Transcripts For CNN American Morning 20100301

search for survivors. this morning we're live on the ground in chile. democrats could be on the verge of passing a billion dollar health care bill without a single republican on board. jim acosta explains the "nuclear option" that could come into play next. a deadly plast of winter weather hits europe. in france, severe flooding has caused dozens of deaths leaving people without power. we'll have a live report ahead. we begin this morning, though, with a country in chaos after two days of one of the strongest earthquakes ever hit that nation. the death toll in chile now over 700 and likely to keep rising. more than 500,000 homes are said to be damaged. on the streets there are scenes of looting. chile's president now calling for international help and today secretary of state hillary clinton is on her way to the region. this morning cnn is covering this story like no one else. we have karl penhaul and, karl, the big problem today appears to be looting. what's going on? >> well, authorities will be trying to keep a lid on that, kiran, because yesterday there was looting in a super market not just far away from here and also at a flour mill and then that city was repeated and police had to step in using riot tactics and firing tear gas to stop, to stop looters looking not only for food but also for some household goods, as well. so, for that very reason, there was a dusk till dawn curfew and that has just finished, kiran. >> of course, karl, we have the images of the devastation of haiti's earthquake still fresh in our mind but chile a country much better prepared for an earthquake, right? >> it is. and funny you should mention haiti, of course, that situation is upper most in people's minds looking for the comparisons here. a rescue crew, a five-fighter rescue crew working on this building here. a 15-story building that simply fell over on its side. that rescue crew had only recently returned from haiti. now, what the head of the firefighters there told me was that chile has a longer culture, longer tradition of preparing for earthquakes. the building codes are much stronger and, of course, it is a much wealthier country. chile has one of the highest per capita incomes in south america, a lot of that is building buildings that can withstand earthquakes. also interesting what the firefighter described, the head firefighter described to me is that when he was in haiti, he realized that the earthquakes went in a kind of a wave he described. he said here it's much more straight forward shaking. he says that that tends not to damage buildings so much, but he points it all to the strenuous building codes that have been put in place. that didn't work for this 15-story building. this is a new building, in fact, and it simply fell on its side. >> unbelievable. karl penhaul for us in chile, thank you. the ground continues to shake in chile making it dangerous for rescue workers. also a huge challenge for aide workers and roads are torn up or simply gone. check it out. it was a bridge over the claro river. soledad o'brien is on the phone with us on her way concepsheen. >> every little bridge, every overpass is a problem to get across. we have been driving now for 12 hours and we stopped first in a town which was weirdly deserted because it was described to us a massive wave rolled through. even though some of the businesses are operating and they have light, many people packed up their stuff and left. the feel of a weirdly deserted town. now we are in a town and we have seen some gas lines, but everything is pretty calm, just about 8:00 in the morning and, again, the same thing here. the roads have massive cracks, but still pretty difficult to get across any of these bridges. 20 minutes ago there was a big aftershock here and it woke a lot of the folks up. people started getting up to get supplies and after that it got very calm again. they have called, though, from this town for ambulances after that aftershock to go into conception where they had massive problems and massive damage as you just saw from karl penhaul's report. here less populated. military is guarding some of those buildings to stave off any looting but here because it's less populated, the damage is not quite so widespread and also, remember, they had a quake in 1960 and, again, in 1985 and many of the people were told took that as a sign to rebuild their homes or reinforce their homes and many of the homes that have withstood the quake are reinforced and police tape wrapped around them. christine? >> certainly a lot of lessons from previous earthquakes. an earthquake that knows tremblers and soledad o'brien, thank you so much. >> great, got it. saturday's earthquake sparked tsunami warnings across the pacific. in hawaii the waves were smaller than expected. it forced thousands of people to seek higher ground. after the 2004 indonesian tsunami that killed hundreds of to warn was just not an option. what does it mean to have two destructive earthquakes strike in such a short period of time? we'll ask roger bilham. president obama talking about health care reform in his weekend web address saying let's get this done. but it doesn't look like thursday's summit did anything to bring congress closer to a compromise. now democrats on the verge of taking a dramatic step. our jim acosta is here to explain the process and the potential consequences from washington this morning. hey, jim. >> good morning, kiran. just because the democrats are talking about reconciliation doesn't mean both parties will join hands and king cue biyeah on capitol hill. democrats are about to try a radical procedure to save the patient and house speaker nancy pelosi said on cnn's "state of the union" they'll do it with or without republican support. >> they have had plenty of opportunity to make their voices heard. >> reporter: the likely path ahead would require tricky legislative surgery. first, the house would vote to approve the senate bill that is already passed. then the senate would use one of its little known rules reconciliation to fix its regular bill. removing portions that were unpopular. like the last-minute sweetheart deal to american ben nelson. >> when we hear the words about reconciliation, it is simply a majority vote. >> reporter: only 51 votes are required to pass a bill and no filibustering allowed. it has been used in the past to expand health care and then some. it was used to pass well care reform through president clinton and tax cuts under george w. bush. when they were in the majority, recognition new oil drilling in alaska. >> if you've got 51 votes, for your position, you win. >> reporter: now in the minority, gop leaders see it differently. >> just because it's been used before for lesser issues, doesn't mean it's appropriate for this issue. >> reporter: republicans are waiving this letter by senate democrat robert byrd who said it would do serious injury to the constitutional role of the senate. >> the danger of what is happening right now in terms of using reconciliation is the purpose of the senate is going to be defeated and that is to bring consensus to big issues in this country. >> reporter: but democrats argue they tried bipartisanship by dropping the idea of a government insurance plan or public option from what's likely to be in the final bill. >> let me say this. the bill can be bipartisan, even though the votes might not be bipartisan because they have made their imprint on this. >> there you go. if you look at the reconciliation scoreboard and there is one in this town. republicans have used it more when they have been in the majority, 16 times. compare that to the number of times used under a democratic majority, just six times. but, kiran, republicans argue this has not been used to restructure, one-sixth of the economy. what is good for the goose, is good for the gander. >> you heard all the talking points yesterday on the sunday shows that they've never done it before for something this large. >> if you think you heard talking points until now, just buckle your seat belts. >> we'll see. we'll follow the process and see how it goes, thanks so much, jim. >> you bet. vancouver says good-bye to the world, the olympic torch was passed during last night's closing ceremonies to site of the 2014 games. fireworks on the final day. canada beat the u.s. 3-2 to win the gold in hockey. the u.s. with 37 overall medals set a record for most medals won at any single winter games. doctors have declared that president obama is in excellent health. he is fit for duty. he had his first physical yesterday. the president's doctors, though, seem to indicate that he hasn't kicked smoking and his cholestroom crept up a bit to borderline high levels. jobless benefits begin to expire today. the senate failed to pass an extension last week which means unemployed workers can no longer apply for assistance. lawmakers will try again this week to temporarily extend the program for another 30 days. and more than 200,000 homes still without power in the northeast as the region braces for yet another major storm. still trying to clean up and deal with last week's storm which dumped record amounts of snow across pennsylvania, new york, new england and maine is expected to get the brunt of the new storm front which is bringing another half foot of snow. ten minutes past the hour and quick check for the weather headlines and jacqui jeras, good morning, jacqui. feels like the midwest out here. i got to tell you, we have been shoveling and shoveling for three weeks now. >> you should feel right at home there then, christine. good thing i can tell you about this storm, the one that continues to linger into the northeast is it is a quick hit today and then pulling on out. one of the biggest impacts we'll have with this storm is that the winds will be brutal, once again. 20 to 30-mile-per-hour sustained winds and gusts beyond that. you can see we're dealing with snow in the interior and rain really into many of the coastal areas. boston 36 degrees and rain now in new york city and we think you'll get sprinkles with it and wind speeds which will increase as we head to the afternoon. as for the folks who don't have any power. waking up to temps in the 30s and highs in the upper 30s to lower 40s at best. you'll need to figure out a way to keep yourself warm for today. the other big storm we're watching, the upper level low bringing in heavy rain across texas and then lower mississippi river valley and cold air wrapping around the back side of it, means snow for some parts of the south but not a lot sticking around. airport delays abundant, once again. mostly due to the wind and the rain. so, continue to get these series of storms, guys. just track along the south and at least this texas one we don't think will turn into the nor'easter that the last one did. >> little bright spot there. >> jacqui jeras, thank you. >> you know, people talk about how strenuous it is to shovel snow. i put on my heart rate monitor and i was popping up to 170, 175. >> use your legs, be careful, if you have an elderly neighbor, do it for your neighbors. >> i see the people that have their own little snow blower things that they push. not a bad idea this winter. we're not the only ones actually dealing with very, very extreme weather. severe weather system slams europe. this is just something they haven't seen in years. a live report coming up on the impact. nt. let's talk return on insurance. switch your car insurance to allstate, and you can earn a five percent bonus. five percent of your premium, sent to you twice a year... for as long as you don't have an accident. the safe driving bonus check. only from allstate. safety pays. that's allstate's stand. are you in good hands? let's go with the ah... basic package. good choice. only meineke lets you choose your service, choose your savings. like an oil change for just $19.95. meineke. all right, 15 minutes past the hour. a violent storm system has killed dozen of people across western europe. most of the victims in france where hurricane' force winds triggered waves that flooded coastal neighborhoods. >> people drowned and many people caught off guard by the worst storm to hit the area in ten years. the french prime minister calling it a natural catastrophe. she joins us live in london and explain for our audience, as well, how rare this type of extreme weather is, sasha. >> basically the worst storm in the decade, as far as the french are concerned. in europe we don't see this kind of extreme weather system and it is stretched to portugal going all the way up to the netherlands. right across europe. at least 58 people have died across europe in those extreme weather conditions we're talking about. floods, high winds and so on. affects us here in the uk, not to the same extent but to the north of england, a very severe winds. let's get more details on what exactly the impact of the storm was. in the wake, a trail of devastation leaving dozens dead tearing across half a dozen countries cynthia took at portugal and spain. power cuts affected more than 150,000 homes. in france, where most people were killed, more than a million homes lost power. people were rescued from rooftops as the water rose and many expressed shock of what they've gone through. southwest france was worst hit and many roads were impassable because of frozen trees. >> translator: it's a natural catastrophe. my first thoughts go to the families with whom i'm presenting condolences from the nation. now to bring all those left homeless to safety. all services are mobilized to reach that goal as soon as possible. >> reporter: french president nicolas sarkozy is visiting the worst-affected areas. the late winter storm brought driving rain and high winds and rail services were disrupted. as the atlantic storm continues to cut across europe, the number of dead is expected to rise as many people are still missing. so, as you can see, the consequence of the storm are pretty dire, you have those severe floods and people dealing with the aftermath trying to clear up and, of course, all that implies is a huge cost involved because all the national governments have had to get emergency services and put them on high alert and places like france have had to bring out the soldiers, mobilize people to rescue people. an awful lot to deal with in the aftermath of othat pretty severe storm. back to you in the studio. >> sasha, thanks. we're not the only ones dealing with that type of extreme, extreme weather we haven't seen in a while. >> so rare there, too. coming up in the next block of our most news in the morning. a repair job at one of the nation's biggest airports. how long it will take and the ripple effects that could be felt across the country if you're flying. 19 minutes past the hour. did we miss this memo? 22 minutes past the hour right now. we're minding your business and this will come to a shock to a lot of people who live around here. the busiest runway at jfk will not see a single plane in four months. what that could mean for you, delays if you travel. and even if you don't come anywhere near new york city and also higher ticket prices since there will be fewer arrivals and departures at the largest city in the nation. >> honda, nissan could suffer collateral damage from the carmaker's recent troubles. it may damage the quality and durability that most people deliver to car brands and when the dust settle ford, gm and hyundai. a big report from aig this morning. >> the troubled insurance giant plans to sell its asian life insurance business to britain's prudential. the price tag $35.5 billion. why do you care? because you, ladies and gentlemen, own aig. here's what the deal looks like. prudential will put up $25 billion in cash. the good news for u.s. taxpayers who own a majority of the company, the cash component is slated to go right back to them. this is one of the biggest chunks to push to payback more than $1 billion in bailout money. other sales over the past 14 months brought in 5.6 billion. >> also the bad earnings news, right, for the losses in the past quarter. >> they have been looking for buyers for big chunks of this company and they have been looking to get money back to the taxpayers. it's just not sustainable. it's something they would like to figure out how to unwind. >> we heard a lot when this entire banking crisis was first happening. the notion of too big to fail and they were saying in the future they were trying to make sure that wasn't the case. is this part of that plan? >> it's part of the plan, but aig we aig is its own separate beast. the things that went wrong there are much different than what went wrong in the banking system. this is an insurance company, for cbut the epitome of too big to fail. a pivotal case involve a handgun ban. some say it's saving lives and others say, wait a minute, why should i have my gun taken away if i'm just trying to keep my family safe? 27 minutes past the hour and time for an "am original." chicago is the frontline for historic gun battle that is now being waged before the supreme court. on one side, those who say their second amendment rights to keep and bear arms have been violated. on the other, parents and teachers who swear their city's handgun ban is saving lives on some very rough streets. kate baldwin now from chicago's south side. >> this is one of the most important gun rights cases in our nation's history and putting the spotlight squarely on chicago. in one of chicago's roughest southside neighborhood, a rare safe haven for some of the city's most at-risk youth. >> they walk looking backwards. if you would say here two days you would realize our young people walk looking backwards because they're drive bys. >> reporter: when diane opened up her own home to start the nonprofit kids off the block seven years ago, she was fighting to stem the tide of gang activity in her neighborhood. now she says she's just fighting to keep the kids alive, up against some of the worst gun violence the city has ever seen. and it has grabbed headlines. according to city statistics, chicago has the highest rate of youth homicide in the country. 36 killings in the last school year alone. 36 reasons she supports chicago's handgun ban. why have the ban in place if people are going to get them anywhere? >> i would rather something be in place than nothing be in place. >> reporter: that ban is now being challenged in a case that made its way to the supreme court, a case brought by another chicago community activist, 76-year-old otis mcdonald. >> we wouldn't want to go down to the right here. >> reporter: why is that? >> because that's a hot area. hot meaning dangerous a little bit? >> yeah. drug dealing and stuff goes on. >> reporter: mcdonald says he, too, fears for the safety of the community, but argues it's his constitutional right to protect himself and his family from the violence. he wants the handgun ban lifted. >> that's all i want. just a fighting chance. give me the opportunity to at least make somebody else think about something before they come in my house on me. >> reporter: the supreme court almost two years ago struck down a similar ban in washington, but because d.c. is a federal district, the court left largely unanswered how gun laws apply to states and cities. when it comes down to it, why take on this ban? >> we are in a war. simply that. the law-abiding citizens against the drug dealers and gang bangers. that's what it is. that's what it boils down to. >> reporter: but diane fears making handguns legal again will only mean more guns on the streets, and more names she'll have to add to this memorial. how many are in there now? >> 201. >> reporter: you said you're still five short? we're always behind. the court's ruling has the potential of overturning decades of gun control laws across the country and may finally answer the question, where does the power of the second amendment lie with the individual or the government? kate baldwin, cnn, chicago. all right, 30 minutes past the hour and that means it's time for this morning's top stories. developing news from the disaster zone in chile. the death toll climbing in the wake of saturday's devastating earthquake. more than 700 people were killed and that number is expected to rise as search and rescue efforts continue. today secretary of state hillary clinton is expected to arrive in chile to meet with the country's president. with both sides refusing to budge on health care reform, democrats could go for it alone. pushing through a bill without any support. it only needs 51 to pass. one senator said it would be political kamikaze mission for the democrats to jam it through. violent winter storms triggering a natural disaster in france. dozens of people drowned and huge waves kicked up by hurricane-force winds. nicolas sarkozy plans to visit the storm battered atlantic coast. 911 calls show us how lives could have been saved and now several states are considering laws that would actually keep the public from hearing those many times emotional recordings. many celebrities have seen their calls spread like wildfire, in fact, recently, the one that led police recently to tiger woods' home. >> what happened? what's wrong? >> i have a neighbor, he hit the tree. we came out here just to see what is going on and i see him, he's laying down. >> you mean it was an auto accident? >> yes t was an auto accident. >> does the caller's right to privacy trump the public's right to hear these calls. david coolier freedom of information committee and we also have susan hanley, the spokesperson for the center of victims for crimes. i'll start with you, susan, alabama, wisconsin and ohio that are working to ban the release of 911 audiotapes and they want them to be available only as transcripts. as an advocate for crime victims, why do you support this ban? >> we support it because when crime victims or family members call 911, they're doing so at a moment of profound grief, a moment of profound crisis. they shouldn't be required to pause and think, wait a minute, whatever i say here could be on the evening news. it could be heard by all my children's friends, by everyone i know and by people that i've never met. >> and, david, you say these tapes, even those of a very emotional nature could be a real public service. in fact, you're referring when we spoke to you earlier to the toyota 911 call as the most recent example. explain. >> well, yeah, i think you have to weigh the benefit, the public benefit with the draw backs and with the toyota situation, that story was under the radar. people weren't covering that issue until a 911 tape was publicized, surfaced of a high way patrolman who was off duty driving his car and his accelerator stuck and he had three in-laws in the car, including a 13-year-old girl and they're going 120 miles per hour down the highway and going toward an intersection and a gorge. and this phone call he was very calm, but you could tell it was a tense situation when you listen to it. you can google it and find it anywhere on the internet. this private citizen and they crashed and they all died. it was a terrible incident and it was tragic and it's heart wrenching to listen to. but it took that 911 tape call to get public attention to this recall, which wasn't getting any before the tape surfaced. >> susan, let's get your response to that argument. sometimes serving the greater good in cases where people can actually hear the emotion and hear the fear of something like david's referring to, that accident that ended up being for the greater good in general by bringing an issue to the forefront. >> we don't argue that there can't be those rare cases where the public good in releasing the tape outweighs the privacy interests. but those should be rare and there should be a deliberate process to determine that the public good outweighs the victim or the caller's interest in privacy. and then where that tape is released. it should be done sensitively, by which i mean, crime victims should have advance warning that this tape is going to be released. and they should have an opportunity to hear it in advance. you know, we have heard from victims and family members who have called our national crime victim help line that their outrage in hearing that tape broadcast is compounded by the fact that no one told them in advance that this was going to happen. >> right, i understand what you're saying, as well. these were things that internally were discussed in news room around the country about where and when it's appropriate to release these tapes. david you in your organization have guidelines saying a public need could have intrusion into someone's privacy. how do you weigh it? we can think back to so many celebrity 911 calls that are just played over and over again. you can even remember the alec baldwin tape, it was not a 911 tape but a voicemail he made to his daughter that get played over and over again because it's interesting and sensational, not because it's necessarily serving the public good. >> right. if you google 911 tapes you'll find a bunch of those celebrity 911 tapes online that, frankly, to me, are kind of a waste of time. i mean, they're not really serving a huge public good other than people's interests. you'll also find a lot of tapes for chilling 911 tapes, calls and those are, those are just horrific. so, i agree with susan that we have to look at the victims' rights and how it affects them and we have to weigh that in our decision over whether the public interest outweighs it. i think journalists do that. when they do that, now, some of them mess up. some journalists will throw stuff out there that doesn't really serve a public interest and it hurts people and that's wrong. and we have codes of ethics to try to self-regulate that sort of thing. if you're an unethical journalist, you'll have a tough time in this business. but, more important, i think viewers and listeners should be regulating and telling the station that was bad. don't do it again. >> well, david and susan, great to get both of your points of view this morning. thanks for being with us. >> thank you. still ahead, a glimpse into a painful chapter in our nation's history. we'll take a look at some of the thousands of letters written to jackie kennedy after her husband was assassinated. ♪ we love getting our outback dirty. because it seems like the dirtier it gets, the more it shines. the subaru outback®. motor trend's 2010 sport/utility of the year®. blend it. sprinkle it. sweet! 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[ female announcer ] splenda®. america's favorite no calorie sweetener. 40 minutes past the hour. welcome back to the most news in the morning. president john f. kennedy's assassination back in 1973 has been looked at. >> but a new book takes a look at how jfk's death brought this country together in grief. carol costello with an "am original" that takes a very personal look back. >> reporter: a file folder full of personal and national anguish. >> i loved this letter. >> reporter: just one of the hundreds of thousands of letters americans sent to first lady jacqueline kennedy. after the nation buried her husband. >> the old, the young, the aged, the children. they became one in their grief. in a spontaneous outpouring that throws up an enduring memorial to the american spirit. >> this is a wonderful letter. >> reporter: historian ellen fits patrick for the first time cataloged that grief by combing through the archives of the jfk library and she's put the condolence letters in a book "letters to jackie." >> did it stun you, just the sheer number of letters that people wrote to jackie kennedy? >> well, she actually received somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 million letters. >> reporter: one of tthem writty an 8-year-old boy. dear mrs. kennedy, i'm sorry your husband got shot. i know you should forgive your enemies but it is hard to forgive lee oswald. that little boy is all grown up now. take me back to that time. what was it like? >> it was terrifying. it was terrifying and it was just convergence of emotions of fear because he was such a protector of the nation and such a leader. and we all loved him. he was a fatherly figure. >> reporter: fatherly figure. if there's a common theme in these letters, it's that. >> one woman compared the assassination of president kennedy with the crucifixion. they killed our lord and our father and now they have killed our president and father. >> reporter: the flood of grief transcended racial and economic lines. i am a colored lady, but he seemed close to me as my own. all the luck and to caroline and little johnny, all the love i have. i am 74 years old and your father was my friend. the letter was written by martha ross, daughter of a slave with no formal education. her great-grandson, winston lucky. >> even the people who didn't like him, they loved him, he was a strong man. my grandmother, she always talked about, you know, that he was going to help to set this country right. >> all of you who have written to me know how much we all loved him. >> reporter: mrs. kennedy tried to show her appreciation. this little boy sent a photo and comfort of his own. he wrote, some mean man killed my daddy, too. fits patrick said these letters document how americans responded to the murder of a president and captured the idealism of the times. an idealism, that like its hero, may be just a memory. carol costello, cnn, boston. >> an amazing book. very interesting book. >> an event that really touched this nation and even, you know, i wasn't even born yet. >> one of the first stories my mom told me to understand all that. jacqui jeras will have this morning's travel forecast right ooph after a quick break. from highways to a farmer's field. jeanne moos takes a look at some of the wild places that planes have been forced to touch down. 44 minutes after the hour. woman down from nasal allergy attack. but we've got the ammunition she needs: omnaris. 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(announcer) fiber one. cardboard no. delicious yes. good morning, new york. a big departure from what it looked like on friday morning. right now 33 degrees and a bit later going up to 42 degrees and only traubl a little bit windy here in the big apple. welcome back to the best news in the morning. time for your "am house call" stories about your health. doctors may have discovered a way to curb peanut allergies in children. children were able to build up their tolerance by slowly eating more peanuts over a very long stretch of time, the course of five years. the doctor says the goal is to try to prevent severe reactions. well, a new study finds a lot of fears about vaccines being linked to autism. one in four parents interviewed believes that some vaccines do cause autism in otherwise healthy kids. most, though, follow their doctor's orders and continue to get their children vaccinated despite those concerns. some universities like virginia tech are hoping to deter underage drinking by notifying parents when their kids get caught. the school sends letters home for minor violations like drinking a beer in a dorm room. parents could be very useful in setting boundaries for students that are under the age of 21. >> we know, kiran, that underage binge drinking is a real problem and in terms of health care costs they have done some work on this, incredible the amount of health care costs these kind of binge drinking can be charged. the privacy concerns, i think, especially kids or adults 18 years old, but at the same time, mom and dad are paying for college, don't you want to know what they're doing. >> my parents would have gotten so much mail on our dorm room. no, i'm kidding. well, it's great to have already gone through all of that before the age of cell phone and photos and texting and facebook. forget it. we had some privacy as young kids, right? >> i think we did. it's 49 minutes past the hour and time for a check of the weather headlines. >> now i really messed her up. >> jacqui jeras is in the extreme weather center. we will not talk about anything that happened at iowa state. >> that's why christine is flustered, because she knows i have stories. i will have to agree with you, thank goodness no cell phones or facebook at that time. anyway, you know, lots of nastiness, again, continuing across the northeast today weatherwise. our system here still holding strong in terms of bringing the wicked weather and wind continuing to be the big deal here. the same upper level pesky low that hit you late last week and here we go kicking off the workweek with more of it. a lot of the snow starting to transition over to some of this rainfall and do expect to see a wintry mix. snowfall accumulations relatively light and you should be able to count the number of inches on one hand for pretty much everybody and then some of that will melt off, unfortunately, as that moves into some of that rain. a slushy mess. the winds continue to stay strong. gusts up to 30 miles per hour, at least this afternoon and possibly beyond that. that could cause additional problems. temperature wise a bit nippy to start you off with this morning. 40s by this afternoon and still uncomfortable for the hundreds of thousands of people without power. our next weathermaker bringing thunder across the dfw area and expect heavy rain and half an inch plus out of that system. many airport delays are expected today as a result of those two systems, but the rest of the country, overall, should be relatively tranquill. today is march 1, by the way, guys, which is the official start of meetiological spring. although technically it doesn't arrive on the calendar until mid-month. we'll consider it spring and what you can consider for march, april and may. >> we'll take it even if it's just meteor logical spring. >> i broke out the green today. >> good for you. save it for st. pat's, also, or you'll get pinched. this morning's top stories are just ahead. 25 minutes after the hour, 1,000 bucks for a toothbrush? elizabeth cohen shows us why health care costs are draining this country. why a smaller earthquake caused so much more destruction. we look at the scientific difference between chile and haiti. will jay leno's audience return, too? 52 minutes past the hour. [ bride ] the wedding was just days away, but my smile just wasn't white enough. now what? [ female announcer ] new crest 3d white professional effects whitestrips. it's professional-level whitening. start seeing results in 3 days. new crest 3d white professional effects whitestrips. this is serious, but it's 54 minutes past the hour and time for the most news in the morning. >> just getting geared up. just getting geared up for jeanne moos. >> she has some examples that might not measure up to sully sullenberger's landing on the hudson. >> one cockpit emergency caught on tape from the inside. here's jeanne moos. >> reporter: you can bet it wasn't a pilot that said is silence was golden. not when it's your engine that is silent. when a florida pilot's engine died -- >> that field? >> reporter: kyle davises opted for the road he normally drives to work on. he ended up parked in front of a closed furniture store. >> our motto around the office is, if you don't like the way he flies, stay off the road. >> reporter: watch the wings what this pilot in england should have done. did you see that? that plane clipped a cow. watch the pilot turn his head to see what he hit. according to the accident report, the plane was slightly damaged, but the cow was uninjured. as the pilot put it, i have to say it is the first cow i have ever hit in 22 years flying. the next best thing to putting your plane out to pasture, playing fields in anchorage, alaska. watch the home plate umpire. >> there's a plane coming down on to the field, folks. we have a crazy landing going on. here it comes right behind the field. >> reporter: all four people in the plane lived to tell about it. >> oh, boy. >> reporter: oh, boy is right. look at what the dash cam on a wisconsin state patrol car captured. >> we got it, it landed. >> reporter: license and registration, please. sure, james bond made it look easy. landing and rolling right up to the nearest gas pump. now, this is something 007 would attempt. >> landing on the world's shortest runway. >> reporter: don't try that near indianapolis where this pilot was forced to land without so much as a turn signal. of course, the little matter of taking off, again. they had to close the interstate. but watch your language when you land. [ bleep ] better make it holo cow. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> this is 911, press one if it's about the airplane and press two if it's another emergency. >> are you calling about the airplane? thank you, sir. your top story is 90 seconds away. good monday morning to you, thanks for being with us on "american morning." it is march 1st. hope fall that means some milder weather is on the way for many people who have been suffering through this weather. >> not my front or backyard yet. i'm christine romans in for john roberts this march 1st. other devastation along the coast of chile. two days after a devastating earthquake. new the death toll is climbing and water and power out to many. looters are taking to the streets in some places. everyone can relate to the high cost of health care, but imagine a hospital charging you $140 for what? one tylenol. we're taking a look at how health care is draining our bank accounts in a new "am american series" prescription for waste. another night without heat or light for 2,000 people in the northeast who suffered through a monster storm. more snow expected in new england and more snow in new england, folks. but, first, it's been 53 hours now since the earth shook shattering parts of chile. frustrations are mounting this morning as hundreds of thousands are still without food, water or shelter in the wake of the devastating earthquake. chile's president now calling on the army to try to stop an outbreak of looting that they see now and hundreds of thousands of frightened chilaens waking up on parks and sidewalks. more than 1,000 homes damaged or destroyed in this quake. secretary of state hillary clinton is on her wage to the region where she will meet with that country's president. our karl penhaul is in a city not far from the earthquake's epicenter and soledad o'brien is 100 miles out of conception. let's begin, though, with cnn's karl penhaul. >> a curfew is in place throughout the night in the city of concepcion and that was an effort by authorities to eliminate early signs of looting. looters stormed into supermarkets, they stormed a flour mill and they were trying to steal gasoline from some of the gas stations there. those scenes were repeated in other cities up and down south central chile and authorities say there is a great deal of desperation after two days of people without drinking water, without power, but also, they say, in some cases, people were stealing electrical items that they believe were for resale. in the area of concepcion where we are now a search by rescue firefighters crews are going on in a 15-story building. the building behind me was a new building and it simply fell on its side in that earthquake. now, firefighter team leaders say they have pulled out survivors alive. they have pulled out dead. they also believe that up to 40 to 50 other people are somewhere still inside that building, possibly inside the stairwell. they say they have heard no signs of life for the last 24 hours, but they say that they're not ruling out that some people may still be alive inside this building. there are many survivable spaces. now, of course, upper most in people's minds, haiti. this earthquake here in chile was much bigger than haiti, so why hasn't the death toll been higher? i put that to firefighters here in concepcion. his team only recently returned from duty in haiti. he said the first key is the building codes. the buildings are much stronger, they're much more scientifically built, and, of course, chile is one of the richest countries in south america, where as haiti is the poorest country in the hemisphere. the city of concepcion, too, also has an interesting history. since it was created, it has been destroyed no less than four times by tsunamis and earthquakes. they have learned the lessons and, now, they build buildings to withstand earthquakes, even like this 8.8 monster earthquake. kiran and christine? >> a monster, indeed. this morning it is a struggle to get aid there, one reason many roads are impassable either littered with debris or destroyed and washed out. about 167 miles south. the quake damaged homes and the regional capital. the tremor also took down a bridge over the claro river. take a look at this picture. it serves as a major artery from temuco to concepcion. soledad, where are you right now and what are the roads looking like there? >> we're in the town of los angeles and the roads are actually looking okay unless you're trying to get over a bridge and they often put authorities or police officers in front of those cracks and sometimes you can get past one car at a time and other times they're just not letting anybody by. there was a big aftershock here about 30 minutes ago and 90 minutes after that they dispatched ambulances. here the damage not so bad but there they actually need more of the resources and more of the supplies. here in the los angeles it's much more rural which means that people who are actually used to quakes, as karl penhaul told you a moment ago, they know what to do. they have tents out in the front yard and nothing like the tents we saw in haiti because people have far more space, it is much more rural. you may have one tent and ten acres of land. you see some of the roads about to collapse, as well. those bridges have been blocked off. the drive has really been challenging and gas line we're seeing here, too. several stations just closed and gas lines are just people waiting in the hopes that gas will come to that gas station and gas station is not even hopen yet. things are more calm. we saw some police officers guarding some homes that have collapsed and they do not have the looting issue that they are having a little bit farther up north, the problem they are having, it's cold. this is the coldest summer they have had in a long time here and people outdoor in tents is not particularly comfortable for them. christine? >> thanks, interesting to point out that the people in chile have a better standard of living. average person in chile has $14,700 when you compare that with haiti, a little over $1,000. so, more resources for each of these people who are struggling right now. some 18,000 americans in chile and coming up in less than 15 minutes, we'll find out how many have been accounted for when we talk to the u.s. ambassador to chile. better safe than sorry is essentially what scientists are saying this morning and to issue widespread tsunami warnings after the chile quake. they issued these warnings as far away as new zealand and japan. pictures from northern japan where the tsunami hit the main island sunday. meantime, 6,000 miles in hawaii, actually the largest scale evacuation there in five years. the u.s. military even moved ships from pearl harbor and ended up doing it for waves that could barely knock down a sand castle, but, again, they're saying that they did it out of an abundance of caution after looking back at what happened in 2004 after that tsunami hit off of indonesia. what happened and why didn't we see the large waves forecast? jacqui jeras is here with more on just geologically speaking, what determines whether or not you'll see the huge after effect of the tsunami after an earthquake. >> it has to do with the plates that come together and what type of movement they actually create. this animation will show you what will typically happen in order to create a tsunami. you have one plate which subducts underneath the other and you can see that the plate or the crust in the ocean floor thrusts upward. when that happens, that displaces the water and then you can see, as i put that back into play is that pushes up the water up, the tsunami is created and moves on. we think this type of earthquake happened, but the displacement wasn't as great as they initially thought. the more that plate moves the more the water gets pushed up and that is what will happen in that type of situation. the forecast overall wasn't so bad in some of these places. we did have a tsunami in the small island of chile. five people were killed in those watters and they did the right thing by putting those warnings out there and then as we look at hawaii, the greatest wave height we saw here was 3.2 feet. the initial forecast a foot and a half up to eight feet. we got the blip, just not as big as they have anticipated. still some things we don't know about what happens during these conditions. but one of the ways that we detect this as it moves through the ocean is what we call the dark buoy system and noaa has placed all these sensors out here in the middle of the ocean so we can detect these little changes in the earth's crust. there is a sensor on the bottom of the ocean floor to detect these changes and we saw the rises and the falls among those. so, there is a lot we know about these things, but still a long ways we have to go in order to understand. but worse case scenario, it was a good warm up for hawaii and other places across the pacific basin as to what they need to do when something like this happens. also one other point i want to make. an earthquake a little stronger than this in 1960 near chile which did create an enormous tsunami and killed people in hawaii and japan, as well. when you look back at history, you have to put out a warning just like that. >> thank you. also coming up at 7:30, we'll talk to professor roger bilham of the geological sciences at the university of colorado in boulder. why it did not cause nearly as much damage. it's, of course, we know the building construction, but also it sometimes has to do with the luck of the draw in terms of how shallow and deep the earthquake is as well as other factors. >> absolutely right. would you spend $1,000 on a toothbrush? you already did. how about 50 cents of every dollar we spend on health care is wasted. we have that coming up. you'll be shocked at what a tylenol costs in a hospital setting. >> elizabeth cohen has been doing some digging. she joins us. we will hear voices from a nation brought together in grief. newly published letters that were sent to jackie kennedy after jfk's assassination. jay leno, can he get his "tonight show" mojoe back. we'll see starting tonight when he returns to anchor nbc "late night." we'll go to los angeles for a closer look. welcome back to the most news in the morning. the death toll from the monster earthquake in chile is rising steadily and panic is spreading among the survivors. thousands of american citizens are living in chile. >> a lot of questions today about how exactly they're fairing. worries about relief supplies. we're going to be speaking in just a few minutes to the ambusder from chile, the u.s. ambassador to chile and how things are going there and how they're notifying people here in the u.s. who are looking for their loved ones in chile. we'll check in with him in just a moment. first, other news for you. we start with pay raises. slowly making a comeback. this is some good news here as we talk about joblessness and unemployment. federal express says it plans to give merit raises, again, in the wake of salary cuts and hewlett-packard. some employees getting a one-time bonus, that also to try to make up for some of the slashed salaries. >> cell phone technology changed the way many americans get their news. a pew report find a quarter of all adults get the information from their phone thanks to easy internet access. the number one search on your phone, weather. >> relentless snow storms in the northeast and u.s. putting car sales in a deep freeze. the snow kept thousands of customers out of dealerships and toyota's recall and that meant troubles, as well. expected to weaken sales by 25% or more. here's something that matters to more than 11 million people on jobless benefits. millions of unemployed americans will not be able to provide for federal benefits or the cobra assistance that so many people are relying on because the senate did not pass an extension last week. for unemployed workers this means no more checks once they run out of their state benefits. some 1.2 million people could lose benefits in march, according to the national employment law project. by june, the number could reach 5 million people. last week lawmakers repeatedly tried to approve just a 30-day extension but republican senator jim bunning from kentucky stopped the $10 billion measure prom passing saying it needs to be paid for first. if it's so important, we could find $10 billion from somewhere else to pay for it. over the weekend top republican jon kyl said americans will support a temporary extension this week. many people say it will come eventually but many people on unemployment benefits who the average wait to get a job, folks, 211 days. there are families surviving on those benefits and they're nervous. >> we'll continue to follow that. meantime, the sky high cost of health care. another big chunk that takes out of the family budget. our elizabeth cohen has a look at waste that is eye popping. am special series coming up in ten minutes and the latest from chile in just a couple minutes, as well. my eyes water. but with new zyrtec® liquid gels, i get allergy relief at liquid speed. that's the fast, powerful relief of zyrtec®, now in a liquid gel. zyrtec® is the fastest 24-hour allergy medicine. it works on my worst symptoms so i'm ready by the time we get to the first hole. and that's good because the competition's steep today. new zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air.™ all right, welcome back to the most news in the morning. still assessing the damage in chile where the death toll rises and panic spreading among the survivors. soledad o'brien reports that she sees people living in tents along the road but there are cracked roads and bridges that are down and, still, a lot of work to do to get to where she is trying to go right now. >> there are thousands of american citizens living in chile, as well. joining us on the phone right now to talk about that and also what the obama administration is doing to help the chulaen government and ambassador simons, thanks for being with us this morning. >> thank you very much. >> so, we're now 48 hours since the initial earthquake hit chile. tell us what the latest is and what it is like especially in the areas closest to ground zero. >> well, first of all, i thimg it's important to note the government has really done an outstanding job in these first 48 hours assessing the magnitude of this tragedy. and beginning to deploy assistance to the defected areas. in our area here around santiago two earthquakes as life has largely returned to normal here. the government is up and running and the newspapers are out. we're functioning. we've been able to, fortunately, locate and found safe all of our approximately 300 american and chilean employees. down south in the region most directly affected, clearly the devastation was substantial and it was greater than was originally expected. declared a national emergency. place additional security measures and for the first time she opened up the possibility of working with other countries, including the u.s. in the area of providing assistance. >> it's interesting you mention the stock exchange will open. that business is returning to normal in some parts of the country. you know, this is, this is, frankly, an economy that is stable and a political system that is stable. it depends on tax -- i mean, some of the stability we see here that we didn't see in haiti, for example, will be an advantage for this country. but still some 18,000 americans either living there or visiting there, i'm told, at any given time. what do you do to reach out and find those people and account for as many people as possible? >> we from the very first moments of the crisis beginning at 5:00 a.m. on friday morning we set up a 24-hour operation center here. we have reached out to every means that we have e-mail and other kinds of contacts we have through our network to try to get a handle on how the americans are doing. up to this point we have no confirmed reports of any fatalities or any serious injuries in the american community, however, we do not have good information back from the concepcion area. we had a few sporadic reports, but we have not established regular communication. the lines are down, electricity is down. a lot of the cell phones lost their charges. there's no water. there's some public security issues down there that the government is dealing with. obviously, the situation down in the immediately affected area is very, very serious. >> and that's potentially where you could use some international help, as we understand it. chilean president calling for international help. specifically what they would need from the u.s. administration and others in terms of their immediate needs. >> the president outlined a number of areas yesterday and we're taking a very hard look at those areas to see where we can respond. president obama indicated on saturday that the u.s. was prepared to move quickly. the chileans indicated some needs in terms of mobile communications and field hospitals, search and rescue teams and we are gearing up in all of those areas. i think it is important to note that the chileans have a well-known response system that has suffered earthquakes and volcanoes. in fact, we're one of the first countries to deliver search and rescue in haiti. so, they have some capabilities, but, clearly, over the last 24 hours it's the magnitude of this event is such that they are also going to be reaching out to the international partners. >> certainly, certainly. people will be there in any way to help them that they need. thanks so much for joining us this morning. if you'd like to help, as well, go to our impact page. cnn.com/impact. it's 24 minutes past the hour. 26 minutes past the hour. your top stories just four minutes away. something only on "american morning." imagine someone spending $1,000 on a toothbrush. might sound amusing or far fetched as long as it's not your money. for every dollar we spend on health care, to cents of that is wasted. elizabeth cohen is here to kick off our new series, health care prescription for waste. when we were teasing this story and introducing it, 100 some dollars for one tylenol pill, it sounds crazy. >> oh, it is crazy, kiran. when i got a look at these hospital bills, i couldn't believe what i saw. you know what, $1 trillion is wasted in this country on ridiculous medical expenses. here are a few examples. when you or i go shopping for a toothbrush, how much do we pay? $2, $3, maybe $4. guess what one hospital once charged a patient for a toothbrush? $1,000. can you believe it? $1,000 for a toothbrush. you know who ends up paying for that? you and i. we end up paying for it. it comes out of our pocket in one way or another. that's not the only crazy hospital costs i've run in to. come on, come with me. at the store, how much does a bottle of tylenol cost? $10 for 100 pills. we know someone at the hospital who was charged $140 for one tylenol. can you believe it? $140 for this. now, here's a box of disposable gloves when you buy them here at this store they come out to 24 cents a pair. but i know of a hospital that charged $53 for a pair of gloves. that's right, $53 for a pair of disposable gloves. what the heck is going on here? so, i'm here in the home office of a medical billing advocate, this is cindy and she helps people go through all these crazy charges. this is one of my favorite ones. a little alcohol prep swab, how much did a hospital charge for these? >> $23 apiece. >> for this little piece of cotton. >> on one bill 44 of them. becomes very expensive. >> but this isn't the craziest thing you have seen. tell me about one of your crazier charges. >> recently i had somebody who was charged for 41 iv bags when she went to the e.r. for a two-hour visit. >> a woman went to the emergency room with a migraine headache and they gave her one bag of saline and then they charged her for 41 bags of saline to the tune of $4,182. now, the really crazy thing about this is her insurance company actually paid this bill. they didn't even question it. why did her insurance company pay for this when it was, obviously, wrong. >> there are not many people working at these companies any more and they're usually busy and any kind of bill that is under $100,000, they don't look at the detail. >> they just write a check. >> they just write a check. >> that's shocking. are those errors, elizabeth, when you talk about the 41 bags over did the hospital know the insurance companies weren't going to look at it? >> a combination of the hospital. they fixed it when the patient brought it to their attention. the hospital wouldn't speak to us and the insurance company just paid for it because that's what they do. they often just pay for these things under it's say $100,000, the insurance company in this case say they couldn't talk to us because of privacy reasons. >> some people may say, you know what, i have insurance, why should i care if hospitals are overcharging if the tab gets picked up anyway. really, all of us need to care about this. >> absolutely, it comes out of your wallet. when charges go up, up, up, your premiums go up, up, up. one reason we're paying so much in premiums is because of this medical waste. i see it coming out of my paycheck and we all see it. >> you get those bills or explanation of benefits. you should look at them closely and you never know. a lot of time there is waste that maybe we, be swept under the rug if we didn't check a little harder. very, very interesting investigation, elizabeth. thank you. >> thanks. 31 minutes past the hour and time for this morning's top stories. a catastrophe in chile. the post-earthquake scene in the city of con concepcion. authorities using tear gas and canyons and no military presence some storeowners are using rifles and shotguns to protect themselves. police confirm that marie o osmond's son committed suicide. an autopsy might be completed today. jeff skilling are trying to get his 24-year sentence reduced. they claim the law used to convict him is too vague to be constitutional. the supreme court will hear arguments today specifically about a 28-word addendmentm to the fraud statute used against skilling. we return to our developing story this morning. saturday's magnitude 8.8 earthquake was 500 times, at least, stronger than the 7.0 earthquake that hit haiti last month, but chile is expected, as we've seen now, to suffer far less. >> one reason chile's earthquake occurred at a depth of 21.7 miles, haiti's quake was 8.1 miles deep. much more shallow there. joining us to talk about this is roger shilham. different fault lines and people asking questions, are they related but completely separate incidents, aren't they? >> absolutely. completely different plates that are colliding. in one case and sliding past each other in another and the mechanisms of the earthquakes are very different. in chile it was very large thrust earthquake that probably suddenly raised the sea floor in places and sunk it in others and in chile very little movement of the sea floor and as a result the tsunami generated in haiti was quite small. >> so, is there actually, we make so much of the magnitude and we talk about the 8.8 versus the 7.0 and how it's higher and it also has a lot to do with the depth of how much damage you're going to see, correct? >> yes. and the distance off shore. the chilean earthquake was somewhat out to sea. a very, very large area involved. 300 miles long, probably 100 miles across. and, as a result of the very large heaving motion the frequency very different from haiti. the very low frequency shaking resulted in damage hundreds of miles away in santiago. but it is quite a remarkable fact that 500 times more energy has resulted in a death toll that is under four figures. and the population exposed to the shaking is probably twice as much as of that in haiti. >> that becomes an engineering story, doesn't it? this is a country, chile, with an experience in large, very large earthquakes. 9.5, i think, in 1960 that was simply devastated. we don't want to minimize the importance of the loss of life here, but it is really engineering and preparedness that you think have helped minimize the loss of life in this event. >> yeah, i have agree with you. despite the loss of life, this has to be regarded as a success story. but remember that 500,000 buildings are damaged, probably half of those irrepairably but we're looking at a kind of earthquake resistance that enables people to walk out of these damaged structures. in haiti, the structures pancaked. there was no possible way of surviving death, largely because the buildings were incredibly fragile. they have been doomed from the moment that people started building them because people were copying designs that were completely hopeless at surviving shaking. in chile, the history of earthquakes goes back several hundred years and even in the largest earthquake in the world, the 1960 chile earthquake, which you point out, magnitude 9.5. only 1,600 deaths or so and that, again, is a success story, despite the loss of life. many, many more could have died. and another important thing you must remember is that the haiti earthquake happened at 5:00 in the afternoon when most people should have been outdoors and this earthquake happened in the early hours of the morning when everybody were in their dwelling. so, we're seeing, quite remarkably sensible country. they've built their buildings correctly and the damage that's now occurred is largely from foundation failure, unexpected long period shaking to large structures and they'll get it right for the next earthquake, i'm sure. >> speaking of getting it right for the next earthquake, it's not a matter of if, but when we here in the united states get hit. you look at the san an dres fault line and the vulnerabilities in california. are we due for an earthquake of this magnitude, if you can say. and how prepared are we here in the u.s.? >> the places you've mentioned can't actually experience much more than a magnitude 7.8 earthquake. the san andreas fault is a low area fault, it's long, but it's not very wide. and we are expecting, of course, the big one to return to l.a. any time now. however, the largest earthquake that we are really concerned about at the moment is a magnitude 9 between oregon and washington state. and that will be quite serious. in fact, we know such events had occurred about 300 years ago in other times in our history prior to western civilization, as it were. these earthquakes are going to recur and they will cause considerable damage because not all of the structures in our northwestern coastline are, in fact, designed to resist shaking. >> i know they have been working on it steadily, but you can't retrofit everything at once. it's a long pain staking process. thanks for your insight today. >> thank you. we're going to take a quick break. 38 minutes past thohur. [ loud rumbling ] [ rifle fires ] [ announcer ] if you think about it, this is what makes theladders different... from other job search sites. we only want the big jobs. join theladders.com. a premium job site for only $100k+ jobs... and only $100k+ talent. welcome back to the most news in the morning. the assassination of john f. kennedy has been revisited on film and television, but now a new book gives us an entirely different picture on how jfk's death brought this country together in grief. carol costello takes a look back at the condolences of a grieving nation. >> reporter: a file folder full of personal and national anguish. >> i loved this letter. >> reporter: just one of the hundreds of thousands of letters americans sent to first lady jacqueline kennedy, after the nation buried her husband. >> the old, the young, the aged, the children. they became one in their grief in a spontaneous outpouring that throws up an enduring memorial to the american spirit. historian ellen fitzpatrick cataloged that grief by combing through the archives of the jfk library and selecting 250 nearly forgotten condolence letters. she put them in a book, "letters to jackie." did it stun you? just the sheer number of letters that people wrote to jacqueline kennedy? >> she received somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 million letters. >> reporter: one of them written by an 8-year-old boy. it says dear mrs. kennedy, i'm sorry your husband got shot. i know you should forgive your enemies, but it is hard to forgive lee oswald. >> hard to forget the president got shot. >> reporter: that little boy is all grown up now. take me back to that time, what was it like? >> it was terrifying. it was terrifying and just a convergence of emotion of fear because he was such a protector of the nation and such a leader and we all loved him. he was a fatherly figure. >> reporter: if there is a common theme in these letters, it's that. >> one woman compared the assassination of president kennedy with the crucifixion. she said they killed our lord and father and now they have killed our president and father. >> reporter: the flood of grief transcended racial and economic lines. i am a colored lady, but he seemed close to me as my own. all the luck and to caroline and little johnny, all the love i have. i am 74 years old and your father was my friend. the letter was written by martha ross, daughter of a slave, with no formal education. her great-grandson, winston lucky. >> even those people who didn't like him, they loved him. he was a strong man. my grandmother, she always talked about, you know, that he was going to help to set this country right. >> all of you who have written to me know how much we all loved him and that he would turn that love. >> reporter: mrs. kennedy tried to show her appreciation. this little boy shent a photo o his own. some mean man killed my daddy, too. how americans responded to the murder of a president and captured the idealism of the times. an idealism, that like its hero, is just a memory. >> amazing. 44 minutes past the hour right now. jacqui jeras is going to come along and have this morning's travel forecast for us right after the break. he once ruled late night as host of "tonight show" before jay leno became a primetime bust and now he has his old job back. did nbc make the right move? 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elevator. to see how our multi-faceted approach... can benefit your multi-generational wealth, look ahead with us at northerntrust.com. wake up, dallas, texas. later we'll get some rain and 46 degrees in dallas. it's still a little, little dark over there. >> usually they don't have the lights on in the buildings. >> they're getting ready to wake up and head to work. we'll talk to jacqui -- >> oh, yeah, our own jacqui jeras that points out today is the start of meteorlogical spring. we all wish it was real spring. we had enough of the shoveling and snow and salt. >> it gives you that little silver lining, right? make you feel better that there is hope out there. things could get better. the forecast for el nino that will stick around through spring and maybe mid-april which means one of the southern tracking storms and, yeah, potentially more noreasters, as well. we'll watch things as they develop in the upcoming months. we have that southern tracking storm here today. we saw the shot from dallas overcast skies with very light rain mixing in. but very cold air on the back side of this system here. so you could see some snow mixing in as you head into the afternoon hours. rumbles of thunder ahead of this system, watch for that in the arklatex and that will move along later on today. now, the northeast, yeah, that same pesky system that brought you the two feet of snow still sticking around. enough is enough already. right? take a look at this picture from boston, not what you want it see when you wake up. rain and snow mixing in. the national weather service has a winter weather advisory in effect for you predicting two to five inches but i think we'll be lucky to see numbers like that today because that rain is really trying to wrap through. the wind is incredible, gusting 35 miles per hour and we'll see those strong winds all across the northeastern quarter today as high pressure tries to push in and push out that low finally but those gusts, of course, will cause some delays at the airport. if you're trying to travel today, unfortunately, expect an hour or so. new york city metros and the runway issues at jfk and philadelphia delays, as well as boston and dallas and houston because of those winds and for you folks who don't have any power in the northeast, highs today in the upper 30s to lower 40s. still feeling a lot like winter across much of the lower 48. pictures from overseas, guys. very cool lightning show in dubai. take a look at those pictures. wow. just lit up there wow! just lit up. cloud to cloud lightning, and that's expected to continue for another couple of days with heavy rain and flash flooding there as well. >> great purple and blue, especially with the new building there. >> yeah, the tallest building. >> there is still too much snow to worry. top stories minutes away, including we have been covering the latest in the aftermath in the earthquake that struck chile. the number of dead is still climbing. chaos setting in in chile. the drastic new move democrats are considering to get health care reform done. at half past the hour we are hoping we have a different tale to tell this morning, and how sid the kid cost him a beer and how his press secretary will be paying for it. those stories and much more at the top of the hour. depression. 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[ female announcer ] new moisture wrap body lotion. welcome back to the most news in the morning. check that out. that -- look closely, boys and girls. that's a lot of nude aussies. i did say nude. they posed for an hour in a variety of possessions for a photograph that is famous for different possessions. >> okay. he is about to become the sixth host in the history of the tonight show. it's jay leno. the big question is even though jay is back will his audience be? >> reporter: jay leno recently signed off from his short-lived primetime gig admitting the show was a bomb. >> it was like yesterday i was telling nbc this is not going to work. >> but will his late night return also be a bust. >> we have one hour to steal every single item in this studio. conan o'brien was forced out of his time slot. >> television networks, it defies logic. >> the comedian says leno can get back on top. if anything he was on a brief sabbatical. but i think he will hit the ground running like he always has. >> he says people want to see leno back in the chair. still, media creditic says it's a slippery slope. >> he says the audience that helped leno stay on top for more than a decade must return for the show to succeed. >> so many of his followers conditioned to watch him at 11:30 may have gone on and found new viewing habits, and this will be the test. >> a test for leno that must also repair his battered image, with others taking aim. leno avoided the spotlight since his hiatus, and talked with oprah about the backlash. >> i think it's unfair and i will try and work hard to rehabilitate the image. >> do you think now that has happened you will be able to relive "the tonight show." >> i hope so. >> brett favre, and sarah palin, and that's just in the week. >> thank you so much. we will take a quick break and our top stories coming your way in 90 seconds. welcome to "american morning" on this monday. it's the first day of march. i am kiran chetry. >> and i am in for john roberts today. devastation leads to desperation in chile. two days after the earthquake looters take to the streets as the number of death continues to climb. there is more nasty weather on tap for the northeast today unfortunately. most people don't want to hear that. meantime, more than 200,000 homes and businesses are still without power after this past week's huge storm. jacqui jaris is in the storm center tracking it for us. and a $23 cotton ball. we are taking a look at how things like this are training our bank accounts in a new "am" original series. rescue workers search for survivors after saturday's earthquake. the quake killed more than 700 people and that number is also expected to rise. meantime on the streets they are witnessing scenes of looting, and some are raided stores looking for food and water. police have been using tear-gas and water cany nons to break up the crowds. we begin with carl who is not far from the quake's epicenter. >> reporter: kiran, so far this morning we have seen some incidents of looting at a flower mill not far from here. people broke through the gates of that earlier this morning and started to carry out heavy sacks of flour. one man told me he came from 12 miles away and he brought his bike with him and he said he had no power or running water at home and simply needed something to feed the family. now the police did come on scene very quickly, and they want to allow looting to spread. there is a curfews in concepcion. >> about 167 miles south, the tremor took down a bridge over the river. it's a major artery there. soledad, where are you right now and what are the roads looking like right there? >> reporter: they are looking okay, and you see the massive cracks, and they put authorities in front of the cracks, sometimes they are not letting anybody by. there was a big aftershock, and 30 minutes after that we saw ambulances. here it's much more rural, where people are used to quakes, they know what to do. they are people that camped out in front of their yards, and it's not like in haiti, because they have more space and you might have one tent and ten acres of land. you see some of the roads collapsing as well, and the bridges are blocked off. gas lines, we are seeing, too, i counted 35 cars at one gas line. gas lines are people waiting in the hopes that the gas will come to the gas station that is not open yet. we saw police officers heading off to protect homes that have collapsed. chile is cold, this is the coldest summer they have had here, and so people outdoors in tents, it's not comfortable for them. also new this morning, hillary clinton is on her way to chile as part of the briefly planned five-day trip to latin america. the suspected suicide bomber that killed seven ci acha agent. in the video he claims the team was not his original target but was a gift from god that sent vulnerable prey. more than 200,000 homes and businesses are still without power in parts of the northeast. utility crews cram bulling, but still a winter wallop. that's down, though. they did have more than a million customers at the peak of the storm, but again slow going get all the people going back up online. right now we are following the latest on the extreme weather from our own jacqui jaris. >> hard to believe but the amazing storm is still sticking around. this is a storm that doesn't want to go away. today should be the last hit and then it will pull out. new england getting the worse this time around. winds will be gusting 40-plus miles per hour. you see portland has sustained winds, and these winds are going to be strong enough from portland all the way down to philadelphia, and that could cause travel delays today. we have a wintry mix into the coast, and that will change to rain but could pick up a couple inches in the interior. the other storm we are dealing with, a slow mover across texas today. you can see the spin or the swirl associated with that low. that is going to bring some showers and even thunderstorms as it heads towards the mississippi river valley, and eventually in the deep south and cold air on the backside of it will bring a light dusting of snow to the areas in the upcoming days as well. and things are relatively quiet out west before our next system moves on in there for today. we will be watching places like dallas for delays, and then we have word now houston, continental has a ground stop meaning people cannot take off to fly into dallas. so the wicked winter weather doesn't want to go away even though it's meteorologistal spring starting today. reconciliation is in the dictionary and that sounds like a nice thing, and then there is reconciliation in washington, and it's a different thing. at the hartford, we help businesses of all kinds... feel confident doing what they do best. by protecting your business, your property, your people. you've counted on us for 200 years. let's embrace tomorrow. and with the hartford behind you, achieve what's ahead of you. ♪ welcome back to the most news in the morning. time for a look at other stories new this morning. lawyers for former enron employee is trying to cut years off his sentence. he had a 28 word addendum in the fraud statute. doctors declared president obama in excellent health and fit for duty. the president's doctors say he still has not kicked smoking and his cholesterol has creeped up. one republican center said it would be political calm causy mission for the democrats to jam through the health care. >> president obama was talking about your health care saying let's get this done. democrats are on the verge of taking a dramatic step, one that could leave republicans powerless to stop the bill. hi, jim. >> it could have a lot of consequences. it's being called controversy, but it's not unprecedented. just because the democrats are talking about reconciliation, it doesn't mean both parties will be joining hands on capitol hill. with health care reform clinging to life in congress, democrats are about to try a radical procedure to save the patient. and house speaker nancy pelosi said on cnn's "state of the union" said they will do it with or without the republicans. first the house would vote to approve, and then the senate would use one of little known rules called reconciliation to fix the bill. >> i think americans should know that when we hear the words about reconciliation, it's simply a majority vote. >> reporter: under reconciliation, only 51 votes are required to pass a bill. while the procedure was designed for budget matters it has been used in the past to expand health care and then some. reconciliation was used to pass welfare reform under president clinton and a push through tax cuts under george w. bush. and republicans tried reconciliation for drilling in alaska. >> if you have 51 votes for your possession, you win. >> reporter: now in the minority, gop leaders see it differently. >> just because it has been used before for lesser issues doesn't member it's appropriate for this procedure. >> reporter: they said passing health care reform would do damage. >> in terms of using reconciliation, the purpose of the senate will be defeated, and that's to bring consensus to big issues in this country. >> democrats argue they tried bipartisanship by dropping the idea of a government insurance plan or public option from what is likely to be in the final bill. >> let me say this. the bill can be bipartisan, even though the votes may not be bipartisan, because they made their imprint on this. >> reporter: if you look at the reconciliation scoreboard and yes they have one in washington, you will find republicans have used it more when they have been in the majority 16 times, compared to the number of times used under a democratic majority, just 6 times. it has been used for the children's health program and the cobra program, the one that was used to take your health insurance with you. on one side there are those that say their second amendment rights are there and they have the right to keep and bear arms, and the rights have been violated. and then our kate boldualdwin n. >> reporter: in one of chicago's roughest south side neighborhoods, a rare safe haven for some of the city's at risk youth. >> they walk looking backwards. if you stay here two days, our young people walk looking backwards, because of drive-by. >> reporter: now, she says she is just fighting to keep the kids alive, up against some of the worse gun violence the city has ever seen. and it has grabbed headlines. according to city statistics, chicago has the worse rate of homicide in the country, 36 killings in the last school year alone, 36 reasons she supports chicago's handgun ban. why have the measure be in place if they will get them any way? it's a case brought by another activist, 76-year-old otis mcdonald. >> we wouldn't want to go down the right here. >> reporter: why? >> because that's a hot area, where drug dealing and stuff goes on. >> reporter: he too fears for the safety of the community, but argues that it's his constitutional right to protect himself and family from the violence. >> that's all i want. the fighting chance. give me the opportunity to at least make somebody think about something before they come in my house on me. >> reporter: the supreme court almost two years ago struck down a similar ban in washington, but because d.c. is a federal district, the court left largely unanswered how gun laws apply to states and cities. when it comes down to it, why take on this ban? >> we are in a war. simply that. the innocent law abiding citizens against the drug dealers and gang bangers, that's what it boils down to. >> reporter: but diane fears making handguns legal again means more guns on the streets and more names she will have to add to this memorial. >> reporter: how many are in there now? >> 201. >> reporter: you said you were five short? >> yeah, we are always behind. we are always behind. >> reporter: the court's ruling has the potential of overturning decades of gun control laws across the country and may finally answer the question where does the power of the second amendment lie, with the individual or with the government? kate bolduan, cnn, chicago. elizabeth cohen will tell you about high prices you are paying at at a hospital. how about $4,100 for a bag of saline. stick around. welcome back to the most news in the morning. it's 19 minutes past the hour and that means it's time to mind your business. 2,000 workers are temporarily out of a job this morning as washington plays politics and president obama says they have kentucky senator to thank. the republican blocked action on a bill to extend funds saying it would add to the deficit. these benefits are expected to expire today as americans look to rely on because they cannot find a job. it's proven to be quite difficult. so far the senate has failed to pass an extension of the benefits. >> the chinese car market is the largest in the world. this is toyota's second visit to the country, and comes on the heels of last week's meeting where he was grilled by lawmakers. and then the return of money to the government coughers. the price tag, $35.5 billion. prudential will put up $25,000 in cash, and this is good news for u.s. taxpayers. ladies and gentlemen, you own a majority of this company, the $25 billion cash component is slated to go back to them. this is taxpayer money coming back. this is one of the biggest chunks to come back as part of this company's push to pay back the bailout money. >> we will take a quick break. when you come back, it's a series that you want to see. elizabeth cohen looking closer at the hospital bills. 42 bucks for a cotton ball? using 42 bags of saline when you are in the hospital for only two hours? it's 22 minutes past the hour. [ female announcer ] last year, the u.s. alone used over 39 billion plastic bo@eles of water. ♪ that's enough to stretch around the earth over 190 times. ♪ each brita filter can take up to 300 of those bottles out of the equation. it's a small step that can make a big difference. [ birds screech ] equation. [ loud rumbling ] [ rifle fires ] [ announcer ] if you think about it, this is what makes theladders different... from other job search sites. we only want the big jobs. join theladders.com. a premium job site for only $100k+ jobs... and only $100k+ talent. 25 minutes past the hour. right now your top stories are five minutes away. first an "am" original. imagine spending $1,000 for a toothbrush. every dollar we spend on health care 50 cents is actually wasted. elizabeth cohen is here to kick off the new series, health care, prescription for waste. some of the stuff you uncovered, simply astounding. >> yeah, it really is. when i look through the bills and i see the ridiculous charges, i started to understand how we waste in the country a trillion dollars in medical bills. when you and i go shopping for a toothbrush, $2, maybe 3 or $4. and can you believe $1,000 for a toothbrush in the hospital. do you know who ends up paying for it? you and i. it comes out of our pocket in one way or another. and come on, come with me. that's not the only costs that was crazy. $10 for 100 pills. and we know somebody at the hospital was charged $140 for one tylenol. can you believe it? $140 for this. here is a box of disposable gloves. at the score they come up to 24 cents a pair. and there was one hospital that charged $53 for a pair of disposable gloves. what the heck is going on here? i am here in the home office of a medical billing advocate. this is cindy, and she helps people go through all of the crazy charges and she has all sorts of examples. this is my favorite one. this is a little alcohol prepare swab. how much did a hospital charge for these? >> $23 a piece. on bill there were 44 of them. it becomes very expensive. >> reporter: this is not the craziest thing you have seen. tell me about one of your crazier charges? >> i had somebody charged for 41 iv bags when she went to an er for a two-hour visit. >> reporter: yeah, a woman went to the emergency room with a migraine headache, and then they gave her one bag of saline and then charged her for 41 bags, to the tune of $4,182. and the crazy thing is her insurance company paid the bill and did not question it. why did it pay for this when it was obviously wrong? >> there is not many people working at the companies anymore, and they are very busy and any kind of bill that is under $100,000, they don't look at the detail. >> they just write a check? >> they just write a check. >> we asked the insurance company why they wrote the check and they couldn't talk to us because of personal reasons. when we called the hospital, they did not return the calls. >> some people might say it's a shame we see this stuff go on all the time, we have the waste, but if i have insurance why should i care? >> yeah, the reason why is all of our premiums are going up. you have seen it come out of your paycheck and i have seen it come out of mine. premiums are skyrocketing because of all of the wasteful spending. when you are charging $1,000 for a toothbrush, that's going to send the premiums go up. >> we talk about insurance reform and we talk about ways to cut spending. are individual hospitals cracking down and saying we have to reign it in and this is not what is happening? >> some of them are, that's what we are told. some aren't. we are told these are mistakes and they are not trying to make money, but when you are charging for 41 bags of saline versus one bag, we are told those mistakes still continue. >> tomorrow on "american morning" we go shopping for health care. we can save hundreds when it comes to our own medical bills. it's 29 minutes past the hour, and that means times for the top stories. developing news from the disaster zone in chile. the death toll climbing in the wake of saturday's devastating huge earthquake. officials say more than 700 people were killed and that number is expected to rise as search and rescue efforts continue. today, secretary of state hillary clinton is expected to arrive in chile to meet with the country's president. the busiest run way at jfk in new york is closing today for repairs. it will not handle a single plane for four months and that could mean delays for millions of travelers even if you don't come near new york city, and it could mean higher ticket prices since there are fewer departu s departures. press secretary robert gibbs also lost a bet. he will have to wear a team canada jersey for a white house briefing. that's going to be hard to look presidential. the tea party movement is a movement growing and gaining buzz, but now we are seeing it may have sway in the lone star straight. >> the race pits long time popular center, kay bailey hutchison. she seemed like a shoo-in but not so much anymore. the tea party changed the game completely in the last year. and thank you for being here. when you look at the polls from last year to this year, the shift for kay bailey hutchen sun has been incredible. now you have the governor, rick perry, both of them fighting for the republican votes here. and then debra medina, she is getting a lot of the tea party votes. is this all about anti-washington? is it rick perry tapped into anti-washington sentiment? >> that's exactly what it's about. rick perfery goes into the primy ahead in double digits, and the dominant reason is because he saw early on the power of this tea party movement, this anti-washington anti-spending wave, and he seized on it so that he is about texas and soverei soverei sovereignty and texas rights. >> early on, people said he is up the reservation, and he is talking about texas rights, and this was considered crazy talk, and now it's clearly helped him, seizing on -- he calls her kay bailout hutchenson. >> i was talking to a republican member of congress from suburban dallas the other day that said, you know, it's so strong here this anti-incumbent anti-washington fervor, if i were not a member, the state representative from washington in the district, i would be leading the charge from the representative against the district. it's defining everything. legislative races here. you see it nationally in places like massachusetts and elsewhere. it's a power to wrecken with. >> let's talk about the tea party activist and what candidate you think they will end up backing. sarah palin a big name in the republican party. where do we see the big names falling in line in this particular race? >> that's a great question. you look at sarah palin. very popular and charismatic. understands or believes that she did not be the nominee, and it would be unlikely. what they are trying to do, and are trying to do is take the enthusiasm from the tea party movement, and put it to use with the orthodox candidates, and whether that's congressional and senate people who can speak the language of the tea party is yet to be determined. but that's what the tea party movement's affect is, and that's what the republican party is trying to do, take it as its own. >> it's also interesting. there is an interesting article called conservatives clean house. and it talked about some of the more mainstream leaders realizing they have to separate themselves from what they call rationally tinged comments, and some of the other talk that could probably serve to do more harm than good, and how is that element being worked in here? rick perry said things that some people thought may have been controversial? >> yeah, when he talks about states' rights, it comes from the experience of the 1960s civil rights movement, so that has a potential downside. on the other hand there is a fringe element, and politico has it right. the republican party has to avoid it, especially if it's racial or appears extraordinary intolerant. the republican party wants to seize on the fiscal responsibility message, but not this zenaphobia at the border or not the racial intolerance that could kill the republican party's effort. >> this is a state that has been coming out of the recession many say earlier than others and its unemployment rate is better than the rest of the country as well. for him the economy is playing into his hand, isn't it? >> yeah, it's always great when you are the incumbent, incumbent government of a state doing better than california and you are able to say that we are doing better than arnold in california, which i have heard him say. whether it's his fault or responsibility or to his credit, he is taking the credit and responsibility for it. >> quickly, just for people who have not followed texas politics, some people say why is this incumbent governor in a state that is not seeing as much unemployment as other states are seeing? why was he so far behind before? why are we saying it's surprising that he is now gained on, you know, kay bailey hutchison in the polls? >> well, it's relative. the economic prosperity, and i use that cautionly in texas, and the anti-government message, rick perry, who was not very popular actually, and now he is in the lead. we have not talked specifically about rising insurance costs and children problems in insurance. this tea party fervor, which rick perry seized on washed away a lot of since. >> political writer with the dallas morning news. thank you for being with us. meanwhile, in western europe, once in the past ten years is the first time we have seen this monster storm. there have been fatalities. we have that story coming up for you next. welcome back to the most news in the morning. a violent storm system named xynthia is blamed for 58 deaths across europe, and most of the victims are in france where hurricane-force winds hit the coastal areas. we have the developments from london. >> reporter: she is one pretty severe weather system. it's impacting across europe. all the way up to the netherlands. very, very high winds. they have been bettering the coastline along the atlantic coast, and here in the uk it's causing problems with the extremely high winds. let's get a few details on how europe has been affected. a trail of devastation leaving dozens dead. the hurricane force winds hit portugal and spain. gusts of 160 kilometers an hour battered the country. in france, where most people were killed, more than 1 million homes lost power. people were rescued from roof tops as the water rose. many expressed shock of what they had gone through. >> translator: basically, the waves were coming up to the roads. >> reporter: southwest france was worse hit. many roads were impassable because of floods and trees. flights and trains were cancelled. it's the worse storm in a decade. >> translator: it's a national kcatastrophe catastrophe. now the priority is to bring all the people left homeless and all those threatened by the rising waters to safety. all services are immobilized to reach that goal as soon as possible. >> reporter: the french president sarcozy is visiting the affected areas. rail services were disrupted. as the atlantic storm continues across europe, the number of dead is expected to rise as many people are still missing. of course, in the aftermath of those severe winds, that very, very severe weather, what is the cleanup operation going to be like. that's going to cause a lot of problems, and in some instances soldiers have had to be called out to help people. so what will the cost be? that remains to be seen. cnn, london. >> sasha, thank you so much. the president gets annual physical. there was something about this physical that raise add few eyeballs. how our commander is when it comes to his physical well-being. i keep track of my entire business on this spreadsheet... and all of these. paid invoices go right here. bang! - that hasn't been paid yet. - what? - huh-uh. - all my business information is just a phone call away-- to my wife... who's not answering. announcer: there's a better way to run your business. intuit quickbooks online organizes your business in one place. it easily creates invoices and helps you stay on top of your business anytime, anywhere. this is way better. get a 30-day free trial at intuit.com. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] all we ask is that you keep doing what you've always done. the lexus rx. never has a vehicle been designed to feel so natural. ♪ [ woman ] nine iron, it's almost tee-time. time to face the pollen that used to make me sneeze, my eyes water. but with new zyrtec® liquid gels, i get allergy relief at liquid speed. that's the fast, powerful relief of zyrtec®, now in a liquid gel. zyrtec® is the fastest 24-hour allergy medicine. it works on my worst symptoms so i'm ready by the time we get to the first hole. and that's good because the competition's steep today. new zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air.™ ♪ vampire weekend in miami. girl's weekend in miami. everybody wants to be there because it's going to be 72 degrees there. >> 72 is not enough to get me out of here. >> you need 80 before you can take a girl's weekend. i get it. >> jacqui, what do you think? >> i am in on the 80. >> this is a tough crowd. >> if you are going to wait in an airport you have to have hot weather at the end. >> yeah, it's going to rain there tomorrow by the way, so won't be quite as great in south florida for those of you suffering in the cold still. two feet of snow on the ground and hundreds of thousands of people without power across the northeast still from the storm that just doesn't want to quit. this is still the same upper level disturbance. today this is more of a rain maker and a wind maker than anything else, and it's going to be a hassle for you and nuisance, and it's going to impact your travel plan and keep you indoors today as well. and wind will be one of the greatest concerns because as things are already a little unstable and we have had power lines down, you get gusts, 40 plus miles per hour, and if things were not down before they could go down with this. we think parts of maine will get hit with the strongest winds and heaviest of rain, and then you head down towards new york city and we are looking at a couple sprinkles for you, and still the winds. if you don't have power it's uncomfortable. this afternoon, we will get up in the 40s and that's about as good as it will get on this march 1st. the next storm system, right next the plain states, and this is an upper level disturbance as well, and you can see the spin here associated with it. ahead of it, showers and thunderstorms. do expect to see some lightning out there and hear the rumbles of thunder. dallas, you are getting the light rain today and you can see the mix and the snow over towards the lubbock area. and accumulations not terrible with this one. and it's going to be taking a southerly track once again. you could see it tomorrow in huntsville and atlanta there will be some mixing in. west coast has another storm moving on in, but that's not terribly strong. temp wise, overall we are seeing a lot of the u.s. below average. hang in there, spring is right around the corner, and unfortunately we are expecting below normal temperatures for the southern part of the united states for the next couple months on average. >> she says it with a smile. >> not what you wanted to hear. >> no, not at all. >> thank you, jacqui. and elizabeth cohen will talk about the president's examination. one thing is going up and one thing he just cannot particular. listerine® whitening vibrant white™. welcome back to the most news in the morning. 51 minutes past the hour right now. time for the "am" house call, a president about the president's health. we know perhaps he has not been able to kick the smoking habit. doctors, did, though, declare president obama fit for duty. he got his first presidential physical in bethesda, maryland. and our correspondent elizabeth cohen is here to tell us how it turns out. how do they know he's still smoking? >> he admits to smoking. that's the number one thing when doctors look at the report card, that's what he needs to change, he needs to quit smoking. stop smoking. doctors want him to keep continuing with his efforts to quit, because we all know that smoking can kill. he needs to lower his cholesterol, it has been going up a bit lately, and also watch his blood pressure which is also creeping up. let's look at the cholesterol numbers. he has a total cholesterol of 209, and they like to see that closer to 200 or below. and the ldl, the bad cholesterol, is 138, and they want to see that at lower than 130. some doctors with the numbers would consider putting the president on a cholesterol lowering drugs, but his physicians told him change your diet and stop smoking and see if that works to lower the cholesterol. >> usually you can drop several points if you kick the habit? >> yeah, they think it will go down once he quits without a drug. >> and then let's look at the slight flag in the blood pressure. it's a stressful job being the president. every day the types of things that you have to worry about with the entire nation, i imagine that could be taxing on your blood pressure? >> yes, i would think so. i would think anybody's blood pressure would go up, and his has gone up. but the good news is his is still low. his blood pressure is 105/62, and so it crept up a little bit, and the cholesterol was much lower two years ago, so this job definitely appears to have taken its toll. >> sometimes he is on the road and it's hard and they try to make accommodations so the president can find a way to exercise, but how do you keep up with that on a regular basis when you are so busy? >> yeah, he faces the challenge many americans face, which is how do you exercise. let's take a look at his exercise regimen. he does cardio, sometimes basketball and sometimes other activities three days a week for 45 minutes at a time, and he does weight lifting three days a week. that's a good workout for somebody with a job as busy as his. >> if he finds the time, none of us should have an excuse, right? >> yeah, throw those excuses out the window. >> elizabeth cohen for us with a presidential checkup, thank you. >> christine? >> i need people working for me to find me a gym if i need one. >> coming up, jeanne moos, she has the crazy places pilots have landed their planes, and we are not talking about runways. you don't want to miss this. welcome back to the most news in the morning. it's three minutes to the top of the morning. they may not measure up to sully sullenberger's landing on the hudson. >> but here it is from the inside. here is jeanne moos. >> you can bet it was not the pilot that said silence is golden, not when it's your engine that is silent. you could have caught the crash landing and harvesting beets simultaneously, but when a pilot's engine died, kyle davis opted for sitting down on the road he normally drives to work on, and he ended up parked in front of a closed furniture store. >> our motto is if you don't like the way he flies, stay off the road. >> reporter: and then a landing in a pastor. that plane clipped a cow. watch the pilot turn his head to see what he hit. according to the accident report, the plane was slightly damaged but the cow was uninjured. as the pilot hit it, i have to say it's the first cow i ever hit in 22 years flying. the next best thing to putting your plane out to pasture, playing fields in anchorage, alaska. >> we have a crazy landing going on. here it comes, right behind the fields. >> reporter: all four people on the plane lived to tell about it. >> oh, boy! >> reporter: that's right. look what a police cam captured. james bond made it look easy, landing and going up to the closest gas bump. this is something 007 would have tried. don't try that where this pilot was forced to land with so much without a turn signal. >> i wanted to give him an idea i was

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