Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Saturday
Major Snow Storm Hits San Bernadino, CA
Aired January 08, 2005 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: want to know the latest cool electronic gizmos? Daniel Sieberg joins us live later from techie heaven in Las Vegas.
Panicky motorists call 911 when the snow traps them in their car. CNN's Miguel Marquez reports from San Bernardino, California. And then --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought well maybe he'd get ruffled up or beat up or something like that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, I didn't think he was going to get killed. That never entered my mine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Forty years later the mother of a murdered civil rights worker talks about her son's death.
Good evening. I'm Fredericka Whitfield. Those stories in a moment, but first the headlines.
United Nations officials report substantial progress in getting aid to tsunami victims despite massive challenges. The worldwide death toll is 155,000, nearly 95,000 in Indonesia alone. Officials there say thousands are still unaccounted for.
A U.S. nuclear submarine is making its way back to its home port of Guam after running aground in the Pacific. The Pentagon says an estimated 20 crew members were injured, one critically when the "USS San Francisco" hit bottom about 350 miles south of Guam.
Former President Jimmy Carter met with interim PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas today just hours before tomorrow's historic presidential elections. Abbas is the front-runner. Carter is in the region to observe the fairness of the election. Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.
And we have this news just in from Iraq. The U.S. military says a warplane dropped a bomb on the wrong target near Mosul. It's investigating what went wrong. The military says it deeply regrets the loss of possibly innocent lives. We're following that story and will bring you more details as they become available. Now here at home, let's head out west where a powerful band of winter storms continues to clobber the region pelting California with heavy snow and rain. Hundreds of motorists have been stranded by snow near Big Bear Lake. Panicky, some have dialed 911 for help. Our Miguel Marquez is in San Bernardino County with the latest. Miguel?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredericka, we are at the base of the San Bernardino National Forest where the Lidle (ph) Creek and the Kahone Creek come together. Normally this is a dry riverbed. I want to show you what's going on here right now. National Weather Service saying that they are expecting up to 15 inches of rain with this storm over the next couple of days in the mountains and the foothills of the San Bernardino National Forest, all of that water rushing down here. But where the big problem is now, I want to show you some pictures near where that is, near Big Bear, California, Big Bear Lake. This is near Snow Summit Ski Valley. One hundred to 200 cars are trapped in the snow along highway 18 up here. They don't know how many people are in those cars but along a nine-mile stretch of highway 18, 100 to 200 cars.
A spokesperson with the San Bernardino National Forest saying that they've gotten to about seven or eight of those people. But because the snow is so heavy, three to four feet along highway 18 up there, they have to dig by hand in order to get to each one of those cars. This storm is expected to continue. We are getting another belt of it today, which has just begun right now. We're expecting another big, heavy belt of it tomorrow. And the Weather Service saying that we expect a third belt possibly on Monday to come through southern California. And just so you know, for the record, the normal rainfall for the year in southern California is 15 inches. That's the average rainfall for southern California. This year, we're already up to 17.6 inches. We've blown through that average rainfall and may be headed toward a record. Fredericka?
WHITFIELD: All right, Miguel Marquez, thanks so much.
Further north along the California/Nevada border, the snowplows are busy as well. So much snow is falling that residents are dealing with near whiteout conditions. And there's more snow on the way. Our Sean Callebs is keeping tabs on the snowfall there in Tahoe City. It ain't over yet.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredericka, it ain't over yet, you're exactly right. And almost on cue, the wind's been kicking up recently. You can see the fresh snow that has built up on all these piles of snow that have been pushed off the road, beginning to blow around in here. And think about it. It's 1:00 in the afternoon here. It's not going to get any brighter today. It's only going to get a lot worse.
Driving conditions are getting significantly worse out there. And Miguel talked about the 15 inches of rain, very tough in that area. But here, they're gauging the snowfall in feet. They expect that it's going to continue today. It is going to continue tomorrow. It is going to continue Monday. Snowplows have been out on all the state highways and the interstates in this area. Still a number of roads have been closed because of concern about the possibility of an avalanche. Now, we talked to one of the truck operators earlier in the day and he's somebody in one of these massive rigs and he still says it is dangerous out there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's heaven. It's heaven. There's nothing like it in the world. Can't see when you're driving. You've got to stop and when the wind clears, you just go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: Exactly. When the wind clears, you just go. But that is under the best of conditions. We talked to some local authorities here with the police. They say the roads are terrible out there. And basically, they say it's a tale of two stories. The locals who live in this area, they're used to the snowfall. Somewhere up between 200 -- think about this, Fredericka -- 200 and 400 inches of snow every year. The locals are used to it. They stay in, warm themselves by the fire. But this is a tourist region, A big problem, a lot of people not used to anything like this. Getting out on the roads and it is simply dangerous. Fredericka, back to you.
WHITFIELD: Wow, they're not used to it. But it doesn't sound like you have any reported emergencies where you are like there are in San Bernardino County.
CALLEBS: Well, right now -- they had this happen last weekend. So basically, this is the second run in eight days of people having to deal with this kind of weather. There are a number of roads. They've had jackknifed buses, cars that have been closed off and on. But as you said, no emergencies in this area because people are going so slow, authorities say when they do have accidents, it's usually just the kind of thing where they bump up against a snow bank like this or another vehicle.
WHITFIELD: Best bet, just stay inside. Stay off the roads. Thanks so much, Sean Callebs.
To get a better understanding of all of this blustery weather out west, here's our meteorologist Jacqui Jeras in the weather center. Hi Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi Fredricka. We did just hear Sean mention those winds and the blustery conditions. Those are going to be picking up we think throughout the afternoon and wind gusts may reach as high as 50 miles per hour and that means near blizzard conditions can be expected. So weather conditions certainly going to be getting worse.
We're still seeing plenty of rain, plenty of snow across California. Here's Los Angeles. There's San Diego. Here's San Bernardino. This is Big Bear Lake right where Miguel was and highway 18 runs right through this area. You get up into the higher elevations, we're looking at the snowfall. But most of the rain has been on the westward side of the mountain and so we're getting all this rain continuing to run off, and there have been numerous reports of mudslides and rock slides in addition to that especially the burned areas. That will be a big concern for today. You see it all throughout the grapevine here, also kind of spreading to the Las Vegas area, even into Phoenix is going to be a concern today. Salt Lake City will get in on the action especially as we progress into the weekend.
Now you may be asking yourself, how come it's always so much worse into the mountains? You may see significant rainfall in the valley, but you head into the foothills and it's that much worse. Well, we call it orographic lift. You need a little lift, a little bit more of a forcing mechanism to get the heavier rainfall or snowfall amounts. The wind comes in from the west bringing an ample moisture from the Pacific and then it kind of stops as it goes into the mountains.
It can't go anywhere, so it's pushed up. And as it's forced up, the air cools and condenses, the clouds develop and when they can't hold any more moisture, it comes down as that rain and that snow and so you get into the foothills and into some of the higher elevations of the rain, up to a foot, maybe even 15 inches of rainfall. And then we're expecting anywhere between five and 10 feet of snow above 7,000 feet, into the Tahoe area where Sean Callebs is.
Here's our main upper-level low. This is the main storm system itself and it's been almost stationary all day long and until we can get some movement on this, we're going to continue to see the lousy weather across much of the west. This is the story here for tomorrow as well. Monday, expect more of it. But good news, Tuesday, Wednesday, starting to dry out. And believe it or not, offshore flow, as we call it, moving in by the end of the week. That means the winds are going to be coming from the east and bringing in some drying conditions, which they're really going to be needing. Fredericka?
WHITFIELD: All right. Jacqui, thanks so much.
Now to south Asia. Almost two weeks after the deadly tsunamis, we're getting more chilling images of what it looked like when the waves came ashore. This amateur video was taken at a resort on a Thai island. Look at that, you can see people starting to run away from the beach as they spot the water swelling on the horizon, churning toward them. And the sea then swallows everything in its path.
In a split second, that picture-perfect blue water turned into a terrifying mud-brown torrent rising to the roof levels of the resort bungalows there. What you're seeing is from some tourists' point of view from a rooftop, videotaping the raging sea rushing in and sucking its way back out. More than 5100 people were killed in Thailand, more than 3800 are still missing.
The death toll in south Asia from the tsunamis is more than 155,000 overall. Disease has threatened many survivors along with other dangers. Indonesia is monitoring its borders to stop child traffickers from smuggling young victims out of the country. It's also setting up special camps to protect children from criminal gangs. Other efforts are focusing on women. The Indonesian government and UNICEF are working to create centers for traumatized female victims of the disaster.
Meantime, general aid workers and relief supplies are pouring into the region. Planes carrying both are heading to hard-hit Banda Aceh on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. CNN's John King followed one flight from start to finish.
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Medan (ph) is the gateway to Sumatra, its runway always busy, now clogged all the more by the tsunami relief effort. An Australian C-130 loading for its next run and in this cockpit, a pilot sitting poised and waiting. Finally, after six and a half hours, cleared for the run to Banda Aceh. On board, pasta, water and other emergency aid, courtesy of World Vision, one of the many agencies trying to rush supplies to the front lines. During the flight, the deck of the aging 727 becomes a conference room, a chance to study the maps, plan the next day and add some new context to the database. Landing slots at Banda Aceh are hard to come by. But after circling for a half hour or so, finally clearance to land and finally time to unload those supplies and join the direct relief effort. John King, CNN, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
WHITFIELD: For most of the tsunami survivors, everyday life is made even more difficult by the memories of their loved ones.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRANSLATOR: Fathers hug. I want to apologize to him. Maybe I did something wrong. I miss my father.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: The daunting task of moving forward. Still ahead on CNN LIVE SATURDAY, the story of Nasir, a young boy struggling to survive.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: More now on our top story we're following for you. This just coming in not long ago, a coalition F-16 drops a 500-pound bomb on a residence in Mosul north of Baghdad and apparently the U.S. military is saying it was an unintended target. It appears that five people have been killed. The U.S. military is apologizing and saying that an investigation is currently under way. More on that story as we get more details.
Well, more than 40 years have passed since one of the most notorious killings of the civil rights era. This week a reputed member of the Ku Klux Klan was indicted and arraigned in the case. For the families of the victims, it's justice delayed and it's reopening old wounds. CNN's Alina Cho reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are some things a mother can never forget. For Caroline (ph) Goodman, it's the day her son, Andy, came to her in 1964. CAROLINE GOODMAN: He said, mom, I got to go. I got to go down there. I said why? Why? He said, there are people down there, they don't have the rights that this constitution of ours gives us.
CHO: What was running through your mind when he said that to you?
GOODMAN: What am I going to do say, well, you know, that's nice, and pat him on the back? Say, yeah, that's OK. We were telling him that all his life. And then I say no, don't go? How could I do that?
CHO: So Andy, just 20 years old, packed up and moved to Mississippi. He was on a mission to register black voters at a time when things were still very much black and white.
GOODMAN: I thought, well, maybe get ruffled up and beat up or something like that.
CHO: Really?
GOODMAN: Yeah, but I didn't think he was going to get killed. That never entered my mind.
CHO: But the day after Andy Goodman arrived, he and two other civil rights workers Michael Schwerner (ph) and James Chaney (ph) disappeared. It took investigators 44 days to find their bodies. Police believe members of the Ku Klux Klan forced them off the road. The case inspired a movie, "Mississippi Burning."
On Friday, former Klan leader, 79-year-old Edgar Killen, was indicted on three counts of murder in the 1964 killings, a court appearance Goodman has been waiting for 40 years.
GOODMAN: Yes. It was a surprise, but I must say not a shock.
CHO: Goodman lives alone in this New York apartment, the same one where Andy grew up. She wants people to remember her son as a hard worker who always fought for fairness. As for the break in the case four decades later -- what's the message?
GOODMAN: Well, the message is that things can change.
CHO: Alina Cho, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Residents of some Washington D.C. neighborhoods are preparing for the unthinkable. They're learning how to cope with a potential natural disaster or terrorist attack on a neighborhood level without relying on agencies that may be spread too thin. CNN's Gary Nurenberg reports.
GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Getting ready for her basketball game with tips from her father, Zena Peterson knows preparedness is key. Her dad has tried to prepare the family for an emergency like a natural disaster or terrorist attack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're aware of the phone numbers, what's the quickest route to a hospital?
NURENBERG: Think you're ready?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don't. I think that there's -- you know some of the things you hear about now that could happen, I don't know how we would react.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a massive power outage, all of D.C., Maryland.
NURENBERG: Peterson's neighborhood rehearsed community disaster response this weekend, running through possible scenarios.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're expecting the wind chills to be down between 15 and 25 below.
NURENBERG: And charting neighborhood response.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need a local map. We need a first-aid kit.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who's alone? Who has a caretaker?
NURENBERG: The people at today's exercise are by definition, activists who are making a conscious effort to be prepared. But as they think about their communities, it also means a recognition that many of their neighbors won't be prepared. That's where neighbors like Sally McDonald come in.
When earthquakes taught emergency responders that fire trucks and rescue vehicles sometimes can't get through the rubble, local residents were trained in community response, what to do, how to organize, while official help is on the way. McDonald has had that training in D.C. and has her emergency kit with special tools ready to go when the neighborhood needs her.
SALLY McDONALD: It shuts off the gas. It shuts off the water. You can break windows with it. You can pry open things with it.
NURENBERG: Neighbor Samantha Nolan has an emergency kit customized to the needs of her family.
SAMANTHA NOLAN: If you have children in the house, they're going to be bored. So they don't always talk about this, but I always keep games and cards and other entertainment for kids.
NURENBERG: Neighborhood planning here is hard to avoid.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When they come to honor our postman to my house in three weeks, I'm already gathering a list of things that we better do as a neighborhood to make sure that we are all in touch and we're all prepared. I've already got a plan.
NURENBERG: And having a plan, they hope, will help the next time disaster does strike. Gary Nurenberg for CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
More now on a 500-pound bomb that was dropped on an unintended target in Mosul, Iraq. Out of Baghdad now, we go to Chris Lawrence for the latest. Chris, what happened?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredericka, the U.S. military, the coalition forces, are now confirming that an F-16 fighter jet has dropped a 500-pound GPS-guided bomb on a house that they did not intend to destroy.
Here's basically how it happened according to the coalition forces. They were out on a search mission, trying to capture a potential insurgent leader. Ground forces were on the ground in a neighborhood south of Mosul trying to find this insurgent leader. The F-16 was being used to support that ground troops to provide some support for their mission.
But the actual house that was bombed was not the intended target of the air strike. That house was designed to be searched by the ground troops. The actual target of the air strike was in the neighborhood, but it was another location nearby. Now, what we're hearing from witnesses, they are telling CNN that they heard the house explode. Witnesses are also telling CNN that 14 people lived inside that house. Four men, the rest women and children. But the coalition forces are saying they are reporting that five people were killed in that air strike. So there is some discrepancy there. But the coalition forces have come forward to say that they deeply regret the loss of any potential innocent life in this accidental air strike. Fredericka?
WHITFIELD: And Chris, they also add that now an investigation is under way, which is, of course, standard procedure in a case like this. But very quickly, perhaps to appease the general public there to let them know that the U.S. military is admitting a mistakes was made?
LAWRENCE: They are. As to how it was made, on which end it happened, that's something that the investigation will have to determine. But the military is saying that they did not intend to target this particular house with that air strike. So they are coming forward and saying a mistake was made, and they deeply regret the loss of any potential innocent life inside that house.
WHITFIELD: All right. Chris Lawrence, thanks so much for that update out of Baghdad.
We'll have more news right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Well, if it's January, it must be NFL playoff time. The road to the Super Bowl begins today with wildcard playoff games between the New York Jets and San Diego and St. Louis and Seattle. Here's CNN's Steve Overmyer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVE OVERMYER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been 20 years since Seattle last won a playoff game, the longest draught in the NFL and although the team is aware of the dubious streak, they're not dwelling on it.
MATT HASSELBECK, SEAHAWKS QUARTERBACK: We're just fired up to play at home in a playoff game. You know, last year we were excited to get in, but had to go to Green Bay in, like, 10 degrees, just freezing cold on their field with their crowd. Now we get to do it at our place with our crowd. And that's just real exciting.
OVERMYER: The Rams have already beaten Seattle two times this year and history appears to be on the side of St. Louis. Of the 15 times that a team has beaten an opponent twice in the regular season, 10 times they've won again in the playoffs. Now, in the AFC, San Diego plays host to New York. The Chargers fell to the Jets in week two, but that was before the emergence of quarterback Drew Brees (ph). His quarterback rating left him behind only Peyton Manning (ph) in the AFC and helped turn a 4-12 team in 2003 into 12-4 division champions.
HERM EDWARUS (ph), JETS HEAD COACH: When we played them, they couldn't sell enough tickets so the game was blacked out. Now it's sold out. Everyone's wearing Charger jerseys. Last time they were in the playoffs was 10 years ago. They're excited.
OVERMYER: Although the Jets do boast the league's leading rusher in Curtis Martin, quarterback Chad Pennington has struggled since returning from a shoulder injury last month. The team heads into the playoffs having lost three out of their last four games. Steve Overmyer, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, here's something you probably won't be seeing during the Super Bowl advertising blitz. Fox has nixed a cold remedy commercial with a brief shot of actor Mickey Rooney's bare backside. A spokesman says the network has reviewed the ad and deemed Rooney's end zone inappropriate for a broadcast. The 84-year-old Rooney says he's disappointed and hopes Fox will reconsider.
Well, weather wise, the wild west is earning its name this weekend. A live report from Donner Summit (ph) when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Our top stories now in the news, U.S. military officials say a coalition F-16 aircraft has dropped a 500-pound bomb on an unintended target near the Iraqi town of Mosul. They say that bomb accidentally fell on a house, killing five people. The U.S. military has released a statement apologizing for the loss of innocent lives. It says the incident occurred during a search operation to capture an insurgent leader. An investigation is under way. More aid
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More aid is on the way to areas devastated by the tsunami. World Vision is one of many relief agencies delivering supplies to Banda Aceh, Indonesia and other hard- hit regions. This weekend, tsunami victims in Banda Aceh received pasta, water and other emergency aid.
U.S. Navy sources tell CNN the nuclear attack submarine "USS San Francisco" ran aground today underwater south of Guam. Twenty crew members were hurt, one critically. Military officials say the sub is now making its way back to its home port in Guam. They say there are no reports of damage to the vessel's nuclear reactor.
And more rain for water-logged southern California. Some areas got more than a half an inch of rain every hour yesterday. Forecasters expect the rain to continue throughout the weekend.
And now back to the latest on that winter storm out west. It's been battering northern California since Thursday and it's expected to dump up to at least six more feet of snow this weekend. That's snarling traffic across mountain passes and major interstates. Melanie Kim with KMAX is in Donner Summit, California, where I-80 has finally reopened and trying to stay warm. So sorry, Melanie.
MELANIE KIM, KMAX: I'm not having much luck, Fredericka, either, as you can see. Yes, we're at Donner Summit and this, believe it or not, you can barely see it. That's I-80, a very busy highway. And it's a very rough ride into the Lake Tahoe area because we're just west of there due to high winds, snow, and these white-out conditions.
Now, this highway, as you mentioned, was closed overnight. It reopened this morning. But it was closed all night long because of that high wind and also the blowing and drifting snow on the roadways. Now, the Lake Tahoe area got about 16 inches to up to 30 inches of new powder overnight. However, this morning, in the little town of Trucky (ph), California, they were out there with the snowplows, plowing away the snow, clearing the roadways, and of course, people were out there shoveling and shoveling and shoveling, something they're doing a lot of these days, of course.
And with back to back storms, they'll probably be doing that again tomorrow, maybe the next morning and the next morning as well. People are also out at gas stations. They took advantage of a little lull in the storm this morning to get gas because it's always a good idea to have a full tank of gas during a big storm because at times because of conditions like this, tankers have trouble getting up into the mountains to refuel.
And also we found a little young lady who was actually having a good time shoveling. She had a choice of sledding or skiing, but no, she wanted to shovel. She thought that was fun. Not too much fun here at the Donner Summit area, but believe it or not, there's a skier right over here, Boiled (ph) Ridge and people are actually out there skiing and snowboarding right now. So they think this winter storm is great. No, yeah, great news for them. But a very tough time getting up to the Lake Tahoe area. Reporting live from Donner Summit, I'm going to send it back to you guys in the studio in Atlanta.
WHITFIELD: All right. Melanie Kim and try to get inside. Get inside that live satellite truck ASAP. All right. Thanks a lot.
Many tsunami survivors who lost family members in the disaster are struggling with feelings of grief and guilt, guilt for being able to save themselves, but not their loved ones. Even children are blaming themselves for being powerless to do more. CNN's Alex Quade reports from Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEX QUADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Life for Nasir is hard, orphaned, his family and village gone, swept away by the tsunami. While other children swim, 13-year-old Nasir scrubs laundry. Just getting by is a daily struggle with work and memories.
TRANSLATOR: I saw people running on the road. They were screaming, "the water is rising!" I told my sisters to follow me. I saw the top of a palm tree already in water. I ran to the mosque to save us. Then the mosque was hit by the wave and the water came in. I had my two sisters on my left. They kept calling for my mother. More water came in. After 10 minutes being underwater, they couldn't breathe and were limp. I didn't let go of their hands. I held them tight. Then I couldn't breathe anymore, so I let go. I was forced up by the water. Somebody saved me.
QUADE: Nasir ended up here in a refugee tent with three other families. He cooks.
TRANSLATOR: I want to buy vegetables but have no money. All there is is rice and dried fish.
QUADE: Throughout it all, he feels guilty. TRANSLATOR: The last time I saw my father was when he said good- bye before going to work. He gave me pocket money and said not to spend it all. Take care of your sisters, he said. Then he left. Half an hour later, the water came. I'm very sad to lose my sisters whom I loved so much. The last time I saw them they were yelling "moma, moma" and holding on to me in the water. I didn't want to be separated.
QUADE: Two days ago, his life changed again. The mother he thought dead showed up at his tent. Nasir, an orphan no more.
TRANSLATOR: Before I found my mother, I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep at night. Every day for a week, I went on searching for my mother. I was elated when I saw my mother. Now I can eat. I have my appetite back after I was reunited with my mother.
QUADE: She helps him wash for prayers, but is too depressed to do much else.
TRANSLATOR: I am responsible for my mother now. She can't work. She thinks about my sisters. They're gone. When the tsunami came, my mother almost surrendered. She wanted to die with her children.
QUADE: So now he must work even harder to care for them both. He doesn't mind. The only thing missing, his sisters and father.
TRANSLATOR: I miss my father's hug. I want to apologize to him. Maybe I did something wrong. I miss my father.
QUADE: Alex Quade, CNN, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A little less than an hour and a half from now, CNN LIVE SATURDAY with Carol Lin is up. In fact, she's right here for a preview of what we can expect. Hello.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR, CNN LIVE SATURDAY: I just spoke with a 14- year-old boy who has decided that he is going to raise more money than the entire country of France initially for his pledge to the tsunami victims.
WHITFIELD: Wow!
LIN: And he's well on his way. You're going to hear --
WHITFIELD: Already.
LIN: At 6:00 Eastern how he's going to do it. Then at 10:00 tonight, let's say we're sitting here right and we're doing the news, and all of a sudden you say "this segment brought to you by the White House." Well, we're going to get into that debate about Armstrong Williams getting paid by the White House, not disclosing that to his listeners. He's got a huge following, and he's now paying the price, but we're going to have a debate about that. They're saying what's the big deal? Why are we surprised?
WHITFIELD: It's certainly opened up a great debate. We'll be listening. Thanks a lot Carol.
Well, U.S. Secretary of state Colin Powell has left the tsunami devastated region of south Asia and is now in the east African nation of Kenya. Tomorrow, he witnesses the signing of an historic peace treaty for Sudan. Today he talked to a group of young Kenyans about HIV/AIDS. The disease is threatening to wipe out entire communities in Africa and turn back decades of progress. CNN's Kathleen Koch has the story from the White House now. Kathleen?
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredericka, the figures are truly staggering. Seven percent of adult Kenyans have HIV or AIDS. In some southern African countries, the number is at high as 20 percent. But today's event really does show that at least some countries are admitting they have a problem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: We are also taught how to value our virginity, our education and our life.
KOCH (voice-over): It was a frank exchange about sex and a disease that last year alone claimed the lives of 150,000 Kenyans. Secretary of State Colin Powell there to witness the signing of a peace deal for southern Sudan spoke out about Africa's past approach to AIDS.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: Africa, I think, for too long a period of time ignored the problem, looked the other way and said no, this isn't happening.
KOCH: The young people meeting with Powell insisted denial is no longer an option. They work in programs to prevent the spread of the disease. Some are victims themselves.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I tell them how much they are at risk as well as give them a personal appearance because it is really not smooth living with HIV. And I'm glad that I can still -- we can still talk about and think that secondary virginity is cool.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The age group that (INAUDIBLE) in Kenya is for -- it's around 9 to 16 years young girls (INAUDIBLE) more than the boys in the same age bracket.
POWELL: They're being exploited by older men.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, they're being exploited but (INAUDIBLE)
KOCH: Powell praised South African President Nelson Mandela's comments this week on the death of his son.
POWELL: Nelson Mandela stood up and spoke and said my son died of HIV/AIDS. The most powerful figure in all of Africa, said to all of Africa, this is not someone else's problem or someone else's disease. It can happen in everyone's family. It happened in my family.
KOCH: One former U.S. official says besides the new frankness, dramatic cultural change is needed.
HERMAN COHEN, GLOBAL COALITION ON AFRICA: There is a tradition in many countries that men can be promiscuous, but their wives should not be. So the men go out and go with many women, then they come and bring the disease home to their wives. So we need greater independence of women, greater education for young girls so they can protect themselves.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOCH: Some say that the United States needs to do more to fight aids, both in the United States and abroad. But secretary of State Powell insists that the U.S. is doing more than any other country, committing to spend over the next five years, $3 billion a year to slow the spread of AIDS worldwide. Back to you, Fredericka.
WHITFIELD: Kathleen Koch at the White House, thanks so much.
Well, if you're cooped up this winter, chances are you're stuffed up as well. Find out why and what you can do about it as Dr. Lloyd there is brushing something off. I think we're going to hear an explanation right after this break.
DANIEL SIEBERG, TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: I'm technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg at the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas where we'll have a PDA wristwatch and a camera that sends your photos wirelessly to the Internet.
We'll have all that and lots more hot gadgets here when CNN LIVE SATURDAY continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Well, spring flowers and pollen may be months away, but health experts say more people suffer breathing problems and nasal congestion now during the dead of winter. If you're stuffed up from being cooped up, Dr. Bill Lloyd of the University of California Davis Medical Center is here to help. What's the explanation? Why is our indoor air so unhealthy during the winter months?
DR. BILL LLOYD, U. OF CALIF DAVIS MED CTR: Well, Fredericka, with the extreme cold weather, we're all trapped indoors and many people have homes with extra insulation and they keep those doors (INAUDIBLE). So we're ventilating the same air over and over again.
Here's a list of some of the things that's inside your house that aren't good to breathe. We start with low humidity. We're all generating dust. Most of it comes from skin cells. Your pets are generating a lot of debris in the air as well. Don't forget secondhand smoke. Anybody who's smoking ought to take it out to the patio. Remember, people bring germs into your house and if you have poor ventilation, those germs keep re-circulating.
WHITFIELD: And then there's the problem of dust and dust mites. You were dusting something off earlier.
LLOYD: I sure was, Fredericka. You know, this is the weekend that most people put their stuff away from the holidays. Don't bring dust in next year. So here's what you do. Dust everything and vacuum it today. Put it in fresh new boxes before you send it up to the attic. Otherwise, if you have the same box year after year, you'll be importing that dust back into your house next December. Be sure you vacuum regularly and cut back on the drapes and the heavy bedspreads. Think about other ways to treat your windows. And there's a variety of other things you can do to lower the amount of dust in the house and with that, improve your breathing and reduce the amount of congestion that you could have.
WHITFIELD: And sometimes dry air is a big problem, too. It is as simple as having a humidifier in your home?
LLOYD: There's a lot of different things you can do. Here's a simple test. Are you starting to experience static electricity whenever you touch the light switch? It means your house is too dry. You want to keep it between 30 and 50 percent relative humidity. You could go to a hardware store and buy one of those simple dials, a hydrometer, that tells you how moist the air is. You can also get a humidifier like you mentioned, but they use hot water, so there's always a chance of somebody, including a child, getting burned.
Think about a cool-mist vaporizer instead. They're safer and they're less likely to be contaminated with germs. Always fill whatever you use for extra moisture, fill it with fresh, distilled water and be sure you practice regular hygiene by maintaining your unit, changing the filters, and replacing the water every single day. Whether or not you use it or not always start the day with fresh water.
WHITFIELD: And you alluded to this earlier, pet allergens. But certainly don't get rid of the dog or cat. What are some other solutions?
LLOYD: Well, certainly on a day like today you don't want to send the pets outside. But we're probably going to generate a lot of e- mail, Fredericka, but cats are the real troublemaker. Cats generate far more allergens than dogs ever do and they make people miserable because you know what? Cat owners get very intimate with their pets. They let them jump up on the bed and prowl around them. Cat saliva collects the dander from the cat and the cat then distributes it all over the house. So keep the cat where the cat's supposed to be, in a little pen or a basket, whatever, reduce the exposure, and the same goes for the dog as well. If you do that, you dust regularly, you keep the dust down and you vacuum and keep the pets where they belong, you'll breathe easier all winter long.
WHITFIELD: But don't toss aside the cat or dog for real, like you just did with the stuffed animal.
LLOYD: That's true. We don't want any e-mail from cat lovers. We're sorry, the cat jumped off my lap.
WHITFIELD: All right. Dr. Bill Lloyd, thanks so much for helping to keep our indoor air healthy.
LLOYD: We'll talk again soon.
WHITFIELD: Well, news across America now. One of Hollywood's most glamorous couples splitting up. Jennifer Aniston's office says she and Brad Pitt have decided to formally separate after four years of marriage.
Chicago-based Tribune media services is no longer distributing Armstrong Williams' column and the National Association of Black Journalists is calling on all broadcast and print media to drop him. The conservative black commentator has confirmed he took taxpayer money to promote the Bush administration's education agenda.
Chicago police are searching for a gunman who killed at least two people and wounded five others in a nightclub. Officers say the shooting started early this morning when the club refused to admit four private partygoers to its first floor because the club was closing.
The late President John F. Kennedy's older sister has died at age 86 in a mental institution in Jefferson, Wisconsin. Rosemary Kennedy was the third of nine children in the Kennedy clan. She was born mentally disabled and was institutionalized for life after a failed lobotomy in 1941.
Royal Caribbean International says nearly 120 passengers and crew suffered a stomach virus aboard one of its cruise ships. The Norwalk- type virus broke out aboard the Enchantment of the Seas which returned to port in Ft. Lauderdale today after a five-day excursion. A rash of cruise ship illnesses occurred last year.
And if you're the kind of person who never leaves home without your iPod, listen up. The latest electronic gizmos and gadgets are on display at the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas. And CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg has been checking things out for us.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred, that's right. I actually didn't leave home without my iPod. It's just over in the corner over there. Turns out with about 1.5 million feet of square space here at the Las Vegas convention center, there are just a few gadgets and there are some gadget heads walking around, too and we've run into Jim Louderback exremetech.com and Jim, you've brought along a few of your picks from the show this year. It's tough to narrow them down. But why does the first one really stand out? It's more for audiophiles.
JIM LOUDERBACK, EXTREMETECH.COM: Yeah it is but if you want to put audio throughout your house in multiple different rooms, you spend thousands and thousands of dollars to do it. The neat thing about this is we've got on you our digital music on our iPods and other places on our PCs. This works with that, but does it multi-channel all over the house? Look at that. This is Sonos. Imagine this. You've got all your stuff on a PC. You put one of these in every room. This is a 50-watt per channel amplifier. You actually hook your speakers up to this. You don't have to hook it up into your stereo and this wirelessly connects. Over there you can see I've got a PC and another one. You can have up to 30 of these all around your house and then once you have it all set up --
SIEBERG: This is where the iPod, sort of like an iPod controller comes in.
LOUDERBACK: Exactly. It's a little bit like an iPod controller. It's a wireless controller. You see I've got the music here. I can see what I'm playing. I can browse my music.
SIEBERG: Can you play a song for us?
LOUDERBACK: Yeah, let me just go in here and hit the play button. I'll crank up a song.
SIEBERG: That could be anywhere in your house.
LOUDERBACK: Anywhere in the house and the neat thing about it, let me pause it again. The neat thing about it is, you can play the same song in every room.
SIEBERG: So sort of zones.
LOUDERBACK: Right, or different songs in each room or any combination thereof. Like I said, thousands and thousands of dollars, wiring your house up to do it in the past, all wirelessly, using your computer, for starting now, it's $1100 to start out still not cheap.
SIEBERG: I can see you're excited about this one. I know you're going to go after it. Speaking of wireless, this phone from Kodak. If people want to share their pictures or put them up on the Internet, this makes it a lot easier.
LOUDERBACK: Exactly. Now this camera won't be out until this summer. But first of all, look at that nice screen. Isn't that nice? But I want to show you, it's great for sharing pictures as well. You see I've got a lot of pictures on here I can share. You also use this as your viewfinder which is very nice. It actually rotates around, which is kind of cool too. But the neat thing about this camera is, once you take a lot of pictures, you get them up on the Internet. This is wireless! That's the answer.
SIEBERG: I put a wireless card in there, which is additional, right?
LOUDERBACK: That's right. The camera itself is $600. This is $100. But it does let you get stuff out of your camera up to the Internet really easily. Now if you can't afford that, but you have a digital camera, most of them --
SIEBERG: This is pretty incredible.
LOUDERBACK: This is cool. Now most cameras use something this which is an SD card. The problem is, you take a lot of pictures, you fill it up, you want to put it on your computer, you left the cable somewhere else, at home or in the office. What this does, is with a little flip, now it is a USB connection and I can plug it right into a port on my PC.
SIEBERG: No adapters, no anything.
LOUDERBACK: No adapters. Take it out of the camera, plug it into your PC, rReally nice. This will be available later this year, a couple months. So - now the other thing is, computing is getting smaller and smaller and smaller.
SIEBERG: In fact, so much so it's on your wrist.
LOUDERBACK: It's on your wrist. Now this is a fossil wristwatch. Inside is a complete palm PDA computer. So you can actually wear this -- it's a little big. And actually, the battery's not very long.
SIEBERG: They're trying to make them smaller, right, some of these watches that have all of these different PDA functions and so on like the spot watches.
LOUDERBACK: Right, exactly. This one is a Palm which is I think the best PDA software so that works really well.
SIEBER: And it is a touch screen too.
LOUDERBACK: When it works. It's pretty nice. Now, I do want to show you this because this is a Windows smart phone. Now, Microsoft has been trying to put all its Windows hardware and software in one of these and they've been big and bulky, haven't worked very well. This one finally is a real good phone and it's all Windows in your pocket.
SIEBERG: You can control everything that's on your PC using this?
LOUDERBACK: Well, not everything. It will work as a remote a little bit, but also all of your contacts. It runs Word, versions of Word and various different applications. You wouldn't want to write "War and Peace" using the numeric keypad, but finally it's small enough to carry with you anywhere and you can takes pictures with it, too.
SIEBERG: That's great. Well, Jim Louderback, thank you so much for helping us out. I know this is the end of the show for you. You've had a tough week but thanks for helping us out. We appreciate it.
LOUDERBACK: My pleasure.
SIEBERG: All right. That's going to do it for now Fredricka. Back to you.
WHITFIELD: All right. Dan, it's exciting, but at the same time, it's very depressing because for those of us who are still trying to catch up with just the whole simple digital camera, it's gotten so complicated. Can we expect a lot of these prices, however, might come down? SIEBERG: They certainly will. As the devices are out on the market for a longer period of time, the volume goes up. there are more in production, so the prices do come down. It does take a little time. A lot of the stuff you see here on the show floor is a big preview. So it may not be cheaper for a while yet. But we can always hope.
WHITFIELD: All right. It's exciting to dream, though.
SIEBERG: Exactly. (INAUDIBLE)
WHITFIELD: Dan, thanks so much.
Well, straight ahead, the latest on the weather front in the west and then, the voices from the tsunami in a special edition of PEOPLE IN THE NEWS.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Our top stories we're following for you now. U.S. military officials say a coalition F-16 aircraft has dropped a 500 pound bomb on an unintended target near the Iraqi town of Mosul. Authorities say the bomb accidentally fell on a house killing five people. The U.S. military has released a statement apologizing for the loss of innocent lives. It said
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 8, 2005 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: want to know the latest cool electronic gizmos? Daniel Sieberg joins us live later from techie heaven in Las Vegas.
Panicky motorists call 911 when the snow traps them in their car. CNN's Miguel Marquez reports from San Bernardino, California. And then --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought well maybe he'd get ruffled up or beat up or something like that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, I didn't think he was going to get killed. That never entered my mine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Forty years later the mother of a murdered civil rights worker talks about her son's death.
Good evening. I'm Fredericka Whitfield. Those stories in a moment, but first the headlines.
United Nations officials report substantial progress in getting aid to tsunami victims despite massive challenges. The worldwide death toll is 155,000, nearly 95,000 in Indonesia alone. Officials there say thousands are still unaccounted for.
A U.S. nuclear submarine is making its way back to its home port of Guam after running aground in the Pacific. The Pentagon says an estimated 20 crew members were injured, one critically when the "USS San Francisco" hit bottom about 350 miles south of Guam.
Former President Jimmy Carter met with interim PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas today just hours before tomorrow's historic presidential elections. Abbas is the front-runner. Carter is in the region to observe the fairness of the election. Keeping you informed, CNN, the most trusted name in news.
And we have this news just in from Iraq. The U.S. military says a warplane dropped a bomb on the wrong target near Mosul. It's investigating what went wrong. The military says it deeply regrets the loss of possibly innocent lives. We're following that story and will bring you more details as they become available. Now here at home, let's head out west where a powerful band of winter storms continues to clobber the region pelting California with heavy snow and rain. Hundreds of motorists have been stranded by snow near Big Bear Lake. Panicky, some have dialed 911 for help. Our Miguel Marquez is in San Bernardino County with the latest. Miguel?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredericka, we are at the base of the San Bernardino National Forest where the Lidle (ph) Creek and the Kahone Creek come together. Normally this is a dry riverbed. I want to show you what's going on here right now. National Weather Service saying that they are expecting up to 15 inches of rain with this storm over the next couple of days in the mountains and the foothills of the San Bernardino National Forest, all of that water rushing down here. But where the big problem is now, I want to show you some pictures near where that is, near Big Bear, California, Big Bear Lake. This is near Snow Summit Ski Valley. One hundred to 200 cars are trapped in the snow along highway 18 up here. They don't know how many people are in those cars but along a nine-mile stretch of highway 18, 100 to 200 cars.
A spokesperson with the San Bernardino National Forest saying that they've gotten to about seven or eight of those people. But because the snow is so heavy, three to four feet along highway 18 up there, they have to dig by hand in order to get to each one of those cars. This storm is expected to continue. We are getting another belt of it today, which has just begun right now. We're expecting another big, heavy belt of it tomorrow. And the Weather Service saying that we expect a third belt possibly on Monday to come through southern California. And just so you know, for the record, the normal rainfall for the year in southern California is 15 inches. That's the average rainfall for southern California. This year, we're already up to 17.6 inches. We've blown through that average rainfall and may be headed toward a record. Fredericka?
WHITFIELD: All right, Miguel Marquez, thanks so much.
Further north along the California/Nevada border, the snowplows are busy as well. So much snow is falling that residents are dealing with near whiteout conditions. And there's more snow on the way. Our Sean Callebs is keeping tabs on the snowfall there in Tahoe City. It ain't over yet.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredericka, it ain't over yet, you're exactly right. And almost on cue, the wind's been kicking up recently. You can see the fresh snow that has built up on all these piles of snow that have been pushed off the road, beginning to blow around in here. And think about it. It's 1:00 in the afternoon here. It's not going to get any brighter today. It's only going to get a lot worse.
Driving conditions are getting significantly worse out there. And Miguel talked about the 15 inches of rain, very tough in that area. But here, they're gauging the snowfall in feet. They expect that it's going to continue today. It is going to continue tomorrow. It is going to continue Monday. Snowplows have been out on all the state highways and the interstates in this area. Still a number of roads have been closed because of concern about the possibility of an avalanche. Now, we talked to one of the truck operators earlier in the day and he's somebody in one of these massive rigs and he still says it is dangerous out there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's heaven. It's heaven. There's nothing like it in the world. Can't see when you're driving. You've got to stop and when the wind clears, you just go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: Exactly. When the wind clears, you just go. But that is under the best of conditions. We talked to some local authorities here with the police. They say the roads are terrible out there. And basically, they say it's a tale of two stories. The locals who live in this area, they're used to the snowfall. Somewhere up between 200 -- think about this, Fredericka -- 200 and 400 inches of snow every year. The locals are used to it. They stay in, warm themselves by the fire. But this is a tourist region, A big problem, a lot of people not used to anything like this. Getting out on the roads and it is simply dangerous. Fredericka, back to you.
WHITFIELD: Wow, they're not used to it. But it doesn't sound like you have any reported emergencies where you are like there are in San Bernardino County.
CALLEBS: Well, right now -- they had this happen last weekend. So basically, this is the second run in eight days of people having to deal with this kind of weather. There are a number of roads. They've had jackknifed buses, cars that have been closed off and on. But as you said, no emergencies in this area because people are going so slow, authorities say when they do have accidents, it's usually just the kind of thing where they bump up against a snow bank like this or another vehicle.
WHITFIELD: Best bet, just stay inside. Stay off the roads. Thanks so much, Sean Callebs.
To get a better understanding of all of this blustery weather out west, here's our meteorologist Jacqui Jeras in the weather center. Hi Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi Fredricka. We did just hear Sean mention those winds and the blustery conditions. Those are going to be picking up we think throughout the afternoon and wind gusts may reach as high as 50 miles per hour and that means near blizzard conditions can be expected. So weather conditions certainly going to be getting worse.
We're still seeing plenty of rain, plenty of snow across California. Here's Los Angeles. There's San Diego. Here's San Bernardino. This is Big Bear Lake right where Miguel was and highway 18 runs right through this area. You get up into the higher elevations, we're looking at the snowfall. But most of the rain has been on the westward side of the mountain and so we're getting all this rain continuing to run off, and there have been numerous reports of mudslides and rock slides in addition to that especially the burned areas. That will be a big concern for today. You see it all throughout the grapevine here, also kind of spreading to the Las Vegas area, even into Phoenix is going to be a concern today. Salt Lake City will get in on the action especially as we progress into the weekend.
Now you may be asking yourself, how come it's always so much worse into the mountains? You may see significant rainfall in the valley, but you head into the foothills and it's that much worse. Well, we call it orographic lift. You need a little lift, a little bit more of a forcing mechanism to get the heavier rainfall or snowfall amounts. The wind comes in from the west bringing an ample moisture from the Pacific and then it kind of stops as it goes into the mountains.
It can't go anywhere, so it's pushed up. And as it's forced up, the air cools and condenses, the clouds develop and when they can't hold any more moisture, it comes down as that rain and that snow and so you get into the foothills and into some of the higher elevations of the rain, up to a foot, maybe even 15 inches of rainfall. And then we're expecting anywhere between five and 10 feet of snow above 7,000 feet, into the Tahoe area where Sean Callebs is.
Here's our main upper-level low. This is the main storm system itself and it's been almost stationary all day long and until we can get some movement on this, we're going to continue to see the lousy weather across much of the west. This is the story here for tomorrow as well. Monday, expect more of it. But good news, Tuesday, Wednesday, starting to dry out. And believe it or not, offshore flow, as we call it, moving in by the end of the week. That means the winds are going to be coming from the east and bringing in some drying conditions, which they're really going to be needing. Fredericka?
WHITFIELD: All right. Jacqui, thanks so much.
Now to south Asia. Almost two weeks after the deadly tsunamis, we're getting more chilling images of what it looked like when the waves came ashore. This amateur video was taken at a resort on a Thai island. Look at that, you can see people starting to run away from the beach as they spot the water swelling on the horizon, churning toward them. And the sea then swallows everything in its path.
In a split second, that picture-perfect blue water turned into a terrifying mud-brown torrent rising to the roof levels of the resort bungalows there. What you're seeing is from some tourists' point of view from a rooftop, videotaping the raging sea rushing in and sucking its way back out. More than 5100 people were killed in Thailand, more than 3800 are still missing.
The death toll in south Asia from the tsunamis is more than 155,000 overall. Disease has threatened many survivors along with other dangers. Indonesia is monitoring its borders to stop child traffickers from smuggling young victims out of the country. It's also setting up special camps to protect children from criminal gangs. Other efforts are focusing on women. The Indonesian government and UNICEF are working to create centers for traumatized female victims of the disaster.
Meantime, general aid workers and relief supplies are pouring into the region. Planes carrying both are heading to hard-hit Banda Aceh on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. CNN's John King followed one flight from start to finish.
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Medan (ph) is the gateway to Sumatra, its runway always busy, now clogged all the more by the tsunami relief effort. An Australian C-130 loading for its next run and in this cockpit, a pilot sitting poised and waiting. Finally, after six and a half hours, cleared for the run to Banda Aceh. On board, pasta, water and other emergency aid, courtesy of World Vision, one of the many agencies trying to rush supplies to the front lines. During the flight, the deck of the aging 727 becomes a conference room, a chance to study the maps, plan the next day and add some new context to the database. Landing slots at Banda Aceh are hard to come by. But after circling for a half hour or so, finally clearance to land and finally time to unload those supplies and join the direct relief effort. John King, CNN, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
WHITFIELD: For most of the tsunami survivors, everyday life is made even more difficult by the memories of their loved ones.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRANSLATOR: Fathers hug. I want to apologize to him. Maybe I did something wrong. I miss my father.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: The daunting task of moving forward. Still ahead on CNN LIVE SATURDAY, the story of Nasir, a young boy struggling to survive.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: More now on our top story we're following for you. This just coming in not long ago, a coalition F-16 drops a 500-pound bomb on a residence in Mosul north of Baghdad and apparently the U.S. military is saying it was an unintended target. It appears that five people have been killed. The U.S. military is apologizing and saying that an investigation is currently under way. More on that story as we get more details.
Well, more than 40 years have passed since one of the most notorious killings of the civil rights era. This week a reputed member of the Ku Klux Klan was indicted and arraigned in the case. For the families of the victims, it's justice delayed and it's reopening old wounds. CNN's Alina Cho reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are some things a mother can never forget. For Caroline (ph) Goodman, it's the day her son, Andy, came to her in 1964. CAROLINE GOODMAN: He said, mom, I got to go. I got to go down there. I said why? Why? He said, there are people down there, they don't have the rights that this constitution of ours gives us.
CHO: What was running through your mind when he said that to you?
GOODMAN: What am I going to do say, well, you know, that's nice, and pat him on the back? Say, yeah, that's OK. We were telling him that all his life. And then I say no, don't go? How could I do that?
CHO: So Andy, just 20 years old, packed up and moved to Mississippi. He was on a mission to register black voters at a time when things were still very much black and white.
GOODMAN: I thought, well, maybe get ruffled up and beat up or something like that.
CHO: Really?
GOODMAN: Yeah, but I didn't think he was going to get killed. That never entered my mind.
CHO: But the day after Andy Goodman arrived, he and two other civil rights workers Michael Schwerner (ph) and James Chaney (ph) disappeared. It took investigators 44 days to find their bodies. Police believe members of the Ku Klux Klan forced them off the road. The case inspired a movie, "Mississippi Burning."
On Friday, former Klan leader, 79-year-old Edgar Killen, was indicted on three counts of murder in the 1964 killings, a court appearance Goodman has been waiting for 40 years.
GOODMAN: Yes. It was a surprise, but I must say not a shock.
CHO: Goodman lives alone in this New York apartment, the same one where Andy grew up. She wants people to remember her son as a hard worker who always fought for fairness. As for the break in the case four decades later -- what's the message?
GOODMAN: Well, the message is that things can change.
CHO: Alina Cho, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Residents of some Washington D.C. neighborhoods are preparing for the unthinkable. They're learning how to cope with a potential natural disaster or terrorist attack on a neighborhood level without relying on agencies that may be spread too thin. CNN's Gary Nurenberg reports.
GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Getting ready for her basketball game with tips from her father, Zena Peterson knows preparedness is key. Her dad has tried to prepare the family for an emergency like a natural disaster or terrorist attack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're aware of the phone numbers, what's the quickest route to a hospital?
NURENBERG: Think you're ready?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don't. I think that there's -- you know some of the things you hear about now that could happen, I don't know how we would react.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a massive power outage, all of D.C., Maryland.
NURENBERG: Peterson's neighborhood rehearsed community disaster response this weekend, running through possible scenarios.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're expecting the wind chills to be down between 15 and 25 below.
NURENBERG: And charting neighborhood response.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need a local map. We need a first-aid kit.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who's alone? Who has a caretaker?
NURENBERG: The people at today's exercise are by definition, activists who are making a conscious effort to be prepared. But as they think about their communities, it also means a recognition that many of their neighbors won't be prepared. That's where neighbors like Sally McDonald come in.
When earthquakes taught emergency responders that fire trucks and rescue vehicles sometimes can't get through the rubble, local residents were trained in community response, what to do, how to organize, while official help is on the way. McDonald has had that training in D.C. and has her emergency kit with special tools ready to go when the neighborhood needs her.
SALLY McDONALD: It shuts off the gas. It shuts off the water. You can break windows with it. You can pry open things with it.
NURENBERG: Neighbor Samantha Nolan has an emergency kit customized to the needs of her family.
SAMANTHA NOLAN: If you have children in the house, they're going to be bored. So they don't always talk about this, but I always keep games and cards and other entertainment for kids.
NURENBERG: Neighborhood planning here is hard to avoid.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When they come to honor our postman to my house in three weeks, I'm already gathering a list of things that we better do as a neighborhood to make sure that we are all in touch and we're all prepared. I've already got a plan.
NURENBERG: And having a plan, they hope, will help the next time disaster does strike. Gary Nurenberg for CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.
More now on a 500-pound bomb that was dropped on an unintended target in Mosul, Iraq. Out of Baghdad now, we go to Chris Lawrence for the latest. Chris, what happened?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredericka, the U.S. military, the coalition forces, are now confirming that an F-16 fighter jet has dropped a 500-pound GPS-guided bomb on a house that they did not intend to destroy.
Here's basically how it happened according to the coalition forces. They were out on a search mission, trying to capture a potential insurgent leader. Ground forces were on the ground in a neighborhood south of Mosul trying to find this insurgent leader. The F-16 was being used to support that ground troops to provide some support for their mission.
But the actual house that was bombed was not the intended target of the air strike. That house was designed to be searched by the ground troops. The actual target of the air strike was in the neighborhood, but it was another location nearby. Now, what we're hearing from witnesses, they are telling CNN that they heard the house explode. Witnesses are also telling CNN that 14 people lived inside that house. Four men, the rest women and children. But the coalition forces are saying they are reporting that five people were killed in that air strike. So there is some discrepancy there. But the coalition forces have come forward to say that they deeply regret the loss of any potential innocent life in this accidental air strike. Fredericka?
WHITFIELD: And Chris, they also add that now an investigation is under way, which is, of course, standard procedure in a case like this. But very quickly, perhaps to appease the general public there to let them know that the U.S. military is admitting a mistakes was made?
LAWRENCE: They are. As to how it was made, on which end it happened, that's something that the investigation will have to determine. But the military is saying that they did not intend to target this particular house with that air strike. So they are coming forward and saying a mistake was made, and they deeply regret the loss of any potential innocent life inside that house.
WHITFIELD: All right. Chris Lawrence, thanks so much for that update out of Baghdad.
We'll have more news right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Well, if it's January, it must be NFL playoff time. The road to the Super Bowl begins today with wildcard playoff games between the New York Jets and San Diego and St. Louis and Seattle. Here's CNN's Steve Overmyer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVE OVERMYER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been 20 years since Seattle last won a playoff game, the longest draught in the NFL and although the team is aware of the dubious streak, they're not dwelling on it.
MATT HASSELBECK, SEAHAWKS QUARTERBACK: We're just fired up to play at home in a playoff game. You know, last year we were excited to get in, but had to go to Green Bay in, like, 10 degrees, just freezing cold on their field with their crowd. Now we get to do it at our place with our crowd. And that's just real exciting.
OVERMYER: The Rams have already beaten Seattle two times this year and history appears to be on the side of St. Louis. Of the 15 times that a team has beaten an opponent twice in the regular season, 10 times they've won again in the playoffs. Now, in the AFC, San Diego plays host to New York. The Chargers fell to the Jets in week two, but that was before the emergence of quarterback Drew Brees (ph). His quarterback rating left him behind only Peyton Manning (ph) in the AFC and helped turn a 4-12 team in 2003 into 12-4 division champions.
HERM EDWARUS (ph), JETS HEAD COACH: When we played them, they couldn't sell enough tickets so the game was blacked out. Now it's sold out. Everyone's wearing Charger jerseys. Last time they were in the playoffs was 10 years ago. They're excited.
OVERMYER: Although the Jets do boast the league's leading rusher in Curtis Martin, quarterback Chad Pennington has struggled since returning from a shoulder injury last month. The team heads into the playoffs having lost three out of their last four games. Steve Overmyer, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, here's something you probably won't be seeing during the Super Bowl advertising blitz. Fox has nixed a cold remedy commercial with a brief shot of actor Mickey Rooney's bare backside. A spokesman says the network has reviewed the ad and deemed Rooney's end zone inappropriate for a broadcast. The 84-year-old Rooney says he's disappointed and hopes Fox will reconsider.
Well, weather wise, the wild west is earning its name this weekend. A live report from Donner Summit (ph) when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Our top stories now in the news, U.S. military officials say a coalition F-16 aircraft has dropped a 500-pound bomb on an unintended target near the Iraqi town of Mosul. They say that bomb accidentally fell on a house, killing five people. The U.S. military has released a statement apologizing for the loss of innocent lives. It says the incident occurred during a search operation to capture an insurgent leader. An investigation is under way. More aid
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More aid is on the way to areas devastated by the tsunami. World Vision is one of many relief agencies delivering supplies to Banda Aceh, Indonesia and other hard- hit regions. This weekend, tsunami victims in Banda Aceh received pasta, water and other emergency aid.
U.S. Navy sources tell CNN the nuclear attack submarine "USS San Francisco" ran aground today underwater south of Guam. Twenty crew members were hurt, one critically. Military officials say the sub is now making its way back to its home port in Guam. They say there are no reports of damage to the vessel's nuclear reactor.
And more rain for water-logged southern California. Some areas got more than a half an inch of rain every hour yesterday. Forecasters expect the rain to continue throughout the weekend.
And now back to the latest on that winter storm out west. It's been battering northern California since Thursday and it's expected to dump up to at least six more feet of snow this weekend. That's snarling traffic across mountain passes and major interstates. Melanie Kim with KMAX is in Donner Summit, California, where I-80 has finally reopened and trying to stay warm. So sorry, Melanie.
MELANIE KIM, KMAX: I'm not having much luck, Fredericka, either, as you can see. Yes, we're at Donner Summit and this, believe it or not, you can barely see it. That's I-80, a very busy highway. And it's a very rough ride into the Lake Tahoe area because we're just west of there due to high winds, snow, and these white-out conditions.
Now, this highway, as you mentioned, was closed overnight. It reopened this morning. But it was closed all night long because of that high wind and also the blowing and drifting snow on the roadways. Now, the Lake Tahoe area got about 16 inches to up to 30 inches of new powder overnight. However, this morning, in the little town of Trucky (ph), California, they were out there with the snowplows, plowing away the snow, clearing the roadways, and of course, people were out there shoveling and shoveling and shoveling, something they're doing a lot of these days, of course.
And with back to back storms, they'll probably be doing that again tomorrow, maybe the next morning and the next morning as well. People are also out at gas stations. They took advantage of a little lull in the storm this morning to get gas because it's always a good idea to have a full tank of gas during a big storm because at times because of conditions like this, tankers have trouble getting up into the mountains to refuel.
And also we found a little young lady who was actually having a good time shoveling. She had a choice of sledding or skiing, but no, she wanted to shovel. She thought that was fun. Not too much fun here at the Donner Summit area, but believe it or not, there's a skier right over here, Boiled (ph) Ridge and people are actually out there skiing and snowboarding right now. So they think this winter storm is great. No, yeah, great news for them. But a very tough time getting up to the Lake Tahoe area. Reporting live from Donner Summit, I'm going to send it back to you guys in the studio in Atlanta.
WHITFIELD: All right. Melanie Kim and try to get inside. Get inside that live satellite truck ASAP. All right. Thanks a lot.
Many tsunami survivors who lost family members in the disaster are struggling with feelings of grief and guilt, guilt for being able to save themselves, but not their loved ones. Even children are blaming themselves for being powerless to do more. CNN's Alex Quade reports from Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEX QUADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Life for Nasir is hard, orphaned, his family and village gone, swept away by the tsunami. While other children swim, 13-year-old Nasir scrubs laundry. Just getting by is a daily struggle with work and memories.
TRANSLATOR: I saw people running on the road. They were screaming, "the water is rising!" I told my sisters to follow me. I saw the top of a palm tree already in water. I ran to the mosque to save us. Then the mosque was hit by the wave and the water came in. I had my two sisters on my left. They kept calling for my mother. More water came in. After 10 minutes being underwater, they couldn't breathe and were limp. I didn't let go of their hands. I held them tight. Then I couldn't breathe anymore, so I let go. I was forced up by the water. Somebody saved me.
QUADE: Nasir ended up here in a refugee tent with three other families. He cooks.
TRANSLATOR: I want to buy vegetables but have no money. All there is is rice and dried fish.
QUADE: Throughout it all, he feels guilty. TRANSLATOR: The last time I saw my father was when he said good- bye before going to work. He gave me pocket money and said not to spend it all. Take care of your sisters, he said. Then he left. Half an hour later, the water came. I'm very sad to lose my sisters whom I loved so much. The last time I saw them they were yelling "moma, moma" and holding on to me in the water. I didn't want to be separated.
QUADE: Two days ago, his life changed again. The mother he thought dead showed up at his tent. Nasir, an orphan no more.
TRANSLATOR: Before I found my mother, I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep at night. Every day for a week, I went on searching for my mother. I was elated when I saw my mother. Now I can eat. I have my appetite back after I was reunited with my mother.
QUADE: She helps him wash for prayers, but is too depressed to do much else.
TRANSLATOR: I am responsible for my mother now. She can't work. She thinks about my sisters. They're gone. When the tsunami came, my mother almost surrendered. She wanted to die with her children.
QUADE: So now he must work even harder to care for them both. He doesn't mind. The only thing missing, his sisters and father.
TRANSLATOR: I miss my father's hug. I want to apologize to him. Maybe I did something wrong. I miss my father.
QUADE: Alex Quade, CNN, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A little less than an hour and a half from now, CNN LIVE SATURDAY with Carol Lin is up. In fact, she's right here for a preview of what we can expect. Hello.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR, CNN LIVE SATURDAY: I just spoke with a 14- year-old boy who has decided that he is going to raise more money than the entire country of France initially for his pledge to the tsunami victims.
WHITFIELD: Wow!
LIN: And he's well on his way. You're going to hear --
WHITFIELD: Already.
LIN: At 6:00 Eastern how he's going to do it. Then at 10:00 tonight, let's say we're sitting here right and we're doing the news, and all of a sudden you say "this segment brought to you by the White House." Well, we're going to get into that debate about Armstrong Williams getting paid by the White House, not disclosing that to his listeners. He's got a huge following, and he's now paying the price, but we're going to have a debate about that. They're saying what's the big deal? Why are we surprised?
WHITFIELD: It's certainly opened up a great debate. We'll be listening. Thanks a lot Carol.
Well, U.S. Secretary of state Colin Powell has left the tsunami devastated region of south Asia and is now in the east African nation of Kenya. Tomorrow, he witnesses the signing of an historic peace treaty for Sudan. Today he talked to a group of young Kenyans about HIV/AIDS. The disease is threatening to wipe out entire communities in Africa and turn back decades of progress. CNN's Kathleen Koch has the story from the White House now. Kathleen?
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredericka, the figures are truly staggering. Seven percent of adult Kenyans have HIV or AIDS. In some southern African countries, the number is at high as 20 percent. But today's event really does show that at least some countries are admitting they have a problem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: We are also taught how to value our virginity, our education and our life.
KOCH (voice-over): It was a frank exchange about sex and a disease that last year alone claimed the lives of 150,000 Kenyans. Secretary of State Colin Powell there to witness the signing of a peace deal for southern Sudan spoke out about Africa's past approach to AIDS.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: Africa, I think, for too long a period of time ignored the problem, looked the other way and said no, this isn't happening.
KOCH: The young people meeting with Powell insisted denial is no longer an option. They work in programs to prevent the spread of the disease. Some are victims themselves.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I tell them how much they are at risk as well as give them a personal appearance because it is really not smooth living with HIV. And I'm glad that I can still -- we can still talk about and think that secondary virginity is cool.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The age group that (INAUDIBLE) in Kenya is for -- it's around 9 to 16 years young girls (INAUDIBLE) more than the boys in the same age bracket.
POWELL: They're being exploited by older men.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, they're being exploited but (INAUDIBLE)
KOCH: Powell praised South African President Nelson Mandela's comments this week on the death of his son.
POWELL: Nelson Mandela stood up and spoke and said my son died of HIV/AIDS. The most powerful figure in all of Africa, said to all of Africa, this is not someone else's problem or someone else's disease. It can happen in everyone's family. It happened in my family.
KOCH: One former U.S. official says besides the new frankness, dramatic cultural change is needed.
HERMAN COHEN, GLOBAL COALITION ON AFRICA: There is a tradition in many countries that men can be promiscuous, but their wives should not be. So the men go out and go with many women, then they come and bring the disease home to their wives. So we need greater independence of women, greater education for young girls so they can protect themselves.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOCH: Some say that the United States needs to do more to fight aids, both in the United States and abroad. But secretary of State Powell insists that the U.S. is doing more than any other country, committing to spend over the next five years, $3 billion a year to slow the spread of AIDS worldwide. Back to you, Fredericka.
WHITFIELD: Kathleen Koch at the White House, thanks so much.
Well, if you're cooped up this winter, chances are you're stuffed up as well. Find out why and what you can do about it as Dr. Lloyd there is brushing something off. I think we're going to hear an explanation right after this break.
DANIEL SIEBERG, TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: I'm technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg at the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas where we'll have a PDA wristwatch and a camera that sends your photos wirelessly to the Internet.
We'll have all that and lots more hot gadgets here when CNN LIVE SATURDAY continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Well, spring flowers and pollen may be months away, but health experts say more people suffer breathing problems and nasal congestion now during the dead of winter. If you're stuffed up from being cooped up, Dr. Bill Lloyd of the University of California Davis Medical Center is here to help. What's the explanation? Why is our indoor air so unhealthy during the winter months?
DR. BILL LLOYD, U. OF CALIF DAVIS MED CTR: Well, Fredericka, with the extreme cold weather, we're all trapped indoors and many people have homes with extra insulation and they keep those doors (INAUDIBLE). So we're ventilating the same air over and over again.
Here's a list of some of the things that's inside your house that aren't good to breathe. We start with low humidity. We're all generating dust. Most of it comes from skin cells. Your pets are generating a lot of debris in the air as well. Don't forget secondhand smoke. Anybody who's smoking ought to take it out to the patio. Remember, people bring germs into your house and if you have poor ventilation, those germs keep re-circulating.
WHITFIELD: And then there's the problem of dust and dust mites. You were dusting something off earlier.
LLOYD: I sure was, Fredericka. You know, this is the weekend that most people put their stuff away from the holidays. Don't bring dust in next year. So here's what you do. Dust everything and vacuum it today. Put it in fresh new boxes before you send it up to the attic. Otherwise, if you have the same box year after year, you'll be importing that dust back into your house next December. Be sure you vacuum regularly and cut back on the drapes and the heavy bedspreads. Think about other ways to treat your windows. And there's a variety of other things you can do to lower the amount of dust in the house and with that, improve your breathing and reduce the amount of congestion that you could have.
WHITFIELD: And sometimes dry air is a big problem, too. It is as simple as having a humidifier in your home?
LLOYD: There's a lot of different things you can do. Here's a simple test. Are you starting to experience static electricity whenever you touch the light switch? It means your house is too dry. You want to keep it between 30 and 50 percent relative humidity. You could go to a hardware store and buy one of those simple dials, a hydrometer, that tells you how moist the air is. You can also get a humidifier like you mentioned, but they use hot water, so there's always a chance of somebody, including a child, getting burned.
Think about a cool-mist vaporizer instead. They're safer and they're less likely to be contaminated with germs. Always fill whatever you use for extra moisture, fill it with fresh, distilled water and be sure you practice regular hygiene by maintaining your unit, changing the filters, and replacing the water every single day. Whether or not you use it or not always start the day with fresh water.
WHITFIELD: And you alluded to this earlier, pet allergens. But certainly don't get rid of the dog or cat. What are some other solutions?
LLOYD: Well, certainly on a day like today you don't want to send the pets outside. But we're probably going to generate a lot of e- mail, Fredericka, but cats are the real troublemaker. Cats generate far more allergens than dogs ever do and they make people miserable because you know what? Cat owners get very intimate with their pets. They let them jump up on the bed and prowl around them. Cat saliva collects the dander from the cat and the cat then distributes it all over the house. So keep the cat where the cat's supposed to be, in a little pen or a basket, whatever, reduce the exposure, and the same goes for the dog as well. If you do that, you dust regularly, you keep the dust down and you vacuum and keep the pets where they belong, you'll breathe easier all winter long.
WHITFIELD: But don't toss aside the cat or dog for real, like you just did with the stuffed animal.
LLOYD: That's true. We don't want any e-mail from cat lovers. We're sorry, the cat jumped off my lap.
WHITFIELD: All right. Dr. Bill Lloyd, thanks so much for helping to keep our indoor air healthy.
LLOYD: We'll talk again soon.
WHITFIELD: Well, news across America now. One of Hollywood's most glamorous couples splitting up. Jennifer Aniston's office says she and Brad Pitt have decided to formally separate after four years of marriage.
Chicago-based Tribune media services is no longer distributing Armstrong Williams' column and the National Association of Black Journalists is calling on all broadcast and print media to drop him. The conservative black commentator has confirmed he took taxpayer money to promote the Bush administration's education agenda.
Chicago police are searching for a gunman who killed at least two people and wounded five others in a nightclub. Officers say the shooting started early this morning when the club refused to admit four private partygoers to its first floor because the club was closing.
The late President John F. Kennedy's older sister has died at age 86 in a mental institution in Jefferson, Wisconsin. Rosemary Kennedy was the third of nine children in the Kennedy clan. She was born mentally disabled and was institutionalized for life after a failed lobotomy in 1941.
Royal Caribbean International says nearly 120 passengers and crew suffered a stomach virus aboard one of its cruise ships. The Norwalk- type virus broke out aboard the Enchantment of the Seas which returned to port in Ft. Lauderdale today after a five-day excursion. A rash of cruise ship illnesses occurred last year.
And if you're the kind of person who never leaves home without your iPod, listen up. The latest electronic gizmos and gadgets are on display at the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas. And CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg has been checking things out for us.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred, that's right. I actually didn't leave home without my iPod. It's just over in the corner over there. Turns out with about 1.5 million feet of square space here at the Las Vegas convention center, there are just a few gadgets and there are some gadget heads walking around, too and we've run into Jim Louderback exremetech.com and Jim, you've brought along a few of your picks from the show this year. It's tough to narrow them down. But why does the first one really stand out? It's more for audiophiles.
JIM LOUDERBACK, EXTREMETECH.COM: Yeah it is but if you want to put audio throughout your house in multiple different rooms, you spend thousands and thousands of dollars to do it. The neat thing about this is we've got on you our digital music on our iPods and other places on our PCs. This works with that, but does it multi-channel all over the house? Look at that. This is Sonos. Imagine this. You've got all your stuff on a PC. You put one of these in every room. This is a 50-watt per channel amplifier. You actually hook your speakers up to this. You don't have to hook it up into your stereo and this wirelessly connects. Over there you can see I've got a PC and another one. You can have up to 30 of these all around your house and then once you have it all set up --
SIEBERG: This is where the iPod, sort of like an iPod controller comes in.
LOUDERBACK: Exactly. It's a little bit like an iPod controller. It's a wireless controller. You see I've got the music here. I can see what I'm playing. I can browse my music.
SIEBERG: Can you play a song for us?
LOUDERBACK: Yeah, let me just go in here and hit the play button. I'll crank up a song.
SIEBERG: That could be anywhere in your house.
LOUDERBACK: Anywhere in the house and the neat thing about it, let me pause it again. The neat thing about it is, you can play the same song in every room.
SIEBERG: So sort of zones.
LOUDERBACK: Right, or different songs in each room or any combination thereof. Like I said, thousands and thousands of dollars, wiring your house up to do it in the past, all wirelessly, using your computer, for starting now, it's $1100 to start out still not cheap.
SIEBERG: I can see you're excited about this one. I know you're going to go after it. Speaking of wireless, this phone from Kodak. If people want to share their pictures or put them up on the Internet, this makes it a lot easier.
LOUDERBACK: Exactly. Now this camera won't be out until this summer. But first of all, look at that nice screen. Isn't that nice? But I want to show you, it's great for sharing pictures as well. You see I've got a lot of pictures on here I can share. You also use this as your viewfinder which is very nice. It actually rotates around, which is kind of cool too. But the neat thing about this camera is, once you take a lot of pictures, you get them up on the Internet. This is wireless! That's the answer.
SIEBERG: I put a wireless card in there, which is additional, right?
LOUDERBACK: That's right. The camera itself is $600. This is $100. But it does let you get stuff out of your camera up to the Internet really easily. Now if you can't afford that, but you have a digital camera, most of them --
SIEBERG: This is pretty incredible.
LOUDERBACK: This is cool. Now most cameras use something this which is an SD card. The problem is, you take a lot of pictures, you fill it up, you want to put it on your computer, you left the cable somewhere else, at home or in the office. What this does, is with a little flip, now it is a USB connection and I can plug it right into a port on my PC.
SIEBERG: No adapters, no anything.
LOUDERBACK: No adapters. Take it out of the camera, plug it into your PC, rReally nice. This will be available later this year, a couple months. So - now the other thing is, computing is getting smaller and smaller and smaller.
SIEBERG: In fact, so much so it's on your wrist.
LOUDERBACK: It's on your wrist. Now this is a fossil wristwatch. Inside is a complete palm PDA computer. So you can actually wear this -- it's a little big. And actually, the battery's not very long.
SIEBERG: They're trying to make them smaller, right, some of these watches that have all of these different PDA functions and so on like the spot watches.
LOUDERBACK: Right, exactly. This one is a Palm which is I think the best PDA software so that works really well.
SIEBER: And it is a touch screen too.
LOUDERBACK: When it works. It's pretty nice. Now, I do want to show you this because this is a Windows smart phone. Now, Microsoft has been trying to put all its Windows hardware and software in one of these and they've been big and bulky, haven't worked very well. This one finally is a real good phone and it's all Windows in your pocket.
SIEBERG: You can control everything that's on your PC using this?
LOUDERBACK: Well, not everything. It will work as a remote a little bit, but also all of your contacts. It runs Word, versions of Word and various different applications. You wouldn't want to write "War and Peace" using the numeric keypad, but finally it's small enough to carry with you anywhere and you can takes pictures with it, too.
SIEBERG: That's great. Well, Jim Louderback, thank you so much for helping us out. I know this is the end of the show for you. You've had a tough week but thanks for helping us out. We appreciate it.
LOUDERBACK: My pleasure.
SIEBERG: All right. That's going to do it for now Fredricka. Back to you.
WHITFIELD: All right. Dan, it's exciting, but at the same time, it's very depressing because for those of us who are still trying to catch up with just the whole simple digital camera, it's gotten so complicated. Can we expect a lot of these prices, however, might come down? SIEBERG: They certainly will. As the devices are out on the market for a longer period of time, the volume goes up. there are more in production, so the prices do come down. It does take a little time. A lot of the stuff you see here on the show floor is a big preview. So it may not be cheaper for a while yet. But we can always hope.
WHITFIELD: All right. It's exciting to dream, though.
SIEBERG: Exactly. (INAUDIBLE)
WHITFIELD: Dan, thanks so much.
Well, straight ahead, the latest on the weather front in the west and then, the voices from the tsunami in a special edition of PEOPLE IN THE NEWS.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Our top stories we're following for you now. U.S. military officials say a coalition F-16 aircraft has dropped a 500 pound bomb on an unintended target near the Iraqi town of Mosul. Authorities say the bomb accidentally fell on a house killing five people. The U.S. military has released a statement apologizing for the loss of innocent lives. It said
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
