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Winter Storms in California; New Bipartisan Senate TikTok Bill; Future of Flying Cars; New Guinness World Record for Largest Four-Leaf Clover Collection. Aired 4-4:10a ET

Aired March 08, 2023 - 04:00   ET

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

COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Hope you`re off to a great day so far. I`m Coy Wire. This is CNN 10, and it`s #yourword Wednesday. So,

follow me at Coy Wire on Insta, Snapchat, and TikTok, and put your challenge words in the comments section of my most recent post. And we`ll

try to work one, fun one into tomorrow`s show.

Now, we start today with the back-to-back winter storms in California`s mountain communities that have trapped people in their homes with intense

snow for nearly two weeks. Now, the Sierra Nevada region already saw 38 inches over a 24 hour period, and now there`s another round of snow headed

that way. And many people in the San Bernardino Mountains are getting desperate, unable to leave their homes as their food and medicine supplies

are starting to run out.

Driveways are blocked. Cars are buried under piles of snow as high as a second story window. But even if they could leave, many businesses,

including grocery stores, have been forced to close.

Let`s hear now from CNN National Correspondent Camila Bernal, who`s in California as the state braces for even more snow and people grow even more

concerned.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Residents here are still frustrated and so upset just because of how long this entire process is taking. There are

people here that have been at their homes for more than 10 days without being able to leave, without access to food, a grocery store, a pharmacy.

Here behind me is the only grocery store in town. And the roof collapsed because there was so much snow accumulated at the top of the grocery store

that it no longer is open. And so people have to rely on donations.

This community is coming together. As you can see here behind me, they brought firewood. And the problem is that I talked to other people who have

told me, look, I can`t even turn on my fireplace because there is so much snow. So, the ones that can, they are here trying to get anything they can

to make their lives a little bit easier.

I`ve talked to people who are stuck higher up in the mountains who tell me look, I cannot even make it to the places where they`re giving out these

donations. And so that frustration just accumulates day after day after day. Authority is saying they are making progress. They say that so far,

they`ve been able to essentially clear about 85% of the roads in this area.

The problem is there`s a lot of side streets that are still blocked off because of the snow and many of the residents telling me that that is why

they can`t leave their homes. They`re wanting for this entire process to move a little bit faster. But as of now, authorities are saying that they

have to wait.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: Up Next TikTok could soon be banned in the United States along with other social media apps deemed as security threats by lawmakers, both

Republicans and Democrats have united and voiced their concerns about foreign owned apps like TikTok. And on Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence

Committee unveiled a bipartisan Senate bill that would give President Biden the ability to ban them.

Politicians and cybersecurity experts have said that foreign technology coming into America, if not regulated, could be used to spy on Americans or

take data from them. Or it could be used as a tool to promote certain ideologies. In other words, it could be used to program our minds.

CNN Technology Reporter Brian Fung tells us about the potential impact of this bill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN FUNG, CNN TECHNOLOGY REPORTER: This bill could lead to a national ban of TikTok. And it`s important to point out here that this legislation

is still in its very early stages, but the -- it would give the authority to the Commerce Department to take steps including up to and including a

ban of TikTok.

The bill doesn`t specifically target TikTok, but rather kind of talks about an overall category of technologies that might be deemed to be national

security risks, whether that`s TikTok or Huawei or other companies that might raise national security concerns.

The whole intent behind this bill, according to Senator Warner, is to prevent a so-called whackable situation where the government has to come up

with new legal authorities or new bills designed to target individual companies. And this would just give them, you know, a bigger, more flexible

tool.

TikTok has acknowledged that the trust issue with policymakers is real and that it`s going to take time to address that. And it`s also said that the

ultimate goal is to have U.S. user data only be accessible by TikTok`s U.S. employees.

Now, TikTok`s CEO spoke yesterday at a Harvard Business Review conference, and here`s a little bit more of what he said.

SHOU ZAPORIZHZHIA CHEW, TIKTOK CEO: I think the first thing I would say is that we take these concerns extremely seriously. The Chinese government has

actually never asked us for U.S. user data. And we`ve said this on the record, that even if we were asked for that, we will not provide that.

FUNG: Now, we`re seeing here that TikTok CEO is saying, look, it`s going to take time to, you know, gain trust with policymakers. We`re taking these

voluntary steps to improve our security and safeguards.

But on the other hand, you have lawmakers like Senator Warner who say, you know, we need action right now. And so, what we`re seeing here is this

mismatch, this contrast between TikTok on the one hand, you know, saying, let`s take some time here, and lawmakers who want to really take some

action right this moment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: Ten-second Trivia. What TV cartoon premiered in 1962 and featured a futuristic family traveling in flying cars? The Flintstones, The

Jeffersons, The Jetsons, or the Brady Bunch?

Said to have been set 100 years after its premiere, The Jetsons featured a high-tech family flying in the year 2062.

Shows like The Jetsons or movies like Back to the Future make viewers ponder what technology might look like in the future. But here in the year

2023, we`re less than 40 years away from that imagined future of The Jetsons.

And at the rate technology advances these days, futuristic worlds actually seem to be just around the corner. So how far away are we from being able

to zip up and over traffic jam streets? From being able to hover around a city from rooftop to rooftop? We`ll hear from a tech expert who tells us

what`s holding us back and what such a futuristic city of travel might look like.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY WHITE, TECH WRITER, SPEAKER AND CONSULTANT: We`ve been chasing the stream of flying cars since The Jetsons. And Sci-fi has led us to believe

that we`re going to be having these vehicles, but it`s really not the case.

eVTOL stands for Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing. It is a vehicle, electrically powered, that can lift off the ground vertically, then go

forwards to a certain destination, and then land vertically as well.

And there are a number of companies at advanced stages of creating these vehicles, but we`re somewhere away yet. There are a number of ways that

these eVTOLs could be piloted. Most of the ways at the moment seem to be focusing on having an actual pilot, a human, at the helm. So, they have to

be certified. They have to be made legal. They have to obviously have the regulations and how they would fly, where they would fly, who`s going to be

in charge, who`s going to be responsible, whether the vehicles are going to be safe or not. And this is what`s holding these vehicles back.

It`s an interesting question, talking about how eVTOLs will fit into the cityscape, because cities are already very crowded, and so where will you

use them? Most people right now are saying they`re going to operate as a taxi service. So going from existing heliports and then off to heliport,

say, at the airport, so utilizing the existing infrastructure in cities in order to make these things work.

So, there you`ve got some pinch points too, because those infrastructure points are already being used by helicopters and other aircraft. And so

you`ve got to actually fit in with those. You`ve got to fit in with their flight plans, and also then you`ve got to work out how to charge them. And

no one`s got to that point yet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: All right, we are just over a week away from St. Patrick`s Day, so today`s 10 out of 10 story is very fitting. A woman from Wisconsin might be

the luckiest person in the world, setting the new Guinness World Record for the largest collection of four-leaf clovers. Gabriella Gerhardt started

hunting four leaf clovers all the way back in the year 2010. She now has more than 119,000 of them, that`s 7000 more than the previous record FYI.

Now, learning about this story got me thinking. What`s so lucky about this leaf? According to Celtic tradition, four-leaf clovers have magical powers

of protection and are able to ward off evil and bad luck. But it`s not clear to historians where the idea began.

OK, remember to send all those #yourword Wednesday submissions had so many good ones last time. We want to give a special shout out to Laconia Middle

School in Laconia, New Hampshire, rise up and thanks for subscribing to our CNN 10 YouTube Channel.

Also today, March 8, is International Women`s Day. So special shout out to all the inspiring, uplifting and awesome women in our lives. Much love and

many blessings. I`m Coy Wire and we are CNN 10.

END