>> i leave it up to the employees to use their own, you know, decide whether they think they can make it or not. a lot of times they'll come back and say we're scare going out on it. we'll end up in a ditch or something. bigger means costlier, new york city cleanup generally means $1 million for each inch of snowfall. boy, let's keep this going. "cnn newsroom" continues right now with ali velshi. >> tony, great job on the snee storm. we'll continue to cover it. i'm ali velshi and i'll be with you for the next two hours monday through friday to help you break down on your decisions about voting and spending and let you know what's going on out there in the specific detail. i've got a lot of detail for you. the snowstorm is making travel, working, and even the basic tasks a lot more complicated.

plus, toyota's troubles, what did the carmaker know and when did it know it? is this just a matter of an oversight, or was toyota actually holding information back on danger to its cars? and, finally, disaster and disease. one always followms ts the othe. and there's no exception. it's happening in haiti. >> but the biggest thing going on in the country is the monster snowstorm. blizzard wonarnings from appalachia to new york city. and dulles and reagan national are both closed. hundreds of flights are canceled. it's so bad that -- that snow crews in d.c. have pulled over to the side of the road. power crews, restoration crews in d.c. are telling -- are not repairing power right now because of the conditions. and in baltimore, nonofficial traffic has been barred from the roads. if you're not an emergency vehicle, you don't have to be on the road for some essential

reason, you are barred from being on the road. we've got full team coverage around the country on this. allan chernoff is in new york city right now. rob marciano is in d.c., and chad is with me here in the severe weather center. and this is severe weather, giving us an update on what's going on with travel, with roads, and with the snowfall. >> well, the snowfall obviously slowing down airplanes. >> wow. >> there should be 6,000 planes on this, there's only 4,500. it doesn't mean 1,500 planes got canceled. it means planes aren't in the right places. they didn't get through and to d.c. there hasn't been a plane in d.c. for many hours and there won't be for many more hour. the snow doesn't stop in d.c., i think it stops at 5:00 tonight with a total new accumulation, 6 to 12, maybe yesterday, from 5 to 10. philadelphia, still snowing, still going. new york city still going and lots more to go. >> we still think the totals -- >> those are all still valid. you talked a couple things yesterday. i know you and i talked about the weight of the snow on the roof. >> yes. >> you hear the emergency managers say that they lost a

brand new fire truck in one of their buildings because one of their buildings literally collapsed on itself. >> flat roofs will have a real problem. >> a fire engine that had no miles on it is destroyed by all of that. >> yeah. >> think about it if you can destroy a fire engine, what it will do you. if you hear cracking above you, and you are in flat roof in baltimore, d.c., call somebody, do what you had can, go to a neighbor's, if water starts leaking through, something is going on. >> you made a good point. don't deal with it yourself. don't get on the roof. >> if you have 40 inches or 35 inches of snow on your roof, that's like having 200 people having a party on your roof. i wouldn't have 200 people on my roof, even if they were sobel r sobel sober, they might crack it. and we've been showing you pictures out of d.c., philadelphia, baltimore, the snow is going sideways. the visibility is going down. you need to stay off the roads and if you have to be out, you

need the survival kit at this point in time. i know you're in a city, but you need the survival kit. >> the power could go out. >> the national guard are going out to get firemen and police and doctors, because they are stuck, too, so don't get in the way of the emergency people. >> don't be smart by putting your car out in the middle of the street because there's a snowbank. stay out of the way, because emergency crews have to get through. we'll keep you posted. if you are in the cities or you think you are going to the cities, we're working with our desks are calling fire officials, emergency officials, mayors, we're finding out what the conditions are in those cities. so, stay with us on this. let's go to new york city right now, where our allan chernoff is out there reporting on the conditions in that city. allan, how are things looking there for? >> reporter: i can't hear him. >> i can see allan, i'm not sure he can hear me. allan, can you hear me? >> reporter: left channel. >> hold on to allan for a second, let's go on while we get the audio sorted out.

reynolds wolf is in d.c., he's been there for a couple of days. it does not look particularly serious to you, reynolds, the snow is blowing sideways in front of you right now. >> reporter: it truly is. anyone who happens to be tuning in, you know, you will see what appears to be the lines going across the screen. snow at times has been rough, but the wind is the kicker. you mentioned 63,000 people are without power, but if you look off to the distance, you can see the trees caked with ice and snow and you have the winds continuing to come in. some of the winds, the gusts at least, tropical-storm-force. there's a chance we can see the limbs break and when they do, oftentimes they hit the power lines, and it means more power outages. it will be some time before people get the power on. certainly some rough things to deal with, not just in terms of power but the roadways. i'm right along, this would be third street in washington, d.c., we're on the mall. this is probably one of the better roads that we have in the area in terms of how the road's

been treated. you still see a big line, pile, of snow and muck right in the very middle, but some of the back streets here in the nation's capital, just treacherous. speaks of the capitol itself, try to take a peek at it. you might be able to check out the general grant statue, the former president, but behind that you can't see the rotunda. we saw it plain as day this morning, but as the wind goes up, the visibility goes way down. rough to see. the wind and the snow, certainly airports have had a rough time also. it looks like they won't be back in commission until the bulk can pass. and as chad was seeing, the heavy snow should taper off this afternoon and tomorrow it will be better. this is the latest from the nation's capital. we need to get out of the way, there might be some traffic coming. back to you, ali. >> newark airport has shut down. dulles and reagan national are shut down. look, you shouldn't be too surprised if there of not flights going into major northeast cities right now. the airlines have been canceling

those flights, but this is new, the airport has actually shut down, which means there isn't enough space on those runways, on the aprons and on the tarmac to accommodate planes moving back and forth. they've got to plow it out of the way. no flights going in or out of newark airport right now. we'll take a quick break. our coverage on this continues. we're checking in with centers around the northeast on safety issues, what to do if you're at home watching us, because as reynolds said the weight on the trees will cause more power outages as they fall on power lines. for the moment, no power restoration is going on in d.c., if the power is out, no one is working to get it fixed right now. we'll check on the situation in every major city. we'll pop into new york again to see how things are there. but newark airport has shut down. our coverage continues.

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jersey. it's very dangerous to drive. we're trying to keep emergency vehicles off the road and get the salt trucks and the plow trucks down. today is the home to sit in your homes and contemplate howard stern on "american idol." >> we know a number of flights, most flights have been cancelled in and out of newark airport. what's the difference? what does it meanwhile the airport is shut down? does that mean it's a bigger deal. >> this is a dumb ass, you don't know this is a prank call. >> you got us, gene, gene lassker. we'll confirm our information about new jersey's airport being shut down is actually correct. allan chernoff is in new york. he's covering the story, the situation in new york, we're expecting 10 to 18 inches of snow. allan is there. can you hear us, allan? >> reporter: ali, our technical problems are resolved. >> yours are, but ours aren't. >> reporter: we're getting serious snow right now. that's right, ali, you know, regarding the airports, whether or not they're open, that's pretty much not the essential issue right now, because most of the airlines have canceled the

bulk of their flights. >> right, right. >> reporter: and it's a good thing they've done that, because this is absolutely not the sort of weather where you want to be flying. it's not the type of weather to be driving either. here in new york city, you know, it's a little bit different than many other parts of the country. tuwanad, let's move over here and take a look at the road. in new york city, on the road, they have 1,600 salt spreaders that have plows. you can see right here even they've already plowed the road. so, it's pretty clear. you have, of course, the slush from the constant traffic, the cabs out there. but the fact is most people should not be out in this water, and certainly in the outer boroughs, away from manhattan, well, that's where the streets will really get nasty. ali, we are getting pounded right now. and only an hour ago, i was outside here, standing, and it was barely snowing. so, this is the second punch.

they're talking about 10 to 16, maybe even 18 inches in the region. and a blizzard warning all the way to 6:00 a.m. serious stuff. and even here, we have the new york city parks department plowing the path along central park. ali, you know, we're serious about trying to clear away the snow. >> yeah. >> reporter: we've got the money here in new york city as well. that $1 million for every inch of snow that falls. why is it? well, here in new york city, we've got more than 6,000 miles worth of streets and highways. that's how you get up to 1 million bucks for every inch that comes down to clear out those roads, those highways. those little streets. ali -- >> and the issue, allan, most people that come into new york the population of manhattan doubles because of the people that come in, so they have to keep the sidewalks clean and make the subway entrances clear so that people can at least do that. you don't want people using the

alternative, trying to get into a car, because public transit isn't working. >> reporter: and, ali, right there, that's the entrance to the columbus circle subway station, one of the entrances. you see people just coming in and out. the subways are running underground, under all this, in the outer boroughs, we do have some trains running on the outside. but for the most part, the subways don't have a problem. so, that's why new york city still runs -- >> yep. >> reporter: -- and by the way, new york city offices, they are remaining open during this snowstorm. mayor bloomberg, he's a tough boss, you know? >> if i didn't know better, i think that was a bit of a big from allan chernoff who will be there reporting on the storm. i was going to say stay dry and warm, but i won't even say that, allan, allan chernoff for us in new york. the other thing in new york, the power lines are underground in new york, so the power outages don't occur because of the weight of the snow.

but there are some across the northeast, 29,000, 39,000 in delaware, maryland, virginia wrack about 15,000 in south jersey, in the d.c. area, 7,500, and as i told you, no more repairs being undertaken in d.c. until conditions improve. in the baltimore area, 7,500,000, and in philadelphia and southeast pennsylvania, 4,000 people without power. we'll be speaking with the mayor to update you on that situation. when we come back, we want to talk to my co-host, christine romans, to talk about your money. she doesn't mind waiting because she was heading out of town and her flight has also can canceled. so many arthritis pain relievers --

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all right. my colleague, christine romans, is staying put in new york. we thought she was just being nice and hanging out with me. she was off on a flight, and she can't get that flight out of newark. so, let's talk, christine. let's talk about another storm, one that was going on more than a year ago, in the financial world. a year and a half, two years ago. at the time one of the most familiar faces on tv was the then secretary of the treasury of the united states, henry paulson, and i would say prior to paulson, the average american may not have thought of sort of at the top of their mind who the treasury secretary was. but everybody knew hank paulson. >> uh-huh. because he became known as the architect of all these bailouts,

right, ali? he was the guy, the free-market guy who came in and suddenly had to be the architect of the biggest intervention in capital markets, government intervention, in history. you know, i asked him about that. i sat down with him between snowstorms actually in washington this week, and he said better than the father of the second great depression. he will bear that burden of beefing the architebeef i being the architect of all the bailouts. we talked about a lot of things among them the global imbalances still part of the problem. the big, long-term fundamental reasons the country got in trouble are still there. listen to this what he says -- >> we have a tax system that really discourages savings and investment. and punishes them. and we have a tax system that really encourages consumption. we have housing policies, they penalize renters relative to homeowners. and so -- and then when you look

at it globally, we have nations in asia, china, japan, and others, that don't have enough domestic consumption. they need to consume more, and they need to save less. >> and we need to save more and consume less. and it's these global imbalances, basically our trading partners, loaning us money so that we could live beyond our means. that's what this whole thing, a core problem that led to this whole thing that we haven't fixed yet. >> if you want to understand it, it's the same as our own credit card crisis, banks, kreffcredits loaning us more so we could run up more credit than we could afford. and they were beholden to us and we were beholden on them. and it was a catch-22. if you want to look how to fix it, look at the credit crisis in

the united states and multiply it by thousands of times. >> that's right. you can see the whole interview on cnnmoney.com. there's a lot of things we talked about. i asked him about goldman sachs, ali, his complaints and charges that he was tied to goldman sachs, he used to work for the company, during the bailout, helping bankers more than main street. he takes issue with that. he was always looking out for the american people, because he knew the collapse of the financial system would hurt billions of people. he defends hiss t ties to wall street, without that, he was able to read the markets and it was helpful, helpful, those ties to wall street. even his critics say that he and his successor, tim geithner, were too close to wall street. >> christine, it's the second time in a week i've been canceled because of flights canceled in the northeast. you, too.

throw a snowball down at allan chernoff, he's downstairs. >> i will. >> watch christine and i with "your $$$$$" saturday and sunday at 1:00 p.m. eastern. we'll update you with travels across the northeast. let's get a check of the top stories. you don't have to be a scientist that our top story is the weather. if you're thinking of hopping on a flight, you may want to think again. the blizzard in the northeast is bringing travel to a near stinld still. two airports in washington are shut down. many across the country are experiencing slowdowns because they can't get flights in and out of the northeast. thousands of flights have been canceled around the region. in louisiana, a hurricane expert said he lost his job in the wake of hurricane katrina for criticizing the army corps of engineers, and he's suing louisiana state university to get his job back. he's suing lsu or he's accusing lsu of putting bureaucratic efforts ahead of health and safety. the university would not comment.

in florida, a delay on the launchpad, nasa delayed the launch of the atlas five rocket until tomorrow. it's carrying a solar dynamics observatory that will study the sun in greater detail. when we come back, more weather detail. we'll tell you if you are in the cities affected and stranded at home, how to stay safe and look for roof collapses or power outages. rogaine?

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because it's snowing. >> right. >> right? bluil blizzard means the wind has to be greater than 30 miles an hour and heavy snow coming down with it. that's beginning to lose visibility, and when you lose visibility you lose the chance to fly out of airports. this is still newark. >> okay. >> newark i believe is still moving. there are ten planes in the sky. that one just took off and there are seven planes headed into newark right now. they are not being diverted away. >> if the airport was being shut down, would you see the planes being diverted. we do not know that newark has been closed. >> the farthest airplane away is over colorado. it's a fedex plane coming in. so, i will see whether they divert that somewhere else. it could go to avoca, scranton/wilkes-barre and then fedex do what they do from there. d.c., your snow is just about over. philadelphia, you're not even close to over. new york city, another 10 to 18 by the time it all stops, and this could all change, ali, for one reason.

>> yeah. >> i'll take you to cnn.com/weather, and i recommend you going there. it's an awesome website. this is a very fast animation of about eight hours of snow. what you're going to notice, a couple things right through here. they call this the deformation zone, the moisture is the highest it can be and the air is just cold enough to snow. it's your ground zero, that's your bull's-eye for heavy, heavy snow and it could sneak its way up to new york city later today. and you have the wind off the ocean, and the wind off the ocean will take and plow almost like lake-effect snow for buffalo, but it's ocean-effect snow for new york city. if you go on to cnn.com, you can even go through all the graphics that you see on our screen. >> right. >> you can make them closer to you. >> got it. >> zoom into them. a great little website for you to see. >> the important thing to think about is washington, d.c., is hopefully over. they'll start to restore power once conditions become safer for power crews to do so, but for now they're not. >> the wind isn't over. they don't have the buckets in the air because the wind is still blowing around. would you want to be up there in

a bucket going 35 or 40 miles an hour? >> no. >> i don't care if they have the stabilizer, they won't put the men and women on the line. >> that also means places like philly, we're still in danger of that happening while the snow comes down. >> we have power outages as far south as winston-salem, north carolina, it's because of the wind blowing the powfer lines onto the ground and some makes grassfires. >> which is also the issue at the airports. it's not just snow, it's also airports. let's go to my good friend steve caftanbaum from cnn radio who is on the ground in laguardia right now. what's the situation in laguardia? >> ali, i can tell you within the last five to ten minutes or so, the snow has really picked up in intensity, and we were expecting this to happen here. they had forecast between 1 and 3 inches of snowfall an hour at this time of day here. now, the runway is actually open here at laguardia. all day long, i've been watching the big plows here making passes on the runway and on the tarmac.

keeping this airport open -- >> dual planes on the way to laguardia. >> but the problem now is the airlines don't want to have any planes up in the air right now. >> right. >> the last plane that took off from here was an american airlines' regional jet, that happened around 10:45 in the morning. since then we haven't seen any planes take off, other than a spirit airlines plane around the same time. >> steve, comhad is with me, an he said a couple minutes ago he was seeing planes inbound, now nothing. >> nothing into laguardia. >> nothing into laguardia. no planes headed to you, steve, so clearly it doesn't make any sense for planes to head in while they are trying to clear it up or deal with the wind situation, steve? >> ali, the other thing, i was on the phone with all the major airlines this morning, and every one of them told me they wouldn't chance it until this evening at the earliest. and believe it offer nor not, i

be next week until they can return to a normal schedule to fully recover from the impact of the storm and this past weekend's snowstorm. even though they'll resume flights hopefully tomorrow morning, it will be a long time before everybody's getting to where they're supposed to go to today. >> steve, we'll check in with you to see the situation there. we've got allan in new york, and we've got reynolds in d.c. we'll check in on philadelphia next. as chad said, the snow's not even nearly over in philadelphia. mayor michael nutter is on the phone. we'll check in with him. only band-aid brand plus antibiotic... has antibiotic ointment directly on the pad. one-step infection protection... from the brand you trust. ♪ i am stuck on band-aid brand ♪ ♪ 'cause band-aid helps heal me ♪

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all right. keeping a check of a lot of airports across the northeast for you. take a look at this picture from our affiliate wpvi in philadelphia. you would not know what that is. there's a bus rolling along the ground here, that is theoretically, we're told, the airport. it looks like a big, white mass. even chad myers couldn't tell us what it is by looking at it. let's go to philadelphia where mayor michael nutter is on the phone with us. mayor, are you there? >> i'm right here, ali. >> what's it looking like in philly? where are you and how are things moving? >> right now i'm in city hall, i'm about to go over to our emergency operations center. things are -- it's pretty rough and as you know we got 28 1/2 inches over the weekend. our forces were still fighting that storm when we got hit last night, into today. so, they're doing just an incredible job out there. but it is a -- it's a horrendous kind of operation. we've had ice.

we've had sleet. we've had more snow, freezing temperatures. and wind gusts now starting to pick up creating just unbelievable conditions here. >> that's what chad was just saying, when we think of the blizzard, it's not just the quantity of snow, it's the wind. >> absolutely. >> what about your efforts about plowing the streets and keep emergency vehicles moving, are you okay so far? >> yeah, we've got our forces out there. they've been out there since last night, we have something called a brine solution we put down before the weather event even starts. that helps us with freezing on the ground. then we go with salt, plowing, and salting going on simultaneously. just trying to move the stuff out of the way. about over 450 pieces of equipment, 600 personnel, all throughout the city, and they've been doing a great job. >> all right. we have reports of a little more than 4,000 power outages in the philly, south jersey area. we don't know how much of that is in philadelphia or not. >> yeah. >> what's your evaluation of

what's happening with people losing power? >> we have some. but it's a rather small percentage of that bigger number that you mentioned. that is the challenge with -- with ice laying on the lines and then the weight of this snow -- this snow is much heavier than what we just saw over the past weekend. that was kind of a lighter, fluffier kind of snow, if you will. this is the heavy stuff. a lot of moisture in it. it weighs down on the lines, snaps them, and then you get the massive power outages. there's a lot of moisture in the air, and that just causes trouble for -- for our electric company. >> mayor michael nutter of philadelphia, hold on the line for a second. i also want to bring in someone else whom you know on the phone from new orleans -- actually, we've got him on tv. general russel honore is joining us from new york city, general we know -- i'm sorry he's in new orleans. we've heard national guard troops are trying to clear paths in washington, d.c., two issues, really, one is emergency

vehicles not being able to get through, and the second one is people with -- with power problems. we're not hearing that in philly yet, as the mayor's telling us. it hasn't reached those proportions, and hopefully it won't. what's the role for the national guard in helping out cities right now? >> well, both in d.c., maryland, and the state of virginia, national guard is decisively conducting hundreds of missions to help police and emergency teams get to patients that need to be moved to hospitals, particularly in the d.c. area, the national guard has 14 humvees working 24/7 to get critical workers for the d.c. metropolitan area to locations so they can run the critical infrastructure. the d.c. national guard is also helping the police and emergency vehicles get to patients that need to be evacuated. over in maryland, the d.c. guard yesterday even delivered a baby. they've gone in, atypical mission for the guard, in these type of situations.

>> mayor nutter, you're more used to those kind of situations in philadelphia, where there's snow. you're certainly more used to it than they are in d.c. are you -- have you got issues with emergency vehicles getting to people, ambulances, fire trucks and things like that? >> well, just to be clear. i've never delivered a baby, so i don't have much experience in that. but, no, we're in pretty good shape. governor renldle did for the state declare a state of emergency, and the guard has been activated in other places, but not in philadelphia. we get a little more than this than our friends to the south do, so we've been geared up for this for a while. we have a particular concern about dialysis patients, but we're working through philadelphia police department and fire department and our septa connections, relationships, to make sure that folks can get to those services. all hospitals up and running, and performing their duties. so, we've been on this for a while. but what it takes, as the general laid out, it takes a

fully coordinated effort. and all of us, especially in cities, appreciate the help and support that we can get from our various stakeholder partners and certainly our respective state authorities as well. >> all right, mayor nutter, you'll keep us posted to see where things are developing, if there's any important developments that we need to let our viewers you know about in philadelphia, we'll continue to stay in touch with you. >> absolutely. thank you. general honore, you are watching this situation, you've certainly got as much experience, if not more, than anyone in this country in dealing with urban emergencies. what do you sense in the response from the federal government and the national guard and the cities right now? do you think everybody's on top of things? >> yes, the state is using all their resources. i talked to general bob newman, the virginia national guard, he has 10,000 national guard troops available. he's committed 700 to this mission in northern virginia. and he's responded to requests that come to the governor, come directly to the guard. their number one concern is if people need help, they are to

call the local 911 and help will be on the way through a collaborative effort through local and state assets, with the great capability of the national guard to help save people. and one note on that, ali -- >> yeah. >> -- is that people need to check on their elderly neighbors as well as the disabled people in their community to make sure if they need help or if they know anyone on dial sills or have diabetes issues, that they reach out to them, because, remember, the first line of response is neighbors helping neighbors. >> all right. and that's good advice for people to follow. the danger most people are in right now, other than those immediate health care issues, general, as chad myers was saying, a roof collapsing or the power going out or a tree branch falling on your house. those are the most immediate dangers. otherwise stay home and wait it out? >> yes, sir. that's the best thing people can do at this time and check on their neighbors. >> general honore, it's always a pleasure to see you.

thank you very much for bee with us. we'll take a break right now. when we come back, we want to talk about the hug, one year later. you might remember this, president obama's embrace of florida's republican governor, charlie crist, happened a year ago today, and it might be hurting governor crist right now in his senate primary battle. there it is, that's the hug. candy crowley breaking it down for us. ♪ [ male announcer ] you've wanted to quit smoking so many times, but those days came and went and the cigarettes remained. ♪ today's a new day. talk to your doctor about prescription treatment options and support. and this time, make it your time.

all right. take a look. on the left, i think you know what that looks like, with the marine outside, that's the white house. and that snow is coming down. he does not look affected at all. from the right, wpvi, our affiliate in philadelphia, that's philadelphia international airport and there is nothing go on there at all. by the way, newark airport, the latest information that we have, is that the airport is not officially closed. that is probably a little irrelevant as challan chernoff pointed out, because you're not getting into and out of there. but the airport is not closed,

as dulles is and reagan national are. we showed you the famous hug between president obama and governor crist of florida. it was one year ago today, and now he is running in a primary to be -- against the house speaker, florida house speaker, marco rubio, to be the senate candidate for that state, the republican senate candidate for that state. is that affecting him? let's talk to two people that would know about it, candy crowley in d.c., the host of state of the union, and allen smith, a journalist in florida. let's talk about it, candy. in the year since that has happened, the stimulus bill has become public enemy number one for many republicans and certainly for many tea party supporters and both of the core groups are supporting rubio now. is this really hurting crist? >> well, it's -- it's among the things that are hurting governor crist. and they would tell you that in his camp, that there are some

problems here, that rubio has made enormous inroads. he barely registered in the polls, now we have polls that show rubio ahead in the republican primary. and certainly the stimulus hug, and honestly, i know what hugs are, and that was one of those kind of man hugs that you move -- >> it wasn't a really big bear hug. >> exactly. it's sort of one of the things politicians do. nonetheless, it becomes symbolic for charlie xricrist is too liberal. he's a liberal republican. he was for the stimulus bill. we should point out that rubio actually said sort of contemporaneously that he would have accepted the stimulus money for florida if it wouldn't hurt florida. but nonetheless, this is a picture. it always is still worth a thousand words whether it's politics or something else. but i think that there's also another problem that crist has, and that is, it's such an anti-incumbent year, that while they would like to run on

experience and hils les leaderss a governor, he's an incumbent and they aren't that popular now. >> and it always pays to be an outsider. and he's not an incumbent in the job he's running for and rubio is a politician, too. >> rubio is cast as an outsider, anti-establishment person, but he was speaker of the florida house, he's an establishment person. but he's lucky right now, he's not in office. charlie xricrist is the leader a state whose economy is in shambles and he's paying a price for it. >> tell me how much of a primes you think he's paying. the conservative elements of the republican party and the tea party yeriers are rallying behi rubio, is that the case? >> when the man hug took place, charlie crist seemed unbeatable. he was astronomical approval ratings and it shows how the political climate has changed so

dramatically in the last year, because today conventional wills d wisdom looks like charlie will have a hard time winning the race. >> candy, are political types watching this very closely to see whether it's a tipping point for the republican party? whether it's a splitting point for the republican party or maybe a testing ground for the strength of the tea party movement? >> certainly it's being cast that way, that this is one of those races, the primary race, within the republican party and that it typifies the struggle the gop is having. do you go more moderate? that would be embodied in charlie crist, the governor, as someone who has worked across the aisle, someone who has more moderate views. he backed john mccain, somebody suspect among conservatives. or do you go with a rubio, a young, very conservative guy. yes, it's seen as a struggle within the republican party. which way do you go? do you want the big tent, or do you want a party that strictly

adheres to its most conservative principles? i would add, however, it's very interesting to me around the rubio campaign that they've pushed back when you suggest he's a tea party phenomenon. >> ah. >> that he's the creation of the tea party. they say, wait a minute, he was there, and they jumped on his bandwagon, not vice versa, they are pretty sensitive about that, because thetary par taeea party both ways when you go into the general. >> do you agree it can go that way? >> he's trying to have it both ways and trying to keep his distance but he's showed up to a quite a few of the rallies and is embracing the anger at the establishment, it's helping him. >> very interesting discussion. thank you for joining us, adam and candy. we'll cover the race closely between marco rubio, the former house speaker, and charlie crist, the governor of florida, both running for the right to be

the republican senate toorial candidate. we'll continue with our coverage of the blizzard, it's a blizzard, chad was very specific, it's a blizzard, with the snow and the wind. we'll come back and tell you what to expect. drivers who switched from geico to allstate... saved an average of $473 a year. time to switch to allstate. ♪

all right, i just got an e-mail from steve kastenbaum from cnn radio who is at

laguardia. the port authority of newark and new jersey which operates all three major airports there, the airports are open, and the runways remain open at the three new york city airports. and they continue to make passes with the snow-clearing equipment to keep the runway open. if the airline wants to send airplane, 473 systemwide cancellations and the airlines are saying no flights coming in or out of the new york area right now. waiting to hear back from delta. this is delta right here. let's see what delta is talking about, they'll check and tell me to be sure whether anything is canceled. but as allan chernoff talked about, it's an academic discussion whether airports are open or not. >> and continental uses new york as its hub. that's why the number for continental is high. >> a large proportion of its flights. >> if you want to go from albany to denver, you fly through newark, you can fly from cleveland and houston, but most

of the time you fly from newark. >> it's affecting them systemwide. >> exactly. look at this from last night. >> columbus circle. >> the shot looked like it was from columbus circle at 8th and broadway. >> that shot looks like the evening, because the lights on broadway were brighter than the sun or the sky. the kid are having fun. go to the park and have fun at it. here is the number though, here are the numbers from parkton, maryland, 19 inches, and dulles, 8.5 and bwi, the latest numbers at 11:00, 11.9 inches of snow, and obviously, the snow continues. it is going to continue on. >> it is remarkable the speed with which it is moving on. >> it a good storm, because the storm is not cutoff. oh, man, you threw me a softball, my man. let me show you what happens, my man. if you have a jet stream that moves like this and the storm continues to track along the

low, and just go like this, continuing out to sea -- >> but i know what the problem is. the problem is if you have a storm that goes this way, and does something like that, right, looping back a little bit. >> yes. >> i learn well from you, my friend. >> we start with a dip in the jet that does something like this which allows the jet, the low pressure to do this. >> right. >> and think of the time it is in contact with this area here. >> right, right. >> because this is where the snow going to be. that allows you when that turns, that allows the snow to continue for a longer, longer amount of time and that is what we will see in philadelphia and new york and d.c., you are about out of it. >> nice. >> the dry air is sliding from fredericksburg into d.c. at this point in time. d.c. snow ends this afternoon from south to north, and eventually, it will be better, but better compared to what? i mean, you know, we say d.c. was not that bad this time, but i will tell you that 8 inches of snow in d.c. paralyzes d.c. and the fact that they were already paralyzed is another matter, but

there is a lot of snow coming down. >> the bigger issue is that if you don't live in one of these places and wondering what the sxhoe commotion is and as general honore says, it is for the people who can't get to hospitals or lose power and don't have contact or phones and people whose roofs may collapse, that is the issue. >> if you went to work this morning thinking two inches of snow on the ground and by the time 5:00 rolls around, there is 10 inches of snow in manhattan and you can't get back home, now is the time to book a hotel, because you don't want to sleep on your desk at work. >> yes, thank you, chad. another thing we will check into is the toyota recall. be careful what ever you are driving on the road. there are allegations that maybe toyota knew more than it let on and didn't do anything about it. we will talk to a reporter who

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okay. we are been following for the last couple of weeks the situation with the toyota recall and three of them more than 8 million cars involved. the main issue, of course is the brake pedal getting stuck -- not brake pedal, but the gas pedal. brake was recall three, and the gas pedal getting stuck on the floor mats and accelerators stuck in the accelerated position.

and kate bolduan is in southfield, michigan, and you have been talking about how this may not have been some sort of a thing that toyota missed or didn't get on to early, because they may have had a lot of notice and a lot of information about this that they deliberately didn't act on, and tell me about this? >> well, what we have found from the reporting and talking to sources, there is a communications breakdown within toyota where there was information kept in the japan headquarters that was not passed along to their u.s. colleagues who are the main interface with safety regulators in washington. so while they were working on an investigation in europe into the sticky pedal situation, that information didn't get passed over to their u.s. colleague where the same pedals are used. now it is important to remember that the sticky pedal situation has not caused accidents, and it is not part of the sudden unintended acceleration cases that have gotten a lot of press.

>> right. >> but it is a culmination of the breakdown of communication between the japan office and the u.s. office and also between with u.s. investigators and the toyota-washington office. >> what is the implicatiomplica breakdown of communication in a company that in people believe is one of the best run companies in the world, and they have systems named after them that other companies adopt. so that is sort of not the breakdown of communication with the average company. >> yes, i think that -- you know, toyota is quite proud of its reputation as a quality leader, and here we are starting to see that it is not as forthcoming across the different silos in the company providing that information, and that is why consumers are very concerned at this moment. >> so in other words, this takes it further, if you think that toyota was late to come in clean with this thing and fixing it is probably a bad p.r. move, your reportering indicates a

different problem and not indicating intentional wrongdoing, but a cultural issue to be dealt with within their culture? or what is it? >> yes, and former toyota executives and current ones would recognize that is the case, and in fact, toyota's chief executive akia toyoda came out with a new quality initiative setting up a quality center in the u.s. sotrying to address the systems and you talk about the systems named after toyota, and that what they try to do, continuous improvement, and that i they is what they are trying to do here. >> and the outcome could be toyota executives in trouble or a better toyota. we will have to wait and see what happens with that. thank you for that reporting, kate linebaugh from smithfield, michigan, who has done report thong particular story. when we come back, we will update you on the development of the blizzard in the northeast and what is closed and what is

open and what is moving and what is not. there he is, chad myers, tracking the snowfall and the airlines coming in and airplanes coming in, and reynolds wolf is in washington, d.c., and allan chernoff is in new york and we have people all over the country covering this. stay with us. i watched what i ate. i worked out. personally, i thought i was invincible. once it happened, i realized it's a different story. i'm on an aspirin regimen now because i never want to feel that helplessness again. [ male announcer ] aspirin is not appropriate for everyone.

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garlique's clinically tested ingredient maintains healthy cholesterol naturally. eat right. exercise. garlique. you are watching cnn and i'm ali velshi and we are following the blizzard in the northeast. this is a monstrous storm

working its way through and it is almost, almost done in d.c., but the snow is coming down and we will check with reynolds in a second. this thing going from the southern appalachian to new york city out to long island and 63,000 people we think at this point don't have power and maybe more of that coming along. and dulles and reagan international airports are closed, and well over 1,000 flights and 1,500 flights across the country are canceled and it is so bad that snowplows and power crews in the d.c. area have pulled over and waiting for weather to clean up. chad was telling us that the power restoration crews is telling us that it is not just the snow, but the wind that is blocking them. in new york, they have banned nonofficial traffic from the roads n. maryland and d.c., the national guard has been activated. we have allan chernoff in new york city in a second, and we have reynolds wolf, and it is looking like it is really blowing for you there in d.c. what is going on, reynolds? >> well, that is it.

the weight is the factor. our producer kelly marshall mentioned a moment ago that it seems that the precipitation is beginning to slow down a little bit, and i have to agree with her. chad mentioned that, also, but the wind continues to roar. you will get a blast or two coming through and pick up that snow and visibility going down to almost eliminated completely. i will tell you it is as cold as ever and i know that the blizzard continues until 7:00 tonight, but blizzards are primarily a wind event. in this area, we have the snow coming over and you see the d.c. finest moving out and about and city services, no surprise, basically nefrg terms of transportation, in terms of buses and taxis, we have seen hardly any and when it comes to metro travel, the trains underground are operational and running every 30 minutes, so if you are going and trying to get one place or another, you will have to wait. the above-ground trains are not operational at all. here is

we are seeing the heavy equipment coming through, and if you look at chris turner, the shooter, who is noticing that is filled with snow. they are trying to scoop up as much as they can from downtown areas and move it out. this roadway on third street is actually one of the better ones with ve in the nation's capital, but some of the other roads are described by law enforcement back in the city as treacherous, awful stuff. take a look at this, and again, back to chad, and he says it is ending. we have a shot of the sun peering back flu the clouds and the snow, and a good sign. looks like this is coming to an end, but then, tomorrow, ali a cleanup begins. what a cleanup it will be. you mentioned 63,000 people without power. and when the wind comes in, it could cause even more people to be without power. people could be shivering for some time. stay warm. we have breaking news from pennsylvania, philadelphia, per

the department of transportation, the philadelphia department of transportation, and major road closures the i-76 and the schuylkill is closed and i-676 closed and i-476 closed, the blue route, and i-76 from reading to -- where was that? reading to morgantown, and the turnpike is staying open, but per the d.o.t. those major, major routes around philadelphia are now closed because of the weather situation. we have spoken to the mayor of philadelphia who is en route to the major emergency situation in philadelphia where they are coordinating the response to the heavy, heavy snow, but philadelphia is getting hit. it got record snowfall the other day, and now they have broken those records. let ee's go to new york city. allan chernoff is standing in a place that is a remarkable hub of traffic and people, and he is at columbus circle at 59th, and the entrance to central park west and could not get more central in new york.

that snow is coming in sideways where you are. >> yeah, we are getting pounded here, ali. an hour and half ago, i was out here and there was virtually no snow, but now we are getting plenty of it. they are talking about 10 to 16 inches here in the new york area, and blizzard warnings all of the way to 6:00 a.m. we were talking a little bit about the traffic and the roads. let's come out here, and look at these roads. not too much traffic at the moment, but the vast majority of the vehicles, yellow cabs. those are the only people who really have any business really being out on the roads because they make a living there. but i wiz talking to a bunch of the guys a little while ago and experienced cabbies are saying, cake, no big deal, but they are complain, because they are not getting all of that much business. many people very wisely so are just not outside, and not taking vehicles around, and as you can see, in new york city, there is still that much traffic at the

snow very quickly turning gray, and we have that yucky slush, that all of the pedestrians have to clomp through. over here, we will show you how we hahave 5 or 6 inches already and the snow is piling up, but as you know, the new york city offices are open, the schools are closed not only in new york, but in the whole area. and so, here in central park, we have got to kids, we have the tourists and lots of people enjoying themselves. snowball fight going on right over there, and you will see the cabs are also out, but the pedi cabs have the same complaints as the taxi drivers, not a lot of business today. the only reason to be out is to enjoy the snow and get basic provisions. ali? >> there was a cyclist behind you, and the pedicabs and if nobody thought that new yorkers were tough, there is proof. i mentioned to christine romans

to come out and throw a snowball at you, but i don't know if she did it or not. >> well, all right, ali. i am ready for anybody coming out. this is perfect snowball weather. so, it has that moisture packed really easily. >> allan chernoff taking all covers there in central park. we will keep checking in with you on the situation in central park in new york. let's see what chad is tracking. we told you about traffic delays and the closures in pennsylvania and of course air traffic delays as well. >> of course. and air traffic is going to be a mess for a couple of days, because now the planes are out of place. >> yes. >> just because your plane is tomorrow, it might be in tampa, and supposed to be on the ground in newark, but it is not. so, your flight even though it has nothing to do with the storm, it is telling. >> yes. >> this is hunt oil out of texas, and he is flying the plane in there and there is the fedex plain.

>> that is the one that started in denver. >> yes, this is polish airways out of warsaw, and those guys are saying, no, that is not snow, we are from warsaw and we can make it. so they are there. >> three planes in newark. >> yes, an no shg, and none tak >> i heard from delta, actually a limited schedule, but everything is not done. >> and they want all of the planes out there and they don't want to sit there with 20 inches of snow. but d.c. and new york city, an awful lot of snow still to come with the storm. here is what is happening as the snow begins to move out of washington, d.c. the flow, the continuous flow and you see it is raining in the ocean, because it is warm, there and 44 degree sts water trnlgs and picking up the moisture and getting colder as it gets back towards the cities, and them it is snowing. this is the wrap around part of the storm. this is why we are saying that the low spins backwards and some of the wind gusts may approach tropical storm force and that

could knock down powerlines. >> well, you saw reynolds was not looking all that buffeted, but allan cler nhernoff not so in new york city. >> well, all of the traffic is closed to emergency vehicles only on the schuylkill and you will get a ticket. >> and business as much as we have been telling you that everything is shutdown in washington, not everything is. president obama met with black leaders today to talk about jobs and how this recession has disproportionately afted the african-american community. we will talk to some people about that when we come back. stay with us.

gosh, suzanne malveaux, if you have been watching her from the white house the di, you would think she was a weather reporter today, because she has been standing outside braving this thing with the fantastic hat of hers. but susan, you are proof that work is still being done in washington, and the president met with african-american leaders today to discuss how this economy has disproportionately hit that community in particular with respect to jobs. what go os nnes on in a meeting that? >> yes, that is right, ali. they were not going to cancel this meeting at all. because a lot of the leaders it

took a lot of work to get here to the white house. they came from out of town, and dr. dorothy height is the chairwoman of the national council for negro women, and she is active and 97 years old and she uses a wheelchair, but the other three were. it was a surreal scene with them huddling underneath an umbrella getting to the meeting. you had mark moreal, and al sharpton and they were saying, look at the statistics, these are bad for everybody, but they are worse for african-americans and hispanics. for the whites, unemployment is 8.7%, but for african-americans, it is 16.5% and hispanics it is 12.6%, and for black teenagers, they say more than 40% unemployed now, so what are they doing? they went to the president and said, we have ideas, and we want to specifically look at how we can use the money that went to bailout the big banks in the

tune of $150 billion and use that money to go ahead to create jobs and some 3 million jobs for folks who really, really need it and suffering. i had a chance to talk to all three of the leaders after the meeting with the president, and here is how mark moreal put it. here is the situation. >> we want people to know how this great recession, the worst recession we have had since the great depression is impacting all communities, but having a very severe impact on urban communities an on the chronically unemployed. >> ali, the white house has not specifically targeted any community for jobs creation, and it is much broader, and what they are saying is that specifically when it comes to black americans and hispanics in rural areas that are undereducated, these are the chronically unemployed and they need to be focused on in

creating the jobs bill that the president is talking about. the next move is that we appreciate that the president has listened to our concerns, but we are going to congress to talk to the folks up there to say if you are having a bipartisan bill, you need to focus on where the need is greatest in these communities. >> and you said they have specific things they want, and amounts of money from the stimulus they want applied to it. great discussion. suzanne, thanks for staying out there and we should keep you out there for weather reports in d.c. i hear that the worst has past. >> yes. >> i have been seeing you all day. >> the worst is over. >> suzanne malveaux in on this conversation at the white house with the president and the jobs with african-americans, and we heard that education is key. we will talk about that next. i have dr. low max here whoo is the ceo of the united negro college fund and he is standing by to talk about the work they have done and thele chas that

lie ahead of them. also, obviously, we are staying on the weather story. you can see the bottom of the screen, we are on this blizzard and that is times square and doesn't looked that bad in the middle of new york, but they are not finished with that snow and wind. we will be right back on that when we come back. hey, ask our doctor about garlique, okay?

garlique's clinically tested ingredient maintains healthy cholesterol naturally. eat right. exercise. garlique. bring you up to speed of what is going on in the blizzard in the northeast. we are looking at washington, d.c., and the blizzard warning for washington, d.c. expires at 7:00 p.m. today. the blizzard warning for washington, d.c. expires at 7:00 p.m. today and it seems that things are lightening up on the snow front but not the wind front. new york city, and that is times square and the blizzard warning is in effect until 6:00 a.m.,

and that is why it does not look as bad there, because they haven't gotten the brunt. but philadelphia is in the midst of it right now, and the blizzard warning there, there is the shot of the airport there, and the blizzard warning is in effect until midnight tonight. only new york airport is open, and very few flights coming in. i think i overheard on the weather center one flight headed into laguardia and three headed into newark and nothing apparently headed out. boston has a winter storm warning, and not a blizzard, but a winter storm warning in effect until 1:00 a.m. today. we will keep you posted on that. major highways in philadelphia are shut down, the schuylkill and the i-476, and i-76 and the blue route is shut down and i-476 is shutdown from reading -- and i have to learn to read my own writing. it is per the pennsylvania highway of transportation, and you should not be on the road

there. and the weather seems to be easing with the sun out and evacuation order for more than 500 homes was lifted this morning. heavy rain expected yesterday did not happen. the mud slides triggered by the heavy rain over the weekend has damaged dozens of homes. more recalls. this time not toyota, but honda. the automaker has expanded a worldwide air bag recall covering cars 2001-2002 civics, odysseys and crvs and selected 2002 trls, and here in the united states it includes the honda pilot and the acura cl and now my excellent producer kelly frank has told me to write this down properly, because she told it to me earlier that 176 in philadelphia is closed from reading to morgantown. that is what i could not read. i wrote it down and i knew it started with a m, but that is

closed in pennsylvania. suzanne and i were talking a minute ago about a meeting that took place at the white house about getting a job and particularly the clal if yhalle you are african-american, young in this country, because those are three categories where the unemployment rate is greater than the national average. well, getting an education is the single-best way to get a job in the country. for many african-americans, the united negro fund made getting a college education a reality. let's look at what the united negro college fund is about. it was incorporated in 1944. the first efforts raised $760,000, and if you are a money guy, that is $8.6 million. member colleges include 105 historically black colleges and universities which represent 3% of the nation's academic institutions. they graduate those historically black colleges and universities graduate nearly 20% of

african-americans who earn undergraduate degrees. they support 60,000 students a year at 900 schools and raised more than $3 billion and almost $1.5 billion of it privately. suzanne was talking about the national unemployment rate around 10% and the unemployment rate for people with a college education nationally not with respect to color is half of that, 5%, but for african-americans, they are disadvantaged in every subcategory, in other words the rate for unemployment is higher for men, teenagers and people with undergraduate degrees, and you have been faced with this challenge for years. >> yes, absolutely. it is interesting that although you noted a college degree is probably the best prevention for unemployment, even in that category, african-american men have a bump. there is obviously some prejudice and discrimination, but there is just no getting

around it, the more education, the more lifetime earnings and the less fragility in terms of employment, and the greatest prevention in terms of being unemployed. >> so, what then is the biggest single challenge, because you would think that if the african-american unemployment rate particularly for young people is higher than the average, the solution would be to get more people educated, get more people in undergraduate degrees or college education of some sort, and what is the biggest impediment? >> one is financial. it is expensive, and people have to realize it is getting more expensive. and two, it is college preparation. what we have seen in public schools is that they have failed to provide the academic preparation, particularly for low-income kids of color. so we are fighting on several fronts. first, we have to make sure that the public school systems work and more kids graduate and graduate with degrees so when they arrive on a college campus and taking courses they are taking full credit and not remedial courses. two, the institutions themselves

have to be more agile. many -- we focus on the people who go from high school to college, but that is a minority of who is in college today. so more people are leaving the workforce and going back to school and leaving school to go back to the workforce and there has to be greater ability to receive, accept and help them through the difficult transition. >> i don't know and i may not have this figured just right, but i have heard that the determination of whether you are going to college or not is made largely very early on in the public school system at a young age, in other words, the deterioration and the quality of education that you will get in the sixth grade may affect your grj waiting and going to college? >> absolutely. the number one determinant is how good the teachers are that you have and number two, what they actually teach you. so if you go to college, you have to have a college preparatory curriculum and often in the country, we have said in terms of black and brown and low-income kids, we won't give you the rigorous academics so

you won't get the mathematics or the science or the communications or the english or the writing and the reading, critical reading which are all absolutely required. >> who is supposed to make that decision? who changes that so that you can pick these kids up after high school and say, if your only issue is funding, we can help you? >> all of oit. it is the adults in the kids' lives who have to be good consumers of education al services, and the communities and the businesses and all of our responsibility. if the nation is saying we are a competitive nation in the 23rd nation, we have to make sure that black and brown and low income kids are going to be the high flying kids in the future are getting the preparation, and that is not everybody's business, but all of our business. >> and maybe we can discuss what can be implemented in those african-american leaders did discuss with the president to get money to help train the kids

to deal with the chronically unemployed a get into the specifics. i hope you can come back. and i appreciate your patience, because while you are sitting here, we are dealing with the weather situation that saul over the country, and of course, we will continue to take a look at that. chad is getting ready to talk to us about the next thank is happening, and it is blizzards across the country and a live shot of the white house. i have to tell you that watching it all day, it is definitely looking like things are better and maybe that is hopeful thinking on my part. you are looking at new york city right there and times square from the sky, and we are watching philadelphia, baltimore, boston, cities all through the northeast. stay with us.

all right. let's keep an eye on what is going on with the blizzard. chad is keeping an eye on it better than anyone else right now. the airports, the road situation and the snow accumulation and what have you get for us? >> well, i first of all want the go to the airports. >> okay. >> this map here shows every plane that is in the air out of newark. >> okay. >> and what we always look for are the latest pla eest planes >> right. >> and there is none. the last plane to leave is u.p.s. plane. and u.p.s. said they will not deliver in certain place, and they won't get to u.p.s. today, because it is too dangerous and everybody else is saying to stay off of the roads, and here is a couple of fedex planes and a

couple of american airlines flights. sean, let's go to the laguardia flights. american airlines flight is last flight out. >> it is going home to dfw. >> yes, to dallas. >> and the airlines in new york city are not closed and up to the airlines to decide whether they are bringing the planes in, but not much is happening. >> at jfk, they had a rain-snow sleet for a while, and they are doing better, but they are getting some out, because they had planes on the ground, and still trying to get them off, but what has happened so far in the other major airports is that the airlines said, we are not flying there because we don't want to get stuck there and possibly damaged. can you imagine a plane with 20 inches of snow on it? so they don't want that and that is why they make these decisions. >> and a beautiful shot of allan chernoff there. >> and five feet of snow there in central park. >> let's check in for a second

with cnn radio steve kassenbaum, and one plane out of laguardia, steve, that is all we see, and looks like not a lot of activity there? >> reporter: not at all, as far as planes on the ground. all morning i have watched the plows make runs here across the tarmac, and they are telling us that they are keeping the runways open in three airports in new york in case a plane should opt to land here, and they have to keep the runways open in case of an emergency but nothing is flying in and out of here. and the intensity of the snowfall is picking up, and visibility dropped dramatically. i could not see an airplane landing here safely given the wind and the snow conditions and the close proximity to the water here, i don't know why anybody would want to land in these conditions here. >> and steve, if i were on one of the planes, i would want to redirect it. he talked about the wind, and

you made this point, blizzard is not just snow. >> it is visibility and snow and wind over 35 miles an hour, all combining to make a blizzard. so even though there are blizzard warnings all up and down the east coast, not every place will have a blizzard every minute, but it could happen when the wind blows across a roadway and coming from the north as it is, and you are driving on the roadway, the wind will fly across and make you snow-blind. >> and what is this cake here? it looks like a cup cake. >> go to ireport.com or cnn.com, and you can get there both ways. these are great pictures coming out of vienna. he said i wanted to have breakfast on the patio, but i woke up to a snow wedding cake. >> what was he thinking of breakfast in all of that snow? >> i think tongue in cheek. >> well, we will stay on this -- and you know, steve kastenbaum is at laguardia and you remember valentine's day two years ago and jet blu did not cancel the

flights and people were strand hours and hours on the tarmac. i belong to the people that jetblue has made a good decision f it is a blizzard, cancel the flights and don't have people sitting around on the planes. >> i remember a time of seven or eight-hour waits to get into gates at detroit. >> now they cancel. >> because now you have airline bill of rights, and maybe that has to do with the thinking, let's not mess with the airline bill of rights. >> well, steve kastenbaum is at laguardia and we will check in with him and our team is all over the place. you hear this all of the time and the president talks about it all of the time, green jobs, and how they are going to save our economy there. are green jobs out in california, and we will show you thousands of them.

all right. let's take a look at the blizzard warnings in place in the northeast. you are looking at times square there and it does not look serious over there, does it? it looks like a nice winter day with a nice bit of snow coming down. let's start with d.c. on the right side of the screen, the blizzard warnings, because this is where the blizzard is leaving first, the blizzard warnings are in effect until 7:00 p.m. tonight. reynolds wolf and suzanne malveaux telling us that things

are easing up in washington, d.c. ten inches inside of the beltway is what we are expecting. winds are strong and gusting. expect the gusts up to 50 miles an hour. dulles airport is closed. inside of that shot there, blizzard warnings there until 10:00 a.m. in the morning in new york. if you think that it does not look bad, it has not hit there yet. winds continue there 30 to 40 miles an hour, and gusting to 50 miles an hour. new york's city airports are currently open, and very, very few flights are in the air right now. in philadelphia, major highways around philadelphia all closed. the airport, and we are looking at it right there, and nothing going on right there. expecting 12-20 inches ending later this evening at 6:00 p.m., and strong winds there 30 to 40 miles an hour. in boston, in boston, yeah, philadelphia at 6:00 p.m. is when the blizzard warning is set to expire. boston not a blizzard, but a

winter storm warning valid until 1:00 a.m. right now and 5 to 10 inches of snow. boston is escaping the worst of it for the moment. and green technology you have heard a lot of it, and green jobs, and what on earth does it mean and for the economy and ultimately for you and a job? well, california is banking on green technology to reverse the crippling job losses in that state, and they hope that alternative energy companies can create, get this, more than 400,000 jobs over the next decade. 400,000 jobs. casey wian visited one of the companies. >> reporter: it sounds crazy. mark holmes a corporate attorney took a chance on a new career in the depths of the u.s. financial crisis. >> october of 2008 -- >> reporter: perfect time to start a business, right? >> yeah. >> reporter: what was going on? you had to be scared. >> we had a financial melt down

and everybody in a panic and we thought, what better time to start a company. >> reporter: green wave energy was born. this is the first product, a light pole powered by the sun and the wind and operating completely off of the electric grid. what is unique is that you can see the wind turbine on there turning, and it is on a swivel so it can catch the wind from any direction and it has four solar panels to catch the sun no matter where it is in the sky. green wave is funded by 33 partners who have invested cash and $33 million in products and services. one partner's shipping yard serves a as lab, while another's suv is a makeshift wind tunnel. >> we have approximately a wind tunnel without having to pay for the expensive instrumentation, and we essentially drive up and down the street. >> reporter: and another yacht builder has found an inexpensive

way to build the fiberglass. >> they had tough times and significant reduction of workforce and with us starting up production, they will be able to bring back a lot more folks and hopefully several hundred folks. >> reporter: green wave recently made the light pole sale and discussing two contracts, one that could land off of haiti. this is taking a green company from scratch and using the resources of an old-school manufacturing company and is this unique or can other companies do this? >> absolutely not. this is a model if anything. bringing in green technology to basically those facilities will basically bring them back to life. >> reporter: casey wian, newport beach, california. when we come back, i will bring you up to speed with the day's top stories right here on cn. so, what do you think?

preferred package. good choice. only meineke lets you choose your service, choose your savings. like an oil change for just $19.95. meineke. those pictures look remarkably similar, and we have to check out the top stories here. the second big winter storm in a week has paralyzed travel across the mid-atlantic and the northeast. and washington is coping with whiteout conditions, and improvement coming there, but blizzard warnings are posted from north carolina to new york.

in haiti, no signs of life behind the rubble of a port-au-prince supermarket. a handful of people were believed to be at the caribbean market when it gave way, and several were foraging. rescuers were at the scene for six hours, but the effort has been called off. the space shuttle "endeavour" arrived at the space shuttle early this morning delivering a new room and observation deck. the last major pieces to wrap up construction 300,000 miles above us. three space walks are planned for this vision. we go to allan chernoff who is outside of times square, and that is the white house, and reynolds wolf is not far from, there and we will see the situation with both of them when we come back. the gmc sierra hybrid. the most fuel-efficient full-size pickup on the road. may the best truck win.

we go to great lengths to exceed your exp]4tations. the 5-year, 100,000 mile transferable powertrain warranty, from gmc. with roadside assistance and courtesy transportation, it's the best coverage in america. all right. we have been throwing the term blizzard around all day and chad has been saying that it has a specific definition. let me show you what it is. winds of 35 miles an hour or

more and reduced visibility to a quarter mile or less for a mile or longer, and that is some sense of what is going on from south carolina northward to d.c. and all of the way into, i think it gets as far as boston, but boston is not under a blizzard warning, but bad weather up there as well. baltimore, and washington, and dulles, and wilmington, delaware, and all of those places have already broken their full winter snowfall record. allan chernoff is in new york city. reynolds wolf is in d.c. over the reynolds where it looks like the snow is letting up, but he is looking colder than he has looked in a few days. reynolds? >> well, that is right. ali, go through the checklist you were talking about for the criteria of a blizzard. the first thing you mentioned was the wind. we have had our share of gusts and you said 35 or stronger, and yes, we have had winds stronger than 35. and the second thing you mentioned was visibility, and a quarter mile or less, well, we will pan over and take a look at

chris turner who is our cnn photojournalist, and get a shot of the washington monument -- forget it. you cannot see the trees on either side. when you try to see the rotunda, things are better there, where you can see the outside of the line there of the capitol building itself. one bit of good news, the snowfall should be gone and the winlsd subsi winds should subside, but still, ice and snow everywhere. and treacherous is how it is described for the washington, d.c. area. this is one of the escape route, and this is pretty good all things considered. although the snow removal is poor in some places, they get a break especially here in d.c. considering again, two blizzards in less than a week's time. it is mind boggling and we are seeing this throughout the region as you have been saying, ali, 63,000 people without power

and we will add more to that as we get to the late night hours and into tomorrow, and certainly those issues, and then of course, the airports, again, with a lot of closures across the region and no flights taking off and no one coming in. tomorrow, gets back to normal and a backlog of a lot of customers who are impatient trying to get where they need to go. and you see the sun peering through the clouds. i will tell you that the precipitation is beginning to slow down, and sol of the stuff in the air is truly wind blown, and we are feeling it. back to you, ali. >> reynolds does not typically look cold, so it must be cold for him there. reynolds, we will stay with the city in d.c. and on the phone is the colonel mcandrews who is from the d.c. national guard which has been activated in d.c. lieutenant colonel, what are you doing in d.c.? what activities is the national guard engaging in? >> we have humvees that are stationed at each of the police

precincts and the fire departments and also the d.c. homeland security and emergency management facility. they are shoveling police and firemen back and forth to work -- shuttling police and firemen back and forth to work and even doctors to the local hospitals. >> tell us how that works. people call 911 typically and the police need to get somewhere and the humvees or the escort vehicle or actually police or doctors in the vehicles? >> no, they are inside of the humvees, because no other vehicles can get down the roads especially now in the blizzard conditions. at the metro police headquarters, they have an operation center that is keeping track of where all of our humvees are, and back at the d.c. national guard armory, we have an operation center operating 24/7, also tracking and staying in contact, radio

contact with our humvees that are all over the city and all over the region, shuttling emergency personnel to where they need to be. >> lieutenant colonel, how do you activate when you activate the national guard in a situation like this, often you are activating guard members who are coming from somewhere else, and in this case, a lot of the members will be affected by the storm, themselves, and their families and their ability to report for duty. how is that working? >> well, they are indeed heroes. they volunteer to come in. we have received a request from the city last week when the storm was coming for support. and then that goes through in our case being d.c., we fall under the president of the united states, and that flows through the department of defense and the secretary of army and then they give the approval for us to come out and do what we need to do for the city. >> all right. it is getting busier or less booze si? wh

-- less busy? what is the trend? we talked with reynolds wolf and he said that the winds are tapering off, but how is it looking? >> our folks are non-stop. they are not getting to the police direstrict, because they are being rerouted and once they get the mission done and back on the road. we are up to 300 missions from both of the storms, so it is just getting busier and busier and hardly keeping count. >> lieutenant colonel kevin mcandrews, great work out there for the washington, d.c. national guard. they have been activated in washington and virginia. good luck to you for the members who are helping people out. all right. it is thursday in iran here and that means it is the 31st anniversary of the revolution in that country. government has warned that demonstrators will be punished hardly, and will be punished very severely, and they have warned that the west is going to get a punch. ivan is working on the story, and i will talk to him after this break.

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okay. this is a developing story and has nothing to do with the weather here, but it has to do with the international climate. it is now thursday in iran and it makes it the 31st anniversary of the revolution in that country. as you know, it has seen a lot of demonstration. we are expecting to see the opposition protests and maybe we are starting to see one of them. the iranian government says it will crackdown on opposition protests and says on monday that

the supreme leader says it will punch the west in a way that will leave them stunned. and today, iranian court sentenced one person to death and eight people to prison for their role in december for the anti-government demonstrations. over to the international desk, and ivan watson said they are starting to hear something that is that there is some sort of demonstration or protest under way. what are you learing? >> yes, ali. for the first time in months we are hearing this protest chant. this is a sign of protest against the government. >> interesting. >> ahead of expected protests tomorrow. >> and we, again, this is the reason that we have this desk is that you can hear these things and get some sense of where they are coming from and try to verify information, but unlike the election last year, the information flow out of iran is slow. >> yes, virtual blockade and international journalists are not al u lowed in, and somebody

managed to upload demonstration video here. >> and it seems that the opposition forces and government are claiming success on their own. >> yes, you have the government celebrating the accomplishments of the islamic revolution, and now there is an opposition bloc saying, no, this sour day, too, and they are the going to go out to the streets and during the state-sponsored demonstrations and marches and the government says no, way, we will crush any rebellion or any dissent. >> and the sun is not up there, so we don't know whether it is happening. but what about the blow or the punch to the west? anything about that, the supreme leader saying they will punch the west? >> what we are hearing is that the supreme leader calls the opposition agents of the cia, agents of israel and the government and that makes people more angry. >> we will stay on top of the story and the international desk, and thank you so much for this and working on the iran

story. stay with us. we are coming right back after this break. get inside each. and see what you find. if perfection is what you pursue, this just might change your course. meet the new class of world class. the twenty-ten lacrosse, from buick. may the best car win. [ male announcer ] welcome to the now network, population 49 million.

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whatever your business card says, you're in the business of you. and only you know where you want that business to go. devry university's keller graduate school of management... offers 15 different mba concentrations, designed to match both the realities... of today's business world and your career ambitions. 85 locations nationwide and online. discover how to grow the business of you... at keller.edu. we are going to stay all over this storm for the next few hours. i'm ali velshi, and you can chasm me here at 1:00 p.m. eastern or 10:00 a.m. pacific. i was not going to be here tomorrow, but i am going to be, because i am one of the guys whose flights to the northeast has been canceled. so, we will cover this blizzard and right now, we are going to continue and we have live reporters all over the country or at least in the placeshe