rude if you insist on asking questions when i told you i won't answer, and i hope that you understand that i don't intend to be rude to you as i leave. so thank you this morning, and i got to get back to work. >> this isn't all our fault we're stepping down, as you said. it's not because of press attention you're stepping down? >> i don't recall saying it's your fault. >> it's not really that, is it? >> no questions, please. >> yeah. why? >> mr. rangel, who's going to take over your post. >> like i said, i hope you don't mind if i don't take questions. okay. i want you to have a great day. >> why the change from last night, sir? >> i also would like to say that from the very, very beginning, i had offered this to speaker pelosi. thank you. >> congressman charles rangel there calling a press conference there saying that he has sent a letter, a request, to nancy pelosi requesting a leave of absence until the ethics committee has continued its investigation or hashed out all the details that it is looking into as charlie rangel has been under fire for a number of months now for a variation of things. our congressional correspondent brianna keilar now joins us live. this is a press conference that was called by charlie rangel. some thought that perhaps he would make a clear-cut announcement that he would be stepping down as chairman of the house ways and means committee. but instead, he says he's asking for a little bit of time. >> well, no, he actually is saying that he's going to step aside temporarily from his post as house ways and means chairman. a very powerful post. i actually hold here in my hand something that was handed to me by one of his aides. this is the resignation letter -- at least the temporary one -- that he submitted to speaker pelosi. says, "i respectfully request a leave of absence from my duties and responsibilities as chairman of the committee on ways and means until such a time as the committee on standards completes its findings on the review currently under way." there's actually a number of ethics issues that charlie rangel is contending with right now. most recently on friday, we saw the house ethics committee admonish him, say that he broke the house gift rules for travel that he took to the caribbean in 2007 and 2008, travel that was corporate sponsored. as it turned out, they said they couldn't be definitive that he knew it was corporate sponsored, but certainly two of his staff members knew, and because of that, they said he was responsible for the behavior of his staff. but there's a number of other issues, frankly quite larger than what we saw on friday hanging over his head. perhaps one of the largest ones has to do with earnings that he got from a rental property he owns in the dominican republic that he didn't file taxes on, didn't pay taxes on. fredricka, this is someone who, at least was, the chairman of the house ways and means committee. this is the committee that deals with taxes. so he was facing tremendous pressure from republicans who are going to have a vote today, schedule a vote today really on his leadership and asking him to step aside. but he was, as we saw in the last few days, starting to face pressure from within his own democratic caucus and that really proved to be the breaking point over the last 24 hours, fred. >> i wonder if perhaps pam, our producer, is able to kind of re-rack the statement. while he's temporarily stepping down, at the same time he doesn't necessarily talk about long-term what he's looking for but he's not saying that he's giving up the post all together. >> no. what he's saying is that he's stepping aside temporarily until the ethics committee deals with the issues that it is dealing with. right now there are a number -- and the ethics committee is very secretive in how to operates, so at this point we do o know that he is being looked at for some other potential ethics violations, but we don't know what the outcome of those investigations will be. what he's saying is he's stepping aside for the time being because it is causing so much attention and people are having to defend him, and really obviously the situation will be reconsidered once the ethics committee says what its findings are on these other violations. fred, if they come out and on the very serious violations, they say that he did something wrong, then presumably you would expect that he would lose more support than we've seen him losing right now. but in the last few months we've heard house speaker nancy pelosi really stand by him and say wait until all of this plays out. well, that's obviously not happening anymore. apparently she accepted this temporary resignation. >> it was a very short statement so once again for those who were just now joining us, let's listen in just moments ago. this is what charlie rangel said. >> i have this morning sent a letter to speaker pelosi asking her to grant me a leave of absence until such time as the ethics committee completes its work. >> so brianna keilar back now with us. have we heard from nancy pelosi? >> we haven't heard at this point, that i am aware of -- i'm actually scrolling through my blackberry right now and i don't have any statement from her office. but presumably he wouldn't come out and announce that he submitted his resignation, at least temporarily, unless she is going to accept it. what i thought was really interesting, fred, he said there at the end of his statement -- we didn't just play this for you -- he said from the beginning i offered this to speaker pelosi. we haven't check on that at this point to really see what her response would be to that, but nancy pelosi is a long-time ally of charlie rangel's. he's been in the house for decades. and they have been friends, if you will. she has stood by him very much in the last few months amid calls by republicans that he step down. but what happened here was nancy pelosi, when democrats came into power, when they took over the house, when they took over congress, she promised that she would run the most ethical congress in history, the most ethical house in history and she's taken a lot of flack for charlie rangel and certainly some of the suspicion, at the very least, that hangs over his head. so she's weathered quite a bit of criticism, certainly from republicans and a lot of questions from members of the media like myself over this issue. >> brianna keilar, thanks so much. once again, charles rangel coming out just a short time ago this morning saying that he has requested a leave of absence from his chairmanship of the house ways and means committee. that letter being sent to nancy pelosi. brianna keilar, thanks so much. appreciate that. meantime, the presidential push for health care reform. a few hours from now, president obama will unveil his latest health care bill and it's considered a last-ditch effort to create a bipartisan measure. but it is not expected to win any support from republicans. that opposition is expected to be unanimous. instead, the revisions appear aimed at calming the nerves of moderate democrats. time is running out. democratic leaders want to push the overhaul through congress before the end of the month. let's get the latest now from cnn white house correspondent suzanne malveaux. suzanne, what do we expect the president to spell out today? >> well, fred, one of the things that his aides tell me is that this really is his final act here, this is his final version of health care reform, the legislation, as he sees it. he's trying to do a couple of things. obviously he's trying to show that he's open at least to some republican ideas. he's added some of those on to his own blueprint, if you will. he's also trying to convince, give political cover, to some of those moderate democrats who say, look, we are showing -- we are acting in good faith here, so let's get on-board, cut some of the things that he's talking about from the bipartisan health care summit last thursday, he listened to republicans. he's even to a couple of things. one of them being taken on fraudulent medical charges. another thing he's going to talk about is new funding for resolving malpractice disputes, lawsuits, increasing doctors' reimbursements when it comes to medicaid, and offering tax incentives to cut down on doctor visits. doctor visits that might be unnecessary. all of this he is saying, "i've learned from you republicans, i've embraced some of these proposals, these ideas, that you put forward last week, so let's see if we can get something done." >> and the republicans' reaction so far? >> so far, they're not really buying it, fred. they're looking at this and they're fundamentally in disagreement with the whole approach. they essentially want to start over. we heard from the minority whip eric cantor in this statement, he said that, "if the president simply adds a couple of republican solutions to a trill dollar health care package that the american people don't support, it isn't bipartisanship, it's political cover." the president, fred, will make it clear, however, he's not interested in starting all over and he's not even interested in doing things kind of in a piecemeal fashion in a smaller, plan b, if you will. he is going to be pushing forward once again comprehensive health care reform adding some of these republican proposals saying essentially "why don't you get on-board?" if the republicans aren't up for it, the audience that he's trying to go for are those democrats who say this is the final thing. >> suzanne, i remember house speaker nancy pelosi summarizing it this way -- if perhaps the plan is bipartisan because it does borrow some ideas from the gop, perhaps the vote won't be bipartisan. >> that's the main strategy of the white house, look, if you can't get the republicans on-board with the votes, at least throw in some of these proposals, these ideas and call it bipartisan. >> suzanne malveaux at the white house, thanks so much. we'll have live coverage of president obama's unveiling of this new health care package that's scheduled to get under way 1:45 p.m. eastern time. a baby snatching. pretty scary stuff. but you'll cringe when you hear just how easy it was for one alleged kidnapper to get a child away from his parents. i'm rob marciano. another winter storm rolling across the mid-atlantic? does it turn north to the rest of the northeast? plus a west coast storm coming. weather is next. some good news to report now on an alleged child abduction in jacksonville, florida. the baby boy has been found safe and the suspect is in custody. police say a woman posing as a child welfare worker abducted the infant from his home last night. the baby's parents encouraged the woman -- or encountered, rather, the woman when they took the child in for a checkup at a jacksonville hospital. woman followed the couple home, convincing them to turn the baby over to her due to an ongoing investigation. the couple became suspicious and called police a couple hours later. again, good news now, the baby's been re-united with the family. so iraq now. and four days before the country's parliamentary 29 people and wounded 42 others today in baqubah. police say as the victims from the first two explosions were being taken to a hospital, a third bomber walked up to the building and self-detonated. cnn's arwa damon is live in baghdad this morning with how the u.s. military is preparing iraq's security forces to contend with potential election violence. good morning to you, arwa. >> reporter: good morning, fredricka. let's just start by recapping this morning's violence. because it does tie in to the specific training that iraqi security forces are receiving from the u.s. military. now the first explosion, the suicide car bomber detonated, he appeared to have been targeting a government institution and an iraqi police station. then just two minutes later, the second suicide car bomb detonates. that happening in the center of the city, the city of baqubah. the target there appears to have been either a political office belonging to one of the parties here, or the local government headquarters. and then, as you just mentioned, an hour later, when all of the victims were being rushed to the hospital, a third suicide bomber walked inside and detonated. now the u.s. military has been trying to train the iraqi security forces to try to help prevent these types of attacks from taking place. in the lead-up to these elections, and of course on election day itself. the reality though is that there is no exact way that can fully prevent these types of attacks from happening. there isn't the technology out there that exists. according to the u.s. military, that can accurately and consistently detect explosives, especially in the type of an open-air environment like the one that we have here in iraq. a lot of the training that the u.s. military's focusing on with the iraqis isn't just trying to prevent these attacks, but also trying to manage the situation after these attacks take place. by that, i mean they're trying to give them medical training so that the iraqi security forces who are often either already on the scene or first responders to the scene can at least save as many lives as they possibly can. >> so arwa, president obama has promised a pull-out by 2011. i'm wondering how these elections might impact that date. >> reporter: well, fredricka, these elections play directly into that date. we already have under 100,000 u.s. troops in country. that drawdown, if we stick to the current time line, is supposed to continue so that by the end of august, there are only 50,000 u.s. troops in iraq. general odierno is expected to make a recommendation about that in the next few months. here's how the elections play in to it. there are great concerns about post-election violence, because first of all, these elections are going to determine if iraq stays on this path of democracy, if you want to call it that, or if it turns and becomes more of a conservative fundamental, and to a certain degree anti-american state. there are also a number of parties that aren't part of the current political process, and they're saying that if the government that emerges from these elections as sectarian as this one, there is going to be even more violence. >> arwa damon, thanks for that update. now to this terrible situation in uganda. rescuers today are using hand tools to dig through rivers of mud that bury people alive. massive landslides wiped out several villages on monday. more than 100 bodies have been recovered. some of them from a hospital and a church where people actually ran to seek shelter. hundreds of people are missing. fredricka, the monsoon season, rainy season, is just about to start. they're just getting into it but that area very close to an area that's been deforested. as you know, that's always a problem with mudslides. >> really is terrible. talk about precipitation, we're getting a lot of it, too, in the southeast. certainly not of that magnitude but we are getting hit nonetheless. >> there was some snow, now a mixture of rain and snow. speaking of rain, our shot from norfolk where they had temperatures still have temperatures in the mid-30s. winds blowing 30, 35 miles an hour and it is raining with some snow mixed in. if that's not a rez pcipe for misery, i don't know what is. snow that did accumulate in some of the major cities from the southeast up the appalachians and eastern seaboard through the carolinas, now through the delmarva, most of the accumulations have been on the sides of the roads and secondary roadways and also across rooftops. these winds are intense. but instead of heading this way like our last blizzard did across the northeast and just staying there, this one's taking your more favored, more typical path. that's off to the east and northeast. that's the good news with this. but it is kind of hanging around to the point where we do have some winds that are rotating around this system and as it does so, a little bit of delays. we do have a weather delay in philadelphia. we expect more in the way of delays across, say, boston and new york metropolitan airport. philadelphia about an hour delay. san francisco also seeing a delay. i expect those to increase because of the rain and thunderstorms out there. pretty decent storm coming into the west coast today. let's talk about that. this is one coming in now. there will be another one coming i think friday into saturday. you're getting into a bit of a wet pattern. rain at the lower elevations and snow at the higher elevations in through the northern sierra. at this point we might not expect to see a tremendous amount of snow but a decent amount of rain in places like san francisco. if you're going to the bay area, be aware of that. temperatures in the mid-50s. 61 in dallas. remember they just had a record-setting snow season. but temperatures beginning to try to warm up. fredricka, we'll look for a bit of a warm-up as we head toward the weekend. >> maybe something called spring is on the way. >> it's trying. >> wouldn't that be nice? >> i wouldn't bet the bank it will arrive on time. let's get through this month, then we'll talk more about spring. >> this has been a long haul after winter for everybody across this country. thanks so much, rob. appreciate that. we'll be right back. 90 seconds with top stories. welcome back. i'm fredricka whitfield. a look at our top stories, that's congressman charlie rangel early this morning making an announcement that he is temporarily stepping aside as chairman of the house ways and means committee as the ethics committee continues its investigation. he sent a letter to house speaker nancy pelosi. kentucky's embattled senator, jim bunning, blinks in his obstruction to allowing emergency funding for unemployment benefits. bunning's big objection was there was no funding mechanism he says to support the measure but he ended his filibuster late last night. u.s. defense secretary robert gates takes one small step closer in allows gays to serve openly in the u.s. military. he's commissioning a study that will focus on the implications of repeeling the military's "don't ask don't tell" policy for homosexuals. the topic and planned study goes before the house armed services committee today. the report is due december 1st. one earthquake but two tragedies. karl penhaul takes us to quake-ravaged and tsunami-battered chilean coast in search of a fishing village. today that today is little more than a memory. we should know in a few hours the fate of the two remaining u.s. missionaries being held in haiti. a port-au-prince judge says he will decide whether to release the two women or keep them in jail indefinitely. last month the judge released eight other members of the group. he held the remaining two so that he could learn about their motives. the group was arrested for child kidnapping. they say they were trying to get the young earthquake survivors to a safe place. to chile now where four days after the massive earthquake, the death toll is still rising. here's what we know -- nearly 800 dead. that's according to chile's outgoing president. she's promising law and order in the disaster zone amid growing reports of looting in the central and southern regions of that country. 13,000 chilean troops have been dispatched to quell the lawlessness as the nation still rumbles with at least a dozen aftershocks reported in the past day alone. and as if the quake wasn't damaging enough, residents of the fishing village known as decado were dealt a double dose of destruction. tsunamis spawned from the skwak slamming ashore and leaving little more than utter annihilation. cnn's karl penhaul has the story. >> reporter: from the shorelines, or from the high ground, the coastal town looks the same. almost total destruction. "this is a catastrophe. this was