tonight at 11:00 eastern, "frozen: state of the south," coverage with brooke baldwin and don lemon. and at 11:30, justin bieber's wild ride. that's all for us tonight. "ac360" starts right now. still frozen. the south wakes up to ice again this morning. are they ready this time after a day of chaos on the roads, several people killed, thousands stranded? we're tracking the cleanup this morning. also, when will it finally warm up? judgment day for amanda knox, awaiting a third verdict in her former roommate's murder. could the freed american be forced to return to an italian jail cell? we're live. and this is not made up, folks. justin bieber arrested again, accused of the assault of a limo

driver, and a petition to deport the star is gaining massive momentum. so, why the white house may now have to get involved. all right, good morning and welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> a very early "early start." i'm john berman. it is thursday, january 30th. it is 4:00 a.m. in the east. >> good morning, everyone. this morning, atlanta and much of the south still waking up, still frozen, a day after the trip home from work and school turned into a nightmare for millions. roads clogged, many stuck for hours trying to get home. at least ten people, ten people have now been killed across the south because of this storm. this morning we're happy to say most people have finally gotten where they're trying to go, but there are still some students who are sleeping at school. >> that is unbelievable. >> and the roads are littered with abandoned cars. people just now trying to figure out how to reunite with their cars. martin savidge has the latest. >> reporter: it's been another brutally cold night, and that means that the roadways that had thawed out some here in the

atlanta region once again froze solid, and that is making for some treacherous driving conditions. the good news is, is that it appears that many drivers are heeding the advice of state officials to stay off the roads, unless it is an absolute emergency. schools will remain closed, as will some government offices in the atlanta area. the idea there to reduce the amount of traffic so the road crews can start to catch up. also later today, the georgia department of transportation will begin ferrying drivers back to the cars that they abandoned at the height of the storm. they're going to be providing fuel, which is necessary, because many people ran out of gas. they'll also be providing a jump start, if that's also needed. they know they have to get these hundreds of cars off of the exit and on-ramps as well as the sides of the road, because they continue to pose a hazard. the good news is the temperatures this weekend will feel springlike. that is not doing much, though, to try to lessen the futuror th

many people have for the state and the city, who they feel was not properly preparing for the storm that they knew that was coming. the governor and the mayor of atlanta have both said they accept some blame but that it wasn't all their fault. some drivers who spent up to nearly 24 hours trapped behind the wheel trying to get home would strongly disagree. martin savidge, cnn, atlanta. >> we keep saying stuck behind the wheel for 24 hours. i simply cannot imagine that. we're getting unbelievable pictures from all over the region. take a look at this one from woodstock, georgia. this is a car in a sinkhole. you saw it there just covered with water. the reason, the slippery roads. the cars are sliding everywhere. this one slid into a fire hydrant. >> the water kept flowing up from the hydrant. >> you got out safely. >> yeah. >> how long before this happened? >> probably 30 minutes. >> did you see it happen? >> yeah, all my school stuff was in it, and i was like, oh. >> the dog ate my homework and

my car slid into a ditch, hit a fire hydrant. >> everyone gets a homework pass in the south. virginia beach saw a lot of accidents, ads it wracked up 9 inches of snow, including a car that hit this house. the driver and three people in the house had to go to the hospital. none of the injuries serious. north carolina digging out this morning with schools closed an many offices telling workers to stay home. this weather event continues, folks. it was a few inches of snow that fell there. the problem this morning is the cold. again, it is causing so many of these roads to freeze. all right, it took until late into the evening, but the last students stranded at a school in alabama are finally home this morning. more than 11,000 kids had to spend the night in their schools with their teachers because of the storm. the last students reunited with their families just a few hours ago. and despite all this, you know, bad news, there were miracles to be seen in this weather, including for a woman and her boyfriend in birmingham. darshea jones went into labor

two weeks early and the ambulance set to take her to the hospital got into an accident, so she had to call 911, where a dispatcher walked her through giving birth at home. >> they don't even know alabama like that. >> i was thinking, like oh, my god, what the heck are we going to do? >> she asked me, have you ever done this before? i said, no. we're going to learn it together. and i heard that cry, and i was like, oh, my god, i have brought a baby into this world. >> the look on the dad's face is just priceless. >> he's my favorite person ever, i think, this morning. >> what are we going to do? >> what are we going to do? mother and child are doing fine. the father seems to be in shell shock. he will recover, eventually. they have named the baby, get this, winter. >> that's beautiful! >> it is lovely. >> i think that is beautiful. indra petersons watching the forecast for us. indra, a lot of babies named winter this year, because there is a lot of winter. >> i'm still trying to get over how you're get giving dad

credit. i'm going to give mom credit. wait a minute, you're missing a beat here. let's talk about this, what's going on in the south. very easy to see in the 12-hour loop. the system that was there has made its way offshore. still leftover showers in florida. the new story today will be the clearer skies, so colder temperatures this morning. you can actually see in a lot of places it's cooler today than it was yesterday morning. why does that matter? because of course, we have the hard freeze in many places into the south. that also means any moisture that's left overnight likely froze overnight. so, definitely tough commute in the morning with a lot of black ice on the roads and especially on those bridges. other thing we'll be looking at this morning is the warm-up, so that's the good news. conditions will be improving through the next several days. notice atlanta finally recovering, even to above normal. so, that's the good piece of news. temperatures across the country feeling a lot better, especially on the east coast, but once again in the upper midwest, this is where a lot of our systems come from, we're going to see little bit of that cooler air again today. what's going on? we have a couple systems making their way through. so, minneapolis today could see 4 to 6 inches of snow. little system today, here comes the next one friday in through

saturday, looking all the way into the ohio valley, several inches with each one of these. saturday most likely the strongest one, but keep in mind, also strong and windy, so any snow already on the ground continuing to blow around in that region. looks like we're getting back to the typical pattern, where the snow should be this time of year. >> at least the double digits don't have minus signs in front of them. >> looks a lot better. >> thanks, indra. 6 minutes after the hour. happening today, president obama on the road visiting milwaukee and also nashville, part of his post state of the union effort to drum up support for his economic plans. the president will stop at an engine plant in wisconsin and a high school in nashville, where he is expected to outline just what he will do if congress does not work with him. that a day after stops in maryland and pennsylvania. >> i'm hoping the congress goes along with this, but i'm not going to wait for congress. i could do more with congress, but i'm not going to not do anything without congress. not when it's abouthe basic

security and dignity of american workers. dirted the treasury secretary to make rules for a new plan designed to help lower wage workers save for retirement. it is an interesting idea. >> and more people need to save for retirement and you save more money. the government wants to get involved in that. republicans, meantime, are on maryland's eastern shore today gathered for their annual winter retreat where immigration is expected to be the big topic today. the leaders, including house speaker john boehner, plan to release a set of principles for an immigration overhaul, including giving probationary status to many illegal immigrants, but they say they will only move toward making those principles law if the rank-and-file agree. this morning, new york congressman michael grimm says he is trying to move on, now that he has officially apologized to a reporter that he threatened to throw off a balcony and break in half like a boy. grimm made the threat just after the state of the union address, when the reporter asked him about a campaign finance allegation. well, after initially defending his outburst, now grimm says he

is sorry. >> this was an unfortunate incident that shouldn't have happened, and you know, i'm sure my italian mother is going to, you know, be yelling at me saying you weren't raised that way, and she's right. she's absolutely right. the bottom line is, i overreacted, and my emotions got the better of me, i lost my cool, and that shouldn't happen. >> you shouldn't have threatened to throw the guy off a balcony and break him in half like a boy. grimm says the reporter has accepted his apology and the two are planning to have lunch together some time next week. i have a joke here, they're going to brake bread instead of break him in half. do you like that one? i've been working on that all night. >> he should invite his italian mother along, to mediate that. a terrifying warning wednesday from the top u.s. intelligence official telling congress that a syrian militant group tied to al qaeda is determined to attack the u.s. and its allies and is now training, training right now a growing number of fighters to do this. director of intelligence, national intelligence, james clapper, said the fighters come

from europe, the mideast, they come from the u.s. the plan to train them and send them back home to carry out these attacks. and the director of national intelligence also had troubling news about north korea, saying the isolated nation is moving ahead on threats to advance its nuclear weapons program by expanding the size of uranium enrichment facility and restarting a plutonium reactor that has been closed since 2007. south korean intelligence confirms the reactor is up and running. the north has been beefing up its nuclear program since an atomic test explosion last february. all right, a look now at the markets at this moment. markets in asia down sharply. japan's nikkei bearing the brunt of a broad-based selling. hong kong and shanghai also lower. london is trading lower right now. real tough, tough night, guys, for stock markets. a few things at play here. the federal reserve's bond-buying program that was put in place to help stabilize the u.s. economy was also helping growth in emerging markets. the money the fed was pumping into the world was going into places like turkey, india,

brazil. yesterday, the fed is going to start slowing the amount of money it's injecting into the federal economy, having investors nervous about the emerging markets. currencies in those countries have been falling and those countries have had to take some action. on top of that, confirmation overnight manufacturing is slowing in china. new export orders are down for the second straight month in china. john, as you know, that's been a big driver of global growth. so, you've got this, it's not here, what's happening around the rest of the world, real concern for stock markets. >> all of a sudden everyone's looking at turkey. >> absolutely. >> having a huge impact here. this morning, justin bieber is in trouble not in just one country but two countries, folks. the 19-year-old pop star surrendering to police in toronto in connection with the assault of a limo driver back in december. look at this. bieber had to push his way through the throng of fans and onlookers to get into the police station where he stayed for about 90 minutes. this came just a few hours after his lawyers entered a not guilty plea on his behalf in miami

beach on dui charges. so, two countries, two set of charges, and an investigation is still ongoing in los angeles into whether mr. bieber was responsible for pelting a neighbor's home with eggs. more than 175,000 americans have now signed on to a petition on the white house website calling for bieber to be deported back to canada. so, there's no official reaction yet from the obama administration, but the white house has always said that when 100,000 people sign these online petitions that it will respond. so, there will be a response coming from the white house on the suggestion that justin bieber should be deported. >> and let's be clear, convictions, certain kinds of convictions can change your visa status, absolutely. all right, coming up, judgment day for amanda knox. on trial for a third time now in the murder of her roommate. could the now freed american be forced to return to jail in italy? we're live with that. and a neighbor's complaint

leads to a shocking discovery inside a california teacher's home. >> this story is the -- this is a scary story. >> all right, we'll have it coming up next. life could be hectic. as a working mom of two young boys angie's list saves me a lot of time. after reading all the reviews i know i'm making the right choice. online or on the phone, we help you hire right the first time. with honest reviews on over 720 local services. keeping up with these two is more than a full time job, and i don't have time for unreliable companies. angie's list definitely saves me time and money. for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today. [ sneezes ] [ male announcer ] you may be an allergy muddler. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. love the air. [ sneezes ]

this morning amanda knox may find out her fate. the american from seattle on trial again in italy for the murder of her roommate, charges she had been convicted of and then cleared of before. now a new court is very close to announcing another verdict, a verdict she is not in italy to

hear in person. erin mclaughlin is live in florence for us. erin, what's the latest? >> reporter: hi, christine. we're hearing that amanda knox's lawyers have finished with their closing arguments this morning at the courthouse behind me. the jury has now retired to deliberate. amanda knox, of course, not present in court, though her former boyfriend and co-defendant raffaele sollecito did make an appearance in court this morning, his father telling cnn that he is absolutely terrified but that he's here to face justice, even though he's legally not required to be present in court. both he and knox were convicted in 2009 in the brutal killing of 21-year-old british student meredith kercher. that conviction overturned by an appellate court in 2011 for lack of evidence. but italy's supreme court did not approve of that acquittal, saying that it was full of contradictions and deficiencies. so, here we are, once again, back at a court in florence.

a jury of six individuals and two judges considering all the old evidence as well as some new evidence, none of that appearing to be game-changing. one of the things, though, that could possibly hurt the defense is amanda knox's decision to remain in the united states, to not appear throughout these proceedings. she wrote an e-mail to the court explaining that she was very afraid, very afraid of being wrongfully convicted. all of that, of course, now being considered by the jury currently in deliberations. christine? >> so, whatever the court decides, will this be the final version? it feels like this legal, the legal twists and turns in this case have been going on for years. >> reporter: no, this will not be the final decision. whatever the jury decides, the jury and the two judges decide today, that will then have to go again to italy's supreme court for approval. so, that could be months away, christine. >> all right, erin. thank you so much. live for us this morning in florence. about 18 minutes after the hour now.

and it will not be long until we find out if federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty against boston marathon bombing suspect dzhokhar tsarnaev. the justice department confirms that attorney general eric holder will announce a decision by tomorrow. tsarnaev faces 30 criminal counts for the april 15th bombing that killed three people and injured 260 others. breaking overnight, missouri's third execution this month. herbert smulls put to death by lethal injection for the murder of a jewelry shop owner. they granted a stay tuesday to take up several appeals. the final one was rejected 30 minutes before smulls was put to death. new developments in the chemical spill that prompted a water ban for 300,000 west virgin virginiaans this month. state water officials are rejecting the fact that residents may have ingested formaldehyde while showering. officials say the chemical that leaked into the water supply only produces formaldehyde at 500 degrees, which is way, way hotter than any shower.

we're watching developments this morning in california's massive drought. officials say 17 areas parched by a largely rainless winter could run completely dry within 100 days. governor jerry brown declared a drought emergency this month. president obama called brown wednesday to pledge federal support in helping lessen the drought's effect. a deep, deep cleaning is happening today on a cruise ship turned sick bay for hundreds of passengers. >> ew. >> "the explorer of the seas" is now back at port in new jersey after nearly 700 passengers and crew came down with some sort of stomach bug, likely norovirus. >> you could see people sitting there getting sick in buckets, in bags. it was awful. and they just gave us a number to wait. and i had to wait three hours to be seen. >> we were looking forward to staying warm and being on our honeymoon and enjoying our time together and we're never going to get that back. >> honeymoon! >> oh, no. >> somebody else yesterday it was 12 family members who had all taken vacation, cousins and all got together for this

once-in-a-li once-in-a-lifetime trip and they were all sick. >> something about that honeymoon. okay, they are giving passengers refunds towards another cruise. they will be in port 24 hours but is set to head out on its next journey friday. this is the story of the morning that freaks me out the most. near los angeles, a school teacher facing charges after police raided his home and pulled out hundreds, hundreds of snakes living, some of them dead. >> police! we have a search warrant! come to the front door! >> the stench is overwhelming, and everybody who comes to the house for a party is just, like, they don't want to come. it's like, what's that smell? smells like something's dead. >> they're very cold, and it appears that most of them haven't eaten in quite a while. there's various stages of dying and dead and underweight. >> which she says, by the way,

as she is holding a snake casually. >> the teacher is william buckman. he's an elementary school teacher in newport beach. a neighbor said that buckman used to breed snakes, but it's not clear why he had so many in his home now, alive and dead. >> some people collect baseball cards. other people collect hundreds and hundreds of snakes, living and dead. >> how could you sleep at night with that many snakes? okay. >> 22 minutes after the hour right now. and the gift of a lifetime for a teen battling cancer. we will tell you this amazing story when we come back. weights.

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16-year-old cody beach has melanoma and has undergone months of treatment. his parents say he has been incredibly strong throughout this whole ordeal, but he was understandably surprised when a couple that he never met turned over the all-expense-paid trip they won in a raffle. they couldn't go because the husband, who also has cancer, was too weak to travel. so, for cody and his family, this was just an amazing gift. >> just thank you, give them a hug. >> he's had five operations so far, and then in his lungs. >> i'm praying that i'll have a long time with him, but if worse comes to worse, i want this to be a great memory for all our family. just forget about what he's going through and just really live in the moment. >> i now want this to be the best super bowl ever just for this family. as for the tickets to the game, there were supposed to be only two tickets, but the nfl mistakenly sent out four, which seems like an awfully perfect

mistake. maybe the nfl was just showing its heart. this meant, of course, that cody's whole family could go to the super bowl. >> i hope they have a great, great time and wish him the best of luck. all right, the south still frozen over this morning following a deadly, catastrophic day on the road. we've got the latest for you that millions, millions are waking up to. that's right after the break.

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the south still frozen this morning, iced over after a historic winter storm turns roads into skating rinks, left thousands stranded, kids sleeping in schools this morning. there is hope on the horizon. indra petersons tracking when the ice will finally melt. a heartbreaking loss. a texas man opens up about his decision and why he had to fight a hospital for weeks to take his brain-dead wife off of a ventilator. justin bieber arrested again as part of an assault investigation and now facing a new threat. could his bad boy antics get him deported? why the white house could be getting involved. >> yeah. can you believe that? all right, welcome back to "early start," everyone. i'm john berman. >> i'm christine romans. 30 minutes after the hour, 4:31 in the east. and this morning the south is trying to thaw out and get back to normal.

man, does it need it. this could be very, very difficult to do today after the nightmare of bad weather left all the roads down there, especially the big ones, just paralyzed. the death toll across the south is now at least ten. students were stuck in school for hours, drivers stranded in their cars, some for nearly a day. you heard people saying they were in their car more than 20 hours. starting this morning, state authorities in georgia will help get people back to their cars, which people just had to abandon on interstates throughout the atlanta area. and this morning, as you can imagine, many people are asking, how did this happen? a major city shut down by just a few inches of snow. our brian todd has that part of the story. >> reporter: snowmageddon in a major city, an auto graveyard on the interstate, semi trucks jack-knifed, cars abandoned by the hundreds, others struggling. over 1,000 accidents were reported in the city of atlanta and the greater area. look at these school buses, children stranded inside them.

nearly 100 children were stuck on buses until about midnight. >> i was super scared! i was like, if i don't get home to my parents, i'm like, i'm going to freak out. >> reporter: other kids had to sleep at their schools. >> we spent the night, all the teachers and the staff set up gym mats. >> it took a long time for daddy to dig out. >> that's right. >> reporter: good samaritans tried to free cars that had been stuck for hours, while the national guard came out to help stranded victims. >> first priority was look for people that were stranded, you know, hadn't had any food or water, and to bring that to them. >> reporter: trucker greg schrader had been stuck in his truck for 23 hours when he spoke to cnn. >> seen hundreds of accidents. i'm not stuck on anything. there's just nowhere to go. >> reporter: all from a snowfall of, at most, 3 1/2 inches, and a layer of ice so slippery, these kids could play hockey on it. atlanta's mayor admits, the government was partly to blame because schools and government offices let people out at about the same time businesses shut down in the early afternoon on

tuesday. >> is that really how it escalates so quickly, everyone hitting the road at the same time? >> it does. practically, if everybody is hitting the road at the same time, your demand on the transportation network would be so high that the corresponding capacity or supply of your network would not be able to handle such demand. >> reporter: in atlanta, that led to people taking 12, 14 hours or longer to get home. that's with like to be stuck or sliding around in this chaos? >> 5 miles an hour, basically. >> reporter: here's self-shot video from cnn meteorologist mari ramos. she chronicled her journey home heading north on i-75. before she got stranded on a hotel, look what happened. >> okay, my car skidded off the road. i'm going to go ahead and get out now because it's pretty scary to stay in here. i'm not alone. there's emergency vehicles behind me, as you can see there. i need help, but they can't help me because there's a serious

accident up the road. so, they're trying to put some salt there because that big truck in front of me is sliding as well. >> get going! >> i can't sir. i can try. >> reporter: in these situations, one traffic expert says drivers become distracted by stressful conditions, trying to stay warm, take care of children in the vehicle. it wasn't just the weather or the massive volume of vehicles on the road all at once that contributed to the disaster in atlanta. the traffic expert we spoke to says a lack of driving skill plays a major role in these situations. >> if you are dealing with a southern state that is not used to getting the different kind of snow precipitation among other weather conditions, the skills of drivers will not be able to handle the roadway condition in a good manner. >> reporter: so the mayor says in these situations, local departments can stagger departures, make people leave

offices in different waves with school children getting first priority. you can coordinate them by region, and he says you can have contraflow with police closing down the opposite incoming lanes of freeways and direct large waves of drivers leaving the area into them to open everything up. that happens often during hurricane evacuations, but it looks like none of that happened in atlanta. brian todd, cnn. >> all right, that storm obviously so bad for drivers, including the one behind the wheel of this car. let me show you this, woodstock, georgia. this car spun out on the slippery roads, hit a fire hydrant, then dropped into a sinkhole full of water. >> water kept flowing out from the hydrant. >> got out of the car safely. >> yeah. >> how long before this happened? >> probably 30 minutes. >> did you see it happen? >> yeah. i was back there and all my school stuff was in it, and i was like, oh. >> that was not the only accident. there were thousands of them from alabama to virginia. this was the scene in virginia beach, which got hit with about 9 inches of snow. a car just hit this home.

the driver and three people in the house had to go to the hospital. none of the injuries, thankfully, are said to be serious. all right, in north carolina, the snowfall was less than expected, but the problem now is the cold. roads are frozen, schools are closed, many offices are telling the workers simply stay home today. in alabama, more than 11,000 students had to spend the night at their schools. that is just crazy. they are finally home this morning. the last of them finally making it back to their families just a few hours ago. because of the weather, many districts there decided it was safer to keep the kids in school rather than send them back home during the storm. the teachers, the principals there just did amazing, amazing work. >> i wonder for how many of them was this their first overnight away from parents. can you imagine? what a great job those teachers did. also from alabama, a piece of good news in spite of the bad. darshea jones went into labor in birmingham two weeks ago. she called an ambulance. the ambulance got into an accident, couldn't come, so she had to call 911 to figure out what to do. the baby was coming and she had

to figure out what to do. the dispatcher went into coach mode, walking her and her boyfriend through what to do at home. >> we don't even know alabama like that. >> i was thinking, like, oh, my god, what the heck are we going to do? >> she asked me, she said, have you ever done this before? i said, no. we're going to learn it together. and i heard that cry, and i was like, oh, my god, i have brought a baby into this world. >> all the major players here deserve a big round of applause. mother and child are doing fine. they've named the baby winter, and the facial expression of the dad is just -- it's going to be my happy moment of the day. >> i got in trouble. i expressed concern over the father because he seems like he deserves concern there, but indra petersons got mad at me, saying the mother did all the work there. she is right. indra's always right. >> thank you. >> thankfully, she's watching the weather. >> tough job, high expectations here. we're watching the system in the south, making its way out, still hanging right around florida, but generally speaking, cooler and drier air is in place.

think about that. that also means temperatures go down in the morning hours, so a little cooler in the south today than yesterday, so with that, a hoard freeze in many places across the south. the good news, by the afternoon it will warm up, so things should thaw out. of course, you have one morning left with a lot of black ice on the roads and especially on those roadways and bridges, but things, again, improving by the afternoon, not only into the southeast where temperatures will be rebounding and going up over the next several days. same thing in the northeast as well. the upper midwest starting to see cooler temperatures. we'll be looking at that again as a series of systems make their way through. notice, first of all, minneapolis today 4 to 6 inches of snow. second system comes through iowa, chicago, through the upper ohio valley. saturday comes the third one, this one being a little bit stronger. so definitely a couple days here with snow and windy conditions into the upper midwest, but i have to talk about the big change that we've been waiting for all winter into the west coast. they've been having this huge dome of high pressure, atypical for this time of year, very dry. finally, that is breaking down. they have rain in the forecast. keep in mind, that is the same

system we'll be tracking to see, depending where it goes, whether or not we get rain on super bowl sunday. for now, it's out. >> you know what, that's important news, though, for people out west. >> so dry in california. >> huge. they need it. president obama is taking his case to the people again today, on the road in milwaukee and nashville, trying to drum up support for some of the programs he laid out in his state of the union address. that just a day after stops in maryland and pennsylvania. >> i'm hoping that congress goes along with this, but i'm not going to wait for congress. i could do more with congress, but i'm not going to not do anything without congress. not when it's about the basic security and dignity of american workers. >> one program already in the works, the president has directed jack lew, the treasury secretary, to begin a program to make rules for a new starter retirement plan to help lower-wage workers save for retirement. meanwhile, republicans are spending a second day at their

annual winter retreat in maryland, where top leaders, including house speaker john boehner, plan to introduce principles for an immigration overhaul, including giving probationary status to many illegal immigrants, but they say they will only move towards making those principles law if the rank and file agree. >> and the rank and file don't agree whether that probationary status should lead to citizenship eventually, and that seems to be the big sticking point. >> there is no 100% accord there at all. trying to figure that out. you're looking at pictures of congressman michael grimm. he says he's sorry. he's the new york congressman now apologizing to a reporter for threatening to throw the reporter off a balcony and break him in half like a boy. grimm made the threat just after the state of the union when the reporter asked him about a campaign finance allegation. after initially defending his outburst, grimm now says it shouldn't have happened. >> this was an unfortunate incident that shouldn't have happened, and you know, i'm sure my italian mother is going to, you know, be yelling at me saying you weren't raised that way, and she's right.

she's absolutely right. the bottom line is i overreacted, and my emotions got the better of me, i lost my cool, and that shouldn't happen. >> grimm says the reporter has accepted his apology and the two are planning to have lunch together some time next week. stocks in a big sell-off worldwide after the u.s. government decides the fed announces it's going to continue to slow the amount of money it's been pumping into the global economy. nikkei down sharply, london down as well. indications are we're going to see a tough day in the markets on the u.s. open. dow futures up about 31 points right now, but it's no way guaranteed you're going to see a higher day. look, it's been an ugly january, the dow down 5% so far this year. that's after closing on a record high on the last day of 2013. imagine, a record and then, boom, this. many are saying, john, it's time for a correction. that's a decline of 10% in stocks. the selling may not be over, but we already may be halfway there. watching emerging markets, watching the fed, and certainly, 31-point gain right now in the dow futures, but we've got a

long way to go, a few hours before the opening bell. 42 after the hour right now and more troubling news this morning for justin bieber. this time in both canada and the united states. all of north america seemingly has it in for justin bieber. in toronto, bieber had to push through fans and reporters to get into a police station. he was surrendering in connection with the assault of a limo driver back in december. now, this in canada happening just a few hours after his lawyers in florida entered a not guilty plea on his behalf in miami beach on dui charges. and out in los angeles, police are still looking into whether bieber was responsible for pelting a neighbor's home with eggs. so, all that is going on, and now, of course, there is potential white house involvement. the white house will now have to respond to a petition on its website calling for bieber to be deported. more than 175,000 americans have now signed on to that petition. this white house says if more than 100,000 people sign these

online petitions, that there will be some kind of response. >> it's rare to see questions about a pop star like a state department briefing or a white house briefing, but you're getting these questions. >> yes. you can see the face on the people at the briefings, you know, just go blank. >> at the highest levels of government. coming up, a texas man sharing his heartache. the tragedy that left his wife brain-dead. you've heard this story. it's so heartbreaking. the hospital that refused to honor her end-of-life wishes. we'll hear from him next. i need proof of insurance. that's my geico digital insurance id card - gots all my pertinents on it and such. works for me. turn to the camera. ah, actually i think my eyes might ha... next! digital insurance id cards. just a tap away on the geico app. could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. everybody knows that. well, did you know that when a tree falls in the forest and no one's around, it does make a sound? ohhh...ugh. geico. little help here.

we're hearing this morning from a texas man detailing his heartbreaking fight to take his brain-dead, pregnant wife off of a ventilator. erick munoz and his mother-in-law spoke with anderson cooper about what happened when marlise munoz was taken to the hospital after collapsing. officials there argued they had to keep her alive because of a state law, even though doctors said she was brain-dead. >> when she first had the embolism, she was at that point 14 weeks pregnant. >> yes. once we got to the hospital and after the doctors do their initial procedures that they do to try to determine what's causing the problem, see if they

can fix it, they showed us a ct of her cranium, her brain. like i said, i can't tell you exactly what i was looking at, but i knew it was wrong. >> some of the doctors initially didn't even know about this -- >> no, actually, we were called back into her room in icu, and the doctor told us about this, and of course, we're like, no, we want to disconnect her, and his words were -- you know, we were asking for an explanation. in his words, he's like, i'm sorry, i just found out about this law five minutes before you did. i've been told to notify you of it. >> what goes through your head when a doctor says we're not going to follow your wishes? >> for me, i thought there must have been a miscommunication of some way, that we said, no, no, no, that's not what she wanted. she wanted never to be on life support, and that's when they're saying, well, but she's pregnant. and then, you know, it went from

there. and so, we knew -- we weren't going to let this rest because it wasn't right. it was not honoring her wishes. >> there's some families in that situation who think, well, maybe she can come back from this, maybe, you know, a miracle can happen. >> i mean, we still hoped. i mean, i did. i can say i did. but at least for me, i couldn't turn off the knowledge that i know of what was going on. and even though i do want to keep the hope -- it's my wife. i'd do anything, you know. many a nights that i asked god to take me instead, but you can't turn off that knowledge that you know how bad it was. and like i said, i promised her, i told her, i will honor your wishes. for me and her dad, that was the hardest, because we looked her in her eye and told her. and for the state of texas to not let us do that was hard.

you know, you want to keep your word to your loved one. >> what was she like? >> she can light up a room with her smile, personality, like i said, contagious. i am not one to talk a whole lot, but she -- it was just, being around her to me was natural, it was just relaxing. i could do things that even my parents, you know, i felt a lot more relaxed with her than i did with my parents, which -- but it's just, she's contagious. i mean, that smile, that personality, that kind, noble heart that she has is undescribable. >> to seeing just the body reacted to the amount of time it had been on life support and the deterioration that had started,

it made it very hard to look at this body that used to be our daughter and to know that nothing about her was there. >> and you could even -- you could see deterioration. >> very much. very much. and you could smell it. >> really? >> smell the deterioration. >> yeah. >> i had said, when i go by, you know, if i'm close to her head, i smell death. >> i understand you learned that you were going to have a daughter. is that -- >> they had done several sonos throughout the process, and for the initial ones, they couldn't determine. so, after the court hearing, i said, you know, i would like to know the gender to give my baby a name. i know it's nothing legal, you know. >> what did you name her? >> nicole. nicole.

it was my wife's middle name. >> for me, closure began after she was disconnected. i was able to get a sense of closure. and of course, now we're starting the grieving process. and it was hard to do, hard to start the grieving process when we still had this body that we knew was an empty shell in front of it. we really couldn't start grieving, but now we can. for me, our story does not end here. it will end when we have laws changed, and -- >> and you're going to continue to fight for that. >> yes. yes, we are. yes. >> what brave people. i cannot imagine what they have all had to go through, and to put all of that legal wrangling on top of something that is just so horrible in the first place? wish them really the best of luck and thank them for telling their story, really, really thank them. coming up, just how did hackers get their hands on your personal information at target? we have new details this morning about what happened in "money time," right after the break.

welcome back to "early start." it's "money time" right now. losses in stock markets in asia and europe right now, sell-offs following what happened in the u.s. yesterday, but it looks like stocks here might be able to open higher. take a look. dow futures are up 29 points right now, tokyo down a big, hard 2.5%, london down about

0.3%. huge corporate deal for you this morning. google selling its motorola mobility smartphone unit to china's lenovo. motorola mobility has been a money loser for google, which it bought just a year and a half ago. google celebrity ceo larry page saving face by saying this sale allows google to stop making the product and instead concentrate on innovation for its android operating system. for lenovo, could be a big win. lenovo was the world's largest pc-maker, in fourth place as the biggest smartphone maker. the ceo says it will allow it to challenge apple and samsung in the smartphone market. could be interesting to see the u.s. government's reaction to that sale, by the way. i suspect there will be a national security review when you have something that big. new details on what might be the largest security breach in u.s. retail history. target now blaming the hack over the holiday shopping season on stolen vendor credentials. a target spokesperson says the company is now taking extra precautions to make sure its systems aren't hacked again.

we certainly hope so. 110 million customers affected by the breach. 40 million credit and debit card users had their information stolen. 70 million customers had personal information revealed. a really big, big tech security blunder. we need to know every little step along the way is helpful to make sure it doesn't happen again. >> well, they need to restore trust, too. >> absolutely. >> in the millions and millions of consumers that may have had their information found out. all right, just a minute before the hour right now. "early start" continues "early start" continues immediately. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com still frozen! the south dealing with these icy, icy conditions again as they wake up this morning. this follows the tragic day on the roads. several people killed, thousands stranded. we're covering the very latest and when it will finally, finally warm up. judgment day for amanda knox, awaiting a third verdict in her former roommate's murder.

could the freed american be forced to return to an italian jail cell? we're live. and justin bieber arrested again, accused in the assault of a limo driver. and now, a petition to deport bieber is gaining huge momentum. why the white house may actually have to get involved. >> now wait, i'm trying to keep score. dui, assault of a limb you driver. >> and the california egg thing. >> the eggs. we have to unravel that for you this morning. good morning, welcome back to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm john berman. it's 5:00 a.m. in the east. a cold morning today in atlanta and across the south, still trying to get moving again after a few inches of snow and a few millimeters of ice paralyzed the region. th