good morning, sunshine. i know you are tired because it is early. i'm tired with ya. i'm robin meade. it's 6:00 eastern. let's go right into the news this morning. people are pulling earthquake survivors out of collapsed buildings. the rescue effort gets difficult. the new fears to the glimmers of hope. amazing piece of tape we are going to show you more of. the mother in the case of the missing baby is changing her baby, again. why she's sure the 8-month-old son is alive.

we showed a woman throwing water and tear iing up cash registers at mcdonlds. she's apologizing, but says workers are still partly to blame. hope you are doing well this morning. we have exclusive video that shows the panic a haiti just after tuesday's earthquake. some of the pictures are difficult to watch. i mean, you can hear the cries for help. you can see the buildings that just collapsed on to themselves. people left homeless are sleeping in parks and parking lots. there are so many people. people whose homes were not demolished are sleeping outside for fear of aftershock. this crowd was responding to a

rumor a tsunami hit. dr. sanjay gupta watched it happen. >> for me, the last half hour or how long ago it was is how quickly one rumor to try to steal goods, but one are you mor spreads to the point you have hundreds, if not more people running down the street, dropping their most prize d possessions. >> that's how frightened they were. they have a bowl to eat. a kids blanket, toys. they will leave everything behind for fear of this one rumor. the fear of water, i guess, but an unfounded one. >> isn't that frightening? what a rumor can do. many people looking for missing family members. information is so spotty. some know where they are, but want to get the bodies pulled from the rubble. they want to air their names so

their families in the united states know they are alive. a family in wisconsin is waiting for word about their daughter. a 20-year-old with 11 other students on a humanitarian mission. >> they say eight students were on the ground near the hotel. it collapsed. four students and faculty member are unaccounted for. >> people are digging at the collapsed u.n. building. they found at least one survivor overnight. near the presidential palace, people dug for hours to rescue a 13-year-old girl. there she is. they got her out. but, four of her relatives did not make it out alive. the stories like this keep coming. we are going to bring you the latest tape and information as it comes in throughout the morning. because we are "morning express" let's get other news of the day.

the mother of an 8-month-old says she believes the baby is alive. she says elizabeth johnson gave the boy to a couple in texas. remember, the boys father says johnson texted him and said she killed their son. here is nancy grace's producer talking about it. >> tammi smith went to visit elizabeth johnson and that is what she said elizabeth said. she is sure the baby is alive. she's maintaining the story about the couple. she gave a description. she says they came to her hotel, met her with a car seat for the baby and were elated to take the baby home with her. >> she says elizabeth johnson begged investigators to do a sketch of the couple to help them. they hope a gps system found in the car in texas will help track

her movements before the baby disappeared. she's facing kidnapping and child abuse charges. a threat from al qaeda in yemen. officials tell cnn it's not specific, but it has to do with aviation. one says al qaeda is already adapting to the new u.s. security measures. officials say information was found while following up on the accused christmas day bomber. you know, you won't be able to see the court fight over california same-sex marriage ban. the supreme court blocked plans for live video stream or posting it on youtube. the judge approved it, but the lower courts did not follow proceed your to change the rules. >> conan o'brien and jay leno have been slamming nbc. now, they may be turning on each other. >> i'm trying to stay positive

here. this is honest. hosting the "tonight show" is a lifelong dream to me. to the kids out there watching, you can do anything you want in life. yeah. yeah. unless jay leno wants to do it, too. >> now, leno made fun of conan's complaint that nbc gave him seven months to establish himself on the show saying he got four months for his prime time show. it's making for good ratings, though. conan's numbers jumped 42% on tuesday night. >> wow. that's all there is to it. richard and i are going to start a war of words. >> a mess. it's a mess. >> good morning, robin. >> you already mouth off about richard. >> whoa. it's true. >> hurry up, he's not in the room. >> high pressure to the east. that's good news for folks in florida, georgia, alabama, mississippi. the cold air finally moving away. still frost and freeze warnings

in northern florida. it's between dallas and houston, sparking off showers now. could get thunderstorms. jacksonville, 29. 29 in atlanta. 42 in orlando. it's better than it was. i plotted some of the temperatures, too. purple shaded areas, freeze warnings. between gainesville and ocala, 39 degrees at the coast. by tomorrow morning, temperatures, everybody back into the 40s. rain, heavy at times in texas. more in a second. remember that storm that slammed across northern california? big time waves. this is near san francisco. high surf advisories. today, they are not there. a little bit less. now great is that job? more in a bit. >> thank you. money is to help survivors in haiti is pouring in from

around the world. there are alerts out about possible scams. we'll tell you about that. crew members from the international space station is in the middle of a space walk now. why it's a big deal for one of them.

oh, good morning. kind of busy at work. in our absolute to the troops, we are spotlighting stephen thompson. he's on his third tour in iraq. his wife and little girl miss him so much. >> hi, robin. this is sarah thompson. i want to salute my husband stephen thompson of the united states army. stephen, we love you so much and miss you there.'s not a day that goes by that we are not praying for your safe return. we love you to the moon. >> she had her daddy doll in the

pumpkin patch. if you know someone in the service, go to cnn.com/robin. "american idol" went down last night. vanessa spends her time in tennessee, diving off bridges and buying dresses at the dollar store. ♪ >> it's good. she got through to hollywood. the judges liked her authentic country charm. look at simon, he really did. >> check out her reaction. >> vanessa, you better start practicing and believing in yourself otherwise, you're going to get swallowed up. >> none of my friends are going to believe this. >> show them the ticket.

see you later. >> of course, i know auditions are not complete without bad singing, strange behavior and stranger outfits. how the human guitar did in front of the judges. jennifer says she's afraid of the human guitar. all right. i know the pictures coming out of haiti have you ready to give. there's a huge need for donations out there. you should keep your eye out for scam artists. jennifer. >> thanks, robin. oftentimes, when you have a disaster like this and think, what can i do to help, criminals know that you want to do something to help. unfortunately, they are ready to take advantage of you. you want to be very careful about e-mails that say help haiti, click here, with a

website you don't know. on social networks, this can crop up, too. it can look like it comes from a friend. be careful. if you want to give, the best thing, experts say, is cash. that way, the relief experts know what to do with the money, what they need, how to use it and to donate through established organizations like the red cross. one thing you can do is text haiti to 90999. we have been talking about that. this is a new way to donate. they will add the $10 bill to your cell phone bill. if you go to cnn.com/robin, we have impact your world there. you can see lots of different organizations there. >> reality, never react to an e-mail you get so indianapoll s.

the streets of haiti are shocking right now. >> as a doctor, as a journalist who has traveled around the world, i have never seen anything quik like this. it's astonishing. >> doctor sanjay gupta says the health situation could get very bad very fast.

it's 15 minutes past the hour. right now, people are frantically searching for their

loved ones in piles of rubble in haiti. you know, the death toll from the massive earthquake that happened earlier this week, they fear it could reach 100,000 people. six figures. the survivors may face health risks from the bodies lying in the street. we are getting video pouring in throughout the morning. richard will have more on the angle we talked about there. check out this dangerous situation in rockville, maryland. a tanker overturned and burst into flames before 5:00 eastern this morning. it had a highly flammable liquid inside. the hazmat crews on on the scene. lanes are shut down in both directions. is this a live picture now? wow. okay. look at this live picture as they try to get a handle on this. lanes are shut down on i-270 because of overturned tanker on

fire. where is wjla, again? washington, d.c., area. there you go. just wanted to show you that. a dog rescue frd a shelter rescued a man who gave him a new home. >> he saved my life. that's all i can say. i would have died in this spot if it hasn't been for him. >> it's like a story out of lassie. it's all new for you in about 20 minutes. bobby, good morning. 17 minutes past the hour. we have a lot of folks watching from the airport. good day for them? >> i think so. especially east half of the nation. texas, rain pouring in from houston and san antonio. texas, gulf coast and louisiana, too. planes in dallas, the green spotted areas, that's all light rain. it's going to pick up in intensity today. could get delays because of this. so far, it's early. no delays now.

great news. houston, watch for half hour to hour long delays, possible. seattle, going to see showers, too. las vegas, gusty winds, bumpy getting over the mountains. san francisco, morning fog. it's going to be patchy and thick. it should last until noon. >> thank you. there's so many different angles here of the story happening in haiti. even the sports field is feeling the effects of what happens in haiti on tuesday. joe is in for rafer and he has reaction from an nfl player with ties to haiti. >> he's a receiver for the indianapolis colts. his parents immigrated from haiti. most of his relatives still live there. he's days away from his game. he was at practice waiting to hear from his mother trying to reach family members in haiti. >> aunts, uncles, cousins,

nieces and nephews back there. haven't heard much from them. my mom is trying to call. hopefully, get some good news. >> you don't know how they are? >> no. not at all. >> the team will donate $10,000 to the american red cross relief efforts. the owner of a t-shirt store in knoxville, tennessee is lending a helping hand. they were going to burn shirts of the coach that's leaving. they were asked to bring them to the store, he will send them to haiti for people in need. tiger woods won't be driving free gm cars, anymore is over. the agreement ended december 31 was in place before the crash. here is a nice light story for you. kiefer southerland is a brave

man. he was so confident the patriots would beat. as you can see, the man makes good on his bets. on a side bar, letterman said i bet you 1, $000 to we are it on a subway. he said, not a chance. >> he didn't put pants under it at all. i love it. thank you. back to the stories out of haiti where survivors may risk health risks. you are talking days on end now and there's no one coming to collect the corpses. it's so sad. >> very sad, robin. there is the issue of health, you brought that up. dr. sanjay gupta is in haiti. if it rains soon, it could create another problem. >> what can be prommatic is if they become a source of

contamination for the water supply. it's dry today, but if it rains over the next couple weeks, it could be a problem. >> now a public health expert from ucla says the biggest health threats include respiratory disease from inhaling dust. dust is everywhere and diarrhea from drinking contaminated water. >> there's so much need there. thank you. crew members on the international space station are on a space walk now. live picture there. they are getting a docking port ready for russian spacecraft to use in the future. it's the first space walk for one of the crew members. can you imagine what kind of interesting morning he's having? a woman who went crazy, ballistic, at a mcdonald's restaurant is apologizing now. she's explaning why she was so rude. a girl got her tongue stuck

to a freezing pole at the bus stop. she says the bus driver just left her there.

haiti's president says it is too early, yet, to estimate how many people died in tuesday's massive earthquake. government officials are afraid the number could reach six figures. there's no heavy machinery, so people are digging with their bare hands. look at the people running for safety in port-au-prince. some people dropped everything they salvaged from the quake, which wouldn't be much. president obama plans to be on capitol hill today. he wants to get the health care

reform package passed. the big sticking points are dropping the government run insurance option and accepting a tax on high insurance plans. john jr. will not have to face a fifth trial. federal prosecutors decided not to try another one. got gotti's father was head of the crime family. junor left organized crimes decades ago. good morning on a sleepy thursday morning. i know. morning sunshine. i-reporters have been submitting pictures of their loved ones reported missing in haiti. look the pictures over. in the meantime, if you have photographs to send us looking for somebody in haiti, go to cnn.com/robin. there are instructions of how to submit your photos looking for

loved ones caught in the aftermath of haiti. help is coming to haiti. the aircraft carrier, the "uss carl vinson" is expected to arrive carrying 2000 marines. look at the miami-dade search and rescue team. they are bringing canine unit tosser ch through all the debris. >> it could be very tough. i mean, we have slept in the middle of parking lots with a tent over us. other times, we slept in dilapidated churches in columbia. we are self-contained. we have water, we have food. we have a change of clothes. we are ready to go for 14 days, potentially. u.s. ground troops are headed to haiti. richard lui joins me now. we thought they were supposed to help humanitarian efforts. >> they could be used for security. the situation is not just

desperate there. it's getting dangerous. people are overwhelmed. they are on short -- short on manpower, rather. officers were injured in the quake. add 1,000 criminals on the loose. >> the prison was broken last night. we have many prisoners, you know, that escaped from the prison. security being in control of the situation. we have the global situation with people living until the streets. i think we need help here. >> so, two days after the catastrophes and yet another - dynamic to deal with. >> the health risk for the

survivors. day after day, they worry and feel the aftershocks, too. >> that's right. what they see around them, psychological damage could be far beyond what we know. the horror of losing loved ones. being totally uprooted may be the beginning. >> post-traumatic stress disorder is a real thing. every occurrence is a reminder and a frightening one at that that something else could happen. people in the park because they are frightened to go home. there's concern about water. people running through the streets. i don't know how it ends or how long it takes for that to stop. >> post-traumatic stress disorder can be hard to treat, even in developed countries, like our own. >> it's so far off. you are talking about people stuck in rubble. no water to drink. it's just unbelievable. it's hard to imagine, isn't it?

>> it really is. >> thank you. if you are waiting for the weekend to catch up on your sleep, research says it's not that easy. if you are chronically sleep deprived, sleeping in a day or two doesn't help. great. study volunteers felt refreshed when they woke up. later on in the day, their reaction time -- the tsa and cdc are wondering how a person with an active case of tb got on a flight. the person's name was on a special do not board list from f federal authorities. that person was stopped before boarding an international flight in san francisco. transportation consultants spoke with mike. >> the system that's set up now is not a good system. you have the tsa putting up intermitt antly a new list of the do not board list. it's up to the carriers to pull

down the list, match it with whomever they have on their manifest. obviously some carriers do a better job than others. you are always going to see an inconsistency. >> because the flight was less than eight hours long, there's little health risk to other passengers. little? it's too big for me. >> little still mean as risk. i love that. a special do not board list. what does that mean? >> go ahead. >> you're not super special. go ahead. >> you are starting on florida. we had big concerns about the citrus crop. >> it's not a hard freeze anymore. temperatures no longer in the low 20s. it's good news. we have temperatures around the freezing mark. the freeze warnings are in place in north and central florida. we are five to ten degrees warmer. temperatures at 123i in ocala.

freeze warnings until 9:00 this morning. 39 around the coastline. orlando is about 37. not as cold as yesterday morning. tampa is in the 40s. away from here, it's an upper level low. showers out of houston and the gulf of mexico. san antonio down to corpus christi. it's moving in with light rain. a new storm comes in. there's a lot of rain across the deep south. how about atlanta. take you live here. still a cold start. temperatures in the mid-20s, up into the upper 50s today with heavy rain the entire weekend. more on that in a half hour. >> it's a pretty shot, isn't it? >> yeah. it got heated during "american idol" auditions last night. one singer went to "a kiss from a rose" to an escort from security. first, if you got your kids metal jewelry this holiday

season and it's cheap, you may want to toss it. a warning from the top safety officer.

all right. this is straight out of "lassie." a man was saved by his dog. he went out to get the newspaper and got his wheelchair stuck in the snow. the weather was cold. he got his dog to spring into action. >> he looked at the chair and looked at me. i said go get mark. i said go and he went. >> for him to bark at me was an indication something was wrong, very wrong. >> he got the attention of the owners son and would not stop

barking until he noticed what was going on. >> today, we're going to hear how much it cost the city of san francisco to not allow same-sex marriage. yesterday, lawyers for the two couples suing tried to show that proposition 8 campaign was based on antigay bias. no one was deprived of fundmental rights when voters approved the ban. if your children have metal jewelry, made in china, you're not talking 14 or 18 carat, take it away immediately. that warning is coming from higher up. jennifer is here looking out for you. >> chuck it. that is the word. get rid of it. that's the word from the top safety regulator. the junkie metal jewelry.

it may have dangerous levels of toxic metals. the group representing the manufacture is looking into the investigation. you may remember, they found dangerous levels in many pieces of kids jewelry they tested. walmart and claires took them off the shelf. the trade group is going to look. safety is their number one concern. the chinese government is investigating. the white house has an idea to get back some of your money. that bailout money we lent to financial companies so they wouldn't go under, today, the president will announce a plan to get back $120 billion. but, do you like the way he's going to do it? with a fee on the nation's biggest banks. maybe you like it, considering this is the time we hear about the bonuses. >> as long as it's not passed down to us at the atm, okay. >> this is according to a senior

administration official. he wanlts to recoup every dime for the american people. back to you. >> thank you. a fake gatorade label hit grocery shelves for tiger woods indiscretions. somebody is going to have to pay for it.

♪ hospitals in haiti are overwhelmed from survivors from tuesday's major quake. we take you inside one here. the doctors and nurses are trying to treat patients amid chaos. you are not talking like they have a lot of medical supplies. the crowds of people are standing around looking for loved ones. i-reporters say they need prayer, supplies and medicine. if you are looking for a loved one in haiti or ways to help, go to cnn.com/robin and

the website section, you are going to find that. you know, i thought it was interesting dr. sanjay gupta is there. as soon as he arrived, people knew he was a doctor. people are coming up to him looking at fractures. they don't have enough medical help. >> it's amazing. good morning to you. if you are trying to get in or out of the gulf coast, rain, heavy at times from galveston to the bay there, rain moving in toward houston, shortly. looking for half hour to hour long delays for houston. seattle, rainshowers all day long. watch for half hour delays. las vegas, going to be windy for you. watch for a bumpy ride, a half hour delay, san francisco, morning fog. afternoon looks fine. more in a half hour. >> thank you. as we have learned through the years, showing up for an audition for "american idol" in

costume is usually recipe for disaster. this is holly dressed as a guitar. ♪ you come to tell me something ♪ ♪ you say i ought to know ♪ he don't -- >> she has a great voice. why the get up? despite the get up, she got the golden ticket to hollywood. ♪ roses in bloom ♪ a light picks the loom on the grave. >> powerful. >> yeah, that was powerful. but, he got rejected after his per formouns. >> kind of tortuous. >> the problem is he kept singing until security took him away, then this happened. >> who is carol. who is she. i ain't never heard of that [ bleep ]. i wish paula was here. >> prior to the audition, he claimed he loved getting

constructive criticism. a big game athlete and championship team are stepping up to help haiti. good morning. >> good morning. you nike to see the big name. the sports community is doing what they can to help those in need in haiti. the yankees donated $500,000 to the rescue and relief fund. also contributing, seven time tour de france winner, lance arm strong donated $250,000 through the live strong foundation. trying to locate his missing family. before the 76ers hosted the knicks, he tried to book a flight to help. no planes are going in or out. >> i still couldn't get in touch with nobody. i basically, you know, sitting down over there, you know, going

out of my mind crazy and looking at the news and you know, nothing i could have done. >> hard to focus. there was a moment of silence for the victims in haiti before the knicks-76ers game. >> that's nice. dozens of gatorade bottles in grocery stores were found. colorado police arrested a 38-year-old man who claims he's an artist. >> it's my artistry. >> he switched it as a tribute to andy warhol. >> he was trying to sell them, still? >> now, he's in jail. >> okay. >> now, he's busted. tell that to the judge. football fans who can't afford seats at the new stadium can own a pair of the old one. two seats, a website is selling goal posts, and yard markers.

how do you fit a goal post in your man cave? >> what do you do with that? >> how big it is and how much does it cost? >> i don't think the wife is going to like planner. at 10:00 a.m. eastern the texas school board ask going to cast its vote on what the history curriculum is going to be like. also at 10:00, the doomsday clock used to symbolize how close we are to catastrophe will be changed in new york. and then 11:00 a.m. eastern a naturalization ceremony is going to take place in new york. coincideses with tomorrow's birthday with reverend dr. martin luther king, jr. are you happy about your job? some are move satisfied than others of the that's a no brainer. but hln money expert clark howard tells you who is most likely to leave work smiling. >> there is an obscure group

called the conference board and they do a lot of great research and one study they do that is highly respected is how satisfied are you with your job? only 45% of americans say that they are satisfied at work and that is an abiz malnumber. is that the number you should think about? what i would rather you look at are what are the things that make people happy at work? a recorder at the washington post went out searching for that answer and these are the people that make people the happiest. people who are in helping professions or doing creative work. some examples they gave, firefighters, clergy, fiscal therapists are the most likely to describe themselves as happy. how about you? i'm clark howard. for more info on this story, check out my website cnn.com/clark howard. >> clark will teach you to save

more and spend less. more girls are apparently settling scores by duking it out. a disturbing new trend. 

good morning. i'm robin meade and morning, sunshine. we always appreciate your time. let's go right into the news today. people are pulling earthquake survivors out of collapsed buildings as the rescue effort in haiti gets increasingly desperate. government officials expect the death toll to hit six figures. also the mother in the case of a missing baby is apparently changing her story again. why she says she's sure her 8-month-old son is still alive. we're learning more about the frightening situation in

haiti after a devastating earthquake. people left homeless by the quake are sleeping in parks and parking lots, even people whose homes are not destroyed are sleeping outside. here's a new aerial look at the collapsed presidential palace in port-au-prince. the good news is a u.s. aircraft carrier is expected to arrive in haiti today with a load of relief supplies. just to give you an idea about how frightened people are there. look at this crowd running. they're reacting to a false rumor that a tsunami was coming. dr. january jay gupta watched as this happened. >> for me the education over the last half hour that this started is how quickly one rumor, in this case a rumor to try to steal goods, one rumor could just spread to the point where you have hundreds, if not more, people running down the street

dropping their most precious possessions. >> that's how frightened they were. they may have a bowl left in which to eat. that's their only possession. a kid's blanket, toys got thrown on the street. they will leave everything behind for fear of the one rumor, but an unfounded one. >> the exclusive images that we're about to show you may be disturbing, i should tell you. they illustrate the desperate situation in haiti moments after the quake and for one virginia beach father, robert foster is hoping for any information on his son andrew. the 13-year-old flew to haiti for some scuba diving with his uncle who went there on business. he called his father when he landed just as the earthquake hit. >> obviously, we're concerned for andrew. his first time away from his mother and i abroad. trip of a lifetime. 20 minutes of business to take

care of, and then fun in the sun and scuba diving. this is not the life experience we had in mind for him. >> robert foster is hoping someone is going to recognize his son's picture and contact him. we have no word about the boy's uncle. there are flashes of hope. people digging at the collapsed u.n. building found at least one survivor overnight. near the presidential palace people dug for hours with their own hands to rescue this 13-year-old girl. you can see they finally got her out, but four of her relatives did not make it out alive. we will bring you the very latest video and info as it comes in throughout the morning. let me get you some of the other stories that are also making news today. a truck driver managed to walk away unhurt when his overturned tanker burst into flames. according to affiliate wjla fire crews say they have contained the fire but they have to let the rest of the flammable cargo burn itself off.

the interstate could be closed for awhile while the crews make sure it is safe. the u.s. is closely watching what is called a credible threat from al qaeda in yemen. senior officials tell cnn that the threat is not specific. they do say it has to do with aviation. one says that al qaeda is already adapting to new security measures. officials say that information was found while following up on the accused christmas day airplane bomber. the mother of missing 8-month-old gabriel johnson says she is alive. that's according to a woman who want today adopt him. elizabeth told her that she gave the boy to a couple in texas. remember the boy's fare said johnson texted him saying she killed their son. nancy grace's producer talked with mike galanos about it. >> tammy smith wemts to visit elizabeth johnson behind bars. she just left a few moments ago. she said yes she is sure that

her baby is alive. she's still maintaining the story about the couple. she gave a description of the couple. she says that they came to her hotel, met her with a car seat for the baby and they were elated to take the baby home with her. tammy smith also says elizabeth johnson begged investigators to do a sketch of the couple to help find them. police say they hope a gps system found in her abandoned car will help track her movements in texas before the baby disappeared. she is facing kidnapping and child abuse charges. you can get the latest developments on nancy grace on hln. his powerful voice helped turn off the lights and love tko smash hits. r and b legends teddy pendergrass died wednesday in philadelphia. pendergrass was 59. a 1982 accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. he did record an album after the

accidents and had been working on a musical. remember the woman who tackled the pope on christmas eve. you you saw how she dragged him to the ground. well, the two met again. this time privately. an 82-year-old pope benedict forgave her. the 25-year-old woman told him she was sorry according to the vatican. she was taken to a mental institution after the attack. six minutes past the hour. i don't know what kind of temperatures are you going to have today? >> a little better for you if you live around northern florida, south georgia, alabama, where all the freeze warnings were located, we have a warmer day for you. here's high pressure moving across the east. you get up to the north, there's new york city, light cloud cover. take you live to nyc. we got a lit bit of mood

lighting going ♪ >> robin bring me the medical low tunes. >> the sun coming up. the high in the mid 20s and getting up to 46 the high tomorrow with dry conditions until saturday. looks pretty good. back off to the west down to the south, 25 in birmingham, 28 in jacksonville. hard freeze warnings to the north of here, but the freeze warnings are in for the northern parts of florida. frost advisory outside of old. low pressure region starting to develop it's between dallas and houston. that fades apart across arkansas. you can see the rain getting dragged out. another low coming from california yesterday redevelops around the gulf coast for the weekend. heavy down pours for the entire seat starting saturday. that action did create a lot of waves around california. let me show you video. this is pacifica. high surf advisories yesterday afternoon. this is the reason why.

big breakers slamming across the shore. little better for you today. you don't have the long swell action coming in. it was gorgeous yesterday. more in about a half hour. >> licking your chops? >> oh, yeah. >> money to help survivors in haiti. it is pouring in from around the world. watch out for the scammers we will show you how. a fight over same sex marriage will not be televised.

in our salute to the troop today, we spotlight staff sergeant steven thompson. he's on his third tour. his wife and little girl his minimum a lot. >> this is sara thompson. i want to salute steve thompson of the united states army. steven we love you so much and we miss you. there's not a day that goes by

that we're not praying for your safe return. we love you to the moon. >> if you have somebody in the service go to cnn.com/robin. at one florida school studying is taking a back seat to a search for loved ones missing in haiti. >> new for you in about 40 minutes, we're going to take you to that school. it's been turned upside down for the students and teachers since that quake hit. president obama plans to be on capitol hill today. he wants to persuade house democrats to go along with compromises that he wants to get the health care reform package passed. the big sticking points are dropping the government run insurance option and accepting a tax on high cost insurance plans. yesterday's meeting between top dems was at the white house and it ran all day long. you will not be able to see the court fight over california's same sex marriage ban. the supreme court blocked plans for any live video stream or posting it on youtube.

now, the trial judge that authorized it, the supreme court ruled that the lower courts did not follow procedure before changing the rules to allow the broadcast. we have some of the most giving and open hearted viewers in the world. i know that. some of you may be ready to give to the situation in haiti. there is a huge need for donations there post earthquake, but you do need to watch out for scam artists. how do you know the difference? jennifer westhoven looking out for you? >> thanks, robin. this is a time when you see these pictures and you are moved and maybe you're right on the edge of about to do something and criminals know that, so be careful. cash is the most effective way to help in an instance like this so relief experts can get exactly what they need in the right places but you got to watch out for crooks. be careful of any e-mails trying to get you that say click to donate.

you may also see things on social networking sites but you want to be careful. to give use names you know like doctors without borders or the red cross. we're making it easy to give. a new way, you can just text the word haiti to the number 90999. have you heard about this? it's a $10 charge on your cell phone bill. it goes to the red cross. the state department set this up and they say americans have been very generous. they have had a tremendous response. they raised about $800,000 in about 24 hours. if you want to give in a more traditional way. there are dozens of legitimate organizations that can help people, so if you want to make a difference go to cnn.com/robin. if you go through the link that says impact your world, it will take you to a whole list there. if you're traveling this morning, let's see if you need extra time.

>> good morning. i'll tell you so far, jennifer not a bad day. we had rain coming in across the gulf coast but not heavy yet. you're going to start to see the rain developing into a heavy down pour. here's texas, louisiana, alabama. look at the showers coming in. that's light green. areas around austin, san antonio, houston, dallas might get a short delay but here's what we have fort rest of the day. half hour delay in houston because of the light showers. is seattle rain comes in half hour delays, las vegas gusty winds, half hour delays, san francisco closing in on an hour delay. that's due to the patchy fog. what would jack bauer think? kiefer sutherland shows up in a dress. the woman who has a meltdown in a video says she was having say bad day.

♪ > . ♪ you guys got me.

i apologize my microphone was off. you're looking at pictures out of haiti. it is so heart wrenkiching. this is thursday. people are still stuck in the rubble. survivors have been trying to dig people out of the rubble here and they are carrying the injured in everything from wheelbarrows, pickup trucks, whatever they can to help. it's not like if it happened here and you had emergency services. it doesn't exist there. survivors may face serious health risks in the aftermath. richard lui is digging into the health situation in haiti? >> you are mentioning two days later. the corpses in the streets they could create a health risk. dr. sanjay gupta is in haiti and he says if it rains soon, that could create yet another problem. >> what can be problematic if those dead bodies can be something that can be a source

of contamination for the water supply. pretty dry today, but if it starts to rain over the next couple weeks, or a week, that could potentially be a problem. >> a public health expert from ucla saying as well some of the biggest immediate health threats include respiratory disease from inhaling dust from collapsed buildings, those pictures we saw yesterday, as well as diarrhea from drinking contaminated water. >> the doctors without borders has been in haiti for a long time, but are they able to keep up with the need? >> drs. without borders says it treated over a thousand people since the earthquake hit. many of the group's 00 staffers are missing as well. some of their hospitals have collapsed too. doctors without borders, they set up clinics, intends to keep treating the vim tims as well as they could. one physician planning to help in haiti told "the new york times" said there was nothing in my experience that will prepare

me for what we will face. we heard that from our own journalists out there. >> right, as they are arriving and finds out what it's like there. thank you, richard. the sports world is also feeling the effects of the earthquake in haiti on tuesday night. joe carter is in for rafer. he has reaction from one nfl player who has ties in haiti? >> good morning. pierre garcon is a receiver for the indianapolis colts. his team is favored to win the super bowl. he's about to play in his first career playoff game. garcon's parents immigrated from haiti. he was at practice yesterday and told reporters that he's waiting to hear from his mother who is trying to reach any family members in haiti? >> aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews back there. haven't heard much from them. my mom is trying to call. hopefully i'll get some good news. >> you don't know how they are?

>> no, not at all. >> the colts have jumped into help. the team announced wednesday they will donate $10,000 to the american red cross effort. the owner of a t shirt store in knoxville, tennessee is also lending a helping hand. fans say they are going to burn t shirts of lane kiffin who just left the coaching position. the store owners saying don't burn them. bring them into the store and we'll send them to haiti for people in need. >> that's a good idea. >> tiger woods wointsz be driving free gm cars anymore. gm's agreement agreement is all over. this agreement ended on december 31st, which was in place before that infamous crash. actor keefr suggester land is a brave man who makes good on his bets. suggester land was so confident that the pat rotsz would beat the ravens he bet a friend that

he would wear a dress on david letterman. he made good on his bet. dave actually asked him why the dress. why not access rise. >> i like the combat boots. that's jack bauer we're talking there. >> did you notice the undershirt? can you believe that tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of the splash down landing in the hudson river a year ago. all 155 people on board survived but many of them say they are still suffering psychologically from what they went through. one flight attendant said she had a panic attack when she inhaled water in the shower. others say they don't like swimming. we are digging deeper into the investigation of a person who was on a do not board list but got on the plane anyway with an active case of tb. a girl got her tongue stuck to a freezing pole at the bus stop and then she says the bus

driver just left her there. #ñ#ññ

haiti's president is saying that it is still too early to estimate how many people died in tuesday's earthquake. some fear that number is going to reach six figures. there is basically no heavy machinery there for the rescues, so people are having to dig with their bare hands to find their loved ones. the u.s. says there's a credible threat from al qaeda in yemen shown in this video that has to do with aviation officials say the threat is not specific. they say the information was found while following up on the accused christmas day airplane bomber. the justice department is suing a private swim club for racism. it turned away a group of mostly

african-american children last summer. the government says the club's latest policy to ban summer camp groups was racially motivated. the club would not comment. those are some of your headlines. hello. 30 minutes past the hour. it's thursday. good to see you. i'm robin meade. take a look at a satellite picture. it's of petionville, haiti. you can see how the 8.0 earthquake flattened everything. this is a suburb of port-au-prince. here's a different perspective of the damage. check out the houses. these pictures were also taken outside of port-au-prince where a lot of video you have seen is where it's coming from. the damage is the same. the houses have crumbled, they have fallen in on themselves. i-reporters are sending in pictures of their loved ones. please do look them over and in the meantime, if you have photos

that you would like to send because you're worried about someone there, you can go to cnn.com/robin under the important website section. there are instructions on how to submit your photos. u.s. ground troops are headed to haiti. correspondent richard lui joins me on that angle. we thought they were supposed to have humanitarian efforts but they could be used for other reasons? >> as things develop on the ground, there are security concerns, because about 1,000 criminals are on the loose because their prison crumbled. here's the national police chief. >> the security, we need police to be in control of the situation, and beside that, we have the situation with people living in the streets, you know what i mean? i think we need help here. >> we need help here, he's saying. the overwhelmed chief says some of these criminals had long

sentences, and like other haitians, some police officers were injured in the quake too. >> a scary thought. with all of that going on, it could be so difficult for these groups. it's chaos. you've got people just frantically searching for your loved once. >> coming into a situation probably they have never seen. it's going to require a lot of coordination amid all the chaos. that's not easy, experts say. >> the chaotic environment, i think is profoundly undermining or is going to undermine and compromise the relief effort. we're going to have to deal with it. we will deal with it. we've done it before, but this is something we have to keep an eye on. >> the coordination of the organization like the red cross and the military units that are going to be coming on shore to help for the sick and injured. coordinating that effort and making sure that the right hand knows what the left hand is doing is critical here, so there isn't further chaos and confusion.

>> robin, the good news is help is getting there, but from very different countries and different cultures perhaps too. >> that's another thing. you just don't even think of. richard, thank you. >> the tsa and the cdc are investigating how a person with an active case of tb got on a u.s. airways flight from philadelphia to san francisco. the person's name was on a special do not board list from federal health authorities. that person was stopped before boarding an international flight in san francisco. a transportation consultant talked about this with mike galanos. >> you know, it's amazing it doesn't happen more thaoften. you have the tsa putting up intermittently a new list of the do not board list. ebb then it's up to the carriers to go, pull down the list and match it with whomever they have on their manifest. obviously, some carriers do a better job than others, so

you're always going to see an inconsistency. >> the cdc gives names to health and human services. that department then gives them to the tsa who turns it over to the airlines. by the way, u.s. airways says the cdc told them that there is little health risk to other passengers because that flight was less than eight hours long. conan o'brien and jay leno have been slam iming nbc for trying to move their late night shows. it looks like they might be turning on each other. >> i'm trying very hard to stay positive here. hosting "the tonight show" has been the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for me. i want to say to the kids out there watching, you can do anything you want in life, yeah, unless jay leno wants to do it too. >> that was a good one. leno made fun of conan's complaint saying he only got four months for his prime time show to establish itself. well it is making for good

ratings. conan's numbers jumped 42% among the younger viewers on tuesday night. i don't know what the easy answer is there to make everybody happy. >> i don't know. he should work for hln. it's been eight years and i'm still trying to establish myself. they have been very patient with me at hln. i appreciate that. >> agree the audience. >> let me show you what's happening. this weather brought to you by tylenol flu. florida, the cold temperatures, week and a half to two weeks. freeze warnings this morning until about 9:00. you can see the temperatures about five to ten degrees warmer from where they were yesterday. no hard freeze warnings. freeze warnings which means about 32. up to the north, temperatures still in the 20s. take you live to washington, d.c. nice sunrise coming up. it will warm up to about 50 degrees by this afternoon. low 50s throughout the week with

rain coming in on sunday night. >> houston, corpus christi, it's an upper level low, it's north of the region, there's a couple thunderstorms around the gulf. you move up to houston, it's going to be heavy at times. scattered light pockets of rain. that's going to are drift up to the north and fill back in areas like louisiana and lower parts of mississippi. watch the next 48 hours. the rain really starts going as the low pressure center from california begins to dig on down. by saturday and sunday, all the rain begins to spill on in the gulf coast, florida, mississippi, louisiana, good two to three inches of rain is a possibility starting saturday. out to the west, the upper level low was over california is right now over arizona. look at the light returns coming in on the radar, light snow in the upper elevations. same with the albuy currentky area.

otherwise the afternoon looks a little bit better. we will have full details of the airport delays. with information pretty much slow to come out of haiti, many people across america are still waiting and wondering about their loved ones there. one school is offering the community an open phone line. also, if you got your kids some metal trinkets this holiday season, if you got them cheap costume jewelry, you may want to toss it.

♪ students and teachers at a florida high school are among the hundreds of haitian americans waiting for word on their loved ones in haiti. the school is in boynton beach. >> this was a tremendous blow for all of us because we have so many people in haiti that we love. it's a difficult day. >> well, if you're looking for loved ones in haiti as well or for ways to help, go to cnn.com slash robin and look under the important website section. a mother in massachusetts has come up with a way to stop people from texting. she created an anti-text somewhere for cell phones. it kicks in once the car hits 5 miles an hour. she came up with the idea after

she saw her son we have across the road on his cell phone. i don't know about you, but that would be a grounding. >> i've heard about those programs. i never heard about a mom creating one. >> yeah, taking action. if your children have metal jewelry made in china. we're not talking quality, we're not talking 14 karat, we mean the junky stuff they wear to school, you might want to take it away immediately. that is a warning coming from high up? >> it sure is. you have to think about little kids who put it in their mouth. get rid of that stuff. that is according to america's top product safety official who says take it away, because it may have dangerous levels of toxic metalsment we have been talking about this story all week. this is after an investigation found very high levels of toxic chemicals in many of this kind of stuff. now, a group representing the

manufacturers say it's looking into the ap investigation that found this and safety is its number one concern. the u.s. and chinese government both say they are investigating and we know that clair's and walmart said they just pulled the stuff off their shelves. but if you've already got it, go look through the toy bin or something. see if you can find it. maybe you need to chuck it. the arctic blast, the freeze in florida is probably going to make it a little more expensive for you to eat your vegetables. the freezing temperatures and the cold spell has devastated crops. you may have to pay more for bell peppers, sweet corn and more. in the coming months south florida is the primary source where we get our fresh vegetables in the united states during the winter. we have been talking so much about the citrus crop and orange juice because i think people love that more, but you got to eat your veggies too. >> a lot of us are on our new

year's resolution diets. as we've learned through the years, showing up for an audition on "american idol" in a costume is a recipe for disaster. this is holly who came dressed as a guitar. ♪ you came to tell me something ♪ ♪ you say i ought to no >> she has a beautiful voice. has r what's with the getup, holly. she did get a ticket. a wreck has killed three people in one family and police say a person behind the wheel was an 11-year-old driver. and a man sends an unflattering message about tiger woods right there on the gatorade bottle.

morning. it's 46 minutes past the hour. nonprofit groups are already working in haiti before tuesday's earthquake running shelters and schools and can teens for children. one group based in kentucky runs nine schools about 30 miles out of port-au-prince. look at these pictures of the

group's main building. the director says no one was injured there. another group moved quickly when the quake hit. >> we was in a two story building with a lot of children on the first floor. i was up on the second floor and it just started tremabling terrible for about 60 seconds. we ran downstairs and we started grabbing kids, four or five at a time and throwing them out the door. all of the houses totally collapsed. not one of us was left standing but the one we were in. it's still standing. every one of us are alive. sp. some buildings that house u.n. efforts in port-au-prince were badly damaged in the quake. you might be on a new year's resolution diet right now. joy behar had questions for jillian michaels. >> a lot of people are saying the show is not a healthy way to lose weight. you are only supposed to lose

two pounds a week? >> who says you're supposed to lose two pounds a week. ? i think two pounds a week is realistic, but i don't believe it's a healthy way to lose wait. i think we've totally debunked that. i have people losing 10, 15, 20 pounds a week. they are perfectly healthy. no one is dead. it's quite the opposite. they are off all the medication. i think proof is in the pudding. >> catch "the joy behar show" at 9:00 p.m. eastern. tonight's guest is going to be joan rivers. that should be hilarious. a big namath leetd and a championship team are stepping up to help people in haiti. >> you know, the new york yankees get a lot of heat for having such a high payroll, the team with the 2$200 plus millio payroll. they are putting it to good use. the world champs have donated a

half a million dollars to the rescue and relief fund in naturety. they hope their 5en $00,000 donation will inspire others. others in the sports community are helping haiti. lance armstrong pledged $250,000 through his live strong foundation. nba center samuel dalembert who grew up in haiti is trying to locate his missing family. salem bart said he tried to book a flight, but found out there were no planes going in or out. >> i still couldn't get in touch with nobody, so i basically, sitting down over there, going out of my mind crazy and i look at the news and, nothing i could have done. >> it's got to be hard to focus on basketball. there was a moment of silence for the victims in haiti before the knicks 76ers game.

dozens of gatorade bottles were covered in labels that had colorado police arrested a 38-year-old man who claims to be an artist and he said he switched the labels as a tribute to andy warhol. the primary concern is the safety of the consumers and the integrity of our products. >> oopsy! >> tiger woods can't win, i tell you. >> thank you. are you happy at your job? hln money expert clark howard tells you who is most likely to leave work smiling. >> there is an obscure group called the conference board and they do a lot of great research and one study they do that is highly respected is how satisfied are you with your job? only 45% of americanses say that

they are satisfied at work and that is an abysmal number, but is that the number you should think about? what i rather you look at is what are the things that make people happy at work? a reporter at "the washington post" went searching for that answer. these are things that make people the happiest, people in helping professions, firefighters, clergy, physical therapists are the most likely to describe themselves as happy. how about you? i'm clark howard. for more info on this story, check out my website, cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> i'm happy, i'm happy, clark! clark will teach you how to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off and that should make you happy. weekends at noon and 4:00 eastern on hln. you might be looking forward to the weekend as a chance to catch up on your sleep, but it will take more than just a late

wake-up call to get us back on track, apparently.

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good morning. as you're getting the coffeemaker going, how are you? i was waiting for you to tune in here. i'm robin meade and here's what's going on today, sunshine. people are pulling earthquake survivors out of collapsed buildings as the rescue effort in haiti gets increasingly desperate. we are covering every angle from the new fear this morning to glimmers of hope. conan and jay are slamming nbc, but now it looks like they could be going after each other. hear what they're saying about the new plans for late-night tv. >> plus remember this video of a woman throwing a hissy fit at a

mcdonald's, she's apologizing, but says the workers are still partly to blame. they were rude. first, though, we have exclusive video showing the panic just moments after haiti a earthquake on tuesday. some of it may be difficult to watch. let me stress again that this video was just moments after the quake struck, so people are still trying to grasp what's happening here. do you see people inside the building, some of them just able to wave and that's all you see is an arm? there's no estimated death toll from the quake yet, but government officials worry it could reach six figures. people left homeless by the quake are sleeping in parks and parking lots. even people whose homeses were not damaged or destroyed are sleeping outside because of the aftershocks. this gives an idea of how on-edge people in haiti are right now. look that the crowd running in port-au-prince. they are reacting to a rumor

that a tsunami was coming. cnn's anderson cooper and sanjay gupta watched it happen. >> for me, the education here over the last half an hour that this start side just how quickly one rumor, in this case a manipulative rumor to try to steal goods, but one rumor can spread to the point where you have hundreds, if not more people running down the street, dropping their most precious possessions. >> that's how frightened they were. they may have a bowl left in which to see the and that's their only possession, it got thrown on the street. a kid's blanket and toys thrown on the street. they will leave everything behind for fear of this rumor, in this case water, and an unfounded one. near the presidential palace people dug for hours to rescue a 13-year-old girl and they got her out, but four of her relatives did not make it out alive. a group of american students was in haiti for a humanitarian mission. most of them have reported to

the u.s. embassy in haiti. the parents of one student have not heard from their daughter, but say they know she's alive. >> it's heart wrenching. it is so difficult to thank your daughter is out there sleeping in the rubble with her friends and not knowing what's coming next. i can't begin to imagine how terrified all of them must be. well, secretary of state hillary clinton is cutting short a trip because of the situation in haiti. she was scheduled to be in australia, but she will head back to washington to help oversee some of the relief efforts. >> our coast guard has been unbelievable. they got there first as you might guess, being in the area. we have the 82nd airborne and other military asset comesing in. we had a military team re-open the airport so we could start to handle the big, heavy planes. there's an enormous amount of work going. i'm very proud of our response. we're grateful for the international response, but i think we have a long way ahead of us. >> a text to donate program that

she set up has raised more than $800,000 for relief. by the way, hillary clinton actually honeymooned there obviously with president bill clinton in 1975. we're going to be monitoring the situation in hate they morning and any time we get new tape and new information we'll bring it rate to you. we're morning express so let me express to you the other news that's happening of the day. the u.s. is closely watching what is called a credible threat from al qaeda in yemen. senior officials tell cnn that the threat is not specific, but they say it does have to do with aviation. one says that al qaeda is already adapting to the new u.s. security measures. officials say that information was found while following up on the accused christmas day airplane bomber. you will not be able to see the court fight over california's same-sex marriage ban. the supreme court blocked plans for live video stream and posting it on youtube, the supreme court ruled that the lower courts didn't follow

procedure before changing the rules to allow the broadcast. conan o'brien and jay leno had been slamming nbc for the late-night shows and now they could be turning on each other. >> nobody knows what's going on. conan o'brien was very upset and conan said nbc had only given him seven months to make the show work. >> seven months? how'd he get that deal, we only got four. i'll take seven. >> conan had a zinger of his own. he said, to the kids out there watching, you can do anything you want in life unless jay leno wants to do it, too. that got a good reaction. it's all making for good ratings, though. conan's numbers jumped 42% among the younger set on tuesday. president obama plans to be on capitol hill today and he wants to persuade house democrats to get health care reform package passed. the big sticking points are dropping the government-run

insurance option and accepting a tax on high-cost insurance plans. yesterday's meeting between top democrats was at the white house and it ran all day long. crew members on the international space station are on a space walk right now. live pictures and they're getting a docking port ready for russian spacecraft to use in future missions. the the first space walk for one of the crew members. so can you imagine what kind of day at work you're having today. ♪ ♪ six minutes past the hour. all right. what are your concerns about weather? i mean, i know, it is january, right? so it's not like it's going to get 70 any time soon. >> how about we take something above the teens. >> thank you! >> that's starting to see a nice change for you. the weather pattern definitely on the move a bit. we have the high pressure across the east coast beginning to loosen up and give way a bit. that was the cold air mass moving to the northeast and notice the low pressure agent between dallas and back into

houston. you have rain underneath it and it's an upper level low and enough to generate showers especially around corpus christi later this morning. most of the lightning action off the coast and some of this bleeds back later today. more rain getting in toward houston ask we'll see scattered showers and possible airport delays at george bush and that may start any time as the rain goes in and out, but over the next 48 hours, another low out of california area into the four corners and begins to generate into a pretty big low. a big storm with a lot of rain for the weekend with areas around the gulf coast into south carolina and north carolina, too, could see as much as two to three inches of rain for the weekend and the good news is it's not easing with the arctic blast. it will not be snow, just plain old rain. >> that's from yesterday's action around california and let me show you some pictures and some of the ramifications by the coastline. this is right by san francisco. look at the size of the breakers.

20-foot waves bashing ashore. this is pacifica, things are pretty much weakening right there, but that was drastic-looking surf yesterday. pretty tough looking. >> salty! >> very nice. >> let's go live to the space walk happening right now for the international space station, i don't know if this is the cosmonaut, and one of these astronauts are having their first walk in space ever, so no pressure! the whole world's watching you, you first timer, you. >> no butterfingers. no butterfingers. >> he's there in the middle and it's hard to see him because his outfit kind of blends in. do you see him? looky, looky. remember wthe woman who jumped a barricade and attacked pope benedict? the situation in haiti has given him a much better idea.

in our salute to the troops today, we're spotlighting staff sergeant stephen thompson. he is on his third tour in iraq and his wife and little girl miss him so much. >> hi, robin. this is sarah thompson, and i want to salute my husband staff sergeant stephen thompson of the united states army. stephen, we love you so much and we miss you and there's not a day that goes by that we're not praying for your safe return. we love you to the moon! >> look at the little girl with her daddy pillow, or daddy doll. if you have someone in the service and want to salute them go to cnn.com/robin. a texas minister in the middle of adopting a little boy from haiti has just learned the little boy is alive, but there could be trouble getting him out of haiti. their story's new for you in about 30 minutes. remember the woman who tackled the pope on christmas eve? you saw how she dragged the pontiff to the ground after she jumped a barrier. the two met again, this time, though, privately and the

82-year-old pope forgave his attacker. the 25-year-old woman told him she was sorry according to the vatican. she was taken to a mental institution after the attack. you know, you might feel like you're ready to give to the cause of trying to low pressure these folks in haiti. there is a huge need for the donations there, but do watch out for scam artists and here is jennifer westhoven to tell you how to tell the difference. good morning. >> hi, robin. we want you to be as generous as possible to open your hearts to help these people and you want to make sure your money goes to the right place and goes to where you want to go. always cash is the best thing to give in these event because the relief experts really know what they need, where they need it, and i know when you see these pictures you can be really moved and you get to the point where you think, okay, i'm going to give. criminals want to get in on that. i want you to watch out for

e-mails that say help victims in haiti, click here or something on a social networking site even if it looks like it's from your friend. you want to only give through names you know like doctors without borders, the red cross. the state department launched this amazing effort to make it easy for you to give. all you have to do is text the word hate and i you send that word to the number 90999. that will automatically knock $10, and it will put $10 to the cell phone bill and the number goes to the red cross. americans have been very generous in using this. the state department has said they have raised more than $3 million so far using that. that's in about 24 hours, we're talking that people gave all of that. the main thing is to try to get that money now on the ground there. how can you help if you want to? with money there are dozens of legitimate organizations with charts you can choose from. it could be through your religion. it could be if you want to help

doctors go to cnn.com robin and go through the impact your world link and we've got the direct links to dozens of charities in there that are the ground in haiti so you can make a difference. thank you very much for the guidelines on that. very helpful. okay. air travelers at the airport right now, we're your friend and so is bob. >> good morning. >> so far it looks pretty good. new york, d.c., philadelphia, let me take you live to nyc. it will temperatures today by the upper 30s and by tomorrow in the mid-40s. flight explorer showing the rain and let's get off this. again, big brother taking my machines away from me. oh, you love that. >> here's what it looks like if you're traveling out there. we'll have a couple of delays and they'll be around houston. seattle could get close to an hour delay with a heavy rain in

store and more delays out west with fog in las vegas and wind. more on that in a bit. >> thank you. even for someone who has seen disasters up close, the streets in hate si just shocking. >> as a doctor and journalist who has traveled around the world i've never seen anything quite like this. just astonishing. >> dr. sanjay gupta says that the health situation in haiti could get very bad very fast.

breaking news this morning. the 82nd airborne division from fort bragg, north carolina, they'll be leaving to help with haiti today. we are told 3500 paratroopers are going to board c-17s within the hour at pope air force base to begin deployment to haiti to help with the situation there. desperate survivors in haiti are using their hands to dig through the rubble. they don't have any choice. those survivors may face some serious health risks in the aftermath. correspondent richard lui is digging into the hailth health situation in haiti. good morning. >> good morning, robin. as we hit day three, that is the big concern. health experts even saying key health threats may include respiratory disease from inhaling dust from collapsed buildings and diarrhea from

drinking contaminated water as well. on the water piece, another health expert telling new scientist.com that dead bodies are actually not the biggest health concern right now. he adds waste from corpses could contaminate the drinkinging water and more concerning is possible waste from the survivors as they're often closer to whatever water supplies are still there. we can expect rescue teams as we look at this, robin, to focus most of their energy right now on the living. it is so heartbreaking to see what they're going through. >> yes. >> i do know the group doctors without borders they've had a presence in haiti for a while now, but are they even able to keep up at all? >> doctors without borders say it's already treated more than 1,000 people since the earthquake hit and that's the good part. many of the group's 800 staffers are missing and some of its hospitals have actually collapsed. doctors without borders set up clinics now in tents to treat victims quickly.

one physician that was planning to help in haiti told "the new york times," robin, there is nothing in my experience that will prepare me for what we will face, end quote. >> you know what's interesting, too, when reporters and rescuers get to sdeen scenes like this i usually a few days afterward and people are getting there immediately kwafr ward and you take in the tragedy as it is so soon after such a devastation. so acute, so acute what they're seeing right now. >> thank you. the sports world is feeling the effects of the earthquake in haiti as well. joe carter is in for rafer. he has reaction from an nfl player who has family ties in haiti. >> pierre garzon is a player for the indianapolis colts and his team is favored to win the super bowl and he's about to play in his first-ever career football playoff game so a lot on his mind and he's probably. >> a little distracted. >> garzon's parents emigrated

from haiti where most of his family still lives. he's waiting to hear from his mother who is frantically trying to reach family in haiti. >> aunties, uncles, back there, cousin, nieces and nephews back there. haven't heard much from them. still waiting to see. my mom is trying to call, so hopefully there will be good news. >> so you don't know how they are. >> no, not at all. not right now. the colts have jumped in to help. they announced they will donate $10,000 to the american red cross relief efforts. the owner of a t-shirt store in knoxville, tennessee is also going to he ing ting to lend a . they he said they were going to burn t-shirts that had ex-coach lane kiffin. the store owner said don't tear the t-shirts up and don't burn them upon instead give them to him and he'll send them to people in need in haiti which is

a great idea. >> it is. >>. finally, on a much lighter note, actor kiefer sutherland. we know he's a good actor and he's a brave man who makes good on his bets. he bet a friend that if new england lost the game he'd wear a dress on letterman. as you see, the patriots lost and dave asked him why only the dress? why not accessorize? >> that's right. someone needs to teach him how to sit in a dress. that's awesome. >> it's probably his first time in a dress, but who knows? >> thank you. the case of a missing arizona baby named gabriel gets even more complicated. there's no shortage of possible suspects in his disappearance. and a wrinkle in the case, too. also an incredible story of a cat rescue. a little guy was stuck on a very high ledge until a famous climber came along.

haiti's president says it is too early to estimate how many people died in tuesday's earthquake. some fear that number could reach six figures. can you imagine? there's no heavy machinery to speak of there so people are having to dig loved ones out with their bare hands. there is a credible threat from al qaeda in yemen showed in this file video that has to do with aviation. officials say the threat is not specific, but they say that the info was found while following up on the accused christmas day plane bomber. >> the tsa and cdc are investigating how in the world a person with an active case of t got on a flight from philly to

san francisco. the person was on a special do not board list and was kept off a later flight. the us airways says the cdc told them the passenger should be okay because the length of the flight was not all that long. it was less than eight hours. those are the headlines. good morning. i'm robin meade. breaking news this morning we're getting in. the 82nd airborne division at fort bragg, north carolina, will start leaving today some of them for haiti about 3500 paratroopers will board c-17s within the hour from pope air force base to begin their deployment. some help arrived early today after an air china plane carrying a chinese relief team landed at port-au-prince, haiti. that was 15 minutes ago. that news is just in as well. >> we are learning more about the aftermath of that earthquake. help is on the way, but you can see it is slow in coming. for now people are using their bare hands to dig out their survivors. the process is physically and emotionally draining.

>> that was my father's house. so we lose it. my mother was -- >> now we have somebody -- somebody here. some person inside the house. we can find them. we don't have a lot to take them out. >> in the wake of disasters like this, people do get desperate if you have a starving, you know, baby in your arms you are going try to find food wherever you can. so we're moving as quickly as possible. once we can get communications up so we can tell people where to go, what kind of help they can expect we'll be able to better manage the crisis. >> in port-au-prince near the presidential palace cnn's anderson cooper came across some people trying to rescue a teenager who was trapped. >> people on the street say there's a 15-year-old who is buried alive and they're talking, but we're going go and try to see if that's the case and if there's anything we can do, but the street. i've never seen anything like this. look at this.

this is just complete devastation. finally, after being trapped for more than 18 hours, the men make a small hole and pull lee out. she is alive. she is finally free. >> thank goodness she was finally freed there. the u.s. ground troops are headed to haiti. correspondent richard lui is joining us now. we thought they were going for strictly humanitarian efforts. is there a case where they'll be needed for other reasons, too? >> robin, that's right. it is very possible here. there are security concerns because about a thousand criminals, for instance, are now on the loose because a prison crumbled. here's the national police chief and here's what he said. >> the police now to be in control of the situation and besides that, we have the whole situation with people living in the streets, and i think we need help here.

>> we need help here. that overwhelmed chief also says some of these criminals had long sentences and like other haitians, some police officers were injured in that quake, robin. a u.s. official also saying they are very seriously looking at sending u.s. troops into haiti for security purposes. richard, i know the security situation makes it that much harder to help the people who really need it there. is there an overall plan yet to coordinate stuff here? >> and you bring up that big question right there. all of these nations and aid groups are lining up to help, but that may not be enough. experts say a chaos coordination is very key, but not easy. >> the chaotic environment, i think is profoundly undermining or is going to undermine and compromise the relief effort. we'll have to deal with it. we will deal with it and we've done it before and this is something that we have to keep a very tight eye on. >> in military units that will be coming onshore to help really

care for the sick and the injured are really critical, coordinating that effort and making sure that the right hand knows what the left hand is doing is really, really critical here that there isn't further chaos and confusion. >> at least 15 countries are offering aid to haiti. that's a positive sign. aid groups found themselves tripping over each other after the 2004 tsunami, so they decided to coordinate their efforts this time around. >> richard, thank you for the update on that. >> sure. we'll bring you the very latest video and information as it stream in this morning. because we're morning express, let me get you the other news, too. the mother of gabriel johnson says she gave him to a couple in texas and is still alive. she talked to elizabeth johnson in jail. remember, the boy's father said johnson texted him saying she killed their son.

hln "prime news" mike galanos talking about what else johnson said yesterday. >> she also said that she has begged investigators to do a composite sketch, to give a description of this couple so they can find them. she believes that this couple is in hiding and that this was some type of illegal adoption. they know it's an illegal adoption and the words that she says to her was don't worry, in a couple of years nobody will even recognize this baby because his looks will change so much. >> she reportedly said that the couple had a car seat and was excited about getting the baby. police say they hope that a gps system found in her abandoned car in texas will help track johnson's movements before the baby disappeared. she's facing kidnapping and child abuse charges. get the latest on any developments of that story "prime news" with mike galanos starts at 5:00 p.m. eastern here on hln. 36 minutes past the hour. good morning, as you get ready to go out into the morning rush,

let me check right now what the weather will be like. good morning. >> the weather is definitely changing and the weather pattern shifting to the east with warm air and fog. that's good news. this weather brought to you by cheerios. let me show you the big setup because the high pressure has been dominating the eastern seaboard for the last couple of days and the last ten days is loosening up and warming up a bit and moving out of the way. the backside of that is all rain and cloud cover from the lower gulf coast of texas and now into memphis and you can see the clouds coming in and light rain activity and another one by the four corners, they essentially merge. the one in texas fades apart and the one in four corners moves into the gulf of mexico and lots of rain. let me show you the rain totals over the next two days and this is thursday morning and this goes to friday morning and the next 48 hours, the 24 to 48 hours. just about saturday morning the heavy rain stretches into the florida panhandle and the yellow color, that's three inches of rain and look at track coming out of the gulf making a beeline

to georgia and carolina. flooding is a possibility mainly saturday afsh through sunday for the lower northeast and it does bring in warmer weather? that's one good thing. we get down to the temperatures, 27 in atlanta, 31 in jacksonville and everyone just about 5 to 10 degrees warmer than where they were yesterday. those will disappear in about 12 minutes or so. looking at 22 minutes and you get back out to the west look at the rain out of houston. showers, thunderstorms are possible today mainly around corpus christi and right around that beach getting on into areas by houston. you can see the rain and scattered pockets of downpours coming in. we will catch a few delays at the airports and houston's george bush, number one, you're probably on the list later this morning. look at light snow in the northern mountains of new mexico and light rain moving away from phoenix and tucson falling apart rapidly. light snow around salt lake city is gone and a new pacific storm, slammed across b.c. and canada.

watching clouds around seattle and portland and rain around that today. we'll get heavy downpours and we'll talk about that and look at the storm developing once again in about a half hour. >> thank you very much. we are hearing from more and more people every day trying to get answers about their loved ones in haiti and that includes a texas family. they're waiting to find out when they're going to be able to see their newly adopted son. >> and an investigation into rape allegations against david copperfield has been tossed out. what the magician's lawyers are now saying.

a texas couple adopting a little boy near port-au-prince, haiti, has been on an emotional roller coaster since tuesday's earthquake. thai learned through blogs that their new son amos survived the earthquake. >> finally, they posted and it was as if i could just breathe. >> just 1.5 million orphans in haiti right now, so amos is just a snapshot. >> there are tonses of kids that need help. >> he was, the little boy was waiting to come to the united states because of a delay in his paperwork. so the couple says they don't know what happened to the building where those adoption papers are located. >> okay. if your children have metal jewelry, you know, the costume kind and it's made in china you want to take it away immediately. that is the warning, anyway, from the nation's consumer chief. jennifer westhoven, looking out for you.

>> this is a story we've been doing this week about highway the a.p. is doing stories about this jewelry. just get rid of it. some companies are taking it off the shelves, but if your kids have this and they play with it, even if they love it, america's top product safety official says just take it away. it could be dangerous especially for smaller children who might put it in their mouths and this is dangerous stuff. a group representing the manufacturer says it is looking into the story, this a.p. investigation and they say safety is their number one concern. the u.s. and the chinese government both say they're investigating as well. just in the last ten minutes or so, the latest number on how the job market is doing. the numbers come from the labor department. they said in the latest week, the picture looked slightly darker. more people signed up for jobless benefits for the first time and not that many more and it wasn't a huge jump, but it went up to 11,000 and we are

talking about 444,000 people just in the latest week and almost half a million people who filed for jobless benefits. we have been seeing the number come down slowly, but not -- it's not coming down fast enough for many people and we're still seeing some trouble there. the white house says it wants to get some of the bailout money, your money paid back today. according to aye an administration official has a plan to charge big banks what they call a financial crisis responsibility fee and that is for taking on too much risk so much so that they put the entire economy at risk. the official rejected the criticism, the argument that's come from banks and some republicans that the fee could be passed on to you. the official said well, banks have trouble paying this, maybe they should look to their bonis pools. >> there you go. don't you dare put it on my atm charge. >> here's perspective for you, robin. the fees are $90 billion over ten years. 9 billion a year.

the fees, the bonuses are 15 times that. i mean n one year. in one year they're giving out $140 million in bonuses. >> you're saying it should be easy for them to pay back. >> i'm saying this is nothing compared to the bonuses. >> that's a good comparison there. no atm fees, i hope, for me, right? as a result of trying to pay that back. >> for your bailout money, you'd lynch them. people would be very angry. >> gotcha. could you use a little bit more sleep? well, you say i'll catch up on the weekend. survey says --

and i hope my family is watching the tv in haiti and they try to call us and let us know what's going on because we are so worried over here because we don't have any news, nothing. >> it is so frightening for

people like that waiting to hear. thousands of people share that same heartbreaking story. some of our i reporters, your fellow viewers have submitted pictures of their loved ones who they're trying to find in haiti. do look these over if you have the time. in the meantime, if you have photographs of someone you're looking for in haiti go to cnn.com/robin under the important website section and there are instructions about how to submit those photos. now, at least one big-namath leet and a championship team are stepping up to help people in haiti. joe carter is in for rafer and he'll have more on that. >> i expect more teams will do this. >> i do, too. the big, bad yankees are the team to do it. the biggest payroll in baseball because they've got the money. stepping in with the cash and all of the cash is being put to good use off the field for once. the world champs donated half a million dollars to the rescue and relief fund in haiti. they say they hope their

$500,000 donation will inspire other teams to do what they can. others in the sporting community are also helping in haiti, seven-time tour de france winner lance armstrong pledged $250,000 through his live strong foundation. good for those guys. nba center samuel dalenbear who grew up on the same streets in haiti who are now covered in rubble is trying to locate his missing family. before the 76ers hosted the knicks he tried to book a flight to haiti so he could help find his family and found out there are no planes going in or out. >> i still couldn't get in touch with nobody. so i basically, sitting down over there going out of my mind, crazy and looking at the news and nothing i could have done. >> it's got to be a tough situation for him. there was a moment of silence for the victims in haiti before that sixers/knicks game. dozens of gatorade bottles in colorado grocery stores are covered with fake labels.

these labels have a picture of tiger woods, his wife elin and the word unfaith ofl them. colorado man who claims to be t. he said he switched the labels out as a tribute to andy warhol. our primary concern is the safety of our consumers and the integrity of our products. so, maybe some of those got off the shelves, but maybe not. >> unfaithful is what it says on the label. >> tiger, elin and unfaithful. are you happy at your job? hln money expert tells you. >> there is an obscure group called the conference board and they do a lot of great research and one study they do that is highly respected is how satisfied are you with your job? only 45% of americans say that

they are satisfied at work and that is an abysmal number. but is that the number you should think about? what i would rather you look at, what are the things that make people happy at work? the reporter at "washington post" went out searching for that answer. these are things that make people the happiest. people in happy professions or doing work. some examples they gave, firefighters, clergy, physical therapists are the most likely to describe themselves as happy, how about you? i'm clark howard. for more info on this story, check out my website, cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> clark will teach you to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. show you live pictures we're just getting in and these are usair force plane and u.s. military members getting off the plane right now.

you would assume to go and help out. we do know that 3,500 paratroopers from ft. bragg, north carolina, will be headed there to help and this big plane is dropping off supplies. supplies for all those people hit by an earthquake in haiti.

good morning on thursday, you're probably sleepy right now. let me get you going with some of the news happening today. i'm robin meade and here's what's going on. people are pulling earthquake survivors out of collapsed buildings in haiti as the rescue effort continues but gets increasingly desperate. we're covering it from every angle from the new fears to glimmers of hope. jay leno and conan o'brien are slamming nbc and now they're turning on each other about the plans for late-night tv. remember the video of this woman throwing a hissy fit and

tearing up cash registers, well, she's apologizing now. breaking news this morning, help is arriving. it's slow to arrive but it is arriving in haiti. let me get you some live pictures right now at the airport at port-au-prince, haiti. they just unloaded one of the planes that came in here and it looks to be like that was some relief supplies here. we do know that some of the supplies appeared to be coming from an air force plane, usair force and that is a live signal, you have to bear with me here. this is tape of them just arriving. we also know the 82nd airborne division from ft. bragg, north carolina, are going to be headed to haiti either already in the air maybe or will be at any minute 3,500 of the paratroopers from ft. bragg and they will board c-17s within the hour to begin deployment. an air china plane also carrying relief members landed in

port-au-prince about 45 minutes ago. so, basically, i can show you a little bit here. our traffic, our air flight explorer, i should say, can show you here that we're seeing a little bit more activity coming into the port-au-prince and the haiti, the capital area. we're not being told right now, is that commercial traffic or just relief supplies coming in there. exclusive video showing the desperate situation inside haiti moments, just moments after the earthquake. can you imagine the confusion? now, it is tough to watch. people there doing whatever they can to help now. there's a man catching a girl, did you see that, out of a collapsed building. she jumped out of that building. now, these shots are from a u.s. coast guard of people in the streets there. many staying outside, many of them because their homes are destroyed or afraid of the aftershocks. just to give you an idea of how frightened people in haiti are. look at the picture of people running for safety in

port-au-prince. they were reacting to a false rumor that a tsunami was coming. some people just dropped everything, the little stuff they had that they salvaged from the quake. many people looking for family members are struggling because communication are so spotty. others are giving their names to reporters hoping that they'll air their names so that their families in the united states will know they're alive. in the u.n., many are waiting to hear from their relatives in haiti. >> i'm hoping and praying that my sister is okay. i have nobody else. it's very hard. i just have to keep my faith high and keep on praying and i will get in touch with them some time soon. >> hospitals and clinics in haiti are so overwhelmed, a lot of the injured are waiting in the streets for help. some hospitals themselves collapsed and others are just

full. he said the country is desperately needing doctors and medicine. we'll monitor the situation in haiti. any time we get new tapes in here, we'll turn it around. because we're morning express, let me get you some of the other headlines today. the u.s. is watching what they call a credible threat from al qaeda in yemen. the threat is not specific, but they say it does have to do with aviation. one says that al qaeda is already adapting to the new u.s. security measures. officials say information was found while following up on the accused christmas day plane bomber. the mother of 8-month-old gabriel johnson says he is alive. elizabeth johnson told her that she gave the boy to a couple in texas, but, remember, the boy's father said that johnson texted him saying she killed their son. here's nancy grace talking with

mike galanos with it. >> she just left a few moments ago and this is what she told me elizabeth said. yes, she is sure that her baby is alive. she is still pamaintaining the story about the couple and gave a description of the couple and they came to her hotel and came with a car seat for the baby and elated to take the baby home with her. >> elizabeth johnson begged investigators to do a sketch of the couple to help find them. police hopes a gps system found in her abandoned car in texas will help track her movements before the baby disappeared. she's facing kidnapping and child abuse charges. jay leno and conan o'brien slamming nbc for changing the late-night schedule and now it looks like they're turning on each other. conan o'brien very understandably upset and conan said nbc had only give him seven

months to make his show work. seven months, how did he get that deal? we got four. who is his agent? i only got four. i'll take seven. >> conan said to the kids out there watching you can do anything you want, unless jileno wants to do it, too. conan's numbers jumped 42%. that's kind of cool music. six minutes after the hour. let's see what the weather is going to be like if you're walking to your music outside. good morning. >> good morning, robin. heavy rain right around the region by brownsville and galveston and upper level low across central texas now and that fades apart as it moves into oklahoma and arkansas and dragging light rain off the gulf and pushing into eastern texas and louisiana and lower parts of arkansas. here's that corpus christi radar

and most of the action off the coast and some bleed in later this afternoon and more showers around houston, too. poor visibility with low clouds and seeing delays pop up around houston around the airport. but that rain could pick up in intensity later today. also a storm out across the four corners in the upper levels but once it reacts with the gulf of mexico, watch the rain begin to develop and the white in the gulf, that's ten inches and right around the panama city area you start seeing the three inches of rain by saturday morning and georgia and carolinas. rain coming back in the picture and not phasing up with that arctic blast we had, just rain, no snow. little bit of light rain and light snow near albuquerque and more stuff around salt lake city falling apart and let me show you atlanta. temperatures finally warming up and it's going to be the microcosm of the southeast. 56 degrees today and everybody

10 to 15 degrees warmer than yesterday. feels like summer. >> what did you call it? a microcosm? >> what did you call me? >> just joking. money to help the survivors in haiti is pouring in from around the world. you do want to watch out for scammers. a fight over same-sex marriage will not be televised. why a court is blocking from showing the live broadcasts.

as we speak right now help is arriving in haiti and here are some of the first pictures to show you that. you see the front end loader and a big, well, just a big load of what we hope is equipment and relief supplies, food, whatever it may be. maybe it's medical services for these folks here. this huge military plane landed a short time ago and it has loads of supplieses. just want to bring that to you. in our salute to our troops

which we do every day, every hour, let's spotlight stephen thompson. he's on his third tour in iraq. his wife and little girl miss him so much, but look at these pictures. >> hi, robin. this is sarah thompson and i want to salute my husband stephen, we love you so much and we miss you and there's not a day that goes by that we're not praying for your safe return and we love you to the moon. >> so sweet, she's got her daddy doll at the pumpkin patch. if you have somebody in the service, go to cnn.com/robin and we'll be happy to help you salute them. i know we have the best viewers in terms of how open hearted you are and you want to help people so if you're ready to give because of this situation in haiti, there is a huge need, but you need to watch out for the scam artists. jennifer westhoven looking out how to tell you how. >> you see these pictures and your heart goes out to these people and i know you want to

help and criminals know that, too. when they get this kind of atmosphere after big disasters like katrina and the tsunami and what we often see is criminals get to work. i want you to be careful about any e-mails that say click here to donate, red cross but spelled wrong. if you want to give, give to names you know. one way that you can stay generous, you know, we still want you to be generous is to make sure your money goes where you want it to. very easy to give legitimately and very easy, just tex that word haiti to the number. like this was the phone number. 90999 and what will happen is you will be giving $10 to the red cross. at the end of the month you'll see a $10 charge on your cell phone bill and all that money will go straight to helping people on the ground and americans have been very generous and the state department set that up and they said they raised more than $3

million so far just in a little more than 24 hours. another way you can help, we have a list of dozens legitimate organizations and charities that you can choose from that are on ground like doctors without borders and the red cross, as well. go to cnn.com/robin and then there's an impact your world link that you can go through. business stinks! not really, but we're talking about a quirky new york cheese shop. stephanie elam has our small business success. >> rob is a cheese whiz. >> here's from spain. >> reporter: his owner of murray's cheese, new york city's oldest cheese shop, he combines the past with the present. >> a neighborhood store very old-fashioned. the old-fashioned cheese counter but at the same time we changed.

>> reporter: murray sells more than 250 cheeses, meats and other products. layout is key. >> visual merchandising is very important. essentially, it should be full, it should be fresh. we're trying to get the idea of delicious across. >> reporter: murray 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 and we tend to hire people that are a little eccentric, customers seem to enjoy that. >> now, murray's has helped rejuvenate a whole new york city neighborhood. what has your business done? upload a video ireport and send

some tips along and if we like what we see, you could be next on "morning express." remember the woman that jumped over a barricade and tackled pope benedict. she was face-to-face with the pope, again. but it was different this time. what do you think about a 15-foot tall mammoth for your collection?

morning. 17 minutes past the hour, can you believe a truck driver managed to walk away unhurt when his overturned tanker burst into flames. it happened in rockville, maryland, earlier this morning. fire officials say the truck's cargo was highly flammable and crew husband to use a foam truck from dulles airport to put out the flames. the highway reopened but a nearby road is still closed while the crews check out the damage. you won't be able to see the

court fight over california same-sex marriage ban. the supreme court blocked plans for any live video stream or posting it on youtube. the trial judge had authorized that, but the supreme court ruled that the lower courts didn't follow procedure before changing the rules to allow the broadcast. john jr. gotti will not have to face a fifth racketeering trial. federal prosecutors have decided not to try another one. now, the accusations included kidnapping and attempted murder. gotti's father was head of the family but insisted he left organized crime decades ago. let me give you a sports angle on the horrible situation in haiti right now. well, the sports world are feeling the effects of the earthquake in haiti and joe carter is in for rafer. he has reaction from one nfl player whose family is in haiti. good morning. >> good morning, robin.

his team is favored to win in the super bowl and about to play in his first playoff game but his mind has to be far from football right now. his parents migrated from haiti, where most of his family still lives. he is waiting to hear from his mother who is trying to reach any family member in haiti. >> aunties, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews back there. haven't heard much from them and still waiting to see, my mom is trying to call them. >> you dont know how they are? >> not right now. >> garcon's team, indianapolis colts have stepped in to help. they will donate $10,000 to the american red cross relief efforts. the owner of a t-shirt store in knoxville, tennessee, is lending a helping hand. they were going to burn t-shirts

that had lane kiffin's face on them and the store owner is telling those fans, please, do not burn them or tear them up, give the t-shirts to him and he will mail them to haiti for people who are in need. >> let's not waste it. >> yeah, exactly. tiger woods won't be driving free gm cars any more -- >> or golf carts. >> yeah, that golf cart or any other car with a gm logo, not any more, including the escalade he wrecked on that infamous night. the agreement, robin, was supposed to end december 31st, which it did. they're walking away from tiger, clean and simple. this is a night, light story for you. actor kiefer sutherland. >> he's got some good gams. apparently. >> nice legs in that dress. he was so confident that the patriots would beat the ravens

that he bet a friend and said if new england loses he will wear a dress on letterman. he's got the dress which means the patriots lost. this is the most embarrassing moment of his life. he has been arrested for a dui and charged for head butting somebody and caught on video stomping a christmas tree while publicly drunk but the dress takes the cake. >> at least he's crossing his legs. thank you. >> you bet. next hour, the so-called dooms day clock that symbolizes how close we are to catastrophe is going to move, but will it move forward or backward? we don't know. richard lui will have that for you live. if you have half a million bucks, you can own some very special old bones. one of the woolly mammoth skeletons is up for sale. the monster is on display in tucson and it took more than ten years of escoivation. "american idol" goes

country. you'll see how one country gal reacted when she found out she got a golden ticket. there's bad news if you're looking to catch up on your sleep this weekend.

[ music ] >> welcome to comcast local edition, i'm donna richardson, and my guest this hour is leslie prewitt, director of external operations, opportunity builders. good to see you. >> thank you for having me. >> can you tell the viewers about opportunity builders incorporated and what exactly the organization does? >> absolutely. we have been around for 47. we were started in 1962. we provokessa provide training d

rehabilitation. >> what are the services you offer your clients? >> there are 170 that stay in our warehouse that do packaging then we have 180 individuals that go out and work for local employer. >> you have the employers who are helping out and also having the contracts to give those, like you said, in the warehouse employment possibilities. >> absolutely. we're always looking to new contracts to fulfill, inside of our warehouse and then outside we're always looking for new employers to hire our adults. >> now all of this, i know it takes funding, and you've got a fund-raiser coming up. >> right. >> so tell us about your mardi gras. >> well, hence the beads so you know why i'm wearing beads. we are very proud of our 12th

annual mardi gras. we have live music, we have a casino, an auction, great food, beer, wine, and ice cream and it's a great night and a lot of fun. >> it does sound like a lot of fun. how much are the tickets to be able to enjoy all this fun? >> the tickets are $50 each. >> very, very reasonable, and it sounds like you're getting a huge value with the opportunity of the casinos and the great food and the auctions and the dancing. >> uh-huh. >> so with this, because i know it takes a lot of dollars in order to run the program, how do you plan to use the proceeds? >> the proceeds will help with our operating expenses, especially with the downturn in the economy and budget cuts, we will be using it to assist the organization.

>> leslie, i do have a question. how do your clients become a part of opportunity builders? >> they are funded for the developmental disability administration. if someone is interested, if a family is interested in having family members participate in an opportunity with opportunity builders, they would call and then we would direct them to our director of employment that would start them through the process of the program. >> once they're in the program, do you also provide training before the clients either work in the warehouse or go out to work with your partner businesses? >> absolutely. in the warehouse, we do have an instructor to assist individuals with each contract, and as far as the individuals who go out into the community and work, we do training for those individuals. they have a one on one coach so we'll make sure the individual knows how to do the job before we have them working on their

own. >> in going back to mardi gras, do you need any volunteers to help out, because that's a big undertaking you have so many different activities going on? >> absolutely. we can always use volunteers, but we can always use the ticket sales, and that's really a big emphasis for us, ticket sales and sponsorships. >> exactly. so there are sponsorship opportunities available? >> absolutely. >> how can they reach you if they want to buy tickets or become a sponsor? they can call our office. >> perfect. well, leslie, thanks so much for joining me. >> thank you for having me. >> our guest this hour is less by prior to director of external operations at opportunity builders. for comcast local edition, i'm

donna richardson. [ music ]

good morning. the new york stock exchange, as you can see, is open for business. the stocks expected to have a flat open this morning. we'll see if that is the case when we check in live. in about 30 minutes, president obama is expected to talk about the u.s. response to the situation in haiti. yesterday he promised a swift and aggressive response to the disaster there after a massive earthquake. the u.s. says carl vincent is loaded with relief supplies and scheduled to arrive in haiti today. the u.s. says there is a credible threat from al qaeda in yemen showen in this file video that has to do with aviation. officials say the threat is not specific, but they do say the

information was found while following up on the accused christmas day plane bomber. president obama plans to be on capitol hill today. he wants to persuade house democrats to go along with compromises that he wants to get the health care reform package passed. the big sticking points are dropping the government-run insurance option and accepting a tax on high-cost insurance plans. good morning to you. 31 minutes past the hour. you're up pretty early, aren't you? i'm robin meade. you know, many people are looking for their missing family members in haiti and they're struggling because the communication is so spotty. the mayor of spring valley, new york, is trying to comfort the 3,000 haitian americans in her village. she's also waiting for news about her husband who was in haiti on business when the quake hit. >> i'm asking people to keep me in their prayers and i don't want to be emotional and i'm hoping for the best. >> ireporters, your fellow

viewers have submitted pictures of their loved one they're looking for in haiti. take time to look those pictures over. in the meantime, if you have photographs of someone you are looking for there, go to cnn.com/robben and to the important website section. there are instructions, by the way, on how to submit your photos. a private airplane carried injured survivors from haiti to a hospital in florida. these are the photos. the plane was chartered by a miami neuro surgeon to bring people to a trauma center. one of the people onboard described the scene in haiti. >> just devastating. a lot of patients are sick and they need lots of help. >> many of the people on that flight were americans living in haiti, but some were haitian. we're going to be hawnterring the situation and any new angles on that story out of haiti. because we're morning express, let me get you some other headlines, too. the tsa and cdc are

investigating how a person with an active case of tuberculosis got on a flight last week. the person's name was on a special do not board list from the federal health authorities. that person was stopped before boarding an international flight in san francisco. a transportation consultant spoke with prime news mike galanos. >> it's amazing it doesn't happen more often. the system set up right now is just not a good system. you have the tsa putting up intermittently a new list of the do not board list and then it's up to the carriers to go out and pull down the list and then match it with whomever they have on their manifest. obviously, some carriers do a better job than others so you'll always see this inconsistency like this. >> here's the way it works. the cdc gives names to health and human services and that department then gives them to the tsa who would turn it over to the airlines. by the way, usairways says the cdc tells them there is little risk to other passengers, health

risk, because the flight was less than eight hours long. a mother in massachusetts has come up with a way to stop people from texting while they're driving. she is creating an anti-text software for cell phones. she came up with it watching her teenage son weave across the road while on his cell phone. >> i asked myself if there was some way to keep him and other teenagers off the phone while they drive. >> i think it is hard to adjust to at first but it is worth the effort to restrain from calling people while in the car. >> the software kicks in once the car hits 5 miles per hour and does not turn off while you're at a red light or at traffic. if you're waiting for the weekend to catch up on your sleep, survey says it's not that easy. if you're chronically sleep deprived and you're sleeping in a day or two isn't going to help you here. study volunteers felt refreshed

when they first woke up but later on that day their reaction times and their cognitive skills plummeted. >> i think we just figured out why rafer is like he is with the new baby. we'll give him some slack there. >> rafer, back to you. >> what? just joking. good morning, everybody. let me show you what's happening. high pressure dominating the region and cold air mass and been there for the last couple days and now we're seeing it change, though, in that atmosphere. upper level low around dallas and fades apart a little bit and rain out there now and then you have the low around the four corners and rounds the horn of the trough and gets right back tine the gulf of mexico and produces a lot of rain. let me show you how much over the next 48 hours. the next two days worth of rainfall and starts right around the texas coast and zero in towards that area and the yellow and the reds and three to five

inches and that white dot in the middle of the gulf, three to five inches. moves back to northern florida and lower alabama and georgia by saturday morning so the heavy rain on track to affect the southeast for the entire weekend two to three inches of rain and big-time change and, again, luckily, it's not phasing up with that arctic air mass in place before. not going to be the case for the weekend. just rain. look that rain around corpus christi and most of it off shore and some of that bleeds back ashore later today. light showers on and off around houston and found there for the total afternoon and quarter inch of rainfall for that region as it falls through. mostly this morning around houston this weekend and then you pull away from here and looking at the four corners with light rain, snow for the morning and falls apart and look at the snow around salt lake city and then picking up with another storm in the pacific northwest. lots of rain and snow for bc we'll talk about that, robin, in about a half hour. >> thank you. >> all right. so, the stocks on wall

street are off to a slow start, that's after a dow hit a new 15-month high on wnz. susan lisovicz takes the temperature. good morning. >> good morning, robin. we were expecting some follow through to yesterday's rally but disappointment on consumer spending and jobs they kind of took the air right out of the sails. why is that? retail sales fell 0.3% in december. do we need to say that december is a huge month for retailers? and wall street had expected a rise of 0.5%. disappointment there. disappointment on the employment front. first-time jobless claims increased by 11,000 last week. that is more than wall street expected but continuing claims, which talks about how difficult it is getting jobs when you're out there looking for them when the opposite direction taking a huge tumble. so, there's some comfort there. finally, robin, wi-fi, we say why not, specifically amtrak says it.

it will begin offering free wi-fi traveling between boston, new york and washington starting in march. the move comes a bit to lure business travelers away from the airline shuttles that offer full flights through the busy northeast quarter and so many of the folks that travel on the acela are business people and they don't have to pay for it and if you travel by air, if it's offered, yeah, you do have to pay for it. one of those allah cart things along with the pillows and the drinks and the bags. you know what i'm talking about, robin. >> this could be a good point. >> yeah, absolutely. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. unfaithful. that is what the label on some gatorade bottles say. unreal as in faith, though, and somebody's going to be paying for it. also ahead, why a 9-year-old boy wants to take his doggy to school and why the school system is saying no.

breaking news, help is arriving this morning in haiti. a huge u.s. military plane landed a short time ago and it has loads of supply. an air china plane carrying a chinese relief team landed at port-au-prince airport, too, a little over an hour ago. the 82nd airborne division out of ft. bragg, north carolina, is also headed to haiti and they were scheduled to leave in about a half hour. about 3,500 paratroopers are headed to that devastated area. wanted to keep you on top of the very latest we were learning. hospitals in haiti that are still standing, anyway, are overwhelmed with survivors after tuesday's major quake. one of our ireporters takes you inside here.

and you can see doctors and nurses trying to treat the patients. the crowds of people are standing around maybe they're looking for loved ones or maybe they're waiting for help. the survivors need prayers, supplies and medicine. if you're looking for someone in haiti or if you're looking to help, go to cnn.com/robin and look under the important website section. we're going to take you up close to a clinic in port-au-prince, haiti, where the doctors are really strapped. richard haas a little bit more on that. >> good morning, robin. in 15 minutes, we'll focus on the help that is there and what are the medical conditions for people that are injured or in some cases in the streets or in the hallway or entry way, as well. not just a shortage of beds in these cases. short of almost everything. we also take you to arkansas where a suspect in the stabbing death of a woman got free and it's pretty scary. also this morning for you on a lighter note, barack obama the musical, we have lots of singing

and lots of dancing and, robin, we'll tell you where it's happening. >> really. >> that's right. >> all right, thanks. are you happy with your job? hln money expert clark howard tells us who is the most likely to be smiling when they're at work every day. >> there's an obscure group called the conference board and they do a lot of great research and one study they do that is highly respected is how satisfied are you with your job? only 45% of americans say that they are satisfied at work and that is an abysmal number. but is that the number you should think about? what i rather you look at is what are the things that make people happy at work? reporter at "the washington post" went out searching for that answer and these are the things that make people the happiest. people who are in happy professions or doing creative work. some examples they gave,

firefighters, clergy, physical therapists are the most likely to describe themselves as happy. how about you? i'm clark howard. for more info on this story, check out my website, cnn.com/clarkhoward. >> clark will teach you to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. catch him at noon eastern on saturday and sundays right here on hln. the parents of anna autistic boy is helping take the dog to school. it calms the boy who has outbursts in the classroom. but the school district says that he's doing well in school without the dog and it's not convinced that this is the right approa approach. a texas family was relieved to hear that their newly adopted son survived the earthquake in haiti and now their next heardel is trying to get him to the united states.

every single one of our viewers they are vips.

if you would like to take the vip tour like this group did, it's as easy as pie. go to cnn.com/robin and sign up and it ends right here in the studio. so, you can yell at bob, if you want, in person. all right, a texas couple adopting a little boy near port-au-prince, haiti, has been on an emotional roller coaster since the earthquake on tuesday. they learned through blogs that their new son survived the earthquake. he was waiting to come to the united states because of delay in paperwork. >> they posted and it was as if i could just breathe. >> 1.5 million orphans in haiti right now, so he is just a snapshot. >> there are just tons of kids that need help. >> the couple says they don't know what happened to the building where the adoption papers are located. but a big-name athlete and a championship team are stepping up to help people in that country. joe carter is in for rafer and

he has more on that. this is a u.s. team. >> the new york yankees. the evil empire and a team with all that money, they're putting that money to good use. the new york yankees get a lot of heat but they're taking all that cash they have and putting it to good use off the field. the world champs have donated $500,000. they hope their $500,000 donation will inspire other teams to do what they can. others in the sporting community are helping, as well. lance armstrong pledged$250,000 through his livestrong foundation. nba center who grew up on the same streets loaded with rubble is trying to find his missing family. he tried to book a flight to haiti so he could help his family find their other family members and soon found out there were no planes going in or out. >> i still couldn't get in touch

with nobody. so, i am basically going out of my mind crazy and look at the news and nothing i could have done. >> certainly has to be a tough time for him. there was a moment of silence for the victims before that knicks/76ers game. this is an odd story. dozens of gatorade bottles in colorado grocery stores were covered with fake labels. a picture of tiger woods and his wife and the word unfaithful on them, robin. very strange, right? this guy, he's 38 years old and claims to be an artest and he said she switched the labels as a tribute to andy war hhol and w he's in the in colorado. this guy did it apparently as a marketing effort to push his own artwork. interesting. >> i'm just giggling. all right. hey, you're looking to spruce up your man cave. football fans who can't afford

seats at the new giants' stadium can own a pair from the old one. two stadium seats for 500 bucks. used turf, goal posts and yard markers. nomarkers. no idea how to get the goal posts in your man cave. >> that would be a little tough. maybe for father's day or perhaps just a honey do gift. >> thank you. bob, you can get away with the seats, but don't you try to bring the goal posts. or your wife would be no? >> goal posts in the backyard would be great. let me show you los angeles right now. traveling to the west coast, yesterday we had concerns, light rain and everything. right now things are clearing out. windy conditions around the l.a. mountains but the airport looks good. no delays. here's what we have for the day. they are going to be around houston. half hour delays possible. rain in and out for most of the day. seattle looks looking for showers.

las vegas, windy, san francisco, a 20 minute delay. full details on that in about a half hour. as we learned through the years, showing up to audition for "american idol" in a costume is usually a recipe for disaster. check out holly. she came dressed as the guitar woman. ♪ you come to tell me something ♪ ♪ you say i ought to no >> a great voice. what's with the getup. ♪ pants on the ground looking like a fool with your pants on the ground ♪ >> what? that was general larry plant singing his original song. he was urging people to put belts on to stop their darn sagging pants.

♪ looking like a fool >> he didn't make the cut, mainly because he's 62. slightly above the cutoff age of 28. >> i got a new ring tone now. >> he's got some dance moves too.