Return to Transcripts main page
Weekend Early Start
More Severe Weather Expected Today; Student Killed by Officer's Bullet; Digging Through Train Wreck Damage; Winning Powerball Ticket; Bleacher Report; Accused Cannes Shooter in Court Today
Aired May 19, 2013 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, this is EARLY START WEEKEND.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The intruder, Mr. Smith, has the last remaining female in a head lock and is taking her down the stairs with a gun pointed to her head.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Just a chilling account of a young student shot to death in a home invasion, but it was not the suspect who killed her. A very sad story. We're going to tell you how it all unfolded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DALTON THOMPSON, WITNESS: We heard screams behind us and he sort of pushed us out of the way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: An annual parade turns into a horror scene. We're learning more about why a driver plowed his car right into the crowd leaving as many as 60 injured.
And tornadoes, floods and baseball-size hail. There's a severe weather watch today. We're going to tell you what is ahead.
And, folks, we have a winner. The Powerball drawing is over now. The search for the millionaire has begun. We are tracking that winner down and we're going to tell you where the lucky ticket was sold.
It is Sunday, May 19th. Good morning, everyone, I'm Poppy Harlow. It is 6:00 on the East Coast. Thanks so much for starting your Sunday with us.
We start with that severe weather that we were telling you about. And this is what were -- we were warning you about it yesterday -- tornadoes. This one touching down in central Kansas, specifically in Rozel, Kansas. It destroyed a house. Luckily, though, no injuries reported.
Another storm system spawned a tornado in Alabama. That brought more rain to areas already dealing with flash flooding. Dozens of counties in Alabama were under warnings and watches throughout the day on Saturday.
Heavy rains, hail and a couple of tornadoes, unfortunately, that was a light day compared to what, frankly, we've been seeing and expecting lately, with as many as 20 million people in the path of more possible tornado activity. Let's bring in our Alexandra Steele, she's in the severe weather center here with me in Atlanta this morning.
So, a little bit better than what we've been seeing, but what can you tell us about the latest?
ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: All right. Well, certainly today it looks like a more widespread event, possibly. All the ingredients coming together. Yesterday about 14 reports of tornadoes, baseball-size hail, as you reported, Poppy. And here I'm kind of showing you where the tornadoes were reported from yesterday. Nebraska and Kansas predominantly. Right now there are no tornado watches or no tornado warnings, but that certainly should change. The biggest threat will be this afternoon and tonight.
So let me show you where we're seeing the radar now. And you certainly see a voracious line of storms. A few severe thunderstorm warnings out there, but, again, no tornado watches or warnings. But atmospherically, we're ripe for them to develop.
Today it looks like a bigger day than yesterday in terms of the breadth and depth of tornadoes. Why? Here are the ingredients. This jet stream dip, we need that advancing east. Check, we've got that. A well-defined frontal system. We've got the cold front, the warm front and this -- what's called the dry line, which is where we're seeing the convergence of these winds. Two different types of winds, warm and moist coming here from the southeast, hot and dry, and that's where along this line we'll see these fire up and that's what the expectation is later today and tonight.
Very large hail, baseball-size hail. Even larger, potentially. Strong tornadoes today. And here's that quadrant of concern. Twenty million people perhaps in the line of this between today and tomorrow. Kansas City, Wichita, down to Tulsa, Oklahoma City, as well. So here's today's threats. Sioux City, Des Moines getting into it, down again toward Oklahoma. And then as we head towards tomorrow, the threat pushes a little bit farther eastward. Not as big a worry, but tomorrow still is in that threat zone, bringing in Chicago, down towards St. Louis, Peoria, Illinois, as well.
So, Poppy, the big picture today, part of the country, severe storm potentially, but a lot of wet weather in the northeast, the southeast, even into the west. So a lot of wet weather happening around the country, but, again, the most severe through the Plains and the upper Midwest this afternoon and tonight.
HARLOW: Yes, look at that map. It is covered. We'll stay on top of it.
STEELE: Yes, not the best Sunday. HARLOW: No, not the best Sunday. We'll stay on top of it for our viewers. Alexandra, thank you.
STEELE: Sure.
HARLOW: Well, when Hofstra University students graduate today, many will be mourning one of their own. A classmate, junior Andrea Rebello was killed in her home early on Friday morning. Her death has led to a lot of questions about how police handled the dangerous situation that turned into a tragedy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW (voice-over): Authorities say it was a bullet fired from a police officer's gun that led to the death of Hofstra University student Andrea Rebello.
COMMISSIONER THOMAS DALE, NASSAU COUNTY POLICE: Let me start off by giving my most sincere and heartfelt condolences to the parents of Andrea and Jessica Rebello.
HARLOW: It happened early Friday morning during a home invasion robbery at an off campus house the 21-year-old shared with her twin sister and two others. Police went there after a 911 call from someone claiming the gunman had ordered them out of the house to get cash from an ATM. When police arrived, they say the suspect was holding a gun to Rebello's head.
LT. JOHN AZZATA, NASSAU COUNTY HOMICIDE SQUAD: The officer eventually fired eight rounds in total. Seven of those rounds struck our subject. One of those rounds struck the victim.
HARLOW: Police say Andrea Rebello was shot in the head and died. Also killed was the suspect, identified by police as 30-year-old Dalton Smith, who they say had an extensive rap sheet and was wanted for jumping parole.
Rebello was a junior at Hofstra University and was majoring in public relations. The news of her death is extremely hard for the people who knew her.
JOYANA ALEJANORO, FRIEND (ph): She was like really popular and like everybody loved her. She was sweet.
CAROL CONKLIN-SPILLANE, PRINCIPAL: What an all-around nice young woman she was and how she was looking forward to getting an education and going off to college and making something wonderful out of her life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: Absolutely. Just 21 years old. Our hearts are with her family and friends today. Hofstra University's president released the following statement saying, "a young member of the Hofstra family has been taken from us in a senseless act of violence. Our hearts and minds and our thoughts and prayers are with her family, her friends and her classmates."
Well, 10 people are in the hospital after a car plowed into a crowd at a parade for Appalachian trail hikers in Virginia. The car was taking part in the parade yesterday when the driver just lost control. Sixty people were hurt. None of those -- the injuries, though, do appear to be life threatening at this point. Police say that people pinned under the car had to wait for rescuers to free them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DALTON THOMPSON, WITNESS: We heard screams behind us and he sort of pushed us out of the way from it and we -- me and all of us, we all looked back and saw misery.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: A CNN affiliate report that a medical emergency caused the driver to lose control of the car. People had to chase after the car and leap inside to stop it.
Now, let's go to Connecticut, where a go team of federal investigators are pouring over the wreckage of two commuter trains. Those trains, you'll remember, collided during rush hour on Friday. The train line handles more than a 250,000 passengers every week day. This is going to cause some major headaches for commuters, also a lot of heartache for people injured in it. Our Susan Candiotti has more on the accident and the investigation.
Susan.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, foul play is the only thing the National Transportation Safety Board investigators are ruling out at this time. There is a world of possibilities for what caused this crash, but they did tell us they're paying special attention to one thing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Measuring tracks and twisted rails, climbing into and on top of damaged train cars. National Transportation Safety Board investigators are dissecting every possibility to find out what went wrong. For one thing, they're taking a closer look at a rail fracture below the New York to New Haven bound train that jumped the tracks before a second train plowed into it from the opposite direction.
EARL WEENER, NTSB BOARD MEMBER: It is of substantial interest to us. We'll be sending up a portion of that track back to the laboratory in Washington, D.C., for analysis.
CANDIOTTI: For Friday night commuters, it was a scare they'll never forget. Suddenly, a rocky ride, screeching brakes and a violent impact.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone was just kind of flying around the car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was sitting down and I actually lifted up. And you could see the dust like coming from like the other side.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Baby's crying. Everything. And babies, you know, you got to go pick them up and everything. They was on the floor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody started screaming. We saw smoke. So we didn't really know what to expect.
CANDIOTTI: These photos taken inside the cars show some belongings strewn on the floor, some seats in tact with a wall coming down, and through a window, a look at the second train crushed alongside. Senator Richard Blumenthal called the damage staggering.
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D), CONNECTICUT: The sides of cars are torn away like ribbons of cloth. Tons of metal tossed around like toy things. Insides of the cars are shattered.
CANDIOTTI: As bad as things were, Connecticut's governor suggest they could have been worse.
GOV. DAN MALLOY (D), CONNECTICUT: These are new cars designed to the latest standards. To the best of our knowledge, it's the first time that a car like this has been involved in this kind of incident. And by all appearances, they responded well.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: For now, there's no way to know how long direct service will remain suspended between New York and Boston. Investigators will be back on scene throughout the day Sunday.
Poppy.
HARLOW: All right, Susan, thank you so much.
Amazingly, with all that damage, no one was killed. We're going to have much more from Susan next hour. Plus, we're going to talk live with one of the NTSB investigators who is on the scene there in Connecticut.
Well, drum roll. We have a winner. Lottery officials say a single ticket, single ticket, sold in Zephyhills, Florida, matched in six numbers in last night's $591 million Powerball drawing. In case you missed it, here are those numbers -- 22, 10, 13, 14, 52, the Powerball number is 11. The jackpot, folks, the biggest ever for the Powerball. Now, the winner has such a tough choice, collect the money over 30 years or take a lump sum of $377 million. So, who is the country's newest multi, multi, multimillionaire. Joining me by phone from Tallahassee is David Bishop. He's a deputy secretary for the Florida Lottery.
Thank you for joining us early this Sunday morning, sir. Do we know who the winner is? DAVID BISHOP, DEPUTY SECRETARY, FLORIDA LOTTERY: No, we don't, Poppy. Good morning. It's, you know, certainly exciting for us here at the Florida Lottery. It's our sixth Powerball winner since we joined four and a half years ago. We started selling Powerball four and a half years ago.
Clearly our largest winner yet since this is a Powerball record. So, we're excited. But now it's just, hurry up and wait for the winner to come forward. And while we wait for that winner and with all the world to wait for that winner to come forward, we actually would urge them to take their time and get their affairs in order.
HARLOW: Yes.
BISHOP: This is, you know, this is a lot of money. It's clearly life changing. So they have 60 days to come forward. We would urge them to seek legal and financial advice before they claim all that money.
HARLOW: You know, there's always this question of, do you come forward? Do you have a press conference? You know, do people find out who you are or do you try to stay as anonymous as possible? How often do people choose to stay anonymous?
BISHOP: Well, in Florida, it's a -- your name is a public record because the Florida lottery is a state agency.
HARLOW: OK.
BISHOP: These are, you know, public dollars that we're talking about. So they can say anonymous to some extent, but their name will be out there. They do not have to have a news conference, though. But their name will be out there for all the world to see. There's going to be the glare of TV cameras from all across the country. But that's really a prerogative that people have, whether they do a news conference or not. We don't try and steer them one way or the other. We urge them to do what they feel comfortable doing.
HARLOW: I think trick number one is change your phone number. Tell me quickly who -- where this ticket was sold and then also why you think the jackpot was so huge this time around.
BISHOP: Well, the winner is, the winning ticket was sold at a public supermarket. They're our largest retailer in Florida, in Zephyhills, Florida, which is near Tampa. As for the jackpot, that's -- you know, it's hard to know why but - but, you know, once those jackpots get on a roll and there are no winnings drawing after drawing after drawing, they really take a life of their own. Once you get to about the $150 million mark, those jackpots start growing really, really fast. So, $590.5 billion is a lot of money. It's a rapid roll of the jackpot. And we're excited. It's a - you know, Powerball is a nationwide game sold from coast to coast and this is what we promise our players, that these big jackpots are possible because of a multi- state aspect to the Powerball game.
HARLOW: It does happen. Well, a lot of talk about California certainly this morning just joining the Powerball, possibly jacking up the pot for that lucky winner. Thank you so much, David Bishop, joining us this morning. Appreciate it.
BISHOP: Thank you.
HARLOW: Well, a man opens fire at the Cannes Film Festival. The star-studded crowd running in panic. But it's not at all what people thought it was.
And, it has been 35 years since the last Triple Crown winner. Will it be different this year? Results from the Preakness Stakes, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Well, dreams of seeing another run at the Triple Crown this year spoiled yesterday when Orb, the colt who won the Kentucky Derby, failed to come out on top at this weekend's Preakness. Our Joe Carter is here with this morning's "Bleacher Report."
Too bad, but good for the winner. Good morning, Joe.
JOE CARTER, "BLEACHER REPORT": Yes. Yes. Good -- great story for the winner. But Orb, the horse that everyone was looking at as the favorite, was really never able to find his rhythm yesterday like he did at the Kentucky Derby. He raced from behind the entire time finishing a disappointing fourth place. Orb's loss means that the Triple Crown drought will extend to 36 years now.
The horse that spoiled the party was Oxbow. Oxbow ran in first place from start to finish. And, boy, it was really great to see the horse's jockey, Gary Stevens, win. Stevens, if you don't know, is a legend in the sport. He's a hall of fame jockey who retired back in 2005. He actually tried his hand at acting for a while, tried his hand as a TV analyst, but in the end he still had that fire for racing and now at the age of 50 we see him back in the winner circle. Gary Stevens and Oxbow your winner yesterday.
Now, talking a little basketball action. The Miami Heat, well, they finally have an opponent for the eastern conference finals. The Indiana Pacers are headed to south Florida after eliminating the Knicks in six games last night. The Knicks did put up a fight. Carmelo scored 39 points. But in the end, they could not match the intensity of the Pacers. All of Indiana's starters scored in double figures, led by Lance Stephenson's career high 25 points. So we're going to have game one of the eastern conference finals will be Wednesday night and that will be in Miami.
Now, this final piece of tape, I can't say that I've ever seen something like this before. This happened on the European tour. Golfer Nicolas Colsaerts found himself in a situation, if you will, after his tee shot landed behind a public restroom on the course. Now, rules officials determined the ball was unplayable from behind the building, so they had him drop at the closest playable position, which was inside the bathroom next to the toilet. Next to the toilet. Now, a line next to the toilet is an impossible shot, so rules officials said, OK, now you can drop outside on the grass and hit it from there. And, believe it or not, he actually hit it up on the green. Then he putted it in for par and through it all he actually got very lucky. Not as lucky as the number one Powerball winner in the Tampa area, but still lucky, nonetheless.
HARLOW: Yes. Yes, not as lucky as that whoever it is in Zephyrhills, Florida, but what a shot. What a shot. CARTER: Unbelievable. Yes.
HARLOW: All right, Joe Carter, thank you.
CARTER: Uh-huh.
HARLOW: Chaos at Cannes. The real drama at the famed film festival, it's happening off screen. A scary shooting and a brazen jewelry heist, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: If you ever need a reminder that crime doesn't pay, well, here it is. Take a look at this video. A man tried to grab a woman's cell phone at a bus stop in Bogota, Colombia. When he ran away he ran, bam, right into an oncoming bus. Guess who helped him out from under it? The woman he tried to rob. She got her phone back too, thank you very much. The suspect was treated for minor injuries and remains in custody and police say some of his alleged accomplices are also under arrest. That's karma for you.
Well, French police say the man accused of opening fire at the Cannes Film Festival told them, quote, "he wanted to change the world." You can see people running for cover there. Police say the suspects fired two shots from a starter pistol that they say was loaded with blanks. This happened on Friday as a French television network was doing a live interview of actors Christoph Waltz and Daniel Auteuil. CNN's Erin McLaughlin reports the suspected shooter will be in custody today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, plenty of drama at this year's Cannes Film Festival. And it's not just the on screen variety. On Friday, police arrested a 43-year-old man after he fired two blank rounds into the air, interrupting a live television interview featuring Oscar-winning actor Christoph Waltz and French actor Daniel Auteuil.
Now, the man was tackled to the ground by security officers. In his hand, allegedly, a dummy grenade. Now, thankfully, no one was hurt. He was brought back to the police station for questioning. Police say that he claimed to believe in God and wanted to change the world. He's due to appear in court on Sunday.
And that's not the only startling event at this year's festival. Traditionally known for its glamour and its glitz, on Thursday night overnight at the Novotel Hotel, over $1 million worth of jewels were taken from the room of a Chopard employee. Now, Chopard is a sponsor of the Cannes Film Festival as an event. It's a jewelry house that's known for its incredible diamonds. Police are still investigating that incident.
Erin McLaughlin, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: A lot of drama at Cannes this year. Well, in a statement about that jewelry heist, Chopard said that none of the jewels stolen were for actresses to wear at the film festival. The jeweler also said that the value of the diamonds was much less than what the media had been reporting and they've been reporting about $1 million. So we'll wait to get that exact figure from them.
Meantime, President Obama will be here in Atlanta today. He'll address graduates at Morehouse University. It's historically a black men's college. The appearance follows a very tough week that the president had playing defense on several fronts.
Coming up, a brand-new CNN poll looks at how President Obama is doing so far in this second term. We're going to have those results for you this morning on "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley beginning at 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
He was once known as a hero cop. He was even invited to watch President Obama's first address to Congress right there alongside the first lady. Now, he is under arrest, facing shocking charges.
And, any landing you can walk away from is a good landing. And that definitely applies to this one at Newark Airport.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Mortgage rates inching up again this past week. Take a look.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Welcome back, everyone. Thanks so much for starting your Sunday with us and a special welcome to our troops watching on the American Forces Network. I'm Poppy Harlow, it is half past the hour.
Hofstra University students are mourning a classmate killed by police during a home invasion on Friday. There you see her, Andrea Rebello was shot in the head by a police officer in her home and she was held by an intruder. Police say that Dalton Smith had an extensive arrest history and was wanted for jumping parole. As police entered Rebello's home they say Smith was holding a gun to her head. When he turned that gun on the officer, police say they opened fire on Smith.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. JOHN AZZATA, NASSAU COUNTY HOMICIDE SQUAD: The officer eventually fired eight rounds in total. Seven of those rounds struck our subject. One of those rounds struck the victim.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Hofstra University says it will still hold its commencement today. Rebello was a junior, 21 years old, studying public relations.
Well, crews in Hazmat suits combed through an apartment complex in Spokane, Washington, on Saturday. The search came four days after letters thought to contain ricin, that poisonous substance were found at a nearby postal facility. Police wouldn't say if the search was related to the apartment discovery, the apparent discovery of a highly poisonous substance in those two letters. They are trying to figure out who sent the letters, including one that was addressed to a federal judge.
In Connecticut, investigators will be back at work today. They're poring over the wreckage of two commuter trains that collided on Friday during rush hour. They ruled out foul play as a cause and are sending a portion of the track back to their lab in Washington for more analysis. We're going to have much more on what exactly they're looking at in the next hour.
And, of course, we're continuing to keep an eye on strong storm systems in the Midwest right now. This tornado touching down in Kansas yesterday. Causing damage, luckily no injuries. There are as many as 20 million people who could be under severe weather watches and warnings throughout the day today.
This is the same storm system that brought 16 tornadoes to Texas last week, killing six people causing massive damage in several areas. Our Nick Valencia has been on the scene in that community at Rancho Brazos as residents there just try to get their lives, their damaged homes, what they can, back together.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We spent the morning outside here at the Church of Christ where Rancho Brazos' residents are trying to get permits to reenter into their devastated community. All that's left of the Rancho Brazos' neighborhood is inside here where volunteers and charity organizations are working with the survivors and trying to get them back on their feet. We've heard a lot of haunting stories of survival. None more haunting than that of 17- year-old Dillon Whitehead. Dillon said he was literally picked up 20 feet in the air by the tornado and he thought he was taking his last breath.
DILLON WHITEHEAD, TORNADO SURVIVOR: I was, I was in the air and I opened my eyes and I was about 20, 30 feet up in the air.
VALENCIA (on camera): The tornado picked you up?
WHITEHEAD: Yes. And when I opened my eyes and I see all the debris flying around me. VALENCIA: Dillon said he was outside at the time the tornado hit. He saw the cloud formations and then the twister formed. He said he just didn't have enough time to get out of the way. He was momentarily knocked unconscious after being hit with a piece of wood in the back of the head. He said he's lucky to be alive. A lot of these residents say the same thing and this community is banding together in hopes of putting their lives back together and hoping that they can return to somewhat of a normal life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: Absolutely. Our Nick Valencia reporting there.
Well, in Virginia rescuers had to lift a car off of parade spectators after the driver lost control and plowed right into the crowd. 60 people were hurt in this, ten had to be hospitalized after the accident. None of those injuries appear to be life threatening. A CNN affiliate reports that a medical emergency is what caused the driver to lose control of that vehicle. The accident occurred at a parade that was honoring hikers at a nearby Appalachian trail.
And a former Philadelphia police officer who was once praised as a hero cop is under arrest this morning. Richard DeCoatsworth is charged with rape and sexual assault. Police say that he met two women at a party on Thursday, went to another location with them and then forced them at gunpoint to take drugs and perform sexual acts. It is a stunning turn of events for the former cop who survived a shotgun blast to the face. In 2007, he was invited to watch President Obama's first address to Congress right there next to the first lady, Michelle Obama in 2009. Two years later, he resigned from the police force.
And this is a very disturbing story. In New York, a suspect in an apparent deadly hate crime under arrest this morning. Elliot Morales is accused of fatally shooting 32-year-old Mark Carson while Carson and friends were just walking down the street last night. Police say that Morales confronted Carson, taunted him with anti-gay remarks. Carson tried to walk away, but the suspect followed and then allegedly shot him in the face.
RAYMOND KELLY, NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: We believe that the perpetrator, the shooter here says to the victims, do you want to die here?
Well, mourners laid candles at the scene of the shooting and police commissioner who you just heard from, Ray Kelly, says that there have been at least 22 bias-related crimes in New York just this year. That is up from 13 at this time last year.
U.S. Airways is cooperating this morning with federal investigators looking into why the landing gear failed on a flight into Newark, forcing this incredible, incredible belly landing on Saturday. Passengers say the cabin was filled with smoke as sparks flew from the bottom of the plane. Although, thank goodness, it did not catch fire at all. Fire crews doused the plane with foam to prevent that from happening. None of the 31 passengers or three crew members were hurt and all were able to leave the airport that morning.
And you've been waiting, we have a winner in the Powerball's largest jackpot ever. Lottery officials say a single ticket sold in Zephyrhills, Florida matched all six numbers in last night's $591 million drawing. In a case you missed it, maybe it's you, you live there? Here are the numbers 22, 10, 13, 14, 52 and the Powerball 11. No word yet on who won.
And the brightest lunar explosion ever recorded. A boulder-size meteoroid crashed into the Moon traveling 56,000 miles an hour. Details after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Good morning, Washington, D.C, our nation's capital. A little, little hazy there this morning. Rise and shine White House conditions looking a little foggy over there on Pennsylvania Avenue, but D.C. later today, you're looking at a high of 79 degrees with scattered thunderstorms. Good Sunday morning, everyone. Pretty amazing image to show you. Remember that Russian meteor blast in February. That took out buildings and injured more than 1,000 people. Well, now we're not the only place in danger of getting hit by space rocks. Just one month later, in March, a boulder-size meteoroid we're told, traveling 56,000 miles per hour, slammed into the surface of the Moon, igniting into the brightest lunar explosion ever recorded. It was the equivalent to five tons of TNT. That's what experts are saying and anyone here on Earth apparently could have spotted this with their bare eyes. According to NASA, the Moon's been hit more than 300 times since 2006.
Last week, if you were watching, you know it was a very, very emotional week in the Jodi Arias trial. The Phoenix jury found Arias was exceptionally cruel when she killed her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander. That opens the door for her for the death penalty. As they weigh that option, as jurors weigh that option, they heard from Alexander's siblings. CNN's Casey Wian was there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Stephen Alexander was in the U.S. Army in 2008 when he found out his brother Travis had been murdered. As his killer, an emotional Jodi Arias sat and watched, Alexander told jurors about the unanswered questions that haunt him to this day.
STEPHEN ALEXANDER, BROTHER OF TRAVIS ALEXANDER: How much did he suffer? How much did he scream? What was he saying? What was the last thing he saw before his eyes closed. What was his final thought in his head?
WIAN: Next, sister Samantha Alexander approached the podium crying even before she spoke.
SAMANTHA ALEXANDER, SISTER OF TRAVIS ALEXANDER: Travis was our strength. Our constant beacon of hope. Our motivation. And his presence has been ripped from our lives. WIAN: Defense witnesses are expected to speak about several mitigating factors that could spare Arias' life, including her lack of a criminal past, her past efforts to convert to the Mormon faith and her talent as an artist.
KIRK NURMI, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: This is a girl right here that you pledged when you were selected as jurors that after hearing or after possibly convicting her in first degree murder and finding aggravating factors, that you would consider giving Ms. Arias life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: Our Casey Wian reporting there this morning.
Well, she is one of the most recognizable women on television today. And Wendy Williams is known for speaking her mind. Believe me she did. My (inaudible) interview with the talk show host who holds nothing back. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: All right, guys. Sunday morning. I know, I know you don't want Monday to come. But time to get ready for the week ahead. A lot of news for you. Let's go through it. First, Monday, Jodi Arias trial, front and center, once again, this is the penalty phase in the Jodi Arias trial that continues. Jurors have to decide if she's going to live or die as a result of killing her boyfriend, Travis Alexander. Arias may even address the jury. So we'll be watching out for that. Also, return of the Dreamliner on Monday. United Airlines putting that plane back in the sky. Boeing has billions of dollars riding on the future of its newest 787. As you may remember, the planes were grounded back in January after fear that its battery system caused fire. Let's move ahead to Wednesday, focus in Washington on the IRS. The IRS scandal investigation continues. Former commissioner of the IRS Douglas Shulman will testify before the House Oversight Committee. He was in charge during most of the period that agents were allegedly targeting conservative groups.
And let's move ahead to Thursday. Because big focus on Thursday will be the boy scouts. They're expected to make a decision on whether or not to allow openly gay members. About 1,400 members will make their votes at the annual meeting. That will take place in Texas. And then let's move along to Saturday. On Saturday, a treat for some college students at Bard College. Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, retired space Shuttle Commander (ph) Mark Kelly will give their commencement address to those students. Giffords will receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters. So, half week ahead, here's what's coming up. The calendar is just as packed this week in the world of politics, as it usually is. Let's bring in CNN political editor Paul Steinhauser for what to look at this week. Paul.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, good morning, Poppy. More 2016 flirtations from Republican Senator Rand Paul. Tomorrow he headlines a GOP dinner in New Hampshire, just a week and a half after doing the same thing in Iowa. Both states kick off the presidential primary in caucus calendar.
The senator from Kentucky is the son of former congressman Ron Paul who ran three times for the White House.
The IRS controversy will stay in the spotlight this week. The Senate on Tuesday and the House on Wednesday hold hearing into the agency's targeting of conservative groups, which apply for tax exempt status.
Voters in Los Angeles could make history this week by electing their first female mayor. Democrats Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti face off in a runoff election on Tuesday. Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker could be in the hot seat this week. Pritzker, a major supporter of President Barack Obama has been nominated by the White House to become commerce secretary. Her Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday. Poppy?
HARLOW: Paul, thanks so much.
And coming out, a brand-new CNN poll on President Obama after quite a week for the White House. How is he doing in his second term? Find out more later this morning on "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley that begins at 9:00 A.M. Eastern.
And when it comes to advice, television host and radio queen Wendy Williams holds nothing back. You'll see - you're going to see from her the good, the bad, the uncomfortable. If you have questions for Wendy, she has answers. That's exactly what she's dedicated the release of her newest book to it called "Asked Wendy." And I had a chance to sit down with her, speak with her about a lot of different issues. The book, raising her 12-year-old son, the women's movement, what does she think? Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: "Ask Wendy." Sixth book?
WENDY WILLIAMS, HOST "THE WENDY WILLIAMS SHOW": Yep.
HARLOW: Why write it now? And you said it's the easiest book you've written.
WILLIAMS: Easiest book I've written because the book is made up of letters that "Wendy" watchers have sent me from all over the country. They've sent me their toughest questions and I answer them in the book. And it has been my fave because it comes from the heart. And, you know, my talk show Wendy Williams show is in its fourth season. I always knew that I would write an "Ask Wendy "book. I used to do "Ask Wendy" for a full hour in my radio career ...
HARLOW: Yes.
WILLIAMS: Once upon a time. So, here it is, the book.
HARLOW: Do you think there's this very interesting debate going on with children and teens and the millennial generation about should parents be friends or should parents be parents?
WILLIAMS: My take is that I - 93 percent of the time, I am his mother. And I want to be respected that way. And seven percent of the time, I'm his friend. Because I think, that particularly in this generation, in order to find out more about our children, we have to massage them through the Jedi mind trick, you know, and sometimes that means, you've got to - instead of standing over them, you've got to sit down in the middle of the basketball court with them and say what's going on, buddy? You know, what's happening?
HARLOW: Yes.
WILLIAMS: It's a fine line. I don't know that I'm doing it right. He's only 12. I hear those teen years are the killer years.
HARLOW: Yeah, get ready.
WILLIAMS: Oh.
WILLIAMS: Get ready coming from someone who doesn't have kids yet.
(LAUHGTER)
HARLOW: Who am I to say? A little more serious here. You've called success scary. Why?
WILLIAMS: Because if it comes too early, it changes you and everybody around you. If it comes a little later, it's perfect -- my great success. And I've had great success in my career, but it's been a stair step and having this talk show, I wouldn't be, I'd like to think of myself as a pretty grounded person. I'm the same Wendy that I was, you know.
HARLOW: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: But everyone else around me has changed.
HARLOW: Are you always scared you might fail?
WILLIAMS: No. Because I've succeeded so much now that if I failed at this particular point, I've still outsucceeded anything that I possibly thought I would growing up as a young girl in New Jersey.
HARLOW: That fulfillment.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
HARLOW: The lean-in movement. Sheryl Sandburg's book and I really feel like there is just this incredible push towards women and work and, you know, redefining our roles. What do you think about that? What is your ...
WILLIAMS: We can - we can redefine, but sometimes the old school is the true school. I think we all as women today in our society are benefiting from being able to work and being able to have kids and being able to fantasize about having a life partner whether it's marriage or you just live and love together.
HARLOW: So, that's your women's movement. That's the Wendy way.
WILLIAMS: That's the Wendy way. A little modern and a little old-fashioned and a whole lot of messy.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEOTAPE) : HARLOW: Real pleasure to sit down with her. "Ask Wendy" is available in book stores now. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Libya, the IRS, secret phone records by the Department of Justice. It has been a long week, a controversial week for President Obama and his team. So, of course, "Saturday Night Live" had to give their take on all of it. Check out this clip of last night's "Weekend Update."
(BEGINV VIDEO CLIP)
SETH MEYERS: Really with Seth and Amy.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
MEYERS: Really? IRS, no one needs to avoid scandals more than you. You are less popular with Americans than exercise. Don't get me wrong. I understand that even if you do your job perfectly, IRS, no one is going to give you a Gatorade shower, but you've got to try a little harder.
AMY POEHLER: I mean really? The government only keeps you around to make the DMV look good.
(LAUGHTER)
POEHLER: On (inaudible) of government agencies, you're the turtle.
MEYERS: You're the turtle.
POEHLER: Really?
MEYERS: And really, Obama, you said you heard about the scandal when you saw it on TV. You found out from TV, really? I don't want to live in a world where you have the same sources as my aunt.
(LAUGHTER)
MEYERS: You're the president. I didn't think you had to watch TV for anything. I assumed you already knew how "Breaking Bad" ends.
(LAUGHTER) POEHLER: Really, Tea Party, really? You're surprised that you're targeted by the IRS. You named yourself after a group of people who proudly and historically violated tax laws. Look, if I had a vanity license plate that said "Weed 4-20, I might expect to get pulled over now and then.
(LAUGHTER)
MEYERS: If you had that license plate ...
POEHLER: Not now.
MEYERS: All right. And really, politics aside, should we be surprised that the IRS paid special attention to the tax forms of the Tea Party? Judging from their terrible spelling on their protest signs, attention to detail isn't really their thing. It's not fair to scrutinize someone for hating Obama, but you might want to give them a second look if they spell it Obamo.
(LAUGHTER)
POEHLER: You've got to spread the scrutiny around a little. Even the TSA pulls the white guy out of the security line every once in a while.
(LAUGHTER)
POEHLER: You know, I'm just - it makes you look good.
MEYERS: It makes you look ...
(LAUGHTER)
POEHLER: Let's remember everyone cheats on the IRS all the time. Having their job is like being married to 300 million John Drapers. Really?
MEYERS: Really, we do all have to understand that this is a super jittery time for the IRS. I mean Wesley Snipes just got out of jail and Wesley Snipes is not happy.
POEHLER: Really?
(LAUGHTER)
POEHLER: Snipes is out. Everyone at the IRS is probably looking over their shoulders and praying that they don't hear the words "Never taxed on black."
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: All right. Thanks so much for starting your morning with us. We've got much more ahead on "CNN SUNDAY MORNING," which starts right now. Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow. It is 7:00 on the East Coast, and 4:00, early in the morning out West. Thanks so much for starting your Sunday with us.
We have a winner. Lottery officials say a single ticketholder at a public supermarket in Zephyrhills, Florida, is the winner. They matched all six numbers in last night's $591 million Powerball drawing. In case you missed it, maybe it's you. Here are the numbers: 22, 10, 13, 14, 52 and the Powerball, lucky 11.
The jackpot is the largest ever for Powerball. Now, the winner has a tough choice, collect money over 30 years or take the lump sum of, you know, $377 million. Not exactly a tough choice.
So, who is the country's newest multimillionaire?
Our John Zarrella is in Zephyrhills, Florida. Live this morning, right outside that Publix, wow, lucky, lucky, lucky place. That's where the winning ticket was sold.
John, any idea who it is yet?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can tell you who it isn't, Poppy? It's not you and it's not me.
(LAUGHTER)
ZARRELLA: And it's probably not any Publix employees like a group of them getting together. I mean, it might have been. But we've seen a bunch of them coming to work.
And one Publix employee said this is the biggest thing that happened to Zephyrhills. You know, this place has been known for bottled water for a long time. Now, it's known for the biggest Powerball winner and the biggest Powerball ever.
So, you know, they've got 60 days to claim it. They'll have to go to Tallahassee to actually collect on the ticket. That's where Florida's lottery headquarters is, and there's nothing that says they have to get their ticket even validated here. They could go straight to Tallahassee.
So -- and, of course, as you know, the best advice that these people, whoever the winner is, is given is, is get everything in order, go see a lawyer, get an accountant, do all that ahead of time before you go public. So, who knows -- you know, if we'll even know today, tomorrow or the next day who the winner is -- Poppy.
HARLOW: You know, it's funny, I was talking to one of the lottery commissioners earlier this morning and I said, you know, do they have to come forward? Apparently, it's law, it's public record in state of Florida. So, eventually, we're going to find out who that person is.
ZARRELLA: Right. HARLOW: But I wonder what folks there at Publix are saying. I know that you talked to some of the employees. Are any, sort of, bystanders around? What are they saying? And is that vendor going to get any money for selling the winning ticket?
ZARRELLA: Yes. We were just talking about that. And we've got to find out because it's an interesting question because it's a huge Florida chain, Publix, how that works. They sell lottery and all the Publix supermarkets.
But I know that in some of the small mom and pop convenience stores, they do get a chunk of the winnings of some of these big pots. So, it will be interesting to see how that shakes out here.
Now, we haven't had a chance to talk to too many people here. They're just all coming to work. The Publix opens at 8:00. We're to talk to some people as they come.
But I did ask somebody at a McDonald's we stopped at and they were saying, "Yes, we heard. The winner is here in Zephyrhills." I said, "Well, do you know the person?" Their response was, "I hope so."
(LAUGHTER)
ZARRELLA: So, you know --
HARLOW: Yes. I --
ZARRELLA: And chances - -chances are here in Zephyrhills. It's a small community, a lot of people, if not everybody at Zephyrhills will probably know the winner.
HARLOW: Yes, no kidding. I think my advice: change your phone number immediately. Change your phone number immediately.
ZARRELLA: Yes.
HARLOW: All right, John Zarrella, thanks so much.
ZARRELLA: Exactly. Sure.
HARLOW: Let's move now to the Midwest. We are watching for the possibility of very severe weather, again, today.
This is why tornadoes, this one touching down in central Kansas. It happened in Rozel, Kansas, yesterday. It destroyed a home, but luckily, there were no injuries.
Today, we're on the lookout for no twisters. There were as many as 20 million people in danger in a number of different areas.
Our meteorologist Alexandra Steele is in the weather center here with me in Atlanta. What warnings and watches are you seeing at this hour? ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right now, the good news is no tornado watches and no tornado warnings and we haven't seen any this morning. But that will change. It looks like a very active day, especially this afternoon and tonight.
Here's a look I wanted to show you, 14 reports of tornadoes thus far. So, we'll see kind of how that flushes out. But you can see where they were. Western Nebraska, central Kansas and, actually, this area still under the gun as we head towards today.
Baseball-size hail reported yesterday. So, large hail again today and some very strong tornadoes.
Here's the current radar picture. An awful lot of lightning, some strong thunderstorms, some severe thunderstorm warnings, but not to the level yet of tornado watches or tornado warnings, again. But most likely, we will see them today. A big outbreak is expected.
And because of all the ingredients together, it's been a pretty quiet severe weather season, April and May, when we see the greatest number of tornadoes. It's been very quiet thus far because we haven't had all the ingredients. We do now.
What we have got. This jet stream and dipping and pushing eastward all the frontal boundaries associated with it -- a cold front, a warm front and a dry line. A dry line is the convergence of two different air masses coming together. Ample moisture, as well, finally have that in place.
So, the picture is right, but it is ready, and this is where you can see them today. Kansas City, Wichita, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, to some pretty big cities, potentially 20 million people impacted by tornadoes today. Also tomorrow, another threat day, as well.
So, here's the delineation from today. Still bringing in Nebraska and Kansas and down towards Oak City and in towards St. Louis, as well.
Watch what happens as we head towards tomorrow. We pull in St. Louis and Chicago, as well, Peoria, Illinois. So, there's the big picture. Today is the greatest threat, tomorrow, a threat as well. So, on the aggregate, here's the severe storm. Here's the bull's eye today.
But it's not just there. If you're watching us from Boston or New York or Connecticut, potentially an inch of rain. So, some flooding there, even here in the Southeast, potentially one to three inches of rain.
So, a lot of flooding. We've seen a lot of wet weather continues today around the country, Poppy. Of course, all eyes on the severe weather threat with the tornadoes expected this afternoon and into tonight. That's kind of the timeline.
HARLOW: Weather has just been absolutely nuts. I know. I'm from Minnesota. My mom was telling me on the phone, 40 to 50 degree temperature changes there in a day in the last week. It has been wild weather, dangerous weather. We'll keep an eye on it for everyone.
Alexandra, thank you.
STEELE: Sure.
HARLOW: All right. Now to Connecticut where weather played no part in the collision of two commuter trains.
Investigators got a good look at the wreckage yesterday and will be back at it all day today. One of the big problems now is the line itself is really totally out of commission. We don't even know for how long. More than 250,000 passengers travel on this route, every single week there.
Our national correspondent Susan Candiotti was there yesterday, through it all. She is live for us again this morning in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Good morning, Susan.
What can you tell us? What's the latest on the investigation?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy.
Well, investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board have been added all night long.
And, look, they're working even at this hour you can see some of that -- of the operation going on at this time. They've got bulldozers down there and trying to remove some of the cars which have already been cleared from the track.
And you can see a little more closely now some of the damage. Parts of cars peeled back. They've got, clearly, a lot of work ahead of them.
And here to tell us more about it is board member Earl Weener.
Earl, you've been at it since yesterday morning and your team is looking over everything. You're making a bit of progress. One thing you told us you're concentrating on is you discovered a fracture on one part of the rail, involving one of the trains. So, the one that derailed yesterday, jumped the track.
What are you looking for?
EARL WEENER, NATL. TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: Well, we're really trying to understand whether that was the cause of the accident or whether that was caused by the accident. So, we'll be sending a piece of rail into Washington, D.C., to the metallurgical labs for them to investigate that.
CANDIOTTI: How will you try to determine whether it happened before or caused the accident or happened before? WEENER: Well, we've been looking to see if we can identify whether it was fractured over a long period of time or whether it was fractured all at once. All at once being it was fractured in the accident.
CANDIOTTI: You've already picked up some of the black boxes, all of them, rather. And they're already downloading data. What are you looking for and what are you learning from that?
WEENER: Well, we're trying to understand parameters, like how fast the train was going when they applied brakes, what the throttle settings were. But helps us establish a timeline so that we can better understand the events of the accident.
CANDIOTTI: How unusual is it to send that piece of rail which has to be pretty huge, heavy, to D.C. to analyze it in the lab?
WEENER: We regularly send pieces of evidence into the laboratory for, basically, for very thorough analysis.
CANDIOTTI: Have you ruled anything out? We know for a fact that no crime was involved here. The FBI took a look at that. How many possibilities could there be?
WEENER: Well, a lot of possibilities.
CANDIOTTI: Of course.
WEENER: At this point in time, we're not trying to rule things out as much as we are trying to gather all the factional information that's perishable to do this quickly, because there's obviously an interest in getting this rail reestablished.
CANDIOTTI: So, the obvious next question is how long do you think it will take before you can do your job and this line can go back in service?
WEENER: Well, we hope, basically, within a day or so that we can turn the rail back to the railroad and let them reestablish the railway.
CANDIOTTI: And how long that might take?
WEENER: That is up to the railroad. But I think they're already set to be very, do this very quickly.
CANDIOTTI: As well, I'm sure, because it will affect so many people. Thank you very much for joining us this day.
And, of course, that's the key thing, Poppy, all these commuters starting today and even tomorrow morning, imagine when the next work day is with us. How are they going to somehow get around this and, of course, there are alternate routes. Some people may have to take a bus to get around all of this construction work and repair and investigation work that's going on now in order to continue to get on to all points north and points south, as well -- a lot of work ahead of them.
HARLOW: Absolutely, Susan, thank you for that. Some interesting developments.
Quickly, can you give us an update on how the victims are doing?
CANDIOTTI: Yes, at last check, we know that three people remain in critical condition and fewer than 10 remain hospitalized and are being treated in our less serious condition. So, of course, that is another thing that investigators may be doing, talking to some of the passengers, as well as the crew looking into the human factor of what people went through as a result of this crash.
HARLOW: Absolutely. Tough images to see after that crash. Some of the victims getting taken off with neck braces and some pretty severe injuries there.
Susan, thank you.
CANDIOTTI: Exactly.
HARLOW: Well, coming up, a Hofstra University student killed when a wanted man stormed into her home, but it was not the suspect who killed her. A very sad story.
We're going to have all the details, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Good morning, New York City. Rise and shine. Looking a little foggy. In my hometown, the Big Apple foggy this morning, overcast, not expected to get much better throughout the day. Showers expected, a high of 60 degrees and showers all day long.
I see a little delayed getting back there, but good morning to New York City.
Well, an out of control car at a parade sent people running for safety in Damascus, Virginia. Sixty people hurt, 10 had to be hospitalized after this accident. None of those, luckily, appear to be life-threatening injuries.
CNN affiliate WJHL reports that a medical condition caused the driver to lose control of that car. The accident occurred at a big parade, which was honoring hikers on the nearby Appalachian Trail.
Well, students at Hofstra University will get their diplomas while they mourn a classmate. Andrea Rebello was shot in the head while at her home. This was as she was being held an intruder. Police say the man who held her was Dalton Smith, a 30-year-old with an extensive arrest history who was wanted for jumping parole.
As police entered Rebello's house, Smith was apparently holding a gun to her head when he turned that gun on the officer, the officers then opened fire on Smith.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. JOHN AZZATA, NASSAU COUNTY HOMICIDE SQUAD: The officer eventually fired eight rounds in total. Seven of those rounds struck our subject. One of those rounds struck the victim.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Very, very sad. Hofstra University is offering counseling to students. Rebello was a junior, just 21 years old, majoring in public relations.
U.S. Airways meantime, cooperating with federal investigators, looking into why the landing gear failed on a flight into Newark, forcing this incredible belly landing on Saturday. Passengers say that the cabin filled with smoke, sparks flew from the bottom of the plane, although, thank goodness, it did not catch fire. Fire crews doused the plane with that foam to help prevent any fire from breaking out.
Amazingly, none of the 31 passengers or three crew members were hurt. All were able to leave the airport that morning.
All right. This next story is amazing, also a little bit eerie. A science-minded artist uses things like chewing gum, or even hair to make 3D models of stranger's faces. Fascinating stuff. She's going to tell us exactly how he does it, coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Chewed gum, clipped fingernails, believe it or not, all these things hold a gold mine of your genetic secrets. Things like your sex, your hair color, eye color and even ancestry. Pretty cool, say, for solving mysteries.
But take a look at this. Using strands of hair and garbage she finds on the street, one artist in New York is making 3D models of people's faces. People that she's never met and people she's never seen. The science behind these life-size portraits is so far from perfect, but it's sort of creepy and amazing and intriguing, given that we leave this trail of personal information everywhere we go.
She is an information artist. I think that's a good way to describe Heather Dewey-Hagborg. She joins me now live in New York.
Heather, thanks so much for coming in.
HEATHER DEWEY-HAGBORG, INFORMATION ARTIST: Hi, thanks.
HARLOW: I find what you do absolutely fascinating. I wonder what you're going to find there who you will find in the CNN newsroom and who you're going to model. My office is to the left of there of you, if you want to go over there.
But just tell our viewers, first, how did you get the idea for this? DEWEY-HAGBORG: Well, I was sitting in a therapy session and I was staring at this painting on the wall and as I stared at it, I noticed that in the glass that covered the painting there was a crack and wedged into that crack there was a single hair.
So, I'm sitting there for 50 minutes staring at this hair, just thinking about who it could belong to, what they might look like, where they might from, what have brought them there.
HARLOW: Wow.
DEWEY-HAGBORG: And then as I went home from that therapy session, I just kept noticing here and there and everywhere I went little genetic artifacts of things that people left behind that they didn't notice but told a lot about them.
HARLOW: Well, we have this image from "Studio 360". It's a portrait you made up of reporter. So, I want to pull it up for our viewers and show that to them. And there it is.
So, how accurate do you think the resemblance is here?
DEWEY-HAGBORG: So, the place where this technology is at right now is essentially like a family resemblance. So, it's a showing a face that is similar to the actual person's face, but it's not going to be an exact likeness.
HARLOW: OK. I know you have one there to show us, so, if you can hold that up. Hold that up for our viewers and they can take a look at it. Just talk to us a little bit about the science behind this. So, that's you, right? Is that you?
DEWEY-HAGBORG: Yes.
HARLOW: OK.
DEWEY-HAGBORG: This is my self portrait here. Let's see if I can face it.
So, what you can see from this is that there are certain things we have in common. So, we have a common Northern European ancestry, blue eyes, freckles, pale skin, less of a tendency to be overweight, lighter hair. All of these factors come together to create a portrait like this.
And so --
HARLOW: Talk to me, I was just going to say, talk to me about the science behind it. How you do this?
DEWEY-HAGBORG: Sure. So, it's really building on information that is all sort of publicly available in science right now. So, I'm just drawing on research papers, things that people have published that link specific base pairs within the DNA to specific traits.
So, a lot of this information draws on what are called genome- wide association studies, which are just ways of looking at lots and lots of DNA, lots of people's DNA. Looking at the traits they have and creating correlations between them.
HARLOW: I see. Your -- I mean, I've seen pictures of you in the lab. You're in there in the lab with scientists learning about this. Tell me how much it costs to get something like this done and how long it takes.
DEWEY-HAGBORG: So, the lab process takes me only about two weeks. It doesn't take me very long and it costs -- the actual printing of the face costs a few hundred dollars and then the lab work costs another few hundred dollars. So, the cost of an individual portrait, not including my time, of course, is around $1,000.
HARLOW: The feedback, quickly, before we have to go here, positive? Are people weirded out by this? Are they fascinated?
DEWEY-HAGBORG: I hope they're weirded out. The point of the project is a provocation.
HARLOW: Well, I think you have done that. Heather, thanks for joining us.
DEWEY-HAGBORG: Thank you.
HARLOW: Well, trouble in the Southeast. The flash flood sweeps across Alabama and more rain could put them farther under water. We'll tell you exactly what to expect, straight ahead.
Let's also check in with Dr. Sanjay Gupta for a look at what is coming up on his show, "SANJAY GUPTA, M.D.", 7:30 Eastern this morning. Good morning, Sanjay.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, we've got a special edition of "SGMD" on tap today. "TIME" magazine is calling it "The Angelina Effect", very public announcement that's prompted a national conversation about breast cancer.
Also, Christina Applegate is going to stop by. She's an actress and also a breast cancer survivor. We're going to show you what cutting edge medicine now has to offer women who have chosen or who need a mastectomy.
We've got all that and much more coming your way at the bottom of the hour.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Severe weather just didn't hit the Midwest yesterday, the Southeast also took a beating. A storm system spawned into a tornado in Alabama, brought more rain to areas already dealing with flash flooding. Dozens of canyons in Alabama were under warnings and watches throughout the day on Saturday. More rain, unfortunately, could be on the way today.
In Texas, residents of one community devastated by tornadoes got their first chance to get back to their homes. This, this is what is left of the Rancho Brazos neighborhood. It is near Granbury in north Texas. Six people died from those tornadoes.
Officials escorted people back into the neighborhood for the first time since the storm yesterday. They had clergy on hand as well to comfort the returning residents.
And coming up, a brand-new CNN poll on President Obama. How is he doing in his second term? See the results. This morning, we're going to have them for you on the all-new polls on "STATE OF THE UNION WITH CANDY CROWLEY." That begins right here at 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
And we have a winner of the Powerball, the biggest jackpot ever. Lottery officials say a single ticket in Zephyrhills, Florida, matched all five numbers last night in a $591 million drawing. In case you missed it, waking up this morning, did you win? Look at your tickets, folks, 22, 10, 13, 14, 52, the Powerball number is 11.
No word yet officially on who won, but, you know in Florida, if you won, your name is a matter of public record. So, change your phone number. Just a little tip there.
All right. I'm going to see you back here at the top of the hour, 8:00 Eastern. First, a great show ahead from our Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
"SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." begins right now.
