Country. Roofs collapsing, drivers trapped and airports a mess two people are dead as record snow falls on the plains and flood warnings threaten the southeast. The storm turning out to be much worse than expected. Live Team Coverage ahead. And a new shocking investigation, usa today says there is a growing bioterror threat from within our own country. Talking about diseases like anthrax and the plague. Details in leave report. New overnight, a hot air balloon carrying more than a dozen tourists explodes and crashes to the ground in egypt. Also happening, one of britains top catholic leaders speaking out about the grelatest scandal shocking the church. And a claim by a former friar that homosexuality is a ticking time bomb for the church. We are all looking at itsly and why whats important for politic there is affecting whats happening in washington. Tom price will join us, the secretary of the navy, ray mabus, and Sybrina Fulton and tracy martin, Trayvon Martins parents join us, along with their attorneys, benjamin crump, Richard Blais and makazive mandela. Starting point starts now. We begin this morning talking about the devastating winter storm in parts of texas and oklahoma. Already buried under more than a foot of snow. One local mayor says we have roofs collapsing all over town. Well speak to him in a moment. Highways and airports shut down. Take a look at this photo taken by ireporter philip prince, an instructor too, spent eight hours stuck in his rig on interstate 40 east of amarillo, texas. Two people have been killed. One on an iceslicked road and another after a roof collapsed from the weight of the snow. Severe weather is expected as far as florida. The massive system tracking to the north and east. Wisconsin, michigan, illinois, all in its path. Jennifer delgado is tracking the storm. Erin mcpike is live in kansas city. Well start with you. Were seeing snowfall two inches an houreer. Very windy, looking at winds up to 30 Miles Per Hour later today, and also, soledad, because of the snow last week, there is still a lot of heavy snow on branchs and power lines, snapping power lines, and lots of Power Outages throughout kansas city. We just got off the phone with kansas city power and light. They have doubled from 10,000 to 20,000, those numbers will go down, right now they cant get out on the road to repair the power lines. Were looking at Power Outages in texas. Another 10,000 no oklahoma. The storm looking to be worst than last week, soledad. A little bit of a mess. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Lets get to Jennifer Delgado. Where is this all going . Soledad, right now, its actually right on top of the midwest. You saw the live shot where erin is out of kansas. Kansas city, taking a beating right now. Coming down very good along interstate 70. Toward the east in st. Louis, a break from the heavy rain, of course, that will be wrapping around. Snow working in as we go later into the afternoon. I would say about noon time, seeing snow working into the region, and we talk about the totals, erin mentions worst than last time. Well see 0 to 12 inches of snowfall, and seeing winds in excess of 35 to 40 Miles Per Hour, but then the storm moves up toward the northeast, and it will bring snow to chicago. Right around 3 00, same for detroit. These areas need the precipitation. On the radar, a line of storms, a tornado watch issued, in place until 3 00 local time for parts of florida and into georgia. Severe Weather Threat and this means a big travel mess. Absolutely. Jennifer, thank you. Appreciate that. For folks in kansas city, missouri, a mess yet again. Lets get to the mayor, sly james of kansas city, missouri. It was kin of a mess from last week. The last time we spoke, how bad is it now, considering that snow is piling up on top of the old snow . It certainly doesnt help very much. The good news, we managed to get most of all of our main arteries clear, most of our side streets or residential streets are cleared. And we werent in horrible shape. But this is now coming down hard, the wind is blowing hard and we expect another three, four, five inches between now and 9 00. Ive heard totals of 6 to 10 inches, which would make it a big mess for you. Whats the situation like . I will assume the schools are closed. Has everybody cleaned out the Grocery Stores because they will be holed up in their homes . Schools are closed, and i dont think there is a snow shovel anyplace in the area to be found. Grocery stores have restocked as a result of this. We need to make sure people are safe. We are experiencing an increase in some First Responder medical runs, at least earlier in the evening, we have a lot of power lines, and we need to make sure people are safe with alternate power source. Eventually it will melt, will be moved and they can get back to work. James, thank you for your time. He is joining us by phone this morning. Now to woodward, oklahoma. The mayor told reuters that roofs are collapsing all over the place due to the heavy snow. Mayor rosco hill joins us by phone. Mr. Mayor, nice to talk to you, how are things where you are . Well, were were in such a mess, weve got about 20 degrees right now, and were frozen up pretty hard and emergency vehicles are having a hard time getting around, and we just have just had a pretty good sized mess on our hands. My goodness. Considering the reports in nearby oklahoma city, that the snow is collapsing roofs, are you seeing the same thing . That must be devastating if you cant get emergency vehicles to rescue anyone who might be trapped. We have had one roof collapse and one fatality. Weve we discover snow plows are getting stuck and the traffic today is is still probably not very good. All right. Mayor rosco hill joining business phone, talking about one roof that collapsed and a real dearth of emergency vehicles to get to people. Other stories making news. John has that. Thanks, soledad. A story out of middle east. 14 tourists trying to get a birds eye view of tourist sites when their hot air balloon exploded and plumb heed 1,000 feet to the ground. This happened in luxor, southern egypt. 20 people on board. 19 visitors from belgium, the uk, france and hong kong. And two egyptians, one of whom was the pilot. And a rocket fired from gaza struck a town in southern israel overnight. First such attack since the crease fire ended a week of fighting in november. This follows days of clashes following Palestinian Protesters over the death of a palestinian man. The rocket caused some damage, but so far no casualties reported. A mill tan gromilitant group cl responsibility. Now this morning, usa today saying our country faces a bioterror threat from our own lands. Agents like anthrax and the plague are being routinely mishandled. We are following the story from washington. Whats in these reports . Its pretty disturbing. As you mentioned, were talking about anthrax, plague, and other potential bioterror agents, among the worlds most dangerous pathog pathogens. The agency that handles them has been cited for security collapses. Private government awed audits have repeatedly cited labs at the center of disease prevention. It obtained a report from 2008, 2009, 2010. The two main issues . Failing to secure bioterror agents and failing to restrict access to approved employees and failing to entirely train these employees. Pretty alarming report. How is the cdc responding . We got a statement from them. And ill read a quote here. According to the cdc, cdc acknowledged and accepted responsibility for the infractions raised by the inspector general. The agency moved swiftly to take corrective action and do redundancies in procedures and system. Nothing was released from our labs and worker and the Public Safety were not jeopardized. According to the cdc responding to the story, john. Shannon travis, our thanks to you. Soledad. New information on scandals looming over the final days of Pope Benedicts eightyear long reign. One of britains top Roman Catholics says the highest ranking catholic in the united kingdom, kooechleith obrien voluntarily stepped down after he was accused of inappropriate acts by priests. He was not forced out. Pope benedict will keep the title, his holiness when he retired and also called pontiff emeritus. I imagine nobody has ever really needed that title before. You are absolutely right. Here i am near vatican swrar where they are handing out 50,000 tickets, putting up the risers and loud speakers. Many catholics are expected to come here. You are absolutely right. This is an unprecedented situation. Never in recent memory a pope emeritus. All of the details will need to be worked out. He will wear a simple white cossick after he steps down. In the meantime, the vatican has been in damage control mode. It wants to get past the scandals which have colored the beginning of this week. We know also you mentioned Cardinal Obrien, he will not be coming, it is unprecedented that a cardinal will not come here to take part in the conclave to elect the next pope. He will not be coming because of these scandals. He referred to that fact when he himself resigned. Yesterday, i spoke to a former dominican friar, a practicing Roman Catholic and also openly gay. He said its well known there is a very large representation of gays in the catholic clergy. Here is what he told me. Having been a friar myself and having been openly gay catholic for the last 25 years in my journalistic career, homosexuality is a ticking time bomb in the Catholic Church. On the one hand, the church teaches the condition of samesex attraction is intrinsically disordered, Cardinal Ratzingers own words from 1986, yet we know actually half if not all people attracted to seminaries and the priesthood are gay themselves. Now, the vatican is absolutely denying that these allegations of the gay cabal in the vatican are any reason for the popes resignation. Some of t some journalists dont believe the back mail stories in the press. Quick question. He said at the end of that interview there we know actually that about half, if not more of all of the people attracted to seminaries and the priesthood are gay themselves. 50 of people in the seminaries are gay . Where is he getting these statistics from . Thats precisely what i asked him. He said as a friar himself and knowing so many of these dioceses, he has come up with that statistic. I dont believe thats a hard fact. How would anybody know. I asked the pluggedin journalists about that, and he said perhaps in some various different dioceses, but u. S. Quite a well known fact that there is a large proportion and this is something that, you know, the worlds 1. 2 billion catholics look on for the future wonder how the church will be reformed, if at all. There is this split within the Catholic Church amongst very traditional and conservatives on the one hand who want to continue the ratzinger line, if you like and among the more liberal who want the more modern church that takes into account issues of homosexuality and issues like should priests be allowed to marry. As ironically, Cardinal Obrien suggested before he resigned. Christianne, thanks. Appreciate it. Another big story. On friday, 85 billion in forced budget cuts set to take effect. Hundreds of thousands of jobs hang in the balance. Is there still a chance for a grand bargain. Well talk to tom price, vice you chair of the house budget committee. Youre watching starting point, back after this short break. With stayfree ultra thins. Flexible layers move with your body while thermocontrol wicks moisture away. Keep moving. Stayfree. [ whirring ] [ creaking ] [ male announcer ] trophies and awards lift you up. But they can also hold you back. Unless you ask, whats next . [ zapping ] [ clang ] this is the next level of performance. The next level of innovation. The next rx. The f sport. This is the pursuit of perfection. The f sport. Exciting and would always come max and pto my rescue. Bookstore but as time passed, i started to notice max just wasnt himself. And i knew hed feel better if he lost a little weight. So i switched to purina cat chow healthy weight formula. I just fed the recommended amount. And they both loved the taste. After a few months maxs special powers returned. And i got my hero back. Purina cat chow healthy weight. Welcome back, everybody. Were three days away until massive budget cuts are set to hit. The forced cuts, what the government calls the sequester, would slash 85 billion from the budget. Some say the cuts are unnecessary for a bloated budget that keeps increasing every year. Tom price, the vice chair of the house budget committee. Republican from the state of georgia. Thank you, soledad. Good to be with you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Three days until the forced spending cuts, a k a, the sequester. Here is what president has said about that. These impacts will not all be felt on day one. But rest assured, the uncertainty is already having an effect. Companies are preparing layoff notices, families are preparing to cut back on expenses. And the longer these cuts are in place, the bigger the impact will become. Governor jindal, bobby jindal seemed to suggest that the president was overstating dramatizing. We have to get the economy rolling again, and one of the ways is to increase the spending in washington. The president has talked about all of the things that will happen, but what were looking at is a 2. 5 reduction. The level of spending we had just two years ago. I dont remember all of these bad things happening two years ago. Are there challenges . Absolutely. Are the House Republicans working positively to try to make certain we get through these challenges . You bet. We will provide flexibility to the administration to make certain that the bad things that the president cites dont happen, and if they do, its because he wants them to. Forgive me, sir. Explain that to me, when you say you are coming up with a different plan, walk me through what that plan in. There is an opportunity to do whats called reprogramming or greater flexibility on the part of the administration, so they would select where the 85 billion in spending reductions occurred. They came out of the last debt ceiling deal in august 2011. We have to move forward at that level. We have to bring spending down to get the economy rolling. The administration, appropriately, i believe needs more flexibility on that score, and the House Republicans will begin working on that, moving forward to give the administration that flexibility. People who analyze all of that say there are huge political risks to the white house. Will they go for that deal being the ones who basically have the burden of making the cuts and spelling out what should be cut, having that laid on their plate . Well, i think what the American People know is they had to cut their budget 2. 5 or more. 10 , 15 , 20 , over the past two to four years. They want to see the same activity in washington. Not to get a number on a page, its to get the economy rolling again and creating jobs. Regardless of where the decision is made obviously, the executive branch is the branch that carries out the laws of the land, and its their responsibility to do so. Regardless of where decisions are made, its important we understand its the dme we get rolling, jobs and this is part of that puzzle. Tom price, republican from georgia, thank you for joining us. Coming up in the next hour, ray mabus, secretary of the navy, will talk to us about the forced cuts as well. And still coming up, the dow and s p 500 had one of their worst days. What exactly was behind the drop . What can we expect today . Growing outrage over a music video, a 9yearold talking about coke isnt a bad word, smacking a woman on the rear end, and driving around in a flashy car. Well talk about that when starting point is back in a moment. Because my dentures fit well. 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Investors flocked to the safety of gold and bonds. Fear of a weakened consumer and fear in europe. Italy, elections left no clear party in majority. So gridlock there at a time when italy has a major debt and spending problem, 11 unemployment. A shrinking economy. And political turmoil italy, austerity, at the very moment, on the verge of austerity in the u. S. Forced spending cuts days away, those cuts will likely slow our economy too. If those cuts stand, 85 billion taken out of the economy between now and the end of the fiscal year, will cost 750,000 jobs. That is why there is fear all of a sudden after we were trying to hit new records for weeks now. Christine, thank you. Still ahead, one year since 17yearold Trayvon Martin gunned down in florida. And it sparked a nationwide fewer yore over race and stand your ground laws, up next, his parents join me with attorney benjamin crump. One of the best ways to reduce your risk of heart attack or stroke. 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