president, not george w. bush, his father. i m christine romans, this is early start. just hours from now, transportation secretary pete buttigieg heads to the site of that train derailment in east palestine, ohio. buttigieg under pressure as residents and critics worry about the toxic chemicals. alex shaw faced some of that head on in a cnn town hall last night. i m 65 years old, diabetic, hearts disease, everything. did you shorten my life? i want to retire and enjoy it. how are we going to enjoy it? you burned me. we were going to sell our house. our value went jim, thank you for those comments. i hear you. i m terribly sorry that this has happened to this community. what i can do and what i will do is make it right. we ll get the cleanup right. we re going to reimburse the citizens, we ll invest in the long term health of this community. miguel marquez has more from east palestine. reporter: a massive effort under way to clean up creeks and water flowing in an
transportation secretary pete buttigieg will visit that ohio train derailment site one day after donald trump. the lead starts right now. big names descend on a small town, east palestine, ohio, the scene of that toxic train wreck. norfolk southern vows to help but critics know how much the company is giving victims versus company investors for stock buybacks. plus after the speeches and fanfare, ukraine left with the realities of war. do you have any idea how many bodies you have taken back to their hometowns at this stage? cnn s clarissa ward is on the front lines for us with the somber work of returning bodies of fallen ukrainian soldiers to their families as russia s brutal invasion nears one year. and a coast to coast winter storm. ice and snow and conditions not seen in some spots in 30 years. welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper and we start in east palestine, ohio, where the fallout from that toxic train wreck starts to get messier by the hour and i don t
$225,000. for a coy mpany the size of norfolk southern, a multibillion-dollar company that are wildly profitable, that is not a level that will get their attention. reporter: norfolk southern posted record profits last year. the railroad spent $1.8 million on lobbying. the top lobby for the industry insists that safety is a top priority, but in an interview on cnbc, norfolk southern ceo evaded a question about its lobbying efforts. looking forward to having discussions with our regulators an with elected officials on how we can make norfolk southern a safer railroad. we want to keep the pressure because this is not a one time thing. this will happen again. and any class one railroad is vulnerable. this could happen anywhere if they don t change their operating practices.
norfolk southern or any of the major freight railroads, the multibillion dollar companies that are wildly profitable, that s just not at a level that s going to get their attention. reporter: norfolk southern posted record profits last year approaching $5 billion. according to open secrets the railroad spent $1.8 million on lobbying armed with three dozen lobbyists. the top lobby for the railroad industry insists that safety is a top priority. but in an interview on cnbc norfolk southern s ceo evaded a question about its lobbying efforts. i m looking forward to having discussions with our regulators and with elected officials on how we can make norfolk southern a safer railroad. it s important to keep the pressure because this isn t a one-time thing. this is going to happen again. and any class one railroad is vulnerable. this could happen anywhere if they don t change their operating practices. reporter: the transportation secretary s visit to east palestine s happening on the
coming home all at once. by the way, that s what the president, health officials say do. keep your vacation plans as long as you re vaccinated. the airline industry is asking the cdc for help to shorten the period for airline workers so they aren t faced with as many cancellations as they are seen now. any sense that is going to happen? reporter: we ll have to wait and see how this pans out, jim. the top lobby for the airlines and delta have both written to the cdc director rochelle walensky and say if we shorten from 10 days to 5 days, it will allow workers to avoid some of these operational issues we have seen and return to work more quickly. we will see how this goes. we know you ll be on it. pete muntean, thanks srefplt