And dreamliner grounded in the u. S. And europe along with japan. Werent they supposed to be the aircraft of the future . And the president lays out his aggressive new man for gun control. With some republicans rejecting it and some democrats cool, does it have any chance to get through . Our guests, Mike Greenberg, mark schlereth, Timothy Burke, tim kane, peter king and remember katie beers. Her story was headlines across new york and around the nation 20 years ago. Her infamous kidnapping experience. How she survived, and thrived after it. Thursday, january 17th. Starting point begins right now. Welcome, everybody. We start this morning with the story that everybody is talking about. It is crazy. You will remember that inspirational story behind notre dame linebacker manti teos amazing season. His girlfriend, how they met. She was in a car accident, died of leukemia. All of the was a complete hoax. Here is what he said at the time. I cried. I yelled. Never felt that way before. This is is six hours ago i found out grandma passed away, and you take you know, the love of my life. Last thing she said to me was i love you. And that was it. Over the course of months, we heard about him fighting through the grief over her death as he was leading the irish to the bcs championship game. That girlfriend did not die. In fact, according to the website deadspin, she never existed. Notre dame says that teo was the victim of a very cruel hoax. Ted rowlands live in south bend, indiana, with more details on whats completely fair to say a bizarre story. Good morning. Good morning, soledad. Absolutely. There are a lot of unanswered questions. One thing is clear. University of notre dame is standing by their football star. University of gnatter dame Athletic DirectorJack Swarbrick fought back tears while discussing manti teo at a late News Conference. Is he convinced that teo is the victim of an elaborate hoax. That the single most trusting human being ive ever met will never be able to trust in the same way again in his life. Reporter the story of the star linebacker enduring the death of his girlfriend and grandmother on the same day transcended sports. People around the world were touched by how in love he seemed to be lennay contakakua, the gi called his soul mate. Cried, yelled, never felt that way before. Six hours ago, i found out grandma passed away, and you take the love of my life. Reporter on the day of his girlfriends supposed funeral, teo played football. After the game, notre dame football coach brian kelly awarded the ball to the girl that we now know doesnt exist. I want to award this game ball to lennay, and i would like manti to have this ball to take back to hawaii. Teo told his coaches about the hoax on december 26th. Notre dame kept the truth underwraps, despite the fact that the med yao was still telling the story leading up to the National Championship game. From the outset, we thought this was mantis story to tell. We wanted to know when it would be told, how it was would be told, but it was his to tell. Reporter one of the reporter whos broke the hoax story doesnt think teos story doesnt add up. Teos story doesnt shake through for us. Reporter why didnt manti ever mention her in actually met lennay when talking about how much he loved her . How did the story about how they first met at a Football Game start . And if it wasnt true, why didnt he correct it . And how could he have been so in love with someone he ever never actually met face to face. As manti tells the story, you will see the same thing i saw. It does fully line up. Reporter and notre dame Officials Say they are under the impression nah manti teo will tell his story sometimory the next few days, but nothing from teo or his agent how exactly he will do that or when he will do that. He did release a statement which says in part this is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, over an extended period of time, i developed an emotional relationship with a woman i met online. We met, maintained what i thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone and i grew deeply to care about her. To realize i was the victim of someones sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful, and humiliating. A lot of questions still remain surrounding this story. Questions he has to answer. Ted rowlands, thank you very much. Appreciate the walk through of that weaven story. Other stories making news, and john berman has that. An international standoff happening right now. Americans among dozens being held hostage by islamist militants at a gas facility in al jageria algeria. Leon panetta quick to speak about whats happening. By all indications this is a terrorist act and the United States strongly condemns these kinds of terrorist attacks. Its a very serious matter when americans are taken hostage along with others. Dan rueters is live in london. What do we know about the group taking responsibility . Reporter well, that had are sort of a splinter group, an affiliate of al qaeda in the islamic magnificent rred. Led by mokhtar belmokhtar. He fought in the 80s against the soviets. He has been involved in people trafficking, drugs, and he has done a lot of kidnapping as well. Most motivated by ransom and money. This may end up getting resolved. A notorious character, and described by french intelligence as mr. Untouchable. Known locally for being involved in cigarette smuggling. This is part of a wider, regional conflict, links to mali, that these islam iist groups in algeria are getting in on. Furious that algeria has allowed french planes to fliory algerian air space to attack insurients, islamists in northern mali. What about plans or missions to get hostages out . Well, we know from the ministry of information in algeria, that they are surrounded. The terrorists, and that a large number of Security Forces have gone to the gas plant. They were conflicting reports of the algerians having escaped. We dont know. Cant confirm that. A lot we dont know about the exact number of hostages, and the Algerian Ministry of information saying about 20. Three cars on their way to the airport when they were ambushed, go back to the base, islamists follow them and take them hostage there. Were getting reports from one french source, suggesting that algerians in the plant are free to carry on, going about their business, its just werners being held and videotaped and tied up. Dan rivers in london, thank you very much. One month after the massacre, Sandy Hook Elementary School in connecticut, president obama moving to tighten gun control laws, and yesterday he signed 23 executive actions that dont need congressional approval, but he wants congress to ban military is style assault weapons and include background checks on all gun buyers. If there is even one thing to do to reduce gun violence, even one life that can be saved, then weve got an obligation to try. Congress so far appears luke warm on proposals to tighten gun control laws and support among americans has dropped slightly. A new poll shows 56 report a ban on semi auto plattic assault weapons, down from 62 in december. President obama expected to name his close aide, Dennis Mcdonough as new chief of staff. He will replace jack lew, who was nominated to be new treasury secretary. Check your flights. Winter storm warnings in effect today from mississippi to washington, d. C. Places you dont normally hear. Meteorologist Jennifer Delgado looks at that. Were tracking snow out there. Most of us dealing with rain we have to wait for cold air catching up. We show you right now, wider view, rain from delaware to wider areas, including parts of alabama. Mississippi, right along interstate 55, looking at snow there. The snow has to go somewhere, and as we move throughout the afternoon, well start to see more of that coming down. We take you through, noon time, notice it will affect alabama, people in georgia, they want to know will we see snow down here . Looks like the better timing, later into the evening hours. 5 00, but i want to point out to you for eastern parts of kentucky, and as well as parse of tennessee, along the appalachians, thats where well see the heaviest snowfalls. Some of the locations, roughly 6 to 8 inches of snowfall, the Higher Elevations to the south of d. C. Metro. 1 to 3 inches of snowfall. Tricky out there travelwise. Well keep you up to date on travel delays. Part one of Oprah Winfreys oneonone with disgraced cycling legend Lance Armstrong will air tonight. What will he say . Damage control under way. A source tells us armstrong already in talks to return some endorsement money. Stay with clnch cnn tonight for a complete wrap with anderson cooper, and on saturday, the world according to Lance Armstrong. Remember when Lance Armstrong was the most complicated sports story in the world . Ed today its not. More about manti teos story and how its disintegrating, straight ahead. First, another thing thats falling apart. For boeing, dreamliners grounded. Faa officials joining japan and europe grounding the dreamliner due to fire risk as a result of overheating lithium batteries. United is the only u. S. Carrier that operates the dreamliner. Christine following the story for weeks. What it means for boeing, boeing down 3 in premarket trading. Down the past five days, the dreamliner is the marquee aircraft for boeing. Lightweight carbon composite materials. Most sophisticated Electrical Systems outside of space travel. A list price between 206 and 400 million dollars. The lithium ion batteries made by a japanese company. Before further fight operations of the boeing 787 aircraft, must demonstrate batteries are safe and in compliance. Since september, a fuel leak, oil leak, two cracked engines and a damaged koch cockpit window grounding an entire fleet is rare. Last was in 1979 after a crash in chicago grounded d. C. 10s. Something to remember about this dreamliner. This was supposed to be the miracle of outsourcing. Boeing would take the best engineering and companies around the world. Design and farm out production of pieces. Save a lot of money. Assemble it in seattle to the best, most hightech plane out there. From the very beginning, three years late, way overbudget. Literally get pieces back to seattle that didnt fit. Had to redo a lot of the stuff. And now they are trying to figure out what exactly are the kinks that grounded the airlines. A mess since the beginning of the year, just a disaster. Following this morning a story, developing story of americans being held hostage in algeria. Words that some hostages have escaped. Which hostages . How many . How does the u. S. Deal with a situation like this . Well speak with a former fbi kidnapping negotiator who has been in this situation before. New mortgage rules meant to protect homeowners facing foreclosure. Do they go far enough to prevent foreclosure in the first place . Well look at that. Welcome back, everybody. Just incnn. Reports from algerian media that hostages held by al qaeda affiliates may have escaped. We dont know how Many Americans are being held and if they are, among those who escaped it happen eed at a natural gas fie operated by bp. We want to get to fbis former lead International Kidnapping negotiator, ceo of the black swan group. A private negotiating group. Thank you for talking with us. My pleasure, soledad. So much we dont know at this time. We do know that the workers were in this gas field, joint venture operated by three oil companies, including British Petroleum and the Algerian State Oil Company and some kind of fire fight. In the end it looks like jihadists control the plant. What happens now . We heard there will not be any negotiations according to the people, algerian interior minister. What happened . Well, you establish communication. Let the situation settle down a bit. Terrorists will secure the site, and it was no problem for them, letting some hostages go. Difficult to manage that many hostages, and they want to keep the highvalue hostages, the werners. They will try to settle in, set up their defenses and have to make demands. Things they clearly want. They want prisoners to be released and some lines of communication will be established, and the the authorities will ideally will look at communication as a weapon to manipulate them and arrange an outcome, either there is an assault or get everybody released. Kidnappings, hostage taking, not that unusual, especially Massive International companies, and often the companies will pay out money to the kidnappers, but would political motivation, seems like it would be less likely. Do you think thats true . Some of the motivation will be a cover. The terrorists here are really bandits. A kidnapping industry thriving in this part of the world, and used to making money. This is a business for them. An opportunity to make a lot more money. Make noise about political demands in the hopes that money will be offered to save the people and secondarily the facility. They will try to settle this for money. Negotiations could involve money. What about a rescue attempt. How likely is it that that is being planned by people in the United States . Planning began on this from the moment that it started. Now there, is a lot of approach problems here. It will be difficult to come in by surprise. The facility is very complicated. Its easy to defend, hard to get into. A lot of structures that are scattered all over the place. Not like a single retaining wall or series of walls that can be easily navigated. An assault on this complex will be very, very difficult. Chris boss, former lead fbi kidnapping negotiator. Thank you for joining us. Well continue to follow the story and get information on who exactly the escapees are, and the hostages that remain. Still ahead on starting point, one way of getting out of your work. A program developer, software developer, gets caught outsourcing his work to china. How the company figured out he hired people to do his job. That is ahead. See . Walmart has all these leading eyewear brands and styles. Rockstar really . 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Book by january thirty first at hiltonanyweekend. Com. [ construction sounds ] [ watch ticking ] [ engine revs ] come in. Got the coffee. That was fast. Were outta here. [ engine revs ] welcome back. Im Christine Romans minding your business. Big Bank Earnings in focus today. Boeing also in the spotlight today. 0 of its dreamliners grounded around the world. The dough co it could pull down the dow. And gun stocks getting a lot of attention. Shares of commercial gunmakers and retailers have been up up since the School Shooting in newtown. Look at stern rugger and smith wesson, both shares up since the newtown massacre. And the calsters, california teachers retirement fund, and the new york comptrollers office, freezing the investments in gun firms. Amazing entrepreneur, clever delegator, both . T bob, a programmer, outsourced his own job to china Computer Systems were being accessed from china and initially thought hackers were involved. Not so. Bob, the programmer, hired a firm in shenyang to do his work. Coming in on a schedule that mimicked his 9 00 to 5 00 job, and bob paid them onefifth of his salary. Bob has been fired. Bob not so smart, the sense that didnt he realize that people would be able to figure out that someone in china is accessing computers in the company. He sent them his pass key. But the fact that bob was able to pull it off at all, not totally stupid. Subcontracting his job overseas, some brilliance to it. Washington preparing for a fight over the president s new gun control agenda will his own Party Support the plan . Well speak with tim kaine who introduced changes to his own state. Beyonce, isnt the only part of the gq issue that is buzzing, there are categories like hottest indian chick, hottest y ity italian chick. Well talk about that, straight ahead. [ male announcer ] some day, your life will flash before your eyes. Make it worth watching. The new 2013 lexus ls. An entirely new pursuit. The new 2013 lexus ls. Alriwoah did you get that . And. Flip yep, look at this. It takes like 20 pictures at a time. I never miss anything. Isnt that awesome . Uh thats really cool. You should upload these. I know, right . That is really amazing. The pictures are so clear. Kevins a Handsome Devil that phone does everything search dog tricks. Okay, see if we can teach him something cool. Look at how lazy kevin is. Kevin, get it together dude cmon, kevin take 20 pictures with burst shot on the galaxy s3. Good morning. Welcome, everybody. Watching starting point. Our team, will cani, and richard scoaridies. And rana foroohar. Sweeping effort to change the nations gun laws. The president announced a plan, spoke about how one of the young victims, a little girl named grace mcdonald, a victim of sandy hook, inspired him. Chris, her father, gave me one of her pain