Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Winter Storm in New England; Vatican Has More Revelations; Sequester to Kick In March 1

Aired February 23, 2013 - 09:00   ET

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

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Victor Blackwell. Randi Kaye is off this morning. It's 9:00 in the East, 6:00 out West. Good of you to start your day with us.

It's another good weekend for people in New England to stock up on hot chocolate and stay inside, because a winter storm is bringing a third straight weekend of snow, as much as a foot in some places, maybe more. The Midwest is already seeing the worst of it, like in Gladstone, Missouri.

Look at this. Heavy snow collapsed the dance studio school roof here. Fortunately, no one was injured. Chicago now, where fewer than three inches was enough to tie up traffic. See that car on the right side of the screen slide out. It happened yesterday.

Now to Iowa, slick roads led to a multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 80. Fortunately, no one was hurt here.

Meteorologist Karen Maginnis is tracking the storm for us. And three weekends in a row, bad news for New England.

KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and here comes another round as you just mentioned. The timing of this is going to be very interesting, but it's not going to be quite that big slam of snow that we saw just about two weeks ago. But here it is.

Area of low pressure develops off the mid-Atlantic coast. The timing on this is going to be critical. Now I took a look at just about every computer model that you can think of. And they all say different things. But pretty much we're closing in on that two to four inches, right around Boston. But it could start out as maybe a rain/snow mix or maybe an icy mix.

As you go into interior sections of New England, that's where it's going to be the heaviest snowfall. We certainly think the higher terrain could see six, eight, possibly 10 inches of snow. But even then, as the storm system starts to make its way out, further out into the Atlantic, towards the east, on the back side of that, some breezy conditions and some additional snowfall going into Sunday afternoon.

Where is the snow expected to start? Well, right around Boston. You'll see some, you know, hints of it into the afternoon. But by about 5:00 or 6:00, I think the snowfall is going to start accumulating at that time. As I mentioned, I don't think it will be like what you saw two weeks ago. Here's a view across the northeast and New England. And, wow, did this system that we saw across the central plains eventually move up towards the Great Lakes. It walloped the central U.S..

Take a look at this I-report from Amanda Laviana. Yes, she and her co- workers said they thought it was an earthquake. They didn't quite know what to do. It was a thunderous roar. She went outside and filmed all of this snow falling off of her building in clumps. And, Victor, I would say that's not a wise idea, but fascinating pictures to look at nonetheless.

BLACKWELL: And that was just the tail end of it, right?

MAGINNIS: Right. Exactly. Some of the areas though in Kansas did see about 22 inches in Wichita. They saw right around eight to 12 depending on which location you looked at.

BLACKWELL: Well, it's a good thing no one was out in the streets. Karen, thank you.

A skier is dead after an avalanche hit near the Rebel Stone Mountain Resort in British Columbia. Two other skiers were also buried by this avalanche but they were rescued by members of their group. There is now a search team that claims to go out today to bring that body home.

Now to Lance Armstrong. The government is getting involved in his case. The Department of Justice is now joining a lawsuit against Armstrong. It stems from his admission that he used performance- enhancing drugs. You see when he won all those Tour De France titles, he was riding for the U.S. Postal Service Team, and the team was partially funded with money from the federal government. Now the government wants some of that money back.

This fiery crash on the Las Vegas strip has police looking all across the country for the occupants of a black Range Rover. Someone in the Range Rover started shooting at a passing Maserati. This was Thursday. Then the Maserati slammed into a taxi. The taxi burst into flames. The taxi driver, the taxi passenger and the driver of the Maserati, an inspiring rapper, all died.

Microsoft is trying to figure out how it got hacked. The tech giant says some of its computers, including some in its business unit, were infected with malicious software known as Malware but it insists no customer data was taken. Microsoft is just the latest big name company to get hacked. Cyber attackers also targeted Apple and Facebook earlier this month.

The Vatican is pushing back against a report that has really stunned Catholics. An Italian newspaper says Pope Benedict XVI decided to resign the same day he saw a bombshell report on an underground network of gay priests. Senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman joins me from Rome.

Ben, the Vatican is clearly angry, really strongly worded response suggesting this is an attempt to influence cardinals who will choose the next pope. Where did the story come from?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Basically, it comes from reports in two Italian publications, "La Republica," which is a daily newspaper and "Panorama," a weekly magazine, suggesting or alleging that the Pope on the 17th of December was given a 300-page red bound docier which documented these reports of a network of gay priests being blackmailed, according to these reports, by a network of male prostitutes in Rome.

As you said, the Vatican came out with a very strongly worded communique from its secretary of state, calling these reports unverifiable or completely false. On the 11th of February, Pope Benedict XVI said he was resigning because he simply didn't have the energy to carry out his duties. These reports in the Italian press - and they're really taking off at the moment - would, of course, argue otherwise -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: So, can we really trust this reporting? You say it's taking off. I really don't know much about those two publications, but how credible are they?

WEDEMAN: Well, these publications, "La Republica," for instance, one of the most widely read newspapers here in Italy. It's really going back to the whole Vati-leaks scandal when the Pope's personal butler apparently handed over hundreds and hundreds of confidential documents from the Pope's private office to an Italian journalist.

At this point it's very, very difficult to nail down whether there is some truth to these allegations or not. Going back just three years, there was, in fact, a scandal about gay priests in the Vatican who were documented, who were videotaped in some cases engaging in very - sort of acts that the Vatican looks down upon. But the specific allegations being made in these two publications are, at this point, very difficult to nail down. Victor?

BLACKWELL: It's interesting, Ben, that part of the response from the Vatican was this was published as an attempt to influence the conclave that chooses the next pope. How could that be? How could this influence that conclave?

WEDEMAN: Well, there's a suggestion that some of the cardinals who will participate in this conclave, 116 cardinals at this point, may be in some way involved in the allegations that are being put out in this alleged 300-page dossier and, therefore, their possible involvement may influence how they vote when the conclave eventually takes place. Victor?

BLACKWELL: All right. Ben Wedeman on this for us from Rome. Thank you.

Jodi Arias finally reveals her version of what happened the night she killed her ex-boyfriend. But now it's the prosecution's turn. And you can bet they're ready to pick her story apart. We'll tell you what's next in the trial of the accused murderer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Reports out of South Africa say that Oscar Pistorius is spending time at his uncle's house after being released on bail. The sprinter known as the Blade Runner can't return to his home as one of the conditions of that bail. Pistorius faces a pre-meditated murder charge in the killing of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. A magistrate freed Pistorius yesterday saying prosecutors have failed to prove he was a flight risk. Pistorius is due back in court June 4th.

Now back in the U.S., a dramatic week of testimony in the trial of accused killer, Jodi Arias. A Phoenix photographer took the stand, telling the court her version of what happened the night she shot and stabbed ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander.

HLN's Jean Casarez tells us what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEAN CASAREZ, "IN SESSION," HLN: We have only had one day of cross examination of Jodi Arias. So this next week is going to be the heart and the soul of the cross examination of Jodi Arias. The prosecutor in this case will question her about her killing of Travis Alexander. Will he go photo by photos, stab wound by stab wound, he will look at the forensics in the bathroom and try to show inconsistencies with what she said happened, with what the actuality is, the truth of the matter.

He will also ask her as she drove into the desert and she realized that she could not implicate herself, she had to lie to say she was not there. He'll probably go through the videotaped interrogations to show lie after lie after lie.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: That was Jean Casarez from our sister station, HLN.

Now the White House has agreed to hand over more e-mails and more intelligence reports related to the Benghazi attack. The move comes after Senate Republican threaten to hold up the nomination of John Brennan for CIA director, unless they got more info.

The GOP has criticized the Obama administration for a lack of transparency. Now White House officials say they've already turned over more than 10,000 pages of documents.

Staying in Washington, that's where White House and Congress are playing right now a high stakes game of chicken. They're fighting over these forced spending cuts set to go into effect March 1st, a few days away. But, really, the question is, do they effect you? What's the trickle down if there's no deal?

Well, CNN's chief business correspondent Ali Velshi takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Forced government spending cuts take effect March 1st. It's what Washington has been calling the sequester. It's a stupid name for a stupid thing.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These cuts are not smart. They are not fair. They will hurt our economy, they will add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls. This is not an abstraction. People will lose their jobs.

VELSHI: You heard the big numbers, $1.2 trillion in cuts over 10 years, 85 billion this year. That's 13 percent cuts to defense, nine percent to everything else.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER, HOUSE SPEAKER: We're weeks away from the president's sequester and the president laid out no plan to eliminate the sequester and the harmful test will come as a result.

VELSHI: The forced budget cuts were created during the 2011 debt ceiling debacle. They were passed by Congress and signed by the White House, a worst case scenario that would be so bad it would force lawmakers to make a deal.

Now it's become a poisoned pill that the nation may have to swallow, beginning March 1st. And if it happens, 70,000 children kicked off head start programs, putting more than 14,000 teaching and staff jobs at risk. Fewer inspections for things like horse meat in your burgers, cuts to mental health programs mean almost 400,000 seriously mentally ill people will go untreated.

Homeland Security drawdowns would result in longer wait times at airports and scaled back cyber security would mean more vulnerability to attacks from hackers in China and at home, threatening our infrastructure. Furloughs and layoffs would affect more than 800,000 workers in the defense industry at the same time that North Korea is testing a nuclear bomb. Cuts at the IRS would mean fewer tax return reviews and longer waits to get refunds.

And more than 100,000 people would be thrown out of emergency housing and out on to the streets. One way or another, everyone is going to feel this while Washington continues to play the blame game.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bottom line is very simple. Republicans have proposed devastating cuts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Washington and Democrats have gotten used to Republicans bailing them out of their own lack of responsibility.

VELSHI: Ali Velshi, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Apparently, social media is about more than what you're saying, or doing or thinking right now. You can also send the same types of messages after you've passed, after you've died. Companies are popping up now that will manage your accounts after you go. So you can say hello, happy birthday or happy anniversary from the grave. More than just a little bit creepy.

Did you ever wonder what it's like to work at CNN for Anderson Cooper? One of his producers is telling all in a hilarious new book. Just one of the secrets he reveals, Anderson's eyes, not really blue. Find out more next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLACKWELL: For author Jack Gray, a life in TV news is all he ever wanted. But as we know about childhood dreams, they're never without challenges. Opening his first book, Gray writes, "The meteorologist was ruining my newscast. She was cranky, unfocused and for a seasoned television personality, she spent a lot of time chewing on her barrette. Willard Scott would never pull this. It served me right for working with my eight-year-old sister."

It's that humor and wit that sets the tone for the new book "Pigeon in a Crosswalk: Tales of Anxiety and Accidental Glamour."

Author and CNN producer Jack Gray joins me now from Boston. Good to have you.

JACK GRAY, CNN PRODUCER: Good morning, Victor. Thanks.

BLACKWELL: Congratulations and I want to talk first about the title of this book. Why did you name this "Pigeon in a Crosswalk"?

GRAY: You know, it was one of those days where I was kind of feeling down in the dumps. I could barely be bothered to find my pants, not unlike this morning, frankly. And I was outside, crossing the street with my dog and there was a pigeon next to us, crossing in the crosswalk across the street like any other New Yorker. And for me, the kind of bar had been set that I needed to be at least as functional as that pigeon. So I kind of liked that idea for a title.

BLACKWELL: You know, there's one element I'm reading, excerpts of the book when you said, when you were asked, when you moved to Manhattan, what are you doing tonight? And you didn't want to say going home to watch "The Golden Girls" and cry. Who hasn't been there?

GRAY: Which is what I did last night, too. So some things never change.

BLACKWELL: Hey, they've got a lot of good episodes. So let's talk about one of the funny stories in the beginning of the book. You talk about this network that you have with your sister, BNN. What is this about?

GRAY: Yes, all right. We had BNN, which was Barnstead News Network, which is where my grandparents lived at the time. It was basically a VHS camcorder, my sister, myself. There was a lot of screaming, a lot of hair pulling, not unlike some of the TV newsrooms I've worked in since. Yes, that's kind of how I got my start. You know, here I am.

BLACKWELL: BNN and chewing on the barrette. Hey.

GRAY: Yes.

BLACKWELL: I've tweeted about this. And I know everybody wants to hear the Anderson Cooper story. So let's get to the passage about this. You say "Some days I still can't believe where I ended up working. To quote Anderson Cooper, "Anderson Cooper is a big deal. Though it's not as glamorous as people think. Nothing ever is. First of all, he hogs the helicopter. Second of all, the man has shown zero interest in picking up my dry cleaning." You add that his eyes aren't really blue.

GRAY: True.

BLACKWELL: Give us a good Anderson story.

GRAY: Oh, a good Anderson - well, first of all, all that that's in the book, I was not under the impression, as I've been saying, I was not sure celebrities knew how to read. (INAUDIBLE) what was in the book. But he is actually a great guy. He has been so encouraging to me over the years and just a really great friend and mentor. A good story, though, I'm trying to think. You know what? He once rescued me. I tipped over in a kayak at his house. Granted, it was in three feet of water. That's how pathetic I am, in a kayak. But he came in, pulled me right side up. His Blackberry was ruined but there you go, Anderson Cooper, superhero. So I don't know why he dyes his hair that color, but he's a heck of a guy.

BLACKWELL: Well, you can't miss him with the blue which you say is fake and the dyed hair. Whatever he's doing, it's working.

So, what's the lesson here for young professionals who are following their dream? A lot of humor but still a lesson here.

GRAY: I mean, I would say go for it. I mean you have to put in the time and the effort. But there are great jobs in TV news. There are great people in TV news who are willing to help you along and give you advice. You know, CNN is a great vending machine system. So there's a lot of things to look forward to if you stick with it. But, you know, hopefully the book will just make people laugh and give people some smiles over the weekend.

BLACKWELL: A little known fact, you can get sushi at the diner here in Atlanta and in New York. Jack Gray, thank you very much.

GRAY: I'm sure it's gourmet sushi, too.

BLACKWELL: It's close. Jack's new book "Pigeon in a Crosswalk" is on sale now. All right. Playing poker -

GRAY: Thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Certainly. Thank you.

Just got a whole lot easier and it has nothing to do with Vegas. Find out why the casino may become so last year. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Welcome back. Ready or not, New England is getting another dose of winter weather. Some areas could see up to a foot of snow. If you'll be on the road or in the air, you want to keep an eye on possible cancellations or closures. A lot of cities in the northeast will escape the worst of the snow, but it could still cause trouble.

Washington state governor says the public is in no immediate danger although nuclear waste is leaking there at its Hanford facility. Just days after waste was found leaking from one tank, five more tanks have been found leaking. Governor Jay Ensley (ph) says there is no immediate health risk but he does acknowledge it's disturbing.

You know, not even Microsoft is safe from hackers. It says hackers infected a small number of its computers with malicious software. It's investigating and it says there's no evidence customer data was stolen. The hackers also recently attacked Apple and Facebook.

Police are on an intense manhunt for the occupants of a Range Rover involved in a Las Vegas shooting. Shots fired from that car killed the driver of a Maserati, which then crashed into a taxi. The taxi driver and his occupant were both killed. It caused a major pile up on the Las Vegas trip. There were three other people injured.

Nevada is gambling on its future. The state has legalized online interstate gambling. Now it pushed through a bill through the joint committees and through both houses of the state legislature in less than four hours. Governor Ryan Sandoval signed the measure today - Thursday rather. And New Jersey's governor Chris Christie says he may sign a similar measure for his state next week.

Gay priests, blackmail and corruption at the Vatican. An Italian newspaper publishes a bombshell story just days before Catholic leaders choose a new pope. We'll have the very latest coming up in about 30 minutes from now.

Thanks for starting your morning with us. I'll see you back here at the top of the hour. "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" starts right now.