Return to Transcripts main page

Rick's List

Snow Hits Deep South; Free Speech: Where's the Line?

Aired February 12, 2010 - 15:00   ET

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

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Here's what's heading THE LIST right now.

We aired it, you responded and now it's everywhere. Why did these security officials watch as a 15-year old had her head stomped? Policy. Policy?

Airport body scanners, an American Muslim group says they're ungodly so they won't be scanned?

A preacher's case. He is thrown out of the mall for talking to shoppers about God. Was he wrong?

And it is winter break in many parts of the country. Kids are out of school, but they can't go anywhere. More than 1,000 flights canceled. Roads are closed.

We are in the pit (INAUDIBLE) team to the info you need, the lists you need to know about. Who is "Today's Most Intriguing Person"? Who's on "The List You Don't Want To Be On"? We'll find out as our national conversation on Twitter, on the air starts right now.

And hello again, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez.

Here is what is making THE LIST right now. There is a lot of news, but there's no question the one story that is affecting the most Americans right now is the weather. If you are in Texas, if you're in parts of Louisiana, if you're in parts of Mississippi, if you're in Alabama, if you're in Georgia, if you plan to fly today, if you are on vacation and you're worried about your plans, if you're worried about the roads that you are going to be driving on, you need to be watching, because we are going to be taking you through every step of this story and the places that it is affecting.

Let me just show you some pictures right now. It is not every day that you look at Atlanta, Georgia, and see this much snow falling. And guess what? Yes, it is rush hour. Over the next three hours, between 3:00 and 5:00, officials here have their hands full. They are going to try to get more than one million people from the downtown area out to their commute to the different municipalities, and it is not going to be easy.

This is just the beginning of it. Let me show you what is going on now. This is at the airport. This is at Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, where just one airline alone -- and that is Delta, which is the hub there in Atlanta, as you know -- has already canceled more than 1,100 flights when last time we checked.

Now, why is this important? A lot of you guys are saying, well, that is OK. I'm not in Atlanta. Well, you will be if you are on any other Delta flight, because, like they say, you can't die without having to go through Delta or through Atlanta at some point. That is the situation as it was right there.

What are we looking at here, guys? This is downtown Atlanta, and it is just outside -- remember where the Olympics were held here in Atlanta? This is an area right where the Olympics were, right off of Centennial Park. The CNN Center is not too far from that.

Those are some of the areas there. As you see, the streets are now starting to turn, starting to turn white with snow. There is a lot to share with you. We are all going to try to get out of here as soon as we get off the air, as a matter of fact, and good luck to us trying to do so.

Let me tell you what else we are going to be doing. We have established a place where we here at CNN, just like we did the other day when this storm was hitting Philadelphia and Baltimore and parts of New York, we have established a place in our newsroom, right in what we call the pit, where everybody is answering phones and getting the latest information, where we have put Don Lemon.

There he is. And he's going to help take us through this.

Don, take it away. Give us the new numbers. Give us whatever new information you've got on this storm.

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Rick, I'm going to go through it all for you.

You were talking about the watches and the warnings. And I was going through trying to get the information, watch, warning, Birmingham, Montgomery, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Tennessee, all the way up the Eastern Seaboard, Tennessee, all of these watches and warnings to places that have not gotten snow, some in decades, or really haven't gotten snow ever.

So, you think you maybe you get a half-inch or whatever, you get some frozen ice, that it is not a big deal. That is if you live in Chicago or New York or places north.

SANCHEZ: Right.

LEMON: But if you live in the South, Rick, you don't get a lot of snow. You don't have trucks. You don't have salts. You don't have the equipment to take care of it. So, it shuts down cities and areas. And it is having a big effect.

I'm over here at our national desk now. And Karen Olson (ph) is keeping an eye on it all.

What are you looking at now here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is right.

Well, Don, I was just looking at the Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport which yesterday was a huge mess for travelers. They had record snowfall. A lot of people are having trouble traveling. But today, it is actually looking better, and you can tell. Planes are taking off. They're moving. They had to de-ice yesterday, but today is a better picture.

LEMON: Yes. And as you work on that, we're going to go -- I'm going to walk over here to our Chad Myers, because Chad knows about all of this. Chad is working here in the CNN Severe Weather Center. These guys have been really busy today as we walk through. We moved our guys out of here who usually work with Chad, so they could get...

(CROSSTALK)

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Watch your step there.

LEMON: Yes. Be careful.

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: Wires everywhere.

LEMON: Everywhere. Dallas, we have got -- this weekend, we have got the All-Star Game, where they're going to be tens of thousands of people who are going to be there.

MYERS: Yes.

LEMON: It's Valentine's Day. You can't tell your wife or your lady, hey, I can't take you out on Sunday, because you have got to deal with that, Mardi Gras down in New Orleans, and then you've got Presidents' Day weekend, so this is really causing a problem.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

SANCHEZ: This is another story that we are going to be keying in on. You are not going to believe the latest allegations against contractors, Blackwater in hot water again. Did that firm make you and me pay for strippers and prostitutes? Tax money for strippers and prostitutes.

Also, there are smash-and-grabs and then there's just smash-and- smash. Why is he doing this? We are going to get to the bottom of that as well.

And stay right here, because as we get more information on this situation with the weather -- boy, last week, it was the Northeast. Now it is the Southeast. We will take you through it, folks.

As we go to break, I want to show you something. This is Birmingham, Alabama. Yes, in Birmingham, Alabama, the snow is falling, and will continue to do so for quite some time. We will take you through it. This is THE LIST. I'm Rick Sanchez. We are scrolling on. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Some pictures I want to show you.

First of all, let me show you Birmingham. Let me show you Atlanta. Let me show you parts of San Antonio, Texas. Folks, this is not the Midwest. It is not the Northeast. It's part of the south that I am talking about. We are going to be staying with these picture just to share some numbers with you.

Alabama, here's what we just learned. Road conditions could be very, very dangerous. And they are expecting power outages in Alabama.

If you are watching us in Alabama, if you're watching us from Georgia, if you're watching us from Texas or Louisiana, parts of the Florida Panhandle, parts of South Carolina, you are going to be affected by this not to mention the other places we are going to be touching on as well that have been touched by this weather system or last week's weather system in parts of Baltimore and Philly and New York and Washington, D.C.

So, we are going to take you through this as best we can, because we know it is Friday. We know we are going into a vacation week, and we know that many of you are on winter break with your kids, and you are hoping to be able to get out of Dodge. This is Dallas, Texas. This is the very latest pictures coming in there from the airport.

And, as you can see -- we learned a little while ago, by the way, in Dallas, that they are going to be able to start moving some planes in and out, more so than yesterday, by the way. It's going to be a little different from what they were dealing with yesterday.

And, once again, this is what folks in Atlanta are having to deal with right now. They are being told, many of them, at offices in downtown Atlanta you can leave early because it is Friday. Hopefully, you will be able to beat the snow. Some were expecting it would not start this early.

Schools are all canceled throughout Atlanta and throughout most of Georgia and Alabama. And these are the folks trying to make their way home right now. Good luck to them.

Obviously, this is just the beginning. It is only 3:14 in the East. So, over the next hour and 45 minutes, as we get to 5:00, it can only get worse, and we will keep our fingers crossed that there are not a lot of road emergencies or accidents.

But, obviously, if anything happens out there, we will let you know where it is, so maybe you maneuver around it.

Here is what else we are going to bring for you in just a little bit. We did this story, and, since then, it has been everywhere, an update on a policy that seems to need changing. You see that girl who is having her head stomped on? You see that security guard right next to her? Why didn't he stop her? Why didn't he stop her from having, from kicking the little girl's head in? Where is the common sense in this story? We brought it to you. You responded.

And, since then, it's gone all over the place. We are giving you an update on that story.

Also, a preacher who is thrown out of a mall for talking about God. So, was it fair? Well, we are going to be talking First Amendment with Brian Walsh, who is good enough to join us on this day. Hopefully, he won't have to drive home in this weather.

Thank you, Mr. Walsh. We will be with you in just a moment. You stay there.

The LIST continues. I'm Rick Sanchez.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez.

We are following the weather for you. And, obviously, if anything happens in regards to the weather, I am going to stop and bring you that update, because there is a lot happening right now.

But there is some other news I want to share with you. Let me bring in our expert in the case. It is Brian Walsh. He's a senior legal fellow from the Heritage Foundation.

Mr. Walsh, are you doing OK, or are you -- is your wife going to get mad at you because you are not going to make it home? Where are you?

BRIAN WALSH, SENIOR LEGAL FELLOW, HERITAGE FOUNDATION: I'm in D.C.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Oh, you're OK.

WALSH: Yes, we are OK now. We're starting to get some good access on the roads, where they were pretty clogged up before.

SANCHEZ: Yes. You had it the last couple of days. Now we're getting it down here.

Listen, let me take you and our viewers through the story and let me them catch up. This is a story about a preacher. In 2006, he went to a shopping mall, and he decided that he wanted to talk to people about God, approached some of these folks at the mall. And somebody at a store told the security guards, I don't want him doing that. I don't want him talking to customers about God, because he is interrupting them. He's maybe being disruptive.

You with me?

WALSH: I am.

SANCHEZ: He is handcuffed, he's booked. Then he's released. Now, no charges were filed at the time. But he is coming forward now and suing the mall and saying, I have a right as an American to talk to anybody I want to about anything, and especially when it comes to religion, because the First Amendment of the United States says I have the right to assemble, I have the right to free speech, and I certainly have the right to practice my faith.

Is he wrong?

WALSH: Well, one of the benefits he has is that the California Constitution is even broader in the free speech rights that extends than the U.S. Constitution is. So, he is bringing this case under the California Constitution, and the California Supreme Court decided in 1979 that individuals do have free speech rights in shopping malls like this.

And the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that decision in 1980 in a unanimous decision.

SANCHEZ: So, he could win this thing? I mean, look, here is the bottom -- let's think through this common-sensibly, instead of getting too far afield or into the weeds as far as the law is concerned.

I think, if I own a business and a guy comes here in he starts screaming, I don't care what he is screaming about, whether it is God or he is mad at his wife or whatever. I can say, you know, that is disruptive and I'm trying to run a business here. A mall is a business.

WALSH: That's right.

SANCHEZ: It depends in many ways on what he is doing and how he is doing it, right?

WALSH: Absolutely. In fact, he has to be exercising his rights in a reasonable manner.

If he is harassing somebody, if he is doing anything that appears to be physically violent or even threatening, then that is a different situation than we have in this particular case.

SANCHEZ: So, what was in this -- tell us our viewers what we have. What was he doing?

WALSH: Well, you know, according to the reports, he was simply asking individuals if he could talk to them about God. And if they gave him their consent, then he went ahead spoke with them.

No one complained as far as the reports tell us. Yet, there was a store employee who thought that the people he was speaking with were uncomfortable, even though they had already given them their consent. And that store employee is the one who ended up getting him arrested and taken out of the mall.

SANCHEZ: Question to you. Does a store management have the right to make any damn rules it well pleases in regards to just about anything, because, after all, they are paying the bills there? And they don't want a guy to come in wearing yellow hats, for example. Can he do that?

WALSH: Well, I mean, it is bad policy. I mean, if you -- one of our first freedoms is the freedom to expression freedom to speech -- freedom of speech -- and then also the freedom of religion. And so to have a mall policy that this corporation has in 55 different malls, apparently, that you exclude this kind of speech unless you get a permit four days in advance, I think that is really bad policy.

There's far too many Americans who have religious beliefs and they want to be able to talk about their religious beliefs, just like they want to be able to talk about the weather with somebody who does not object to it. So, it is really bad policy.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: I certainly didn't mean to interrupt, sir, but taking it back to what you just said, I heard you say the words about four days in advance.

So, a person who wants to go to the mall and talk about any one specific subject and approach people and say, by the way, I represent this, or I believe in God, and would you be willing to sit down and talk to me about my faith and how much I love Jesus, or, for that matter, Allah or whatever I want to talk about, they have to file four days in advance?

WALSH: Right. That's my understanding, four days in advance.

And it's only on the issues of politics or religion. So, if somebody wants to walk in and say, you know, I'm really happy about the health care bill that President Obama is pushing or somebody wants to say I am really unhappy about it, they would have to get a permit four days in advance.

SANCHEZ: OK.

So, the key is here, and where you believe he has a strong case is, he was talking to people about God, which is guaranteed in the First Amendment of our Bill of Rights.

WALSH: Yes, it is. Again, it is a really bad policy. I think Americans should be upset about it. It is not the type of thing that we -- you know, it would be one thing if he was preaching, as you said, or if he's using a megaphone.

SANCHEZ: Right, proselytizing in the corner. You are right.

WALSH: Exactly. But just to talk to another adult who is willing to be spoken to, and then say that that somehow violates the mall owner's rights or somehow that that is offensive, it really -- we have a pluralistic society.

And one of the things we have to recognize is that people are going to sometimes speak to us about things we would rather they didn't speak to us about. We can say yes or we can say no. If we say yes, and they listen to us, then mall owners should not be coming in and saying, well, let's have this fellow arrested because that violates our policy. I think it's a bad idea.

SANCHEZ: Brian Walsh with the Heritage Foundation, you're good.

WALSH: Thank you. Thanks, Rick.

SANCHEZ: Thanks so much for taking us through that, very clear, very even-keeled explanation. We thank you.

WALSH: Appreciate your time. Thanks, Rick.

SANCHEZ: All right. We're going to -- Brian and I were just kidding about this a little while ago. Have you seen what is going on outside?

Let me show you. Parts of the Southeast are getting snow. Yes. No, not just snow. They're getting a lot of snow. Where is this, guys? Tell me in my ear. What? Montgomery, Alabama? Oh, sorry. Birmingham, Alabama. There you go.

And, no, they don't get snow there all the time. I mean, and now we go to Montgomery. Good lord. Look at that. This is the South, the Deep South, no less. And we are going be on it for you, no matter where you are watching and no matter how you are affected. We are going to bring you travel delays, information.

And here's the latest pictures coming out of Atlanta right now. This is the commute home. I believe that is I-75.

Angie, am I right? Oh, I-85 South. That is the one I'm going to be on in a couple of hours. Keep an eye on that one for me, Rog.

We will have it for you, folks, all the updates.

Meanwhile, this story. Did Prince Andrew run down an officer outside Buckingham Palace? That story is coming up in our next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: What is it, maybe 90 percent of the country that is being affected by this weather system in some way, or a weather system that has come through in the last couple of weeks?

Chad Myers joining me now just to do a quick catch-up.

Where is this thing? Where is it going? How bad is it going to get?

MYERS: It is going through Atlanta now, Birmingham, Montgomery, kind of on up into Asheville.

SANCHEZ: Right.

MYERS: It has been in Dallas. It has been in Shreveport. It has been in Greenville and Jackson. A lot of that melted today.

To the west, where you see the rain and the snow moving away, well, it melted today, but it's going to refreeze tonight. Everywhere are going to be icy spots that you don't have icy spots now. Atlanta turns to a sheet of ice after dark tonight. I know it doesn't seem like the sun is hitting the ground, but some of the energy is getting through the cloud cover and keeping the ground warm. As soon as that sunshine goes away...

SANCHEZ: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. So, what you are saying is, this thing is actually more dangerous in three or four hours?

MYERS: Absolutely.

SANCHEZ: Really?

MYERS: No question about it, yes.

SANCHEZ: It is not when the snow falls; it's what happens to the snow after it falls?

MYERS: Not in Atlanta, because we were 37 this afternoon.

SANCHEZ: Right.

MYERS: So, the ground warmed to 37. It is snowing now and getting the ground wet.

SANCHEZ: Right.

MYERS: And as cars roll over it, it keeps it wet. When the temperature goes to 29, 28, 27, and it's still snowing, there is not -- we don't have salt trucks.

SANCHEZ: Right.

MYERS: That is our problem. You don't see anything flashing by.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Nor do they have them in Birmingham or in Montgomery or in parts in Louisiana or in many of these places along the South.

MYERS: Here is from the Convention Center. You can see what looks wet right now will without salt and without any kind of a brine solution on there will turn to ice as soon as the sun sets. That's in about two-and-a-half, three hours.

SANCHEZ: And I'm going to check with Don in just a little bit as well.

What did you say, Rog? Where is this?

MYERS: Montgomery.

SANCHEZ: This is Montgomery. All right.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Montgomery looks like it has gotten nailed. MYERS: Yes, snow on top of the buildings. Even about 30 miles north of Mobile got snow today.

SANCHEZ: See what I mean? You win the national championship and it does not matter. You still get hit with snow. Tuscaloosa, baby.

MYERS: I have a Tuscaloosa wide cam. Take an iReport and send it to me.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: By the way, I love Tuscaloosa. That's a great place, especially if you like golf.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Let me just ask you one more thing before I let you go.

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: ... trail?

SANCHEZ: Exactly.

Let me ask you one more thing before I let you go. The airplane situation. Delta has apparently canceled something like 1,100 flights. It's only going to get worse as well, right, into the evening?

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: Yes, but they did something very wise. They canceled flights and moved people on to other flights weren't sold out. And so there are 75 planes on the way to Atlanta right now. There should be 150 planes in the air, so that means about every other plane is missing. And there you go. So, what does that say? Check in two hours...

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Delta Air Lines just sent out this tweet.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Look at this. Take a shot of this shot from Delta Air Lines, if you would. It's coming in off of our tweet board over here.

Delta wants you to know, through us, if you are impacted by weather and headed to the airport, please allow more time, recommended check-in time two hours now for domestic...

MYERS: Whoa.

SANCHEZ: ... three hours for international, as opposed to what it usually is, which is one and two.

MYERS: One and two, yes.

And I don't know why, unless some of the TSA guys can't get to work, people can't get to work. And so the lines are longer. Whatever. Irrelevant.

I don't think today is a great day to go and try to sit at the airport waiting for our flight.

SANCHEZ: So, there's a good chance, if you had to fly out today, it is going to be tomorrow, which it's going to push back some of the flights from tomorrow into maybe a few hours or whatever. We will see.

MYERS: And please be patient with the people who are on the phone trying to rebook you. They are overwhelmed. They are -- there are thousands of passengers trying to get on another 100 flights and they're all trying to pick up the phone as quickly as they can.

SANCHEZ: Well, that is a nice thing to say. You are right. Sometimes we don't think of that, but they are just doing their jobs, and they did not make it snow.

(LAUGHTER)

MYERS: That is right. They didn't make the mechanical, it is the weather.

SANCHEZ: Somebody else did. Thanks, appreciate it.

Let me tell you about a guy who is at his best lying flat on his back traveling at 90 miles an hour. He is brave, but a little crazy. He is today's "Most Intriguing."

You ride a sled for fun, right? Well, this guy rides a sled for a living and he is damned good at it, too. From Muskegon, Michigan, this most intriguing person will carry the stars and stripes into the Vancouver Olympic stadium tonight when team USA marches into the game's opening ceremonies.

This is a big deal. The L.A. Times says this about the honor, "It is reserved for the athlete who has persevered through hardship or shown extreme dedication." That is fitting. He has been in five winter games. He has a Silver from salt lake city, a bronze from Nagano, and he is smelling gold in Vancouver. He has more international medals than any American in his chosen discipline, the luge.

Don't blink, you'll miss him. He is fast. He is Mark Grimmette, elder statesman of team USA, and we are proud of him. He carries the flag tonight. You were going the say?

MYERS: I am very proud for folically-challenged men to still be in the Olympics.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: He is today's "Most Intriguing."

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: It is bus versus train, as a bus blows right through an intersection, and wham! That story is coming up in a little bit.

Also, you can join us for the national conversation whenever you visit Atlanta. Just call 1-877-4CNN-tour and Chad will personally entertain you and show you his maps.

MYERS: I can juggle.

SANCHEZ: We will be right back. This is "The List," and we are scrolling on on a really cold Friday afternoon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back, I'm Rick Sanchez. With all of the weather and all of the accidents that we have shown you this week, you would think that it was weather that caused just about all of them, right? Not in one case. Here's "Fotos."

It was not, not snowing in Houston when a bus blew through an intersection and knocked a light rail train off of its tracks. Here is the moment of impact as it happened, captured by a surveillance camera. Bang. Yes. And here is another angle I am going to show you. This is from the train's left side. Ready? Yes. Bang.

That is where you see the train derail and veer off to the left. You see the passengers reacting accordingly. There are the pictures once again. Luckily, there were no serious injuries.

To Lilburn, Georgia, now for a smashup of an entirely different type. This guy goes up a row of television sets at Wal-Mart, bashing them one after another. Apparently, he took a bat from the sporting goods section at the Wal-Mart, strolled over to electronics and he just went to town.

He is now charged with 29 counts of property damage for each of the 29 units that he destroyed. The grand total of damages is $22,000. He started smashing TVs while they were on.

By the way, what was on the TVs? FOX News. Just kidding.

OK. You have heard of a mountain bike, right? Now, look at this. This is a mountain of bikes. It is actually a van covered with bikes, probably about 100 of them. Why?

Well, we called and we found out. Thanks to Reid Pinion, the guy who owns this van, he found out, says that he looks for discarded bikes and sometimes buys them cheap at thrift stores and then he piles them on top of his van, and he says he does it as a form of therapy. What will he pile up next, discarded refrigerators? That is heavy. All right, as I have been telling you, the weather doesn't seem to be letting up on this holiday weekend. Delta has canceled more than 1,000 flights already, possibly more on the way, and that is just Delta, folks. They are not the only airline out there, they just happen to be the biggest one in the southeast.

We're keeping a journal of all of the information and keeping tabs on all of the latest at the airlines and the roads for you, and we are going to have it for you throughout the next couple of hours. We'll get you through it for person you are waiting for.

Jaycee Dugard kept a journal, did you know it? That's while she was kept for 18 years, imprisoned, kidnapped at the age of 11, and her kidnapped fathered two children with her.

This diary comes out what she was writing while she was in that situation. It is going to, I think. shock you to hear what she says about him -- almost protective. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is heart health month and time to cut through the clutter about what is good for your heart. The biggest key says registered dietitian Page Love is reducing the levels of inflammatory compounds in the body.

PAGE LOVE, REGISTERED DIETICIAN: Inflammation is the body's response when disease is cultivating, and often there are foods that can help to do the opposite of that in the body.

GUPTA: So what are these super foods?

LOVE: Eating red helps to decrease inflammation. For example, cherries, particularly tart cherries and red grapes and tomatoes.

GUPTA: Blue berries and strawberries also top the list, as do leafy greens like spinach and even oatmeal.

LOVE: There is quite a bit of evidence showing that the fiber in oatmeal helps to lower cholesterol, so it is kind of a disease- fighting breakfast food.

GUPTA: If you are looking for a good snack food, try a can of nuts.

LOVE: Nuts are a good protein source, a good healthy vegetable fat source.

GUPTA: Avocados are also full of healthy, unsaturated fats that can help boost good cholesterol. Oily fish like salmon are rich in cholesterol-lowering omega 3s which can help lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of clotting.

Then of course is everybody's favorite, chocolate. KATHERINE TALLMADGE, NUTRITIONIST, AMERICAN DIETETIC ASSOCIATION: The cocoa is full of compounds called flavinols and produce a lot of benefits like relaxing blood vessels, reducing blood clotting, improving blood flow.

GUPTA: OK, but despite the benefits of chowing down on chocolate.

TALLMADGE: Keep sweets or extra food to about 10 percent of your calories per day.

GUPTA: So here is to your heart health. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: All right. Welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez. This is "RICK'S LIST." I told you we would keep tabs on what is going on outside. Folks, it's ugly. If you are trying to make your way home in many of the cities across the southeast or if you're locked in places like Washington where they are still trying to clean up the streets or Philly, well, you know what this is like.

But here is the other part of the problem, this, on this particular day, because it's Friday and because people are getting ready for a holiday weekend and because it's winter break week for many kids in schools across the country and in the south, it's really creating a problem not only on the roads, as we have been showing you, but also at the airport.

Let's get a quick update as we move along here from Don Lemon. He's handling things for us over there at the pit. Don, last time we checked, we were either at or over 1,000 as far as flights that are canceled. That is just by Delta Airlines.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: It is 1,100, so far, and Karen is working on here, 1,100 from Delta, and 33 we are hearing from Air-Tran, 1,100 from Delta, and you are working on more and making calls to the other airlines.

And real quickly, I want to tell you -- Rick, I am not sure if you reported on this, because I was trying to get information on the roads here. You said there was a mother?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In Montgomery, Alabama, there was apparently a mother and two children driving on the road and they apparently slid off of the road into a pond. One of the children unfortunately did not make it. So state patrol was responding to that scene.

And apparently, the snow is moving through that area, so it is starting to clear out there.

LEMON: Hey, Rick, that is what you said, families would be, what is this weekend they are getting together? SANCHEZ: It's winter break. It is when the kids get a week off of school in the middle of the winter and the school systems allow them to do that. Not all school systems, but many of them.

LEMON: You have that going on, and you know about it. And so you have to be careful out there, and that is the reason we are bringing this to you, because we want you to be safe. So Rick, I will check on more flights and more situations.

SANCHEZ: Just tell me once again, if you could reiterate, where did that accident happen? Outside of Montgomery?

LEMON: Do you know exactly where it is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't know exactly, but it was outside of Montgomery.

LEMON: Next time you come to us, Rick, we will tell you or I'll have the producers feed it to you in the ear.

SANCHEZ: Chad, I want to ask you about information that we almost expected unfortunately, the very first serious accident on one of the roads. We're looking at the map there -- pardon me, not the map, but the picture of what Montgomery looks like right now. That is a live picture outside of Montgomery.

You heard of this accident, Chad. Why would the driving conditions there be especially bad?

MYERS: Well, the snow came down at such a pace for a while that almost like hydroplaning, you were snow-planing there. You do your best to slow down and try to make things be good for yourself, but as you start to brake, especially with non-anti-locking braking systems, it can be a treacherous mess.

This is the map on one of my cameras now. This is the map of Atlanta, Georgia, showing the traffic. And if you can see what is kind of magenta there, all of those roads are five miles per hour or less.

SANCHEZ: Whoa!

MYERS: That is everywhere across the city.

SANCHEZ: Five miles --

MYERS: Including your commute and my non-commute.

SANCHEZ: Thank you, thank you for sharing, as they say.

LEMON: Rick, I want to tell you I have more information for you on that. It says, Rick --

SANCHEZ: Oh, the accident in Montgomery. Go ahead.

LEMON: Yes. This is from Steve Jarrett out of Montgomery offices and gave this report here. It says a car slid into a pond off of Alabama state route 110 near Bullet Road, and again, three people in the car, a mother and two children and one child did not make it, died at the scene, the coroner is there, Alabama state patrol trying to determine whether or not it is weather related.

Every troop in the division working on the highways as people are headed home and they have more accidents.

SANCHEZ: Thanks guys, sorry to hear that, a child perishes just outside Montgomery, Alabama.

We told you about this yesterday, and now people can't get enough of why did these security officials watch as a 15-year-old gets her head stomped on. Policy? Really? That story is next.

Also why was Alec Baldwin in the hospital yesterday? And then what happened when he got home? We will tell you about that one as well. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We have breaking news coming in now from Vancouver, Canada. The Olympics are being held there and tonight are the opening ceremonies. And just while ago we watched some video of one of the athletes who was either practice org performing during the luge, and he -- well, he died. He lost his life.

Let's go to Mark McKay standing by there. What do you have, Mark? What is the latest on the story?

MARK MCKAY, REPORTER: Rick, we understand that "The New York Times" is reporting that a men's luge competitor from the Republic of Georgia, 12-year-old Nodar Kumaritashvili, died of the injuries he suffered from a crash during training for the men's luge competition at the whistler sliding center.

The Olympian lost control, Rick, of the sled near the finish line. He lost control and flew from his sled and hit an unpadded steel pole near the finish line.

Rick, there has been concern about the speed of the track, and many of the Olympians leading up to the training run said this is the fastest track in the world, and according to "The New York Times," this 21-year-old Olympian has died of the injuries. CPR, was administered on the Olympian after the accident, and he to the hospital.

The International Olympic Committee has not issued a statement. They are expected to hold a news conference, Rick, in the next 45 minutes.

SANCHEZ: It's incredible. I saw the video just a little while ago. They shared it with us before we went on air. If we have a way of -- well, I don't even know if you need to see it, folks. It's pretty serious, and it is almost obvious just how serious it was as you watched it. And it was just as mark described it moments ago. Our condolences to him, his family, and everyone there. Thank you, Mark, for that report.

A ton of you are reacting to an astonishing piece of video that we played for you yesterday. This is a video that shows security guards at a bus station. Let me show it to you. You're going to see what I'm talking about. It's pretty amazing.

There's a girl that you're going to do so in a black top, hitting a girl from a brown top. Some kids are fighting. It happens from time to time, right?

But then it gets particularly vicious, and the girl in the black top actually starts kicking the other girl in the head. Watch. See those guys in the security uniforms? See them in the yellow vests? The girl is kicking her in the head, and he does nothing except call somebody else to come there.

The decent thing you would think to do, just from a human being standpoint, from a common-sense standpoint, is not to sit there and watch that. I don't care if you're wearing a uniform or not, just if you're an adult and you see kids fighting, shouldn't you break it up?

Well, he didn't, and the reason he didn't is because they have a policy there in Seattle where they're not supposed to even engage in situations like this.

So I want you to see as this story develops what I was told yesterday by one of the officials, not of these particular security guards, but of security and police in that area in general.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. JOHN URQUHART, KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON, SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Their job down there is to observe and report. And that's exactly what they did. Now, as a father of two daughters, as a matter of fact, I am as outraged as you are that they or somebody else on that bus platform at 7:00 at night didn't step in and do something.

SANCHEZ: Is that a good policy?

URQUHART: There's plenty of outrage out there.

SANCHEZ: Is it a good policy though, to have two guys in uniform watching a 15-year-old girl getting her head bashed in and do nothing?

URQUHART: Well, obviously, no, that's not a good policy from any viewpoint. And what metro transit is doing now is figuring out how do we fix this police and make this better and make sure that this doesn't happen again? That's what going on now, and they've really stepped up to the plate, I think, very, very quickly to figure this out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Unbelievable. Obviously, we're going to stay on top of this story. There is an update already. Police officers are now going to be stationed at each bus terminal until this policy has been reviewed. Duh. And they can somehow intervene if anything like this were to ever happen again.

If you want to see the full interview, just go to our Web site at CNN.com/RickSanchez. You'll see the whole thing. By the way, it was the number one most viewed segment on CNN.com yesterday after we did that, and it was picked up by several other networks. We'll stay on top of it and bring you any updates.

By the way, an American Muslim group is saying they won't participate in body scans because they are ungodly. What? That story is in our next hour.

And then here's Suzanne once again. It's funny, just this week we were talking about a Blackwater story and we have another one now. Apparently this time it has to do with prostitutes and --

SUZANNE SIMONS, CNN EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Morale, welfare, recreation.

SANCHEZ: Strippers?

SIMONS: Something like that.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: So to speak. We'll have that for you. Stay right there. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Listen to this. It's about Blackwater. Yes, they're back in the news again, Blackwater in hot water.

Two employees have filed a lawsuit claiming fraud, and you're not going to believe what they allege that the company was doing. They say they were billing taxpayers for, well, things that involved, what did you call it, Suzanne?

SIMONS: Morale, welfare, recreation.

SANCHEZ: Suzanne Simons, as you know, wrote the book on Blackwater literally. She is here to take us through this story. As I read this story, it had something to do with prostitutes and maybe strippers?

SIMONS: Part of it, yes. What this was is a case brought by two former employees back in December of 2008, but it's only been unsealed this month.

SANCHEZ: Which alleges what?

SIMONS: Alleges prostitution services for a woman who was brought in to --

SANCHEZ: For these contractors.

SIMONS: Yes, working in Afghanistan --

SANCHEZ: In Iraq? Or in Afghanistan?

SIMONS: Stripper, there are all sorts of allegations in the case.

SANCHEZ: And the key is the government, in other words, me, you and all the other taxpayers were paying for it.

SIMONS: You didn't know that, did you? It might not be true --

SANCHEZ: I didn't know that, nor does it please me. This is a constant problem with these contractors. We should remind people Blackwater doesn't really exist anymore, but many of the same personnel are still out there.

SIMONS: But let's be fair. Let's just say what the company had to say. They did say something about this, which is they haven't been out there in the media very much saying anything since a big report in November. But "The allegations are without merit and the company will vigorously defend against the lawsuit."

It is noteworthy the government has declined to intervene in this action, but they do have a way of drawing those very nasty headlines.

SANCHEZ: Unbelievable. We'll take them at their work and we'll continue to follow the story, and we thank you, as usual, for bringing us up to date on this.

SIMONS: Pleasure.

SANCHEZ: Jaycee Dugard was held captive for 18 years -- what a story this was. She was kidnapped when she was only 11 years old. Her captor kept her in the backyard in like a little mini-prison, if you will, fathered two children with her.

And now, for the first time ever, we're actually hearing what she wrote about him and her experience in her diary. It's the first time we've learned anything from her perspective on what those 18 years were like. You're not going to believe some of the things she writes. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)