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CNN NEWSROOM

Snow Storm Expectations; Super Bugs in Hospitals; Jodi Arias Trial Update; New TSA Airline Travel Carry-On Items Rules

Aired March 6, 2013 - 11:00   ET

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


ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And hello, everybody. Nice to have you with me.

It is the winter that won't let go. And today it's really walloping Washington. The schools are closed there. The power is out there. The snow is piling up there and the government there is shutting down.

Also, deadly bugs with no known cure, a new and spreading threat in America's hospitals, the doctors -- the doctors -- are calling this a nightmare, and that could get a lot worse, too.

Plus, Martha Stewart saying she's quote, "flabbergasted" that Macy's thinks she's a two-timer. A very messy battle over taste and a lot of lot of lot of money.

All coming at you this hour.

So, in Washington, they've decided they are going to call it the "snow-quester." Not my word, theirs.

The federal officials there have shut down their offices and, by the end of the day, D.C. could be buried under 10 inches of very wet, heavy snow.

Nearly a million kids in the school districts from Ohio to D.C. and all of those districts have the day off today, some 242,000 people, most of them in Virginia, and they are without power right now.

Northern Virginia could get as much as 30 inches of snow. And that's where we find our Joe Johns this morning.

Joe, every time we come to you, I look for the snow build up on you. So far, so good, but that's just the beginning, isn't it?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it is just the beginning, Ashleigh, and we've seen it sort of very steady, very continuous and now the snow is a little bit more intermittent if you will. And I expect that to go on through the afternoon.

We've gotten our yard stick out and, at least where I am, I've measured from place to place where it looked like the snow was untouched, about 6 inches of snow so far right here in downtown Winchester, although that's by no means a scientific reading.

And we figure, by the end of the day, the authorities will tell us whatever the number is, but the most important thing is not just the volume of the snow, but how heavy it is and the way it sticks to the branches.

You see here, it just sort of -- you get it, right? Of course.

BALDWIN: You are such a rookie.

JOHNS: I know, right. OK, well, the deal is when that gets on the -- you stop laughing. When that gets on the wires, there's a problem because the wires come down and then you get power outages and so on.

So, that's a pretty big deal, Ashleigh.

BALDWIN: It's what we used to do in second grade. We tell our friends to stand somewhere and we go thud on the tree, but that's a Canadian thing.

Hey, Joe, thank you. And thank you for taking the assignment. I know it's a tough one. Joe Johns reporting for us live in Virginia.

Top stories, very top stories, if Roman Catholic cardinals getting any closer to setting a date for the papal conclave, they are not telling anyone about it.

At last report, two of the 115 princes of the church -- that's what they are called -- who will be choosing the pope, Pope Benedict's successor, have not even arrived yet.

For their part, American cardinals have decided to stop making public comments until a new pope is in place.

A bombshell decision from George Zimmerman's legal team in Florida, a man -- or the man who shot Trayvon Martin a year ago has decided not to ask a judge for immunity based on that controversial Florida stand- your-ground law.

Instead Zimmerman lawyers says he's just going to straight with the focus of winning an acquittal in a second-degree murder trial, saying self-defense is the issue. It is all scheduled to start in June.

Dow Jones, the Industrials, heading even higher this morning, a day after its highest ever closing at 14,253. Right now, we're at about 14,284, climbing after some pretty encouraging news on the job market.

This story, not so encouraging, a deadly and untreatable super bug, and it's the CDC using the term "nightmare bacteria," saying it's spreading through hospitals across the United States.

We've got complete details after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: One million people driven from their homes because of the brutality of their government, that is the dire situation right now for the people of Syria. The United Nations refugee agency is reporting today that the number of Syrians who have fled for their lives, fled their country's civil war, has now, in fact, reached the 1 million mark.

Former Florida governor, Jeb Bush, hopes that his new book, "Immigration Wars," will give conservatives an immigration policy that they can embrace.

He spoke with Jake Tapper about the need for political solutions to a complex problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: If there is a growing consensus that -- not that immigration is the driver of people's decisions, but it's a gateway issue. It's an issue that does allow Republicans if they are engaged in it to make their case to a broader -- on a broader suite of issues than what we're allowing today.

Today, basically, if you keep being against things, particularly something that has -- where you have emotional connectivity as immigration is for a lot of emerging voting groups, you won't have a chance to even make your case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: They are being called deadly and untreatable and actually a nightmare.

Health officials are sounding a serious alarm and they're scrambling to stop super bugs that are spreading in hospitals right across this country before it is too late.

Our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is here with me now. First of all, this is not something you hear medical officials say, "a nightmare."

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I know.

BALDWIN: I mean, at first, I thought that was someone else's hyperbolic headline until I saw it was the CDC.

COHEN: No, the CDC is usually straight-laced and doesn't use words like that, so I was surprised to see it, too.

What's so scary is that they're on the rise and there's not a whole lot you can do about them.

I mean, some antibiotics do work, most don't, but the ones that do, they're toxic. They can hurt your kidneys. They can cause neurological problems. Or the ones that do, some of the ones that do work -- barely work at all.

And, so, what this newest data shows is that more than 200 hospitals and nursing -- about 200 hospitals and nursing homes in the country, all of them have seen at least one patient with this super bug. And it spreads, right?

BALDWIN: Incredible numbers.

COHEN: I know. I know.

BALDWIN: So, now, if I'm the patient and -- or I'm scheduling a surgery and I'm listening to this story at home right now, is there anything preventative that I can do short of not breathing.

COHEN: Well, first of all, you should realize that you are vulnerable, that even if you're going in just because you broke your leg or whatever and the rest of you is fine, that broken leg can get -- that site could get infected.

So, here are the things to remember. Number one, this bug is spread by the hands of doctors and nurses. They spread it. So, whenever anyone comes in your room and wants to touch you, you say, I want to see you wash your hands.

And don't worry about making friends. You're not there to make friends. You're there to get out of there alive.

So, if you don't see them wash or sterilize their hands, they can't touch you. Clean your own hands often and, also, if you have a catheter in you, get it out as soon as you can. Not yourself, of course, but tell the doctor or the nurse, this has been in for a now. Can we get it out? Those are great places for bacteria to grow.

BALDWIN: You know, when I was looking after my dad when he was in the hospital, he had a catheter and I had no knowledge about the length of time one should be in there, one shouldn't be.

How are you supposed to know -- you can't take it out all the time.

COHEN: You have to be -- right, right. Sometimes it has to be in there. I mean, they put it in there for a reason, but doctors will tell you they get left in there and then somebody says, oh, gee, we should have taken this out a couple of days ago.

It's not OK to just have it hanging out. It should be in there for the amount of time it needs to be in there and then it needs to come out.

So, you, the patient, sometimes, or the family of the patient needs to be the one keeping track. Hey, doctor, can this thing come out?

BALDWIN: And I hope they're developing something that eventually will be able to attack this.

COHEN: Well, the problem is they don't think there's going to be a new antibiotic for like another 10 years. Antibiotics ...

BALDWIN: Ten years?

COHEN: Antibiotics are not developed quickly. It can take a very, very long time, and that's why they're so concerned about this. BALDWIN: Oh, my God. New headline, 10 years.

Elizabeth, that's very distressing. Thank you. Thanks for bringing it to light.

By the way, you can read a lot more on how to avoid infections like this. Just go to our website, CNN.com/empoweredpatient.

Jodi Arias, grilled by lawyers for two weeks, and now, guess who gets to ask some questions. The people who are going to judge whether she lives or dies.

That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: British tabloids reporting Prince William and Kate Middleton are having a little girl. This is based on something that the duchess herself has said, rather, perhaps, what she didn't say.

As a woman handed her a teddy bear as a baby gift, she said, quote, "Thank you, I'll take that for my ..." and then quickly stopped herself before she said any further "D"-words.

The baby is due in July. So sweet.

Do you think that you've had a rough day? Yeah, don't want to be the foreman on that job.

A 14-ton support tower for power lines got away from a crane operator in Oregon's (inaudible) Bay. I hope I pronounced that right. It brought the whole shebang down.

There was nobody hurt, thank God, but somebody definitely has a little explaining to do. Hate when that happens. Makes for good TV, though.

The CEO of Yahoo! may be setting a trend because one week after Marissa Mayer banned telecommuting at her company, Best Buy has decided to end its own flexible work program. The company says some of those affected may still be able to telecommute or set some flexible schedules. This time though, they have to talk to their manager about it first.

For 15 days on the witness stand, we have seen accused murderer Jodi Arias effectively coddled by her defense team and then attacked by the prosecution. And today the jury gets its turn. That's right. It's very strange, but Arizona is one of three states that actually allows the jurors to ask questions of the witnesses.

Awesome. Now this group has a lot to ask because they've now apparently submitted somewhere around 100 -- 100 -- questions over the course of her testimony. We're going to have more on that in just a moment. But first, CNN's Randi Kaye tells us what went down in this courtroom just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): If you believe what Jodi Arias says on the stand, Travis Alexander told her marrying her would be like winning the wife lottery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Had he ever proposed to you?

JODI ARIAS, MURDER SUSPECT: Yes, he did over the phone once.

KAYE (voice-over): So if their relationship was so good, that even marriage was being discussed, how on Earth did it get this bad? Again today, Arias' defense team tried to prove it was all self-defense. She shared this story of past abuse of Alexander choking her.

ARIAS: At first I thought of clawing at his face but then I couldn't -- I couldn't do that. It didn't feel right to gouge his eyes out or something.

KAYE (voice-over): Citing examples like Alexander tying Arias to the bed with rope, the defense tried to show Alexander controlled her and when he wanted sex, he took it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would it be fair to say he had an all-access pass to your body?

ARIAS: Yes.

KAYE: And what about Arias' failing memory the day Alexander died? She has testified that she shot Alexander first and doesn't remember anything after that.

Here in court, her defense lawyer tried to raise even the slightest doubt that it was Arias who stabbed Alexander nearly 30 times and sliced his throat so deep his head was nearly cut off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any memories of slashing Mr. Alexander's throat?

ARIAS: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You -- when you were asked on cross-examination if you did that, do you recall telling us that you did?

ARIAS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was that a recollection or a logical assumption on your part?

ARIAS: It was definitely not a recollection.

KAYE (voice-over): What might have been Arias' motive? Was she, perhaps, driven to kill after finding out Alexander had been seeing another woman?

ARIAS: I certainly wasn't thrilled. No, I was devastated when I discovered that he wasn't being faithful to me. KAYE (voice-over): The defense was quick to point out Arias knew Alexander was cheating for some time and still kept having sex with him, an attempt to show Arias didn't just snap on the day of the killing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is something you had a longstanding knowledge of before June 4th of 2008, isn't that correct?

ARIAS: Yes.

KAYE (voice-over): For first time Arias told the jury she wishes she could turn back the clock and make some different decisions regarding Alexander. She said she thought he needed help, especially she says she found him masturbating to a picture of a young boy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a startling event, was it not?

ARIAS: Yes, it was very shocking.

KAYE (voice-over): The prosecutor had cast doubt on this claim by questioning Arias about why she didn't share such a shocking event in her journal.

ARIAS: Also it's a highly negative event and it was a negative experience for me and it's not something that I wished to remember.

KAYE (voice-over): Nor does she want to remember the day Alexander died.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The events of June 4th, 2008, do you want to remember those?

ARIAS: There's a part of me that doesn't ever want to remember it. I feel like I'm the person who deserves to sit with those memories.

KAYE (voice-over): Randi Kaye, CNN, Phoenix, Arizona.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: I want to bring in Vinnie Politan (ph) and Ryan Smith (ph) now from our sister network, HLN, because y'all have the best perspective on this. You've been wall-to-wall on this coverage. And truly as a juror, you see a trial wall-to-wall.

As a TV viewer you see excerpts and as much as the networks can provide. But in this particular case the jury has everything to work with. And they are going to start asking questions.

What do we expect them to ask about? What -- or do we --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I didn't have a chance to tell your producer, but I have (inaudible) three of the questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got questions right there. The first one --

BANFIELD: Oh, look at you.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have some connections in Maricopa County. First question is --

BANFIELD: Been to the jail, have you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really?

BANFIELD: Really, Jodi? OK. Good one. All right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The second one is --

BANFIELD: Oh, here we go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- do you think we were born yesterday?

And the last one I found most telling: Jodi, do you ever stop talking?

BANFIELD: This is --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know how you feel.

BANFIELD: And here's the deal: many of them might have questions somewhat similar, but the judge doesn't read them all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, what they do is the judge will take them; the lawyers will each get a chance to seize them -- so the prosecution and the defense -- and they'll eliminate dupes so you won't see all 100 asked.

And then eventually they'll get to a point where they can ask questions that can be asked in that courtroom. But you never know what they're going to come through with. And this why this is so good because I -- and I wish they had it in every state because, honestly, we want to see what the jury is thinking.

But more than that it gives you a sense, even as a lawyer, what are they thinking? Where are they going? It helps them form their closing arguments.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they have to figure out what happened here. So they should be able to ask questions. But here's the little twist with Jodi Arias; she gets the questions ahead of time.

BANFIELD: No, she doesn't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, she does.

BANFIELD: She gets her own personal discovery? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She'll have them one, two -- I think three hours beforehand. She'll have an hour with the questions in front of her with her lawyer, then the questions go to the prosecutor. He looks at them for an hour but she now has another hour to think about an answer, then goes lunch.

She has another hour to think about an answer. So she'll have three hours to prepare to answer the questions.

BANFIELD: I'm not going to suggest for a moment that I understand jurisprudence in most states. But what would be the reason that anybody who gets up on a stand would get advance knowledge of what questions are going to be, other than from your own lawyer?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Constitution.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- because she -- she --

BANFIELD: What's the benefit here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- she could -- she could defend herself and the lawyers are reviewing the questions. So if the lawyer can review it, her lawyer can, she can.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. And so we want to give her that right, it's the same right she would have on any other questioning or at least the discovery that's coming out.

BANFIELD: Yes, or no, most hated woman in America, Casey Anthony or Jodi Arias?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Casey Anthony.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would still say Casey.

BANFIELD: Oh, well, there you go. I had to get the Casey word in there again.

One second. Don't go away. I have got something coming up in the next segment that I wanted to get you to weigh in on.

Van (ph), do you have the -- can you just (inaudible) this thing? Thank you.

Do you know what this is?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a baseball bat. Bat day at Shea Stadium.

BANFIELD: It's a toy, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

BANFIELD: It's a toy. It looks kind of innocuous, doesn't it? Does that sound innocuous to you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

BANFIELD: So guess what? You can bring this on a plane now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really?

BANFIELD: Do you want to know what else you can bring on a plane?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

BANFIELD: That's coming up next.

What a tease. What a tease.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: If you fly, you have probably lost your cool once or twice, even quietly with those maddening TSA restrictions on what you can and cannot carry onto your flight. Let's just take for instance like the pocketknife here, 35 million Americans carry -- I don't; this happens to belong to my producer, full disclosure here.

See all of those people, though? I bet a lot of them have had to turn over something to a TSA agent before being allowed to get on their planes.

But they and you are going to get a break starting this April 25th because that's when the TSA has decided to lift a ban on some things, like small pocketknives and a couple of others things as well that may have been on your list of things you want to take on the plane.

Are you ready? It's a demo.

For all those people who play lacrosse, you're good, good to go. You can take it on board. And for those of you who just can't wait to get to your next pool tournament or you just carry your cue because you're that good of a ringer, pool cues, you're good to go. You can take those on board as well.

My favorite -- I'm talking to you, NHL fans, the hockey stick. Some of these things are really special and really important and you don't want to check them. An now you can take the giant hockey stick on board.

And then there's was some people consider weapons: baseball bats. But these are toys, right? Listen.

So pretty innocuous. You can bring those on board now. Remember this with Vinnie and Ryan, I said yes, that's not so innocuous. Like a fish bonker. But you can bring the toy on, even though it's pretty solid and it has some weight to it.

Golf clubs, yes, only two, sorry. If you have your favorite putter and your driver, you're good, you can take those on board, but you can't bring on anything more than two. I don't know what you could do with more than two anyway. You only have two hands.

Now here's where we get to the knives, this is important, because the one I showed you, that has a locking handle. And even though it's a small blade, take a peek, no, if it is a locking handle, no go.

But, for those Leatherman types of things where you have all sorts of instruments -- I'm not sure which this one is called, but it's Swiss armyish and has lots of little tools on it and blades and scissors, that's fine. That's OK.

So is this one, look at that, little scissors, kind of sharp. But again no locking blade and there's that little knife on the end.

Specs on the knives, because it's important: they are not going to measure them but they are going to keep an eye out for them. Your blade on your knife can't be more than 2.36 inches long. I don't know why they chose that number, but 2.36 inches long. It also can't be more than a half inch thick at its widest point.

So I'm not sure if that's a half inch, but this one, even though the blade might be short enough, it also locks so you can't take that, despite the length. Locking blade and a molded grip, all out of the question. You cannot do that.

There are a couple of things still that you can't be free from. Ready? These are not mine, just for the record. But you know when you have to take your shoes off, you still have to take your shoes off.

You still have to put your belt in the bin and you still can't bring these little guys, you know, like your shampoo and a little thing of hairspray if it's not this, travel size. Liquids are still out of the question. Kind of frustrating for a lot of people, because this is what we've been hassled with a lot as well and yet still no go.

OK. There are a couple of other things that might surprise you. You still can't bring these things on board. I don't know why the TSA told us this, but they did. You can't bring guns. You can't bring axes or meat cleavers on board. I'm sorry, Martha.

And also box cutters are still out. Cattle prods are still out. And dynamite is a no-go. And hand grenades are a no-go. So I'm sorry, guys, your hand grenades, you got to leave them at home. Put them in your checked luggage -- I'm sure you can't do that, either.

Joining me now is flight attendant Leslie Mayo, she's with the Association of Professional Flight Attendants.

And while I made jokes about some of this stuff, you're not happy about some of these things. Why is it? To many of us, it seems so innocuous. Why is it not?

LESLIE MAYO, ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: Well, first, thanks for having me, Ashleigh. At the APFA, which is the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, we represent the American airline flight attendants, our top priority is always the safety of our passengers.

So this announcement is a little bit concerning. And currently we're looking into it, trying to get to the bottom of why this decision was made.

BANFIELD: So can I ask you -- look, I get it; this bat I brought up, this toy thing, I mean, I couldn't do anything with this. It just seemed like a joke that I wouldn't have been able to bring this on board before.