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Campbell Brown
Olympic Athletes Dies; Terror Trial Controversy
Aired February 12, 2010 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, everybody.
Tonight, Angelina Jolie sits down with CNN to talk Haiti. This is just one month since the deadly earthquake struck. That is coming up.
But we're going to begin, as always, with the "Mash-Up." We are watching it all, so you don't have to.
And our top story tonight, tragedy at the Olympics. An athlete dies in training. This was just hours before the opening ceremonies. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARK MCKAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On the final training run of 21- year-old luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili of the Republic of Georgia, on his final training run at the Whistler Sliding Centre, the 21-year-old lost control of his sled. He literally flew off the sled, hit a pole, an unpadded steel pole, CPR immediately administered.
He was taken to a local hospital, where he subsequently died of his injuries. A short while ago, at the main press center here in Vancouver, an emotional IOC president Jacques Rogge spoke to reporters.
JACQUES ROGGE, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: Sorry. It's a bit difficult to -- to remain composed. This is a very sad day. The IOC is in deep mourning. Here, you have a young athlete who lost his life in pursuing his passion. He had a dream to participate in the Olympic Games. He trained hard. And he had this fatal accident. I have no words to say what we feel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Immediately here, renewed questions about the track's safety. More than a dozen athletes have crashed during training runs here, including four Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Such a difficult start with the opening ceremonies getting under way in just about an hour. We're going to take you live to Vancouver for more a little bit later in the show.
We turn now to Afghanistan, where the U.S. and NATO are launching a major new offensive against the Taliban. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, this mission is a historic mission. We are really at a point, a tipping point in the future of the campaign.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Not since the U.S. first invaded Afghanistan in October of 2001 has there been a mission on the scale of this anti-Taliban offensive that had just begun.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eight thousand allied fighters backed by 7,000 support troops are moving in on the Taliban stronghold of Marjah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We understand that some of the insurgents may literally be dug into bunkers. The IEDs, there may be thousands of them. They had seen them planting them earlier tonight, just a couple hours ago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you know that there are weapons hidden, or you know that there's Taliban that are waiting, you need to tell us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Getting the cooperation of local leaders has taken longer than expected, but it is a key component to the military strategy known as clear, hold, build.
The Marines are here to do the clearing, but it will be up to the Afghans to do the holding and the building.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: The coalition troops are expecting to confront about 1,000 Taliban fighters.
Here at home, former President Bill Clinton looking spry tonight outside his home in Chappaqua. He was discharged from the hospitalized this morning, a day after surgery to place two stents in his coronary artery. Check him out back on his feet again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They said -- they told me not to lift anything that weighs over 10 pounds for a week, not to jog, but walk, but not to walk fast up steep hills for a week, until the opening where they did the surgery in my leg heals.
But they said that I should go back. And, you know, it's a miraculous thing. You can feel the energy coming back right away when there is -- all the arteries pumping to the heart. And so, it made a big difference.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And we will have more from Bill Clinton as well coming up a little bit later in the show. From up north to down south, where cities from Georgia to Texas are getting battered by record snowfalls. And it is causing big headaches and massive delays.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's been one storm after the other. The jet stream has been allowed to go all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico, so the cold air is in place, and that means that it's going to be snowing in places that it shouldn't be snowing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Atlanta, between two and three inches of snow caused the 1,000 flight cancellations at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here in Atlanta, the city own one snowplow and only eight salt trucks. It's going to be a busy night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Snowfall records began falling almost as fast as the snow Thursday and today across North Texas. The heavy, wet snow was perfect for snow men and women. It wasn't so good for some buildings. The roof would cave in under the weight of the snow. For tree limbs that snapped like toothpicks under the heavy load, causing transformers to arc and power lines to fall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Up to six inches in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where snowy roads caused dozens of accidents and the governor declared a state of emergency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Things expected to get back to normal this weekend with temperatures moving up into the 40s. Yay.
Let's warm things up a little now with a love story, the battle of Joe and Jill Biden, a romance for the ages, as documented by the folks over at "Good Morning America."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUJU CHANG, ABC: It's known among your staff that we -- they say, "We literally can't tell the vice president when Jill is around campus because he gets so distracted and so excited."
(LAUGHTER)
JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's kind of embarrassing...
(CROSSTALK)
CHANG: I think you're blushing now.
JOSEPH BIDEN: ... that's so obvious to everybody. I mean, it's -- but I just -- I drive her nuts, because she needs some space.
CHANG: For her favorite holiday, Valentine's, the second lady snuck into the vice president's White House office last year.
JOSEPH BIDEN: There's these big windows that are probably 10 feet, 12 feet high, and almost every pane of glass, Jill had in lipstick...
(CROSSTALK)
JILL BIDEN, WIFE OF JOE BIDEN: No, they were poster paint.
JOSEPH BIDEN: And all in red were, you know, "Jill loves Joe," and all these hearts and valentines that -- you know, it didn't -- it pleased me but it didn't surprise me.
JILL BIDEN: I'm blessed to have a husband who loves me so much, really.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Aww. That's sweet. Happy Valentine's Day, everybody.
And that brings us to the "Punchline." This is courtesy of David Letterman, his take on the snowy week, short and sweet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN")
DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": The upper East Coast and Washington, D.C., probably hit hardest of all, two storms back to back. The bad news is, Washington, D.C., is entirely shut down. The good news is, Washington, D.C., is entirely shut down.
(LAUGHTER)
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: David Letterman, everybody. And that is the "Mash-Up."
Fresh out of the hospital today, Bill Clinton in his own words, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Bill Clinton is home in Chappaqua, New York, tonight after a procedure to open a blocked coronary artery. And anybody who knows the former president knows he is not likely to be resting in a rocking chair. In true Clinton fashion, he held an impromptu news conference this afternoon. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: I feel great. And the doctors and the hospital crew did a great job. And I -- as I said, I even did a little -- did a couple miles on the treadmill today. So, I feel good.
QUESTION: Did they tell you to take a day off or so?
CLINTON: No. They said -- they told me not to lift anything that weighs over 10 pounds for a week, not to jog, but walk, but not to walk fast up steep hills for a week, until the opening where they did the surgery in my leg heals.
But they said that I should go back. And, you know, it's a miraculous thing. You can feel the energy coming back right away when there is -- all the arteries pumping to the heart. And so, it made a big difference.
QUESTION: When was the last time you had seen your cardiologist before this? And were there any signs that -- obviously, it's a fairly common complication.
CLINTON: Yes. No, I'll tell you what.
I was quite tired over Christmas and afterward, but from the time of the Haiti earthquake, which was a month ago today, I had been working a lot, without sleeping much. You know, I have been down there a couple time, but I have been working all over the country on it and trying to -- I went to Switzerland to get some more business support there and had three overnight flights in a week, which is pretty tough.
So, I really didn't notice it until about four days ago.
And then I felt just a little bit of tingling, not pain, no grabbing in my chest. And I thought I ought to check it out. And it is a fairly typical thing. As you know, Larry King had the same thing done a month ago and didn't even say anything to anybody. It is miraculous what they do with the stents. You just go in go out. And I didn't take any sedatives or anything. So, I was alert. I wanted to watch it. I got to watch it all on the monitor.
QUESTION: Did they go through your groin?
CLINTON: Yes.
QUESTION: And having been through what you went through with the surgery, the quadruple bypass surgery, was it a little scary when it was going on, when you were feeling the discomfort?
CLINTON: No, because they know what they are doing. And I felt that it was just kind of a repair job.
And I knew when I did it that when you transplant the veins, that sometimes they don't hold up very long. And the best news about it was that because of the medicine and the other things I have done in the last five years, the diet and the exercise, the rest of my heart was exactly as it was five years ago, all my -- the arteries and everything were just as clear.
So I actually am doing very well. I feel very blessed. I was fortunate that I kind of had a feeling about it.
QUESTION: Terry McAuliffe said today you're no fun to go out and eat with anymore.
CLINTON: Yes, but he still likes to play cards with me. We just don't have fun eating anymore.
(LAUGHTER)
QUESTION: Mr. Clinton, friends have said they're worried about your frenetic work schedule. Now that you have gone through this, is anything going to change?
CLINTON: Well, I do sleep more now than I used to. And I sleep more on planes than I used to.
But I have to keep working. It's what I should do. That's what my life was for. I was given a good mind, a strong body, and I have had a wonderful life. And it would be wrong for me not to work.
But Hillary and I took some time off around the New Year's. And we will continue to try to take more vacations. But I want to work. It's a good thing to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Bill Clinton, home tonight in good health.
When we come back, when and where should the U.S. put the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 trial? You thought it was settled, apparently. Not exactly. When we come back, we will talk about that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Today, the White House acknowledged that President Obama is taking a larger role in deciding where to hold the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. That is in the face of intense opposition to Attorney General Eric Holder's plan to try the alleged 9/11 mastermind in New York City.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress are trying to block funding for civilian trials in the U.S. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says that is why the president is getting more involved.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He's not in the Map Room with a big map, picking a location. I would -- I would -- obviously, the president and members of the White House staff have an equity in this, given what's going on, on Capitol Hill legislatively.
Because Congress has become involved in this, because legislation could restrict the venue and the type of trial, the White House is -- is more involved, yes.
There are, as I have said before, security concerns, logistical concerns about where you would hold the trial in New York, what that would mean for the downtown area, that have to be taken into account.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And this has turned into a real political mess for the White House.
Here to talk about it now, CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin and senior political correspondent Candy Crowley, who is of course the host of CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION."
So, Jeff, first they said KSM absolutely must be tried in federal court in New York City. Looks like a complete turnaround.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Plan B is in the works, but it's not clear what plan B is.
BROWN: What is going on?
TOOBIN: It's a mess, because the obvious legal location for this is New York, is the Southern District of New York. That's the federal area.
But the community rebelled. The White House has surrendered, but the problem is, no other place wants it either. There are possibilities in New York. A little further upstate, there is a prison called Otisville. That would be one possibility. They don't want it.
You could do it in on a military base, South Carolina, perhaps, the Navy brig there. They don't want it. Someone is going to have take it, or they are going to move it back to Guantanamo, and I don't think that's going to happen.
BROWN: But the other piece of this is not just where are they going to do it, but they are also now apparently considering -- it's being reported -- a military tribunal, possibly, or at least -- let me clear about it -- neither Eric Holder nor Robert Gibbs would rule it out.
TOOBIN: And that would be such a dramatic change, because, when Eric Holder announced that KSM would be tried in a civilian courtroom, that was a real statement to the world that our legal system, our civilian legal system, can handle the worst crime that has ever taken place on our soil.
To -- to back off from that because a bunch of local politicians don't like it would certainly make the president look very weak.
BROWN: Let me go to Candy.
A bipartisan group of senators, Candy, wants to strip funding for civilian trials, hold military tribunals instead, is threatening that. The White House reportedly negotiating now with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham over where to hold the trials.
What are they talking about? What sort of deal is possibly, I guess, in the works here?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's what's we call TBA, to be announced.
There are a couple things that are not clear here. First of all, people around Lindsey Graham are saying that he has told them he is negotiating with the White House. And so what is the negotiating part? Right now, there doesn't appear to be enough people on Capitol Hill to restrict that funding, to cut off that funding.
There is some talk that perhaps the president, in exchange for a way -- to clear the way to put some of those Guantanamo prisoners in U.S. prisons, that he might go ahead and relent and have military tribunals.
Somebody suggested to me today -- and obviously Jeff is far better equipped to tell me whether this is right or not -- that because there was some need to have a civilian trial where an attack might have occurred, i.e., Pennsylvania, New York or the Washington, D.C., area, that you could also perhaps expand the idea that the Pentagon was attacked, and maybe there would be a way to move the trial to a military base under those circumstances, where it is confined, you're not worried about stores who won't do business, mayors who don't want you there, and how much it's going to cost the city.
So, there is a lot going on here, but it's very clear -- it's what you said at the beginning -- is, A, the White House was taken aback by the pushback they're getting on this, and, B, they're looking for a way out.
BROWN: And, to Candy's point, I mean, so much of this is less about the larger constitutional issues that the White House is talking about or that Republicans are talking about, and it's practical matters for the people who live in those communities that -- that has been driving this probably more than anything.
(CROSSTALK)
TOOBIN: And I think that's right, because wherever it is in the United States, there is going to be a tremendous pushback on it, especially now, since it's gotten so much attention, even on a military base.
But Candy's -- the legal theory that was floated to Candy...
BROWN: That's pretty creative.
TOOBIN: It's pretty creative, bootstrapping an attack on the Pentagon into trying it on a military base anywhere in the United States.
Look, I don't think any judge in this country is going to cut loose Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, so I think the result is preordained. But you do have to come up with a place.
BROWN: You still have to -- a process.
TOOBIN: And that's just something they don't have yet. BROWN: I have got to ask both of you this.
Candy, George W. Bush used federal courts to try accused terrorists I don't know how many times, as furious Democrats continue to point out. Republicans never complained about it during the Bush administration. How much is this just pure politics?
CROWLEY: Well, listen, a lot of it is politics.
It's really hard, particularly in a political year, to take the politics out and sort of measure it separately. Of course, there is politics at play here, because not only does it fit into, this is a mistake, he needs to be in a military tribunal, why would we give them access to the constitutional rights that Americans have in a civilian court, along with the way the Christmas Day -- the man who allegedly tried to blow up the airplane over Detroit, the way he was put in to eventually given his Miranda rights.
So there is this whole theme that the Republicans are putting together that, what? That President Obama is too soft on terrorists. And so, it fits into that whole storyline, which has worked quite successfully in elections past. Now, whether it will work in elections future, I don't know, but it's -- certainly, it's a card they have played before and it's one that they're putting together now.
TOOBIN: Let me just draw a quick distinction here. The criticism of the Obama administration for the way they're handling the underwear bomber from Christmas Day, that is ridiculous partisan Republican nonsense. This is identical to the Richard Reid case, the shoe bomber. It's being handled the same way.
The 9/11 trial is different. There are legitimate objections to holding this trial in New York, to holding it in an American courtroom. That, I think, is something that the Obama administration really has to take seriously and they don't have a good answer.
BROWN: But I think -- just to button this up, I think what most people are seemingly frustrated about is that these are the people, whether it's the Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill or the White House, who are in charge of protecting us from another terrorist attack, and they're squabbling over this, over both of these issues, and it's terrifying for the average person, and I think which is why we're having such a strong debate about it. Anyway...
TOOBIN: Squabbling, democracy.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: All right. All right. All right.
(LAUGHTER)
BROWN: Jeffrey Toobin, Candy Crowley for us tonight, thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
When we come back: our exclusive interview with Angelina Jolie from Haiti.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: A new twist tonight in the case of 10 American missionaries being held on child kidnapping charges.
"The New York Times" is reporting that one of their legal advisers is being investigated in El Salvador for allegedly running a trafficking ring involving American and Caribbean women and girls.
The U.S. ambassador to Haiti has now said that the missionaries' case has not become a distraction to the earthquake relief effort. Also today, thousands gathered in Port-au-Prince to remember the victims, today marking one month since the disaster, since the earthquake struck.
During a visit to the country this week, Angelina Jolie, who is a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, talked with CNN's Christiane Amanpour about what is being done there now to try to protect the children.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Let me ask you, because children are very much in the news, and before I went there, the head of UNICEF alerted us on this program to beware of trafficking, to be aware of hasty adoptions.
The prime minister told me a couple of weeks ago and really made a dramatic statement that, already, children were being trafficked and even organs were being trafficked. And now, of course, you've arrived in the middle of this, let's say, legal case, where a bunch of Americans are being held because of charges of trafficking.
What do you think needs to happen for these children, to protect them, even from people who might think they're doing their best for them by trying to take them out?
ANGELINA JOLIE, UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES GOODWILL AMBASSADOR: Well, I think we have to enforce the law and work with the government.
I know there is a new child protection cluster that's formed that's doing everything they can to coordinate. They're talking a lot about reunification, talked to ICRC about this reunification program, because that's the most important thing, to try to track everybody, but, as we said, very difficult without birth registration.
It is a huge problem. Trafficking has been a huge problem in this country for a very long time and a very, very real problem. So, I think everyone that means well needs to really take that very seriously, and not get frustrated, but really work with the country.
And, for myself, as somebody who is an adoptive parent, I understand the urge to assist in that way. But now is not the time, an emergency is not the time for new adoptions in any way. I'm personally going to assist in country organizations like SOS that in fact do raise orphans in country with widows. It's an extraordinary program. And they do it. And they raise them for life.
And it's one of the programs that's in 134 countries, and it should be scaled up. It's one of the best ways to help a child without removing a child from its home country. So, the more we can scale up in country, the better.
AMANPOUR: What has moved you the most in your visit there just now?
JOLIE: There is so much, you get overwhelmed in these situations.
I suppose the boy that was on the streets. I think it's a reminder of -- he is such an example of these people that live here and children around the world. He's been on his own for so long. He's been a street child for so long. He has suffered so much. He didn't even have family when he had to go to the hospital and broke his leg.
And when he's released from the hospital, he has nowhere to go, he has no one to take care of him. And he's going to have a very complicated future, because, for as much as we work toward solutions for these children, it's going to take us a very, very long time. And we're not going to be able to help everybody as quickly as we should.
So, you see children like that, and you wonder where they're going to be in a year. And it's very hard to hear him talk and to not be able to do something immediately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And you can see Christiane's exclusive interview with Angelina Jolie this weekend. That is on "AMANPOUR," Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time.
Record-breaking snow. Dallas set a single-day record of 12.5 inches, and this monster storm is hammering the rest of the south. Chad Myers is going to show us the worst of it when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) * CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight a winter storm is pounding a part of the country you wouldn't expect, the south. It is ugly in the Dallas-Fort Worth area which got more than a foot of snow, and that is a record. Flights canceled, schools are closed, snow falling in places where folks have not seen it in years. Now it's all moving east, apparently. Meteorologist Chad Myers in the CNN severe weather center in Atlanta, a city now in the middle of it all. Right, Chad?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. Right smack dab in the middle. From Charlotte to Columbia, all the way into North Carolina, Atlanta right smack dab in the middle of three to five inches of snow today. Now that's nothing compared to Texas. Haslee, Texas, Keller and Dallas, all over a foot of snow. And that slowed down airports yesterday in the Midwest, especially through Dallas-Fort Worth. Today, Atlanta was slow. In fact, 2,000 airplanes were canceled today. Two thousand flights canceled today. Atlanta still getting flights in and out, but about half what we should be getting in right now. That's because there's snow on the ground. Centennial Olympic Park here in Atlanta, you don't see that very often.
Let's take you right out now to Texas, Joe Pool Marina. If you notice, there are two docks there and the roofs aren't doing very good. They collapsed with the weight of the snow. Those are boats or closer to it yachts under all of that snow. The roof, the entire building collapsing on top of those boats. Why? Because Dallas -- here's some pictures now from downtown -- 12.5 inches of snow. Here's the lone star flag. But they felt alone in some spots there.
I have nothing to say about a basketball hoop full of snow. That is a fantastic picture. Been to a place called Floribama (ph)? Never been to snowibama (ph), but Mobile County, Alabama, not Mobile proper but close enough just to the northern parts of Mobile into Mobile County, that's what they're playing in.
And then outside CNN, this is what I get to play in as soon as I'm done here. Three inches of snow right downtown, and they were building snowmen where we usually have those Olympic rings in downtown. So here we go. Be careful tonight. And now that the sun has set, everybody is going to freeze up. So what was slop and slushy earlier today is now a bunch of ice.
BROWN: Absolutely. Definitely be careful out there. Chad Myers for us. Chad, thanks very much.
MYERS: You are welcome.
BROWN: This unusually cold weather also taking a deadly toll in the waters off of Florida. Nearly 4,000 manatees live there, but it's been so cold that an alarming number are dying. And tonight, David Mattingly shows us this desperate effort underway now to try to save them. We should warn you, though, some of what you're going to see is disturbing and tough to watch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are we ready? We're coming out.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We're headed to the scene of a biological disaster in the coastal waters of Florida, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it.
(on camera): Have you ever seen anything like this before?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): It's heartbreaking. Florida's beloved, endangered manatees are dying in record numbers, victims of a killer cold snap. Manatees can't survive in waters below 68 degrees. And in January, some Florida water temperatures dropped into the 40s. No one could guess the scope of the fatalities until the bodies began to show up.
This state lab saw an astonishing spike. More than 250 dead manatees, more than five percent of Florida's known population killed in a matter of weeks. The cold, rendered many unable to eat or breathe. Some drowned in a matter of minutes.
(on camera): One of the most obvious signs of the cold for many of the animals that come in here is actually on the skin. You can see it right here on this animal, this white spot that looks sort of like a blister. It's actually a lesion that was caused by the cold water.
(voice-over): Biologists call it Florida frostbite, and they're even finding it on some very unlikely victims.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Normally, we only young animals affected by the cold. But the fact that you see this happening in all sizes of manatees, adult manatees, that's a bad sign.
MATTINGLY: Some fear this could be just the beginning. Animals stressed by the cold now could die later from disease. Very few are rescued in time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's an exceptionally bad year for the manatee.
MATTINGLY: Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo is one of just three places in Florida equipped to rehab sick and injured manatees. This female is one of the lucky ones.
(on camera): There it is again. We're seeing some of the same things that we saw in the state lab on this manatee. Here it is, these lesions right here? That's Florida frostbite, right there.
(voice-over): Zoo staff says this manatee had lost at 300 pounds, unable to eat when she was rescued in January. She's now just one success story among hundreds of tragedies.
(on camera): Is this endangered species in trouble now because of what's happened this winter?
DR. DAVID MURPHY, ZOO VETERINARIAN: Well, I think so. I mean, we've lost somewhere between five and 10 percent of the wild population of Florida manatees. So that's a huge hit for any endangered species to have to deal with.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a manatee right in front of us.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Their futures uncertain, we found dozens of manatees hunkered down in the warm waters discharged by this power plant in Tampa Bay. But these plants won't be around forever and biologist say more natural warm water refuges need to be preserved. Because like any endangered species, manatees may not be around long, either, without the habitat they need to survive all of nature's tests.
David Mattingly, CNN, Tampa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And late today after David filed that report, we got word from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute that the total number of dead manatees is now up to 301, and that is just in the last six weeks. In all of 2009, a total of 429 manatees found dead in Florida waters, and that was a record year.
Go to CNN.com/Campbell to read David Mattingly's blog about the race to save the manatees.
When we come back, this Valentine's Day weekend, the author of "Eat, Pray, Love" debunks some myths about marriage myths. Elizabeth Gilbert will be with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: She wrote the blockbuster book, "Eat, Pray, Love" soon to be a movie starring Julia Roberts, and fans worldwide have been impatiently awaiting for her new book. And it is out. It is called "Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage."
Earlier I spoke with Elizabeth Gilbert about what she has learned about marriage. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Elizabeth, in order to write "Committed," I know you did a ton of research on the concept and the history of marriage in different cultures. Tell us sort of one or two things that were most striking in all that you learned.
ELIZABETH GILBERT, AUTHOR, "COMMITTED": Probably the thing that was the most revelatory and maybe even like relationship and life changing for me to learn was that whenever throughout history you have taken a culture that has what socialists call pragmatic marriage, which is marriage that's based on what's good for the community rather than what's good for the individual, and you replace that with a culture where people choose their own partners based on romantic affection, divorce rates immediately skyrocket. I find that amazing. It's happening right now in India and it happened in our culture starting about 150 years ago.
And divorce rates have only gone up as people more and more choose their partners based on mere love. And it really does seem to be like that love, you know, we think of it as so strong but it's kind of a gossamer thread with which to tie up a lot of really important pragmatic life decisions. And it puts the whole institution at risk in a really weird way.
BROWN: That's fascinating, actually. I know historically, also, marriage is often thought of something as something that protects women. But you found that that was not necessarily true. Explain what you meant by that.
GILBERT: No. Yes, it's quite the opposite, actually, and the statistics on this are kind of grim, so brace yourself. But the reality is that marriage has always benefited men a great deal more than it benefits women, and that's still stubbornly the case to this day. Even now in contemporary post-feminist America, married men perform so much better in life than single men do. They live longer. They're happier. They earn more. They're less likely to suffer from depression. And alcoholism, they're less likely to die a violent death. In every way that you measure success, married men succeed.
Married women do far less than single women in every single one of those categories. They don't live as long. They don't earn as much money. They're not as happy. They're more likely to have depression and alcohol problems. They're more likely to die a violent death. And it's depressing.
BROWN: Yes.
GILBERT: It's kind of grim when you add that up. And you start to get a little nuts thinking, why do we still have this stubborn cultural stereotype that, you know, women need to get married or there's something wrong with them or that all women are pushing for marriage when men are trying to run away from it when really it seems like it should be kind of the opposite.
BROWN: So any good news for women in all of this?
GILBERT: I know, I hate to be the person selling bad news biscuits. No, there is good news. What does appear to be the case is that the women consistently, in American studies who report themselves as happiest in their marriages, are those who waited the longest to do it, who got their education squared away, who found economic autonomy, basically who established themselves as full people and then went out and found a partner to go through the rest of their lives with rather than getting married very young with the idea that somebody was going to save them or deliver them or complete them in that sort of Jerry Maguire fantasy that we still hold onto.
BROWN: Right. We do.
You had a -- you had a pretty tough divorce yourself and said that you would never remarry. But you did.
GILBERT: Yes.
BROWN: And it happened --
GILBERT: I did.
BROWN: -- and in a fairly non-traditional way, and it sets the scene for your "Committed," the new book. Takes us through what happened.
GILBERT: Well, it was a shotgun wedding, but it was a shotgun wedding with the Department of Homeland Security holding the shotgun. It was an arranged marriage, arranged by the INS. Yes, both my husband and I swore that we would never get marry again because we were both pretty scarred from a painful divorce. And what happened was pretty simple. He's not a citizen, and he was coming in and out of the United States to visit me, and on one of those visits was, for no particular reason, arrested and detained by the Homeland Security Department and kicked out of the country. And we were informed that the only way that I could get him back, which is to say the only way we could continue our life together, was through marriage.
So, you know, it was a question of do I hate marriage more than I love this man? And the fact is I love him enough that I was willing to work to overcome my aversion to the institution of matrimony, and that's what the whole book is about.
BROWN: Many congrats to you on the new book again. It's called "Committed: a Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage." Elizabeth Gilbert, great to have you on. Thanks so much.
GILBERT: Thank you so much, Campbell.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: When we come back, a shocking and sad opening day at the Olympics in Vancouver. We're going to have the very latest on what happened today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: We're going to take you live to Vancouver in just a moment for the latest on today's fatal accident at the Olympics. But first, we want to check in with Larry King who starts at the top of the hour.
Larry, what do you have for us tonight?
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Thanks, Campbell. We're going to follow up on what you just mentioned, the death of that Olympic athlete right before the opening ceremonies. We'll be live from Vancouver.
We've got an update on Bill Clinton. He's looking and feeling good about that stent procedure yesterday.
And then a major political discussion, all next on "LARRY KING LIVE" -- Campbell.
BROWN: All right, Larry, we'll see you in a few minutes.
As Larry just mentioned there tonight, tragedy having marred the start of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. A luge competitor from the country Georgia was killed after crashing during practice. It happened just hours before the opening ceremonies. And Mark McKay of CNN Sports is joining us from Vancouver. And let's start with the accident.
Mark, just walk us through what happened. MARK MCKAY, CNN SPORTS: well, this was the luge competitor's final training run, Campbell, on the whistler sliding setter. The 21- year-old going down the track at a speed somewhere around 85, 88 miles per hour.
Nodar Kumaritashvili lost control of his sled. He was flung out of the sled and went into a steel pole without padding. CPR was administered on the scene. He was taken to a local hospital. He would later die of his injuries. The Olympic movement shaken by this tragedy down in Whistler Mountain this afternoon, just hours, as you said, Campbell, before the opening ceremony. The president of the International Olympic Committee, President Jacques Rogge, meeting with reporters in the main press center here in Vancouver, had actually wiped tears from his eyes when he spoke of this tragedy, calling Friday a sad day. The investigation by International Olympic Committee members is under way at this hour.
The men's luge competition, Campbell, is set to begin on Saturday. We're not sure where that stands. We do know that the Republic of Georgia will keep their delegation here at the games. They will continue and they will dedicate their performances in memory of their fallen comrade. But the luge track was criticized all week long. There were a number of crashes along the way. Some of the luge competitors saying it is the fastest track they've ever competed on in the world, Campbell.
BROWN: And clearly dangerous. Mark, all that said, a terrible way to start but the games are going to go on. Opening ceremonies get under way in just a few moments. You're there, obviously. Set the scene for us a little bit in terms of what's going to happen tonight.
MCKAY: Well, as it comes on, we've got wind and rain here in downtown Vancouver, but that will not affect the opening ceremony. It will be held indoor in the 60,000-seat B.C. place, so it will be held under cover, so this wind and rain that we have coming in now will not affect any of the opening ceremony.
We don't have any idea who will light the cauldron. That's usually a state secret. It is here in British Columbia, as well, Campbell. And we also don't know where the cauldron will be. But one thing we do know, Campbell, is when the Georgian delegation walks in tonight, they certainly will be given a warm and friendly welcome by the 60,000 strong.
BROWN: Without question. Mark, let me also just ask you to kind of talk to us a little bit about some of the stand-out American athletes of the games, who we should be on the lookout for as we watch in the coming days and weeks ahead.
MCKAY: Let's begin with somebody who has been in the news, Campbell, since the very beginning before the games even arrived. We arrived the same day that Lindsey Vonn, the U.S. alpine skier arrived. She looked fine. She came off the plane, but then we soon learned that she had a badly bruised right shin, an injury that she picked up in training in Austria last week. We at first thought that she would not be able to compete. She was able to put the ski boot on, and maybe, Campbell, she's been given a bit of a break as weather has now postponed the first women's alpine event, the super combined. So she will have extra time, Vonn will, to have that injury healed. She is a multiple Olympic medal threat, possibly the gold medal favorite in three of her five races so we'll be following her.
We'll also be watching out for the winner of "Dancing with the Stars." You know, Apolo Anton Ohno. Who can forget that guy, the short track speed skating sensation? If he comes and wins a medal here, Campbell, at these games, he will become the most decorated U.S. male athlete in Winter Olympics history. This is a homecoming of sorts for Apolo Anton Ohno as he, of course, grew up and first put on the skates here in the Pacific Northwest. He will perhaps speed off the energy that is the Vancouver games.
And who will forget U.S. snowboarder Shaun White? He burst onto the scene four years ago in Torino. He is back as well here in Vancouver. Who can forget the bright smile, the gold medal won in the half pike snowboarding?
He is the -- well, another favorite going in. But, Campbell, you cannot call him the "flying tomato." He'd rather have that nickname in the past and let his achievements stand on Shaun White. So we have a lot of personalities.
BROWN: Yes.
MCKAY: A lot of color, a lot of flavor going into these games as we get ready for the opening ceremony just minutes away.
BROWN: I guess he's outgrown it. Thank you very much. Mark McKay for us from Vancouver tonight. Mark, appreciate it.
We've got more must-see news happening right now. We want to bring you up to speed on all the headlines. Tom Foreman here with tonight's "Download."
Hey, Tom.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Campbell. Three people are dead, three others are wounded after a shooting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. All of the victims are faculty and staff. No students were hurt. Officials say a female shooting suspect is in custody. A second person was detained but not arrested.
As you reported earlier, Campbell, the biggest NATO offensive against Afghanistan's Taliban is under way right now. U.S. and British troops are leading the fledgling Afghan forces in a massive effort to drive militants out of their last major stronghold in Afghanistan's strategic Helmand Province in the south.
Here in Washington today, a six-car metro train derailed underground with 345 people aboard. The front wheels of the lead car came off the track just after the morning rush hour. There were a lot of scared commuters out there, but only three people suffered minor injuries.
More than 200 million Frisbees have been sold, and chances are you've tossed one around. Walter Frederick Morrison, the inventor of the Frisbee has died at the age of 90. Legend has it that Morrison got the idea in 1937 while playing with a tin popcorn lid, but he didn't license the disc until 20 years later.
And finally, check out this stunt. During a Toronto Raptors and New Jersey Nets basketball game, the Raptors' mascot was dancing with a cheerleader when look, it reared his head back and devoured the woman and then stomped off of the court.
BROWN: What happened to her, Tom?
FOREMAN: These sports are getting very wild these days. Look at this. She's going and there he goes. Wow.
BROWN: That was -- OK.
FOREMAN: I think you need a big mascot like that for your show.
BROWN: Yes. OK, not a bad idea.
FOREMAN: In the set.
BROWN: That would liven things up for sure. Tom Foreman tonight.
FOREMAN: Yes, devouring reporters every now and then.
BROWN: Have a good weekend, Tom.
FOREMAN: See you, Campbell.
BROWN: "LARRY KING LIVE" starts in just a few minutes. But up next, tonight's "Guilty Pleasure." It's a who-done-it? Who stole a pampered pooch's fancy coat?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: So how cold is it? So cold that some heartless thief literally stole the coat off a dog and our Jeanne Moos has tonight's "Guilty Pleasure."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the sort of dastardly crime that makes a dog hunting a down jacket nervously look over his shoulder. News that leaves a Westy in a (INAUDIBLE) shaken.
Hair decked out in baby blue and pink, shivering with trepidation.
DONNA MCPHERSON, MUGGED DOG'S OWNER: Who would take the coat of a dog? I mean, it's ludicrous. MOOS: Investment banker Donna McPherson momentarily left her dog, Lexie, outside this Brooklyn supermarket while she went inside to buy milk, left him in his green wool coat. When she came out --
MCPHERSON: I looked at her and I said, where's your coat, as if he was going to tell me. He's like, well, I just got mugged while you were buying milk.
MOOS (on camera): The good news is that the mugger only got Lexie's cheap $25 coat and not his pricier Burberry's.
(voice-over): And the really good news is --
MCPHERSON: I'm just thankful that they didn't take my dog. I'll never leave her again, ever.
MOOS: Anyway, Lexie still seems to have a better coat own than his owner. One animal loses an accessory, another animal gains out.
Check out the Houston cow with the tire necklace. That's SPCA investigator Trischa Price trying to help the cow out of its jam.
(on camera): Do we have any idea how she got the tire on her?
TRISCHA PRICE, HOUSTON SPCA (via telephone): It's a busy street. Probably someone threw out a tire, landed in there and there was something growing in, you know, in the center of it so she reached her head in there.
MOOS (voice-over): They managed to herd the year-old cow into a corral, but she wasn't helping them help her. They finally managed to get her into a squeeze chute. Changing this tire was a two-person operation.
The animal rescue folks are always trying to get critters out of self-imposed fixes, from a squirrel with a cup on its head to the deer decked out with Christmas lights on its antlers, to the stunk stuck in a jar of peanut butter. This is one snack he probably wished he'd skipped. Oh, what a relief.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say thank you.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN.
MCPHERSON: (INAUDIBLE) my dog. I'd be a happy woman.
MOOS: New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And good luck with that. That is it for now. Have a great weekend, everybody. Thanks for joining us. We will see you back here on Monday.
"LARRY KING LIVE" starts right now.
