>> also, you think you've got a bad commute? we'll tell you the places where drivers spend the most time just wasting time behind the wheel on this "american morning." good morning. regardless of where they rank it, if you're stuck in traffic you feel it's the worst possible place to be. >> it's amazing how they calculate how much time you sit in your car over the year. want to give you an update about what's happening in arizona, the tucson shooting. first we'll give you the update about the suspect. then we'll tell you about this, the remarkable recovery for gabrielle giffords. but the suspect, you're seeing him there, you've seen this picture by now, jared loughner. he's been officially indicted by a federal grand jury. three counts have been brought down against him but not the murder charges. these are attempted murder. one is for the congresswoman, gabrielle giffords and one count each he's been indicted on for injuring the aides, ron barber and pam simon. they say this is just the beginning. more charges are expected. he could be facing the death penalty. he will be back in court on monday in phoenix. expected to enter a plea there. >> astounding news as gabrielle giffords is making unbelievable strides. she's able to stand with help. her remarkable progress means she's set to fly to texas where she'll start her rehabilitation. if everything stays on schedule, giffords will check into the tirr memorial hermann hospital. this hospital works with brain injured persons. her doctor says she's ready. >> she has the strength to stand on her own, lift her head up. i see improvements every single day. for a period of time we were also able to get her into a chair, that's a mobile chair. we went to a window so she could seat mountains of tu soon, there's no doubt in my mind lifted up her spirits, i think. >> is mazing. much to the hour we'll be joined by elizabeth coen to find out more about what gabrielle giffords is facing as she begins her rehabilitation. >> listen to this nice gesture they're making over at giffords' office. she's received thousands of cards and letters as well as stuffed animals. as you see here at this memorial. now the staff has decided they're going to donate the stuffed animals, maybe between 30000 of them to a shelter for sick kids and battered children. >> it's been called the most important relationship within u.s. and china. today the leader of america's asian rival heads to capitol hill. last night president obama and the first lady hosted chinese president hu jintao for a state dinner. 200 guests spread out between the state room, the blue room and the red room. >> as you can imagine, we had two presidents there. also stars always get inviolated to the big state dinners. take a look here, one of them, michelle kwan, former u.s. figure stating champion. i don't think they had a red carpet last night. they parade the folks out in front of the camera. >> we saw a lot of that with the salahis. >> a lot of you will remember that walk. another star, jackie chan. i heard about what he might have been wearing last night. >> he looks great. >> he looks really good. the superstar, movie star what is chinese. >> and barbra streisand and her husband, james brolin. vera wang also making the walk on the not so red carpet. >> who was not there? the senate majority leader, harry reid. this guy decided to skip this one. it had nothing to do with the comment he made a few days ago in which he set chinese president is a, quote, dictator. reid's office says he was traveling back from his home state of nevada and wasn't able to be there. coming up next half hour, we'll talk to someone else who was there. she is the first chinese-american congresswoman. judy chu of california was there last night. she'll give us her impressions and talk about this relationship between the u.s. and china. president obama announced that the washington's national zoo's beloved pandas will be staying a bit longer. >> mr. president, today we've shown that our governments can work together as well. for our mutual benefit. and that includes this bit of news. under a new agreement, our national zoo will continue to dazzle children and visitors with the beloved giant pandas. >> all right. christine romans here with me. we have a $230 billion plus trade deficit. we get pandas. >> we got $45 billion of trade deals announced yesterday. >> a drop in the bucket. >> it is but this is how these things go. you have the days up until this big meeting, a lot of people talking about the strains and the frictions on both sides. manufacture the business community said hu would bring gifts. he came bearing gifts to the tune of 07 different deals, 12 different states that the white house says will support, support, 235,000 jobs in this country. everything from helicopters to airplanes to corn, wheat, soybeans, ethanol plants, ethanol deals. i want to show you how that stacks up with the trade imbalance that we have. the united states from january to november last year exported $81 billion worth of goods to china. we imported $334 billion in goods from china. you can see how dramatic that imbalance is. so throw those $45 billion on to the export pile and you can see, add it up, you still don't get anywhere close. >> you should have thrown the pandas. >> you can't put a price tag on pandas. >> is it -- is the bar, i guess, in the perfect world it's supposed to be equal, exactly even. >> oh, no, no. >> $45 billion is nothing to sneeze at then? >> if it does support 235,000 jobs, yes. some of these were deals they were working on. they try to wrap up deals that are already in progress to make it look like they come with the summit as well. don't get me wrong. i am being a skeptic. one of my colleagues said, let's have the chinese president come every quarter. how many jobs is that imbalance wiping away? >> we have to let you go. explain to folks within they hear that, supports? not creating. >> the white house aide yesterday, very clear, did not say creates jobs, supports jobs. these are people who are working on the parts, employed by the industries who will be working because of the new contracts. >> christine. >> it's a start. >> you know what, this is the way the diplomacy works. a lot of big deals. some of them are pretty high-tech deals, too. >> and priceless pandas. >> priceless pandas. >> thank you. new evidence this morning linking alleged 9/11 master kind khalid shaikh mohammed to daniel pearl. he said he killed pearl but was never charged. daniel pearl was kidnap in january 2002 in pakistan. video of his killing was later posted online and that's where they were able to look at the hands seen in some of the screen captures and compare them to other pictures of the hands of khalid shaikh mohammed. we turn back to brazil. the situation is dire there. take a look here. the dramatic pictures of the flooding that's been taking place there. this is through a levee of rio de janeiro and the streets there. the death toll could get up to a thousand. they have had a week of mudslides there. take a look at some of the other pictures we have for you. what can only be described, if you will, here, a sink hole. there seems to be a home dangling precariously on the edge of it. still, an ongoing situation for the folks in brazil. >> amazing pictures. the fbi is asking for help to find out who planted a bomb along the parade route. it was designed to kill but found in a backpack before the event and disarmed. something that the faa is becoming increasingly concerned about. lasers. people pointing lasers at the cockpit of a plane you could be on and essentially blinding the pilot. there have been more than 2,800 incidents of these lasers being pointed at planes last year. that is double the year before. it's the highest number they've seen since they started keeping track of this in 2005. now, a lot of people wondering why in the world would someone do this? these things are becoming more and more popular and powerful. they're easy to buy. a lot of star gazers use them as they point into the skies. they don't understand why someone would be trying to point these at the cockpit of an airplane. if you fly out of these airports, these are the top five that reported the most incidents, lax, o'hare and chicago. sky harbor out there in phoenix, san jose international as well as the airplane in las vegas. people trying to figure out, why would someone do this? it is a serious security threat. >> it's iddiotic. you want to bring down a plane? >> a lost incidents. >> 2,800, that's ridiculous. >> that's a lot. time for a check of the weather headlines. rob marciano still working in steam boat springs, colorado this morning. attending the big weather summit but also having a little bit of fun. we're getting snow it looks like again. rob? >> reporter: yes, you are. i don't think it will be a massive blizzard. you will get enough snow to make it a headache for rush hour. 10 inches or so uhl is moving into the plains and stretching towards the northeast as we go through tomorrow and tomorrow night. there are a number of winter storm watches, warnings and advisories. this stretches from the southern planes into the northeast. some of the southern planes getting hit pretty hard this morning as far as snowfall goes. the radar showing just that from oklahoma, stretching in through the middle mississippi river valley and into the ohio river valley. this storm is going to take shape and snowfall totals, forecast totals, anywhere from 2 to 5 inches of snow in a swath from, say, st. louis and kansas city, stretching into the southern ohio river valley and then eventually getting into the northeast. your day one forecast map shows that for the most part, the northeast will be dry today. the cold air will be in place and tomorrow, kiran and t.j. within looking anywhere from 2 to 5, maybe 6 inches of snow in new york city, up to boston as well. it will come right at rush hour. we have that to look forward to tomorrow. >> we appreciate that. coming up, there was supposed to be all this talk of a new tone in washington. that went right out the window or maybe he didn't get the memo. you're not going to believe what was said on the house floor. she was stolen from a hospital when she was just 19 days old. found after more than two decades. the incredible story of the kidnapped girl, her family who never gave up and what she looks like now. also, this morning's public service announcement comes to us by the woman by the name of kathy cruz marrero. take a listen. >> i couldn't see anything that i could grab. i went forward. next thing i know i'm seeing pennies and coins in front of my face and i'm in the water. >> yes, her embarrassing moment -- >> that's the woman. >> that's our lady. >> who fell into the mall founta fountain. >> yes. but again, her embarrassing moment may be trying to save you from having the same moment. it's 13 minutes past the hour. now i can stop pain from any angle-- with no mess. (announcer) new icy hot spray. relief that's icy to dull pain, hot to relax it away. and no mess. new icy hot spray. don't mess around with pain. 16 minutes past the hour. house republicans delivered on their campaign promise. they said they would repeal health care and they did that. at least in the house. the bill is not expected to come up for a vote in the senate. even if it did and passed, the president would veto it, obviously. >> there has been a bit of a better tone to this debate. but one house democrat apparently ignored some of those calls, though, to return to a more civil time. >> this is tennessee democrat steve cohen pep was on the house floor tuesday night, comparing the gop attacks on health care to the work of a nazi propagandist. he also used a phrase that got sarah palin in trouble. here's a listen. >> they say it's a govern takeover of health care. it's a lie. like blood libel, that's the same kind of thing .germans said enough about the jews and the people believed it and you had the holocaust. >> there you go. civility, house floor, talking about nazis in this debate. we should point out, coen is jewish. did he enter some of the comments and answer some of the criticism about his comments on "ac 360" last night. >> i guess they don't advance civility, per se, i think telling lies is uncivil and somebody needs to stand up to the lies being told. the fact is they were similar to what gerbel said, keep it short, keep it simple, keep it over and over and people will believe it. that's what they've done. >> amazing story to tell you about now. a baby who has been missing for the past 23 years has been found as a grown woman now, of course. you see on the left, that child was taken from a hospital in harlem some 26 years ago. this was in 1987, taken by a woman dressed as a nurse, just 19 days old at the time. the case had been cold. now she was able to find her picture online of a missing child and she thought, wow, that kind of looks like my baby picture. she put it all together and called the woman up whose child was missing. it turns out to be her mother. they were reunited as a family on friday. she has a brand new family and is fitting in fairly well, apparently. >> she was a missing link and we have gotten her back in the name of jesus, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah! >> can you imagine? they never gave up hope, the family. 23 years they tried to do that, they age the child, police didn't think they'd ever solve this case. t. is solved now. the other part of it, who exactly were the kidnappers, the family she's been living with for all these years? don't know about the kidnappers just yet but they would be facing federal charges. the important part right now is she's back with her family. >> pretty amazing. lena cho in the next hour will have much more on the emotional story and more reaction from the family. president george h.w. bush and members of his administration will be joined by the amir in kuwait today. >> i can continue talking with you for a while. it usually takes about ten minutes for the planes or missiles to get here. >> that was cnn's peter arnett, the lone reporter inside iraq. it gave me goose bumps just to think back to that and the first time people were actually watching a war as it was happening live. because of the first of its kind reporting that cnn was doing back then. they launched "operation desert storm" to drive saddam hussein out of kuwait. it started with the massive and relentless air attack. the first war covered on live tv, put cable news on the map. the era of saddam hussein is part of history, the impact on his invasion still exists today. coming up, a lot of you will be heading out for your morning commute. no matter where you are, you probably think your city has it pretty bad. you might not be correct. we'll show you the worst cities for traffic. we'll hear why one of rham's opponents called clinton's support of rahm emanuel a betrayal. 21 past the hour. the smell of home made chili whatever scents fill your household, purina tidy cats scoop helps neutralize odors in multiple cat homes... keeping your house smelling like it should. purina tidy cats scoop. keep your home smelling like home. 24 minutes past the hour on this "american morning." take a look at the plane you did not want to be on last night. this was in little rock, arkansas, a delta flight coming in from atlanta. you see the sparks flying there a bit. the folks on board didn't necessarily see the sparks. they felt a little bumping. it was about 80 of them on board, delta flight 1609. had some problems with their hydraulics. circled for a while. in the end they had to make the landing. a lot of folks were giving the pilot credit for making sure they were updated and giving him credit for landing that plane. everybody okay, still, some scary moments last night. how about this one? this was a beg mess on highway 101 near san francisco. it's facing the wrong direction, huh? upside down. a dump truck hauling a trailer hit an overpass yesterday. it was lodged vertically between the overpass and the road. the highway had to be shut down. >> of course it did. also one more here, bit of a traffic mess, something near and dear to all of us here in the news business. we get training all the time in local news about what to do and not to do with your live truck safety. somebody blew it out here. this is from our affiliate, a cbs affiliate, in orlando. this wasn't down all the way when the driver took off, ran into an overpass on interstate 4. the truck almost turned over. the crew was okay, reporter was in there as well, doing all right. the driver is telling us and his news director that he had no idea how the mast got into the up position. >> however, on the bright side, you know they are live, local and late breaking thanks to the big signage on the side. they play this all over the news, i'm sure. >> whose helicopter was covering? >> live copter 3 up in the air right now. also new this morning, the gridlock in washington. we're not talking about soon for once. we're talking about the roads. d.c. notorious for traffic problems. along with chicago, voted the worst in the country when it comes to traffic. the average driver in both cities spends 70 hourses ayear going nowhere. in l.a., they waste 63 hours. houston, 58 hours, san francisco bay area, 49 hours a year stuck in traffic. >> surprised not to see atlanta on that list. we have our own problems. i want to turn now to the public service announcement for the morning. a lady trying to help you out, making sure you don't get embarrassed like she did. take you to this video we showed you earlier this week. a lady walking through the mall and she's texting. you see her at the bottom there. doesn't look up, she falls right into the water. we'll rerack that and move that bar at the bottom so you can see this better. you see her getting out. she admits she was walking through the mall. she works there, looking down, trying to text and falls right into the fountain, gets up and keeps going. she was taking this in straight for the most part, that it was funny to some. in another way she was upset with mall security. listen to this. >> a friend of mine text me, a friend of mine from church text me and i decided to text her back. i thought i had a long distance. i didn't. my boot hit the edge of the fountain and i fell over. i couldn't see anything that i could grab, so i just went forward. the next thing i know i'm seeing pennies and coins in front of my face and i'm in the water. i get called stating that i'm on youtube. i'm like are you kidding me? my nephew is like, no, you're on youtube. i was like, i can't believe this. and i started crying and i call my husband win call him daddy, i said, daddy, they call me on youtube. when i went to work and saw how they laughed and the comments that they made, i didn't think that was funny. >> that is true. they just put that video out there and boy did it go viral. she's suing them all? >> there are some reports. some folks heard reports she possibly was. yes, it was a light something that we laughed at as well. this woman is all over the place, here online. it was an ugly moment for her. and there was no reason for that video to get out. >> exactly. >> i just said she was going through something. you're still laughing at her. i'm teasing. >> i'm laughing that she said, i called my husband, i call him daddy. daddy, i can't believe i'm all over the place. she's a great character, she's funny. the big mistake, the banks overcharging military families guaranteed a break of their mortgages, putting them through a ton, threatening foreclosures and worse. the first chinese-american congresswoman will join us coming up. we'll ask her first who she was wearing and th in wearing. it's 29 minutes past the hour. e when i grow up,