimean peninsula -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And what about now the protections that Poland is now taking with concerns of its consulate?

COREN: Yes -- no, there are reports certainly from the Polish Foreign Minister that they had to evacuate their consulate here in Crimea due to safety concerns. So I think, you know, anyone associated with the West who is against the referendum to poll Crimea to become part of Russia is really feeling the crackdown, certainly the media is also getting -- getting a taste of what it's like to be among that group. You know, there have been attacks on journalists, individual journalists. We spoke to a Greek journalist this morning who said that he had a confrontation with pro-Russian forces at a military base. They stole his equipment, he drove off they chase him down and when he got away from, I guess, away from the public, drove away from other people, that's when they -- when they attacked him.

He's in a bit of a bad way. The Bulgarian journalist, we had that footage from him yesterday being attacked on CCTV. And these paramilitaries, they don't want another viewpoint coming out of Crimea -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Anna Coren, thank you so much. Keep us posted.

With the escalating crisis happening in Ukraine a lot of people are asking the question, are we headed toward another Cold War?

And in this country, new video of the mother who drove her minivan into the ocean with her children inside. She made her first court appearance today. We'll have all the details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Disturbing new details today in the case of a pregnant mother accused of trying to kill her kids after she drove her van into the ocean with the children inside. This is Ebony Wilkerson appearing in court in Daytona Beach a short time ago. It's the first video that we're seeing of her since she was charged Friday with three counts of attempted first degree murder. Investigators say Wilkerson acted with premeditated design Tuesday when she drove her van into the ocean as her kids were screaming and crying for help.

I want to bring in CNN's Nick Valencia with more on this. So her mental illness is being closely scrutinized or where do they go with this investigation?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I talked with her attorney, here public defender, just a little while ago. And that's a line that he wants to go down, saying that she is mentally unstable. Fred, her bond was set $1.2 million; that's $300,000 per first degree attempted murder charge and another $100,000 per child abuse charge. She could face a maximum of 30 years in jail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF BEN JOHNSON, VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA: She definitely tried to kill her children, from everything we have seen.

VALENCIA: The Volusia County sheriff's office says new details in their investigation showed this was no accident.

JOHNSON: She actually told them to close their eyes and go to sleep. She was taking them to a better place.

VALENCIA: On Tuesday Ebony Wilkerson drove a minivan filled with her children into the Atlantic Ocean. The dramatic drive on Florida's Daytona Beach, caught on tape as kids inside cried for help.

TIM TESSENEER, WITNESS: We thought it was just a joke, you know. Hey, they're having a good time.

VALENCIA: Eyewitness Tim Tesseneer found out quickly the situation was serious. It was Tesseneer and another on looker, Stacey Robinson who helped rescue the family.

TESSENEER: We didn't know there were kids in the car to begin with. But then the back windows were rolled down. We heard some kids, you know, hollering a little bit. Then I thought I heard a faint "help". I was like, did I hear a faint help? And then it come clear they were screaming for help.

VALENCIA: The children's mother was charged with three counts of attempted first degree murder and three counts of child abuse. Relatives told investigators Wilkerson was in, quote, an abusive relationship with her husband and she had come to Florida to get away.

Relatives said the 32-year-old pregnant mother of three had no history of mental illness but a 911 call was made by a concerned family member just two hours before Wilkerson allegedly tried to kill her kids.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, I'm a wellness check. She's like having psychosis or something or postpartum.

VALENCIA: Police say they did respond and evaluated her for about 30 minutes. But said there was no legal right to detain her.

JOHNSON: The children weren't in crisis. The woman said I'm going to a shelter. And she showed nothing, there was no display that she was a danger to herself or anyone at that time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: As you heard from the sheriff there, Fred, they are convinced that she did this on purpose, that this was no accident.

WHITFIELD: Oh my goodness and so these children, as they were yelling, I guess, you know, I guess reportedly she told them to roll up the windows.

VALENCIA: That's right.

WHITFIELD: And one of the children --

VALENCIA: Close their eyes.

WHITFIELD: -- yes, was able to roll down the window and then reach out and actually call for help.

VALENCIA: That's right.

WHITFIELD: Amazingly there were a lot of people out there who could come to their aid.

VALENCIA: There was two onlookers specifically that helped these kids get out of the minivan. It was that thinking -- that quick thinking of that child that lowered the window, however slight, that allowed one of the rescuers to reach in there and unlock the doors and pull them all out.

Witnesses told police, Fred, that she was trying to stop those that were trying to help her kids.

WHITFIELD: Really?

VALENCIA: So, you know, there's a lot stacking up against her. I told you I talked to James Purdy, the public defender there in Volusia County, he wants to really emphasize that there is a matter of mental instability in this case. We should mention though that there's no official history of her having a mental illness.

WHITFIELD: And it's amazing. They acted very fast in a matter of minutes.

VALENCIA: So quick.

WHITFIELD: The vehicle was really taken over by those waves.

VALENCIA: Right.

WHITFIELD: Nick Valencia, thanks so much.

VALENCIA: You bet.

WHITFIELD: Appreciate it.

We're also learning new stunning details in the murder trial of Olympic track star Oscar Pistorius. He says he accidentally shot his girlfriend because he thought she was a burglar. A security guard testified that Pistorius said, quote, "Everything was fine", end quote, when he arrived. Will it hurt his case? Our legal guys will weigh in.

And the back and forth between Russia and the U.S. is starting to feel eerily familiar to some people. Next, why a retired military official says what's going on right now in Ukraine should keep you up at night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: It's a tense situation in Ukraine and it's only getting worse. Today Ukrainian officials say about 100 armed men took over a military office in Crimea in the city of Simferopol. They reportedly said they were part of the Crimean self-defense forces. Nearby Ukrainian women protested Russian military presence in Crimea in honor of International Women's Day.

And military observers from Europe trying to get into Crimea were kept out. It's the third day in a row they were denied such access. Leaders in Ukraine estimate that some 30,000 Russian troops now occupy the Crimean peninsula.

A U.S. destroyer is headed toward the Black Sea for naval maneuvers with Romania and Bulgaria. It's going there as part of an exercise that was planned before this crisis erupted.

Let me bring in now Cedric Leighton -- he's a retired Air Force colonel and member of Joint Chiefs of Staff and he was also the deputy director for training at the NSA.

All right. So we've got troops in Crimea, a blockade in the Black Sea, threats of sanctions by the U.S. and retaliation by the Russians. It sure seems like Cold War times, doesn't it, Colonel?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, U.S AIR FORCE (RET.): It sure does, Fredricka and good morning.

It's one of those situations where there are a lot of historic parallels to what's going on right now. And when you have experienced the Cold War like I did back in the late 1980s when it was winding down and also, of course, before then, there are significant areas where the Russians are acting a lot like the Soviet Union did back in that day.

Now, there are also significant differences. But the danger is there. There's a danger of miscalculation. There's a danger that Russian actions whether precipitated by real Russian troop or militias or both of them could make a significant difference in the calculations that the west has to make as well as the calculations that have to be made by the Ukrainian government itself. So there are significant issues that need to be weighed as we go forward with diplomatic efforts and also military responses to what's going on there now.

WHITFIELD: What are your greatest concerns about Russia's reach? Do you believe the threat is real? That it may go be beyond Crimea?

LEIGHTON: I do. I believe this is part of a master plan that Putin has. Putin has decided that he wants to, in essence, recreate as much of the old Soviet Union as he can in terms of the territory that the Soviet Union either had outright or held influence over.

So that means that all of the old members of the Soviet Union, such as Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic Republics, the Georgian states and the central Asian republics are fair game as far as Russian policymakers are concerned for at the very least greater Russian influence but also possibly actual Russian takeovers of certain parts of their area.

So with that said, there are a lot of efforts by the Russians to create buffer zones and the Ukraine is a prime example of that with the Crimea being number one, the number one location right now, but also the eastern Ukraine where there's a significant population of Russian-speaking and ethnic Russian people.

WHITFIELD: You said you do believe there was a master plan but, you know, in today's "New York Times" it indicates that there was a crisis meeting that came very shortly after Putin left the Winter Olympic Games, gathering 12 of, you know, his members of the national security team council and that there were some members who said that they didn't believe that Putin would do anything in terms of infiltrating Crimea. So if there was a master plan, is he the only one who knew about it? I mean, how would his national security team not know about it?

LEIGHTON: Well, you could have a plan on the shelf, but not think that it will be executed. So what Putin has done in the first part was he executed a war plan that was -- or the equivalent of a war plan that was basically in their files on their shelves in the Kremlin, or in the Russian ministry of defense.

Now, having said that, I do think that Putin was surprised by the fact that Yanukovych, the now deposed Ukrainian president was overthrown by the people some, he's taking advantage. He's got a plan in place but he's taking advantage of the tactical situation that he sees in front of him. So he convened this crisis meeting of his national security staff and said, ok, it's time to go forward. This plan is what we're going to use and we're going to make this plan the basis for our action in the Ukraine.

Now, every time a plan is implemented, it makes contact with the enemy as we say in the military and every time he makes contact with the military it's going to change in terms of how it's executed. But there is a plan out there and he is basically following that as much as he can. But he was surprised, I am certain, by the fact that Yanukovych was overthrown when he was.

WHITFIELD: All right. Lots to watch. Colonel Cedric Leighton, thanks so much for your time. Appreciate it from Washington

LEIGHTON: You bet Fredricka, thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: All right, new questions about two passengers onboard that missing Malaysian Airliner. Could they have been traveling on lost or stolen passports? All this as relatives wait and expect the worse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: As crews search for missing Malaysian airliner, there are new questions about identity of two of the passengers. The plane disappeared shortly after leaving Kuala Lumpur airport and was headed for Beijing. Well, now families of the 239 people onboard are waiting for news and they're expecting the worse.

A Vietnamese aircraft flying over the scene spotted rubbish and a liquid floating on the water, but it's too early to tell if that is indeed connected to this crash. The airline says the passengers were from 14 countries including at least three from the United States. But it's important to point out that officials from Italy and Austria deny that they had passengers on the plane.

Austria says a passport was stolen and there are reports an Italian person's passport was also stolen, which raises the question, were two of the passengers with possibly stolen passports on that plane? And, if so, who were they?

Joining me right now CNN law enforcement analyst, Tom Fuentes and former senior NTSB investigator, Greg Feith joining me on the phone. So Tom, let me get to you first. We're asking about these passports because apparently on the manifest were names matched to these passports, which both countries, Austria and Italy, are now saying were stolen. So help us understand, you know, how to piece this together. On the level of importance, where is it?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Fredricka, it's important to be followed up on. If the individuals that previously owned those passports weren't passengers, who was? So that's going to be an important part of the investigation. I should add that I was on the executive committee of Interpol for three years, worked closely with Interpol for decades, and Interpol maintains a database in France of lost and stolen passports.

Now most of the 190 countries that belong to Interpol which would include Malaysia and China and in this case Thailand, if that's where the passports were stolen, they enter that information into the database, which contains over 30 million records in Leon. In the United States, if you go through passport control in the U.S. An automatic inquiry when the passport is scanned is made of that database in Leon to determine whether the passport itself was stolen or lost or whether the individual is wanted.

Now, the question here becomes, did the authorities in Malaysia, the airport in Kuala Lumpur, did they make an inquiry of that data database, is their system set up to make an automatic inquiry if someone is using a previously reported stolen document. That should come up right away if they check that database.

Not every country that belongs to Interpol automatically does that and I know the Secretary General Ron Noble has been pushing this very aggressively with the rest of the member countries, to get onboard and query that database any time someone enters or exits your country through the international passport system.

WHITFIELD: Right. Is that equipment up to date or outdated? Greg, formerly of the NTSB. Let me ask you about the search for this missing plane. All we know is reportedly it went missing, went off radar, somewhere between an hour or two hours after takeoff. So what's the method of trying to locate this plane?

GREG FEITH, FORMER SENIOR NTSB INVESTIGATOR (via telephone): Right now, the investigators are going to use whatever assets they have available to them. Of course, air traffic control and Malaysia Air, they will provide information. But I would expect them to also be using military assets, presumably radar or surveillance type information to help them pinpoint the location of where the wreckage may be, especially if it's in the water.

WHITFIELD: Most typically problems with an aircraft take place on landing or takeoff, very unusual for it to happen while in flight, although we all remember what took place a few years ago with Air France and how it went down after leaving Rio. In the end, it was some sort of failure with the aircraft. So if you were to try to, you know, ascertain what may have happened here, Greg, even though we don't know where the plane is, if it were to have gone down in that South China Sea, is it your best guess it would likely because of mechanical failure? Because we understand the crew was very experienced.

FEITH: There are -- there are multiple different scenarios. One, of course, it will be up to the investigators to try and determine if, in fact, there was something with the aircraft. The airplane operates in a very high corrosive environment, saltwater environment. Of course, there's always the potential for some sort of structural compromise to the wings, the fuselage, and things like that.

Of course, you also have to look at in that part of the world and around the world, there's still a potential for a terrorist act or an intentional act that could have rendered the airplane incapacitated. Whatever happened, happened very, very quickly.

For them to have lost two-way radio communication with ATC, two-whey radio communication with the company and to lose any kind of radar data with ground control facilities means that that airplane was compromised in a very quick manner. And it may have been well beyond the control of the crew to keep the airplane under control and make any kind of emergency distress call or emergency landing.

WHITFIELD: All right, Greg Feith, Tom Fuentes, thank you gentlemen. Appreciate it.

FEITH: You're welcome. WHITFIELD: All right, it's that time of year again. It's time to spring forward. Get those clocks ready. Daylight saving time kicks in at 2:00 a.m. So don't forget to set your clocks ahead one hour before you go to bed. That's the best way to do it. We lose an hour of sleep, but just think about all that extra daylight time we're now going to get.

All right, and politics steals the show at the Paralympic games. We'll show you the message Ukraine sent to Russia.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, in spite of the crisis in Ukraine the winter Paralympic games kicked off in Sochi, Russia. The Ukrainian team was threatened to boycott the games actually did show up, kind of sort of. They also staged a small protest at the opening ceremonies. With more on that, Andy Scholes, so they're there, but then they're also sending a message.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The opening ceremony pretty much at any Olympic games is it's an event where the athletes, you know, they get to get acknowledged for all the years of hard work that it took to get to that moment and they get to go out there together as a country and you know, really just wave and have a good time.

Well, as a symbolic protest, the Ukrainian team, they sent just one of their 31 athletes out there to carry the flag into the stadium. The biathlete received a huge cheer from the crowd when he was introduced. Now, Ukrainian's Paralympic president said they're raising their flag for peace, but if there's any escalation of the conflict in their country, the team will pull out of the games and flat out leave.

WHITFIELD: Punishes the athlete.

SCHOLES: Yes, it certainly does. Now many countries including the United States have pulled their official delegations already to the winter Paralympics in response to the events going on right now in Ukraine.

It's almost bracket time. Ready?

WHITFIELD: No, I am not! I have not studied!

SCHOLES: Better start studying. Selection Sunday.

WHITFIELD: I'm always the last one. Last! Dead last. I'm not kidding. Dead last.

SCHOLES: Selection Sunday.

WHITFIELD: I can't do that again this year.

SCHOLES: A week from tomorrow, Harvard, they are the first team this season to punch their ticket to the big dance. They beat the rival Yale last night to win the Ivy League. This will be Harvard's third straight trip in the NCAA tournament. Last year they won for the first time, but wouldn't pick them going too far.

All right, turning today on bleacherreport.com, Tiger Woods, the Cadillac championship is in a terrible start to his season so far. Probably the worst of 18-year career. This might help him. He nailed a putt from 91 feet out!

WHITFIELD: This a week after that back injury?

SCHOLES: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Really nearly paralyzing him.

SCHOLES: Yes. And he's back. Look, this was the longest putt in the tour in five years. Tiger's longest putt since 2001. He just got back out on the course today.

WHITFIELD: A raise to his therapist.

SCHOLES: Maybe this putt will help him get going and maybe get back in contention in this week's tournament.

WHITFIELD: Neat.

SCHOLES: Golf is much better when Tiger is playing.

WHITFIELD: I know. It is riveting. He's brought so much to this sport, the game. It's true.

SCHOLES: I know. I'm locked?

WHITFIELD: You can be a tiger hater if you want to, but you know you're probably not watching if he's not playing.

SCHOLES: Yes, love him or hate him you're watching to see how he does in these tournaments.

WHITFIELD: Right. Everybody always loves a comeback.

SCHOLES: Yes, true.

WHITFIELD: He's not quite done with that comeback, right?

SCHOLES: He hasn't won a major in a long, long time. That's what he's trying to do this year.

WHITFIELD: All right, we are rooting for you. Go ahead. I always love a comeback. All right, Andy, appreciate it. Thanks so much.

WHITFIELD: All right, an argument reportedly over French fries turns into a nasty brawl at a suburban Chicago high school. All that caught on tape. You can't go anywhere these days without something being caught on somebody's cellphone.

Police and the school are still investigating what happened in this video, but according to CNN affiliate WJN-TV at least seven students have been charged with disorderly conduct. Another was charged with resisting a police officer. All over French fries, people.

WHITFIELD: All right, in CNN's newest original series "Chicagoland," we get a chance to witness a city undergoing some pretty tough changes. Fighting for safer Chicago as police Superintendent Gary McCarthy who Mayor Rahm Emanuel brought from New York. McCarthy says the city's gun violence is bad, but it is getting better he says.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My biggest issue in Chicago is dealing with gangs, guns, and, it's not cultural change in the department. It's not acceptance of an outsider. None of those things really. They all pale in comparison to those challenges right there. And the media, they keep talking about the rising toll of gun violence in Chicago while the numbers are going in the other direction.

UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: While the press continues to focus on Chicago's violence there's actually been a decline. In 2012, there were 161 murders in the first quarter. In 2013, there were 93. That's more than a 40 percent reduction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're taking a more holistic approach to crime reduction here in Chicago than I think has been done in most places in the country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you trying to achieve?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying to save the world. Can't you tell? Yes, well, right now I'm trying to save Chicago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trying to save Chicago. Any particular part of Chicago?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All of it, he says. You can watch "Chicagoland" right here on CNN tonight at 8:00 Eastern Time, 7:00 Central.

All right, a high-speed chase, police chase leaving two people dead. Did police use excessive force? That case is going before the U.S. Supreme Court.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: U.S. Supreme Court justices are weighing in on whether police can use deadly force in high speed chases. Our Erin McPike explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This 2004 police dash cam video shows what at first seems to be a routine traffic stop for a busted headlight, until it starts a 10-minute high speed chase. Driver Donald Rickard and his passenger, Kelly Allen, leading police from Arkansas into Tennessee before cornering their white Honda but briefly.

As the Honda backs up, almost hitting one of the officers, they fire 15 shots into the car as it speeds away. A short time later, the car crashes into a house. Rickard and Allen both died. Rickard's family sues the officers for using excessive force and now, the case is reaching the U.S. Supreme Court.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: The usual rule is you're not allowed to sue the police if they make a mistake, but it's also a rule that if they do something really outrageous, then you can sue and the question in this case is how outrageous was the police behavior?

MCPIKE: The officers claim they have immunity when safeguarding the public in fast-moving, dangerous situations, even if they make mistakes, but lower courts denied them immunity saying, their actions were unreasonable.

JON SHANE, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: The question is whether or not the public risk outweighs the public benefit and those things are contact specific. They emerge in moments in time and that's what we pay police officers to do. Make those difficult decisions on our behalf as civilians, so we can go about our daily lives.

The tape itself is never conclusive because it's only one small part of an overall set of circumstances that take place in a very, very short period of time. I can tell you from what I've seen, it absolutely looks like it's consistent with policy.

MCPIKE: Erin McPike, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Supreme Court sided with police in a similar case back in 2007. A ruling on this case is expected within three months.

All right, as we get out from under the snowstorms, CNN's Tom Foreman takes us on an American journey and shows how the snow melt is actually turning into a blessing for some areas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Through all the bitter cold and blowing snow, through the misery and madness, the long running winter has brought long awaited water. And the head of the Maryland Farm Bureau, Chuck Fry, says after some dry years, that's a big relief.

CHUCK FRY, MARYLAND FARM BUREAU: Whether it's a dairy farmer on the east coast, whether you live in D.C. or wherever you live, your food comes from a farm and it's all hedge upon that water.

FOREMAN (on camera): Winter water counts.

FRY: Absolutely counts. FOREMAN (voice-over): As a rule, every 20 inches of snow will melt into just one inch of water and that may not seem like much. A year ago, well over half the country was in drought conditions. Now, the dry spots are down to around 35 percent and that's mainly in the west, places like California.

BRIAN FUCHS, NATIONAL DROUGHT MITIGATION CENTER: They are not going to even get to normal by the time their wet season ends later this spring.

FOREMAN (on camera): In simple terms, it comes down to this, with enough snow and rain, a farm like this can more than double its output of corn and soybeans and so much else.

(voice-over): So, as Jon Sewell prepares for planting --

JON SEWELL, FARMER: I hope it does this in the summertime. Not snow but precipitation.

FOREMAN (on camera): If this keeps up --

SEWELL: If this keeps up, that would be fantastic. That's all we hoped for.

FOREMAN (voice-over): High hopes amid the high waters that winter is leaving behind. Tom Foreman, CNN, Tuscarora, Maryland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: U.S. officials are tracking information that two passengers on that missing Malaysian airliner could have been traveling on lost or stolen passports. The plane vanished yesterday after leaving Kuala Lumpur's airport for Beijing and is believed to have gone down in the South China Sea. Coming up next hour, did two passengers with possibly stolen passport get on that plane and if so, who were they?

And after a week that saw some record highs on Wall Street, stocks ended on a mixed note. Alison Kosik explains why.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. The S&P 500 closed at a record high Tuesday and hit the mark again on Thursday and Friday. But overall, stocks were all over the place, mostly because of the unrest in Ukraine. The Dow dropped 150 points Monday, only to pop 200 points Tuesday, the biggest gain of the year. In the end, stocks wrapped up the week higher.

Two major retailers announcing they're closing some stores. Radio shack is shutting 1,100 locations and staples is closing 225 stores. Staple's CEO says stores need to earn the right to stay open and these days, many traditional stores are getting hit hard by online retailers.

Target is making big changes in the wake of last year's massive data breach. The retailer is hiring a new technology chief and two other top tech positions. Target will bring in new blood and hire from outside the company. The data breached hit 110 million people.

Americans are buying more guns. Smith & Wesson said quarterly sales rose 7 percent thanks to a big jump in hand gun sales. Rival, Sturm, Ruger released similarly strong numbers last month. Sales have picked up since President Obama's re-election and the Newtown, Connecticut shootings.

And finally, it was a pretty good week for former Fed chief, Ben Bernanke. He reportedly raked in $250,000 for one speech. That's more than his annual salary as the chairman of the Federal Reserve. But $250,000 isn't out of line with what other top officials get on the speaking circuit. That's a wrap of the week on Wall Street. Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Alison. And we have much more straight ahead in the newsroom and it all starts right now.