tv CNN Newsroom CNN February 17, 2015 8:00am-9:01am PST
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way back when. okay. before we go live look at new orleans. it's one last chance to live it up before lent. mardi gras or fat tuesday. a day of overindulgence in leadup to easter. parties in new orleans kicked things off at 8:00 a.m. this morning. parties will last all day and all afternoon and all night and into the next morning. thank you so much for joining me. i'm carol costello. another hour of "newsroom" ahead. right now, taking on terror. representatives from more than 60 countries are starting to gather in washington. their objective is to beat back the terror threat known as isis that's spreading around the world and spreading very fast. we have details. a state of emergency in west virginia today after a train
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carrying crude oil jumps the track. just look at that. now fears of contamination as oil leaks into a nearby river. what this means for the water supply. and dangerous and deadly cold continues to grip most of the u.s. as the south gets hit with more snow and ice. all you can say is it is no good. hello. thank you for joining me. john berman is off today. new this morning, the president's immigration plans under fire. a federal judge in south texas blocked the president's executive action a day before some measures were set to take effect. the block may be temporary. the obama administration is planning its next move as we speak. this is a victory for the 26 states that filed the lawsuit. they're in the yellow on the map there. that is a majority of the states in the country essentially taking the president to court. the supreme court reporter is
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here with more on this. this has a lot of people's attention obviously. not just politics of it but really the effect of the policy that's now been held up. what is the impact of this specific ruling right now? >> so 26 states led by texas brought this challenge against the administration's actions. that was the controversial program announced last november that eased deportation threats for these eligible immigrants. the judge temporarily shut down the program pending trial. he blocked it nationwide. >> what exactly did the judge say is wrong here? >> this wasn't a constitutional ruling. he said two things. first of all, he said that texas has the standing. they are allowed to bring the case. that was a big question. a lot of immigration experts said that texas wouldn't be able to prove that it had been
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harmed. the second thing that the judge said is that administration violated procedures. they had to give notice and they didn't do that in the proper way. you remember the administration argued that it had broad discretional authority. >> so of course then the big question, what's next? obama administration will be appealing. what does that mean? >> for now the obama administration said this morning that they are going to appeal. so it would probably go to the fifth circuit court of appeals and maybe to the supreme court but for now these immigration groups they can't go forward and apply for the program. it's temporary blocked pending trial. >> temporary block. nowhere near over and decided. great to see you. thanks so much. >> thank you. also this a jewish radio program based in copenhagen is canceling its daily broadcast for security reasons. the host told local media that danish security and intelligence
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service warned that holding the broadcast from its studio would be too dangerous. the program plans to be back on once the situation is safe. when's that? the move comes after two policemen and a volunteer civilian guard were shot outside copenhagen's central synagogue. in a few hours, the white house is taking on terror from a different angle. foreign leaders from more than 60 countries will be gathering in washington where president obama is hosting a three-day summit on how to counter violent extremism at home and abroad. you will remember after the attack in paris, the president faced criticism for what many perceived to be a tone deaf response from administration following that attack. michelle kosinski is joining us with much more. a lot of folks coming in for this. three days the white house is dedicating to this. what does the white house expect to accomplish? >> reporter: that's really the question. this was planned for months ago and then it was delayed for
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logistical reasons. they are making a big deal out of this. the skepticism out there is what could it really accomplish? it's just talking about counter violent extremism but the white house wants it to be practical and useful. when you look at it from that perspective, sharing information among national communities, international groups looking at programs that are in effect and seeing what works and doesn't work that cannot hurt. time and time again we heard the white house talk about how getting at the violent ideology is really going to be a key to ultimately defeating isis and having that last long-term. now, the timing is also interesting. yesterday we saw a new cnn/orc poll come out at a time when americans are split according to new numbers on whether they trust president obama as commander in chief. you look at these numbers. 57% disapprove of how the war against isis is going. we saw 58% feel that it is going badly.
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and even among democrats nearly half are not happy with that. another interesting thing to come out of this poll the vast majority nearly 80% of respondents feel that congress should be voting on what the fight against isis will look like in the future. that is what's going to happen. the president presented his plan to congress. they still need to tackle it. i think the most important point to come out of that poll which is related to that is that as you see this growing disapproval of how the president is handling terrorism and foreign affairs in general, you're seeing more americans now open to using ground troops against isis if they had that chance. the president is staunchly opposed to doing that but what he presented to congress leaves some leeway. that will be the debate once congress does tackle this. >> the changing and shifting american mood toward this has been stark. you threw up that poll about who was in favor or opposed.
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the split on favor and being opposed to sending ground troops in. in november it was much more toward angle of being opposed to that. 55% opposed in november versus 43% in support and now you can see it's very much near split in terms of u.s. sending ground troops to fight isis. michelle thank you for that. also new developments in the deadly terror attacks in denmark we want to tell you about. the gunman swore his allegiance to isis on what's apparently his facebook page. it was posted just before the weekend shooting spree began. senior international correspondent nic robertson is in copenhagen for us. how seriously are investigators taking this facebook post? >> reporter: they're taking it seriously. the police have said in advance of our discovery of this and other people's discovery of this they believe there was a possibility he could have been radicalized by isis propaganda online. this is something the police have been looking at already.
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what we heard from danish intelligence services today is they were aware of him but they didn't think he was about to commit an attack. why were they aware of him? the prison services here alerted the intelligence services that while he was in prison and he was released from prison just two weeks before the attack while he was in prison his character seemed to change. we heard from people who knew him prior to being in jail when he was a gang member in jail for a violent stabbing crime. while he had been a gang member thrown out of that gang and there was a sense he was gravitated toward radical islam. this is going to be something that the police here are going to be looking at and from that the network of people he might have been connected with here because that is the main thing for the police at the moment. are there any other associates who are out there perhaps planning other attacks, kate. >> that's clearly where the focus of the investigation is from here.
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nic, thank you so much. looking to ukraine, ukraine says five more ukrainian soldiers have been killed in just the past 24 hours. this comes three days into a cease-fire apparently a cease-fire between ukrainian forces and pro-russian separatists in eastern ukraine. a meeting between ukrainian officials, pro-russian separatists and european officials from the shaky cease-fire was canceled after one of the parties failed to show up. the u.s. has embedded spy spy ware overseas. a russian cybersecurity firm claims the spyware was placed by a group called the equation group thought to be a veiled reference to the national security agency. sounds like a spy novel. new secretary of defense ash carter reported to work earlier
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this morning at the pentagon despite snowy conditions in the washington area. the senate confirmed carter last week. he's the fourth secretary of defense to serve during the obama administration. he succeeds chuck hagel as you well know. vice president biden swore carter in just a few moments ago. state of emergency in west virginia. thousands at risk of losing water service today after a train derails and explodes spilling crude oil. also coming up cars out of control as ice blankets the south and dumps even more snow up north. what is next? you just got a big bump in miles. so this is a great opportunity for an upgrade. sound good? great. because you're not you you're a whole airline... and it's not a ticket you're upgrading it's your entire operations, from domestic to international... which means you need help from a whole team of advisors. from workforce strategies to tech solutions and a thousand other things. so you call pwc.
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this morning more than 100 million americans in the midwest, south and east are dealing with snow ice and plummeting temperatures or a combination of all three. and more is on the way. from middle tennessee into north carolina ice has been the biggest culprit turning roadways into ice rinks. states of emergency put in place in kentucky tennessee, north carolina and virginia and some 200,000 people in the south are without power right now. back in boston it seems a lot like groundhog day yet again. more snow expected in the city today and again later this week. joining us now, boston mayor marty walsh. mayor, it's great to hear from you. unfortunately i feel like we have to give you a new title as chief snow correspondent because you've been dealing with this so much. how is the city -- >> i was laughing when you called this groundhog day. it's actually snowing right now. >> is it snow or frozen tears? i don't know what it is at this
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point. how is the city handling this round of it? >> you know we're back at removal phase right now. we're getting snow today, which is going to be a dusting, i hope. we're in removal phase just every time we get these piles in our streets and trying to widen streets, once we finally make some major headway, we get hit with another storm and so we're going to continue at it. >> absolutely. that's all you can do at this point. when you think of how many times the city has been hit and really just socked in despite all of your best efforts, you can't fight as much snow as you're getting. people in your city are not only stir crazy but they need to get back to work and back on the roads. what's the status of public transportation in the city? >> that's one of our problems we've had in this storm. the storms that it's really affected our public transportation system. there's a lot of finger pointing going on right now with that. i just think a lot of it comes down to just the mere volume of
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snow and ice that we've received over the last 3 1/2 weeks in the city of boston and that doesn't help us. we're trying to clear roads and get people back to work. as the snow keeps coming it's crippling our transportation system particularly outside. we have buses running in the city today and our trains are -- the underground portion of our trains are working but not working at outside stations because it's affecting the power source the third rail to the trains. it really is -- i don't want to say it's crippling our city but it's doing damage to individuals and their ability to get to work and businesses and their ability to be successful. >> absolutely. at this point, how many days if you can move it into weeks do you think this city has been effectively shut down? >> i think as far as days eight solid days where we've been shut down as a city during work days. but for the most part i mean
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we haven't had a complete workweek here in boston since middle of january and that's affecting a lot of different business retailers and people trying to get to work and affecting businesses. our students lost eight days of school this year. >> what is the decision there? how will you make that up? >> we are taking holidays and we'll be doing school on evacuation day in march and then also looking at if we need to take more days away. this week we have february school vacation week so we haven't had to cancel school this week which is good. if we don't have to cancel anymore school days we'll be okay. if we have to cancel more we'll look at april vacation and saturday school and things like that. >> what are you prepping for? you could get another round of it looking into the weekend. what are you guys looking at? >> right now we're in full
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removal phase because if we do get more snow we have to make room for more snow to come. last weekend we were able to do a lot of removal of snow in the city which made for the new snow that came over the weekend. we're kind of in that phase. not really. i don't think public works are looking at the next storm. they're saying how do we get snow off the ground today and tomorrow. a parking ban in effect for boston. we'll lift that at some point over the next day or so. parking ban allows us to be able to widen main arteries and really it's about public safety and making sure streets are clear for public safety and then we double our efforts into the neighborhoods after that. to remove piles from corners and try to make the streets as passable as possible and safe as possible for people. >> all right. the snow needs to leave boston alone. mayor, i don't know what you did, but you need to change your mojo on the snow front. >> i'm changing ties up and suits up. doing everything we can. >> you need a rally cap next.
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>> ever since we won the super bowl we've been buried with snow. >> it means something. it's not a coincidence, mayor. just kidding. mayor marty walsh. thank you so much. good luck. from ice to fire a massive train derailment to tell you about leads to an explosion that is still smoldering at this hour. there are health concerns for the public epa is on the scene and an evacuation order is in effect. we'll have that. ♪♪ there's confidence. then there's trusting your vehicle maintenance to ford service confidence. our expertise, technology, and high quality parts mean your peace of mind. now you can get the works, a multi-point inspection with a synthetic blend oil change tire rotation, brake inspection and more. $29.95 or less.
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derailment and multiple explosions. the train was carrying crude oil when it veered off the tracks in fayette county into a river. several rail cars exploded sending huge plumes of smoke and fire into the air. look at these pictures. this is in west virginia. hundreds of people can't go home yet with an evacuation order still in effect. one house caught fire. amazingly though, only one person injured that we're aware of. there are concerns right now about the town's drinking water that it could have been contaminated. let's get to rene marsh joining from us washington. they are testing the water. what are you hearing? >> reporter: we know that environmental teams are on the scene and they say at this point it does not look like oil made it into the water supply. of course we are awaiting results from samples to verify that. they took test samples last night. they also took samples from the
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drinking supply today. so again, the test samples will verify that. it's unclear when we will get those results. there was roughly -- i think it was about 12 inches of snow in west virginia. that is slowing down the transport of the samples to the lab. the concern is specifically for the town of montgomery. we know that the water supply there really focusing on that to make sure it was not contaminated. here's good news. according to people on the ground they believe the snow and ice on the river actually helped slow down the oil from flowing downstream and into the water supply kate. >> what else do we know? when you look at these massive explosions have they learned anything about what caused the train to derail? was it the weather or the snow? >> reporter: we don't know at this point. federal investigators are on their way to the scene. we do know that the fire is
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still burning. we're almost 24 hours after this incident and we know that firefighters are still dealing with trying to get the flames out here because they were just so intense. so we know that once the scene is secure once the fire is out, then investigators will be able to move in and start that process. they'll look at the tracks. they'll obviously want to get the event recorders from the train to try to piece this all together but at this point still a mystery what caused this derailment. >> it sure is a mystery. snow and ice, that's not unusual to parts of west virginia. it's also very typical route as i understand it for this type of a train to be traveling through with crude oil so something different had to happen in this case and that's obviously a big question right? >> reporter: right. they'll want to know what caused this. unfortunately this sort of thing has happened before. this isn't an isolated incident.
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what i mean is these tankers carrying crude oil traveling through these communities, we have unfortunately seen this happen in the past and in other past incidents it's been a deadly situation. of course this really highlights the safety issue as it relates to transporting this highly explosive crude oil within these tankers. many as we know skin of the tanker very thin very easy to rupture. there's that safety concern as well. >> that's a huge question once this investigation wraps up as to what caused this disaster this time around. rene marsh, thank you so much. coming up we'll continue to talk about this massive explosion and danger that it brings with it and we'll get perspective from on the ground in west virginia on what happened with this dangerous derailment. we'll be right back.
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right now hundreds of people in west virginia can't go home after yesterday's massive train derailment and explosions that followed. residents are told there not to drink the water. the train, with more than 100 cars was hauling crude oil. 27 of those cars derailed. joining us now for more on this on the phone is a spokesman for the west virginia state police. lieutenant thank you for jumping on the phone with us.
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what's happening out there right now? >> right now we're just continuing to provide a presence out there while the tanker cars are burning and we hope that they burn down rather quickly so they can get in and start the cleanup process. >> so right now even though it's almost 24 hours out, it's still too hot that they haven't been able to start looking into it? >> the federal investigators that come in will look at what caused the derailment but there were 26 tanker cars that derailed near armstrong creek with crude oil and 19 of those caught fire. several are still burning at this time. csx was able to get in and detach some of the other cars and pull them away from the scene there. >> is there any risk at this point of further explosions? we're showing our viewers how huge these explosions were
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overnight. is that still a risk? >> you know it's hard to say. that's why we have the area still evacuated. not allowing anyone in there other than those that need to be in there and controlling the scene. >> what's the expectation at this point of when residents are going to be able to head back in? i think i saw that one home was destroyed. amazingly only one person injured. when will folks get back in do you think? >> it's hard to say. we hope that fire will extinguish itself this afternoon sometime. it's just hard to say at this point. you are right. there was one home that was completely destroyed and a few others that were damaged that we're blessed at this point there were no major injuries or even deaths. there was one person who was treated for smoke inhalation and released from the hospital. >> lieutenant this does remind me when you talk about residents not able to drink the water
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right now as epa will be doing testing. this reminds me last year i believe, there was another issue in west virginia. a chemical leak that contaminated water and folks couldn't drink the water for many days. is this the same area? >> no. this is outside of charleston a little bit. the river does run into the same water supply. our national guard is there on the scene and they've been conducting testing and so far the testing has been pretty good. so at this point it doesn't seem like it's that significant of event as it was before with the drinking water. >> that's going to be definite good news for residents when they are able to get back in. what do you think attributes to that? those cars they started leaking oil and that river was right
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there. >> yes, the possibility was there for that to happen but fortunately it appears that some of it got in a creek but hasn't hit the river and the initial reports were wrong about a tanker going into a river and pumps were shut off there in montgomery so it seems that they have it under control and national guard and other agencies there are doing a fantastic job. >> lieutenant do you think weather could have played a part in this derailment? >> you know, it's hard to say. we did get a significant amount of snowfall across the state. 6 to 8 inches of snow in that area. hard to say. that's something we'll have to be patient and wait for federal investigators to come in and it may take time before we know exactly what happened. >> first things first, you have to get those explosions and that fire under control and out if possible. lieutenant michael baylous, thank you for jumping on the
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line with us. we appreciate it. coming up for us tons of people eating on my soul right now is the confession of the man who admits to killing american sniper chris kyle and one other person. will those words sway the jury into believing the insanity defense that they have put forth. details coming up. (vo) after 50 years of designing cars for crash survival, subaru has developed our most revolutionary feature yet. a car that can see trouble... ...and stop itself to avoid it. when the insurance institute for highway safety tested front crash prevention nobody beat subaru models with eyesight. not honda. not ford or any other brand. subaru eyesight. an extra set of eyes, every time you drive.
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...i mean that's really interesting, then how do you explain these photos?! [people gasping] objection your honor. sustained. with the x1 dvr library you could take anywhere, xfinity is perfect for people on the go. prosecutors in the american sniper trial are expected to rest their case today and then the defense will try to prove that marine veteran eddie ray routh was insane and belongs in a mental hospital and not a prison. they'll also have to explain this crucial piece of evidence. his confession after the killings where he rambles about
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killing chris kyle and chad littlefield and at a couple months he knows what he did was wrong. paul callan is joining us. i'm surprised that the prosecution is resting its case. why? >> they have really laid out everything that they have to prove. they've proven he fired the fatal shots. and they've also been able to establish through these confessions and through other things that he knew the difference between right and wrong and remember under the texas insanity statute, insanity is not the same as mental illness. if you know the difference between right and wrong, then you are sane under texas law. even if you sound rambling and totally crazy. >> let's get to rambling and totally crazy and right from wrong. this came out from interrogation. here are a couple quotes that struck me. he says you can't let people eat
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your soul up for free you know. it's not what it's about. it's about having a soul that you have in you for yourself and he goes on and on talking about eating souls. then on the opposite side he also says i would tell them -- talking about the victims' families -- i would tell them i'm sorry for what i've done. it seems that he goes in between sounding quite crazy to being sorry. >> he goes back and forth. i think of course prosecutors are laying all of this out on the table because if they didn't the defense attorneys would bring it out and it would look like they were trying to hide something. in the end, the prosecutors are going to say you know something? even when he's talking about things like eating a soul and i took his soul because he wanted to take my soul they're going to say all of those things indicate he knows the difference between right and wrong. he knows that if somebody tries to take your soul that's wrong and you, therefore, have the right to shoot them in self-defense. they'll say this indicates
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understanding of right and wrong. >> also when you look at the time line they are dealing with he kills chris kyle and then takes the car and goes to the uncle's house and sister's house, to taco bell and then his parents' house and leads police on a high-speed chase. does time line matter here? >> he looks sane enough to have planned an escape and to have consciousness of guilt and prosecutors would argue that means sanity. in the end, this is so confusing to ordinary people. how can someone rambling like this be sane? i think sometimes jurors kind of put the law on the side and just say how crazy is he? if he's really really off the scale, he's going to get the benefit of an insanity defense regardless of what the law says. >> prosecution wraps up and they think they made their case if you will. defense steps in. what are they going to do next? >> you'll see a forceable presentation by the defense.
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they'll call psychiatric experts to say that the kind of delusion that he has indicates a lack of understanding of right or wrong to give the jury something to hang their hats on and also they're going to build up his military background so this jury has sympathy for ptsd and maybe to cut him a break and give him insanity defense. >> i couldn't believe some of the quotes coming out of that interrogation. it was interesting. >> shocking stuff. the whole case has been shocking. >> it really has. thank you so much. great to see you. coming up for us check out this. we go inside the american sniper controversy and the story's incredible real life twists and turns. the story of american sniper tomorrow night 9:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn. also for us it's definitely one for the record books. the snow the cold weather snapping trees and breaking power lines and leaving death in its wake. we'll take you into the heart of the storm. that's next.
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in our house, we do just about everything online. and our old internet just wasn't cutting it. so i switched us from u-verse to xfinity. they have the fastest, most reliable internet. which is perfect for me, because i think everything should just work. works? works. works! works? works. works. more on the wintry blast hitting 1 million americans in the midwest and south right now. drivers from southeast to middle tennessee and into the carolinas
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are being affected. ice is a huge issue this time around especially in some areas of the south. just look at that. officials are pleading with residents to stay off the roadways for obvious reasons if at all possible. we go to washington where federal offices are closed today after the winter blast. ryan young is in boston. let's start with you. i was just on the phone with the mayor talking about they just have to keep doing what they're doing and trying to dig out. what are you seeing? >> reporter: it's snowing again. i heard the mayor tell you that but there's a light dusting coming down. we're just outside of boston. you really have to feel for these people. look at this snow that i'm standing on top of. this is some of the 50 inches of snow they received. it's record breaking snow. i can tell you this mountain is not the easiest to walk across. we're in a snow farm. the whole idea of the snow farm is to make sure that they can pack this and then on top of
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that they'll melt it and that backhoe that you see just over there, that backhoe they'll use it and they'll move some of the snow over to a snow melter and start melting the snow. there's more than 300 yards of snow mountain. that's 25 feet high at least. now this is causing issues with transportation in the area because snow is impacting the lives. they are paying $30 an hour to clear some of the snow off those tracks. all this on top of your roof makes it very very dangerous. you have to think people back to work all this stuff is going on at the same time. you know they're tired of it. >> absolutely. i talked about that with the mayor. the mayor said that he thinks about eight days where everything was completely shut down. there's still a parking ban. there's still a lot of issues with public transportation there. what are you hearing from folks -- i don't know if a lot of folks are hanging out at the
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snow farm but how are folks in boston handling this? >> reporter: meeting people here in boston they are a strong group of people. i want to show you work going on behind us. i'll turn the camera this way. there's as guy with a front loader. there are firefighters here. they all are doing this in an effort to try to melt the snow to help residents. you can understand that they feel sorry for the people who are trapped around the city especially with this stuff continuing to fall. on the side streets, that's where the main issues are. we saw a lot of people trying to walk the streets, the sidewalks this morning. you know they're trying to get to work trying to earn an honest living and it's so difficult with all of the snow everywhere. >> everywhere. ryan young on top of the snow mountain that hopefully will melt very quickly. can't promise you that though. ryan thanks gton today? >> kate this is the most snow that washington has seen all season. nothing compared to boston.
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but you know as well as others it's enough to shut down this city at least partially. federal government is closed today. d.c. schools are closed. show you what accumulated overnight, this is about 4 to 5 inches. fluffy snow. people coming out. we've seen some cross-country skiers building little snowmen here. take a look at this iconic view of the washington mall. just blanketed with snow. some people today are starting to come out. president obama was also affected by this snowstorm. we'll show video of him arriving at andrews air force base on air force one last night. he was immediately hit by the snow and the cold. he was forced to take a motorcade back to the white house instead of the marine one helicopter. the sun is coming out. it is bright blue skies out here but the temperature is still low, about 20 degrees. for that reason officials say they are keeping the d.c. snow emergency in effect until they can properly plow the streets here. >> as you know and i know from
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living there, d.c. continues to earn its reputation of even if there's a threat of any snow, federal government will shut down. it's just one of the ways that d.c. works. thank you so much. talking about brutal weather in the united states but brutal weather is impacting some of the most vulnerable people outside of the united states around the world. millions of refugees in iraq and syria are living in flimsy shelters not equipped to deal with the winds and the bitter cold of this winter leading to the spread of illness and disease in many refugee camps. world vision is helping by distributing simple but necessary items like blankets, coats and hats. you can help them do their good work. logon to cnn.com/impact. coming up target terror representatives from around the world are gathering in washington right now working on a plan to destroy isis and its followers. the latest on the fight is just ahead.
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killed 21 egyptian christians. and the global community at the very same time is worried that isis is growing at a rapid speed and spreading its reingn of terror beyond the borders of syria and libya. paul cruickshank is here to discuss. it's not even a worry at this point. it seems isis is spreading beyond its strongholds in iraq and syria. but the big question is when you look at libya and where it's positioned especially do you think isis can get that same kind of a stronghold foothold in libya as we've seen what they've done in a place like syria? >> they're rapidly expanding in libya. they're taking advantage of the simmering civil war there to spread their operations from the east part of the country, derna all the way over to tripoli. they have several strongholds in libya. so there's certainly a lot of concern about their expansion. a few obstacles for isis there
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are so many different other armed militia groups in libya. and the other one is you don't have this sort of sectarian divide like you do in syria and iraq. so perhaps the conditions won't be as advantageous for isis in libya. but very remarkable expansion from them. this is the southern shore of the mediterranean. the first time isis is on the mediterranean, the southern shore of the european union, crete, is just 200 miles north of derna where isis have a very big presence right now, just a few hours in a speed boat. and there are a lot of refugee floats from libya to europe. more than 100,000 last year from libya. so they have opportunities now to infiltrate people perhaps into the european union, potentially even to launch attacks. >> it's noteworthy hearing it from you and others who watch it closely, you even say it's surprising how quickly they're making this effort to expand in
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places outside iraq and syria. in talking about the influence of isis maybe not physically or just inspiring other terror attacks, i want to ask you about the danish gunman. right before he began his terror attack he pledged on his -- apparently on his facebook page allegiance to the leader of isis. what do you make of that? >> we think it was just minutes before he started -- >> just minutes, yeah. >> -- this attack. he puts an update on what appears to be his facebook page a pledge of allegiance to abu bakr al baghdadi. that shows he was probably radicalized by isis propaganda isis put out a lot of calls for lone wolf attacks, including in the month after the "charlie hebdo" attack in paris. and one of the gunmanm gunmen involved there also pledged allegiance to abu bakr al baghdadi.
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>> could there have been direct communication between tp leaderhe leaders in syria and this guy? >> the officials don't think so. it appears he was radicalized in prison. involved in gangs before that. this is somebody inspired by the isis propaganda. but the worry is isis will make a lot more propaganda out of there, they'll eulogize him and more people will be inspired by what he did. he was probably inspired by the paris attacks. somebody else will be inspired by what he did. >> inspiration or direct communication, doesn't matter because it's just as deadly. i want to get your final thought as we talk about this. in washington, some representatives of 60 countries are trying to talking about ways to combat violent extremism at home and abroad. what do you expect to come out of something like this? >> some sharing of best practice. there's some really interesting
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pilot programs going on in various parts of the world in the uk but also here in the united states. in minneapolis, empowering the muslim community to front this ideology. and that's going to be how this is won in the end. this is kind of important. >> proactive taking on terror rather than reactive. paul thank you so much. that's it for us. thanks for joining us. "legal view" with poppy harlow starts right now. this is "legal view." i'm poppy harlow in today for my friend ashleigh banfield. we begin with a pivotal moment in the aaron hernandez murder trial. the former nfl star is charged in the shooting death of odin lloyd in an industrial park on june 17th 2013 just a half mile from hernandez's home in northled aboro
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