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CNN NEWSROOM

More Snowstorms Hitting the Northeast; NBC's Brian Williams Steps Aside; Bruce Jenner Involved in Car Accident; U.S. Cautiously Supports Ukraine's Peace Talks; Convicted Murderer May Get New Trial Thanks To Wildly Popular Podcast; Three More Babies In Chicago With Confirmed Cases Of Measles

Aired February 8, 2015 - 16:00   ET

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


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Happening right now in the NEWSROOM, bracing for another winter blast. Mother Nature about to dump a lot more snow, in some areas of the northeast and that's on top of the several feet of snow already on the ground.

Plus things aren't getting any better for Brian Williams.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Now he has -- while NBC figures out what is true and what's not true?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Plus the measles outbreak continues to spread around the country. We're answering your questions about the virus and the vaccine. Tweet your questions to me at fwhitfield #measles.

All right. Hello again and thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

The northeast bracing for yet another major storm. More than 6 1/2 million people this time are in the path of the storm and it comes as Boston is dealing with record breaking amounts of snow. These are live pictures right now of Boston where the mayor just asked -- these are live pictures right here. Just asked businesses to allow employees to work from home tomorrow. He also announced school closures.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MARTY WALSH, BOSTON: Boston public schools will be closed Monday and Tuesday of this week. We'll be closing down school for both days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. So let's bring in our meteorologist, Tom Sader. Oh my gosh, here we go again. Poor folks in Boston.

TOM SADER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, poor school children that will find themselves in class in July. This is so different than the last couple storms that we've had to deal with. It's not a classis nor'easter with your hurricane force winds. In fact, we don't even have a blizzard warning, but the criteria is going to closer with the wind.

This clipper comes in from Canada, three to six inches typically. Not with this one. They're all different. We got a frontal system that is draping far enough to the south near Philadelphia that's going to allow moisture to come in from the Atlantic, so your three to six inches typically is going to be about a foot, up to two in a few areas.

So again, it's a lot different than the last ones but it's the same headache. Move your cars in Boston, they're going to start to tow now, by 6:00 p.m. That's the deadline. But again, warnings not for Buffalo, but winter storm warnings for Syracuse to Albany to Providence to Boston, of course, Portland as well, where the weather is going to get worse before it gets better.

The heaviest stuff comes really tonight. Boston has picked up another inch, they were at 4.6, mainly 15 around is what we're thinking, give or take a few inches, but there could be pockets of two feet. Again, it looks like it's going to be parts of Connecticut, Masschussets, Vermont, New Hampshire, into Maine as well, upstate New York it doesn't look impressive right now, but in the next couple of hours we're going to start to see this fill in, more headaches, and there may even be the coldest air of the season by the end of the week. But before that even occurs maybe more snow Thursday into Friday for the same area. It's amazing.

WHITFIELD: So there's going to be that crunchy layer from this weekend's snow that will be underneath the snow that's coming later on in the week.

SADER: And underneath from the last week and the week before --

WHITFIELD: That's going to be so hard to remove. Forget that. All right. Thanks so much, Tom.

Well, there's more. Let's go to Sara Ganim who is there in Boston. So, Sara, you're on safer high ground, because these streets are very narrow, made even more narrow because of the way in which they've been plowed. What's going on there?

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Fred, you nailed it. This is the problem here. These snow piles are piling up with each storm, and there's no place to put all the snow. It's an unprecedented amount of snow, because they're coming back to back to back, and residents here are worried that with the budgets busting from this year's snow already, there's no place to put all of the snow, and it's not getting off the streets fast enough.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GANIM (voice-over): A winter weary northeast is bracing for yet another round of snow. This coming after a series of back to back to back storms that have already unleashed record amounts of snow in the region.

(voice-over): What's it been like the last few weeks having back-to- back snowstorms? What's it been like for business?

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Really slow. Like days we've sat around with literally nothing to do, and all we do is bleach the counters.

GANIM: And it's not just wearing down residents, city and state agencies across the northeast are close to busting their budgets in an effort to keep up.

In Boston mother nature has dumped more than 54 inches already on the ground, not a record-breaking year, but more than average, and enough to strain resources.

WALSH: If we continue to get the snow we're going to get, we'll shatter our budget for snow. The budget for snow is roughly $18 million. We're not over the top yet with the $18 million, we still have money underneath the cap, but we're heading towards that.

GANIM: City officials across the state are also saying they're approaching their snow removal budget for the year. In Worcester, records are already broken. 77 inches have fallen, and it's still February.

And in New Hampshire, officials say their salt supplies are dwindling. Some areas have seen 48 inches of snow in the last few weeks. Suppliers are having a hard time keeping up with those demands.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: We got about a $1.2 million, we spent somewhere between $800,000 to 900,000. We spent money over the last couple of weeks with the storms that we've had.

GANIM: And even more snow is still on the way. A frustrating prospect for residents who are having a hard time getting around.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: I don't know how much money the city has lost at this point from all this snow, but if we don't get rid of it and allow people to function normally and allow me and my co-workers to go to work normally, customers come in normally, then businesses can't function.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GANIM: So Fred, you heard that one resident say that's the concern -- there's no place to put all this snow, it's making the streets more narrow, it's harder to drive, it's harder for cars that have good visibility when they're coming around corners. Pedestrians we've seen a lot of them walking in the streets today, because a lot of times the sidewalks aren't plowed.

Now the mayor actually held a press conference earlier today, ahead of the storm which is supposed to pick up tonight. He said their budget for snow removal is already gone, it's spent this year but he isn't going to stop dealing with the snow. In fact they're trying to work out a deal with the state of New York to bring in snow melters, to try and get rid of some of the snow, so it doesn't sit, continue to sit on the streets. It's only february, Fred. They cannot have this much snow sitting around all the rest of the winter.

WHITFIELD: Oh my goodness, no indeed. All right. Folks are just going to have to hang and hang tight and work together. All right. Thanks so much, Sara Ganim. Appreciate it.

All right. Talk about in the middle of the storm, NBC's Brian Williams, well, he will not be anchoring "Nightly News" for several days. He said he has decided to pull himself off the desk temporarily over the scandal surrounding his inaccurate account of one of his Iraq war stories. In a memo to his staff, Williams writes "It has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news due to my actions."

The longtime anchor has apologized for a story that he has told multiple times about a 2003 mission in Iraq in which he describes being part of a chopper convoy that was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. In fact his helicopter was never hit by an RPG, another one was. One of the pilots who was in the helicopter convoy that actually got hit, shared his story for the first time on television right here on CNN.

He tells our Brian Stelter that years ago he told NBC about Williams' embellishments.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFED MALE: I wrote MSNBC at the time, because it was a website I went to.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm sorry. I'm going to tell our viewers at home at that time, that msnbc.com was the website for NBC News. So that's why you went to msnbc.com.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Correct.

STELTER: You wrote to NBC to do what? To get them to correct it?

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Just to alert them that the facts were incorrect because, you know, stating that Mr. Williams was not part of our flight, he was in a different flight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Joining me right now is Robert Thompson, director for the Center for Media Studies and CNN global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier. Good to see both of you again.

So Robert, you know, Brian said he is taking a break for several days. He removed himself, this was not a mandate from the network. They continue to investigate, but do you see him especially as the conversation seems to grow, the op-eds that are written, from the "New York Times," "The Washington Post," do you see him surviving this storm and actually survive the investigation at NBC? And ever return to the chair? ROBERT THOMPSON, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR MEDICA STUDIES: Well, survive is one thing. Return to the chair is something else. I would be very surprised if Brian Williams goes back to being the anchor of the "NBC Evening News." And part of that is that even before the investigation shows anything, he has not denied that he embellished this story. He talked about it on the air on Wednesday. So that part doesn't even need an investigation, and I think probably in the end, this several days is going to spread out to be forever.

What's interesting about what's coming out lately and what this investigation may bring out is if we find out that people had been telling NBC that this story was wrong and NBC wasn't reporting it, or wasn't correcting it, then NBC may have a lot of other problems that go a lot deeper than just not bringing Brian Williams himself back.

So this credibility thing -- we're going to have to see how deep it goes with the investigation but the Brian Williams part of it I think is a pretty simple decision.

WHITFIELD: Well, that's a pretty fascinating, you know, component that you talked about. How far reaching was this story telling, people trying to call the attention of leadership now. There's new leadership at NBC, so there's a bit of a departure between perhaps the new leadership and what may have been said over the years, but I think it's very hard to understand how when you go on assignments like this, and Kimberly, you can chime in on this.

When you go on assignments like this, you know this as a CBS correspondent, I know it as working at MSNBC and NBC as a correspondent that you are with a team. You have producers with you, photographers, sound men, women and they are with you and they are not far from you, perhaps even shooting inside the chopper with you. So they can either corroborate or debunk your story.

And it's hard to believe that no one did that, no one chimed in to say, you know, that story that Brian is telling, well, now it's kind of evolving into something else. I mean, Kimberly, is that one of the hardest things for you to believe in all of this.

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, what I've been waiting to here form is -- look, I want to hear more from Brian Williams. Just like we would ask a top U.S. official to explain their public comments, we need to hear an explanation from him.

Was it a difference in memory? Did he start remembering things differently? Was he told something later by someone who was also on the trip who said "hey, did you realize you were also under fire?" All of that could happen but he would have had a producer or camera man there to capture his images, so NBC -- what they're probably doing right now is talking to everyone who was there at the time, to make sure they tell the story right when they tell it.

But one thing I have to say, when you are inside a Chinook, as you can see from those pictures on the outside, you can't see very well.

WHITFIELD: Right. DOZIER: And if you are in a group of four helicopters and one of them gets shot at or shot down, all four take evasive maneuvers. All four usually also fire something called chaff. It makes an explosive sound, maybe Williams thought something very dramatic was happening to him. If so, let's hear it.

WHITFIELD: Yes, that sound kind of ricocheting, and then too, you have your own experiences in covering the Iraq war. You're near-death experience, and it's always still remarkable that you have recovered the way you have. You bring this incredible perspective to this story as well.

But can you also help us understand because I want to give Brian Williams the benefit of the doubt as a former colleague of his. I can also understand how sometimes you forget certain details, and then when you're covering war and you are sleep deprived.

DOZIER: Jetlag.

WHITFIELD: So many components of being in a hostile region, help us understand how possibly it can be that maybe you misconstrued the facts. So there's that kind of fog of war, fog of memory.

DOZIER: I mean I also want to give Brian Williams the benefit of the doubt. I ran into him in the field in Iraq in dangerous places, dangerous situations, when he was flying along with generals, you know, there was always the possibility that he could get attacked.

Look, at my particular bomb scene, when we were attacked in 2006, and I lost our two team members from CBS News, afterwards -- and we lost the captain we were filming that day and his translator, I spoke to as many of the other soldiers who survived afterwards, to try to piece together to see if what I could remember while I was lying there injured matched their memories, it was an important part of the recovery process. No two people seemed to have the same exact point of view.

We each had slightly misordered things. It's part of what the brain does to cope with trauma, and sometimes especially if you've been through several experiences that are similar, the brain kind of melds them together. These are all things that can happen. What we need to hear from Williams is does he think that's what happened? Or did he just get sloppy telling the story in a public setting? And then it was too awkward to correct it afterwards?

WHITFIELD: Right. Great points. Robert, we actually saw an example of that just in the past couple days. There were two different chopper pilots that were interviewed by our Brian Stelter a couple of days ago, and then one who was interviewed by Jake Tapper one night, and then the next day, he actually recanted and say, you know what actually I wasn't the pilot of that chopper.

That kind of underscores how things like that can happen. So Robert now, NBC's job here I guess is at this point is to try to figure out, is it the fog of war? Or is it embellishing? Is it, you know, running away with the facts? Is it creating, making up a story? Putting credibility and trust on the line? That ends up being the bottom line for NBC to investigate, right? THOMPSON: That's all true. And yes, and far be it from me to say

that being in combat situations I am sure is highly traumatic, and does all kinds of things to one's brain, but I think what we've got here is a string of events of how this story was told between 2003 and the apology on Wednesday night where Brian Williams is not actually claiming that, "no, I wasn't lying, this is what I remembered."

It seemed the story changed, and then he talked about what happened on Wednesday night. My thinking is now NBC is going to find out who knew what and when they knew it, and who didn't say what, and then NBC management now is going to want to distance itself from news management then.

WHITFIELD: Oh gosh. It's a terrible situation all the way around, it really is and so awkward to talk about, no matter what. All right. Robert Thompson, Kimberly Dozier, thank you so much to both of you. Appreciate it.

DOZIER: Thanks, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up, the fighting and shelling continues in Ukraine, but there is a small sign of hope, actually. Details are emerging on new plans for peace talks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We could see a breakthrough in peace for Ukraine this week. Several European leaders including Russia and Ukraine will sit down for a meeting on Wednesday. They hope to revive a peace agreement that's been in tater since it was signed back in September. This comes as dozens more were killed over the weekend as fighting intensified in and around the city of Danask.

CNN's Matthew Chance has details.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, this could be the last chance for a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Ukraine, which has pitched Russia against the west. The French and German leaders are set to join their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts for a crucial summit on Wednesday to try and bring the bloodshed to an end.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE (voice-over): With this upsurge in violence in Eastern Ukraine, diplomacy is also being stepped up. At the weekend, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany spoke by telephone. German officials say a package of measures to try and reach a comprehensive settlement of the conflict was discussed.

The next step a face to face negotiation in Minsk, Belarus, at the meeting that country's president on Sunday, Vladimir Putin hinted it was not a done deal.

UNIDENTIFED MALE (through translator): I want to start our conversation today, that by informing you that I have just (INAUDIBLE) with my colleagues in Kiev, Berlin and Paris in the Normandy format. We agreed that we will try to organize a summit meeting in this same format in Minsk. We are planning for Wednesday if we succeed in settling various points that we have discussed so intensively over these last days.

CHANCE: On Friday, the French and German leaders were in Moscow for what the Kremlin described as meaningful and constructive talks. Details are sketchy, with the new peace plan on the table.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE: A truce between the warring sides was already agreed last September also in Minsk. The Minsk protocol calls for heavy weapons to be pulled back, self-rule in eastern regions, and a buffer zone to be set up along the Russia-Ukraine border. The new plan envisions a much broader demilitarized zone to run along the current front lines.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE (voice-over): Also different is the timing. Washington is already mulling supplies of arms to the Ukrainian government. It is a growing sense in the United States and Europe that time for diplomatic solution is running out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHANCE: Over the next few days will be crucial. President (INAUDIBLE) is set to meet the German chancellor at the White House, an effort to broker a cease-fire in Ukraine is top of their agenda. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Matthew Chance, thank you so much.

Still ahead, Bruce Jenner involved in a deadly car crash. New details on what led to the chain reaction accident.

And keep your tweets coming. We have a doctor on set answering all of your measles questions. Tweet me at @fwhitfield #measles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The Los Angeles County sheriff's department says there is no indication that paparazzi played a role in the deadly California crash involving Bruce Jenner. Investigators say Jenner's SUV rear- ended a Lexus sending it to oncoming traffic where it was hit head-on by a Hummer. The driver of the Lexus was killed.

CNN's Stephanie Elam joins us now with more on the investigation. Where is it?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. At this point the sheriff's department is saying that this investigation remains a traffic accident with a fatality. That's what they're looking at.

What we know is a four-car accident. There was a car in front of that Lexus. They had an accident first before what we're being told is Bruce Jenner's SUV rear-ended that Lexus that hit it into oncoming traffic, where that Lexus was hit by a Hummer. We now know that the woman that died was died was 69 years old. But they have still not released the name of this woman who has died.

They also said there were reports out there that Jenner may have been smoking, and the sheriff's department saying at this point they have no indication that that's anything to look into or whether or not he was doing that. They're not releasing that information at this point.

But at this point, it's important to state here that they're saying that this is a traffic accident with a fatality. It has not moved further on into something more egregious. But still a very sad story because a woman lost her life yesterday. Fred.

WHITFIELD: Sad story. All right. Thanks so much, Stephanie Elam. Keep us posted if there's anything new from that investigation later on.

All right. What can world leaders do to stop Russian President Putin's actions in Ukraine? That's the question that lawmakers and diplomats are asking but can they agree? Erin McPike is live for us right now in Washington. Erin.

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, the Obama administration is still hoping for a political solution to this crisis , but they're leaving

an opening. More on that, after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Hello again. Thanks for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The U.S. says it supports Ukraine peace talks, but with fighting intensifying in Eastern Ukraine, there's a big note of caution that goes with that support. Erin McPike is in Washington for us this afternoon.

MCPIKE: Well, Fred, Secretary Kerry is pointing to President Putin saying the ball is in his court. As you'll see here, Kerry is trying to leave the United States some room to alter its strategy if Putin doesn't stand down. Listen here to Kerry this morning on NBC's Meet The Press.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: The solution is a political/diplomatic one, but President Putin has got to make the decision to take an off- ramp, and we have to make it clear to him that we are committed to the sovereignty and integrity of Ukraine, no matter what.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCPIKE: And Kerry and Vice President Biden continue to stress in Europe this weekend that Ukraine has the right to defend itself, but, Fred, as you and I have been discussing on this program for almost the last year, they are trying to find ways to de-escalate the situation rather than create conditions for an all-out war. Now, unfortunately, the situation there continues to escalate, and although the Obama administration hasn't stopped short of providing aides to the Ukrainians, they're beginning to open the door to some of these new options, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Erin McPike, thanks so much in Washington.

All right, so what is the next move for the U.S. in the crisis in Ukraine? I'm joined by Rob Brownstein, he is the CNN senior political analyst and the editorial director at the National Journal in Los Angeles. Good to see you. And Larry Sabato, he is the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, joining us from Charlottesville.

Good to see you as well. OK, so gentlemen, recently Senator John McCain has said he doesn't trust Putin, and the best way to get leverage on him outside of sanctions is to have a military presence. Does that mean, Ron, that U.S. -- the U.S. military would have to be involved particularly in the training capacity if it were to deliver more arsenals?

ROB BROWNSTEIN, SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think that would be a far step, I think for the U.S. to take, and I don't think that is what is on the table right now. I mean, the debate right now really is about whether to provide arms to the Ukrainian forces, which are -- which is resisted by the European leaders almost universally at this point, and the debate is not so much between the administration and the congress. I think it's between the administration and the European allies which are much less enthusiastic about this idea, than either of the U.S. administration much less the Hawks in congress.

WHITFIELD: Larry, how do you see it? The U.S. says possibly yes to some military arsenal, some weapons to assist Ukraine, but then European nation, France and Germany say no, let's continue talking.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, providing arms is one thing. I think as long as it's just providing arms, the administration could do that and the senior members of congress would probably be in approval of that, and the public opinion would probably by as well. If there's any possibility of the United States getting more deeply involved, there would be great opposition, certainly in the public, maybe not in the congress, but certainly in the public. So I think given all the other crises the United States is facing, this is one where a combination of diplomacy and providing arms to others may be the best combination.

WHITFIELD: And I think the real common denominator here is Russia being at a standstill, Putin not necessarily wanting to negotiate, even though symbolically coming to the table, but Ron, you know, what does this mean? Can anyone reach him, so to speak? Can any nation really talk to him? Can any nation have any real leverage? I mean, this just seems like a broken record. It goes on and on and on.

BROWNSTEIN: Right. Fred, that's correct exactly right. That is what makes this so difficult. There is no circumstance under this which matters more to us than it does to them, and that ultimately, the Russians have in this case, you know, what the military experts call escalation dominance. No matter what we do to support Ukraine, they can do more to increase pressure on them. Ultimately, they will go further in a military direction than certainly the U.S., and even Europe is willing to go on the other side. And so what we have done is tried to impose the maximum cost on him for this behavior through economics sanctions, which have imposed a serious cost on the Russian economy. The challenge is that he is willing to bear that cost in order to advance his aims across the border.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, Larry, on the Russian economy, on the Russian people, but, you know, Mr. Putin doesn't seem to be flinching.

SABATO: No, I gather they've lowered the taxes on vodka, so that may have something to do with it. Frankly I think Ron is absolutely correct. Putin has no real incentive to de-escalate the situation. He can easily handle this level of involvement, and he's right there. It's in his sphere of influence. For us, it's a world away. We have far greater challenges in the world, far greater crises that our people and congress and the president are focused on. Larry Sabato, Ron Brownstein, thank you gentlemen. Always appreciate you joining me.

SABATO: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: And if you want to help the people in Ukraine, go to cnn.com/impact and get information there.

A convicted murderer may be getting a new trial because of a Podcast? The troubling legal questions raised by the program and the possibility consequences.

Then can you get measles twice? It's just one of the many questions that you have been sending us, been tweeting us. Our doctor is in the house to answer. Keep tweeting us your measles questions to @FWhitfield #measles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A convicted murderer who has spent the last 15 years in jail may get a new trial thanks to a wildly popular Podcast. That Podcast is known as Serial, and it has been bringing its listeners in cliff-hanging detail the inconsistencies in the Adnan Syed murder trial, which involved his high school girlfriend who was killed back in 1999. It took 12 episodes to tell the story. Here's a sample of what listeners heard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH KOENIG, SERIAL PRODUCER AND HOST: When I first met Adnan in person, I was struck by two things. He was way bigger than I expected, barrel chested and tall. In the photos I have seen, he was still a lengthy teenager with struggling facial hair and sagging jeans. But now he was 32, he had spent nearly half his life in prison. And the second thing, which you can't miss about Adnan is that he has giant brown eyes, like a dairy cow. That's prompts my most idiotic line of inquiry, could someone who looks like that really strangle his girlfriend? Idiotic, I know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Nick Valencia is here with details on this. Now what?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, this story has gripped the attention of so many including myself. Millions across the world tune in every week to find out these new details and now, Serial, the attention it brought to this 15-year-old murder case has given it new life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: This is Serial, the most talked about podcast in 2014. And now, the man at the heart of it is getting a new chance to overturn his conviction. On Friday, the Maryland court of appeals agreed to hear Adnan Syed's case, a decision based on the claim that Syed's original attorney failed to call a key witness who gave him an alibi. It's a huge victory for the 33-year-old. In 2000, he was convicted of the murder in the death of then ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The last time 18-year-old Hae Min Lee was seen alive, she was here at Woodlawn High School. This past Tuesday, she was finally found, a passerby in Lincoln Park discovered her body, hastily buried in a shallow grave.

VALENCIA: Syed's became a familiar name to millions around the world last year because of the journalist Sarah Koenig, who focused her podcast on the 1999 Baltimore murder case.

KOENIG: Something doesn't make sense here in this case, and I don't know where the problem is, and so, it really is just me trying to figure that out.

VALENCIA: The drama was downloaded a record-breaking 5 million times, but perhaps more importantly, it cast reasonable doubt among listeners that Syed might have been sentenced to life in prison for a crime he did not commit.

KOENIG: You can take any one piece and say well, that part didn't happen, but that doesn't mean the whole entire thing is corrupt.

VALENCIA: On Friday, Syed's attorney tweeted this. We will be heard by the court of special appeals, it's another step in the direction of winning a new trial for Adnan.

ADNAN SYED, CONVICTED MURDERER:(Inaudible) you're a jerk, you're selfish, you know, you're a crazy S.O.B., you would just stay in there in the rest of your life, except I looked at your case, and it looks a little off, like something is not right.

VALENCIA: While Koenig's podcast may have drawn attention to the case, the wheels were in motion for an appeal well before the p odcast debut. But now, a significant step by the court that will give Serial's army of faithful followers a chance at solving the biggest mystery, did Adnan Syed really do it?

(END VIDEO CLIP) VALENCIA: This would be the first step in what no doubt will be a long, lengthy process, first, the defense for Adnan Syed has the burden to prove one, that a mistake was made by his original counsel, and two, that that mistake would have changed the outcome of the trial. So this is not over yet.

WHITFIELD: No, it is not. But this really could be the beginning stages because it really could be some time before things get under way.

VALENCIA: Right. They just had this hearing in January, so now the appeal. If that appeal, if it's successful for Adnan Syed, then he gets the trial, but then that's going to be difficult for the state, 15 years has passed.

WHITFIELD: Fifteen years, wow.

VALENCIA: So are they witnesses -- I mean, have they gone stale over time? Will they remember?

WHITFIELD: Right.

VALENCIA: How well will they remember?

WHITFIELD: Good point. All right, Nick Valencia, thanks so much.

VALENCIA: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: I appreciate it.

All right, as the measles outbreak continues to spread, a lot of people still have a lot of questions. Our doctor is here. Tweet your questions to @FWhitfield #measles. There's the doctor getting ready to answer your questions. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: It has been confirmed, three more babies have measles in Chicago. All three attended a Chicago area daycare where two other children came down with the disease. That brings the total number of cases to 110 in 16 states and Washington, D.C. So we want to answer some of your questions about this highly contagious and potentially deadly disease. Dr. Daria Long-Gillespie, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, joining me right now on set to answer some of the questions you have been tweeting us. So good to see you.

DARIA LONG-GILLESPIE, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR EMERGENCY MEDICINE AT EMORY UNIVERSITY: Great to see you.

WHITFIELD: Here's the first tweeted question. If I had an MMR shot as a child, should I get a booster shot now that I am an adult?

LONG-GILLESPIE: So this really depends on the person's age. If you had your MMR shot, if you were born after 1977 to 1978, you've likely had two doses of MMR and you are covered, you're considered immunity. If you were born before 1957, you were likely exposed to measles, you were likely exposed to measles, and again, immune. It's that 1957 to 1977 period, if you had your vaccine before 1968, it may be the ineffective one that was taken off the market, in which case, yes, you would want to get a booster dose.

WHITFIELD: Wow, so those people would be vulnerable.

LONG-GILLESPIE: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. All right, so here's another question. How long does it take to see the effects and signs of measles after being exposed to it?

LONG-GILLESPIE: About 7 to 12 days after being exposed, and after about 7 to 12, you get what's considered the pro-drone period, that's runny nose, cough and fever as high as 104 to 105 degrees, and redness of the eyes. So in that period you just look like you could have the commonalty cold, so people don't even realize they have measles, but they're contagious for four days before that rash shows up.

WHITFIELD: That would kind of explain in large part this Chicago daycare while we are seeing this. You know, so many days will pass before you hear about another diagnosed case.

LONG-GILLESPIE: Yeah.

WHITFIELD: All right, another question. Do you still need to be concerned about your baby getting measles even if they've already had the vaccine?

LONG-GILLESPIE: So it depends. After your first dose which you get around 12 to 14 months, you're 95 percent protected. So then get the second dose, which most children guess around 4 to 6 years, and they're considered at least 99 percent effective, and for all effective purposes immune.

WHITFIELD: OK. And then how can adults determine whether or not they have had measles? Is there a test for that? I mean, wouldn't you know?

LONG-GILLESPIE: Well, in case, maybe if you were very young, you may not know. So they can get titers, and that is where they draw your blood, and they check your levels of antibodies, and they see if you have antibodies to the measles virus. And if you do, then they would be able to say yes, you have antibodies and you are immune to measles.

WHITFIELD: Is your feeling that the reason why it's spreading, is it because those people, the most recent cases, they didn't have proper vaccinations or they're unvaccinated all together? And that makes them that much more vulnerable or is there another explanation as to why we're seeing the case numbers grow?

LONG-GILLESPIE: Well, you said it yourself. For one, we are having they pockets of unvaccinated people. And that makes it likely that someone could get measles. Number two is it so contagious. So for one, measles droplets remain in the air for two hours at a time. WHITFIELD: And this is from someone coughing or sneezing?

LONG-GILLESPIE: Yes, exactly. And remember we are talking about Ebola and it doesn't live in the air, measles is far more contagious than that. And so if you're exposed because you inhaled one of those droplets and you're not vaccinated, you have a 90 percent chance of getting infected with measles.

WHITFIELD: You're that much more vulnerable if you're in like a confined space, you know if you're sharing a room with someone? Airplanes even?

LONG-GILLESPIE: Airplanes, yes. Schools, daycares, anywhere where a large number of people are together, and could spread it easily.

WHITFIELD: Are you personally alarmed by these numbers?

LONG-GILLESPIE: I think it's concerning, yes. As both a physician and a mother myself, I was concerned, and I was very relieved when my daughter became 12 months of age and I could get her first dose of vaccine.

WHITFIELD: And then on to age 4.

LONG-GILLESPIE: Right.

WHITFIELD: I thought my kids were good because they are passed the 12 month. They had those shots. But now, oh my gosh, no. I got to wait until they are four or five.

LONG-GILLESPIE: Yeah, at least they're 95 percent effective, but the other thing is if we were to be in an epidemic or your child is exposed, they can have the second dose, as long it's at least 28 days since that first dose.

WHITFIELD: All right, fantastic. Thank you, Dr. Daria Long-Gillespie, good to see you. Thanks so much for coming in.

LONG-GILLESPIE: Thanks very much, Fredricka.

All right, we'll be right back with much more in the NEWSROOM.

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WHITFIELD: Checking our top stories now, legendary University of North Carolina head basketball coach Dean Smith has died at the age of 83. Under his leadership, Chapel Hill won two national championships. Moments ago, the current Tar Heels basketball coach Roy Williams shared what he learned working as an assistant coach to Smith. Smith passed away last night surrounded by his wife and five children.

And fast food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill is apologizing after to its customers after its Twitter account was hacked. Hackers tweeted obscenities and replaced the brand's name icon with a Swastika and after regaining control, the company issued a tweet saying we apologize for the very offensive messaging sent out from our account earlier tonight. We were unfortunately hijacked temporarily.

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OK get ready because I've had enough. I see it all. I see it now.

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WHITFIELD: And tonight is music's biggest night, the 57th Annual Grammy Awards. LL Cool J returns as host with performances from Katy Perry, Iggy Azalea, Rihanna, Coldplay, Beck, and up for record of the year, Ed Sheeran, Pharrell Williams, Sam Smith, Beyonce and Beck.

All right, we have so much more straight ahead in the NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. It all begins right now, the next hour of the NEWSROOM with Poppy Harlow in New York.