good morning, everyone. it's a busy wednesday. i want to welcome you, if you are just waking up. morning sunshine, i'm robin meade. here's what's going on today. >> i was crying, screaming, yelling. >> the sun is going to come up soon in haiti. it could give us a real extend, a real idea of the devastation caused by a huge earthquake only 13 hours ago. you may just now be hearing about it. maybe you went to bed early. the people of haiti are surrounded by death and destruction after a 7.0 earthquake. they know too much about suffering. haiti is one of the poorest

countries in the world. to give you a sense about how bad things are. this was the presidential palace before the earthquake abdomen this is the palace after the earthquake. it is one, you would imagine, the presidential palace, one of the best built buildings and it's been turned into rubble. >> just come home from work with a very severe jolting. the entire building shook. things began to come down, off the wall. i ran out into the courtyard and began to other members to come into the courtyard. the shaking was severe and went on for, what i thought was quite a long time. i guess it was 15 to 20 seconds. >> can you imagine? because of the very poor conditions in haiti and the widespread destruction, no one really has a grasp, yet, on how many people are killed or

injured. they have no emergency services to rely on now. the united states is trying to help with civilian and military aid. they are also sending in rescue teams. >> the main thing that is are needed are search andres cue and immediate assistance for food and water for people trapped in buildings. the search andres cue is going to be a priority for the government and organizations in haiti. >> with so many of the phone and power lines down, we are getting word from your fellow viewers, i-reporters in haiti. jonathan works with a church group and here he is describing what he saw. >> three-story houses collapsed on to the one below it. i saw fences, block wall fences fallen on a motorcycle. one woman, i could only see her head, the rest of her body was

trapped under the fence, under a block wall. she had, obviously, i think she was dead. she has blood coming out of her eyes, nose and ears. >> an american airlines flight from haiti to miami was boarding when the earthquake struck. some chose not to get on. the flight took off and landed safely. passengers say they weren't exactly sure what was going on. >> it was a big shake. we thought it was something that hit the building. it turned out, it was an earthquake and only after the event we realized it was an earthquake. >> we are going to be monitoring the situation in haiti later on. there are all kinds of angles to cover here. because we are hln, we are going to cover other news of the day that affects you as well. let's get to a little of that now, then back to the haiti story. the trial for a man accused of killing a doctor who

performed late term abortions. he admits to shooting dr. george tiller in tiller's church, the attorney's plan he was trying to save unborn children. we may see an emotional debate about how history will be taught to children in texas. the state is holding public hearing. for the next ten years, there are squabbles about the christian beliefs. they could vote on it thursday. you know, back to the issue with haiti right now, they are living through a 7.0 magnitude earthquake and the aftershocks. don't feel alone if you didn't realize there was a fault line in the caribbean. rob has more on that. >> right. i was looking at information from that area. i did a little research and i

want to show why it happened. the entire earth is covered with plates. haiti, dominican republic and pure toe rico. you have a frontal zone, a fault zone. it's across haiti. it releases energy in the form of an earthquake. it's why we had the major earthquake. it's what happens in haiti. you are between two major plates in the surface. high pressure over the eastern sea board. here is the warm front over the great lakes. ahead of that, it's going to get on the cool side before it warms up. 22 in atlanta, 27 in jacksonville. tomorrow morning, all these temperatures ought to be above freezing, maybe right around freezing. lake-effect snow, it's not there. it's warm front snow. freezing rain possible there,

too. >> thank you. once again, we'll keep going back to the story out of haiti and cover other stories, too. "american idol" is back already. one contestant was sure she was a shoe-in because she says she wins on the idol video game all the time. ♪ i got a pocket full of sunshine snoet i got a love that you know is mine snoet oh, oh snoet do what you want but you're never gonna break me. >> come on. people don't really think they sing well when they sing like that. right? come on. you don't really think that, do you? you know -- >> ♪ to all the other chicks here ♪ ♪ i know what you want baby. >> oh. he's not going to hollywood. look at victoria beckham's face.

randy told him to stop singing forever. >> victoria beckham is filling in on the judge's panel. ellen degeneres is going to join them for the finals. simon is going to leave "idol" and pair up with a former "idol" judge. i guess you can guess on that one. we are going to hear from haitian americans this morning. a devastating earthquake, 7.0. communication with the island is really bad now. there's more debate over the government's massive recovery plan. how many jobs did it create?

you know what? this is a scene for people in haiti they are waking up to this morning. even if they slept at night at all.

some of your i-reporters are witnessing this firsthand. these pictures are on the southern coast of haiti, some distance from port-au-prince, which was hit hard. it's going to give an idea of how extensive the damage is. it's estimated more than 500,000 immigrants live in the united states. a lot of them are waiting to hear from family back at home. phone lines. are the phone lines working? >> yes, they are. as you can imagine, so many people concerned, it's incredible difficult to get through. there's large haitian communities in florida and new york. they have gathered to make phone calls and watch the news. one i-reporter got through to an aunt after hours and hours of trying. >> their house is completely

broke down. tonight, they will be sleeping in the streets. they are thankful they are alife. there are so many others around them that are not that fortunate. >> so, phones are down and that's why we are able to get information through social media. the state department set up a phone line for u.s. citizens to get information about family in haiti. 888-407-4747. you may get a recording at first because there are so many calls. >> so many people turned to the internet, the social media to get information. >> yeah. yeah. >> let's talk about how we are getting more information there than from official sources and phone lines. >> very interesting there, robin. several facebook groups have been set up in response to the quake. they have incredible firsthand photos of the catastrophe. some people also posted pictures of loved ones who are still missing, they are looking for

them. we want to show you a twitter message. church groups are singing throughout the city, all through the night in prayer. it's a beautiful sound in the middle of a horrible tragedy. people coming together, robin, in a difficult situation. >> the rescue crews are not happening tat moment, en masse. thank you. we always salute our troops. this is to kevin fox. she and her son love him and hold him close every day until the next time he's called up for duty overseas. he's one of the most generous people she knows. look at the baby. if you want to salute somebody in the service go to c nr cnn.com/robin. new this morning. all the stimulus money created or saved up to 2 million jobs. at least that's what the white house says. jennifer westhoven is here to check the numbers. >> good morning.

this is where democrats have one view, republicans have another view and then economists have a different view. how is all this money that we are all spending, is it making a difference? the white house, they say they are about accountability. here is their report card. remember, it's their report card on themselves. there's no way to measure it. the white house has been adjusting the numbers. the report says up to 2 million jobs. that's their number now. up to 2 million were created or save saved by the stimulus plan. it's direct creation like, so you have a road project and people come to work on it or indirect when companies were buying supplies. they hire people, too. republicans say the stimulus failed. now, a big hotel says its hiring. that's good news about jobs. we're talking thousands of them. that's good news in a bad economy, a bad job market. starwood runs wes tin and sher tin.

they are opening more than 80 hotels this year. they need 12,000 employees. half of the jobs are in the u.s. they can range from management to housekeeping. robin. >> good to hear people are hiring. thank you. some of the other stories we are tracking in the "morning express" plan are what caused the current financial crisis. a bipartisan commission will look into that in a hearing this morning at 9:00 a.m. eastern. at 1:00 p.m. eastern, you can bid on the tavern on the green restaurant. in new york, it's selling everything to pay down its $8 million debt. the president will be on the road in maryland, talking about clean enerp ji jobs and turn in an electrician training senor that specializes in training. we are getting a better idea about how many people could be trapped under rubble in haiti. one of the places rescue crews

are worried about is this. osteopro sis can strik if you are young and healthy. there are ways you can fight back.

good morning, people are digging through the rubble at the u.n. headquarters at port-au-prince in haiti after the building collapsed in yesterday's earthquake. we have not heard that anybody's been rescued from the building.

the u.n. peace keeping chief says he knows there are going to be casualties. many people are unaccounted for. 9,000 peace keepers work in haiti along with 2,000 police and 500 civilians. if you want to help the quake victims log on to cnn.com/robin. we have a list of the local and the international organizations that already are providing aid. oh, those pictures. you know, there was another security scare, another one on a northwest airlines flight from amsterdam to detroit. it's the same airline and the same route in the christmas day bombing. what the passengers experienced when their plane got to the gate. thousands in knoxville, tennessee took to the streets in protest after learning their

football coach was leaving for another job. this is one of those stories, not the story, but the whole phenomenon of the college coaches taking off for another job before their team gets to the playoffs. sickens me. >> it sickens me, too. the kids are asked to pledge three or four years to the program. the coach goes into the kids living room and say play for me for three or four years, then bolts. he suddenly left for usc. thousands took to the streets and reports where they tried to block his car from leaving. get this, like robin said, he only went 7-6 this past season. he won nothing after making promises. the 34-year-old was an assistant for usc. get this, this will be his third multimillion dollar coaching job in just 17 months. i got crazy video to show you.

two jockeys started fighting in the middle of a race. in the middle. one punches one. one punches the other. another guy pulls his whip out. bam, bam, here comes the whip. >> on the jockey. >> on the jockey, whipping the other jockey. not clear what started it. neither horse finished in the money. shocking. >> they are lucky their horses dnlt get injured. you can't run them that close. >> that's true. a water pipe broke. there's the sign telling everybody to get out. the broadcasters had to go sit in the clippers team bus. in the next half hour on sports. i thought i had another story, but no. >> short on time. all right. some of the fema trailers used in hurricane katrina are on

the auction block. right now, they are being stored in mississippi and arkansas. a coordinator says most trailers will be gone by september, bidding ends friday. all right, check of the morning papers for you. usa today, there's a story about the long deployments are having on troops. 10,000 soldiers spent three to four years on combat duty. democrats are getting worried abtd holding on to the late ted kennedy's seat. the gap is closed. analysts say, even a close win could mean trouble for the democrats in mid-term elections. from "the new york times," a city destroyed tons of new clothing instead of giving it to people like it usually does. it was counterfeit.

the police department says nobody asked for it. well, who knew it was going on to ask for it. 20 minutes past the hour. i guess i'm in that outrage morning. i'm outraged at everything. hi, bob. >> good morning. east coast, middle of the country looks good. no de-icing, either. heavy rain through san francisco. here is california. the green and yellow is rain. the blue is snow. rainshowers, low clouds around the bay area for most of the day. rain stretches to san diego as well. watch for delays. san francisco, about an hour or more, it's a great posz bltd in about two hours from now. l.a.x., 30 minute delays are possible there. san diego, 30 minute delays, also. north, showers around seattle and las vegas, too. las vegas getting light rain in the afternoon. seattle getting rain now. >> thank you very mup.

our big story is this, people in haiti are waking up to some of the worst destruction they have ever seen. look what's left after the worst quake in more than 200 years. we are following all the developments here. nbcs plans for jay leno and conan o'brien.

the haitian capital of port-au-prince, the streets are filled with people left wounded or homeless by yesterday's huge earthquake. this was a magnitude 7.0. since then, there have been at least 28 strong aftershocks. we do not have a strong grasp of how many people have been killed. nations around the world, including the united states have pledged to help. it's not clear what it would be able to do with supplies once it gets them. the situation is a total disaster. >> hello, my name is co-nan o'brien. i may soon be available for

children's parties. when i was a little boy, i remember watching "the tonight show" with johnny carson saying some day, i'm going to host that show for seven months. >> conan o'brien is saying no way to nbcs plan for him and jay leno. nbc wants to give the 11:35 p.m. slot back to leno, then o'brien goes after midnight. o'brien says the proposal would damage the franchise and he's disappointed nbc didn't give him more time to establish himself. he's saying not going to play along. wonder what will happen. those are a few of the headlines we are following. it's 31 minutes past the hour. we are thankful you are our viewers this morning, i'm robin meade. morning is breaking in haiti and people there are starting to get a full look at the destruction

caused bay massive earthquake. we have information in bits and pieces out of the poor communication in that country. much of what we are seeing is amateur video. it was posted on places like u tube. one of our workers was told about it from his own family in haiti. >> my dad came down from upstairs, tears in his eyes and say i saying that my brother just called saying there was a major earthquake in haiti. then, there was chaos all around him. then, he doesn't know what happened to the cousins. all the houses crumble, then he was the only one. his house was the only house left. he was telling us, explaning what happened, then suddenly, we heard that noise. i went to the store to buy calling cards. we tried to call him and couldn't get in touch with him since. >> you were hearing busy

signals? >> yeah. busy signal, then the call went through, but nobody picked up. >> it's horrible to have a tragedy like that happen anywhere. it's hard to deal with in haiti because it's one of the poorest countries in the world. richard lui is joining us now. can you give us an example of what the living conditions are like on a normal time. >> there are about nine people in haiti, itself. before the quake hit, 80% of them were living in poverty or below the poverty line. on cnn, maxine waters described the conditions there for us. >> in city soliai, you have no running water, open sewers, you have the kind of situation that you just described, where people were feeding their children mud cakes. they have nothing.

they were starving. they have nowhere to turn. i'm sure the shanties and shacks have all collapsed. >> shanties built with bricks, perhaps metal sheets. you look at these pictures here. yeah, there's concrete. there's questions about the foundation. is it reenforced with rebar? because concrete is there, it's not good. it's heavy when it falls. your heart goes out when she says parents feed their children mud cakes? >> yes. they live on $2, $3, $4 a day. difficult conditions. >> you have been keeping an eye on the social networking for us. it's where we are getting the majority of pictures. >> we are seeing social media being active. twit pick now. you can see the dust, it was described as covering certain parts of the city. the structures collapsed and caused dust in the air. we went to facebook where we

found different reactions. this is a twitter page. everybody is camping in the streets of port-au-prince, sleeping under the stars to wake up from an awful night. moments after the earthquakes, quiet, no electricity, people coming together for the first time. it's very eerie, no doubt. >> thank you. we are going to monitor that situation in morning. because it's becoming daybreak, we should get more pictures and reports in here. we are covering other news of the day because we are hln. two workers killed and three more injured when a former worker opened fire at a truck rental place outside of atlanta. the suspect, jesse james warren is expected to appear in court on multiple murder and assault charges. he used to work for the rental company. it's not clear when or why he left the job. we could hear from the u.s.

supreme court today about whether you'll see video from the california same-sex marriage ban. the judge ruled it would be on youtube after a delay. they blocked it now. cameras could affect temperature. testimony. sz don't feel like you are alone if you didn't know there was a fault line that ran through the caribbean where haiti experienced their earthquake. good morning. >> good morning. i did a little investigation this morning. i wanted to see where the fault lines lie. this entire region, puerto rico on a sub duction zone. they have plates all over the globe. also, at the surface, you have fault zones. you can see one across hispanola. they are on a sub duction zone. it slides all the time.

it gets released and that's the earthquake. a couple faults in the region. high pressure building over the east coast. it's not as cold as it hanover the last couple mornings. warmer air coming up. warm front, you can see around ontario, getting a little light freezing rain. that's all you are getting out of this. 22 in atlanta, 22 in birmingham. 27 degrees right now in jacksonville. a little light snow. mainly north of syracuse this morning. we had advisories shaded out there. watertown goes from noon today to evening hours. heavy rain and snow for california. we'll talk about that over the next couple hours. >> thank you very much. to get a good idea about how bad yesterday's earthquake in haiti was, look at what's left of the national palace in the capital city. that could be one of the best

built buildings in the country.

for first, a stirtling look at the earthquake. this is the presidential palace downtown. this is what it looked like before the quake. now, this is what it looks like after. haiti has no building codes, to speak of. if the palace was hit that hard, can you imagine what every day houses and offices look like? >> the palace, itself, is damaged. the minister of commerce, damaged. these are very sturdy buildings. so, if those buildings are

damaged, can you imagine what's happened to all these flimsy abodes on port-au-prince and the hillsides. it's a catastrophe. >> if you want to help, log on to cnn.com/robyn, click on the impact link. google says it's had enough of chinese sensorship and cyber attacks. it might say, we are out of here. jennifer westhoven is here. >> this is a big deal. you think most companies see china as the next huge growth spot out there. google is saying we may be willing to pull out. it has evidence of a highly sophisticated and targeted attack by hackers in china into google and at least 20 other companies. google says they stole intellectual property. get this. maybe more dangerously, they

broke into the g-mail accounts of chinese human rights activists. the internet giant says from now on, it will no longer sensor its own sight for the chinese authorities. it's saying, if beijing does not like that, it's threatening to shut down the site and pull out of china. yeah. we had two chinese related business stories this morning. another retailer is pulling made in china jewelry off shelves because of fears of toxic metal. it's a story we have been following all week. claires is pulling questionable items off the shelves after an investigation found high levels of a dangerous metals. walmart pulled kids jewelry off shelves, too. >> frightening. thank you. how does one of the old ees

tea shops in new york up its game? the owner made a cool retro in this small business express. >> rob is a cheese whiz. >> here's cheese. this is from spain. >> reporter: owner of murrays cheese, the oldest cheese shop, he combines the past with the present. >> it's very old fashioned. customers see what they see. at the same time, we have changed. >> reporter: he sells more than 250 different cheeses, meats and products. layout is key. >> merchandising is important. essentially, it should be full, it should be fresh. we are trying to get the idea of delicious across. >> reporter: he does wholesale and mail orders and popular cheese classes. >> the main goal is to educate our customers. >> reporter: a big part of their job is to create an experience

for the customer. >> if you come here, you find a very, very friendly staff, that will give you a taste and explain things to you. >> we hire people that are ak centric. customers seem to enjoy that. >> if you are a small business owner, we'd like to see your success story. go to cnn.com/robin. talk about a shocking welcome. a group of u.s. missionaries arrived in haiti an hour before a massive earthquake. they provided us with dramatic pictures and immediately went to work. plus, is it the computer virus of the future? messages dated 2016.

we're getting dramatic

pictures from our i-reporters in haiti after a massive earthquake there. these are from a church mission group. listen to this. they arrived an hour before the quake hit, so immediately started helping the injured. stay with hln and we will bring pictures to you. wednesday shouldn't be too crowds, right, bob? >> east coast looks good. denver, a bit of a breeze, but warm, 55. then head to the west. things are going to be rough if you are going in or out of san francisco. count on an hour delay. los angeles, rain headed in your direction. half hour delays possible this morning. san diego, showers, watching for half hour delays. seattle, rain on and off. more in a bit. >> thank you. "american idol" is off ond

running for season nine. the judges picked 30 people to go to boston, including this lady. ♪ bluebirds singing a song ♪ as we go on ♪ nothing but the bluebirds and the blue sky. >> u nan mouse vote, yes. plus, justin. ♪ birds flying high, you know how i feel. >> he got a unanimous yes, too. ♪ you know how i feel. >> that was good, wasn't it? jose says mark mcgwire is still lying about his steroid use. he did not show up on "larry king live" to say that. >> spent all morning. well, he backed out of the show,

according to larry he said he was quote fired of defending himself. before that, he goes on espn radio in chicago and responds to mcgwire calling him a liar. he said the two, when they played together in oakland injected each other with steroids. the manager knew about it. they say no, that's not true. he just hired mcgwire as a hitting coach. he came clean yesterday. so far, everything -- go ahead. >> can i just add something? when i was watching "larry king" he jose said i'm having a breakdown. >> i'm having a breakdown. he did an interview with espn and he looked fine. >> he was fired of defending himself. >> exactly. >> a basketball coach apologized for hitting one of his players. kansas state's frank martin took a swipe at chris merry weather's

arm. the crowd reacted he said i'm on old-school guy and realizes times are sensitive. he's not mad about it. i have it. local boy at a skiing competition, watch this, as he falls and takes out a marshal right there. now, the good news is reports are neither the skier or the marshal were hurt. i got to get to this story. the new york 96 blame their latest loss on a haunted hotel. two players told the new york daily news that they couldn't sleep in their hotel in oklahoma city because they heard it was haunted. center eddie curry said he went into that guy's room to sleep because he was so scared. nature robinson is tall. they were shaggy and school boardy in the hotel. that's a look at sports. >> that is hysterical.

a security scare, startleded passengers on a northwest flight from amsterdam to detroit. that's the same airline and the same route as the alleged christmas day bombing attempt. security met the flight at the gate yesterday and they detained four passengers. the airline said they would not follow the flight crew's instructions. one passenger said things got pretty tense on that flight. >> what was going through your mind at that time? >> i hope the plane doesn't blow up and i get to see my wife and son again. >> that bad? >> yeah. yeah. it was the thought crossed my mind. >> you know, we don't know exactly what the passengers did to alarm the flight crew. the tsa says they were released after they answered some questions. the conditions in one of the poorest nations in the world just got much worse. just look at these pictures out of haiti this morning. we've learned there is a rescue effort going on at the u.n. headquarters there after a massive earthquake.

good morning. right in the middle of the week. i'm robin meade. the time is 7:00 a.m. eastern. here's what is going on today, a breaking story. >> i was inside the house, and then i felt all the houses shaking, even the couch i sat on was shaking with me. >> we're soon going to get our first look at the destruction in haiti. that was 14 hours ago when it happened. this is our breaking news story. the people of haiti are vounlded by death and destruction that's after a massive 7.0 earthquake. haiti is one of the poorest

countries in the world. in the capital of port-au-prince thousands of buildings were destroyed. the associated press reports that 11 u.n. peace keepers were killed when their headquarters fell and a u.n. official notes that dozens are other staff members are still unaccounted for. >> houses had collapsed, three story houses, each floor collapsed on the one below it. i saw fences, block wall fences that had fallen on to a motorcycle. one woman, i could only see her head and the rest of her body was trapped under the fence, under a block wall. >> people are running up and down the street, from what i understand, crying. a lot of people are under the street, because they are afraid to go in their homes. >> three jord 18ian members of the u.n. peace keeping force were killed in the quake. port-au-prince suffered serious damage. because of the poor conditions

no one has any real sense exactly how many people may have been killed or injured. they have virtually no emergency services to rely on. the u.s. is trying to help with civilian and military aid and it is also sending rescue teams. >> the main things that are going to be needed are search and rescue and immediate assistance, food and water, primarily water for people who have been affected and perhaps trapped in buildings. the search and rescue effort is going to be a priority for the government and organizations in haiti. >> you know what, let me give you a startling look at the kind of destruction we're talking about. you would think the presidential palace, this massive thing is one of the best built structures there. here it is before the quake, beautiful. here it is on the other side after. do you see how the domes have crushed inward. keep in mind haiti has no building codes to speak of. if the palace was hit that hard, who could imagine what everyday

homes and businesses look like this morning. even with many phone and power lines are down, we're getting word from i-reporters in haiti. here's what one witness saw. >> i was driving back to my work. i was stuck in traffic. i was on the phone. when i feel like my car was shaking. i felt like some other cars hit me. when i look in front of me, i see a lot of people falling down, and they were crying for help. >> the state department has set up a number if you're looking for information about any relatives in haiti. here is the number, 1-888-407-4747. do we have that on our website too? yes, we do. we're going to monitor the situation in haiti right now. as we get more information and more video coming in, we'll turn

it right around. we're going to hear from haitian americans who are worried about their loved ones, plus how the living conditions could really slow down the recovery effort. we're going to cover some of the news of the day as well. the trial for the man accused of killing a kansas doctor who performed late term abortions may be delayed today. the state supreme court ordered the judge to reconsider his decision to keep scott roeder's jury selection a secret. he admits to shooting dr. george tiller in tiller's church. his attorneys plan to argue he was trying to save unborn children. conan o'brien is saying no to nbc's plan to move jay leno back to his old slot. nbc wants jay to go back to 11:35. that would mean conan o'brien would go on later. he says that would seriously damage the tonight show franchise. he's disappointed he didn't get more time to establish himself in that time slot.

he's staying light hearted about it though. >> hello, my name is conan o'brien and i may soon be available for children's parties. when i was a little boy, i remember watching the tonight show with johnny carson thinking some day, i'm going to host that show for seven months. >> o'brien says it's not that he has offers from other networks. tell them to stuff it is basically what's going on there. >> you know what, good for him. i love conan o'brien. that's rough. you made the decision. stick with it. >> i'm with you. >> i'm in his demo. >> you are the demographic. good morning. if you're waking up. remember yesterday we said light at the end of the tunnel. what day was that supposed to happen? >> this is the last cold day for you in northern florida and georgia and alabama. we have hard freeze warnings around there.

hard freeze warnings, it's the last time now. high pressure directly over head. as that slides eastward, winds begin to come out of the southwest. it's also bringing warming temperatures, so it is the last sub freezing morning for you hopefully. 32 tomorrow the low when you get towards jacksonville, maybe 33, so close to freezing tomorrow, but right now, well blow at 26. 22 degrees in atlanta, 14 in nashville, 21 in charlotte. look at the snow on the light side, warm front pushing through ontario, light freezing rain is a possibility too especially north of syracuse. we have advisories posted for you north of that region in towards watertown. then there's your rain in texas, getting towards corpus christi. it stretches into san antonio. that moves towards houston later on today on the light side but

it's going to be there for most of the morning. are quarter inch of rain maybe a third of an inch. out west, there's a major storm as it moves towards oregon and northern california. here's the heavy rain jutting back into southern parts of california. here's the sacramento radar. flashes of lightning popping up. if you go above 45 foot elevation, you see that turn into snow. the tsa and the cdc are investigating. get this, how a man, with an active case of tuberculosis got on board a cross country flight. health officials say they notified the airline 14 hours before the flight from philly to san francisco on saturday. the cdc says there was little risk to other passengers because the flight wasn't long enough. the airline says it is helping with the investigation. back to our breaking story. we're going to hear from haitian americans this morning following a massive earthquake in haiti. i can't imagine how difficult

that is. communication with the island is really bad right now. more debate over the government's economic recovery plan. how many jobs were created anyway?

♪ you know what, these are some of the more dramatic pictures coming out of haiti this morning. they show people who were injured at a hotel in port-au-prince, haiti. the hotel is one of the buildings seriously damaged in yesterday's 7.0 earthquake, not too mention so many aftershocks. more than half a million haitian imgrants live in the united states and many of them are waiting to hear how their families are. let's talk about the phone lines whether they're working at all? >> they are, but as you can probably imagine here,

incredibly difficult to get through. there are large haitian american communities in florida and new york as you were talking about, and many of them have gathered together to make phone calls and watch the news. one i-reporter got through to an aunt after hours of trying. >> their house is completely broke down. tonight, they'll be sleeping in the streets. i'm thankful they are alive, because there are so many others around them that are not that fortunate. >> robin, he continued with a plea for u.s. citizens to send aid for the country. >> you know what, this is one of the amazing points of this story, and that is while the phone lines are down, it's the social media that's been really churning out the latest information. what are you seeing? >> robin, very graphic images sometimes. twitter and facebook really giving us a firsthand look at the catastrophe. you can see the structures here, two story, three story buildings absolute rubble right now. these are the photos we have

been looking at. some people have posted pictures of loved ones who are still missing, hoping to get people that will go to these social media sites and help them out. we're also hearing from our own facebook page. carl saying he got word that my missionary friend and her students are unharmed and safe. amy wrote saying haiti has been long neglected and abused on the international scene. may the children of haiti take this tragedy and find a way to a brighter future. as we know from these very difficult memos people come together and something better comes from it often. >> your thoughts go out to these people right now. thank you so much. if you want to make a comment on our facebook page. maybe you have contact with someone there who experienced the earthquake in haiti. you can go to cnn.com/robin. there's an icon right there. right now, we always salute our troops. today's salute is to sergeant

kevin fox. his wife kate says she and her son love them. they hold him close everyday. kate also says kevin is one of the most generous people she knows. if you have someone in the service you love and want to salute them go to cnn.com/robin. all that stimulus money has created or saved up to 2 million jobs. at least that's what the white house says. our money expert jennifer westhoven. of course there's going to be back and forth on that? >> they may even change the number themselves, but you got to keep in mind there's no hard and fast way to measure jobs that are saved, for example. and all quarters as you can imagine, they're going to have views on this. this is from democrats. the white house's report card on itself says, this was released overnight, up to 2 million jobs created or saved, that's directly or indirectly. unemployment is still 10%. republicans say 10%. that is proof the stimulus

didn't work, but democrats say unemployment would be a lot worse without the stimulus, but all of this is about all of your money, your taxpayer dollars that the federal government is spending, whether or not it's making a difference. get out or resume, a big hotel says it's hiring. i'm talking thousands of new jobs. that's good news in a bad economy. starwood says it is hiring 12,000 people, half of them right here in the united states. target cities include new york city, austin, texas. biloxi, mississippi and everything from management to housekeeping. if you think i might try that out, i don't know if those specific jobs are posted yet, but you can go to our website, cnn.com/robin and we've got a link for you. it takes you right to star woods' hiring site. bob, what's happening? >> good morning, jennifer. in the east coast, middle of the country looks really nice,

midwest, rocky mountains, really nice. it's the west coast we're concerned with heavy rain. saber flight explorer, you can see the planes coming and going, heaviest rain is pulling out of sacramento and heavy snow, the rain is going to move towards los angeles, same with san diego. here's what we have delay wise. calling for about an hour in san francisco. showers first, it's the low clouds coming in. they're still there. watch for an hour more delay. los angeles, looking at 30 minute to one hour delays at l.a.x. san diego, same thing, low clouds head into las vegas so watch for showers to slow you down. up in seattle more rain. 30 minute delays. we'll talk about those. it's one of the best part of "american idol," those just awful auditions. we've got the highlights from last night's premier and some surprises at the judge's table. plus there was another security scare on a northwest airlines flight from amsterdam

to detroit. what passengers experienced when the plane got to the gate.

breaking news right now. people digging through the rubble of the u.n. headquarters building in haiti have started to find bodies. the five story building collapsed in yesterday's 7.0 earthquake. many people are still unaccounted for. 250 people work in that building everyday. if you want to help the quake victims log on to cnn.com/robin.

click on the impact link. there's a list of international and local organizations. an animal rights group was barking up the wrong tree with their latest ad campaign. peta says it is pulling an ad featuring first lady michelle obama. thousands at the university of tennessee took to the streets after they learned that their football coach was going to leave for another school. they did not like it. here's rafer with more on that. good morning. >> good morning. you know what? they have every right to be upset. this was carpet bagging at its absolute worst. people were rooiting in the streets. here's the video of the studentses. they are saying it was a mob. reports are a mattress was set on fire and reportedly the protesters tried to block kiffin's car from leaving.

he says they have a right to be mad. he was an asis at that point at usc for years. before tennessee, he was the coach of the raiders so it's his third coaching job in 17 months. crazy video to show you here. two jockeys started fighting in the middle of a race, side by side. here it is one punches the other, the other punches back the other pulls his whip out. >> to use on the jockey. >> wasn't exactly clear what caused this fight. the guy who started it wouldn't talk about it. neither horse finished in the money and neither horses were hurt. fans were evacuated in the of an nba game after a water pipe broke. according to the broadcasters, the players had to go and sit on the clippers' team buses together. the winter olympics got an early

start. 30 or more canines competed in various events like slol legal and ski joring. it's origins are believed to be in scan din i'veia. >> i like these two. the dog wants to run in the other direction. >> your dogs love the snow. >> they did act a fool when they saw the snow. we live in atlanta and they don't get to see snow that much. "american idol" is back. season nine kicked off already with auditions in boston. one con tess tant was sure she was a shoe in because she wins on the video game idol all the time. ♪ i got a pocket full of sunshine. i got a love you know is mine ♪ ♪ do what you want but you're never going to beat me ♪

>> come on not for real. give me more. ♪ you can play to all the other chiks in here but i know what you are ♪ ♪ what you are baby ♪ womanizer >> well, he's not going to hollywood either. randy told him to stop singing forever, what about his dance moves? did you see the judges victoria beckham was among them. ellen degeneres going to do the show for the hollywood roundses. later we have more on simon's plan to depart, but then maybe team up with a former idol judge. one group wants to end distracted driving and it has some high ranking support for a hard hitting ban.

the haitian capital of port-au-prince, the streets are filled with people who are left wounded or homeless after yesterday's devastating earthquake there. it was a magnitude .0 and since then there have been at least 28 aftershocks. we still don't have a grasp on how many people were killed or injured. humanitarian agencies and nations around the world including the u.s. are pledging to help haiti. it's in such bad shape it's not clear what it would do with any of the supplies once it gets them. the white house says as many as 2 million jobs were created or saved because of the stimulus package. critics are all over those

numbers. they say the nation's 10% unemployment rate is proof the plan is not working. the white house says those numbers could have been much worse without the stimulus package. good morning sleepy head. it's 30 minutes past the hour. morning, sunshine. let's go back into the breaking story today. we're hearing descriptions like a total disaster, a catastrophe of major proportions. this is the situation in haiti right now. after yesterday's 7.0 earthquake. the country knows all about tragedy and suffering. it is one of the poorest countries in the world. people there are probably just now getting a full look at the destruction as the light comes up. here's some of what they saw yesterday. much of what we've seen so far has been from amateur video posted on places like youtube. one of our co-workers here at cnn was on the phone with his family in haiti when the earthquake happened. he was actually talking to them yesterday because it was his birthday. >> my dad came down from

upstairs and with tears in his eyes saying my brother just called saying there was a major earthquake in haiti and then there was chaos all around him and he doesn't know what happened to the cousins. all the houses crumble and then he was the only one -- his was the only house left. >> it's horrible to have any tragedy like that anywhere. as we said, it's hard to deal with especially in haiti, because it's one of the poorest countries in the world. correspondent richard lui, can you give us a sense of what the living conditions are there? >> there's about nine people that live in the country. one of the poorest countries in the world, they say it is one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere. even before the quake hit, about 80% of them living below the poverty line. on our sister network cnn last night congresswoman maxine waters described the conditions in the country. >> in cite soleil, you have no

running water. you have open sewers, you have the kind of situation that you just described where people were feeding their children mud cakes because they had nothing. they were starving. they have nothing. they have nowhere to turn. i'm sure those shanties and shaks have all collapsed. >> robin, 9 million people living in the country. not 9. you heard maxine waters mention the condition of the buildings. most are made of concrete, but there's an issue of how much steel reinforcement is in them. there's issue of foundations, they are often unstable. >> isn't it heartbreaking? did they say they would feed their children mud cakes? >> robin, they live on less than a dollar sometimes each day. >> you are also keeping an eye on the social networking sites are the things we're getting a lot of pictures from? >> that is where we're getting a lot of information. twitter, facebook, they have been the best way to get updates

on the situation there. these are some of the photos we have been looking at. this is the haze of smoke that was reported perhaps after the earthquake because of the buildings collapsing. another one has people cooking in the streets. you see an ig loo on the right side in blue, maybe a barbecue on the left hand side. somebody also posted updates on our facebook page. these are women holding hands in the street. we heard reports of them singing to lighten the mood because it was so horrible after the earthquake. carl says thankfully all of my family on my mother's side were able to get away safe. what a horrible catastrophe. >> if you would like to also chat with your fellow viewers about your experience or your thoughts about what's happening in haiti, you can go to cnn.com/robin. there's an f, issuingen for facebook. >> because we are hln and

"morning express," we're going to cover some of the other stories of the day really fast. two workers were killed and three more injured when a former worker opened fire at a truck rental shop outside of atlanta. the suspect, jesse james warren is expected to appear in court this morning on multiple murder and assault charges. warren used to work for the rental company. it's not clear why or when he left the job. we can hear from the u.s. supreme court today about whether you are going to be aloud to see any trial from the same sex marriage ban. the supreme court blocked that for now. those against the coverage said cameras could affect the testimony. movie fans may love "avatar," but the vatican is not impressed. vatican newspapers and radio call it a bland, simplistic sappy tale. they criticize james cameron for

plirting with worship of nature can replace religion. "avatar" is the second highest grossing movie ever. interesting little nugget there. 35 minutes past the hour. what's going on in your weather today? please give us a break from nasty cold weather? >> good morning. things are going to start to moderate. warmer temperatures heading in the deep southeast. this weather brought to you by tylenol flu. if you're traveling anywhere in the middle of the country, things will be fine. southern tip of texas getting rain coming in. that's going to move towards the houston area, but the high pressure region, the arctic high beginning to loosen up, loosen its grip. still 22 in atlanta, 14 in nashville, 26 in jacksonville, i think the last day you're going to see temperatures this far below freezing. 32 in jacksonville tomorrow. 39 in tampa, west of there, let me show you st. peat beach.

looking pretty nice. what a beautiful start. 44 degrees currently into the upper 50s. by tomorrow morning, temperature starting out in the mid trorts tomorrow. no freeze concerns around tampa. patchy frost, that's all you're going to find. i want to show you what's happening across new york state. light snow. it's going to warmer in warmer temperatures but ahead of that, light snow and freezing snow can be found north of syracuse. watch for some winter type weather for the afternoon. that's the areas shaded in the blue green. light snow but freezing rain. down across the south, you can see rain across corpus christi and san antonio. again pacific storm still has a lot of rain for california. we'll get to that in about a half hour. a decision about how to teach kids history is stirring up a big debate in texas. why people are getting riled up. plus we're following the breaking news of a massive earthquake in ha haiti. the u.s. is sending word of

encouragesment to victims in haiti, but we're also sending more.

welcome back. rescuers from across the united states are heading to haiti right now. an urban search and rescue team from l.a. is bringing tons of equipment and medical aid. firefighters from fairfax, virginia are getting ready to be deployed. they helped out when a school collapsed there in november. getting the supplies on shore and to the people can be a tough order there. the full impact really is still

not known yet. >> we are still gathering information about this catastrophic earthquake. the point of impact, its effect on the people of haiti. the united states is offering our full assistance to haiti and to others in the region. we will be providing both civilian and military disaster relief and humanitarian assistance and our prayers are with the people who have suffered, their families and their loved ones. former president bill clinton is also the u.n. special envoy for haiti. he says the u.n. will do whatever it can to help. if you want to help log on to cnn.com/robin. click on the impact link. you'll find lists of local and international organizations providing aid. you know what? google says it has had enough of chinese censorship. it might be willing to say gentleman jiang. we're out of here.

jennifer westhoven is here? >> this is sending a shockwave through communities that think about google's business but it seems like to many of their reports chinese communities where so many people rely on the internet to talk to each other, with a government that censors them a lot. many u.s. companies, just what it means for us, our economy and business, a lot of u.s. companies think china is the next growth frontier for u.s. profits, but google is saying we may be willing to leave, to give up all of that. this is after evidence of a highly sophisticated and targeted attack by hackers in china and google says the hackers not only stole intellectual property but broke into g mail accounts of some chinese human rights activists. that is raising a lot of questions. even secretary of state hillary clinton is looking into this. the internet giant says it's no longer going to self censor its website. to operate in china, companies

have to basically censor anything they think the chinese government would object to. google is saying they will not do that. they're publishing reports about this which is causing a ruckus there. if they're not allowed to publish what they want, they may pull out. effortses to reach the chinese embassy in washington, not successful. i think hillary clinton hasn't been successful. biggest bankers are going to be called front and center in washington to be asked about their role in the financial meltdown. this is the kind of thing that happens after something like that, right? there are lots of congressional hearings. they want to find out what happened and if there are any major policy changes they should put into place to prevent it from happening again. it will be a bipartisan panel of former politicians and business leaders trying to find out what caused the crisis and report back. i think one of the things you may remember, we used to have a big fire wall in place in between companies that make lots

of gambles and banks. back in the 90s they took that down and a lot of people think, maybe we should have kept that in place. it would have kept a lot of the banks safer. >> interesting. thank you. you're going to be seeing a little less of first lady michelle obama. why the peta ads she was in are about to disappear. plus why jose canseco says mark mcgwire still is not telling the truth.

good morning. look at these pictures taken a few minutes after the earthquake in haiti. this is what you're looking at. some of our i-reporters have described a cloud of concrete dust after the earthquake. that's what you're seeing apparently. stay with hln for coverage of this breaking news story as we continue to get more tape in here and pictures to show you. don't feel like you're alone if you go i didn't know that the caribbean was prone to aerks. bob has been checking into the geology of why it happened. good morning? >> i want to show you the entire caribbean area around the

region. the whole area is in a subduction zone. that's an area where two tectonic plates meet and rub together. the north american plate is colliding with the letting go is the energy that gets thrown out. that is the earthquake we feel it. it gets around the major fault zones. northern parts of en espanol, that was right around that region. that's probably what happened, little slippage and you had the energy fall and an earthquake. >> for a time, there was a tsunami watch. >> 12 centimeter big tsunami was reported, luckily no tsunami. >> peta is pulling an ad that featured the first lady. the group used a photo of her in an anti-fur ad, but it never got authorization to use her image. the white house has not commented on the move, but in

the past, the white house has not condoned the use of the first family's images for commercial purposes. jose canseco was supposed to be on larry king last night abruptly said it was a no go. he said he was having a breakdown and says mark mcgwire is a liar. >> good morning. lots of drama. canseco basically said he was tired of defending himself. maybe he didn't want to answer the tough questions by larry king, but before that, he spoke to espn radio and tv and here's what he said. even though mark mcgwire came clean, he is still lying. canseco says when they played together, the guys injected themselves with steroids. still denied it and la ruse sa denied it. la ruse sa hired mcgwire as the hitting coach. so far most of what canseco said has proven to be true. the bob woodward of the steroid.

basketball coach apologized for hitting one of his players. frank martin took a swipe at chris meriweather right there. he said, hey, i'm an old school guy, i realize times are sensitive. i love meriweather. meriweather says he was not that upset. >> look at the video. look at the skier heading down the mountain, watch him lose his balance and take out a marshal right there. the good news is neither the skier nor the marshal were hurt. he should be fine for the upcoming olympics. >> i got to get to this story. >> this is one of our favorite stories. >> the new york knicks blame the latest loss on a haunted hotel. two players said they could not sleep in their hotel in oklahoma city because they heard it was haublted. eddy curry went to nate robinson's room. the two of them are like scooby

doo. >> big men aflad of the ghosts. >> thank you. tell me to stop that was good. that was good. >> if you shopped online over the holidays, were you happy with the experience? hln money expert clark howard dug up some good news. >> this is clark howard. did you do any of your shopping online for this past christmas? people did in record numbers, that's in spite of how sluggish retailing was for the christmas selling season and listen to this, new data showed people were much happier with their internet shopping experiences than they'd ever been. in fact the number of retailers did an outstanding job in customer service and online purchasing, way up according to the data. this is really great news because, in my book, internet shopping is the ultimate in free enterprise.

you are able to comparison shop so easily, online merchant to online merchant to find the best price on something and at the same time make a judgement about who has the best customer service. somebody does a bad job for you who you thought would be a good job, you just don't shop with them again. this is great news for you moving forward, too, both saving money and having a good experience. i'm clark howard. you want to see the full list of who the best online retailers were? you check out that at cnn.com/clarkhoward. so clark is on at noon eastern on saturdays and sunday on hlf. >> we may see an emotional debate about how history is being taught to kids in texas. they're having a social science curriculum for the next ten years. there are squabble goesing on about how much to mention some civil rights leaders and the founding fathers' christian

beliefs. a school board could vote on the curriculum on thursday. >> the conditions in one of the poorest nations in the world just got much worse. these are pictures coming in from haiti and they're just a sample from i-reporters after a powerful earthquake.

i'm robin meade. you know when you have a cough and can't speak for five minute it is. hold on. i'll get a cough drop. here's what's going on. >> right now, total panic in the country. people are running up and down, screaming, crying for help. schools and hospitals have collapsed. >> it is a terrifying situation in haiti. we have the latest on the recovery efforts from a devastating earthquake. >> also, the supreme court could make an important decision today. it has to do with who could actually watch the legal battle over gay marriage as it unfolds.

plus, who isn't talking about conan o'brien's future. now conan has something to say and i don't think his network likes what he has to say. >> first, breaking news right now. most of haiti's capital is destroyed. that's the word this morning from the nation's ambassador to the united states. it comes 24 hours after a massive 7.0 earthquake. this is new video of children going through the rubble. it is the worst quake there in more than 200 years. right now there is no way to estimate how many people died. >> there's 4 million haitians that are outside of haiti, so i think this is the time for the dia spor a the haitians that are outside of haiti to step up and to call their councilmen, call the congress and say we need a state of emergency for our country. this is the most important thing because as we're sitting here right now there are people in the dark there with dead and we don't know what happens until the morning. so my urgency right now is

really a cry of freedom saying we really need a state of emergency, like, right now. >> that is worldwide known artist wyclef jean. theup's headquarters in port-au-prince is completely destroyed. a french official says he believes everyone in the building was killed. the conditions were already very difficult in the country. haiti is one of the forest countries in the world. they have no emergency services to rely on right now. the u.s. is trying to help with civilian and military aid and it's also sending rescue teams. >> the main things that are going to be needed are search and rescue and the immediate assistance, food and water, primarily water for people who have been affected and perhaps trapped in buildings. the search and rescue effort is going to be a priority for the government and organizations in haiti. >> you what? even with so many phone lines and power lines down we are getting word from your fellow viewers and i reporters in

haiti. here's one young woman who says what she felt when the quake hit. >> i was inside the house and then i felt all of the house shaking with me. even the house i sat on, it was shaking. this is my first time i felt an earthquake longer than i ever feel in my life. >> have you heard from your family in have you heard anything? >> no, nothing, because i'm not in the house right now. >> there have been power outages and the phone service is down. so if you have family or friends in haiti certainly it's tough to reach them right now. the state department set up a number. it is there on your screen, 1-888-407-4747. we will monitor the situation in haiti throughout the morning and bring you new pieces of information. because we're also hln morning express, let's get you some of the other stories impacting your day as well. we could hear from the u.s. supreme court today about whether you will be allowed to see any of the video of the trial about california same-sex marriage ban.

the judge had ruled that it would be posted on youtube after a few hours of delay, but the supreme court blocked that for now. some are concerned that cameras could affect the testimony. the trial for a man accused of killing a kansas doctor who performed late-term abortions may be delayed today. the state supreme court ordered a judge to reconsider a decision to keep scott roeder's jury selection a secret. he admits to killing tiller in tiller's church. he was trying to save unborn children. what is going on in your own backyard today weather wise? here's bob with a look at that. a break in the weather when? >> that's a good question because we have big storms coming across the west coast and the break in the cold weather shortly. i keep saying shortly, wait for it, wait for it, it will start to warm up. here's the low pressure dominating in the eastern seaboard. you can see the rain out of southern texas it's a good indication of the wind direction

out of the south. when you get the south wind it's a warm one. as it spreads where temperatures are gradually going to start to warm up and it's not as cold as it was this morning. it's 39 in tampa and these temperatures should all be near or above freezing by tomorrow. still the freeze warnings this morning and atlanta, 22 degrees so we're traveling down here and atlanta is a good indication of the entire southeast. today, 48 degree, the high. tomorrow upper 50s, near 60 by friday and rain coming in for the weekend and temperatures on the upswing. >> as for the northeast you can see light snow and western pa and western new york is the passage of a warm frontal boundary and snow and freezing rain possible. watch for that near watertown. we have advisories for the afternoon because of the light freezing rain is a potential. more rain in parts of lower texas. corpus christi, showers now, the same with brownsville.

probably overnight tonight and that's what you're looking at there upon. then it's a pacific storm and lots of clouds moving in toward the east and you can see the showers and rain. most of the heavy rain is now cleared out of san francisco and rolling in through sacramento to the sierra nevada range. it's all snow. 4500 feet in elevation. grand total up there, two to three feet of snow for the sierras. across the south, los angeles, light showers moving through. that will be off and on for the day. so if you have travel trouble spots will be there down to seattle and sfo. we'll talk more about that in a half hour. >> thank you. conan o'brien is saying no to nbc's plan to move him and jay leno. nbc wants to give jay leno the 11:35 time slot back and that would push conan o'brien to after midnight and he said it would seriously damage "the tonight show" franchise.

obviously, he's make something jokes about it. >> hello there, my name is conan o'brien and i may soon be available for children's parties. >> when i was a little boy i remember watching "the tonight show with johnny carson" and thinking some day i'm going to host that show for seven months. >> that's how long it's been. o'brien says he does not have offers from other networks. he wants to make that clear. new information is coming in about a massive quake in haiti, it's a 7.0 and not to mention 29 aftershocks and counting and it is not coming fast enough for the people who have loved ones there and they're living here. they're desperate to get word, plus there's debate about the government's massive economic recovery plan. just exactly how many jobs were created anyway?

he is one of more than half a million haitian immigrants who live in the united states.

many of them have been left hang, worried about their family members after a deadly earthquake. obviously, we're supposed to have some sound there and we did not have that, but we do have you some plenty of pictures to show you here from some of your fellow i-viewers and what -- i-reporters and what they've experiencing here. correspondent richard lui is joining us now. the phones in haiti, not really reliable right now. >> not reliable. >> it is so important, you want to hear your loved one's voices. as you can imagine they're having trouble getting through just to get that done. many haitian-americans have tried to get together to make she's calls, they're watching the news very concerned about their relatives. one california man, he did get a call through yesterday saying his uncle had been trapped under a wall. listen. >> i know that he -- he became covered by this wall crumbling down.

we had two short conversations with his wife. the first one was that she hears his voice, i'm right here. don't worry, i'm okay. his family called back to say they weren't hearing anything from his uncle anymore. he's lit candles all over his home and he says they represent haitian souls rising from the ashes. >> that is so sad. richard, many people have turned to the internet to get more information because that's where we are seeing a lot of information coming on these social networking sites. >> really lucky for these pham hes to have social networking sites and social media to look at. twitter and facebook is where we're getting a first hand look at the catastrophe. look that the young child covered in dust after a building collapsed. heart wrenching photos that have been posted. you can see how badly many have been injured. looking at some of these facebook pages, robin, you get a sense of the emotion that's overwhelming people in the country. you're also seeing twitter messages about this one

spreading the word about how you can help. all you need to do is text haiti to 90999. $10 will be donated to the red cross to help. looking at twitter page, all you have to do is text haiti to 90999. the charge will show up on your phone bill. >> we have a lot of aid organizations, local and national. find those on our homepage at cnn.com/robin. thank you. to salute our troops now, today's salute to sergeant kevin fox. his wife kay says she and their son love him and hold him close every day until the next time he's called up for duty overseas. >> look at the baby stare at him. he is one of the most generous people she knows. do you have someone you love in the military? salute them, my friend. cnn.com/robin. if you're looking for a new job or any job, you might want to get out your resume because a

big hotel chain says it is hiring, bring them on in. jennifer westhoven is here for you. >> we're talking about thousands of new jobs. starwoods says it is hiring 12,000 people, half of them in the united states. some cities include new york city, austin, texas, biloxi, mississippi. we're talking from management to housekeeping. they run the sheraton. if you want to find out if any of the jobs are near me, what can we do about that go to cnn.com/rob sxib we have a link for you in the looking out section that will take you to starwood's hiring part of the website and tells you what jobs are available and keep checking as some of the jobs come up. >> another retailer is taking made in china kids' jewelry off the shelves because of' fear of a toxic medal. claire's says they will pull questionable items off the shelf too. walmart did that earlier this week after an a.p. investigation found high levels of cadmium in some of its best friends charms

bracelet. once one airline hiked the fees for your luggage. here comes the flood. continental is raising fees, too, if you dare to check your bags it will now cost you $50 on the top of your ticket price if you want to check one bag, your first bag. that's for the round-trip ticket and if you check it in at the airport, if you pay for it there. they found all kinds of ways to -- >> i wonder who's next. >> yeah. >> thank you. imagine you're boarding a flight, speaking of which, when the earth starts shaking and the airport starts crumbling. you have to hear from the people who left haiti minutes after the earthquake.

first a startling look at the sheer destruction out of haiti after the earthquake. check out the presidential palace. here it is before the quake, beautiful structure and this is now on the other side. haiti has virtual leigh no building code and if the palace was hit that hard imagine the impact on other homes and businesses. this is our breaking story right now that people have

started pulling bodies from the rubble of the u.s. headquarters in haiti. france's foreign minister said he thinks everyone inside may have been killed. the collapse in yesterday's 7.0 magnitude earthquake. many people are still unaccounted for. 250 people work in that building every day. >> an american airlines flight was actually boarding in port-au-prince when the quake struck. this hour we're hearing from some of those passengers. some chose not to get on, well, the flight eventually took off and it landed safely. the passengers say it was an absolutely frightening scene. >> everybody was shaking, thinking that we were going to die because the building, the airport was collapsing. >> everybody got scared. i never saw such a thing in my entire life, you know? that was like the end of the world and, you know, it just -- you know, there's no words

actually to explain that. >> i bet. >> if you want to help the quake victims, logon to cnn.com/robin and click on the impact link. you'll find links for local and international organizations providing aid now. mexico has nailed one of its most wanted drug lords. mexican federal police say they arrested teodor on garcia simental. simme simmental is beyond brutal. he's accused of killing his way to the top of a drug gang fighting for key u.s. routes. "one contestant was sew sure she was going to be a shoo-in because she always wins on "the idol" video game. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

>> you can -- ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> well, he's not going hollywood, either. randy told him to stop singing forever, but what about his cheerleading routine? is that, like, from the video or something? is that where the dance moves are from? ? notice the judges. victoria beckham, posh spice was filling in on the judge's desk. ellen degeneres will join the show for the hollywood round. >> you can adjust the level of difficult oat video game. i think it's on the lowest level possible. >> all right. thousands at the university of continue 10 took to the streets after learning that their football coach was leaving for another job, and this happens a lot after the season is done. >> right. >> that these coaches get jobs from other schools.

>> and it's just really -- it's the worst part of college football as a business because these kids pledge three or four years of their lives and the coach can bolt just like that. we were talking about lane kifin and he stunned everyone for suddenly bolting for usc. wvir describes this as a mob and near riot. a mattress was set on fire and protesters tried to block his car from leaving and why are they so upset is the question? because kiffin only won 7 and 6 this past season. he wasn't incredibly successful and he was an assistant and before tennessee, he was the coach of the raiders. >> why are they upset? just let the door hit him on the way out. >> exactly. you guys can do better. this will be his fifth coaching job in 17 months, too. he moves a lot, too. >> two jockeys started fighting in the middle of a race. one punches the other and the

other punches back and the other pulls his whip out and whips the other jockey. no horses were harmed in the video. >> what's wrong with people? fans were evacuated after a water pipe broke. >> may i have your attention please. >> yes. get out! >> you know what, though? it doesn't say what the emergency was, that would have scared the pants off people. >> memphis ended up beating the clippers by two after they were hanging out with each other in the team bus. fernando gonzalez of chile in a tennis tournament and he gets hit down under. >> there it is one more time. >> he's okay. ooh! >> he takes it out on the line judge right there. boing! he would lose the quarterfinal match and was okay. sort of. >> he can't walk right. >> he's walking funny. >> some people are raising their

blood alcohol count by donating blood. giving away a point of blood for a pint of beer. plus this man jumped into action when he saw an elderly lady knocked on to the subway tracks.

port-au-prin port-au-prince. it was a 7.0 magnitude and so far there have been 28 strong aftershocks. this video breaks my heart of this little girl trapped in the concrete. >> humanitarian agencies and nations around the world including the united states are pledging help. haiti is in such bad shape that it is not clear what it would be able to do with any supplies it gets. we still do not have a grass op how many people may have been killed. some of the fema trailers used for hurricane katrina are on the auction block.

the government is selling 28,000 trailers and mobile homes used by the victims. right now they're being stored in mississippi and arkansas. a fema coordinator says most of the trailers will probably be gone by september. good morning. it's 31 minutes past the hour. i hope you're doing all right this morning. i'm rob unmeade. we're always glad to have you as our viewers. let's jump right into the breaking news story. we're hearing it's a disaster and a catastrophe. this was the situation in haiti after yesterday's massive earthquake. the country's ambassador to the u.s. says most of the capital city of port-au-prince is destroyed. it's horrible to have a tragedy like that anywhere, but apparently it's particularly hard to deal with in haiti because it is one of the poorest countries in the world. correspondent richard lui joins us now. can you give us a sense of what the living conditions there are like on a regular basis? >> sure, robin.

there are about 9 million people that live in hate and i you talk about one of the poorest countries in the world. even before this quake, 80% of them were living in poverty or below the poverty line and what that means is living on $1 or $2 each every day. congresswoman maxine waters tried to describe some of the conditions there. >> in soleil you have no running water. you have open sewers. you have the kind of situation where people were feeding their children mud cakes because they had nothing, they were starving. they have nothing. they have nowhere to turn and i'm sure those shanties and those shacks perhaps have all collapsed. >> robin, there's the threat of rampant disease right now after something like this. unicef estimates in a normal situation in haiti 70% of haitians have nowakes is to safe drinking water on a normal day. so you can imagine how difficult

it is right now with no electricity and what they can be encountering. you can imagine why people say it will be devastating. we're keeping an eye on social networking sites. the phone lines might be down in a lot of places and people are able to get pictures out and information out of there on things like twitter. >> right. it's been, the social media stuff, several facebook groups have been set up in response to the quake to get the word out. this photoey was posted and it shows people carrying people out of the rubble on a stretcher there. we have another pkt thaur demonstrates how the quake has leveled many buildings. it is completely flat, if you look at, that robin. we're hearing from you, our viewers from our facebook page. >> got word my missionary friend and her students are unharmed and safe. >> good news. for you, carl. >> pray for all the missing u.n. peacekeepers as well. there are large number of them missing, too. thousands of u.n. peacekeepers are there.

>> all right, richard, thank you very much. we are going to monitor the story and your facebook comments all morning. because we're morning express let's cover some of the other head luns today. a man in new york says he was thinking about one thing before saving an elderly woman who had fallen on to the subway tracks. what if she were my mom? he was getting off the train when he saw the woman fall. he jumped off the tracks and helped the woman back on to the platform. >> he's just an outstanding guy. no one prodded him. he just -- he just went into action. >> i consider myself not a hero. i consider myself, like a person who was at the right place at the right time. >> the woman is in the hospital, but she is expected to be okay. a security scare startled passengers on a northwest flight from amsterdam to detroit, yeah, the same airline and the same route as the alleged christmas day bombing attempt. security met the flight at the gate yesterday and detained four passengers. the airline says they would not

follow the flight crew's instructions. one passenger says things got pretty intense on the flight. >> what was going through your mind at that time? >> i hope the plane doesn't blow up and i get to see my wife and my son again. ? that bad? >> yeah. yeah. it was -- the thought crossed my mind. >> we don't know exactly what it was the passengers did to alarm the crew. the tsa said they were released after they answered some questions. >> too bad you can't take a flight to amsterdam. it's, like, story after story of the one flight number, basically, and i can understand why people are tense. that's for sure. >> no doubt. 35 minutes past the hour. sorry, i have a bang in my eye. how's the weather today shaping up. >> i want to start with the west coast. a big area of low pressure just offshore from northern

california and oregon stretching into right around nevada. you can see the clouds out there, too. they went through the bay area, overnight last night and now pulling into parts of california. let me show you how much rain we're expecting. it will wash itself out over the next two days and you see the blue shading around flagstaff and over to phoenix it's, heaviest rain ask that will be right around the sierra turning into snow above 45,000 feet. so heavy snow again this morning and it tapers off later this afternoon. in total, two to three feet of snow for you, right around reno to the south. most of it is snow above the highestel vagus and the rain is pulling out of the bay area and northern parts in central california stretching in toward western parts of nevada. down to the south we're following light showers through los angeles and this little pocket was overhead about an hour ago and it's moving to the east. more rain behind that and

scattered showers in the morning into the afternoon and same with san diego. we do have the winter storm warnings for the morning, for the areas shaded in red. an a dushl three to six on top of what you've already seen. so a grand total again, two to three feet from yesterday through late this afternoon. up the north a little bit farther, rain in portland through seattle and more rain around the pugit sound and that's the heaviest rain for the day. over to the east it's a different story. high pressure dominating the eastern seaboard and it will gradually warm up. the travel to the big apple today, right now in the mid-20s by friday. a nice warm-up for everybody east of the mississippi, and i have to tell you, it's about time. >> right. >> we'll have details in just a little bit. >> google may no longer be sticking around in a country that has more than a billion people and they say good-bye to china. simon cowell has started his

last season of "american idol." but his new show may have a familiar face.

let's get you a check of the morning papers here. in "usa today," the effects long combat deployments are having on u.s. traps. more than 10,000 soldiers have spent three to four years on combat duty. in "the washington post"s are democrats are getting worried about holding on to the late ted kennedy's senate seat in next week's general election. the gap is closed. analysts say even a close win could mean trouble for the demes in midterm elections. the city destroyed tons of

brand-new clothing instead of giving it to people who usually need it like it usually does. it was counterfeit clothing seized in raids. the police department says nobody asked for it this tim around. that's a check of the paper. peta is pulling an ad that featured the first lady, michelle obama. the group used a got owe of her in an anti-fur ad and it never got the authorization to use her image. the white house has not commented on the move. in the past the white house has want condoned the use of the first family's images for commercial purposes. get this, google is threatening to pull out of china saying that it was the victim of a major hacking attack and that is sending shockwaves across the industry and has big implications for the international relations as well. our money expert jennifer west hoef wen more on that. ? thanks, rob know. a lot of reports are saying chinese users are saying please don't leave, google is the only way we can communicate in some

ways. it is threatening to leave after it was hit by a cyber attack and the principal target seems to have been the g mail accounts of chinese human rights activists. google hasn't directly accused the chinese government of being behind the hack, but google's allegations raise serious concerns and questions says secretary of state hillary clinton, we raise very serious concerns and questions. we look to the chinese government for an explanation. it will stop censoring its own chinese website. that's a condition if you want to do business in china. in the chinese government balks it will pull out of the country altogether. the stimulus program created or saved up to 2 million jobs and remember, that is all your money, taxpayer money paying for the stimulus plan and keep in mind there is no hard and fast way to really gauge that. with unemployment still around 10%, critic, republicans say

that is proof the stimulus didn't work. democrats say the 10% level would be a lot worse if there was no stimulus. >> you can bet that one will be argued about a lot. robin, back to you. >> i didn't know google's creed was do no evil. don't be evil. it was a big deal to them. >> thank you. here's something startling. you can develop osteoporosis or excessive bone loss before you turn 30. let's go to an exercise specialist who got it at age 28. ♪ ♪ >> many people think that osteoporosis only affects the elderly, but in fact, osteoporosis can affect anybody at any age. women in their 30s should really worry about maintaining the bone mass that they have because they become at increased risk for osteoporosis as they hit menopause. osteoporosis makes your bones

susceptible to fraktur and that is really the danger. in order to prevent osteoporosis, you should be getting a diet that's high in nutrients, particularly talking about calcium, vitamin d and magnesium. you need an exercise program that's weight bearing and resistance pace. you should be targeting the areas of your body that's fractured and later in life. new pictures from haiti this morning tell us the quake that happened last night was annihilating. injured people are lying on the floor in some of these pictures. someone desperately trying to help them. we do have more pictures like this from your fellow viewers, i-reporters coming.

>> i was driving -- driving back

do my work. i was stuck if traffic. i was on the phone and when i felt like my car was shaking. i thought that some other cars hit me, and when i look in front of me i see a lot of people falling down and they were crying and crying for help. >> you know, haiti has no building codes so the destruction there is huge after a powerful earthquake yesterday. this is a country with few paved roads, minimal health care and one of the poorest nations in the world. the u.s. state department has been told to expect, quote, serious loss of life and that it's going to be tough getting the help in. if you do want to help the quake victims, you can logon to cnn.com/robin. there's an impact link ask you can fine a list to local and international organizations roadwayeding aide.

we will cover that live for you. >> a new organization wantious to drop the cell phone, put down the makeup and keep your eyes on the road. the focus driven -- the group called focus driven wants to put an end to distracted driving and it has the support of the transportation secretary ray lahood. yesterday the group called for a ban on all cell phone yahs in the cars, hands free or not. simon cowell is leaving "american idol" to bring a gnaw show called "x factor." it's already a hit in britain and the u.s. version could have a familiar face for idol fans. >> paula has been talking to me for months. i've always made it clear that in some capacity i want to work with paula again. it might be here, it could be in england. i don't know. i like paula and i miss her. she's my little buddy. >> cowell says he was offered a lot of money to stay on idol, but wants a new challenge.

no word yet on a possible replacement for him. this just in to hln, a gender controversy surrounding a south african sprinter has apparently been settled. rafer with that new information. >> yeah, robin. you may remember the story of the sprinter caster semiannia. according to her coach she has been cleared to race as a woman. here's a little back story here. after she won the 800 meters in the world championships in august there was a cloud of controversy surrounding her gender. they ended up doing an extensive gender investigation involving sdprs psychiatrists. here we are about five months later, according to her coach officials have decided she is, in fact, a woman. in other news, jose canseco abruptly canceled his appearance on "larry king live" and said he couldn't defend himself anymore each though he went on espn radio and espn tv and saying mcgwire is still lying about

steroid use. they injected each other with roids and tony la russa knew about it. tony la russa just hired mcgwire as hitting coach some wild video to show you at a skiing competition in switzerland falls down and loses his balance and takes out a skiing official right there. reports are he nor the official were hurt. he will be fine for the upcoming winter olympics next month. new york knicks blame their latest loss on a haunted hotel. two players told "the new york daily news" they could not sleep at their hotel in oklahoma city because they heard it was haunlted. center eddy curry went to nate robinson's room because he was so scared. like shaggy and scooby, they

were happy to find out it was the taker with a mask. what's going on next, you guys? hello. hold on, trying to get our communications together. okay. okay, there you go, prosecutors have new charges coming against a suspected pirate accused of hijacking an american ship. now, the somali man is already charged in the attack on the "merske alabama." he also tried to seize two other ships. one of their crews is reportedly still held hostage. a suspended police chief could go to jail on snooping on sarah jessica parker and

broderick surrogate. he pleaded no contest to dear likz of duty and that is a misdemeanor. many are curious what the future holds but some people with cell phones already know. their texts are from 2016.

good morning. top of the day to you, it's 9:00 eastern. if you're just waking up maybe on the west coast, you're up early. i'm robin meade. here's what's going on today. a breaking story that we're covering. we're getting a look at just how catastrophic the damage may be from a major earthquake in haiti. much of that capital has been reduced to rubble. much of what's left standing may still collapse and a number of victims could be staggering. passengers on a northwest flight got a scare and, strangely, it happened on another flight, yes, from amsterdam to detroit. what is the deal? first, though, breaking news. most of haiti's capital is apparently destroyed.

that is the word this morning from the nation's ambassador to the united states. after yesterday's 7.8 earthquake. look at the pictures here. a viewer sent these in via twitter and if you can see this here, there is a dust cloud, a dust cloud from the concrete crumbling and that happened just after the quake. it was caused when so many of the buildings collapsed. >> there's 4 million haitians outside of haiti, so, i think this is the time, the haitians that are outside of haiti to step up and to call their councilman and call the congress and say we need a state of emergency for our country. this is the most important thing, as we're sitting here right now, there are people in the dark that are dead and we are not going to know what happens until the morning. my urgency right now is really a cry of freedom saying we really need a state of emergency like right now. >> now, because of the poor conditions in haiti and the widespread destruction, no one

really has any real sense about how many people we're talking about that could have been killed. the u.n.'s headquarters in port-au-prince is destroyed. a french official believes everyone who was in the building was killed. haiti is virtually no emergency services to rely on right now. the u.s. is trying to help with civilian and military aid. it is also sending disaster teams. >> the main things that are going to be needed are search and rescue and immediate assistance food and water, primarily water for people who have been affected and perhaps trapped in buildings. the search and rescue effort is going to be a priority for the government and organizations in haiti. >> let me give you a look at the destruction here. this is their presidential palaces in haiti before the quake. beautiful building. and keep in mind, this is what it looked like after. see how the domes have crushed in. now, haiti really has no building codes to speak of. if the palace was hit that hard,

can you imagine the impact on regular everyday homes and houses and offices. a flight to miami was boarding in port-au-prince when the earthquake struck. this hour we're hearing from some of the passengers and they say it was absolutely a frightening scene. >> everybody got scared. i never saw such a thing in my entire life. you know, that was like -- >> the whole ground was shaking and everything was moving around up and down and collapsing and everything. >> the whole building was cracked down. it looks like a building they need to build from port "a" to point "z" right now. it is really cracked up. >> power outages and phones down. if you have friends or family in haiti, the state department set up a number, if you're looking for information on them. it's there on your screen,

888-407-4747. and you can find that on our website, cnn.com/robin. we will monitor the story coming out of haiti all morning. because we're "morning express" we want to get you some of the news for the day right now. the trial for the man accused of killing a kansas doctor who performed late-term abortions may be late today. the judge was ordered to reconsider his decision. he admits to shooting dr. george tiller in tiller's church. his attorneys plan to argue he was trying to save unborn children. the tsa and the cdc are investigating how a man with an active case of tuberculosis got on an across country flight. from philly to san francisco on saturday. the cdc says there was actually little risk to other passengers because the flight wasn't long enough. the airline says that it's helping with the investigation. some of those fema trailers

used after hurricane katrina are on the auction block. the government is selling about 28,000 trailers and mobile homes used by hurricane victims. right now they're being stored in mississippi and arkansas. a fema coordinator says that most of the trailers will probably be gone by september. the bidding ends on friday. conan o'brien is saying, no, to nbc's plan to move him. nbc wanted to give him the 11:35 time slot back to jay leno. that's where conan is now. and then that would slide o'brien to after midnight. but o'brien says, you know what, that would seriously damage "the tonight show" franchise and he's disappointed he didn't get more time to establish himself at 11:35. he's making jokes about it, too. >> hello, there my name is conan o'brien and i may soon be available for children's parties. when i was a little boy i remember watching "the tonight show" with johnny carson and

thinking some day i'll host that show for seven months. >> o'brien says he does not have any offers from other networks. that's getting messy, isn't it? >> yeah. >> i can't blame him. >> i am surprised no one is knocking on his door yet. >> interesting. all right, six minutes after the hour, thank you for playing the blue grass for me, i can hear that. >> all for you. >> the weather, the break in the werl weather, allegedly. >> the warmer temperatures headed your way and even into the northeast, too. here's the way it goes, high pressure dominates the east coast, once again. the two areas high a double barrel high region and back side of that southwesterly wind that really boosts up your temperature. once that moves on over towards the direction of the southeast, your temperatures will follow suit and begin to climb up just a bit. 24 in atlanta and 27 degrees in charlotte and 27 in memphis and all these temperatures will be

about five to ten degrees warmer for tomorrow morning and the arctic air falling apart a bit and moving away for you, too. light snow going across the adirondacks and pushing through ontario and it could generate light lake-effect snow and you're also watching for freezing rain and possibility of some flurries and we have that advisory out there and basically north of syracuse. heavy downpours now beginning to develop around corpus christi and stretch in towards san antonio and give it some time and it will filter in towards houston and probably dallas overnight tonight in the form of light showers and really that is it. the other major storm we're watching transfer to the gulf coast by the weekend is right around northern california into oregon, too. look at the rain, heavy at times and lots of rain and lots of snow over the last 24 hours. it's basically going to wash itself out over the next couple days but the rain is out there

as far south as san diego and l.a. today. cold across had some ramifications you probably don't think about. that's central florida. no homes damaged so far but the speculation is the water table dropped because all the farmers were using the water as irrigation to freeze their crops over. side note, too. frostproof florida had a frost advisory this morning. >> i mean, the name of the town is frostproof. >> not this morning. 32 degrees your current temperature. >> thank you. back to our breaking news, we'll hear from haitian americans this morning following a massive earthquake in haiti and i can't imagine how difficult it is for them waiting to hear about their loved ones. more debate over themany jo anyway?

these are some of the more

dramatic pictures come out of haiti this morning and they show people who were injured in a hotel in port-au-prince, haiti, after an earthquake the hotel is one of the buildings seriously damaged in yesterday's 7.0 earthquake. not to mention so many aftershocks. more than half a million haitian immigrants live in the united states and many of them are still waiting to hear how their families are. correspondent richard lui joins us now. let's talk about the phone lines, whether they're working at all. >> so important, robin. they are, but as you can imagine here, incredibly difficult to get through. there are large haitian american communities in florida and new york, as you were talking asxwout mabout and many of them gathered together to make phone calls and watch the news. one phone caller finally got through after hours of trying. >> their house is completely broke down and tonight they'll be sleeping in the streets but we're thankful that they're alive because there are so many

others around them that are not that fortunate. >> robin, he continued with a plea for u.s. citizens to send fraid the country. >> this is one of the amazing points of this story and that is while the phone lines are down, it's the social media that's been really churning out the latest information, what are you seeing? >> robin, very graphic images sometimes. twitter and facebook really giving us a first-hand look at the catastrophe. you can see the structures here two story, three-story buildings absolute rubble right now. these are the photos we're looking at and others posted pictures of loved ones and hoping to get people who will go to the social media sites and see them and help them out. we're also hearing from our own facebook page and carl saying he got word that our missionary friend and her students are unharmed and safe. amy who also wrote on our facebook page saying haiti was abused and may the children of

haiti take this tragedy and find a way to a brighter future. as we know, robin, from these very difficult moments peachal come together and something better comes from it. >> thank you so much. we always salute our troops and today's salute to sergeant kevin fox. her and her son love them and they hold him close every day until the next time that he's called out for duty. look at the baby look at him. kevin is one of the most generous people that she knows. know somebody in the service? why not salute them? get out your resume. a big hotel chain says we're hiring. jennifer westhoven is looking out for you. good morning. >> good morning, thanks, robin. we're talking about thousands of new jobs here. that is some good news in a bad economy. the economy is technically getting better, but we know the job market has been hard hit. starwood which owns several chains says it's hiring 12,000 people and half of those hires right here in the united states. some of the cities where the big

hiring will happen, new york, austin, texas, biloxi, mississippi and the jobs from housekeeping all the way up to management. if you think maybe one of these jobs are for you, go to our website cnn.com/robin and under the looking out for you section we've got a link that will take you right to starwood's hiring page so you can see what jobs are available now. many of these jobs i'm talking about may come up in the coming months. bookmark it, keep checking. made in china kids' jewelry off the shelves because of a fear of toxic metal. clairee's is pulling questionable items off the shelves after hi-c admium levels. walmart reentdly did the same thing. some biggest bankers, by the way that is lloyd blankfein, the head of the biggest bank, in

some ways, facing a team of investigators in washington about their company's role in the financial meltdown. jpmorgan, bank of america, morgan stanley, a bipartisan panel that is investigating the causes of the financial meltdown. all the companies seated there took taxpayer money. if you're traveling this morning, i just want to know when it will warm up. i know it's not necessarily the travel. >> sometimes they deice when you get things going. we're seeing a gradual warm up across the east coast. that's when we're going to start getting tomorrow's temperatures. the way it goes across the west coast and this is california coastline and san francisco look at the planes going in and out. no problems and same with oakland and down to the south, too. talking about areas like lax and san diego and clouds still wrapped up over the bay area. calling for an hour delay right around san francisco and waiting for this to occur shortly.

also los angeles, low clouds, showers this morning. las vegas look at showers this afternoon and in seattle the ra rain is already there. one of the best parts of "american idol," thouse just awful auditions. we have highlights from last night's premiere.

the u.s. was the first country to offer help when a magnitude 7 quake hit haiti yesterday. that is what the ambassador to the united states said about an hour ago. he made agurgent plea about the crisis that is basically still unfolding right now. >> it is a major catastrophe for haiti and we have gone through all this before and the haitian people courageous as they are will come out of it in unity. in the meantime, i'm asking for the international solidarity. we're haiti and i'm asking those close to us, those that we had

helped early on in the 1800 to become independent for them to come now to our time of distress. >> if you'd like to help the quake victims, you can logon to cnn.com/robin. click on the impact link and you'll find a list of local and international organizations providing aid. what's going on here? thousands of university of tennessee students took to the streets after learning that their football coach was going bye-bye. hi, rafer. >> good morning, robin. they have every right to be upset because it's absolute carpet bagging at its absolute worse. coaches at tennessee for one year and then stuns everybody and suddenly bolting for usc. this is the video. described it as a mob and near riot. a mattress was set on fire and the protesters said they tried to block kifin's car.

he only went 7-6 this past season. before tennessee was the coach of the raiders but his third multi-million dollar coaching gig in 17 months. >> by some people it must be in census because he just came there and you sign people up and say i'll be with you and we'll be with you and then good-bye. according to her coach she has been cleared to run as a woman. now, he says semenya's lawyers said she could race even though track officials are still in the middle of their investigation. the investigation still going on. semenya was the target of suspicion after she won the 800 meters in august. fans were evacuated in the middle of an nba game after a water pipe broke.

>> everybody was like, we ought to get out of here. memphis and the l.a. clippers. memphis won by two. lastly, check out this crazy video. two jockeys started fighting. one guy gives a punch and another guy gives another punch. boom and then boom and then no horses were harmed in the making of this video. fernando gonzalez, tennis tournament and he got it down under. he would be okay, but, fellows, i want to apologize to you for showing that video and then he takes it out on the line judge right here. knocks her hat off and will lose the quarterfinal. >> uncomfortable. you know one woman was stuck in a burning apartment with no way to get out but then her neighbor had a life-savingio id, but it was really risky. you'll hear how they pull it off

in the next hour. a family heard the window break and they were afraid it was a burglar breaking into their house. >> sounded like an explosion to me. i thought something in the laundry room. >> wait until you hear what kind of intruder came in. ñ?

the new york stock exchange open for biz and it's looking pretty flat to tell you to start the morning. we'll see if the stocks can bounce back from yesterday's losses. so, we'll have a report in five minutes. in the haitian capital of port-au-prince, the streets are still filled with people who are either wounded or homeless after yesterday's huge earthquake. it was a magnitude 7.0 and since then there have been at least 28 strong after shocks. government and aid groups all around the world are pledging to help haiti. president obama said that he wants a coordinated response to the quake.

he is expected to make a statement from the white house in the next hour. conan o'brien is saying nope to nbc's plan for him and jay leno. nbc wanted to give the 11:35 time slot back to jay leno and then have o'brien slide to after midnight, but o'brien says that proposal would seriously damage "the tonight show" franchise and he's disappointed that nbc did not give him more time to establish himself in the current time slot. those are the stop stories, welcome back. i'm robin meade, we appreciate you today. 31 minutes past the hour. we're hearing descriptions like a catastrophe and that was the situation yesterday after haiti's earthquake. most of the capital city of port-au-prince, most of that city is destroyed. these pictures are from one of our ireporters and they seem to back that up. another ireporter describes what he has seen.

>> and you have a big building that collapsed. i have, actually, four friends, the friends that will underline with me were still alive under the building that, when they were doing the radio show. now, i hope, i only hope, that they can get out safe, but i don't see how. >> wow. yesterday's earthquake was also felt in the dominican republic and you could see the surveillance video of people there running for cover. the dominican republic shares it with haiti and the quake was also felt in cuba. some houses shook, but no major damage reported. two students just got back from haiti a couple days ago so they're worried about their friends still in haiti. >> it's scary, right.

you don't know the people you just formed bonds with and the people you just met, the people we just met, we don't know if they're alive, what happened to them. >> these people were just barely hanging on as it was so unless the whole world rallies to help them, i can't imagine, i can't imagine them coming back from this. >> well, a woman who runs an after-school meals program tells cnn that the earthquake hit just as 1,500 kids were sitting down to eat. we're going to be monitoring the situation from haiti this morning. now, because we're also morning express, let's get you some news in the fast lane from other areas. like this, a security scare startled passengers on a northwest airlines flight from amsterdam to detroit. the same airline en route. security met the flight at the gate yesterday and they detained four passengers. the airline says that they wouldn't follow the flight crew's instructions. one passenger says that things got pretty intense on the

flight. >> what was going through your mind at that time? >> i hope that the plane doesn't blow up and i get to see my wife and my son again. >> that bad? >> yeah, the thought crossed my mind. >> we don't know exactly what the passengers did to alarm the flight crew. the tsa says they were released after they answered some questionses. movie fans love "avatar" but vatican did not. they criticize james cameron for flirting with the idea that warship of nature can replace religion. something that the pope was warned against. "avatar" is the second highest grossing movie ever. drop the cell phone, put the makeup down and keep your eyes on the road. they want to put an end to distracted driving and it has the support of the transportation secretary. now, yesterday the group's

president called for a ban on all cell phone use in the car, hands free or not. you heard jay leno and conan o'brien talking about the drama surrounding what they're going to with the late night schedule on that network. other comedians are making the most of the situation, too. >> my name is jay leno and let it here by be known that i'm taking over all the shows in late night. right. tryi great to be here on abc. you know what abc stands for? >> no, i don't. >> always bump conan. that's right. >> jimmy kimmel joked that if he lost his show he could pick up an endorsement deal with jenny craig. everyone is throwing their hat in the ring, why don't we do the same and we'll be on the morning and the late night. >> double dip.

>> and judge "american idol." hi, bob. >> hi, robin. big storm moving in towards oregon and you can see the swirl in the clouds right here. the upper level support and the real energy will ride down through southern california overnight tonight and then reform as a low pressure system just off the gulf coast shore by the weekend. not a snowmaker, but a rainmaker by the time it reaches that region because the temperatures will begin to warm on up. let me show you how much more rain we're calling for. basically over the next 48 hours. fall across the higher elevations and once you get that high, it's colder and that green shade, that's a liquid equivalent to an inch of rain. that's about a foot of snow. that's what we're counting on. winter storm warnings posted for the sierra nevada and in towards oregon, idaho and nevada. what about the rest of the region? rar dar right now. all the white is snow. we had that right across the highest elevations and rain also towards northern california and back in towards oregon and washington state, too.

still a couple scattered showers around sacramento and riding up through the mountains, too. los angeles had one batch of showers move through, too. that rain will pick up in intensity later this afternoon. hey, take you live to the east coast, washington, d.c. here's what it looks like. things will start to warm up. 40 degrees the highs today. back into the upper 40s tomorrow and probably 50s by friday. more on that, robin, in a half hour. >> all right, thank you. over to wall street where the stocks are under some pressure from, there's news out of china, but they're holding their own in the early minutes anyway. susan lisovicz has the latest from new york stock exchange. hi, susan. >> good morning, robin. we're seeing a rally for the three major averages. google shares, however, bucking the trend. the search giant threatening to shut down its chinese operations because of censorship rules and cyberattacks. a rare display of corporate

defiance because so many companies accept controls in china to gain access to its huge, lucrative, chinese market. we should note that the chinese search engine is and its shares right now are surging 11%. back here in the u.s., executors from wall street testifying at this hour about the financial crisis. the first public hearing of the financial crisis inquiry commission a panel appointed by congress last summer. testimony from the heads of goldman sachs, jpmorgan and morgan stanley comes at a time of mounting criticism over those big wall street bonuses. finally, now hiring starwood hotels in a big way. the company says it will add 12,000 new jobs this year, half of them will be in the u.s. starwood will soon begin to fill positions in new hotels in austin, texas, buluxy, mississippi, and last year, you

may remember the story, robin. more than 10,000 people applied for 300 jobs at a w. in washington. they need all kind of positions, hr, food and beverage, spa and guest services. >> what cities was it again? >> what were most of the cities? >> biloxi, austin and here in new york. >> just want our viewers to hear that again, thank you, susan, appreciate it. a decision how to teach kids history is stirring up a big debate in texas. why people are getting riled up. why this gentleman jumped to action when he saw an elderly lady knocked on the subway tracks.

haiti has no building codes,

so, the destruction there is huge after a powerful earthquake yesterday. now, this is a country with few paved roads, minimal health care and one of the poorest nations in the world. the u.s. state department has been told to expect "serious loss of life." and that's going to be tough getting some help in here. we're waiting for president obama to have a news conference and that's supposed to start soon. he will be making a statement about the earthquake in haiti. vice president biden will join him and, yes, we'll bring that to you live. a man in new york says that he was thinking about his own mother before saving an elderly woman who fell on to the subway tracks. well, he says he was getting off the train when he saw the woman fall. he jumped on the traction and helped her back on to the platform. >> just an outstanding guy. no one prodded him, he just went into action. >> you know, i consider myself not a hero and a person being in the right place at the right time.

>> the woman is in the hospital, but she is expected to be okay. we may see an emotional debate today about how history is going to be taught to kids in texas. the state is holding a public hearing about its social science curriculum for the next ten years. there are already squabbles to mention how much some civil rights leaders and the founding father's christian beliefs. a state board will be on saturday. richard well tell you what news he will have in that hour. >> the latest from haiti and fast-moving efforts to get rescue and medical workers to the country and all that is going on right now. plus, a grandmother spent two weeks in jail over a minor traffic violation and we'll tell you how that happened. big outrage factor on that. then, a specialty cruise for just about every interest, we've seen them, how about a cougar cruise that may have been pushing it too far.

one cruise line here that is passing on the cougar cruise. >> cougar cruise. cougar cruise. police in arizona say they have indications that a missing 8-month-old boy is alive. you may remember gabriel johnson. his father says that gabriel's mother elizabeth johnson texted him saying she killed the boy. but has also said she gave him to a couple to adopt. johnson is making the case hard for police. >> so when police ask her to help them find the baby she says absolutely nothing. nothing. doesn't even try to come up with a description of the couple that she gave the baby to. the time of day, the day, nothing. nothing about the conversation she had with this couple. did she see their car tags or make and model? nothing. zero. >> we have not heard from johnson about any allegations. nancy is going to have the

latest tonight at 8:00 eastern right here on hln. an nba team said it lost a game because their hotel was haunted. you got to hear what one player did when he got freaked out in the middle of the night. plus, why a billboard showing the first lady michelle obama is coming down.

>> i was inside the house with the other kids and then i felt all the houses ishaking. even the couch i sat on. this is my first time i felt an earthquake longer than i ever feel in my life. >> have you heard from your family? >> no, nothing. because i'm not in my house right now. >> from what you understand locally, is everyone okay? has there been any problems here in the north? >> in the north, maybe. i don't know because i haven't seen anybody. anybody. >> that is the situation for many people wondering where their friends and family are. well, there are lots of ways you can help, if you feel moved. you can go to our website

cnn.com/robin and you can also text the word haiti to 90999 and apparently $10 will be donated then to the red cross. the charge will show up on your phone bill. stay with hln for continuing coverage on this disaster out of hata. peta is pulling an ad showing first lady michelle obama. it never got authorization to use her image. the white house hasn't commented on the move, but in the past, the white house has not condoned the use of the first family's images for the commercial purposes. new this morning in to hln, a south african sprinter that center of a gender controversy apparently can race as a woman. so, here's rafer with the latest on this. >> yeah, the latest. this is a story that has been going on for a long time, robin. semenya is a name you may

remember. she has been at the center of that controversy since august. here's the thing, officials say they're still conducting their investigation but her coach is now saying that according to m semenya's lawyers, she can race as a woman. she won the 800 meters and there was a cloud of suspicion and they began the testing which involved doctors even psychiatrists and her lawyers were unavailable for comment. jose conseco abruptly canceled his appearance on "larry king live" saying he was suffering a breakdown and couldn't defend himself any more. conseco never turns down an interview, but he did tell espn radio and tv mark mcgwire lying about his steroid use. they injected each other with roidz in a stall. la russa just hired mcgwire as a hitting coach. loses his balance and goes

down the mountain and takes out a skiing official. >> poor thing. >> wow, that looks like it hurts. were hurt. thank goodness. he should be fine for the upcoming olympics next month. the new york knicks blame the latest loss to a hotel. two players told the daily news they could not sleep at their hotel in oklahoma city because they heard it was haunted so center eddy curry went to nate robin son's room because he was so scared and got about two hours of sleep. oh, no. >> i can see how that can be disturbing? . that's funny. thank you. >> i'm over here. >> what excuse can you use next? >> what can the nets use?

nets are 0-now 94. >> let me show you what's happening. so far, so good. we don't have many delays over a half hour. volume delays are going to show up shortly. 46, rain low clouds. watch for an hour delay to pop up as a possibility. et cetera going to be this morning through the afternoon. los angeles rain off and on. san diego same thing. seattle showers too. >> prosecutors have new charges coming against a suspected pirate accused of hijacking an american ship. the somali man is already charged in the attack on the maersk alabama last april. he was arrested after navy snipers killed three other attackers. a new indictment unsealed yesterday says they also tried to seize two other ships. one of their crew is reportedly still held hostage. some people are raising their blood alcohol content by

donating blood. giving away a pint of blood for a pienltsz nt of beer. ñ?