weather. i can't stay too long because i have class or whatever. >> this is nothing. snow used to cut through the cars. thanks for joining us this week for "your money." join john berman and me every morning on "early start." until then have a great weekend. hello everyone. i'm fredricka whitfield. welcome to the "cnn newsroom." just in to cnn, a historic announcement from u.s. attorney general eric holder involving same-sex marriage in america. in a speech tonight, hold letter announce the justice department's plan to extend the federal government's recognition of same-sex marriages, even in the 34 states that don't consider it legal. i want tocnn correspondent in washington. taking place later this evening,

where will it be and what will be said? >> reporter: fred, he's in new york city to headline the annual gala at the waldorf. a move by the obama administration to extend federal recognition to married same-sex couples in all the states, even those that don't recognize marriage at legal right now. according to excerpts of tonight's speech obtained by cnn's justice reporter, the attorney general will say, "just like during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the stakes involved in this generation's struggle for lgbt quality could not be higher. at attorney general i will not let this department be simply a bystander during this important moment in history." he'll explain also what the access will do. give same-sex couples in civil and criminal couples the same legal rights as all married couples meaning if someone refuses to testify in a case involving his or her spouse, the

federal government won't object even if in a state where it is not legal. also granting privileges to inmates in same-sex marriages and fur rules in every state. the number of states affected not just down one to 33 in june when a new law goes into effect in illinois, fred. >> and then let's talk about the timing, erin. this taking place right during the winter olympic games, and there's a lot of pressure on olympic sponsors to condemn russia's anti-gay law. >> reporter: fred, that's right nap law penalizes people there who promote gay materials in russia. i would point out some protesters were arrested just this week in moscow and st. petersburg for peaceful demonstrations and since it was enacted last year, it has stirred controversy really all over the globe and led gay rights activists to apply more pressure to both the international olympic committee and the companies underwriting

the games in sochi. >> erin mcpike, thank you so much. bring us more as you get it. appreciate that. all right. so speaking of those winter games in sochi, the u.s. has just added another medal to the tally board. bronze in the moguls, thanks to hannah kearney, the u.s. also snagged the first olympic gold of the games. it's from u.s. snowboarder sage. tweeting i just won the olympics. bringing back the first gold to the usa. rachel nichols is in sochi with more. >> reporter: he is the first gold medalist at these games, but the 20-year-old american sage katsenberg doesn't fit the clean cut olympic athlete in days' past. >> my mentality isn't about training or, like, you know, going in the gym and making myself better at snowboarding in the gym. that's not really how i like to do it. >> reporter: the night before the event, he wasn't visualizing

his run. instead, he was tweeting photos of himself making the olympic rings out of onion rings. whoa, how random? i made the finals at the olympics. voters circulating comparing him to sean penn's "fast times at ridgemont high" character. he found thrills that is sick! i'm so down with that. that is pretty awesome that someone did that. i'm stoked to see that. good ol' sticoli. >> reporter: he hails from park city, utah. none of his family or friends made the trip. they get too nervous and in turn make him stressed out. instead, he called his dad after medaling. >> he was like, what? and they had it on speaker phone. everyone was there. the coolest moment ever. hearing their voices and they were so stoked.

>> reporter: he says he plans to spend the rest of the olympics thinking of creative selfie pictures he can take with his new medical, watching other events and eating more onion rings. >> feels like i'm living in a dream. i have really no idea, actually. it feels so random. >> reporter: in sochi, rachel nichols, cnn. >> all right. congrats to him. all right, with all the excitement over katssenberg snagging that gold, hard to believe snowboarding popularity is declining. later on in the show, the downward trend and safety concerns on olympic snowboard courses. all right. woody allen is telling his side of the story in an ongoing feud with his adopted daughter dylan farrow and former partner mia farrow in a new op-ed in the "new york times," allen said he never molested dylan and blames mia farrow for planting the story in dylan's mind. alexander field is following the

story for us. tell us more. >> reporter: well, fred, in this op-ed, which will be published tomorrow, woody ale been says he doesn't doubt hi adopted daughter has come to believe she was molested but he categorically denies doing it and continues to say it is his ex, mia farrow, embittered by their separation coached her to make these allegation. he said i did not molest dylan. i love her and hope she will grasp how she has been cheated out of a loving father and a mother more interested in her festering anger than her daughter's well-being. the op-ed released last nyp giving dylan time to read it and she put her own response out there. she wrote an open letter detailing the abeaut. what she had to say. she writes, once again woody allen and attacking me and my family in an effort to discredit and silence me.

nothing he says and writes can change the truth pr for 20 years i have never wavered in describe what's he did to me. i will carry these experiences for the rest of my life and goes on to characterize the peets-of-piece written by woody allen full of lies and distortions. fred? >> and tell us more about what he -- what he said or other details he may have given about mia farrow? >> reporter: well, this sort of dredges up a lot of the things you'll remember seeing in the headlines more than 20 years ago. you'll remember that this couple separated after 12 years together. and that following that separation, of course, woody allen went on to marry soon yi, the adopted daughter of mia farrow and composer andre previn. the two have gone on. been married 16 years. woody allen in his piece especially blames mia farrow or accuses her of continuing to be bitter, the couple, again, married 16 years now gone ton adopt two children of their own, fred.

>> alexandra field, thanks so much. appreciate that. in a florida courtroom, a man on trial for killing a teenager in a fight over loud music. we'll tell you what he's saying to justify what happened. ♪ nothing says, "you're my #1 copilot," like a milk-bone biscuit. ♪ say it with milk-bone. we are the thinkers.

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there's have been some intense moments today as the trial of a florida man accused of murdering a teenager over a fight over loud music. opening fire on jordan davis' car as the two were arguing over the volume of davis' music. he claims it was self-defense and that davis was armed. today's session focused on testimony from an evidence technician. the tech testified he didn't find any weapon in the teen's war but admitted he was never told to search the surrounding areas. the u.s. state department is urging north korea to release american kenneth bae on

humanitarian grounds. the state department announced friday bae has been moved from a hospital to a labor camp. a pro-north korean publication says bae has been held at the camp three weeks. the state department is deeply concerned about his health. arrested in 2012 while leaving a tour group. the father of three was senteneded to 15 years for what the north koreans call a "serious crime." for the first time after that news, kenneth bae's sister talks to cnn. today at 5:00 eastern time. part of a cnn exclusive about a new effort to free kenneth bay thai could include you. the announcement of this new campaign exclusively in the "cnn newsroom" with don lemon. all right. now to tennessee where a couple is facing murder charges for allegedly forcing the man's 5-year-old daughter to drink excessive amounts of water and grape sewed darr. prosecutors say all that liquid caused the sodium level in alexa linboom's body to plummet and

triggered fatal brain swelling. the couple is also accused of child neglect, and child abuse. two men convicted of a triple murder as teenagers are free after spending 21 years in a new york prison. new dna evidence proves anthony yarbough and sharrif wilson could not have killed yarbough's mother, sister and cousin. the brooklyn d.a. says the 1992 convictions would not stand up in court again. he says he survived a drift in the ocean for more than a year. but when he finally washed ashore, in the marshall islands, a lot of people doubted his story. jose salve have a dohr alvarenga invists he is telling the truth. saying he survived on rain water, turtles and birds. his doctors say he's roving. >> you know, we had -- we had staff come in from the program to check up on him.

his mental status, and he seems -- you know, a bit off, but maybe it's due to -- >> right. >> him being in, in the open for so many months and not talking to people. but i think he's finally getting it back. >> alvarenga left the hospital yesterday. team usa's first 2014 gold. goes to a snowboarder. while that sport booms at the olympics, you're actually seeing a big drop on the regular slopes. why is that happening? next.

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your energy plus ours. together, there's no limit to what we can achieve. winter games in sochi, and the u.s. has just added a bronze med toll our tally board. it was in the moguls and it's

all thanks to hannah kearney. so the race is on with team usa slipping to fourth place on the medal board. whatever the medal's standing, the u.s. can claim the game's first gold medal which went to u.s. snowboarder sage kotsenburg. >> that was the best run of my life, hands down, and i was dropping in and there was really -- mine, i didn't -- i try not to put to much pressure other than myself. i ride really bad when i kind of start overthinking things. so i tried having this laid back mellow mentality, and before my run i was like, hey. bill, this is the u.s. team coach, i'm like, i might do a 1620 japan. never done before. i nerve even tried it before. he's like, you're in the finals of the olympics's go all-out. i called my brother. might try 1620 japan. jae my brother was like, what? send it, i guess. you're at the olympics. and i dropped in.

i was this is go. coming to the last jump. this is going too well. i have to definitely do the 1620 and i just threw it and halfway through the air, it's coming around perfect, and it ended up coming around just like the 2 l 60 but about 360 more, but felt a little of the same feeling. i put my legs down right when i felt it, and it was unreal. i could not believe riding out of it that i looanded that firs try. >> and thank goodness you did. thank good foz nness for the 16 japan. that move. you nailed it. the first time slope style was an event at the winter games. the same event american shaun white withdrew from calling it intimidating. white says he wants to focus on the halfpipe. what he's known for. shaun white wasn't the only one with concerns. changes were made to that slope style course after a border crashed and broke his collarbone in training. and even more concerns are on the skiing side. the men's downhill course is so

steep, skiers could hit speefds 90 miles an hour. one american calling it unrelenting. and on the women's side, a jump put skiers in the air so long during practice that officials only let three women try before changing the course. one said she felt like she was never going to land. mark with "outside "magazine and former eder in chief of "skier" magazine. joining me from denver good to see you. >> good to see you. thanks for having me. >> so are these courses too dangerous or is that the way the supposed to be? you've got to push the limits? >> well, downhill has always been incredibly dangerous, but they started putting in safety rules about 20 years ago with three layers of fencing and having helicopters on hand. those helicopters are there for a reason, but this course is just new to most of the racers. they've only seen it once before and the snow conditions were

quite different. it was really warm and slow, which can be dangerous as well. right now it's fast, and you're exactly right. they're hitting speeds of 90 miles an hour right from the get-go, and they needed to drop some of the jumps down, because they were pretty much going the distance of a football field as 70 or 80 miles an hour, which is pretty terrifying. >> is it your worry, even though we're now two or three -- three days now into competition that perhaps some of these athletes will get used to it, that given some of the competitions began before the opening ceremony, but that some of these athletes will simply get used to it, or do you forecast that are going to be serious injuries along the way, more so? >> yeah. i don't want to predict any injuries. i think the down hillers will get a good handle on that course, because they do so much souting, and they're used to varying terrain. where it's a little different in the slope style event that you mentioned. they're looking for very similar

conditions from course to course, and that's -- that's where the safety lies is being incredible consistent. so when a jump gets a little flat, and the landing on a jump gets flat and you taking a lot of air and coming down hard, that's where a lot of injuries can occur. so -- when you're getting inverted and doing multiple off-access tricks you kind of need to know where the land is. that's going to be a little tricky for them. >> you mentioned -- >> why shaun white pulled out. >> you mentioned the newest snowboarding event. it's interesting. you've got now two snowboarding events in sochi. slope stipe and parallel slalom. we're hearing on the regular slopes, you, i and everybody else skis on, apparently it's wilting. and that skiing is now on the rise. kind of, you know -- bumping

snowboarding's popularity. how is that? why is that? >> there's also halfpipe ap the olympics. don't effect about halfpipe, where shaun white will compete. >> that's not new, though. >> no, no. not new. >> i was mentioning the debuts snowboarding events. uh-huh. >> yes. snowboarding is in a slight decline right now, and it wasn't really predicted. and there are a lot of reasons people are throwing out for why that is that the economy, you know. the nature of trends, but a theory i proposed in our article recently in "outside" magazine is the sport was mismarketed the essentially. built up as a -- as a kind of winter equivalent of skateboarding, and targeted almost exclusively at teenaged boy, and the user group is matured about h45% are over the

age of 25, snowboarders, and quite a few snowboarding couples. you don't see them in the media, but -- and women haven't really grown with the sport very much. there are about 35% women in the sport, and that knob been flat for a decade. >> wow. hard to believe. >> more recently we've seen -- yeah. we've seen younger users not entering the sport. so it's at a 14-year low for people around the age of 13 and under. >> huh. all right. we'll see if post-olympics they'll be a resurgence. people get out there and start thinking they can do what they're seeing on the tube and also get out and snowboard in bigger numbers. mark, thanks so much. appreciate your time, could get a bump. thank you. getting a little air next hour. but in a different way. we've got news coming up involving the u.s. attorney general, eric holder. set to make a historic announcement tonight on same-sex marriages in the u.s.

we'll tell you what he's likely to say.

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new york yankee slugger alex rod dreeg eriguez gives us his withdrawing this lawsuit against major league baseball, the commissioner and the union. the 162-game suspension will cost rodriguezs 25ds milli $25 salary. we haven't heard back from his speakers. and passengers on bieber's plane interfered with the crew last week. he and his father verbally abused a flight attendant after she asked them to stop smoking pot. the pilots had to put on oxygen

masks to avoid inhaling the marijuana smoke. the 19-year-old faces assault charges in toronto. dui in florida and could be charged with felony vandalism in los angeles. and a golfer is singing the praises are clint eastwood. steve john who runs the pebble choking on food.rnament started- next thing you know, the famous actor was performing the heimlich maneuver. the 83-year-old star lifted the 202 pound man in the air three times. >> i was eating about tizers and actually drinking water, and threw a piece of cheese in that wasn't going to work down the same pipe add the water, and it, i just choked. was choking, and clint could see i was choking and he just grabbed my arm, turned me around and performed heimlich on me and saved my life. >> wow. eastwood says he's never had to perform the heimlich maneuver

but reacted quickly when he saw the panic in john's eyes. hi again, everyone. i'm fredricka whitfield. here are the top stories we're following in the "cnn newsroom." u.s. attorney general eric holder is about to make a major announcement on same-sex marriages. his plan and the impact it will have on millions of americans lives. in sochi, russia, the medal count climbs in the u.s. who's winning and who's on top of the tally board. and model carmen carrere until noticed just for her beauty and poise. she's breaking transgender barriers. we begin with a historic announcement in u.s. attorney general eric holder involving same-sex marriage in america. in a speech tonight hold letter