really, really smart coming up next in the newsroom. don lemon, my colleague in new york. hello, don. >> i'm not as smart as that kid. are you okay? do you need a little watter? >> i got it. but it's not working. >> it happens. doesn't it happen at the worst times. you are reading some serious story and you're about to choke. take care of yourself. good to see you. have a grit couple days off. hello, everyone. i'm don lemon. the top of the hour. thank you for joining us. you are in the cnn newsroom and we're following a big story this hour from the world of sports. a story that will have an impact beyond basketball, beyond the basketball court, the football field or any other field of play. long-time nba player jason collins will make history tonight. that's because collins signed a contract today with the brooklyn nets allowing him to suit up and

play tonight, making him the first and only openly gay athlete in major professional sports. collins is an nba veteran, but hasn't played since last april, shortly before he opened up about his sexualty in an interview with "sports illustrated." let's talk about jason collins and what his signing means on and off the court. so, it's so interesting that i have both ben and terrance back, we were talking about this yesterday, right? then we have l.z. granderson. ben ferguson here along with terrance moore and sports contributor to cnn.com. so, terrance, i'll start with you. what kind of reception will jason collins receive? >> i tell you something, don. right now we should all be getting lottery numbers from jason collins. he is the luckiest person on the face of the earth for a lot of reasons. first of all, the best thing to happen to him was michael sam. takes all the pressure off of him. plus the fact that michael sam is projected to be a starter and you look at jason collins, he is

basically going to be a big player. the other thing, this is the perfect team for him for a lot of reasons. nobody cares about the brooklyn nets. i don't care how much money they spent. they are the other nba team. it's the truth. here's the other thing. when you're ranking all the professional teams in the new york area, this is about the sixth team down the line. but here's the biggest thing of all, he's going to play with guys who have played with him before, veteran guys. paul pierce has played with him before, kevin garnett -- >> but it was new jersey nets. >> exactly right. and his coach, his coach jason kidd, is a guy who played with him in with the new jersey nets when they were going to the nba finals. perfect. >> l.z., i want to read this nba commissioner has already released a statement congratulating jason collins, adam silver says, "jason told us that his goal was to earn another contract with an nba team. today i want to commend him on achieving his goal.

i know everyone in the nba family is excited for him and proud that our league fosters an inclusive and respectful environment." so the league supports him. his coach and some of the nets players and friends of his were making it sound easy. what are we missing, if anything, here? >> well, first of all, we're missing that people do care about the brooklyn nets. i'm going to defer or differ with terrance on that. they're in the playoff hunt. they're in the playoff hunt and if they get in and likely get in the seventh or eighth spot which means they would face the indiana pacers. why is this important to the relationship to jason collins? right now the brooklyn nets hurting at a big man position. jason callsons a big man. this signing is not just about cosmetics but a sound basketball decision. brooklyn nets got lit up by a 36-year-old last night. 26 points on 13 shots. they need someone like jason collins. not just about him being gay and

them making history, they need that type of player. that's very, very important. when you hear all the comments in regards to all the support he's getting, that's great on a social aspect. but we can't forget, this is also a sound basketball decision. anyone who's ever broken any kind of barrier, wants to be mostly known for what they bring to their craft or to their job and not just about their sexual orientation, race or gender. >> you know what, ben, last night you said something, too. you were very adamant about the pr for michael sams. i think everybody was saying they had to handle the pr properly. but, listen, jason collins may have paved the way. michael sams has changed the discussion here. missouri football star apparently headed for the nfl. beginning of his career and he has a lot to prove as a player. jason collins will probably have a lot to prove, as well. because, you know, for reasons of what l.z. says. >> well, i think, look, a ten-day contract. and if he wants this to be bigger than just him being the first openly gay athlete to play in professional sports at this

level, he needs to have a really good showing tonight. i hope he does because, to be honest with you, regardless of your thoughts on gay marriage or anything else, i hope he has a good night tonight. and i hope it becomes normal for you to be whoever you want to be or whoever you need to be or you want to be in front of your fans. so, from that aspect, as a sports fan tonight, i hope he comes out there and he has more than a couple minutes on the floor. i hope he has quite a few rebounds and quite a few points in the box score at the end of the night tonight because that will normalize it so we can go back to what this really is. it's about basketball and sports. let's move on past this. let's turn the page in the booko that other athletes, if they want to do this, they can be open and it not be that big of a deal, which is really what we want to happen. >> you said regardless of how you feel about gay marriage, i don't think jason is saying he wants to get married yet. >> but i'm just saying in general put the politics out of it. >> but it's important. i want to say one quick thing. i don't really think this is

going to be that big of a deal. -- >> i agree. >> to disagree with l.z. a little bit, but no one cares about the nets because you look at new york the knicks right now are third in nba, in overall attendance. they're way up there and the nets are still down the line a little bit. the other thing is, the nets have a losing record in nba even though they're trying to make the plaintiffs. in contrast to michael sam. michael sam is a big deal because he is an up and coming player and a guy who is going to be protected starter. this is a guy who is just going to be a fill-in guy. not the main guy for the brooklyn nets. >> i wonder -- so, l.z., no one said we cannot let the nfl get ahead of us. we're the nba and first openly gay player and i'm just raising the question, l.z. >> well, first, one last chance to differ with terence, they're a new york team and we always

care about new york teams. we talk about the jets when they have losing record and giants when they are losing records. as long as they're in new york, the media hub of the world, people are going to care about them. now, about the court. you know, i don't think jason's going to have a large impact, particularly tonight because of the style of play that the lakers play. come is small ball. and the chances are if you're a big man that can't shoot a jump shot, you're going to have difficulty standing on the court. but going forward in the season, this isn't a big of a deal. this is just a sound basketball move in terms of what he's going to be able to bring which is about eight to ten minutes on the court to relieve kevin garnett while they're playing teams with big men. that is what this is about. >> i feel like i'm doing around the horn now or pard on the interruption. thank you, guys. you guys will be back. hold your thoughts. thank you, appreciate it. have to move on now.

red flag day at the daytona 500, but not because of wrecks on the track. race officials evacuated the stands and delayed the race because of rain and tornado warnings in the area and 150,000 fans had to take cover as severe storms blew through. only 38 laps of the 200-lap race and workers are trying to dry the track right now. no word when the daytona 500 will resume but we'll keep you updated right here on cnn. the mood is somber and uncertain in ukraine capital. thousands gathered in kiev and what is next for the politically divided nation. no clear leader is emerging in ukraine as u.s. officials voice strong support for the overthrow of the nation's president. former soviet republic with strong ties to russia. secretary of state john kerry called russia's foreign minister today and asked russia not to

use force in ukraine. kerry says that the u.s. supports new elections. meantime, a hero for ukraine's opposition made a stunning announcement today that she does not want to be the country's next leader. she rallied crowds last night hours after being released from prison. tried to slip out of the country last night, but was stopped. his current location is unknown. the situation in ukraine may pose big challenges for the fragile u.s. relationship with russia. here's david remnick editor of "new yorker" and expert on russia. >> in russia's eyes, ukraine geostrategically, ethically, historically is one of the same. not one in the same, but linked by blood. and if you look through putin's eyes, specifically, this is his area of interest. not the united states. and even not europe. i mean, this is really complicated for us.

>> that interview was from fareed zakaria gps. our senior international correspondent nick payton walsh in kiev. nick, what is the u.s.'s role in this turbulent, political future for ukraine? >> not have much of a role so far. pretty absent in a lot of the protests. the european union until recently and particularly putting economic pressure on the ukraine. now, as you just heard, john kerry saying, look, stay out of this, russia. let them have their elections. but you said we're going to see some tug of war over this country still in the months aahead. we thought they made the decision back in 2004 and they slipped back, it seems, towards russia because of president yanukovych who is out of a job and what is their big statement going to be? we haven't heard much of one

just yet. we have heard the u.s. national security adviser susan rice on television today saying, look, it would be a grave mistake for russia to get involved in this. clearly the west putting out the message saying, look, moscow, back off. they made their decision, perhaps using the back end of the sochi games in russia. a big showcase for vladimir putin's new russia and trying to put that kind of pressure on the kremlin. but a lot of uncertainties ahead here. one half of the country wants to head west and the other is economically tied to the east. don? >> so, nick, you're saying russia, russia, russia. how does this affect u.s., the u.s. relationship with russia? >> the u.s. relationship with russia after the decision by barack obama not to attend sochi games and send a lot of openly gay athletes as part of the u.s. delegation criticism on the u.s.

posture, sorry the russian posture on gay rights. the u.s. doesn't really have much of a say here, unless throw in money to bolster the economy. like to see, of course, the ukraine head west and a lot of noise by george bush back in 2004 over the first evolution here to try to make that happen. but, america's influence here is less in many ways because it's a european fight and so many other problems that are pretty much broken to almost unhealable damage. the u.s./russian relation share that this is just something else they're going to have to try to talk about but probably fail to. >> nick paton walsh, thank you. a deadly gas leaking into the air. one person is dead and more than two dozen were rushed to the hospital. we've got the details on what caused this deadly situation. plus, things aren't always what they seem when it comes to what is in your food. what we're going to show you what those "natural flavors" really are. and some of it is just plain disgusting.

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rescue crews evacuated a building at a resort hotel in maine after some guests were overcome by carbon monoxide. crews say they tweeted 20 people at the inn season resort in algoa. the fire chief says co readings in the basement were nearly ten times more than normal levels. on long island a restaurant manager was killed and more than a dozen others made sick by carbon monoxide when it poured into a mall restaurant. several other businesses were evacuated that time at the mall last night. and police and emergency crews rushed to the scene. our alexandra field has more from that moul now. >> reporter: a sign posted on the door of this legal sea foods and limited to the basement of the restaurant where it appears that the deadly leak started.

the investigation this morning by homicide and arson detectives focuses on heating equipment. the source of deadly carbon monoxide poisoning. >> it is scary that we were just sitting there. >> reporter: they were at the cheesecake factory at the walt whitman mall in huntington, new york, when the wait staff told the entire restaurant to get out. >> somebody came over, i think it was one of the waitresses. she said that you had to leave. >> reporter: police and emergency responders were called to the mall after a report that a woman had fallen and hit her head in the basement of legal sea foods. when authorities arrived and began investigating, they themselves reported feeling nauseated and dizzy, symptoms of carbon monoxide exposure. restaurants in the area immediately evacuated. >> we had to leave because i didn't want to blow up or anything like that. i didn't know how dangerous it was and they just told us to stay outside.

>> reporter: emergency crews found legal sea foods manager, 55-year-old steven nelson unconscious in the basement. he was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. more than two dozen other victims including seven first responders were also sickened by the gas and had to be taken to area hospitals with nonlife-threatening symptoms. >> now, i think that's scary that we were in the same building. >> reporter: legal sea foods speaking out using their twitter feed saying they are devastated by the news of the leak and offering condolences on the loss of their general manager here steven nelson. alexandra field, cnn. >> all right, alexandra, thank you very much. 26 people who were treated have been released. the new york city mayor wants to crack down on speeders zooming through the streets. he may want to use himself as an example of what not to do. ris motorcade was seen speeding and running stop signs. we'll talk about that next.

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susan rice showed up on sunday morning talk show, not a big deal normally except she hasn't been on a sunday show since her infamouser appearance on five morning shows in 2012. that's when she talked about the benghazi embassy attacks and her remarks have been debated ever since. let's talk about susan rice past

and present. l.z. granderson, ben ferguson are back with me now. i want to show you how susan rice explained what she said back in 2012 and then take a look at how senator john mccain reacted this morning on a different sunday show when he was told about her remarks. >> the information i provided, which i explained to you was what we had at the moment. it could change. i commented that this was based on what we knew on that morning was provided to me and my colleagues and, indeed, to congress by the intelligence community. and that's been well validated in many different ways since. and that information turned out in some respects not to be 100% correct. but the notion that somehow i or anybody else in the administration misled the american people is patently false. >> i'm almost speechless and the information was totally

misleading and totally false and for susan rice to say such a thing, it's a little embarrassing, to tell you the truth. >> so, susan rice has no regrets but john mccain was having trouble controlling his laughter when told what she said. l.z., did susan rice help or hurt her case or the administration's case towards putting the benghazi controversy to rest once and for all? >> the benghazi controversy won't actually go to bed until hillary clinton says she's not running for office. this is what this is about. this is making sure this storyline continues to get played because hillary clinton, as we all know secretary of state at the time. if you need to have her campaign to keep her off balance. so, as long as she's in the picture, benghazi would be in this picture. this is no longer about president obama's administration as far as the gop is concerned. this is about hillary clinton. they're already looking forward to 2016 and why we continue to talk about this when all the

evidence has already supported what susan rice just said, which is what she said at the time was the information she had. no active cover up, misinformation. you can point the finger and say a level of incompetence. but to say that someone went out to the way to purposely hide something has proven to be false. >> ben, he does make a point because conservative news outlets and conservative lawmakers they seem to look like they talk about benghazi some, 24/7. i mean, it's been investigated. do some conservatives have an unhealthy conception with this issue? >> if you think having an obsession with four americans that died including an ambassador on the anniversary of 9/11 and you claim because of spontaneous protests. but the benghazi report that came out by a bipartisan commission says what you're claiming is flat out wrong. they say it was not because of spontaneous protesters. that is the report that democrats agreed to. they also said that that was a

bad line from the white house and that that was never what the white house was told on the anniversary of 9/11. so, you have four people that died. you have an ambassador that died and you had an issue with a cover up afterwards, a fake story that never, ever happened. now, you can say republicans are obsessed, but when you have americans who died on serving the anniversary of 9/11 and a story saying the reason it happened is because of a youtube video that had nothing to do with it. i don't think that's being obsessed, that's telling the truth. if susan rice was telling the truth, the white house would put her ad on tv a long time ago. they purposely didn't because they knew she had no credibility and that's why they benched her. >> l.z.? >> well, first of all, i think the reporters he's referring to the information ultimately turned out to be false, not the timeline that susan rice was talking about, but the actual information, right, the information was false but not the timeline and that's the difference.

the difference is susan rice was on television. when susan rice was on -- >> hold on, don, i have to make sure we make this clear. the report is not backing what l.z. said. they were saying that there was never a report coming out of benghazi, coming out from the annex that said there was spontaneous protest. that is a made up story -- >> where did she say she got her information from? >> it never came. >> okay. >> where did she say she got her information from? >> if lawmakers aren't going to come to some sort of consensus we're not going to come to a consensus here. let's move on, i want to talk about this. new york city mayor is off to a rough start. higher taxes and bigger government. since then, it seems like one misstep after the other speeding through town, even jaywalking after unveiling a traffic crackdown and refusing to cancel schools during a blizzard and a

decision not to clear snow from the wealthiest part of the city. it seems a do as i say not as i do when i'm mayor of new york city. what is going on here, l.z.? >> it's a new guy. that's what's going on. it's a new person who is in a charge of a very, very large economy who has some fantastic ideas, who took advantage of the displeasure that people had for bloomberg and road that into this office and now he's got growing pains. i don't necessarily think anything he's done at this point has been so egregious. hypocritical? yeah. but that's because he hasn't figured out yet that everybody is watching him and that he's got to be a lot more careful. >> even if you think of "new york times" and that's sort of the perception there. and new york's business. one of the reporter said bill de blasio's press strategy seems to go out of his way not even two

months into his terms to alienate those covering him. and then one reporter said, did you see how fast he dashed out of the blue room? he seems to be alienating the people who may even be on his side. just sort of odd what is happening with that administration. >> two things. freshman incompetency here from the new guy. i totally agree with l.z. on that one. it is a little ironic that this guy beat danger, remember that guy, anthony weiner i mean if your best guy you've got and at some point he was actually leading the now mayor of new york you kind of get what you pay for here, am i wrong? you had a guy that at some point people actually thought was better qualified with all of thhis baggage than this guy. now i'm kind of laughing because i'm like, what did you think was going to happen here? yeah, freshman mistakes also, i mean, when you run candidates like this, there's a certain

part of me that just says, well, it's kind of what you should expect, you know? >> thank you, guys. appreciate it. >> thanks. >> thank you. when you see phrases like natural flavors you think that's a good thing, right? well, maybe if you like things like beetles and i can't even believe i'm going to say this, fish bladders in your food. details right after this break. peace of mind is important when you're running a successful business. so we provide it services you can rely on. with centurylink as your trusted it partner, you'll experience reliable uptime for the network and services you depend on. multi-layered security solutions keep your information safe, and secure. and responsive dedicated support meets your needs, and eases your mind. centurylink. your link to what's next.

all right. the nation's governors have taken their agendas to washington and taking minimum wage, marijuana and and will join the president and the first lady for dinner at the white house in just a few hours. that's where we find our athena jones. so, what will the president's message be to the governors? >> hi, don, this is a bipartisan group. the president met separately with the governor's democratic association. i wouldn't expect pointed

political language tonight in the remarkz in the past couple hours. the president has given more of a toast than a speech. his remarks have been brief and celebratory and congradlatory. talked about finding unifying messages. so, whether or not we're going to hear from him about some of his big agenda items, raise in minimum wage, for instance, economic inequality, we'll have to wait and see. i wouldn't expect any real red meat in these remarks tonight, don. >> so, chris christie said, i'm going to skip tonight's dinner. why is that? >> well, a governor's aide told cnn that chris christie is going to be going back to new jersey to secelebrate his daughter 18t birthday tonight. that's why he's not going it be ethere. they also said leaving early allows the governor time to prepare for his annual budget address. the speech he's going to be giving on tuesday. two reasons why governor christie is not going to be here tonight, according to his aide.

>> thank you very much, athena jones at the white house. i have a question for you, do you like most americans try to read the ingredients on the back of the food packages to ensure that you're eating healthy and smart with words like natural flavors. you would think that that is a good thing, right? well, not necessarily. do you know stuff like wood pulp, fish bladders and crushed up beetles end up in some of our favorite foods. joining me now to talk about this and hopefully not to gross you out too much is creator of the foodbabe.com. bonnie. so, listen, i'm going to play devil's advocate here because i come from louisiana and people eat tripe and they eat all kind of things. you know, they eat mountain oysters, if you know what that is. so, why is it necessarily disgusting? >> well, these are different tricks the food industry plays on us to make money. and to really fool us into buying their products and eating them. for example, the first ingredient that i want to talk

about is natural flavor. now, this could be anything under the sun. it could be anything natural, including a beaver's anal gland. when you see natural flavor on the package, i don't think, it's not the first thing that comes to mind. this is actually something that is manufactured in laboratory. yes, they can use anything from nature, but they can take a stone and make it taste like a strawberry after chemical man manipulation. they also can create a taste that is the best one millionth part of the taste and add it to faked processed food to make it taste good and, therefore, creates an addictive behavior to food that really isn't that healthy for you. >> why would they use an anal gland of a beaver? is there something about a beevor's anal gland that makes it -- okay. do you know the answer to that question? >> you know, i do, actually. i don't know who discovered this, but it was somewhere in europe that they first figured this out.

but it tastes like vanilla or raspberry. >> okay. so -- >> are you okay, don? >> this is a conversation i never, ever thought i'd be having on television. okay, so, let's talk about silly putty. please tell me about food companies they don't really use this, really, in some of their favorite treats. >> yeah, one of the main ingredients in silly putty is an anti-foams agent. american companies use here in this country like mcdonald's in their french fries and in diet coach fountain drinks, but not in other countries. that's because this ingredient is very controversial. and the fda actually allows it in our food to be preserved with even formaldehyde. a very toxic substance. this is something very concerning when you see this ingredient on the label. >> okay.

wood pulp is another big ingredient in a lot of our foods. tell us more about that, vani. >> celulose and a lot of manufacturers use the wood variety versus the plant variety that comes naturally like with apples and fruits and vegetables and things like that to add fake fiber to food and they also use it as anti-caking agent in shredded cheese. one thing that i always do is i scleed my own cheese to avoid wood pulp and i also make sure that i'm eating foods already naturally full of fiber, not with fake wood. >> a certain insect that it used to give foods some color. dare i ask which insect? in certain places bees and wasps are delicacies. what insects are we talking about here for color. >> this is called the beetle and the pulverized bodies of these

beetles are used to make red food coloring and something that could cause an allergic reaction and it's actually used in a lot of very common products like yogurts and candies and things. so, food manufacturers would rather use beetles than real berries. for instance to make your yogurt pink. >> okay. fish bladders used in some beverages. what is this all about? >> that's right. well, st. paddy's day is coming up and right around the corner and a lot of people reaching for a guinness. if you're vegetarian or vegan, you don't want to do it. beer manufacturers use this to make the clarifying process faster. normally beer would clarify over time, but this is, again, another way for food manufacturers to produce food faster and cheaper for themselves. >> vani, thanks for grossing everybody out today. i saw your tweet, you said, i

hope i don't gross everybody on cnn. i think you did. mission accomplished. thank you, see you next time. >> thank you so much. after two weeks of winter olympics in sochi, russia, over and despite all the worries over a potential terrorist attack, nothing happened. we're going to look at how the security plans worked out. ♪ [ chicken caws ] [ male announcer ] when your favorite food starts a fight, fight back fast with tums. heartburn relief that neutralizes acid on contact and goes to work in seconds. ♪ tum, tum tum tum tums! [ male announcer ] this man has an accomplished research and analytical group at his disposal. ♪ but even more impressive is how he puts it to work for his clients. ♪ morning. morning. thanks for meeting so early. oh, it's not a big deal at all. come on in. [ male announcer ] it's how edward jones

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for russia to get back on the world stage and show its stuff. here are some images from today's closing ceremony. fireworks lighting up the horizon with the black sea resort. quite a dramatic display, isn't it? as for the medal count, russia came out on top with 33 medals in all. russia nearly doubled its medal count in the final days of the games. u.s. finished second with 28 medals. followed by norway with 26, canada 25. just want to linger on those pictures a little bit longer, they're so beautiful. the world watched as the winter olympics took place under threat of attacks from extremists. so, for some perspective, i want to bring in our national security analyst bob now. first, let's talk about russia. tens of thousands of security officers in the ring of steel, so to speak, around sochi to protect athletes and fans. how did that work? >> well, don, it wasn't just around sochi, it was all over russia. i heard from a security officer, they had somebody behind every

tree of any suspicious person. they were taking dna swabs, they were running people in, there were constant raids. they basically deployed the army to make sure nothing happened. russian lockdown nothing like it. >> yeah. can we move now to the ukraine. what's happening there is incredible what's happening there with thousands of protesters and people killed there. the president leaving the capital, russian ukraine have a long history of being linked in many ways. how do you see russia's role in ukraine going forward? >> they won the olympics, but they lost the ukraine. they're not going to let this go easily, i guarantee it. not give up the port cities and the black sea and the eastern half of the ukraine and i think putin is going to come back hard and strong to attempt to reverse this. >> so, what does that mean? what does that mean for ukraine? what does that mean for russia and what does it mean for the united states? >> you know, could we get to a partition? people are talking about it. and putin will support

partition, if he has to, but also the question of gas exports that come out of russia through the ukraine. he's perfectly capable of cutting those gas exports off to europe and can cause major problems. >> yeah. doesn't seem like the u.s. has much of a role to play here or really as much leverage in this. it's really about russia, isn't it? >> it's not the ukrainians that don't want to be part of russia. they're going to fight hard and they're not going to give up easily and not a whole lot we can do. it's not a battle we chose, but the ukrainians will fight on. >> yeah. but there's a part of ukraine that does support russia and a good part of it and, so, my question is, does that matter and does the u.n. matter at all here or is this really just about does russia have all the power here? >> well, russia's got an economic power and they'll use it against the ukraine. if the eu wants to step in and support the ukraine. it's a very poor state. it might work.

but, again, the russians will not abandon that russian population. less than 20% and the eastern part of the country in the south, they won't give them up. you'll see the kbg in there turning this version, political interference. putin, i guarantee will not let this go easily. >> all right, bob baer, thank you, sir, appreciate your perspective. there are definitely some highs and certainly some lows for team usa in sochi. we'll look at the best and worst moments at the winter games. you get 4 lines on at&t's network... including unlimited talk... unlimited text... and 10 gigs of data to share. 10 gigs? 10 gigs. all for $160 dollars a month. you know, i think our family really needed this. it's really gonna bring us closer together. yep. yep. yep. yep. yep. [ family ] yep. [ male announcer ] introducing our best-ever family pricing. for a family of 4, that's 10 gigs of data with unlimited talk and text for 160 dollars a month. only from at&t.

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from the olympics to daytona to augusta national, we have got it all this weekend. let's bring back terrence moore, sports contributor to cnn.com and a columnist for mlb.com. i'm telling you, this is the sports channel today. the winter olympics are done, terrence. after all the talk about terrorism and lack of snow and bad hotels, it seems, you know, it came off okay. i want to get your best and worst moments for the u.s. give us your best moments for the american olympians. >> i mean, that's a no brainer. it's got to be team usa beating the russians in hockey. i tell you, don, even before mr. gorbachev tore down that wall, what was it, 25 years ago? whenever team usa played russia in anything, it's always been like glinda the good witch

against darth vader, okay. for us to beat them on their home ice in their olympics? this was huge. remember, before the olympics and during the olympics the russians let it be known the only thing they cared about was winning a gold medal in hockey. that didn't happen. this was team usa's version, at least in hockey, of winning a gold medal. we saw how emotionally spent they were afterwards which is why team usa did not medal the rest of the way. >> okay. worst moments, then, for americans. >> clearly this ridiculous suit controversy with the speed skaters. all right? until they probably ran a relay a couple days ago, team usa was on the verge of getting shut out in speed skating medalwise for the first time since forever. the thing that's so just bad about this, they were blaming it on the new uniforms. new suits, rather. at least some of them were. two bad things about this. number one, they did not wear the suits for the first time until they came to the olympics. and the second thing is, midway

through the olympics, they switch out of these suits, the new ones. went to the old ones. and they were still lousy. so it wasn't the suits. it was the skaters. >> the suits are kind of cool looking. they kind of look like, you know, killer whales. that is pretty cool. can we talk about nascar today? there was some breaking news. daytona 500 delayed because of bad weather. austin dylan, an up and comer, drives the number 3 car. same number driven be i the great dale earnhardt. what's wrong with someone new driving the number 3? >> this is disgusting. at least from the nascar standpoint. it's sacreligious. richard childress used to drive the number 3 car back in 1970s. childress is also the guy that

put ernrardt in the number 3 car. here's the problem with that. the number 3 car didn't become famous because of richard chi childress. it came famous because of dale earnhardt sr. the good news here is, at least they didn't paint the car black which is what the signature car for dale sr. >> it looks like -- it looks like president eisenhower may have gotten his wish many years after his death. the golf tournament, masters, is less than two months away. i usually go. i don't live in georgia anymore so i'm going to miss it. this year the 17th hole will be missing from the famous eisenhower tree which former president eisenhower kept trying to have cut down because his wayward drives kept hitting that tree. last week, you know, that ice storm hit augusta really hard. the eisenhower tree is history. why is this a big deal? >> well, i've covered several

masters. i've even played augusta national, thank you very much. and i want to tell you this. when you're at augusta national, it's a magical place because of things. things such as grace greek. amen corner. magnolia drive. magnolia lane, i should say. that tree is very special. for those who aren't golfers out there, this is very much similar to, say, a tornado tearing down the empire state building. >> well, don't forget about that shredded barbecue sandwich? >> that's exactly right. >> that cheese thing. what's that cheese thing? i forget what it is. >> cheese sandwich. >> pimento cheese sandwich. >> it's cheap, too. kind of nasty as far as i'm concerned. but it's cheap. >> what? >> i didn't care for it. >> that's your last appearance on this show. that's my favorite sandwich. >> they can replace the eisenhower tree with the obama tree. think that would happen at augusta national? i'm just saying. >> it's augusta, okay?

don't get ahead of yourself, terence. see you in about ten minutes. a pilot got a big surprise during a recent flight. an extra passenger ended up on his plane. but he didn't use a door to board. we got the video, next. ghs ] i've got a big date, but my sinuses are acting up. it's time for advil cold and sinus. [ male announcer ] truth is that won't relieve all your symptoms. new alka seltzer plus-d relieves more symptoms than any other behind the counter liquid gel. oh what a relief it is. than any other behind the counter liquid gel. pcentury link provides reliable yit services like multi-layered security solution to keep your information safe & secure. century link. your link with what's next.

the last member of the vonn trap family singers has died. maria vonn trap was 99 years old. apparently died in her sleep. they fled nazi occupied austria and moved to vermont. they were made famous in the musical "sound of music." they still operate a ski lodge in vermont. in the sky over south florida a big surprise for the pilot of a small plane. i want you to watch this. do you see that pilot, rob webber was flying into ft. myers

when a bird came crashing through the windshield of his plane. a camera caught the action. here it comes right there. as it happened with feathers and pieces of plastic and electronics flying into his face. webber was able to keep his cool and suffered only a minor cut to his head. he landed the plane without any he landed the plane without any troubles. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com you're in the "cnn newsroom." i'm don lemon. we're going to fast forward to the week ahead for you. we're going to take a look at all of the stories you'll be talking about and hearing about this coming week. we'll begin with five questions for the week ahead. question one, will arizona governor jan brewer sign or veto the anti--gay bill on her desk. arizona's legislature passed the bill thursday allowing business owners as long as they assert their religious beliefs to deny service to gay and lesbian customers. critics say it uses religion as an excuse to discriminate and