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CNN Live Saturday

Mike Brown's Senate Testimony Examined; Avian Flu in Africa; Alabama Church Fires

Aired February 11, 2006 - 17:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL BROWN, FORMER FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY DIRECTOR: So for them to now claim that we didn't have awareness of it, I think, is just baloney.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The ex-FEMA boss appears before the Senate again this weekend, but this time behind closed doors. What should the White House expect? A live report coming up.

And investigators may finally have their first clue in the mysterious church fires in Alabama. I'm going to talk with the man in charge of the investigation.

Plus, get ready for a big blast of snow in the Southeast and severe weather on its way north. We are going to have the latest live.

Hello and welcome to CNN LIVE SATURDAY.

I'm Carol Lin.

All that and more after this quick check of the headlines.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is in critical but stable condition today after more emergency surgery. Doctors removed almost two feet of infected intestine. A full report on the life-saving procedure is just ahead.

Concerned about security threats amid the growing outcry over cartoons depicting the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, Danes are being urged to leave Indonesia. The Danish government has already pulled its ambassadors and staff from embassies there and in Syria and Iran.

Flying high into the record books. Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett has completed the longest nonstop flight in aviation history. He flew more than 26,000 miles in a little less than 77 hours and he did it on less than two hours of sleep.

Suspected of being drunk -- one of three pilots for an American Airlines flight bound for Chicago was arrested in England. He was picked up before he boarded the plane. The 45-year-old man has since been released on bail. And praising the new Medicare prescription drug plan. President Bush says it's helping a majority of Medicare beneficiaries. But he concedes there have been problems. Mr. Bush says whenever a huge program like Medicare is changed, there are bound to be challenges.

This is our top story now -- a closed door meeting on Capitol Hill. The committee charged with investigating the government's response to hurricane Katrina has subpoenaed the former head of FEMA. Could it be because of what Michael Brown told senators yesterday about homeland security and the White House?

CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael Brown uncensored. BROWN: It was balls to the wall. I was literally constrained by Secretary Chertoff. And I was certainly screaming and cussing at people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you feel like you have been sort of set up to be the scapegoat...

BROWN: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... to be the fall guy?

BROWN: Yes, sir. I -- I can't lie...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You...

BROWN: ... lie to you. But, yes, I feel that way.

MESERVE: But Brown got even, dishing on who know what when about New Orleans. President Bush and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff have said they didn't know the enormity of the crisis until Tuesday, August 30, the day after Katrina made landfall. But Brown said he had made the picture clear Monday in video conferences with top Homeland officials.

BROWN: So for them to now claim that we didn't have awareness of it I think is just baloney.

MESERVE: He also testified he had talked that Monday to Deputy White House Chief of Staff Joe Hagin.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: Did you tell Mr. Hagin in that phone call that New Orleans was flooding?

BROWN: I think I told him that we were realizing our worst nightmare.

MESERVE: But Brown said he didn't remember whether he had talked to the president or Chertoff the day of the storm.

Brown said that he was well aware of FEMA's shortcomings long before Katrina, but his efforts to improve preparedness had been futile, because FEMA was doomed to failure in a Department of Homeland Security focused on terrorism.

BROWN: This was a natural disaster that has become the stepchild within the Department of Homeland Security.

MESERVE: But not all the senators were buying Brown's pitch.

SEN. NORM COLEMAN (R), MINNESOTA: You didn't provide the leadership. Even -- even with structural infirmities, strong leadership can overcome that. And, clearly, that wasn't the case here.

BROWN: Well, Senator, that's very easy for you to say sitting behind that dais and not being there in the middle of that disaster, watching that human suffering and watching those people dying.

MESERVE: It is unclear how much of that Michael Brown saw, if any. He spent most of the crisis in Baton Rouge, at the order of Michael Chertoff.

(on camera): The White House is not reacting to Brown's testimony, saying only that it has its own report on the Katrina response in the works. But a Department of Homeland Security spokesman says if there was a failure in Washington to grasp the situation in New Orleans, it was the fault of the battlefield commander on the ground, Mike Brown.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

LIN: So as you just heard, some of Brown's testimony did not mesh with what the Bush administration officials have said. So what lawmakers are learning from today's question and answer session, well, let's find out.

CNN's Kathleen Koch at the White House -- Kathleen, why the closed door meeting? Have you heard?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I believe that basically lawmakers wanted to give Michael Brown a chance to be as candid as possible, and that is certainly what a closed door session affords u.

Now, obviously because there were no media and no members of the public inside, we don't know precisely what he said, if he made any more interesting revelations. One congressman came out and called his testimony quite candid, said that he actually turned over documents the committee had not seen before and e-mail exchanges between himself, the White House and other government officials on what happened the days during and after Katrina.

Still, the chairman of the committee emerged saying that he was frustrated by what he had heard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The federal government failed to move into a more proactive mode quickly enough. The fog of war prevailed. Information didn't reach the right people until it was too late and as a result, there were preventable deaths and preventable suffering.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: And no reaction from the White House, obviously, to what Brown said today, again, because this was a closed door session.

As to Brown's isstc yesterday that he had twice contacted White House officials on August 29th, said that the City of New Orleans was going underwent, Spokesman Scott McClellan explained to reporters that there were "conflicting reports" immediately after the hurricane hit, saying -- some saying the levees were simply overtopped, that they had been breached. Still, McClellan insisting that the White House did do everything it could to, at that point, put a top priority, Carol, on saving lives -- back to you.

LIN: All right, Kathleen, thank you very much.

A cold day in Washington in more ways than one.

Now, coming up, a New Orleans newspaper reporter reviews Michael Brown's testimony. Did the former FEMA director change any minds? That's less than 10 minutes away.

But right now we want to bring you the latest news out of Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is said to be out of danger after emergency surgery. Now, he is in stable condition, but doctors say this latest setback is not a good sign.

CNN's Guy Raz reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The rush to Hadassah Hospital yet again. The prognosis Saturday morning, Ariel Sharon would not survive the day. An overnight C.T. scan revealed major damage to his digestive tract. Gangrene had set in, infection and the possibility of imminent death.

Once again, this hospital outside Jerusalem, the focus of international attention.

SHLOMO MOR-YOSEF, DIRECTOR, HADASSAH MEDICAL CENTER: The condition of Prime Minister Sharon is stable, but critical. In the morning, there was a really immediate danger to his life, but now I can say that it's critical, stable and there is no immediate danger to the life of Prime Minister Sharon.

RAZ: But 39 days since arriving here, Ariel Sharon remains in a coma, few in Israel believing he will wake up and most accepting weeks ago the political era of Ariel Sharon has ended. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know that he will never come back to be our prime minister, but I think that there isn't anybody that can get inside his shoes.

RAZ: The man widely expected to carry on Sharon's political legacy is Deputy Ehud Olmert.

(on camera): In both political and military life, Ariel Sharon made a career out of defying the naysayers. Just a year ago, he joked that pundits had written his political obituary far too early. And just as it seemed as his time in this life was coming to an end, he defied the odds once again, refusing to give up just yet. Guy Raz, CNN, outside Hadassah Hospital, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

ANNOUNCER: CNN, your severe weather headquarters.

LIN: It has all the makings of a classic nor'easter. From the Mid-Atlantic to New England, residents are bracing for a major snowstorm.

Meteorologist Monica McNeal is keeping tabs on the looming storm -- Monica, already people up in New York are saying they're feeling the brunt of it.

MONICA MCNEAL, METEOROLOGIST: I'm sure they are. And they're going to feel it even more, Carol, as we take a look at what's going on.

This major snowstorm continues to barrel its way throughout the Mid-Atlantic, all the way up throughout the Northeast. And so far we've gotten reports from West Virginia into Virginia. There's about six inches of snowfall.

Now, what's of even greater concern are those winds. Take a look at the winds just to the south of New York right now, at about 20 miles per hour out of the north and east. Then, just to the southeast of Washington, about six to seven miles per hour, so not as bad.

But, you're probably thinking what and how much snow? That's the big question, how much snow will you see? And let's talk about that. We're expecting a tremendous amount of snow. At times, we could see possibly, folks, get this, up to a foot of snowfall.

Let's take a look at our 24 hour forecast snowfall total for you, and you can certainly see from Washington, D.C. Philadelphia, New York, Boston and possibly up to Portland, about a foot of snow into the forecast.

So just a lot of snowfall. That's why we're seeing blizzard warnings. We're seeing winter storm warnings with all of this snow.

As we take a look at our current conditions, very, very cold, and this air will continue. The temperatures will continue to plummet throughout the rest of the night. Right now it's 34 degrees in New York, 34 down in Philadelphia; D.C. a temperature of about 31 degrees and Pittsburgh, your temperature is 31.

This time late tonight and into tomorrow, when you factor in those winds and we talk about those blizzard conditions, we could see winds gusting up to about 50 to 60 miles per hour.

So here's the big story. Here's the area of low pressure. It will continue to intensify and track its way toward the north and east. By tomorrow morning, it'll be just off the coast of New Jersey. On the back side, we've got some very cold air that's diving down, that's mixing in with all that moisture, and that's what's turning over into all of the snowfall.

By tomorrow morning, once again, those winds are going to be very strong and some places, we'll be completely covered in snow -- Carol.

LIN: Wow!

All right, a night to snuggle.

MCNEAL: Yes, exactly.

LIN: Monica, thank you.

Well, a young man testifies his adopted mother would feed him nothing but water or cake batter, and he finally sees her go to jail.

Handprints and vehicle descriptions -- I'm going to talk with a federal investigator about who is setting churches on fire in Alabama.

And what's more important -- the good of thousands of students or the law? Now, what would you do if hundreds of bilingual teachers could be the solution in your school, but they're illegal immigrants? That story coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: More tough questions today for Former FEMA Director Michael Brown. Lawmakers want to know why the government was slow to respond to hurricane Katrina. Well, this session with House investigators went behind closed doors. But Brown's testimony before a Senate panel Friday was public and contentious.

Bill Walsh of the New Orleans newspaper, the "Times-Picayune," was among those watching.

Bill, let's talk about today's event.

Why the need to take this behind closed doors? How much more candid can Michael Brown be?

BILL WALSH, THE "TIMES-PICAYUNE": Well, I think the committee still had some questions to ask. And that House committee is preparing to file this report next week, next Wednesday. And I think that some of Brown's testimony in front of the Senate committee was markedly different from what he said last fall.

You may recall then that his -- he was mostly blaming the New Orleans mayor and...

LIN: Right. Local response.

WALSH: ... the Louisiana governor. Not coincidentally, he had the cloak of executive immunity last fall.

This time he asked for it and didn't get it. And this time his target was higher up the chain of command.

LIN: Absolutely.

WALSH: It was his former boss, Michael Chertoff.

And so I think the House committee may have heard some things they had not heard before from Michael Brown and wanted to hear it for themselves.

LIN: What did you think after his testimony yesterday? Do you believe that Homeland Security is responsible for a slow response, that the White House knew that New Orleans was going to flood and did nothing?

WALSH: Well, I think everyone knew that there was a possibility that New Orleans was going to flood. I mean this has been known for years.

LIN: But he said he was on the phone, right...

WALSH: Right.

LIN: ... with top officials at the White House...

WALSH: That's right.

LIN: ... and at Homeland Security. And the implication is despite his own personal warning, they did nothing.

WALSH: Right. Well, you know, it's hard to know what happened between that phone call and the following morning. I mean there are lots of layers of bureaucracy that this could have gotten lost in.

Brown obviously felt a disconnect with his own boss, Michael Chertoff, which is why he said he went around Chertoff's back and right to the White House.

Now, what the White House ended up doing with that information is a little bit of a mystery. As you know, President Bush and Mr. Chertoff were saying the following day, that's the first time that they had heard that the levees had broken.

LIN: Right.

Let's take a look at this, I don't know, it was a pretty angry exchange between Mike Brown and one of the senators yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BROWN: I have admitted to mistakes publicly. I have admitted to mistakes in hearings.

What more, Senator Coleman, do you want from me?

COLEMAN: Well, I think that...

BROWN: What do you want from me?

I'm asking you.

COLEMAN: I'm saying that, in fact, you know, leadership makes a difference. You didn't provide the leadership...

BROWN: Well, Senator, that's very easy for you to say sitting behind that dais and not being there in the middle of that disaster, watching that human suffering and watching those people dying and trying to deal with those structural dysfunctionalities even within the federal government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Bill, do you think that Michael Brown is just simply a scapegoat for the administration?

WALSH: I think Michael Brown had been waiting for yesterday for a very long time. I think he had felt that he was scapegoated, and unfairly. And I think that he felt he shouldered a lot of the blame and wasn't able to respond to it. And I think now that he's out of government service, with a little bit of hindsight, he felt he could finally fire back.

Now, the members of the committee weren't ready to say that he was purely a scapegoat. And Michael Brown admitted to numerous mistakes. So I don't think it's a -- I don't think it's that easy to let him off.

But it's clear that the committee is now interested in moving the -- broadening the investigation to look at Michael Brown's boss and perhaps higher up on the chain of command.

LIN: It sure looks like that's Michael Brown's intent right now.

WALSH: It sure does.

LIN: Bill Walsh, it must have been electric in that hearing room yesterday.

Thank you so much for sharing your observations.

WALSH: Happy to be here.

LIN: Well, another controversy hitting the Bush administration hard is the NSA wiretap probe. Mr. Bush defended the program yesterday, saying it's needed to fill a gap in U.S. security.

CNN's Brian Todd talked to one expert about how the spying is being conducted.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Experts say this shouldn't even be called wiretapping because no one climbs a telephone pole and physically taps your phone.

JAMES BAMFORD, AUTHOR, "BODY OF SECRETS": They eavesdrop on entire streams of communications coming into the United States.

TODD: James Bamford has written two extensive books on the National Security Agency but is now suing the NSA, seeking to stop the government's eavesdropping program. Bamford and other experts say a typical eavesdropping operation begins when a phone call from overseas or from the U.S. to an overseas location passes through one of several huge routing centers, owned and operated by the major telecommunications companies. By law, Bamford says, the NSA has access to those routing centers. The agency can also access Internet hubs to pick up e-mails.

BAMFORD: And then it sifts it through computers. Those computers are filled with people's names, telephone numbers and e- mail addresses and other identifying information.

That computer gets all this -- all the signals from the incoming communications that go through it. And it's kicked out. It's just as if you're doing a Google search.

TODD: That NSA computer, says Bamford, matches those calls with names, phrases, keywords that have been previously used in suspicious chatter.

If enough important matches are made, Bamford says, a shift supervisor at NSA makes the key decision of whether to listen to more communications and share with other intelligence agencies.

A former NSA director, who is still one of the nation's top intelligence officials, says those people are more than qualified to make that call.

GENERAL MICHAEL HAYDEN, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: There are only a handful of people at NSA who can make that decision. They are all senior executives. They are all counterterrorism and al Qaeda experts.

TODD (on camera): Contacted by CNN, a current NSA spokesman said the terrorist surveillance program is highly classified and discussing it would compromise its effectiveness. He also would not comment on James Bamford's litigation.

We also contacted the major telecom companies to ask them about their level of cooperation with the NSA. Neither AT&T, Sprint nor Verizon would comment.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

LIN: Other headlines making news across America now.

A chemical spill in Rhode Island has forced homes to be evacuated. A car crashed into a mill, causing an unidentified chemical to be released into the air. The car's passengers were taken to a hospital.

In Fresno, California, a prosecutor was bragging about a crime sweep when he was interrupted. Look at this. Just behind him a woman rammed her car into another woman's vehicle. Police say this was over a love triangle. Now, with guns drawn, officers pulled both women from their cars and arrested one.

Mobile, Alabama has a head start on Mardi Gras. Festive floats thrilled the crowds downtown last night. There are going to be more parades and bead tossing, too, through Fat Tuesday and February 28th.

Watch those beads.

All right, too many classes and too few bilingual teachers. Plenty of immigrants and not so many non-menial jobs. Well, you do the math.

The Dallas, Texas school board is pondering a radical solution to an integral problem. But its critics say it's just plain wrong.

CNN's Casey Wian reports.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN:

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dallas public education officials say they need 700 credentialed bilingual teachers, and they want to fill those jobs by hiring illegal aliens. That's against federal law, punishable by six months in jail and fines of $3,000 per employee.

School trustees met Tuesday seeking a way around the law.

PROF. RUDY RODRIGUEZ, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS: I can't believe that a law can be so rigid and inflexible that it doesn't take into account the needs of our children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With some laws changed, it could be very easily be legal.

JOE MAY, DALLAS SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEE: We have numerous amounts of individuals who came to the United States at the age of six months, one year, two years, have been here all their lives and are not able to teach simply because they don't happen to be American citizens.

WIAN: You may remember Joe May as the man behind the requirement that Dallas school principals must be bilingual. Now he's spearheading the illegal alien teacher movement and is looking for support from other school boards nationwide.

AIMEE BOLANDER, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: There are enough teachers. They just choose not to teach in Dallas. A lot of bilingual teachers will go back home because they don't feel that the environment for teaching is good here or they don't feel the salaries are proper.

WIAN: The average teacher in the Dallas school district earns $48,000 a year. The average Dallas high school football coach's annual salary is $70,000 a year.

After the meeting, supporters of the proposal ducked three questions from a reporter about increasing pay for legal teachers instead of trying to hire illegal aliens.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not sure if I follow you, but, you know, we're talking about credentialed, qualified people.

WIAN: Texas is one of nine states offering illegal aliens in- state college tuition. Many are now graduating with teaching certificates but can't find jobs.

MARIA ELENA GARCIA-UPSON, U.S. CITIZENSHIP & IMMIGRATION SERVICES: They're still here illegally breaking the law. And you cannot go from an illegal status to a legal status.

WIAN: Dallas school officials say they will follow the law, at least for now.

(on camera): They're hoping that the federal Dream Act will pass. It was reintroduced in November and would give legal status to illegal alien students, who eventually could become bilingual teachers.

Casey Wian, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

LIN: Asia, Africa and now bird flu cases found in Western Europe. All that has health officials on the edge.

Plus, we are watching the weather for you as a severe winter storm with lots of snow, sleet and ice makes its way north.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Stories around the world now.

Fans, including First Lady Laura Bush, are celebrating the United States' first gold medal at the Olympics. Speed skater Chad Hedrick took gold in the 5,000 meter race. Hedrick is hoping to match Eric Heiden's record of five gold medals at the Winter Olympics.

And Torino sure could use some of that snow that's falling to the north. Parts of Germany are getting their heaviest snowfall in a decade. Authorities are warning people to clear the snow off their roofs to avoid a catastrophic collapse similar to the one that killed 15 people at an ice rink.

Protesters are demanding that Thailand's prime minister go. Demonstrators 20,000 strong rallied against -- again in Bangkok. They're accusing the prime minister of serving his own business interests ahead of the country's. The prime minister is now offering to hold a referendum.

The deadly bird flu virus has now reached Western Europe. A number of the just confirmed cases are in southern Italy and the deadly strain of the disease has also turned up in Africa.

CNN's Tim Lister reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

TED LISTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With every passing week, the deadly strain of avian flu arrives somewhere new. On a beach in northern Greece, workers pick up dead swans. Officials at the agriculture ministry say lab tests confirm three of the migrating birds were killed by the H5N1 virus.

A 10 kilometer quarantine has been declared around the site. The area is on a major migration route for birds.

Five swans killed by avian flu have also been found in Italy, the first confirmed cases there. Health Minister Francesco Storace said the infected birds had been found in the south and Sicily.

Thousands of miles to the east, authorities in Azerbaijan confirm the disease had been found among birds on the Caspian Sea. Many in these areas fear the disease will spread to farms and some have stopped eating poultry, dealing a blow to an important industry. This doctor in the capital of Baku says her family stopped eating chicken 10 days ago.

Half a world away, the same story. At a large farm in northern Nigeria, authorities go about destroying chickens and a farmer's livelihood.

ADAMU BELLO, NIGERIAN AGRICULTURE MINISTER: We have to stamp out -- virtually that is to cull, kill, I mean slaughter virtually every bird that is suspected of having avian influenza.

LISTER: H5N1 has been confirmed at farms in three Nigerian states. The government has set up a $15 million compensation fund, but farmers say it won't be enough in a country where millions breed chickens in their backyard. Neighboring Togo has banned imports of Nigerian poultry.

So far, H5N1 has not known to have affected any humans in Europe and Africa. But it continues to claim victims in Asia. In Indonesia, officials say two women who died this week had contracted the disease. They were both from a town near the capital, Jakarta. Test results are awaited on a Jakarta man who died on Friday. He'd been an egg seller.

Following the latest outbreaks, the World Health Organization has called for countries bordering the affected areas to step up surveillance and readiness and urged people not to handle sick animals.

Tim Lister, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

LIN: Well, it's pretty bad out there and you don't want to forget your hat and shovel if you're in parts of the South or the Northeast. We're going to keep you updated on the severe weather conditions.

And this -- hiccups. Meet a guy who has had them nonstop for years.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: Here are the latest developments. On Capitol Hill, former FEMA chief Michael Brown is testifying again. But this time behind closed doors today. He's telling a House panel about the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. Now one congressman calls his testimony quite candid.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is in critical but stable condition after emergency surgery today. Doctors removed part of his large intestine. A C.T. scan found gangrene in it and he remains in a coma.

Muslims protested in London today. They denounced newspaper illustrations of Prophet Mohammed and the violence seen in other protests in London and elsewhere. Now in the wake of the unrest over the drawings, the latest news is that the Danish government is urging Danes to now leave Indonesia. It's pulled embassy staff from there and Syria and Iran.

Bird flu is showing up in Italy for the first time. Italy's health minister says the deadly h5n1 strain has been found in five swans in southern Italy. Greek officials also announced today they found the virus in some dead swans in northern Greece. Health experts are inspecting farms and poultry.

The Washington, DC area is poised to declare a snow emergency. And hundreds of trucks and snowplows are ready to deal with the worst weathers that winter can dish out. A live report on the severe weather warning posted from the Mid Atlantic to New England straight ahead.

We're all bracing for a blast of winter weather. A major storm is developing that could begin dumping blinding snow across parts of the eastern U.S. over next few hours. Meteorologist Monica McNeal is live with the latest from the CNN Weather Center. Monica, how bad is this thing going to be? MONICA MCNEAL, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Carol, this is going to be pretty bad. Any time you're talking about an entire region getting up to a foot of snowfall we're really talking bad and we're talking about blizzard conditions. Winds could gust up to 50 to 60 miles per hour. That's just how bad we're talking. Right now temperatures are very cold. It's 34 in New York but when you factor in the winds, it feels like 24 New York. It feel like 18 in Boston and this is just what's going to come for the rest of the evening, folks. Temperatures are going to continue to plummet throughout the night and those winds will really, really pick up and this is the reason why.

We've got this large area of low pressure that's driving its way up the coast. On the backside that air is very, very cold. Mixing in with that moisture. And that's what's creating all of the snowfall. Reports out of Dulles Airport right now, visibility is down to about 3/4 of a mile and it's going to get worse. Carol?

LIN: All right, thanks, Monica.

Hey, we've got good news for folks. Cancer deaths in America have dropped overall on a year to year basis for the first time since 1930. Now, that's a clear indication that 21st century medicine is making strides against some of humankind's stubbornest illnesses and conditions. But this next story shows the opposite. Dr. Sanjay Gupta introduces us to Robert Smith who has suffered with the hiccups, yeah, the hiccups, for the past four years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Robert Smith has the hiccups from the moment he wakes up. Until he tries to go to sleep. And when he goes sleep, the hiccups come back and wake him up. It's not uncommon for them to get the hiccups at least 12 times a day. When most of us hiccup, our diaphragm switches. Usually we've swallowed too much air or eaten too much, too fast. But chronic hiccups, which can make your life miserable generally stem from something else in the brain, chest, or abdomen.

ROBERT SMITH, SUFFERS PERSISTENT HICCUPS: Sometimes I think I'm going to choke to death. It's just that bad. But it's painful.

GUPTA: Regular home remedies and drugs normally prescribed for chronic hiccups did not work for him but he developed some home remedies of his own.

SMITH: I've drank a bunch of water sometimes and it come back. I walk around with a cigar and I take this cigar, tear the end off of it and light it and inhale it. Exhale it. Hold it in. It might stop it for an hour. Then it'll come back.

GUPTA: Having hiccups that won't stop has had an impact on every aspect his life.

SMITH: It affects my work habit. It affects my relationship with people.

GUPTA: Robert was desperate it find a way it make it stop.

SMITH: I went to almost every doctor in Montgomery. Then I went to UAB in Birmingham six times. No help. Then I went to Atlanta, the Emory Clinic, no help.

GUPTA: Reporter: so he went to New Orleans to see Dr. Brian Payne, who's a neurosurgeon at the LSU Health Sciences Center. He's treated three other chronic hiccup patients with some success by implanting what's called a vagus nerve stimulator. A battery for the stimulator is implanted into the chest and stimulator wire is wrapped around the vagus nerve in the neck.

The reason that we've decided to try it is because we essentially blocked the vagus nerve and got a brief period, several hours, of hiccup-free time.

GUPTA: Robert the device implanted three months ago. But so far it's only had minor success. Because it takes time to find the right setting.

SMITH: If I can stand that pain every ten minutes, I can deal with it. I mean if he have to cut off some thumbs and say to stop me from hiccuping, I would lie them down. That's how bad the hiccup. It's not nearly as bad as what you saw me go through.

GUPTA: A few days later, when Robert was back in Montgomery, back at work his hiccups are back as well. This time you see him using his water remedy.

SMITH: I take cup of water. I drank it down. Just drank it down and I drank about two good cups of water. It'll stop it. It might stop it five minutes. It might stop it 30 minutes.

GUPTA: Less than an hour later, the hiccups are back again. So he uses his other try and true method of making it stop. Smoking a cigar.

SMITH: Sometimes it stop it for hours. Sometimes it don't work sometimes.

GUPTA: So Robert waits for the hiccups to return and for someone to make it stop. Until then, he keeps his cigar close by because he knows it's just a matter of time until he'll need it again. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Eternal sunshine, maybe not. But a spotless mind may be the key to beating depression. It turns out removing a memory molecule from the brains of depressed loaner mice made them for sociable. The panel of the journal "Science" says the find could treat people suffering from social phobia or post-traumatic stress. The researchers found the molecule removal worked as well as traditional anti-depressants.

The former President George Bush, H.W. Bush says he is dismayed by critical comments aimed at his son, President Bush at Coretta Scott King's funeral on Tuesday. But many of the moments at the funeral, including this one from former President Jimmy Carter were less politically charged.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY CARTER, FORMER PRESIDENT: They overcame one of the greatest challenges of life which is to be able to wage a fierce struggle for freedom and justice and to do it peacefully. It is always a temptation to forget that we worship the Prince of Peace. Martin and Coretta were able to demonstrate to the world that this correlation was possible. They exemplified the finest aspects of American values and brought upon our nation the admiration of the entire world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Join us for a special one hour condensed version of CNN's coverage of Mrs. King's funeral. That's at 5:00 p.m. Eastern tomorrow.

All right, meet some pretty unusual stand-up comedians who call themselves, the Axis of Evil. Find out why when we come back.

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LIN: Now this is a story we told you about earlier. We promised to show you this emotional scene in a New Jersey courtroom. And a chance yesterday for a courageous young man and his brothers to hopefully get some closure after years of shocking abuse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE JACKSON, SURVIVED ABUSE: You were mean to me my whole life so you deserve the same thing that you did to me the rest of your life.

LIN (voice-over): In a packed courtroom in New Jersey, Bruce Jackson confronts his adoptive mother who starved and abused him and his younger brothers for years.

JACKSON: You wouldn't let us eat as much as the other kids got. And you wouldn't take us out like the other kids.

LIN: Bruce is now 21 and weighs 140 pounds. Two years ago, when he was found scavenging among garbage, he weighed barely 40 pounds. Even now, he's just 5'3". Vanessa Jackson struck a plea deal with the prosecutors. Admitting to one charge of child endangerment. She was sentenced to the maximum seven years in jail. For Bruce Jackson, that is not enough.

JACKSON: Ms. Jackson you verbally, emotionally and physically abused me. You know that this was wrong. That's why you pleaded guilty.

LIN: Bruce told the court how he'd not been allowed to bathe and had been fed on dried grits and pancake batter. As some in the courtroom wept, Bruce's brothers also told of their horrific treatment in videotaped statements. Their new adoptive parents told how at first they had to be hospitalized because their stomachs were so small. The case focused attention on New Jersey's child welfare system but judge told Vanessa Jackson that the short comings of the system were no excuse for her cruelty.

The more telling verdict was a look. Brooks Jackson's look at the woman he had come to loathe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN (on camera): Federal investigators in Alabama say they are working hundreds of leads in a string of church fires. Alabama's lieutenant governor was scheduled to tour the damaged churches today. Command center for the investigation has moved from Bibb County to Tuscaloosa. Joining us from there now is ATF special agent in charge, James Cavanaugh. Mr. Cavanaugh, good to have you.

JAMES CAVANAUGH, ATF SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: Thanks, Carol.

LIN: We're hearing stories of new evidence. Perhaps even a breakthrough. A handprint, for example on one of the church doors that was damaged. Have you been able to identify whose print it was?

CAVANAUGH: Well, we did have an evidence -- physical evidence at the scene and we did collect a lot of forensics, things like that, handprints. Whether or not those are identifiable, but we have a lot of forensics and we have a solvable, viable case. I don't want to comment on each individual piece of evidence we found. But I think the case is solvable. We've set over 300 leads in it. And we feel good about it. We feel very good.

LIN: What tells you that it's solvable?

CAVANAUGH: Well, the forensics. The witnesses. We've had numerous eyewitnesses that have told us about two men in a dark SUV. We've processed these scenes very aggressively and got every piece of evidence, every minute piece we could find. We've got two labs work overtime. I think we can solve it. The public's behind us and I think we'll get the right information.

LIN: People are desperate because it just seems -- it doesn't seem racially motivated. Both black and white churches have been attacked. They have been the most vulnerable churches. And there have been pastors coming out and saying that they believe the evil is among them. That it likely will be a parishioner. Someone who has attended those churches or certainly has knowledge of those dark backwoods. Would you agree with that? Is it somebody that's in the communities?

CAVANAUGH: Carol, when you go to the churches especially the five in Bibb County, you get a real feeling, I did, that the people have been there before. Now I don't if that means they're members of the churches but it certainly means to mean they've travelled those roads before or likely have. I can't rule out anything but they likely have.

LIN: Do you believe that this is a crime of passion? Revenge? Or grief or something that is motivating these fires?

CAVANAUGH: Well, there's a lot of things that drive crime like this. There's a lot of motives. It could be thrill and excitement. It could be against religious people. Christianity. Baptists. Certainly all those are open. Hate crime things are discussed. We've pretty well eliminated arson to cover burglary because we haven't found any valuable items stolen in these churches.

LIN: So it's more some kind of emotional satisfaction then?

CAVANAUGH: That could very well be a viable motive. Thrill, excitement. Certain stresses on people make them react certain ways.

LIN: Mr. Cavanaugh, can you at least tell me, that you are close? You think you are close to making an arrest?

CAVANAUGH: Well, I don't know if we are close to an arrest but I think we will solve the case and we're pressing hard on all fronts.

LIN: James Cavanaugh, thank you very much. Good luck in the investigation. I know all these communities are behind you and your men and women.

CAVANAUGH: Thanks, Carol.

LIN: Well, in just a few minutes, we're going to introduce you to a man that's taking fanaticism to a whole new level. He has turned his apartment into the starship enterprise.

And comedy in the Muslim world. Does it exist? Well, it does on the Axis of Evil comedy tour. We'll take you on stage when CNN LIVE SATURDAY continues.

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LIN: To boldly go where no decorator has gone before and that's saying something. And it look at handiwork of Tony Elaine (ph) is seeing, well is seeing something. The 52-year-old "Star Trek" fan has spent last nine years and more than 50,000 bucks turning his Worcestershire flat into the replica of the starship enterprise and he also sunk $75,000 into a business aimed at fellow Trekkies but amazingly there were few takers and now Elaine has been beamed into bankruptcy and also separated from his wife. He's hoping to sell-off these digs to cover his debts. But might considered the immortal words Mr. Spock. "If are there self-made purgatories then we all have to live in them." Poor guy.

Well, it unusual to be very funny to be a Muslim in the post-9/11 world. But some stand-up comedians are changing that. One show at a time. Debora Villalon of our San Francisco affiliate KGO checked out the Axis of Evil comedy tour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I finally got on a plane and they served us dinner. For some reason weird reason, all my food came to me precut.

DEBORA VILLALON, KGO-TV CORRESPONDENT: They're the kind of jokes only a Middle Eastern comic can make.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When does the PLO ever have Carnivale?

VILLALON: And the Axis of Evil comedy tour makes the most of current events and the political climate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How about we put bombs on his head? That would be funny.

VILLALON: The three headliners had been performing together a year when the September 11th attacks happened. For a while after, they tread softly on stage but then found audiences had become more interested in what they had to say.

MAZ JOBANI, EGYPTIAN-AMERICAN COMIC: We feel this is our time to step up because you see so much negativity out there of the Middle East. When they leave, they laugh and they go, that guy was from the Middle East and he was funny. That was kind of strange. He didn't throw any rocks or anything. What's wrong with him?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're just trying to change minds one person at a time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many people were Middle Eastern on September 11th and Mexican on September 11th?

VILLALON: The tour also showcases local comics on their way up like this 20-year-old from Marin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My whole schtick is I'm a gay fat Muslim and I want to say hello to all my gay fat Muslims out there.

VILLALON: These comics admit is in the a hallmark at their culture. It's a point comedian Albert Brooks makes in his mock documentary "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" in theaters now and the Axis of Evil comics feel it's unfortunate that reaction to Denmark's political cartoons of Mohammed escalated into riots.

ARON KADER, PALESTINIAN-AMERICAN COMIC: Those were really in bad taste. They should have apologized. However if you have problem with somebody and you offend the entire group, you sue them. You hire Jewish lawyers and you sue.

AHMED AHMED, EGYPTIAN AMERICAN COMIC: We want to bring American, Western humor from the Middle Eastern and Muslim point of view to the forefront. To say hey, it's OK to laugh at yourselves. I think God has a sense of humor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome you to the Axis of Evil family tour. And we're looking for a North Korean. Do you guys know anybody?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: All right. Applicants welcome. Well, there's still much more ahead on CNN including that love/hate relationship many of us have with our metabolism. Can you change it? And what is it exactly? That's our fountain of youth segment. I'm going to be talking with the book, "It Must Be My Metabolism." That's coming up on CNN LIVE SATURDAY.

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