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Holiday Travel; Arbitrator Upholds 4-Game Suspension of Terrell Owens; Is Iraqi Army Ready to Fight? Georgia Aquarium Opens Today; CDC Prepares for Bird Flu Threat

Aired November 23, 2005 - 14:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. Here's the stories that we're working on for you right now.
Traffic tie-ups and winter weather delaying travelers heading home for the holiday. What you need to know before you hit the road.

Protecting public health. Will it invade your privacy? A new move for quarantines and passenger lists raises some tricky issues.

And one fish, two fish. How about thousands of fish and sharks and whales and penguins? Yes, we love Dr. Seuss. The grand opening of a gigantic aquarium. We're going to take you there live.

All that and more as the second hour of LIVE FROM starts right now.

Whoever said getting there is half the fun probably didn't say it the day before Thanksgiving, right? But there are some things for weary travelers to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Eve 2005.

For one, decent weather in most of the country -- I said most. Snow is on the menu for the Great Lakes, through much of the Appalachians, including Cincinnati. But if your relatives tell you that they're snowed in, they probably just decided to stay home. We ratted them out.

Another bright spot, sharply lower gas prices than most places saw just a month ago. Though they're still up from last year. And air travel is expected to set a record 21.7 million passengers over Thanksgiving week, slightly more than 2004, despite higher fares. Airlines are thankful for that.

CNN meteorologists Dave Hennen and Bonnie Schneider watching the weather still for us and how it's affecting your travel.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Road travel is said to be brisk in Detroit and Michigan in general. But air travel so far light. Reported Lourdes Duarte of CNN affiliate WJBK spent the morning at Detroit Metro Airport.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) LOURDES DUARTE, REPORTER, WJBK (voice over): This weekend's holiday travel didn't quite take off the way it has previous years. This morning's lines short...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So far, check-in was great.

DUARTE: ... and sweet, with the Radio City Rockettes handing out candy as people lined up to take off.

AMANDA FOX, RADIO CITY ROCKETTE: We thought we could bring a little bit of Christmas spirit to the people who are traveling on this hectic day.

DUARTE: No cancellations, no real delays this morning, but remember the busiest travel time is still days away.

MICHAEL CONWAY, AIRPORT SPOKESMAN: Now, on Sunday, the boardings are higher, which indicates to us that perhaps a lot of Michigan residents are staying home, or they're not flying, as least. But other people from out of town are coming in to visit the Detroit area for the holidays.

DUARTE: And as far as the snow that's coming our way, a Metro Airport spokesperson saying they are more than ready.

CONWAY: We've made special preparations. I looked out my window yesterday and I saw a zillion snow trucks flying down Runway 22F, which means they're practicing, they're getting the dust off of everything.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And if you tried to beat the traffic early this morning on I-95, just north of Washington, better luck next year. A tanker truck that had just filled up with gasoline in Baltimore exploded and burned and burned and burned and burned. And traffic all around it was frozen in place. No one was hurt, but last we heard the interstate was still open -- or only partly reopened.

Let's go now to Fredricka Whitfield. She's in the newsroom with more news on the developing story regarding NFL player Terrell Owens, otherwise known as T.O.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: That's right.

Well, it looks like no more game time for wide receiver Terrell Owens this season. An arbitrator upheld a four-game suspension of T.O. The Philadelphia Eagles suspended T.O. on November 5, and that took place after he badmouthed the team and quarterback Donovan McNabb.

The arbitrator heard 13 hours of arguments last week, and now he has spoken that the Eagles were justified in suspending Owens for four games, and the Eagles can deactivate Owens for the remaining five games this season if they want to. Owens wanted to be reinstated or cut from the Eagles altogether so he could sign with another team, but still not sure whether the Eagles will let him go and let him do that.

Meantime, T.O. has five years remaining on a seven-year, $48.7 million contract. And guess what, Kyra? This is a blow to T.O.'s ego, perhaps, because the team is 0-3 without him.

Meantime, there has been a statement that has been released from the Eagles. They are saying, "We couldn't have written it any better ourselves."

And the NFL is also releasing a statement saying, "We are pleased the arbitrator has upheld the right of a club to suspend a player for conduct detrimental to the team."

So, once again, Terrell Owens, the suspension of four more games upheld by the arbitrator. And now it is up to the team to decide whether or not they want to let him go or keep him on for the rest of his contract, another five years -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Fred, thanks.

Senator Joe Lieberman is in Iraq, where he'll spend Thanksgiving with the U.S. troops. This is distancing himself from some of his fellow Democrats. Though Lieberman promised Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari that U.S. forces will remain in Iraq until their mission is complete.

In an interview with CNN, Lieberman said failure in Iraq would be catastrophe for the United States and the entire Middle East.

The debate over an exit strategy in Iraq resounds throughout Washington, and often lost in the political banter are the facts. Here's what the president has been saying for more than a year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our strategy can be summed up this way: as the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: That was the president last June talking to the troops at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: As Iraqis stand up, we will stand down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, that was the president last week in South Korea.

We just wanted to check the facts. Are the Iraqis standing up? Here is CNN's Nic Robertson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LT. COL. ROSS BROWN, U.S. ARMY: When did he last clean his weapon?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): A revealing look inside the Iraqi army.

BROWN: That's the answer. But look at that weapon. What did he clean it with?

ROBERTSON: Inside, Lieutenant Colonel Ross Brown's daily battle -- getting an Iraqi army unit ready to fight alongside U.S. soldiers.

BROWN: Yes, tell him -- tell him -- look.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes?

BROWN: The reason I ask the questions, the reason I'm hard on these things is because I want these soldiers to survive.

ROBERTSON: Brown's mission is not easy. The Iraqi officers he's mentoring are not shaping up fast.

BROWN: They didn't do too much work yesterday. They didn't do too much work the day before. They haven't done too much work since they've been here.

ROBERTSON: Sixty miles north, this Iraqi Army officer, Colonel Thear, is about as close to a hero for U.S. troops as an Iraqi can become.

COL. STEVEN SALAZAR, U.S. ARMY: He is an outstanding leader and he is just simply a patriot.

ROBERTSON: So which is the real face of the Iraqi Army -- under- prepared and underperforming or dedicated and on the verge of breaking through?

GEN. MARTIN DEMPSEY, MULTINATIONAL SECURITY COMMAND: Progress is uneven. And it's uneven across the country. It's uneven in units. It's uneven between the Army and the police.

ROBERTSON: Of the 212,000 men and women in the security forces, almost 100,000 are in the Army. Of those, only about 23,000 are battle-ready. That's 30 out of a total of 130 battalions.

According to Dempsey, getting the rebuilding right, making the Iraqi Army strong and cohesive, is more important than rushing training.

DEMPSEY: What we're looking to produce is something that will actually be fully capable and last, and will be something that is an institution of national cohesion as opposed to, you know, 212,000 men and women running around with rifles.

ROBERTSON: Colonel Thear is one of the battle ready battalion commanders. He has taken over from U.S. troops in his area, but lacks even an up-armored Humvee. He is at level two readiness.

COL. ISMAEL THEAR, IRAQI ARMY: We told coalition forces just, we need like support. Still, you know, Iraq Army soldiers don't have helicopter.

ROBERTSON: Level one readiness means no support from U.S. forces required, and that's still hard to find.

DEMPSEY: And I don't know what the particular number today is on level one. But...

ROBERTSON: In the latest offensive, Operation Steel Curtain, close to the Syrian border, 3,000 U.S. Marines led the way, with 550 Iraqi troops mostly bringing up the rear.

Developing the Iraqi Army to this point has been hampered by Iraq's changing political leadership, according to Dempsey. Despite that, he's confident they are on track, as planned.

DEMPSEY: And I am going to get it done in the way that -- that we have agreed is right, and I'm not going to be pressured by the -- what is necessarily a, at the end of the day, probably a healthy debate back in Washington.

ROBERTSON (on camera): Ready or not, the Iraqi Army is coming under increasing pressure to take control. The current recruitment plan expires in the summer of 2007. Likely by then, the Iraqi Army will be standing more alone than it is today.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Cheap home heating oil just in time for winter. So what's wrong with that? Critics say it's where the oil is coming from and how the deal was made. We're going to debate the issue next on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Straight to Fredricka Whitfield now, working on a developing story here in Atlanta, a raging fire. One firefighter injured.

Fred, what's the latest with it?

WHITFIELD: Well, that downtown Atlanta apartment fire has led to the displacement of an awful lot of people on this day before Thanksgiving. And as you said, one firefighter was injured and is currently being hospitalized. It appears at this juncture that the majority of that fire of that building is now out.

On the telephone with us, Atlanta fire public information officer Byron Kennedy.

Captain Kennedy, thanks for being with us.

What is the situation there? Was it contained to one building, or did that blaze jump to a neighboring structure as well?

CPT. BYRON KENNEDY, ATLANTA FIRE DEPT.: Absolutely. Right now -- the fire started in one building. Units arrived on scene four minutes after receiving the call.

Once they got into the structure, they had noticed real quickly that it was in the attic. The fire had extended into the attic. Now, whether it went over to the other adjacent building by embers or by just sheer radiant heat, I'm not certain right now.

WHITFIELD: Well, initial reports were, Captain, that everyone who was in that 36-unit apartment building escaped without injury. Is that still the case?

KENNEDY: That is the case, to my knowledge right now. Upon that initial unit's arrival, they did notice that a lot of people were bailing out of the building, evacuating out of the building through the stairwell and normal entrance.

WHITFIELD: And how is your firefighter that was injured?

KENNEDY: I have not had an opportunity to speak with anyone that's down at the hospital with him. However, he was -- pardon me, my other line is ringing. He was conscious and alert on the scene.

WHITFIELD: And I understand there's been a ripple effect from this fire. Is that correct? Not only did that neighboring property catch fire, but this may have also caused a rather significant power outage. Is that the case?

KENNEDY: Well, Georgia Power responds with us whenever we have a fire. And in this particular case, they responded as well. They may cut power I know definitely to this building. And as I look around now, I do see that the street lights are out as well for a couple of blocks. However on down, the third and fourth block, the street lights are back on.

WHITFIELD: All right. Captain Byron Kennedy, our best wishes to your firefighter who is being hospitalized right now. And thanks so much for that update on that downtown apartment fire in Atlanta -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Fred. We'll continue to check in with you on that story as news develops.

Meanwhile, Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, rarely misses a chance to blast the Bush administration. He called President Bush both a murder and a crazy man, and he often insists that U.S. is planning to attack his country.

Now he's agreed to sell home heating oil to people in New York and Massachusetts at a discount. As politicians celebrate the deal, we wondered, is this was a generous holiday gesture or an attempt to embarrass President Bush? And beyond that, should House members be cutting deals with foreign governments?

With me now, Bob Barr, former House Republican and one of our regulars, and Larry Chretien of the Massenergy Consumers Alliance. His group will help distribute that oil in Massachusetts.

Great to have you both.

Bob, let's start with you.

Is this a move to embarrass the president, or is this about helping people that are desperately in need?

BOB BARR (R), FMR. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Well, certainly on the part of Mr. Hugo Chavez, it is clearly designed as a political move to embarrass the Bush administration, with whom Mr. Chavez has been at odds since he took office several years ago.

I noted that there were some comments by some of the Massachusetts politicians that brokered the so-called deal that there was no politics involved. I mean, that's terribly naive. That borders on silly to think that Hugo Chavez is not using this and using these people in Massachusetts as pawns in a larger political gain. And they really ought to be very careful about this.

PHILLIPS: So, Larry, is this the type of situation whether it's politics or not, you've got to do what you've got to do to help the people that can't afford to pay those high heating bills?

LARRY CHRETIEN, MASSENERGY CONSUMERS ALLIANCE: I think so. There could be tension between the two presidents, but here in Massachusetts we have seen extraordinary increases in the cost of home heating oil that many of us can afford but the poorest in Massachusetts cannot.

And the funding for fuel assistance at the federal level has not been increased commensurately. The oil companies were brought before Congress and had nothing to offer.

And so we believe that the Venezuelans are being sincere in the fact that they recognize poverty in America. And we're going to put that oil to use in the homes that need it the most.

PHILLIPS: Do you really think Hugo Chavez cares about poverty in America, Bob?

BARR: No. I mean, he really doesn't. This is tin horn dictator who doesn't miss any opportunity to throw sand in the eyes and then poke the eyes of President Bush, or probably whoever the U.S. president might be at the time.

Now, the Bush administration has to be very careful in how they deal with Mr. Chavez for a lot of reasons. He can be a very destabilizing force in Colombia, which is dealing with a very serious narcoterrorism problem.

Hugo Chavez is being used as an entree (ph) by Cuba and China, mainland China, to also gain leverage over the United States in this arena.

So we have to be very careful here. And, of course, Venezuela does supply -- it's the second largest supplier of foreign oil to the U.S. And to have members of Congress and senators and governors down there dealing with him, knowing that all of this is going on, is highly irresponsible.

PHILLIPS: Larry, do you think it's highly irresponsible? And also, too, I want to ask you -- well, we should point out that CITGO is owned by Venezuela. And we've been covering the fact that these oil companies have had record profits.

You know, why not get these other companies to sell oil at a discount instead of having go to Hugo Chavez and have this whole sort of political controversy?

CHRETIEN: Well, my organization has been in Boston for 23 years trying to help low-income people. And there have been other groups as well.

We've never been contacted by ExxonMobil or Chevron. And as far as I know, there's not a list of oil companies that are in good standing or bad standing with the U.S. State Department. And so CITGO came to us and is offering 12 million gallons at a discount, as the congressman indicated.

PHILLIPS: CITGO owned by Venezuela, though. We should definitely point that out. CITGO is owned by Venezuela.

CHRETIEN: And every day in Massachusetts we depend on oil from Venezuela and other countries where we would be paying market rate. It's going to happen until somebody says otherwise at the federal level.

So, if we're going to have the opportunity to provide a 40 percent discount to only the poorest in Massachusetts -- this is not going to subsidized -- the driving of sport utility vehicles around Boston. This is to go to homeless shelters and to poor people. I don't see what the problem is.

PHILLIPS: Well, Larry, you said that ExxonMobil has never contacted you, or some of these other companies. Why not go after those companies and say, hey, you're making a lot of money, help us out? We're seeing these people that can't afford to drive their car or can't afford to turn up the heat during winter. You need to share some of this profit with us.

CHRETIEN: There's a national coalition of organizations around the country that support adequate levels of funding for the low-income heating assistance program. We've been making this appeal for years.

The budget line item has been level funded year after year, despite the fact that the national economy keeps growing, the national budget keeps growing, and now we have record profits. And you should just go back and play the tape of how Lee Raymond and the others from the top oil companies performed before a congressional committee.

Essentially, they had nothing to offer. They basically were asking Congress to give them a pass.

And you know, you can make Venezuela irrelevant if you wanted to, or at least the small 12 million gallon deal. You can make it irrelevant by adequately funding fuel assistance and otherwise showing some social responsibility.

So I hope that there's a challenge here. So I'll ask for it again.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Bob, I mean, that's a good point. What happened to the fuel assistance program? And what about the energy policy and all the talk about Cheney aides meeting with these high-level oil company execs?

You know, everyone -- it's a he said-she said right now, we did it, we didn't do it.

BARR: Right.

PHILLIPS: Why isn't more effort put into that and more pressure put on these execs and put on the administration?

BARR: Well, I think that there are really two issues here. The issue of whether or not there were improper dealings is really a very serious matter, I agree with you on that. And that needs to be looked at, and particularly that aspect of the testimony of these oil officials two weeks ago before the United States Senate in which, by all appearances, they obstructed the testimony and lied and misled the Congress.

That is very serious.

But to stand here and start blasting the oil companies because they make too much money and they have no social conscience, and the U.S. government isn't doing anything, avoids reality. The U.S. government, the U.S. taxpayers have been paying billions of dollars and continue to for subsidies for low-income heating oil.

Now, it's not as much as some people would like, but to then say, well, we're being forced to go to a socialist government -- that is, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela -- and deal with their state-owned oil company here that is always out to embarrass the Bush administration, really, again, the only word I can think of is irresponsible.

PHILLIPS: Larry, what do you think? Could we see some other companies ponying up now with all this talk and CITGO, owned by Venezuela, coming forward and doing this? What do you think? I mean, could we see more, I guess -- I guess social conscious is what you're saying?

CHRETIEN: That's right. We're not looking to confiscate the profits of the oil companies. We're saying that a couple of billion dollars put into the (INAUDIBLE) heat program perhaps from the federal government has a responsibility to its own.

The oil companies are enjoying record profits in part because of the oil they produce in the Gulf of Mexico and other places where they're paying royalties to the United States, inadequate in many people's view. And that money could be put into the fuel assistance program.

Or they could make corporate contributions. Again, a billion dollars would go a very long way to low-income people this winter. And I don't think that's a token gesture.

Right now my fax machine is running out of paper from group homes for the mentally retarded and for homeless shelters who want to apply for this discount because, if they don't receive some help this winter, they're going to have to cut back some services. And it's going to be really critical, and it's going to affect a lot of people that I believe Americans would like to help.

And so it's interesting that it's coming from Venezuela. But, you know, it's a democratically-elected government, as far as I understand. And the Carter Center and others looked over the last election.

And so, until they're on sort of an official black list, I'm going to be open minded to working with CITGO. They have been very kind to us.

They have a folder on their desk called "Oil for the Poor," and I believe that that is where their motivation is coming.

Now, my e-mail address is larry@massenergy.com. And if there's any major American oil company that wants to help out...

BARR: Yes, anybody that has a billion dollars lying around, send it to him.

PHILLIPS: There you go. There's a challenge. There's a challenge.

CHRETIEN: That's right.

PHILLIPS: Hey, you know, when you start looking at -- I mean, we can get all the companies, line them up, let's talk about their profits. I mean, we could keep going, Bob. We could definitely keep talking about money. There's money there.

BARR: Well, money is certainly important, but we can't leave out the U.S. taxpayers who are funding these programs and many, many others.

PHILLIPS: The program should be working is what you're saying. The program should be working.

BARR: They do. You're never going to provide enough money to satisfy all of the folks out there. But nobody dies because they're too cold in Massachusetts. Yes, there are a number of programs...

PHILLIPS: Oh, Larry might argue that, I bet.

BARR: Well, I mean, they don't. I mean, people don't die as a result of that.

CHRETIEN: Let go back to Chicago.

BARR: But there are a lot of programs. Perhaps he ought to be talking, and maybe he is, with his state officials and the officials in Massachusetts and Boston and so forth. You know, they have a responsibility here, too. It's not just Hugo Chavez.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll stay on it.

Larry Chretien, I know we could keep going.

Bob Barr, it's a great discussion. We'll have you back. I promise we'll follow it.

Gentlemen, thank you so much.

CHRETIEN: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: We want to get to a little background about Hugo Chavez.

One led a military coup against his own government. Now, just a few years later, he is the president. But he seems more determined than ever to remain a political outsider.

Our Tony Harris checks the facts on Venezuela, the U.S., and one very complex relationship.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Chavez was elected president of Venezuela in 1998. He promised to improve living conditions for the nation's lower classes.

At that time, Venezuela was the United States' second largest supplier of oil. American companies such as ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil had large investments there. But Chavez took a big chunk of their profits away in 2001 when he increased taxes on private oil exports.

Chavez also didn't improve relations with the United States by criticizing American imperialism and praising world leaders such as Libya's Moammar Gadhafi and Cuba's Fidel Castro.

In April of 2002, Chavez was briefly overthrown in a coup. Leaders of the coalition that ousted Chavez, including business and military officials, had met with senior members of the Bush administration. But the White House insisted they had not given the group any support.

Today, political relations between the United States and Venezuela remain strained, but commercial ties are strong. Venezuela is now the United States' fourth largest oil supplier. Roughly 500 companies have investments there and the State Department says about 23,000 American citizens currently live in Venezuela. .

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All right, we're talking about the aquarium for the record books. We're going to take you under the sea as I continue my conversation with Bob Barr here, off the camera. Aren't the penguins adorable? You can't get enough of those penguins, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Let's go back to Georgia's newest attraction. The aquarium, of course. We've been talking about it all day, which already had thousands of visitors, that have been awe-struck, including our own Chad Myers, who can't seem to get away from the Beluga whale.

CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're back here at the whales, sharks. The Belugas were amazing there for a while. This is called the big wall or, if you want to call it the big screen, whatever it might be.

We're in the aquarium part that backs up to the 6.1-million- gallon aquarium. The glass on this big glass is 20-inches thick. That keeps all that water pressure back.

This is like the world's longest 3-D movie, 126-feet-wide is the screen and people sit here and they wait for the sharks it come by, the whale sharks to come by. The little kids are right up along the glass. They can actually touch the glass and watch the group.

We had 100,000 fish in here a little bit ago, Kyra, but now there's only 99,999, because I saw a grouper swallow one. So, we just lost one. But I guess they assume that, and they probably restock every once in a while.

There's the whale shark up there, the largest creature in the place. There are two of them here and they're only as, basically as you and I go, as human age go, they're only about ten years old. They're not even to puberty yet and they have a lot of growing to go. In fact, they met get 50 feet long. That would almost double the size that they are now.

But it's ironic, when the whale sharks comes by, everybody oohs and aahs and then they swim away. This thing is 276 feet from end to end and the visibility -- because they just fed the fish -- visibility only about 50 feet.

So when the whale sharks go to the other side, everybody gets up and leaves like it's a double feature, and then they come back when the whale sharks come back.

So it kind of is that wane and wax of audience. But everybody here having a great time.

I just heard -- just standing here by the camera a lady walked by to another lady and said, "That was totally awesome."

And I think that's what you're going to get when you get -- we have up here on top, all the way up on the top corner here, one of the little sharks going all the way. There's a couple hammerheads in here as well.

We had skin divers in here, deep sea divers cleaning the tank and they actually had to have little sticks with them to keep some of the more dangerous predatory animals away -- Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Wow. Pretty cool job. Little sense of adventure.

And we can't forget the penguins, too.

Chad Myers, thanks.

MYERS: You're welcome, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, you can log on to cnn.com any time to meet the fish and other inhabitants there at the Georgia Aquarium, or even get a virtual our. That address, cnn.com/science.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Welcome back.

This is our little news pod area here for LIVE FROM.

And my segment producer who sits right next to me, Sawnia Houston (ph), gave me some advice to tell all of you and that is we need to pack light, leave early and try to keep our holiday spirit, because she is full of holiday spirit.

Humble advice from those of us who are staying put to those of you who aren't, and on one of the busiest travel days of the year, of course, is what we're talking.

CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen, Bonnie Schneider watching the weather, the roads, the airports, you name it.

They're watching everything on this Thanksgiving eve -- Dave?

Yes, Kyra, watching several things.

DAVE HENNEN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We have some traffic trouble out there.

We've been plotting real-time traffic for you all morning long and into the afternoon hours. We have some incidents to talk about.

Let me zoom you in on the map here.

We're going to take you from New York City, where there was reports of problems now getting into LaGuardia Airport. Reports of problems there. So traffic's slowed there.

And let me take you, as well, further in and closer into the action. In Bridgeport, we're actually looking at an incident there as well. Along the I-95, reports of some very slow traffic right now. That extends along the Connecticut Turnpike, I-95 -- there you go -- exit 27.

So if you're out on the roadways or getting ready to head out, those are your problem areas that you're going to run into throughout the afternoon.

If we can switch sources there and show you what's going on as far as the airports go, also watching some trouble on the airports as well. These are the problem areas of the day.

Things have disappeared on me. We did have delays earlier, in fact, we're looking at delays right now around -- oh, there's my map. There and then we have delays LaGuardia into Newark. The other delays have cleared up. That's the good news.

Out West, Seattle, Portland, no longer delays reported there. So LaGuardia and Newark -- there you go. We're on delay program -- still LaGuardia about an hour delay, Newark about 45-minute delays.

Let's go over to Bonnie now and see what she has for us.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

PHILLIPS: So, I probably know the answer to this, everyone likes to travel, right?

But what do you think about possibly quarantine? Well, what happens if you bring home a bug along with all those souvenirs?

The CDC wants to make sure it's ready to catch everything it can. Details on a new plan straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: And back live at B Control.

Today, China confirmed a second bird flu death, bringing the total number of human fatalities to almost 70. So far, this virus has killed more than half of those who've contracted it from birds.

Still, H5N1 has not mutated into a form that spreads easily from person to person. If it does, though, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants to be ready here in the United States.

CDC officials are looking for a substantial overhaul of federal quarantine regulations that would kick in for travelers getting off a plane, boat, or crossing a border into this country. Medical officers are already stationed at 17 major airports and the El Paso border crossing to screen people entering the U.S.

But the CDC also hopes to get easier access to passenger lists from airlines and cruise ships, authority to offer medical treatment, including vaccines to quarantine people, and showing there is apprehension about people challenging the government's ability to impose quarantines.

And the CDC also wants to spell out your legal rights in advance.

Now, I want to clarify, a CDC fact sheet defines two terms. Isolation is for people who are already ill and quarantine for people who have been exposed to an infectious disease perhaps on a plane or a boat, but who are not actually ill.

CNN security analyst Richard Falkenrath joins me now from Washington to talk about the legal and practical questions that might come up if a quarantine was ever deemed necessary.

Richard, good to see you.

Hi, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, we learned a lot after SARS, right? We learned where the gaps were.

RICHARD FALKENRATH, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: That's exactly right.

This is really a response to the SARS outbreak. We learned when we were dealing with SARS two years ago that our regulations were far out of date for dealing with people who may by exposed to a highly contagious new disease.

And so at that time we added SARS to the list of diseases for which the secretary of health and human services could enforce a quarantine.

And CDC began this process of updating the regulations that are used to implement the secretary's authority for quarantine and isolation at our international points of entry.

PHILLIPS: Sure. Because I start reading about federal quarantine and the contact tracing regulations, they're pretty antiquated.

And so let's talk about what the CDC is proposing and what you think of it.

FALKENRATH: Well, you're exactly right.

The old way of doing things goes back to the pre-globalization era. This law was originally signed in 1944.

What they are asking to do now is for all airlines to maintain our passenger records, the manifest for 60 days after every plane arrives in the United States, and then for the airlines to be ready to turn that data over to CDC in a matter of hours when CDC asks.

And the reason for that is CDC wants to be able to reconstruct who might have been exposed to a virus. This was a huge problem with SARS, where they found that they had a very inefficient system for figuring out who else was on planes where there was a SARS patient on board.

PHILLIPS: So, how long would this take? Let's say this all goes through, I'm on an airplane, you're on an airplane. Somehow we find out -- I mean, how do we find out that someone could be on that plane that now we've been exposed to and then as soon as the plane lands we have got to go into quarantine. Like -- put the pieces of the puzzle together on how this would work.

FALKENRATH: Well, it's going to be very hard. And in fact, this implementation of these authorities is the long pole in the tent. The key would be to identify that there was someone on the plane exposed to the virus. And usually that will happen because they get sick well after they leave the plane, they go to a hospital, and there they're positively diagnosed for having been exposed to the disease.

Then you go back, you look at the manifest and you figure out who was there, who was on it. You go and try to contact them and then contain the disease. The really extreme case is the one you just mentioned which is, suppose you have a plane full of people and you suspect all of them night have been exposed to a high infectious disease like influenza. Then what do you do?

These regulations give the director of CDC the authority to quarantine them all against their will, to put them in a holding pen and watch them for up to three days. The problem is, there is no facility to contain them at any airport.

PHILLIPS: So we couldn't do that right now? I mean, this is something that would all have to be put into the process?

FALKENRATH: That's right. We have the legal authority to do it, but not the practical implementation capacity.

PHILLIPS: OK, now, these medical officers that already exist, they're called -- or they're called medical -- yes, medical officers. Where exactly are they, and are they doctors and what's the point of having these officers in, I think -- are they on the borders now? Is that right?

FALKENRATH: Well, they're at 17 international airports and at one border. And in the past they were public health specialists. Increasingly they are doctors, MDs who are there at these major airports full-time, and their job is when there is a very sick person who gets off an airplane, they can provide medical assistance and treat them, briefly.

But they can only handle relatively small numbers. And as we said, only 17 airports have these facilities right now. There's over 100 international airports and so we have a long way to go before we have a robust capability to do medical screening at our points of entry.

PHILLIPS: Now, when it all comes down to it, if this all goes forward, does it mean that we can actually stop a pandemic at our borders?

FALKENRATH: Not yet, but it is a step in the right direction. It is an entirely appropriate thing for the government to be doing, but with pandemic we have really serious problems both on capacity, as we were just talking about and because of the nature of the bug. This disease is what is transmittable before it becomes symptomatic.

So it is entirely possible that there would be an infected person transmitting the virus to other passengers, but showing no symptoms whatsoever of his or her illness. And that person will move right through the system and enter the society. And for that threat, there's really almost nothing we can do at our borders.

PHILLIPS: CNN security analyst Richard Falkenrath. Just more to think about. Thanks, Richard.

FALKENRATH: Thanks, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, a stuffing recall in several states on this Thanksgiving Eve. Pretty bad timing. Well, we have got the details for you. LIVE FROM has got all the news you want this afternoon. Stay with us.

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PHILLIPS: If stuffing is on your menu tomorrow, well, you better listen up. One hundred and twenty nine thousand packages are being recalled in dozens of states. The product is Martin's Famous Dutch Taste Potato-Bred Soft Cubed Stuffing. Got all that?

The packages are marked with sell by dates of February 1st to March 22nd. The reason for the recall, the packages don't point out the stuffing may contain wheat and dairy products. So far there are no reports of anybody getting sick.

And if you like stuffing but don't actually like to, you know stuff, Ruth Siems made that all possible. Siems, the inventor of Stove Top stuffing, well, she died at the age of 74.

Can you believe this timing? Her invention allows people to have stuffing without turkey, as you know, and chances are, her stuffing will pop up in homes tomorrow, particularly those of the non-culinary inclined.

Well, the news keeps coming. We're going to keep bringing it to you. The third hour of CNN's LIVE FROM is straight ahead.

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