there is a strict mardi gras curfew for some people. time to play reporter roulette. i want to begin with miguel marquez in flores, arizona where this prominent sheriff has resigned from his role in the romney campaign there. this after being outed and accused of threatening his ex-boyfriend with deportation. miguel, you spoke with this ex-sheriff babou. what did he say? >> this is one of those stories that if you didn't know it happened, you wouldn't believe it's true. he said there was a three-year relationship with sheriff babou. this guy, only identified as jose, doesn't want to be identified. he's here, he says, legally. he fell in love with the sheriff. the sheriff didn't reciprocate that love, and things went from bad to worse until they got to the really bad phase where the sheriff claimed that jose was hacked into his twitter account. jose says the sheriff threatened to throw him out of the country.

>> guys, we have the sound? anyone? no. >> do you think he was trying to make you leave the country? >> he just, what i think he just didn't want me to keep me as far as, so i couldn't say anything about him or about his behavior. he said he has text messages as evidence about that. it's hard to tell what the sheriff meant in some of these messages, but jose read them as a threat, went to a lawyer, and here we are today. >> just real quickly, how did the two of them meet? >> reporter: they met on a web site, gay.com, back in 2006. and interestingly enough, the very first photo the sheriff

sent him, at that time he was a police officer, sent to him was a photo of him and john mccain which jose, at the time, said he had no idea who senator john mccain was. he does now. >> yes. thank you very much for us there in arizona. wolf blitzer has landed a huge interview coming up in the situation room. sheriff babou is going to respond to all of these allegations that miguel just outlined for you. that is today at 5:00 eastern in the situation room. definitely stick around for that. next on reporter roulette, thousands of people still without power in virginia because of the storm that brought heavy snow over the weekend, and the winds howeling up over the plains, colorado, idaho. it's really messy. >> it is messy, and you wouldn't want to wear a lovely dress like that in the high plains. the winds are really strong and gusty. we'll show you the situation we're talking about. the storm that produced all those power outages you have talked about, that has exited,

so at least weather conditions improving here. but in the nation's midsection, it's a really strong winter storm, but it's really packing a punch. we're not seeing any snow, but the wind with the snow creating blizzard conditions in parts of colorado. in fact, i-70 is shut down right now between denver and the kansas state line. ahead of this system we have a threat of severe thunderstorms in parts of oklahoma and kansas and then the winds really howling on the back side of it. let's show you some of those wind gusts that are being reported across the area. look at this, goodland, kansas, 59 miles per hour. amarillo, 49 right now. 58 in lubbock. and you know that it's very dry there, so blowing dust will continue to be an issue. and i-40 runs right through there so that's a very well-traveled roadway. a lot of truckers go through there. that's something to be aware of. here's the snow we were talking about in the upper midwest. it's particularly heavy right here in the southwest corner of minnesota. we have lightning strikes pop up. you don't see that often in this

type of event, so a little thunder snow there. this is an area along i-35 and in the east in parts of oklahoma and kansas that we'll be watching really closely for that potential threat of thunderstorms developing in the next couple hours. >> today being a holiday, i imagine a lot of people lucky to be off and perhaps traveling hoec home. a lot of flight delays there. >> they haven't been too terrible. san francisco, and that's a lot of people from other parts of the country trying to get into san francisco. >> now we have new orleans where mardi gras fels actistivities a full swing, but there's one big change here, a curfew for teenagers. is this just in place for mardi gras, ed? >> actual >> reporter: actually, it's going to be in place after mardi gras ends, but this is only in the mardi gras area.

anyone under the age of 16 not allowed to be out in the french quarter alone if you're under the age of 16 after 8:00 at night. this pushes up that curfew. when it was first proposed back in january, it was slightly controversial. we spent the weekend walking the streets of the quarter. obviously one of the big things they cracked down on is underage drinking as well. but of the little more than 800 arrests so far in this mardi gras season, almost 200 of them have been curfew related. so quite stunning to think that so many young kids are out there walking the quarter at night and considering just all the different kinds of things you can see. but families we spoke to say they welcome it. >> you think this is a good place for kids to be after 8:00 at night? >> no, not down there. >> why not? >> crowds get rowdy. things they shouldn't see. >> don't tell them that. whisper that to me, will you?

>> we hide his eyes. >> reporter: most of those parents you talk to are going to have a really hard time grasping the thought of what kind of parent would let a 13 or 14-year-old rome the streets in the french quarter considering all the insanity you see down there. >> still, in you're 16 or younger and it's after 8:00 p.m., you can still be out, you just have to be with mom and dad. >> reporter: yes, you can be with your parents, or if you have a job and some other reason you need to be down there, that's something they'll let you slide on as well. but if you're just out there, a 14-year-old, hanging out with a couple friends and roaming the streets of the quarter, police are going to be looking for you. >> not that you would know anything about shenanigans and the french quarter, i'm sure. >> got to get out of here. coming up, the red cross gets involved in the uprising in syria. find out why, coming up. also elizabeth smart, the

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...we inspected his brakes for free. free is good. free is very good. my money. my choice. my meineke. if it's interesting and happening right now, you're about to see it. rapid fire. let's go. beginning with syria. the red cross is now trying to the ci set up a cease fire between rebel forces and the government just to get aid there. a top military adviser to president obama said it would be premature for the u.s. to help arm the opposition since it doesn't appear unified. i' ivan watson reports that many syrians are desperate for outside intervention. >> reporter: he calls the

uprising an orphan revolution, because unlike the revolts in europe, egypt and tanisha, they haven't received any support. >> at least 18 people have been killed today, almost 9,000 since last march. if you're in virginia, you may want to stay off the roads because of scenes just like this one. here state police have responded to about a thousand car crashes just in the last 24 hours. snow late sunday left commuters facing slick and icy roads this morning. and check out republican presidential candidate rick santorum's poll numbers. he is up just 10% in the last week. this is according to the latest gallup poll. mitt romney and newt gingrich both fell in the poll in the last week. ron paul is in last place. the surgeon who helped get adele's voice back says he hopes the singer's ordeal helps other people. >> the surgery went beautifully, i think she demonstrated that pretty well, but it was a very

special moment. the grammy foundation invited my wife and i to attend. it's been an incredibly influential case to raise awareness throughout the world about laryngology or laryngeal surgery. >> adele won six grammys and she gave her doctor a shoutout. elizabeth smart was just a teenager when she was snatched out of her bedroom in her utah home, held captive for months. that's all a thing of the past. this weekend she tied the knot in a private ceremony in hawaii. today is the golden an skrers versery of america's first orbit around earth. john glen says he remembers it like it was yesterday. >> i guess i've recalled it quite often over the past 50 years and that's kept it fresh, but it was such an impressive thing at the time that it's

indelibly imprinted on my memory, and i can recall those days very, very well. >> the mission paved the way for more space exploration, including the moon landing just seven years later. iran stops exporting oil to both britain and france and sends oil prices through the roof. richard quest is standing by for me from london. he has the hows and the whys, next. ( whirring and crackling sounds ) man: assembly lines that fix themselves. the most innovative companies are doing things they never could before, by building on the cisco intelligent network.

i know you've heard us. we caution viewers that it might cause discomfort. consider yourself warned because i'm about to show you a gas pump, ladies and gentlemen, a gas pump in dallas, texas. they are charging 4.19 for regular, 4.29 for plus, 4.39 for

diesel. the price of gas is up 5% in just the past week and 12% from one year ago. richard quest, cnn money joining us live from london. the experts here, they're tying what's happening here in america at least in part to what we've been watching, what we're seeing happening now in iran. connect the dots for me. >> it's simple. if iranian actions in the straits of hermus threaten to make the situation worse by either preventing or stopping the supply of oil, straightforward supply and demand, that will push up the price of crude oil which pushes up the price of gasoline at the pump. so we've already had, brooke, iran saying it will stop supplying the u.k. and france, whi but we have sanctions from the europeans coming along, we have a worsening situation, so in that environment, you're going to get rising prices.

and there is one other thing to factor into this. >> what's that? >> well, the u.s. economy is growing faster. that is a double-edged sword. great for people looking for jobs, great for people who have been out of work, but if u.s. industry starts using more energy, the price will go up. you start to see how this -- go on. >> so you're saying that if we're, you know, singing the hallelujah chorus because we're finally seeing the economy pick up if we're looking at some of these numbers, you then say if we're producing these numbers, that makes the number go up. >> the demand goes up in china, india and brazil. and now the united states picking up steam, has a greater demand for energy, and therefore, energy prices will rise. it's a complicated scenario. on the plus side, though, according to the latest information from the eia, the energy information association

in the u.s., the u.s. has never had more rates producing domestic supply. it's expected to hit 6 million plus barrels a day by 2025. so questions of peak oil are now put to one side. it is a very much -- i was going to say glass half full, glass half empty, but you may say gas tank half full, gas tank half empty, and it depends on which side of the pump you are. >> very funny, richard quest. but here's a little something i want to throw at you. this took us by surprise. talk about drill, baby, drill. one of the oil publications, it's reporting that the number of active drilling rigs, you know, on u.s. soil in the gulf of mexico has quad rurupled in past three years. they've discovered all these reserves, texas, north dakota. obviously they're going after the stuff. one expert quoted, at the rate we're going now, the u.s. could

achieve energy independence in one decade. do you believe it? >> yeah. and there's a bridge that i'll happily sell you which i can ship. yes, and if we look at the numbers, that just does not make sense. the reason -- >> why? >> the reason it doesn't make sense is that the u.s. energy demands are so high. it's in the tens of millions of barrels a day, far more than is necessary, and therefore, they're not going to be able to manage just acting in one fell swoop. what's happening is more licenses, deeper drilling, new production methods, shale and fracing which, of course, all means greater production, and that has raised the ability to get oil and gas out of the ground. that is what you're seeing in this. but unless the u.s. starts to work on the other side of the equation, and that is consumption, and i can hear some of your viewers starting to froth at the mouth as i say about this, but unless they deal

with that, all that happens is production just gets used up and the prices stay high. >> we are a bit of a consumer nation, aren't we, richard quest? cnn international. thank you. appreciate it. so many times over, the last year it seems, we have asked this precise question on cnn: who is this opposition? cnn's ivan watson went inside syria to learn more about the rebels, villageres with hunting weapons in some cases, many of them very much so afraid of showing their own faces, next. ♪ what started as a whisper every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. there's an insurance company that does that, too. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

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this is all according to this monitoring group that says 9,000 syrians have been killed since the revolt against the government began last march. cnn cannot confirm that he seses or the video you're seeing here. still, a top adviser to president obama says there are no plans to get weapons into the hands of opposition forces. that is in line with what cnn's ivan watson has been hearing. he is in syria among those fighting to overthrow their government. >> reporter: meet syria's armed opposition. a handful of men on a hillside leading prayer by a masked cleric. god grant us victory over the sinners, he chants. make us victorious over the family of assad. bravery over a 40-year dictatorship among fighters who are little more than boys. >> this is a rebellion among

farmers, carpenters and university students. the men here describe themselves as members of the free syrian army, but it would be much more accurate to call them an i am -- impromptu village guard. many are defending their families with little more than hunting shotguns. the men guarding the entrance to this opposition-held town don't have enough guns or ammunition. the commander is a former army man who defected several months ago. he protects his face for safety. he calls syria's 11-mold uprising the orphan revolution. because unlike the revolts in egypt, libya, tanisha and yemen, the syrian rebels haven't received any support. with no outside help, the men in this community turn to a higher power. friday prayers in a packed

mosque in the rebel-held town of banish. condolences for a man killed by a sniper's bullet in the nearby city of itlib turned into a full-out war of god is great. the crowd marches into the town's square and performs a weekly ritual of defiance against bashar assad. assad's tanks are never far away. >> reporter: the syrian army? >> yes, the syrian army. >> reporter: will you fight if the syrian army comes? >> there is no other solution. >> reporter: you have to fight? >> we have to fight or lose our life. >> reporter: not everyone shares this spirit of defiance. banom spends his days taking care of the flock of pigeons he breeds on his roof.

these are hard times for the whole country, he says. it's too dangerous to travel outside of town because you don't know who you could meet on the open road, and if you leave, you may never come back. trapped at home while his birds fly free, manom waits for what many fear here is inevitable: a syrian civil war. ivan watson, cnn, syria. >> ivan, thank you. coming up, closing arguments are over. george huguely accused of brutally killing his ex-girlfriend waits to hear his fate. a missing mother and her one-year-old daughter found dead on the streets of cleveland. listen to what police could have done to prevent this tragedy. we're on the case, next. made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholesterol. is it a superhero? kinda. ♪

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closing arguments have now wrapped in the case of a former university of virginia lacrosse player accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend in this drunken, jealous rage. prosecutors say george huguely beat yeardley love to death back

in may of 2010. love was also a la krot playcro, had a bright future ahead of her. after two weeks of intense testimony, the jury is ready to start deliberating. joey, start with the defense, their tactic. they're saying huguely never intended to kill her. the relationship, though, had a history of violence. what does that mean? >> sure. what happens, brooke, the defense has to establish this was not malice. this had nothing to do with intent, this was about passion. it was about jealousy. therefore, what they're trying to do, brooke, is say if they can negate the element of intentional murder that brings it down to manslaughter or even involuntary manslaughter, which is a distinction between ten years and life in jail without parole. huge distinction. >> the prosecution, they want him to get life. >> oh, yeah. >> the lead prosecutor very emotional, breaking down into tears during closing arguments. they're also arguing for a

possible felony murder conviction because he allegedly stole her laptop? >> exactly. so what happens is that the jury has a lot to consider. like what? they have a first-degree murder charge showing malice, showing intent. but they can come back with second-degree murder where you don't need the actual malice, you don't need pretty mthe pre n premeditation. they say he went in there to burglarize, he went to steal something, that being the laptop. if they can convince the jury that he was there to take the laptop, that's a felony. it was felony murder and therefore life in prison. that's what the prosecution is trying to prove here, brooke. >> she died of blunt force trauma. there is also the theory that she suffocated herself by

turning her face down into her pill pillow. >> yes. that also goes to the issue of whether or not there could have been intent. from the prosecution perspective whar , what did they say. their experts said it was blunt force trauma. that would be being hit over the head and therefore resulting in death. but the defense says, there was no bleeding, and therefore, since she couldn't move, she suffocated in the pillow. he contributed to her death but he certainly didn't cause it. again, they're attacking, brooke, attack, attack, attack the element of intent. if they can get the jury away from thinking it was intentional or that his acts constituted intent, but yet he was negligible, he didn't mean to do, it was an accident, it changes the whole equation. remember here, brooke, the win for the defense team here is to get a conviction -- right, sounds crazy to say -- but of voluntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter. if they do that, it's a big win

because it saves his life. ten years or life imprisonment. huge difference. >> one of the setbacks. one of the key witnesses was barred from testifying. one attorney was sick, missed an important cross-examination. how does that affect the case? >> if a judge tells you not to interact with witnesses -- usually what happens is you don't want a witness who has yet to testify, you don't want them to learn about previous testimony. why? it colors what they have to say. you want a witness going on the stand to not know what happened previously. in this case there were e-mails sent as to prior testimony. big no-no. they closed the courtroom, had a big hearing on the matter, and there was limitation as to what that expert could testify to. in terms of the defense attorney getting sick, it happens. i don't see that as a tremendous

setback. >> okay. as you mentioned, the case is in the hands of the jury. we'll be following it and see where we goes. thinking about the parents. speaking of parents, this tragic case out of cleveland, ohio, this 19-year-old mom, her one hi one-year-old daughter. they were kidnapped at gunpoint while going for a walk. the suspect is her previous boyfriend. police say he committed suicide. their bodies were found in an empty building. there were warrants for his arrest in new york. how hard is it for law enforcement to track this person down? could this have been prevented? >> u you knyou know, brooke, th have. apparently the younger brother was there, the girlfriend's, and he pointed a gun at the child and said, hey, you, run. the kid was courageous enough to call 911 when he got home.

but the police, there's a warrant called, they attempt to capture the person. if he was in police custody, he wouldn't be out there able to engage in this horrific act of killing her, killing the one-year-old and killing himself. i know law enforcement does its best with strained reforces, and it's a very unfortunate scenario. unfortunately, he was not in custody, he was out, and that resulted in this tragedy happening. >> so, so sad. joey jackson on the case. joey, thank you so much. >> pleasure, brooke. how do addicts pull the wool over the eyes of their loved ones? cnn is going in depth on addiction. coming up firsnext, a formea star had it all, lost it. how did he bounce back? chris her rren live next.

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while it's still unclear what caused her death, whitney houston's life is a clear case of talent, triumph and a fall from substance abuse. all week this week, cnn is going to go in depth on the problem of addiction in america. today we're going to introduce you to the man who calls himself the basketball junkie. in fact, take a look. that's a cover and title of chris herren's memoir. it's not about his love of the game but his need to get high while playing in the nba. herren was a rise starring, but the massachusetts kid lost it all because of his addiction. in fact, espn recently aired this incredible documentary about him just last november. >> that day, i sat down with

those girls and decided to do my first line of cocaine at 18 years old. opened doors for me that i was not able to close for the next 15 years. >> and i want to welcome chris herren live from providence. chris, i saw the documentary. it's a pretty stunning story you have, but i want to just begin with this. you've said yourself, and i'm quoting you here, truth is, i should be dead. so why are you alive today? >> well, by the grace of god, i believe, and 12 steps in my recovery program, you know. and if it wasn't for people extending their hand and offering me treatment and staying in treatment, i probably wouldn't be here today. >> you were a superstar in high school, fall river, massachusetts. you go on to be recruited from powerhouse teams. you're a massachusetts guy, so you go to boston college. you walk in the dorm room 18 years of age, see a roommate,

girls, chopping up lines of cocaine. what happened next? >> i was ready to walk out, and at the last second i turned around and changed my mind. it was a vulnerable moment that i think a lot of kids face, and i just wasn't ready to stand up and say no. and i jumped into it thinking, i'll do this once. i'll do this once and i'll never do it again. obviously, by the intro of the film, it was 14 years later when i was able to walk away. >> you ultimately transferred to fresno state, you go on to play for the nuggets, the celtics, which i imagine was your dream, but you stood out in the rain in your celtics jacket waiting for your dealer. what do you remember about that? >> it was just another normal day for the life of an addict. you say that to someone who struggled with addiction, they

would say, perfectly normal. you say that to somebody who hasn't, they would say you're absolutely out of your mind. i couldn't play without that in my system. that's how bad it got. the open -- opiates, i couldn't play without that in my system. it got that bad. >> how did the nba handle all this? >> i wasn't in the nba long enough. i was there with the celtics. i had gotten injured. when i first went in with the nuggets, i was under probation because of the public record of me struggling with substance abuse in college. the nba did everything they possibly could with me that rookie season. once i moved over to boston, i was kind of on my own and i was injured which pretty much ended my season. so i kind of flew under the radar. >> speaking of under the radar, i want to ask you about who was involved. you describe in your book ask

al -- and also the documentary about how you fooled a lot of people. even your own wife, chris herren, didn't know the extent of your addiction. how did you pull it off for so long? >> addiction and alcoholism, it's baffling and powerful and it leads you to do many, many things. you lie, you cheat, you steal in order to keep maintaining one day at a time in that lifestyle. i really wasn't -- you know, people say rock bottom, every day is a rock bottom in that world, and, you know, it's -- once i ran out of money, you know, money was a crutch for me. once i ran out of money, then i realized how tough of a world drug addiction was because i was on the streets. >> talk about the one day your wife, you know, gives birth to your son. you were in rehab, you come out and you relapse the very day you have your child. >> yeah, it was my third child. >> your third child.

forgive me. >> no, it's okay. i came home against the advice of counselors, and i thought i could handle it. and 30 days sober, i was not emotionally equipped to come home, deal with that moment and stay sober. i relapsed. but the one thing i'd like to say is that those were the worst days of my life at one point. being found dead, overdosed on the side of the road, going home for the birth of my son and relapsing. but through recovery, i've been able to look at those moments as miracles because it catapulted me into this world i'm living in today one day at a time. >> what clicked? how did you turn it around? >> you know, i was given the gift of treatment, and treatment works, and unfortunately, nowadays, in this society we live in, drug addicts and alcohol i c

alcoholics are given maybe ten days. that's not enough. i had the blessing of six to nine months. when you run the streets for ten years, you can't fix a problem in ten days. i think that's a big part of this problem in today's day and age. >> so as part of this solution, i know you're on a plane every day talking to kids and athletes and soldiers. you say you've been to hell. how do you inspire others to come out of their own? >> just one day at a time. you know, you need to forgive yourself, you need to move forward, you need to let go of the past. you cannot continuously beat yourself up. i've been given an amazing blessing through sobriety and through recovery, and if i can get out in front of one kid to not go down that path, what can be better? and that's why i do it, and that's why i get out in front of high schools and college kids and athletes and treatment centers.

it's a blessing. it's a blessing and i don't want anybody to go down the path that i had to go down. >> chris herren, it is a pleasure to meet you. i really appreciate you coming on. let's just let everyone know if you want to know more about chris and his work, you can take a look at the herren project on line, and we'll definitely put this on my blog, cnn.com/brooke. chris, thank you. >> thank you. tomorrow, jennifer menendez. we're going to talk to her about the pull of alcohol when it comes to addiction. be right back.

he is the arizona sheriff at the center of a media frenzy

denying claims that he threatened to deport his ex-boyfriend. coming up, sheriff babou talks to wolf blitzer live in the situation room. let me bring wolf in for a little preview. i imagine you're going to ask him to respond to all of these allegations. >> we're going to go through those questions. certainly it's a fascinating story right here in arizona. we're here getting ready for wednesday night's republican presidential debate. it's a beautiful, beautiful day. the president will be coming over here. we'll talk about what's going on. he's seeking reelection for a congressional seat right here in arizona, so we'll talk about what's happened over the weekend. lots to discuss with him. we're also going to speak this coming hour, the 4:00 p.m. eastern hour, with john mccain and lindsay graham. they're both in cairo, egypt right now. lots to discuss with them as well as what's happening in egypt. as you know, they won't let 18 or 19 americans leave the country for supporting democracy. this is a country that receives

$1.3 billion in u.s. aid every year but they're holding these americans. we'll talk about that, we'll talk about what's going on in syria. both of these senders think it's time to start arming the syrianf pre-emptive strike against iran's nuclear facilities? both lindsey graham and john mccain have strong views on that. so we got a lot coming up. that's right here in "the situation room" and we're in mesa, arizona. brook, you should be here in arizona. >> i know. mark already e-mailed me. >> it's happening in arizona right now. >> what a day to come back from -- >> the place to be. >> to come from vacation you got a powerhouse show so we look forward to it in a matter of minutes. we'll see you, wolf blitzer. coming up here, a controversial headline about the new york knicks superstar, jeremy lin gets an espn employee fired. it has everybody talking.

do we treat asian-american stereotypes differently than others? my guest says, absolutely. that conversation? minutes away. [ male announcer ] the cadillac cts sport sedan was designed with near-perfect weight balance from front to back... and back to front. ♪ giving you exceptional control from left to right... and right to left. ♪ the cadillac cts. ♪ we don't just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs.

what to make of jeremy lin. his game is certainly dazzling.

no one has a problem describing that. but his background? that has caused several gaffes already. the latest being this espn writer using a racial slur in a headline that read, quote quarterback blink in the armor after lin's team, the knicks, lost to new orleans and the headline was up and it was up for 35 minutes in the middle of the night. espn did take it down. the writer has been fired and they've been suspended for saying this specific phrase on air and jeremy lin, as well, has moved on. >> i don't think it was, you know, on purpose or whatever. but at the same time they apologized, so from my end i don't care any more. i have to learn to forgive and i think it was intentional. hopefully not. >> he says he doesn't care anymore. "saturday night live" cared enough to do this ask it this weekend. he's unstoppable, like that sign said at wednesday's game, lin is the knicks's "good

fortune." >> he's sweet, not sour. 123450 he turned kobe into kobe beef. >> and kobe is like, hey, i ordered fried chicken. >> hey, what's up with that? >> joining me now, freelance sportscaster rick quan. is this started by race? why. why do you these these gaffing or slurs are happening in this particular story? >> i think because jeremy is a one-of-a-kind athlete. we've never had a chinese-american perform at this type of level so he'll draw a lot of attention and not because of his talent. he's a asian-american who's a real pioneer here and that's why all the comments are coming out. >> back to the espn gaffe, the headline writer told the new york daily news it wasn't intended. he used the phrase many times

before. that said, do you think that there's a double standard when it comes to racial slurs? we talk the about this this morning. no editor ever would use, say, the "n" fwhoword in a headline, never. >> right. it is a bit of a double standard as they showed in "saturday night live." you can make fun of asian-americans but you can't make fun of black-americans. i think part of it is unfortunately there's a stereotype that asian americans are passive and they won't retaliate. they'll bite their tongue and not say anything and suffer through it while the african-american community has enough strength and political clout, enough power to retaliate. and that's something that i think the asian-americans in the country lack. they don't is have one spokesperson to take a stand like a jesse jooik son or al sharpton, someone to say, this is wrong, this is not the way we

should be spoken of. >> do you think the storylines surrounding jeremy lin will help, at least, slow that? >> i think so. the whole incident with the espn headline becomes what you can call it a "teachable moment." the person that wrote the headline said he was not aware this was offensive. maybe, unfortunately, he was fired because of it but it provides a chance for the media to be educated about what is offensive. and growing up as a chinese-american, the word, the "c" world, you might say, i've heard it. it's probably the most hurtful word you can use toward a chinese-american. similar to how the "n" word is used toward african-americans. >> so right about this is part of your piece but i want to get to the part at the end where you make this point. lin has struck a cord among

asian-american men. i've heard many negative stereotypes over the years but you ultimately make the point that he gives asian-american men a sense of pride. how so? >> certainly so. we haven't had somebody like this since bruce lee back in the '70s. have we had a asian male that we can rally around. i mean, there are so many negative stereotypes you see in the media these days, everything from the hon character on "two broke girls" which is so insulting. to the 16 candles movie, that character. even the character in -- can't think of the movie, "the hangover." all those things, i mean, they just portray the asian male as being a sexual weak short just, nothing like jeremy lin who is 6'3", 200 pounds and can play

basketball with the best in the world so it's so refreshing to see an asian-american role model play on the court. >> let me ask you this, the headline with ens, he said, i don't care. it's fine. no big deal. do you wish he took a stronger stance and said, no. and here's why? >> no. i think he's taken the higher road. the writer apologized. he's letting it go. i think jeremy did the write thing. i think espn did the appropriate action in firing the headline writer and suspending the sportscaster who used the term as well. i think jeremy is doing the right thing in letting it go. >> bottom line, the biggest take-away from the "linsanity," sir? >> again, just a source of pride for the not just the asian-americans be asians across the world and even, the nonasians to see an underdog do so well when given the opportunity with hard work, just about anything is possible.

>> thank y