hey, gm. i think i hear the alarm clock going off. turn off the alarm clock, but not the tv. i'm robin meade. toyota has a new bitter pill to swallow. the recalled cars may be linked to a number of deaths. a stunning allegation from one of tiger woods' mistresses. she has a secret tiger woods didn't know about. plus, there's a shortage of snow tat olympics.

see how that's panning out. first, the top story. the new troubles for toyota. government safety officials are blamed for 34 deaths from the sudden acceleration problem. they are investigating all the new allegations. officials also say there has been a huge surge of complaints about the prius. now, generjennifer westhoven al looks out for you. why the big increase in complaints after such a short time. >> it's normal after a recall people say that happened to me or the dealer says i'll fix it. now, i'm going to lodge my complaint. can it be the power of suggestion that you think you are having a problem. you think there's someone to blame. the government says they are reviewing nine more fatal

crashes that killed 13 people to see if they were linked to the stuck gas pedals that might have caused the cars to speed out of control. toy owe thai takes the reports seriously and are working with safety officials. with the prius, there's been a surge of hundreds of complaints in the prius hybrid as people think yeah, i had that problem, too. since they announced the problems with the hybrid, they went from 100 complaints to more than 1,000. >> i think i can understand that. when there's a recall, you think, i knew it. i wasn't crazy. it's validation of yeah, i felt that. thank you. new this morning, a desperate effort ends to reach a hiker that fell into a crater in mt. st. helen. they were posing for a picture when the snow gave way.

he's clinging to a steep slope. rescuers think they have seen him moving, but he might be hurt. >> it was pretty much snow-free, lots of boulders, lots of rocks. it would have been a significant fall on the way down. >> wow. what would you do? a medic reached the crater floor, but could not climb up to the hiker, then the chopper had to pull out t. search is supposed to resume while we are on the air. joslyn james claims she was pregnant with tiger woods' baby, twice. do the allegations ever stop? >> it doesn't seem they do. james was carrying tiger's child in 2007, but never told him. she had a miscarriage. here, he's talking about it on "inside edition." >> did part of you want to tell

him? >> yes. but, after i lost the baby, i didn't. i just didn't want to talk about it. >> so, she says she became pregnant with tiger's child for a second time, but this time she had an abortion. that was a year ago. once again, she did not tell tiger. robin. >> wow. these are huge revelations or allegations because it's not been proven. thank you so much. hang on here. james went public over a week ago with text messages that prove she and woods had an intimate relationship. now the pregnancy allegations. >> it read the following. quote, you please me like no other has or ever will. i'm not losing that. or great thing is we have a lifetime of this.

last night on "issues," jane questioned gloria allred, why is she coming out with the allegations now, when she didn't mention it in last week's news conference. >> unfortunately tiger was jealous of her. she was with others in the film, even though there was no emotion for them, it was a job. he wanted her to give that up. he wanted to be the only one for her. he led her to believe, according to her, she was the only one for him, according to his wife. now, she's been betroy trayed. she has a right to speak out and tell her story. >> she asked whether james was paid for the interview. they don't give out those details. james did not provide evidence such as hospital records to prove she had an abortion.

we reached out to tiger woods and have not gotten a response. new this morning, the taliban's top official has been captured. he was arrested in pakistan several days ago. he's the number two man to the taliban's founder. he was a close associate to osama bin laden before 9/11. american and pakistani forces are interrogating him. >> in terms of the information about the afghanistan operations of the taliban, he is potentially a gold mine. he's not been read his miranda rights. >> it comes in heldman province. troops have recovered nearly $9 million of raw opium, used to

finance the taliban operation. okay, in new orleans today, there's one rule. let the good times roll. it's mardi gras. this was the parade in the french quarter. look how pretty. plenty of partying and bead throwing. stick with us for live pictures of the parade. they are still cleaning up a mess from this accident. more than 50 vehicles crashed on i-71 in ohio. the southbound lanes were closed for seven hours. one lane is open now. they still have damaged trucked on the side of the road that need to be removed sometime today. minor injuries, but one person was hospitalized. that's one of the roads that go north-south. if it's clogged up, you have big trouble. >> yeah.

>> seven minutes past the hour. every day, we talk about weather. there's a new system brewing. >> it's another tuesday morning. a coastal storm for the northeast. here is the way it goes now. a disturbance over the great lakes. a light disturbance over ohio. then you get across the coast and you can see the clouds over the jersey shore. lighter when you get out toward the ohio valley and the midwest. check out all the advisories. this is the blue-green shaded areas. the virginia mountains, kentucky, ohio, west virginia, where it's a winter storm warning. here is your low. i put in the cold front to the south. here is the warm front. notice the band of showers. it's going to mix with light rain and light snow for long island for the morning. all snow for later this afternoon. light scattered snow showers

around new york city metro. boston, not snowing yet. two to four outside boston. one to three for the city. more outside of there. let me show you great pictures out of california. high surf. look at the size of this. this is huge. not many surfers out there to take advantage of it. huge west swell. it's going to wind up tonight through tomorrow. nice shots out of san diego. more in a bit. >> thank you. come here and listen to this. we have brand-new film of president jfk, never seen before, arriving in dallas the day he died. it's fascinating, especially when you hear where it came from. new cell phone deals are in the works that could make your calls cheaper.

time for our salute to the troops here. our shout out is for staff sergeant stephen isaac kilts. he received an honor and his wife and son could not be more proud. >> my son and i would like to salute my staff sergeant. i am proud of you for serving our country. isa isaac, baby, i'm glad you are home, safe with us, taking care of your family. we missed you very much while you were over there. we proud of everything you have done for us and i love you with all of my heart. >> do you have somebody in the service you want to salute?

go to cnn.com/robin. prosecutors say a huge outage, a power outage prevented them from printing the bail recommendation. power outages were common in haiti before the quake. a decision about the bail may come tomorrow t. americans said they were trying to help the children. they talk about the wait. >> day by day, it's been very -- it's been tough. we are just ready to get them home. great to hear his voice. it was a very, very short conversation. but, it was good to hear him. he sounded good. he told me he was okay. >> meanwhile, a legal adviser says he was wanted for sex trafficking. they cannot find a legal adviser. we have video you have never

seen of jfk the day he was killed. it was shot by a 15-year-old student who had the day off school and donated the film to a museum in dallas. look at the film. you have never seen it before. it's the best home movie known to exist of kennedy's arrival, november 22nd, 1963. you can still see the brightness of jackie's pink outfit. think you know all about jfks secret love life? you are about to find out about a swedish beauty, allegedly. guess what? companies are doing more hiring these days. it's temps they are hiring. still not full time with full time benefits. >> the job people are looking for. for four months in a row, we have been seeing a lot of temporary hiring. it's good news on one hand. you can try to get one to pay the bills.

but, the problem is, the bosses are too fearful about the recovery in the economy. they are not sure it's going to keep coming. what if they hire all these people, then turn around and lay them off, again. it's the latest pattern as we watch for signs of growth and when it's going to get easier to get a job. 54,000 more jobs. the president is putting the latest emphasis on your job. he's touring facility and giving a short speech on the energy sector. he's talked a lot about it. he wants lawmakers to move more. the national unemployment rate, 9.7%. could you make calls on your cell phone without burning your minutes? verizon is about to offer skype on cell phones.

your call, gets routed over the internet. doesn't cost you minutes. it's free. could be available on at&t, too. >> okay. helpful for all of us. it could be bringing down the price of your cell phone. thank you very much. one of the hottest things to buy at the olympics isn't a ticket. a cheap souvenir is selling out. i wonder if you can guess what it is. >> kevin smith is talking about getting kicked off an airline flight. tell us what you think. what do you think of people getting kicked off flights because they don't properly fit in the seats, according to the airline? go to cnn.com/robin. okay.

♪ i love that song.

it's a good wake up song. 18 minutes past the hour. indiana senator, evan bayh won't seek a third term in a congress he no longer loves. the modern democrat made the announcement yesterday, with his family by his side. >> i love working for the people of indiana, but i do not love congress. there's much, too much partisanship, not enough progress. too much ideology and not enough practical problem solving. at a time of national challenge, the people's business is not getting done. >> his departure is a major blow for the democrats. they are worried about losses. he was first elected in 1998, taking 62% of the vote. six years latder, he was reelected with 64% of the vote. a mother waited 26 years for this moment. >> i'm nervous. i'm happy. i ain't sad.

>> new for you in 30 minutes, the incredible and emotional reunion of a woman and her long lost son. sure the expensive olympic jerseys are selling, but they are no match for a $10 pair of mittens. the red mittens, they are selling out. some folks are paying more than twice the price on e may, which has more than 200 listings for the cute gloves. when we saw this story, so many people went i love those, i want those. christmas gifts. >> they would match your shirt. >> the u.s. wins gold, again, raufr. it's called a great comeback story. >> it's a great story. seth was called too old, too beat up. he hurt his pelvis two months

ago. he could barely walk. the 33-year-old struggled early in snow cross because of his poor qualifying time. he came back, passing canadian, mike roberts with a few jumps left in a thrilling finish. he won the exact said in torino. practically a photo finish. when he won, he hoisted the same flag given to his great grandfather, a world war ii veteran. great story, this guy. this is not a great story. the weather is a disaster for the games. 8,000 tickets wiped out. today, snow cross competition doesn't have enough snow. they are trying a last ditch effort to put artificial turf in. they will cancel and refund more tickets if they cannot do it. a funeral was held for the

person who died on the luge track. it's devastating. his uncle and coach broke down. u.s. saw a.comback story with bode miller in the next half hour. robin. thank you very much. a heart warming story about people coming together to save a haitian boy's leg.

federal regulators say they have gotten complaints linking toyota accelerator problems to 34 deaths. everyone of those is being investigated. the traffic safety administration says it's not unusual to see a jump in complaints after recalls. rescuers will try to reach a hiker that fell into the crater of mt. st. held en's volcano. can you imagine? he was posing for a picture when the snow gave away.

he's about 1500 feet down. a funeral will be held for john murtha. hundreds of people will pay their respects in pennsylvania. he died at the age of 77 after complications from gallbladder surgery. those are a few of our headlines going on. i'm robin meade. you know, the professor accused of gunning down three colleagues in alabama had run-ins with her neighbors. people who live here her say she once call ed police about kids playing basketball in the street saying it may come to blows. >> not a lot of people liked them. they thought they were strange. >> truthfully, i thank god all of us are alive. you never know. >> wow. well, witnesses say she went on a shooting rampage friday at the university of alabama after learning she had not made

tenure. this is new, her husband said she went to a shooting range not long before the rampage. he does not know where she got the gun. she faces the death penalty if convicted of the killing. you could say there are two john mccain's, the one who campaigns like a conservative and the one in legislates like a liberal. >> the fact is, i'm confident of victory. our polls show us with 20 point leads. i'm going to go out and earn every single vote. that's the only way i know how to campaign. >> hayworth has connections. pat buchanan is backing him. four children were killed when their classroom collapsed in the middle of a school day. another student was injured

yesterday. a huge boulder fell on the school. police are not saying whether the recent rains moved it. that area was not affected by last month's earthquake. an okay k man is suing the state because he can't get the plate he wanted. he applied for one that said, "i'm gay." the explanation is the plate may be offensive. >> i want to tell people who i am and what i am. i'm not ashamed. winning this case is going to open it up for everybody in oklahoma to get what they want on their tags. >> he sued the tax commission last week. he says it's a matter of free speech. 33 minutes past the hour. let's find out about another storm system. give me a break! hi, bob. >> good morning. it's one of those winters. you have the low pressure develop in the south, move up

north. it's what we have this morning. the coastal of the energy maker is around jersey and new york city. we have an upper level of snow. enhancement off erie. a light snow and snow flurries take tout georgia. let's go live to atlanta. low clouds off and on. a couple clouds in ond out. it's cold for this time of year. the high, 38. the average high, upper 50s. there's the cold air in place. winter won't leave. what about the advisories and warnings around the ohio valley. one to three inches of snow. the red shaded area about two to four. more outside of new york and boston. h hugging the coast, a little warm air wrapping in. the snow is mixing with rain. it's around areas like long

island and lower parts of boston. you can see the radar. it's overhead in manhattan. live in new york, here's what it looks like. can't see it. an advisory in new york city calling for one to two, maybe three for the city. more in the north and more around boston, too. six to 12 will do it for you outside of concord, new hampshire. check out this i-report from maryland. one family was trapped inside by five feet of snow over the weekend. the real problem, what to do with a hiber gray hound. thanks for this. he doesn't care. i don't know if they had to dig that? maybe he did the track himself. >> there he goes, again. >> that's great. it's -- once the cold air wrapped around the cold snow, it doesn't warm up. that's why it's cold in florida. >> he's getting it. thanks for the tape, you guys.

some of the stories we are watching today. at 10:00 a.m. eastern, a bipartisan policy center will stage a large scale attack on u.s. computer systems. former white house and national security systems will demonstrate how the government will respond. the journal of the medical association will release a report on what caused king tut's death. astronauts will begin their third and final space walk before the space shuttle "endeavour" heads home. kevin smith is furious about getting kicked off a flight because of his size. now, the incident is leading to changes at the airline. a pelican attacks a reporter on live tv. what are you going to do?

♪ take a look at my girlfriend ♪ she's the only one i got. i always wondered about that song. not much of a girlfriend. what kind of love song is that? southwest says an incident with kevin smith will be used. he was pulled off a flight because of his size. he normally buys two tickets for extra space. there was one seat left on this flight. he talks about a conversation during a podcast of his. >> she goes there's space allotment for each seat. you were taking up more than your space allotment.

i said just say fat. she said i didn't say that. i said lady, i ain't gonna sue you for calling me fat. you are telling me. don't dance around like i'm taking up more space. it's a euphemism for fat. be honest with me. >> on this cast, he's more upset she wasn't up front about it. it defended the decision smith needed more than one seat to fly comfortably. he had no trouble buckling the seat belt and lowering the armrest. here is what you said about it. >> that's southwest's policy, why he feels he's an accept, i don't think.

>> now, i know you have an opinion. not our jen. go to cnn.com/robin. you can hit the contact us button or the facebook icon. i like the facebook thing because you can see the comments and comment on the comments. love letters from jfk were written before and during his marriage to jackie. the letters are described as tender and hopelessly romantic. she was 21. she wrote a memoir after jackie died. right now, the bid is $30,000. now, back to the plane thing. >> yes. >> have you ever noticed -- i think i read somewhere, coach seats, generally are 17 inches across. how about airlines make coach seats that actually fit us? i'm not saying -- i'm pretty

sure -- aren't we all bigger than 17 inches? >> americans are a little more -- >> curvy -- >> than the rest of the world. >> aren't we all bigger than 17 inches across? >> i know i am. >> hi, jen. with recalls would you buy a toyota these days? they have a major image problem. they are trying to change that. how so? >> first, toyota wants to show, it's knuckling down with new quality control. they are going to be asked what they knew when they knew it and what they did about it. here is what we know. tomorrow morning, toyota's president is holding a news conference. we don't know what he's going to say. the wall street journal is reporting they might talk about changing their safety testing. in the past, toyota said oh,

suppliers, you guys test the part. we won't test them, you test them. now, they might test them themselves. because of the image problems, a lot of people, when i was away for a few days, a cab driver was driving a toyota and people wouldn't get into the cab even though he never had problems with it. an image problem. toyota is promising dealers, their job is to spend cars. toyota will spend big to boost car sales and big sales and incentives, so it's cheaper to drive a toyota. >> i notice the other car makers ramping up their ads like let's take advantage of this. it was an emotional reunion. 26 years in the making. why they had not seen each other in that long. a group of farmers is so frustrated they went to washington. why the government owes them

money, big time. ♪

♪ after 26 years, a florida mother is back together with her long lost son. 26 years she said her abusive husband forced her to leave her family. she lost track of her sons. one was able to find her through family members. >> a voice said mother. i said who is this. he said mommy. i said who is this? he said this is your son. >> best day of my life is my children being born. >> wow. they met up at a bus station in florida. his son is now trying to find his brother. new jersey senator is okay after falling at his home. he could be out of the hospital soon. a spokesperson says he was conscious when an ambulance took him from his home.

he went to the hospital as precaution. he returned from a trip from haiti. we get hilarious video like this. >> ah! >> oh, yeah, it's all funny when you are the person in the studio. that's the weather man. oh, no. he was at the zoo in sydney when the pelican liked the reporter. he joked he was mentally scarred by the incident. now, bob had the unfortunate incident of monkeys throwing things at him at is zoo. >> as a kid, it will scar you when the apes throw something at you, in your general direction. trying to get in or out of the city, you are going to see

the clouds. they are there for boston. light snow works into the city in the next couple hours. one to two inches for the city itself. here is what we have for the day. boston, an hour or more delay. poor visibility. new york city metro, snow is heavy now. watch for hour long delays. san francisco, morning fog, gives way to cloudy skies. now, a 40 minute delay. it's a current one. more on that in a half hour. >> give me that back. we are all sitting here measuring ourselves. our width because o -- it sounded crazy didn't it. a coach seat is 17 inches across. we are talking about this on our facebook pages. if you wonder what the heck we are doing. >> we happen to have a tape measure here. >> 17 inches is nothing. no longer people are falling all over each other.

these winter games have come far. here is rafer with more. >> bode miller is a good racer. he contemplated retiring six months ago. the bad boy of skiing has a new attitude. it's because he's a father now. it's given him new focus. he took bronze on monday. .09. he's got two more events. he's among the favorites at the event. the other skiing star, lindsey vonn is looking good. she turned in the fastest training time. bruised shin and all, she's still the favorite to win the gold. her shin still hurts, but she popped painkillers and took numbing cream. the first official race is supposed to be wednesday.

we have another great comeback story. this is from china. they came out of retirement to win their first ever gold medal in the figure skating pairs. they are beautiful, aren't they? >> they skate beautifully together. obviously, there's a relationship off and on the ice. it translates. >> >> it does. as you can see, he broke down in tears. it is also china's first skating medal. and floud floyd landis has a warrant out for his arrest. a french judge issued it in connection with a data lab. the same lab that uncovered ab normally high test tost roan levels leading him to get stripped of his tour de france title. i'll have more on snowboarding in 30 minutes. >> so many sports going on.

>> the olympics are better than expected this year. are you looking for work and feeling discouraged? do not give up. clark howard talks about a recent survey that might give you some hope. >> how would you like some good news on the economy? well, i actually have some, even on the job front. listen to this. there's this research group, it's kind of obscure, except the people in business circle, it is called the conference board. and they track all kind of stats about the economy, including one, this is how many jobs are being posted on online sources. their most recent report shows we are up to just over 4 million jobs for the post recent month they have stats for. now, 4 million, does that give you any context? well, let me give you some. at the peak of the economy, there were roughly 5 million jobs being posted each month online. at the baht come bottom of our recession, 3 million. if you were to look at the

picture, we are like halfway in between the worst of times we have seen in the recession and the best of times before. it doesn't mean that people are begging for work, but it means some are looking for you if you are looking for work. i'm clark howard. for more ways for you to take charge of your job search, go to cnn.com/clarkhoward. $$$$$$

good, bright sunshiney morning to you sleepy head. i'm robin meade. toyota has a new bitter pill to swallow. the government is saying the recalled cars may be linked to a number of deaths. now, a stunning claim from one of tiger woods' alleged mistresses, she is talking about a big secret that woods doesn't know about. plus, rescue crews are scrambling to pull the hiker out.

it's an incredible story. the top story, though, new troubles for toyota. government officials say they've got complaints blaming toyota cars and trucks for 34 deaths. in the past decade from the sudden acceleration problems. the national highway safety traffic administration says it is investigating all the new allegations. officials also say there's been a huge surge of complaints about the prius. jennifer westhoven is always looking out for you. why such a big increase in the complaints in such a short period of time is what it feels like? >> reporter: yeah. there are two ways to look at it. first of all, this is normal after recalls, the government says it is common. on one hand people say, well, you know, that happened to me. i took it to the dealer and they weren't sure. on the other hand, some people say, well, it is very strong the power of suggestion. you hear about this and then you start to blame all your troubles on this. those are just two different ways of looking at it. but the government says they are looking at nine more fatal crashes that killed 13 people to

see if they were somehow linked to the stuck gas pedal problem. maybe the car sped up. toyota says it takes all customer reports very serious i. that's the gas pedal problem. then we have the other recall, the brake problem. there's been a surge of hundreds of complaints about the braking system in the prius hybrid since the nhtsa says the complaints started. >> i understand the power of suggestion. i think for a lot of us it makes you go, i'm not crazy. i thought i felt that. maybe that accounts for some of the surges as well. thank you. new this morning, what a story. rescuers are about to resume a desperate attempt to reach a hiker who fell into the kratder of mount st. helens volcano. he was posing for a picture close to the edge when the snow gave way. he is clinging to a steep slope

1,500 feet down. rescuers think they have seen him moving, but he might be hurt. >> lots of boulders, lots of rocks, it would have been a significant injury on the fall on the way down. >> they could not climb up to the hiker because of falling rocks. then the chopper pulled out because of sharp downdrafts. that's supposed to resume as we are on the air this morning. alleged tiger woods's mistress star james says she was pregnant with woods' baby twice. >> reporter: good morning, robin. james carrying woods' baby twice in 2007 but never told him. she eventually had a miscarriage. here she is on "inside edition." >> did part of you want to tell him? >> yes. but after i lost the baby i

didn't -- i just didn't want to talk about it. >> reporter: now, james says she became pregnant with tiger's child a second time, but that time had an abortion. that was about a year ago. once again, she did not tell tiger. robin? >> so, james went public a week ago with text messages that she said proved her and woods were intimate together. so why now with the pregnancy allegations? >> that's the question on a lot of people's minds. a while ago she brings out the text messages that read the following, one that said, quote, you please me like no other has or ever will. i'm not losing that. allegedly from tiger to her. the great thing is we have a lifetime of this. last night on issues with jane velez-mitchell. she questioned gloria allred about the timing, especially when she didn't mention it last year in the news conference. >> unfortunately, tiger betrayed

her. he was very jealous of her being in adult films. he was jealous of the fact she would be with others in the film, even though she didn't have emotion with them. it was a job as she was concerned. he wanted her to give it up because he wanted to be the only one for her. he led her to believe she was the only one for him other than his wife. so now she's been totally betrayed and she has a right to speak out and tell her story. there's no reason why she should live in silence. he knows what the relationship was, she knows what the relationship was and i'm proud she had the courage to speak out. >> velez-mitchell asked lisa garrero as to whether she was paid for the interview. they wouldn't give out that detail. also, they are asking for hospital record to prove she had an abortion. hln also reached out to tiger woods and has not got an response. >> my goodness.

will it ever stop? thank you so much. evan bayh will no longer seek another term. he made the announcement yesterday with his family by his side. >> i love working for the people of indiana, but i do not love congress. there's much too much partisanship and not enough progress. too much narrow id yols and not enough practical solve. even in a time of enormous national challenge, the people's business is not getting done. >> bayh december departure is a major blow to the democrats. the former two-term governor, there we go, was first elected to the senate in 1998 taking 62% of the vote. six years later he was reelected with 64% of the vote. in new orleans today there's one rule, that is let the good times roll. it is mardi gras.

this was the parade last night in the french quarter. despite the cold, there's plenty of partying and bead throwing. stick with us, we plan to take you there live for pictures of the zooloo parade that gets started early this morning. it's been one mardi gras all the way, don't you think so? one fat tuesday since super bowl evening. >> it is too cold just to wear beads. it is 33 right now. only up to 50. >> just wearing beads. >> that's what you do, right? i've never been, that's what i'm told. >> oh, sure. >> they advertise 65, but it will only get to 50. it will be cold no matter how you lice slice it. look at the snow wrapping through the great lakes with another coastal storm off the new jersey shoreline. the advisories and warnings out there. the warnings are in the red shaded area. 6 to 12 inches near boston. from new york city to boston, the radar is picking up the snow pretty well. we'll take you life to central park.

here's what it looks like around the region. calling for snow on and off the entire day. it is coming in in sheets and waves. you have to look hard. the poor visibility will cause delays there. new york city, one, two, maybe three. more up the hudson valley up to connecticut and rhode island and boston. here's boston's radar mixing in with rain, especially near cape cod and martha's vineyard. a little warm air there, but once the cold air cranks down to the south, everybody sees snow. we'll see six to ten in the lower parts of new hampshire. concord gets six to ten. boston, one to three. massachusetts, four to six. one to two for new jersey and parts of the pocanos. light snow also working as far to the south as atlanta, but look at the snow right around cincinnati and cleveland, the most is around cleveland with more snow coming in. the cold air goes right over the snow that's fallen over the least two days to ten weeks. not warming up a bit, so the windchill is out there.

the windchill advisories for areas shaded in blue in florida. 41 in tampa. 33 in orlando. more on that, robin, in a half hour. first, let me show you this out west. this is the best kind of stuff. huge waves, big westerly swell coming off the pacific. this is san diego. look at the side of those breakers. a couple guys are taking advantage of this. another big swell today should last through about tomorrow afternoon. more on that in a half hour. thank you. if you are just listening to me, look at the tv scream because we have brand new film of jfk arriving in dallas the day that he died. it is fascinating, especially when you hear where this came from. and then fans at the olympics are getting refunds because there's not enough snow at the winter games.

in our salute to the troops today, it is for a man whose

wife and son couldn't be more proud. >> hi, ron. i'm christie kiltz. i would luke to salute my husband stephen kiltz. i'm glad that you are home with us taking care of your family. we missed you very much while you were over there. we are very proud of everything you've done for us. and i love you with all of my heart. >> we absolutely just love these salutes. if you have somebody in the service, we would be honored to help you salute them go. to cnn.com/robin. come here and look at the tv screen because we have video, it is actually film, that you have never seen before of jfk is day he was killed. this film that you are seeing was shot by a 15-year-old student who had the day off school. he donated the film to the sixth-floor museum in dallas. the curator says it is the best home movie known to exist of

kennedy's arrival in dallas on november 22nd, 1963. new this morning, the taliban's top military leader has been captured. a senior pakistani intelligence official says mullah baradar was captured. the pakistani official says the american and pakistani enforces are interrogating baradar. >> the critical issue is how much will he talk and provide information on where other assets are, potentially where the taliban in pakistan are and, of course, the united states would love to know where osama bin ladin himself is. >> the news comes in the middle of the u.s.-led offensive in afghanistan's hellman province. troops have recovered nearly 9 million worth of raw opium used

to finance taliban operations. it sounds good that companies are doing more hiring these days, thank goodness. the thing is that they are hiring temps. jennifers we hoeven is here. so that means you are not full-time and you are not getting benefits. >> reporter: yeah. it used to be, robin, when companies were hiring temps it was a bridge to recovery, but there's growing certain that maybe it is not a bridge this time. four months in a row we have seen this rise, but bosses say they are too fearful about the economy's recovery. they don't know that it's got the strength to hang on for a while. they don't want to bring in people full-time and have to lay them off, so for now they are sticking with temps. 52,000 more temp jobs than the latest month, so good news that we are seeing more of the temp jobs, but, i mean, it still tells you that it is a tough market out there. i know so many of you are working to find jobs and not coming up with anything. today the president is putting his focus on the job market. this morning he's touring a

training facility in maryland. it is training for electrical workers. he's going to give a short speech on jobs in the energy sector, that's an area where he said there's a future for jobs. and he wants lawmakers to move for quickly on a jobs bill. right now the national unemployment rate, 9.7%. could you make calls on your cell phone without burping up any of your minutes? then maybe you wouldn't need such a big plan. verizon is expected to start offering skype on its cell phone soon. that means your call would basically be going over the internet instead of over the cell phone system. wouldn't burp your minutes. it may also be available soon on at&t. why are they offering that? they want to keep your business. all right. if you are traveling this morning, i tell you, bob, philadelphia, they are already up to their knees in snow. they have had it for weeks. and more? >> a little bit of light snow. the problem is the low clouds, but at philadelphia airport, all you have to do is sneeze and you'll get a delay. that's the way it is with them.

here's the way it goes today. 40-minute delay average in philadelphia because of the light snow. the low cloud are out there, too. moest of the snow, you are looking at connecticut, is over the region and to massachusetts stretching to boston. here's what we have today. boston, the longest delays with wind and snow. an hour or more. new york city metro, poor visibility down to an hour due to snow. later this morning, san francisco, an hour. d.c., a 40-minute delay. this is causing a big debate in indonesia. and director kevin smith is talking about getting kicked off a southwest flight. meanwhile, the airline is planning to use this to their advantage. go to cnn.com/robin. e-mail us or facebook us.

♪ okay. so this morning we have been talking about how director kevin smith got kicked off a southwest airlines flight because of his size. he says that he fit in his seat just fine and suggested that the workers might have had something against his movies. southwest says it was just following a 25-year-old policy. and the airline has apologized. here's what you're saying about kevin smith getting kicked off a southwest flight because he supposedly didn't fit in his seat. jennifer writes on our facebook page, hello? he knew he needed two seats, so why is he calling foul? jonathan says, how about southwest redoing some of their seating to accommodate overpagt people. laura says, i think southwest responded correctly. i applaud their response. what about my rights and the see

space i have purchased? this has everybody talking. you probably have a strong opinion about it. let her fly. you can hit the facebook icon or the contact us button. 19 minutes past the hour. the u.s. wins gold again and it is being called one of the great comeback stories of the games. i love to hear this. >> oh, robin, this guy is a great story. seth wescott hurt his leg and pelvis two months ago. the guy could barely walk. well, the 33-year-old reigning olympic champ in snowboard cross was called too old and too hurt to win this year. boy were they wrong. he overcame a very poor qualifying time and passed canadian mike robertson who looked like he had the race wrapped up. there were a few jumps left and it was a thrilling photo finish. wescott won four years ago in to reno and when he won he hoisted the same flag from his

grandfather, a world war ii veteran. things have gotten so bad with the weather at the games they are giving out refunds. 8,000 tickets were wiped out last minute for snowboarding events because there's not enough snow in the spectator areas. organizers say they will be refunded, but if the weather doesn't improve, they may have to write more tickets for upcoming snowboarding events. what's that, robin? >> why do you need snow in the spectator area? >> has because it has been too slip. they are looking to put in artificial turf. a funeral was held for the georgian huger who trackingly died on friday. the traffic did has been devastating to the delegation, particularly liz uncle, also his coach, who reportedly broke down at the service. lastly, we know the snow is getting you down, but look what they are doing here. vancouver has the olympics, but the kids on prince edward's

island had their own olympics. that's all i've got. i've been told to shut up. oh, by the way, the u.s. saw another great comeback story in bode miller. and one man is going to court to get the license plate that he really wants. he is actually suing the state. what the license plate says and why this is so important to him. whwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwhwh

federal safety regulators have gotten complaints linking toyota accelerator problems to 34 deaths. they are investigating the allegations. and they say they are seeing a human jump in complaints since the recall. as soon as the sun comes up there, rescuers are going to try to reach a hiker who fell into the crater of the mount st. helen's volcano. he was posing for a picture close to the edge when the snow under him gave way. he is clinging to a slope about

1rkz 1,500 feet down. one of the commuters in a head-on collision in a train crash in belgium survived, but they plan to question him as soon as he's able. the driver of the other train was some of the 118 killed. i'm robin meade. morning sunshine. the husband of the professor accused of gunning down three colleagues said she went to a shooting range shortly before the rampage. he doesn't know where she got her gun. witnesses say amy bishop opened fire at the university of alabama on friday. her husband also says she had been fighting the university for over a year about losing tenure. well, bishop had run-ins with her neighbors. people who lived near her in massachusetts say she once called police about the kids playing basketball in the street saying it might come to blows. >> not a lot of people really

liked them. they thought they were strange. >> truthfully, i thank god all our kids and us are alive because you never know. >> well, bishop faces the death penalty if convicted of the university killings. love letters from jfk are being auctioned off. they were written before and during his marriage to jackie. he wrote to a young swedish woman he med on the french rivera. the letters are described as tender and hopelessly romantic. she wrote a memoir in 1927 after jackie onassis died. right now the bid is $30,000. ten americans accused of being kidnapped in haiti. power outages are common in haiti. a decision about bail may come out tomorrow now. the americans were trying to help the children. a jailed american's wife talks about the wait.

>> just day by day it has been very -- it has been tough. and we are just ready to get him home. it is great to hear his voice, but it was a very, very short conversation. but it was still good to hear him. he sounded good and he told me he was okay. >> meanwhile, a legal adviser to the americans says he's the same man wanted in el salvador on sex charms. he says he's innocent of the charges, but right now he's the focus of a manhunt in the dominican republican. senator john mccain faces a challenger from his own republican party. j.d. heyworth says he is running for mccain's senate seat. >> you could say there are two john mccains. the one who cam pains like a conservative and the one who legislates like a liberal. >> the fact is i'm confident of victory. our polls show us with 20-point lead, but i'm going to go out

and earn every single vote. that's the only way i know how to cam pain. >> now, heyworth does have credentials. he was elected to the u.s. house in 1994. conservative company they or the pat buchanan is packing him up. they are still cleaning up from this accident. more than 50 cars crashed during a snowstorm on i-71 in ohio. the southbound lanes were closed for seven hours. one lane is open at last check, but they still have damaged trucks on the side of road that have to be removed today. there were mostly minor injuries, but one person was hospitalized. they are still getting snow there it seems like. where do we have a new storm system? give me a break. another storm system. we don't even get a day inbetween, bob. is that what you are telling me? >> we are in round 15 right now. the snow continues to fall. hey, this weather is brought to you by sudafed. here's the situation right now. it is another coastal storm and a mid-level disturbance across

the great lakes. the mid-level disturbance has the snow moving throughout the great lakes into tennessee. flurries also in atlanta. we'll take you live to atl because we'll get delays with low clouds. you can see them off and on for the morning with flurries out there. the high today in atlanta, 37. the average high is 57. so there's your cold air with the wind blowing over the heavy snow pack to the north. it just doesn't get a chance to warm up. temperatures are not even cracking 40 across the deep south today. as for the snow, you can see right around pennsylvania through the ohio valley, again, heavy at times in the northern parts of kentucky through west virginia, ohio, and the district of p.a. let me show you the heavy snow just offshore near new jersey. we have warm air coming up from the south to the north mixing in with rain across eastern massachusetts. all the white is chevy snow getting into boston and central connecticut, lower parts of new york state, too. look at the new york city radar. not much going on. just light snow showers here. get up to boston and you have a little bit of rain offshore that's going to mix in with

heavier snow showers near boss toen boston and stretching near worcester. maybe two to three for you around boston. maybe a little more, but the heavy snow is north of the ream in toward concord to portland, maine. sick to ten in the higher elevations. light snow coming off the lakes right there near lake michigan, ohio, light snow. two to four for the most. right around cleveland, right snow is out here. that will be here for most of the day, too. let me show you the best i-report picture i have seen so far. the i-report of the day comes from maryland where one family was trapped inside five feet of snow. the real problem was they were dealing with a hyper greyhound. >> this is great. look at this. >> they built a track. >> they built a track for the greyhound to get exercise because he was snowed in. he loves it and whips around this thing. i'm sure he's making it deeper every time. look at that, that's awesome.

what else are you going to do in five feet of snow. more on that in about a half hour. >> so sweet. some passengers on a delta flight say their bags smelled so bad when they got them back that even the airline reps could not take it. you have to hear what they were soaked in. also, a pelican and a jackson reporter on live tv. what are you going to do?

all right. time to pour another cup of coffee while we check out the morning papers for you.

from "usa today" a lot of states are looking to ban the chemical bpa. they are concerned how it develops brain development in babies and toddlers. it is used in a lot of drink containers. the industry insists the product is safe. the "chicago tribune" talking about road rage among truck drivers. one says there are threats being made on the cbs. one driver calls some of the truckers cb rambos. get this, more canadian hockey players shoot left-handed even if they are right-handed in every day life. according to "the new york times," it has been this way for years. most u.s. players shoot right-handed. strategy. that's a look at some of the papers. some passengers on a delta flight got their baggage back and it was soaked in jet fuel. it probably happened while the plane was on the ground the puerto rico. if that's the case, they flew all the way to denver with fuel-soaked bags onboard.

>> i don't think anyone wants luggage that's been soaked in fuel in the luggage compartment of their flight. i don't ever want to think that would happen again because it seems to me there was enough luggage that was soaked that any kind of little spark would have blown up our plane. >> well, the delta rep told them to submit a reimbursement form if they could not wash the fuel out of their clothes. delta did not return calls for comments. what about the bags? most bags are cloth nowadays. you can't wash that. with all the recalls, would you buy a toyota right now? well, the company has a major image problem and it is trying to change that. jennifer west hochb is here with that. >> good morning. they are saying safety first. they are knuckling down to show how serious they are to change things, so what we know is that

tomorrow morning toyota's president is holding a news conference. we don't know what he's going to say, but the wall street journal reports they may talk about safety testing. did you know, the paper says, toyota normally doesn't test a lot of its parts. they say, oh, supplier, you test your parts. that's a little bit like saying, hey, kid, grade your own homework. that may change as they put in tighter quality controls. that's something we are looking at. also, toyota is also promising dealers, they are counting on selling toyotas. a lot of people are upset and confused on what's going on. they are promising dealers a big spring ad campaign and bigger sales incentives. maybe longer warranties or maybe we are talking about more cash back, but ways to try to boost the sales. a week from tomorrow toyota bosses are in front of congress and lawmakers want to know what they knew and when. you should know, though, some critics say, hey, don't forget there are politics involved. you are going to have a lot of lawmakers, some likely from

detroit, who may want to score points against a company beating gm. just both sides so you know what's happening at the hearings. >> it is one of those things, do we get to see? that's always exciting. and home prices, this is a debbie downer story of the morning, but they could stay low for several years. years. the real estate company tells the wall street journal that half the homeowners right now are behind in their mortgage payments and they are likely going to end up losing their homes. maybe they lost a job or circumstances changed, but consultants say realistically these people aren't all going to win the lotto. that would be 5 million more homes for sale that puts pressure on the home market. robin? back to you. >> debbie downer, i can't tell you the last time i heard that. debbie downer. director kevin smith is upset about getting kicked off a southwest airlines flight because of his size.

the incident is leading to changes at the airline. plus, one of the hottest things to buy at the olympics is not a ticket. it is a cheap souvenir. cheap, cheap, cheap!

southwest airlines says that an incident with director kevin smith will be used in its employee training now in the future. they are apologizing again for pulling him off a flight on saturday because of his size. now, smith normally says he buys two tickets for extra space, but in this particular flight there was only one seat left. he talked about his conversation with a flight attendant during a podcast of his. >> she goes, there is space allotment for each seat, and you were taking up more than your space allotment. i said, don't do that. just say fat then. she's like, i didn't say fat. that's your word, not mine. i said, lady, i'm not going to sue you for calling me fat. i'm sitting here telling you i'm fat. but you are tell me, don't sit here and dance around like i'm taking up more space -- lady, that's a euphemism for fat. just be honest with me. >> now, southwest says it could

have handled the communication better. but the airline defended its decision that smith needed more than one seat to fly comfortably. he had no trouble buckling his seat belt and lowering the armrest, but what do you think about this issue? about people being pulled off a plane if they don't fit in their seat right. well, noah writes, come on, southwest airlines. you should know better than this. a lot of people are fat in this world. don't punish them. >> brian sent an e-mail saying, i like kevin smith, but flying is bad enough without having someone else's girth taking both armrests. alice says, they should have let him fly but charge him for extra luggage go. to cnn.com/robin because i know you have an opinion on this one. let it fly. there's a facebook icon if you want to do it that way and there's a contact us button if you want to do the e-mail thing. well, i'm sure that expensive olympic jerseys and pendants are selling at the vancouver games, but they are no match for a $10 pair of mittens.

"usa today" reports the red mittens with the maple leaf of canada on the palms are selling out. some folks are paying more than twice the price on e-bay that has about 200 listings of these cute little mittens. well, the winter games have seen a great comeback story, and among them is american skier bode miller. here's rafer with more on that. >> reporter: four years ago miller was a huge disappointment on the games. he thought about retiring six months ago, but the notorious bad boy of skiing has a new attitude. he says it is because he's a father now. he took the bropgz in the olympic downhill on monday. just .09 behind the winner. now he's the most decorated u.s. alpine skier in olympic history and he's gotten more events coming up. a guy to root for now. and lindsay vonn is another one to root for. hurt and all, she turned in the fastest training time in the upper part of the hill. and this race sent a message, even hurt, she's the favorite to

win the gold. she said she took painkillers, threw on numbing cream before the run and her first official race is supposed to be on wednesday. there's another game comeback story, but this one from china. husband and wife team came out of retirement and won their first ever gold medal in the figure skating pairs. these guys -- >> they are beautiful on the ice. >> aren't they? they have won it like everywhere else, but they have just never won at the olympics. look at the reaction. he breaks down in tears there. it is also the first gold medal in figure skating for china as well. a big moment for them. disgraced cyclist lloyd lap landis has a warrant out for his arrest in a data doping lab. they uncovered ab normally high testosterone levels in his labs. it sound like something out of a

movie. we have another great comeback story. an american battles back to win gold in snow cross. that in the next half hour. they said he was too old and too hurt. not so. >> he showed them. thank you. here's something that's sure to make every woman embarrassed. that's when her dad says in public, my to make everyone embarrassed "my daughter is single." dad! senator scott brown said that, last night she talked with hln's joy behar about that moment. >> what was going on through your head when he said that. >> i was in total shock. i was looking at the prompter the whole time because it's hard to look at all of the people with the crowd staring right at you and looking at the monitor a bunch of times. none of that was in the script. so when he said that, literally my face just dropped and i said oh, my gosh i can't believe he just said i was single.

it's true, i'm sickle, but i didn't want the whole world to know it. >> think everyone knew how i was feeling in that exact moment. >> you'll enjoy kathy griffin on "the joy behar show" on hln. i'm sure you've had some dad moments. >> it's embarrassing when i pick up my 2-year-old at day care and i say do you have to use the potty. she's, like, i'll tell you. fair enough. no problem. >> let me show you what's going on right now. if you're traveling out there, we'll see some delays and there's a 40-minute delay in philadelphia, and it's because of low clouds. let me show you d.c. real quickly. you'll get snow and flurry action this morning, otherwise brisk conditions. you can see the flag on top of the white house flapping around. watch for winds at 25 to 25 miles an hour. boston, going to get some snow and it will be heavy at times, bad visibility.

new york city metros, snow off and on and watch it for poor visibility. san francisco, you get the morning fog and that will start off an hour and a half from now. philadelphia, 40 minutes delay currently. >> thanks. if you or someone you know is looking for a job. there is encouraging information about the job market and then they're little, but they're doing a big job. hear from kids who got together to help out earthquake victims.

-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> good morning! how are you bed head and all? don't worry about it. you come as you are. i'm robin meade and here's what's going on. toyota has a bitter pill to swallow. the recalled cars may be linked to a number of deaths. a stunning claim from one of tiger woods' alleged mistresses. she's talking about a huge secret that even woods reportedly didn't know before now. plus director kevin smith is not going along with the official story about why he was kicked off of a flight.

the airline says it's because of his size and why he thinks it's really about something else. our top story though, new troubles for toyota. there has been a spike of complaint ps. it includeses complaints blaming toyotas for 34 deaths in the last decade from sudden acceleration problems. the national highway traffic safety administration says it is investigating the allegations. there has been a huge surge of complaints about the prius as well. jennifer westhoven is looking out for you as she always does and we'll have information on that in just a moment here, but listen to this story first. new this morning, rescuers are about to resume a desperate attempt to reach the hiker who fell into the crater of the mount st. helens volcano. he the snow gave way beneath him. he's clinging to a steep slope about 1500 feet down. ret skewers think they've seen him moving, but he may be hurt.

so they're supposed to resume that some time during this show so stay tuned. we'll give you more updates on that. alleged tiger woods mistress and former porn star joslyn james claims she was pregnant with woods' baby twice. >> she was carrying tiger's child in 2007 and never told him and she says she eventually had a miscarriage. here she is talking about it on "inside edition." >> did part of you want to tell him? >> yes. but after i lost the baby, i didn't -- i just didn't want to talk about it. >> james says she became pregnant with tiger's child a second time, but that time had an abortion. that was about a year ago and once again, she did not tell tiger. rob robin? >> wow! wasn't it a week ago that she went public with text messages

that proved they had an intimate relationship. >> she brings out these salacious text messages that read you please me like no other has or ever will. i'm not losing that from tiger supposedly to her and the great thing is we have a life time of this. last night on "issues with jane velez-mitchell" jane asked that question to james' lawyer to gloria allred about the timing and why was she coming out with the allegations now when she didn't mention it in last week's news conference. >> tiger betrayed her. he was very, very jealous of her being in adult films. he was jealous about her being with others on and he wanted her to give that up because he wanted to be the only one for her and he led her to believe, according to her that she was the only one for him other than his wife so now she's been totally betrayed and she has a

right to speak out and to tell her story and there's no reason why she should have to live in silence. he knows what the relationship was. she knows what the relationship was, and i'm proud of her that she has the courage to speak out. >> velez-mitchell also asked "inside edition" whether she was paid for the interview and they don't give out those details. james did not provide evidence like hospital records to prove that she had a miscarriage or an abortion. hln reached out to reps for tiger woods and have not gotten a response. >> will the allegations ever stop? wow! thank you so much. check out a landslide that happened in southern italy, about 200 people had to be evacuated because of it. it was like the whole side of the mountain came down. i can't believe no one was hurt. the enormous land slide split the side of the hill. heavy rains in the area are blamed for causing this. rain also caused more than a

hundred other landslides. we didn't get a day to rest, but here comes another winter storm system affecting how many state, bob? >> let's see, let's count them up. you have michigan to kentucky, alabama, tennessee, and basically east of the mississippi river you'll get light snow somewhere with the exception of florida and louisiana. here's what it looks like. you have a coastal low developing in jersey and that is directly overhead of detroit. so you're getting some snow squeaked out. let me show you the live detroit tower cam. because of visibility now, about two miles and you can see light snow coming through and snow advisories and no warnings. i guess it's just a typical winter for you. detroit another one to two today and it will be blowing snow on the ground. let me show you the weather picture. you can see the snow coming in through michigan. about one to three going about 3 to 6 and 6 to 12 is what you get when you get to areas like lower

new hampshire and martz of payne, too. most of the snow is heavy at times. that moves in toward cape cod by this afternoon. boston, stretching into western parts of mass, northern connecticut and snow, and rain across the coastline. rain in nantucket and martha's vineyard, too. 4 to 6 inches of snow and that's the berkshires and 6 to 10, maybe 12, that's the bull's-eye for you in concord, new hampshire, and into areas like portland, maine. that's what we're watching. look at the snow showers coming right off the great lakes and they go all of the way down to kentucky and then we see the winds involved and the cold air rushing over to snow and it's not warming up. windchill values is the way it feels in atlanta now. feels like 58 degrees in mime we morning showers breezing through. out to the west we go, we have the long fetch off the ocean bringing a lot of clouds and a lot of waves, too.

look at the size of the waves, too. we have video from -- i guess this is yesterday. this is right around san diego. huge swell coming in, nice west well and a couple of surfers taking advantage of it. that swell will be there today through thursday morning and go out and enjoy it because i can't. look at how great that is. >> licking your chops, aren't you? >> more aye in a half hour. we have more fillk of jfk. arriving in dallas and we have more details on what the suspect of the university of alabama shooting was doing before the rampage. this information is coming from her husband.

all righty. time for our salute to the troops. the shoutout today is for staff sergeant stephen isaac kilts. he was awarded a battlefield

promotion in january and his wife and son couldn't be more proud. >> hi, robin. my name is christy kiltz. my son and i would like to salute my husband, staff sergeant stephen isaac kilts. i want to tell you how proud i am of you for serving our country. baby, i'm glad you're home with us taking care of your family. we missed you very much while we were over there. we're very proud for everything that you've done for us, and i love you with call of my heart. >> maybe you have someone in the service you want to salute as well. go to cnn.com/robin and it will be done. we have video that you have never seen of jfk the day he was assassinated. this was shot by a 15-year-old student who had the day off of school, and that person donated the film to the curator in dallas. it is the best home movie known to exist of kennedy's arrival in dallas, november 22nd, 1963.

fascinating. new this morning, the taliban's top military leader has been captured. a senior pakistani official says mullah barad ar was arrested and he's the number two man to the taliban's founder and was a close associate to osama bin laden before 9/11. the pakistani official said american and pakistani forces right now are interrogating barader. >> in times of the information about the southern afghanistan operations of the taliban, this guy is potentially a gold mine. i suspect he's not being read his miranda rights by the pakistani people who are interrogating him. two taliban leaders deny barader was captured. they say the report is an attempt to demoralize the taliban during a u.s.-led offensive in the helmand province. two dozen have been kulled in that operation and troops have recovered $2 million worth of

raw opium. toyota's gas pedal problems are being linked to 34 deaths now. overall the number of consumer complaints, they're way up since these recalls have started. jennifer westhoven is looking out for you as always. good morning. >> good morning, robin. it's pretty normal that once a recall goes out a lot of people go that was happening to me so the complaints tend to any up, but in this case we have two separate issues here. one is the gas pedal which is very serious. the government is looking at nine more fatal crashes that killed 13 people to see if they are linked to it, if they were caused by those gas pedals that can get stuck that maybe caused the car to become a runaway car. toyota has said it takes all customer reports seriously. by the way, it's fixed half of the 2 million cars that were recalled so far. that's the gas pedal problem. have the brake pedal problem and there's been a surge and hundreds of complaints coming in

about braking problems in the prius hybrid. they don't seem to be dangerous because it happens in low speed. still, it's pretty scare fe your brakes aren't working. the tsa reports they went from 100 complaints to 1,000 complaints and it brings up the question are people really having problems and they're saying oh, yeah, that happened to me, too or is it the power of suggestion which is something that gets talked about a lot, too. more than 2700 homeowners getting a check in the mail and it is a victory for their mortgage company. it's a check for about $6,000 and that's their share of a $17 million settlement with countrywide which was once the nation's biggest mortgage lender known for aggressive lending. well, the lawyers for the homeowners allege, and the state attorneys general that countrywide knowingly put people into mortgages they couldn't afford or misled them about

rates and penalties and we may hear more headlines like this because that's just florida, but there were several state prosecutors that sued. robin, back to you. >> okay. update on that, thank you. former presidential candidate mitt romney says he was threatened onboard a plane. you will hear what led to that confrontation. not everything is going smoothly at the olympics. some of the fans are even getting refunds.

you know what? in new orleans today there will be one rule. let the good times roll.

it is mardi gras, fat tuesday. it was thor fee us parade last night. would you go live to mardy for live pictures when the zulu parade kicks off in the next hour. they start it early, don't they? >> evan bayh will not seek a third term. he's fed up with congress and wants out. during his career the moderate democrat worked across party lines which frustrated liberal counterparts at times. bayh told our sister network cnn that too much partisanship is keeping people's business from getting done. >> i reached a conclusion that if i could help to create jobs by growing a business or help educate our children in a university or college or help a philanthropy or chart, i would be getting more done to help people in their daily lives than congress is currently doing. >> bayh is the third democratic senator to announce his retirement and the democrats

will have to defend five open seats this november. the husband of the professor accused of gunning down three colleagues says she went to a shooting range shortly before the rampage. witnesses say that amy bishop opened fire at a meeting friday at the university of alabama. prime news' mike galanos spoke with a psychotherapist about what happened between bishop and her husband the day of the shooting. >> her husband drops her off and allegedly she goes into this faculty meeting, shoots these people and afterward, everything's fine, does not mention the shooting and says basically we're still on for date night. what is that? >> that's that whole disassociative piece and i don't mean in a mental disorder kind of way. some people are literally able to pretend like nothing happened and they start to believe their own story, and i think that that's what she's doing. >> in 1986 bush op was cleared in the shooting death of her brother and the boston globe reports federal agents

questioned her about pipe bombs delivered to a colleague when she was a researcher at harvard. bishop faces the death penalty if convicted of the university killings. director kevin smith says he'll never fly in southwest airlines ever again. he was kicked off of a flight saturday because of his size. he says that he fit into one seat just fine and even suggested the workers might have had something against his movies. southwest says that it was just following a 25-year-old policy. now the airline has apologized and here's what you're saying about the director being taken off of the jet because he apparently didn't fit into his seat, they felt. john wrights, it sounds like he used profanity with the flight attendant. i think that alone is sufficient provocation for removal from an airline flight. ken says many of us suffer from weight problems. whatever the cause, we get tired of being singled out and we don't need the additional embarrassment of being thrown off an airplane, but what about

your opinion? what is it? go to cnn.com/robin and hit the contact us button to get your opinion. maybe you have a certain opinion about whether people should have to buy two seats depending on their size or if that's unfair and maybe you feel like the airlines should make the seats for real people. just saying. >> he thought he was getting kicked off because of his movies. >> >> he did "mall rats" and "clerks" not "passion of the christ." >> the u.s. wins gold again and is being called one of the great comeback stories of the games. we love this, rafer. >> this is a comeback story we didn't expect to see and that makes it sweeter. american snowboarder, seth wescott, this guy hurt his leg and pelvis two months ago, and he could barely walk and let alone snowboard. the 33-year-old reigning olympic champ in snowboard cross

considered too old and too hurt to win this year, overcame a very poor qualifying time and passed canadian mike robertson in just a few minutes left in a thrilling finish. he hoisted the same american flag that was presented years ago to his late grandfather, a world war ii veteran. meanwhile, things have gotten so bad with the weather at the games they're giving out refunds. 8,000 tickets were wiped out at the last minute for snowboard events because there's not enough snow in the spectator areas because it wasn't safe for people to stand. organizers say they'll be refunded and if the weather doesn't improve they'll have to refund more tickets for upcoming snowboarding events. a funeral was held for a georgian luger. members of the georgian olympic delegation honored nodar kh kumaritashvi kumaritashvili. this has been devastating to the delegation, particularly his uncle who is also his coach who

report lead broke down at the service. vancouver has the o limpics and these canadian kids got into the action on prince edward island. agency 4 to 7 and the medals were spray painted and came from the dollar store. that's how you came over the snow. bode miller became america's most decorated alpine skier in the next half hour. >> joe the plumber is back and he's got nasty things to say about john mccain!

federal safety regulators have gotten complaints linking toyota accelerator problems to 34 deaths. they say that they're investigating those allegations and they say that they're seeing a huge jump in the complaints since toyota recalled eight of its models. new jersey senator frank lautenberg is okay after falling at his home. he could be out of the hospital soon. a spokesperson for the 86-year-old democrat says lautenberg was conscious when an ambulance took him from his home last night, but he went to the hospital as a precaution. as soon as the sun comes up

there, rescuers will try again to reach a hiker who fell into the crater of the mount st. helens volcano. can you imagine? he was posing for a picture close to the edge when the snow gave way. he is now clinging to a steep slope inside about 1500 feet down. those are the headlines. what a story there. we'll watch that to see if anything happens live. good morning. welcome back. i'm glad you're spending time with us. i'm robin meade. here's what's going on. ten americans accused of kidnapping in haiti may remain in jail today because of electricity problems. the prosecutor says a power outage prevented him from printing his bail recommendation. power outages were common in haiti before the quake. the americans have said they were trying to help the children. a jailed american's wife talks about the wait. -- >> just day by day, it's been tough. and we're just ready to get them

home. it was great to hear his voice, but i have to say it was a very, very short conversation, but it was nice to be able to hear him. he sounded good, and he told me he was okay. >> meanwhile, a legal adviser to the americans acknowledges that he is the same guy wanted in el salvador on sex trafficking charges. he says he's innocent, but police cannot find the legal adviser. right now he's a focus of the man hunt in the dominican republic. last we checked they're still cleaning up a mess from this accident. more than 50 vehicles crashed during a snowstorm on i-71 in ohio. the southbound lanes were closed for seven hours. one lane at last check is open right now. they still have the damaged trucks on the side of the road that have to be removed today. there were mostly minor injuries and one person was hospitalized. five people were killed when a small plane crashed on the new jersey coast yesterday. police say the victims were all

male and included the pilot, two adult passengers, a teenager and a young boy. at least three of the victims were related. witnesses say that the plane looked like it was trying to land when it nosedived into a field. please say two teenagers who were shot in a church sunday are helping them find the suspects. ♪ ♪ such incredible tape. there were 100 people in that church near san francisco when the shots were fired. police were searching for a gunmen and two others who burst in wearing hoods. >> this church has always been a church of peace and joy. we never -- we've never had nothing like this and it was a surprise to the whole church. >> and this is a safe haven for so many people and to come in and try to destroy that, you know? it's just unbelievable. >> police say that the gunmen fired five shots.

the two victims are just 14 and 19. they had minor injuries. they have been released from the hospital. an ohio man figured out what to do with the snow from the recent storms. jim gray built a huge, huge igloo so big it has four rooms inside. he put a flat-screen tv in there, and he even put a sound system in there. come on, jim. >> i kept on building it out further and further and kept on going with it, and before you knew it it was 25 by 25 by 7 foot tall. >> when he took my cable wire from the garage and said he was going put his tv in there i was a little bit surprised. >> jim probably calls his creation a man cave. oh, no, does it even have disco light is that what it was? >> come on. does it have strobe lights? it does. >> this guy is the mack. look at this guy. >> but you still have to freeze in there. a wisconsin man spear fishing in lake winnebago caught

a 212-pound sturgeon. we go from a man cave to this. bying on gisiologists say it's 100 years old. if that's the case it had to be born before world war i and was born -- and it took three people to bring the fish up. 100 years old and you'll keep it out of the water? now you're strapping it to the back of your car. good for you. >> come on! >> i know. it's 100 years old! >> i know it's like sawing down a huge redwood tree just to see how old it was by counting the rings. look at this. this is great! let me show you the massive storm system for the northeast. this not not quite as powerful as the ones we've seen come through the region in the last couple of weeks. cloud cover as far south as atlanta stretching in toward the great lakes with light snow showers.

heavier snow now working into boston. let me show you the regional radar picture because it's a glow of activity. that coastal low, that moves due northeast ward and watch for that around plymouth and switching to snow later today. you'll see 3 to 6 around the boston metro and the city 1 to 3 with the snow mixing in and logan calling for 1 to 2. white is all snow and now out of boston into randolph and into rhode island. the warnings are out there especially north of the city of boston and west virginia and parts of ohio, too. 2 to 4 inches out there. the heavier snow will be out of new england with 6 to 10 and that's what you get when you get in toward concord, new hampshire and parts of maine. across the great lakes, it's light snow working down through michigan and the u.p. gets snowfall right now and it heads into indiana, ohio, stretching into kentucky and tennessee. light snow out there also and as

it's going in the snow pack, 11 degrees in atlanta, 20 in charlotte and feels like 15 in birmingham and feels like 27 degrees in new orleans. we'll take you live to the big easy, fat tuesday today and it's going to be cold. the high today only 50. the average high is supposed to be 65. at least it will be dry and no rain in the forecast. no snow in the forecast either, so that's good for you on fad tuesday. a little cold. >> there will be a parade starting in the 9:00 hour, the zulu parade. so early. >> if you're just going to wear beads today it will be cold. director kevin smith is furious about getting kicked off of a southwest flight for his size and thence dent is leading to changes at the airline. also a pelican attacks a reporter on live tv. what are you going to do? ess sa.

laissez bon temps roulez. if you're just pouring the cup of coffee, sit yourself down and i'm going to check the morning papers for you. from "usa today." a dozen states are thinking of restricting the chemical bpa. the fda has some concerns about how it might affect brain development in babies and toddlers. it is used in a lot of the drink containers. the industry insists that the product is safe. "the chicago tribune" reports on road rage with truckers and the trend could be increasing and one factor might be threats made by the cb radios. one driver calls one trucker rambos. an industry spokesperson says it's just a few kooks letting off steam. according to "the new york times" it has been that way for

years. most u.s. players shoot right-handed. a little strategy right there. it is a check of the morning paper. southwest airlines is saying that an incident with director kevin smith will be used now in its employee training in the future. they're apologizing again for pulling him off of a flight saturday because of his side. smith normally says he buys two tickets for the extra space, but apparently on this particular flight there was only one seat left and he talked about his conversation that he had with the flight attendant that day in his podcast. >> she goes, there is space allotment for each seat and you were taking up more than your space allotment. don't mrooep do that. just say fat then. she said i didn't say fat. that's your word, not mine. i said lady, i ain't going to sue you for calling me fat. but don't sit here and dance around like i'm taking up more space -- lady, that's a euphemism for fat, just be

honest with me. >> southwest says it could have handled the communication better and the airline defended the decision that smith needed more than one seat to flight comfortably. smith had no trouble buckling the seat belt and lowering the armrest, but this whole incident about who should have to fly with one seat and who should have to buy two, if two seats are needed, don't just buy one. if only one is available then there is not space for you on that flight. would you buy pants that are eight sizes too small and complain they don't fit? greg says fat people are the last bastion of discrimination. everyone will be up in arms demanding just face race, gender or anything else would have been the reason for booting him off of that flight. i know you have an opinion now. go to cnn.com/robin and hit the facebook icon or contact us button so i can read your opinions on the air. although i do tend to say

that it is amazing how tiny coach seats are. i mean -- they cram a lot of them in there and they're, like 17 inches across. with all of the recalls would you buy a toyota these days in the company has an image problem and it's trying to change that. our money expert jennifer westhoven is here. good morning. >> what toyota first has to do is not just put in an ad campaign and say we're making changes that are going to put safety first. so what we know so far is tomorrow morning toyota's president is holding a news conference. we don't know what he's going say, but "the wall street journal" is reporting that they'll look at quality control. one example is normally toyota does not test some of its parts and it has suppliers test them and they trust them to do that. that may change with quality control. toyota promising a big spring ad campaign so possibly bigger incentives, maybe longer

warranty, maybe more cash back. we do know also a week from tomorrow toyota bosses will be in front of congress and lawmakers want to know what toyota management knew and when about safety problems in its cars, but also, you know, you should know there are a lot of opinions about what's going to be happening in that room. are they trying to get a clear picture to get to the bottom of it. some critics say they're lawmakers trying to score points against a big company that has bested the u.s. biggest company, general motors. a lot of opinions and it is the hot seat and we'll watch it next week. for four months in ary we've been a rise in hiring of temporary workers. normally that's seen as a good sign that they're willing to take somebody on. bosses are still too fearful that this recovery may not have a lot of growing power. they don't want to bring people in full time and then have to lay them off. a lot of them have been sticking with temps. 52,000 more temp jobs in the

latest month. robin, that's one of those i wish i had better news to bring you about the job market, but i've got to tell you what's really going on. >> okay. thank you. jfk's love letters are fetching big bucks on the auction block and we're learning more about the woman he wrote them for. one man is taking the state to court and it kept him from putting his sexual orientation on his license plate. ♪

♪ okay. love letters from jfk are being auctioned off. they were written before and during his marriage to jackie. he wrote to a young swedish woman he meant on the french riviera. the letters are described as tender and hopelessly romantic. von post was 21 and she wrote a memoir in 1997 after jackie onassis died. right now the bid is $30,000.

♪ ♪ so i'm sure that the expensive olympic jerseys and the pendants are selling at the games in vancouver, but they're apparently no match for a $10 pair of mittens. "usa today" reports those red and white mittens with canada a maple leaf on the palms are selling out. some folks are paying twice the price on ebay which at last check had 200 listings for these cute little mittens. the winter games have seen great comeback stories and among them american skier bode miller. you know that name. so what happened now? >> he exceeded expectations. you what? it's a great story, robin because four years ago miller as you guys may remember was a very dig disappointment at the games, in fact, he even thought about retiring six months ago, but the notorious bad boy has a new attitude and he says it's because he's a father now. he took the bronze in the olympic downhill on monday, but he was so close. he was .09 of a second with the

winner and now he is the most decorated u.s. alpine skier ever and he has more events coming up. there you go. lindsey vonn, good news. she is looking good. hurt shin and all, she turned in the fastest training time on monday in the upper part of the hill and this race sent a message. yeah, she might be hurt, but she's still the favorite to win the gold. she said she popped some pain killers and put on some numbing cream before the run and her first official race is supposed to be tomorrow. >> we have another great comeback story and this time from another country, from china. husband and wife team shen xue and zhao hongbo came out of retirement and won in the figure skating pairs. >> they are so sync on the ice aren't they? >> zhao broke down in tears and it is the first figure skating medal for their country. floyd landis has a warrant out for his arrest and this

according to a french prosecutor, and a french judge issued it for landis in connection with a data hacking case at a doping lab. hacking. the same lab that uncovered abnormally high testosterone levels in his sample which is leduncovered high testosterone levels. we do have another great comeback olympic story. an american battles back from injury to win gold in snow board cross. that in the next half hour. >> that's kind of the -- they're the dudes, aren't they? >> they're the dudes, exactly. >> thank you very much. are you looking for work and you're feeling really discouraged? do not give up. hln money expert clark howard talks about a recent survey that may give you some hope. >> how would you like some good news on the economy. i actually have some even on the job front. listen to this. there's this research group

that's kind of obscure except to people in business circles called the conference board. they track all kinds of stats about the economy including one which is how many jobs are being posted on online sources. their most recent report shows that we're up to just over 4 million jobs for the most recent month they have stats for. now, 4 million, does that give you any context? let me give you some. at the peak of the economy, there were roughly 5 million jobs being posted each month online. at the bottom of our recession, 3 million. so if you were to look at the picture, we're, like, halfway in between the worst of times we've seen in the recession and the best of times before. doesn't mean that people are begging for workers, but it means some are actually looking for you if you're looking for work. i'm clark howard. for more ways for you to take charge of your job search, go to cnn./clarkhoward. >> clark will teach you to save

more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. you've got to hear a shocking claim from one of tiger woods alleged mistresses. it's a revelation that she says he knew nothing about. some travelers are trying to wash jet fuel out of their clothes. wait until you hear about this mishap.

well, hello, sunshine. how are you doing? it is tuesday, 9:00 eastern. i'm robin meade. as always, so grateful to have you with us. here's what's going on today. a stunning claim from one of tiger woods' alleged mistresses. she's talking about a huge secret that woods reportedly did not even know about. wow. then director kevin smith is not going along with the official story about him getting kicked off of a flight. the airline said it's because of his size. but why he believes it could have been about something else. first, though, our top story. new troubles for toyota.

government safety officials say that they've gotten complaints blaming toyota cars and trucks for 34 deaths in the past decade from the sudden acceleration problem. the national highway traffic safety administration says it's investigating all of the new allegations. officials also say that there's been a huge surge of complaints about the prius. jennifer westhoven is looking out for you. i wonder why such a big increase in the complaints right now in a short period of time? >> you know, it's normal, robin, safety officials say that after a recall is announced they usually get a flood of come plapts. there's a couple ways to look at it. people may say, hey, that did happen to me. maybe they took it to the dealer and they weren't sure. maybe they're saying i'm not crazy yet. this really is a problem. i'm going to complain, too. another people say it could be the power of suggestion. it's one of the reasons why companies like to avoid recalls. all of a sudden somebody may have some problem, they go, oh, it's that, even though it hasn't

been investigated yet. of course, the federal government is saying it is looking closely into these nine more fatal crashes that killed 13 people to see if there is a link, if they were caused by those stuck gas pedals that can suddenly cause you to have a runaway toyota. toyota says it takes all customer reports seriously, that it's working with the safety investigators. that's the gas pedal problem. but, you know, there's two big problems here. the other one is the brake problem in the toyota hybrid priuses. there's been a surge of complaints there. hundreds of them since they announced an investigation. it went from about 100 complaints to more than 1,000 complaints. robin? >> all right, jennifer, thank you so much. i know for a lot of people it might just be something where they go, oh, i'm not crazy. i did feel this happening. now i want to speak up about it. all right. thank you. rescuers are about to resume a desperate attempt to reach a hiker who fell into the crater of mount saint helen's volcano.

he was posing for a picture close to the edge. the snow beneath him gave way. at last check he was clinging to a steep slope about 1,500 feet down. the rescuers think they heard him blowing an emergency whistle but that he may be hurt. so if that resumes, we will show you live pictures of them resuming that search for that person. alleged tiger woods mistress and former porn star joselyn james claims that she was pregnant with tiger's baby, twice. rafer weigel with more on this one. >> the stories and the hits keep oncoming. james claims she was carrying tiger's child in 2007 but never told him about it. she says she eventually had a miscarriage. here she is talking about it on "inside edition." >> did part of you want to tell him? >> yes. but after i lost the baby, i didn't -- i just didn't want to talk about it. >> james says she became pregnant with tiger's child for a second time, but this time she

had an abortion. that was about a year ago. once again, she did not tell tiger. robin? >> you know, didn't she go public like a week ago or so with some text messages she says kind of proves that they had a relationship? so why the pregnancy allegations now? why not then? >> exactly, robin. that's a big question. especially since when we heard from her talking about salacious text messages including ones that supposedly read you please me like no one ever has or will. i'm not losing that. great thing is we have a lifetime of this. last night on "issues" with jane velez-mitchell she questioned james, gloria allread, about the timing. why is she coming out with these allegations now when she didn't mention it in last week's news conference. >> unfortunately tiger betrayed her. he was very, very jealous of her being in adult films. he was jealous of the fact that she would be with others in the films even though she didn't have any emotion for them, it was a job as far as she was concerned. and he wanted her to give that up because he wanted to be the

only one for her. and she led her to believe, according her, that she was the only one for him other than his wife. so now she's been totally betrayed, and she has a right to speak out and to tell her story. there's no reason why she should have to live in silence. she knows what the relationship was. he knows what the relationship was. i'm proud of her that she had the courage to speak out. >> velez-mitchell asked "inside edition" whether james was paid for the interview. they said they don't give out those details. we should also note that james didn't provide any evidence such as hospital records to prove that she had a miscarriage or an abortion. hln has reached out to reps for tiger woods and have not gotten a response. robin? >> it's interesting that she didn't provide the proof. like you said, receipts or something. all right, thank you. new this morning, the taliban's top military leader has been captured. a senior pakistani official says that mullah baradar was arrested

several days ago. the obama administration considers it the most significant taliban capture since 9/11. senator john kerry says it signals a new level of cooperation between pakistani and american forces. >> this is, i think, an important step, but it shouldn't be overblown. it's just one incident in what will be a series of ongoing efforts, i think, over the course of these next months as the effort in afghanistan ratchets up and also as the military continues its offensive in western pakistan. >> two taliban leaders deny that baradar is captured. they say the report is an attempt to demoralize the taliban during a u.s.-led offensive in afghanistan's helmand province. an afghan government official says that more than two dozen taliban fighters have been killed in that operation and troops have recovered nearly $9 million worth of raw opium. i don't really think we got a day of a break here because here comes another winter storm

system affecting multiple states, bob. >> i know. remember i told you i guess last thursday i was going to have to play with my orange golf balls down in south carolina. you're like what? orange golf balls. i had to. snow was across south carolina. buford up to new england. not ending. let me show you what's going on. we have that storm this that went through the deep south yesterday now rolling in towards the jersey coast. a lot of snow wrapping behind that. from cape may through into the lower hudson valley, even back into boston. light snow also coming over the great lakes. that's just an upper level impulse squeezing out the snow when you get into areas like pennsylvania, ohio, indiana and michigan, too. winter weather advisories all the areas shaded in blue-green, 1 to 3. 2 to 4 for the mountains of west virginia. more for the mountains of new england. low pressure center near new york south of the bay. it's going to drive into boston later today. rain is all blue. mainly offshore now. all snow wrapping down through the entire state of jersey, into

philadelphia, too. delays with the weather around laguardia. here's northern new jersey. light now out there. light snow around long island. boston it's heavier in nature. see there in the lower parts of massachusetts coming out of connecticut, light rain/snow mixing in around rhode island. that should be all snow for you by later this afternoon. pull that picture out a little farther, see the advisories and warnings. 6 to 10 around concord. into portland, maine, maybe 6 to 12 at the most. gone by overnight to tomorrow. snow coming across michigan towards indiana. cold air out there. windchill in atlanta 14 degree. feels like 14 in birmingham. big easy, fat tuesday, feels like 31 degrees. the high today only 50. get out west, look at this area of low pressure just offshore. a lot of wind coming out of the west. westerly swell. big waves. let me show you some video coming out of right around san diego. this is an ocean beach pier. look at the size of the waves breaking in. a couple guys out there taking

advantage. it's rough. going to be rough again tomorrow. 6 to 8 feet waves, maybe even 10. a bank that sold mortgages that people really couldn't afford is now paying back millions. we have those details. then there is brand-new film right now of jfk arriving in dallas the day that he died. it is fascinating, especially when you hear where it came from.

our shout out today is for staff sergeant steven isaac kilts. he was awarded a battlefield promotion in january. his wife and son could not be more proud. >> hi, robin. my name is christy kilt. my son and i would like to

salute my husband, staff sergeant stephen isaac kiltz. i'm glad that you're home, safe with us, taking care of your family. we missed you very much while you were over there. we're very proud of everything you've done for us and i love you with all of my heart. >> maybe you have somebody in the service and you want to is a salute them. go do it. cnn.com/robin. come here and look at this video. it's actually film that you have never seen of jfk the day that he was assassinated. it was not by a 15-year-old student who had the day off of school. he donated this film to the sixth floor museum in dallas. the curator says it is the best home movie known to exist of kennedy's arrival in dallas november 22nd, 1963. hundreds of homeowners are going to get a big check in the mail. part of a settlement with a mortgage company. and our money expert jennifer

westhoven is here. obviously that would be good news. but a lot of people, a lot of people are still struggling with their homes. >> still, you know, this is a settlement. it's the money back for them. 2,700 florida homeowners getting this partial victory over their mortgage company. about $6,000 is the check that's coming to them. that's their share of this $17 million settlement between countrywide and the state of florida. so the attorney general for the state had argued, had alleged, that countrywide put people into mortgages knowing they couldn't afford them based on their income or that they were misled about rates and penalties, and there are more headlines like this that may be coming in. just hours ago this morning we heard that connecticut was having a similar settlement with more than 300 homeowners. and they were getting about $3,000. it was several state attorneys general that were suing countrywide which at one point was the largest mortgage lender in this country. but they were also known for

some very aggressive lending tactics. that they got big by lending to a lot more people. and now we think maybe they shouldn't have been doing that. could you start making calls on your cell phone without burning up your minutes? verizon wireless expected to say that it will allow you to use skype on its cell phones. meaning your car would go over the internet, basically, instead of getting routed over the cell phone network. wouldn't burn up minutes, would cost you relatively little. that may mean a much cheaper phone bill. also soon expected available on at&t. why? upstarts are already starting to offer it. it's a cheaper way to make calls. if you are traveling this morning, you're trying to figure out what's the weather like, how am i going to get there. >> means you have to wear pants on the phone now, right? skype. son of a gun. >> i don't get you. >> skype. it's a video thing. you got to wear pants. >> oh, all right. >> all right. what's happening, everyone? trying to get out on a tuesday, it's snowing out there in the northeast.

snow across the mid-atlantic states. also into the great lakes. here's what we have for the day. saber flight explorer, these are where you're going to find the heaviest delays. boston i don't see anything but deicing. snow overhead. laguardia, south of you, you are watching for 78 minute delays as you travel into laguardia. that's queens also when you get to philadelphia, 40 minute le days. same with san francisco. about 45. about an hour or more delay boston. new york city metros you already have that hour or more delay. calling for about an hour or more delay around san francisco. currently just 45 minutes. otherwise d.c. metros, cleveland, detroit, chicago, philadelphia, you name them across the mid-atlantic, you see short delays. some fans at the olympics are getting refunds. it's because they can't find a place to watch that's safe.

z

right now, police are searching for a legal adviser to ten americans jailed in haiti on child kidnapping charges. this adviser acknowledged that he's the same man wanted in el salvador on sex trafficking charges. now he says that he's innocent. he's now the focus of a search in the dominican republic. meanwhile, the wife of one of those jailed americans talked about her reaction. >> i don't know him at all. and i had asked some questions, what do we know about him. and when i didn't get satisfactory answers, i decided to get jim his own attorney. and it was last tuesday when i talked to jim that i told him that -- that gary lasad was representing him. >> the ten americans may remain in jail today because of electricity problems, of all things. the prosecutor says that a power

outage prevented him from printing his bail recommendations. power outages were common in haiti before the quake, even. a decision about bail may come tomorrow. the americans have said that they were trying to help the children. the u.s. wins gold again. and it's being called one of the great comeback stories of these games. here's rafer with more on that. >> and one of -- our floor director described this finish as unbelievably awesome. i just wanted to make sure i got that correctly. it is an amazing story. american snow border seth westcott, this guy hurt his leg and pelvis two months ago. not only could he barely walk, let alone snow board. the 33-year-old was considered too old and too hurt to win this year. he passed canadian mike robertson with only a few jumps left in a thrilling, almost

photo finish. now, this guy won the race four years ago in torino. when he won again, he hoisted the same american flag that was presented to his late grandfather, a world war ii veteran. so a very well traveled, noble flag right there for a lot of reasons. things have gotten so bad with the weather at the games, they're handing out refunds now. 8,000 tickets were wiped out at the last minute for snow board events because there's not enough snow in the spectator areas. it's so warm there. organizers say those will be refunded. but if the weather doesn't improve they're looking at possible refunds for more tickets for upcoming snow boarding events today and thursday. on a more somber note, a funeral was held for the georgian luger who died tragically in a training run on friday. they honored him carrying his casket to a hearse. he was then given a police escort. this tragedy has been devastating to the delegation, particularly his uncle who is also his coach, reportedly broke down at the service.

vancouver has the olympics. but these canadian kids got into the olympic action in their own way on prince edward island. it's the mini olympics. they got their own little flags. they represent their own country. the snow's got people down. >> parade of nations. >> parade of nations. exactly. a little bean bag toss right there. the medals, they got them at the dollar store and spray painted them. >> it could inspire them. >> way to go, moms. great job. the u.s. saw another great comeback story. bode miller became our most decorated alpine skier. that in 30. >> other moms are like, great, she did the olympics. how are we going to top that? it's fat tuesday. the first parade of the day is getting started in new orleans right now. the zulu parade dates back more than 40 years. every year a hand decorated coconut called the golden nugget is thrown from the main float. it is considered one of the most coveted prizes during the mardi gras season. what is that?

it so is. someone in my ear who goes every year, they're like, it so is. i want that coconut. director kevin smith is still mouthing off about getting kicked off a southwest flight. meanwhile the airline says it plans to use the incident to its advantage. tell us what you think. should you have to get off of a flight if you don't fit in the seat the way the airline thinks you should? go to cnn.com/robin or e-mail us or facebook us.

the new york stock exchange. here we go. open for business. the dow is expected to rise after a day off for president's day. so we bring you a live report from the trading floor in about five minutes. as soon as is sun comes up here high enough rescuers are going to make a treacherous effort to reach a hiker who has fallen into the crater of mount st. helens. he was posing for a picture there close to the edge when the snow under him gave way, apparently. at last check they think he's clinging to a steep slope about

1,500 feet down. one of the drivers in a horrific head-on commuter train crash in belgium has survived. authorities say he has serious injuries but they plan to question him about yesterday's accident as soon as he's able. the driver of the other train was one of the 18 people killed. more than 170 people were hurt. the international space station is about to have a new room with a view. today is the third spacewalk for the shuttle crew. they're unlocking the shutters on a new observation deck. that will allow the astronauts to open the shutters from inside and look out seven new windows. those were some of our top stories. morning. you're up early. i like that about you. i'm robin meade. the husband of the professor accused of gunning down three colleagues says that she went to a shooting range shortly before the rampage. he says he doesn't know where she got the gun. witnesses say that amy bishop opened fire at a meeting friday at the university of alabama.

bishop apparently had run-ins with her neighbors before this. people who live near her in massachusetts say she once called police about kids playing basketball in the street, saying that it might come to blows. >> not a lot of people really liked them. they thought they were strange. >> truthfully, i thank god all our kids and us are alive. because you never know. >> bishop faces the death penalty if convicted in the university killings. southwest airlines says an incident with director kevin smith will be used now in employee training for the future. they're still apologizing again for pulling him off of a flight saturday because of his size. now, smith normally says that he buys two tickets for the extra space. but that on this particular flight, there was only one seat left. he talked about his conversation with the flight attendant in a pod cast. >> she goes, there is space allotment for each seat and you were taking up more than your space allotment. i said don't [ bleep ] do that.

just say fat then. she's like i didn't say fat. that's your word, not mine. i said, lady, i ain't going to sue you for calling me fat. i'm sitting here telling you i'm fat. you're telling me -- don't sit here and dance around like i'm taking up more space. lady, that's a euphemism for fat. just be honest with me. >> now, southwest says that it could have handled communication better but the airline defends the decision that smith needed more than one seat to fly comfortably. smith said that he had no trouble buckling his seat belt and lowering the armrests. but what do you think about this? is smith wrong? is the airline wrong? do you think it's just that they make the seats too little? amy writes the airline employee was trying to be politically correct and not offensive and he took offense? he knew he needed two seats. why buy one? jeff says, i'm interested in how many other overweight people this happens to and it goes unnoticed because they are not famous. i know you have an opinion. go to cnn.com/robin. hit the facebook icon or hit the contact us button depending on how you want to contact us.

and the opinions are really flying this morning. go ahead. is the u.s. ready for a major cyber attack? a washington think tank will try to figure that out today. it'll launch a mock attack on a u.s. computer systems and networks to see how the government would handle it. a bipartisan group of former senior administration and national security officials are going to play the cabinet members and react in realtime. they're still cleaning up a mess from this accident. more than 50 vehicles crashed during a snowstorm on i-71 in ohio. the southbound lanes were closed for seven hours. now, we need to recheck here, but the last time we did, only one lane was open and they still have the damaged trucks on the side of the road that have to be removed today. they were mostly minor injuries, but one person was hospitalized. the winter systems aren't letting up. there's a new one today. that's what i said. meteorologist bob van dillen, good morning. >> good morning. shot after shot of snow.

heavy at times this morning around areas like new jersey, pennsylvania, now new york. even light snow in the ohio valley into kentucky and tennessee. the heaviest know, right now it's near boston. i zeroed in toward that regional radar. it's color coded. get a load of this. the white is all snow. temperature in boston at logan is 33 degrees. it may mix in with a little bit of rain this morning early before it all comes crashing back down in snow. that'll be this afternoon. 1 to 3 for the city of boston. a little more toward your north and more toward your west. new york city metro radar, blue is heavy at times. you see a sweep going by picking up the snow pretty well. already delays at laguardia because of poor visibility. that's all due to the snow. 6 to 10 inches. that's what we'll get. concord, new hampshire, into portland, maine. miling up 4 to 6 around the berk shirs. maybe 1 to 3 for boston itself.

1 the 2 for new york city. off to the west, lake michigan, a little stuff over lake huron as well. light snow around detroit. 1 to 2. 1 to 2 a possibility around cincinnati. as the snow and wind comes creaming down, windchills go down, too. 14 in atlanta, now. new orleans, windchill, 33. cold mardi gras. des moines, i-29 ground blizzard. western iowa just over the weekend. a lot of snow. a lot of wind. poor visibility. accidents galore on i-29 on sunday. a little better today. more in a bit, robin. >> thank you. okay. the dow finished higher last week. that ended a slide of four straight weekly losses. as wall street gets set to open, a holiday shortened trading week. let's look at today's early market action. alison kosik in new york, good morning. >> we are looking at a positive start as you can see on wall street thanks to some optimism out of europe. european stocks are gaining after finance ministers there

moved to force greece to slash the debt that's put the global economy on edge for more than a month. on the home front, we've had up beat earnings from a pair of dow components. drug giant merck posted a profit of almost $6.5 billion on more than $10 billion in sales. those results got a big boost from the company's purchase of its long-time partner, sheering plow. kraft foods says profit more than tripled last quarter. despite that foodmakers continue to trade down at the grocery store to generic brands which has forced kraft to lower prices to compete. in cheese business price cuts pushed revenue lower by more than 13%. going for that cheap cheese. not helping the bottom line at kraft. robin, back to you. >> yeah, cheap or expensive, cheese is good, no matter what. jfk's love letters are fetching big bucks on the auction block. we're learning more about the woman that he wrote them to. one man is taking his state to court. he says it kept him from getting

the license plate that he really wanted.

you know, police say that two teenagers who were shot in church on sunday are helping them find the suspects. ♪ >> such an alarming piece of tape there. there were 100 people at the church service near san francisco when the shots rang out. police are searching for a

gunman and two others who burst in wearing hoods. >> this church has always been a church of peace and joy. we never -- never had nothing like this. and it was a surprise to the whole church. >> and this is a safe haven for so many people. and to come in and try to destroy that, you know, it's -- it's just unbelievable. >> police say the gunman fired five times. the two victims are 14 and 19. both of them had minor injuries and have been released from the hospital. three american hikers in jail in iran might get to see their families soon. iranian authorities are considering a request from the families to visit the americans in prison. now, a key iranian leader says he recommended the request be approved. the families say the hikers accidentally crossed iran's border last summer. but iran's foreign minister has said that the hikers' actions were suspicious. indiana senator evan bayh will not seek a third term. yesterday he said he's fed up

with congress and wants out. during his career the moderate democrat worked across party lines which frustrated his liberal counterparts at times. earlier this morning bayh told our sister network, cnn, that too much partisanship is keeping people's business from getting done. >> i reached the conclusion that if i could help to create jobs by growing a business or helping educate our children in a university or college or help a philanthropy or charity, i would be getting more done to help people in their daily lives than congress is currently doing. >> bayh is a third democratic senator to announce his retirement. democrats will have to defend five open seats this november. rescuers are going back to try to save a guy who is stuck on the inside of mount st. helens, basically. susan hendricks is working on that in the next hour. what would you do? >> that's the question, robin. a bizarre story. a hiker right now is believed to be holing on to a steep slope after falling into the volcano's crater, as you said.

we expect to hear from rescuers on how close they are to saving him. also, a survivor of the shooting rampage at the university of alabama is talking today. what he says happened just moments before the shooting started. and you may have noticed a lot of cancellations the last few weeks. the new rule that has airlines keeping planes at the gate. it's not all about the weather. more in a half hour. an oklahoma man is suing his state because he couldn't get the driver's license he wanted. keith kimmel applied for a vanity tag that says "i'm gay." the state tax commission turned him down last year. its explanation is that the plate may be offensive. >> i want to tell people who i am and what i am. i'm not ashamed of being gay. i'm proud of being gay. winning this case is going to open it up for not just gay folks, but everybody in oklahoma to get what they want on their tags. >> imle sued the tax commission last week. he says his case is a matter of free speech. love letters from jfk are

being auctioned off. they were written before and during his marriage to jackie. and he wrote them to a young swedish woman that he met on the french riviera. the letters are described as tender and hopelessly romantic. the person he wrote them to? she was 21. she wrote a memoir in 1997 after jackie o nas sis died. right now the bid is $32,500 for love letters. the coach of the u.s. women's hockey team has a bit of experience at this olympic thing. he was a star for the 1980 miracle on ice men's team. and today he can get a step closer to another gold medal.

i'm sure the expensive olympic jerseys and pendants are selg at the games in vancouver. apparently they're no match for a pair of $10 mittens. it's true. "usa today" reports the red mittens with the maple leaf, canada's leaf on the palms, are selling out. they are really cute. some folks are paying twice the price on ebay, which at last check had about 200 listings. >> it's not that cold there. they may not need them.

>> believe me. those are not that warm. >> i still want one. >> we're getting so many interesting personal stories from the games. and i know for a lot of viewers, that's what hooks you in. it's not necessarily the competition. it's the story of the struggle. >> that's what makes the olympics special, robin. you're absolutely right. so many great personal stories. some of them a bit -- are sad personal stories. one of them in particular centers on the u.s. hockey team and their general manager, brian birk. they are rallying around burk in such a way because he suffered the ultimate loss as a parent recently. mark mckay is live in vancouver with burk's story as to why he is participating in these games with a heavy heart. hey, mark. >> reporter: he's doing so, rafer. good morning, rafer and robin. brian burk is the general manager of team usa. the u.s. men's hockey team gets their gold medal quest under way later today. he's had an incredible out pouring of support as he arrived

here in vancouver following the frajic death of his son brendan. it came one week before the opening ceremony on an icy road in indiana. his son, 21 years of age had just come out to his father and the hockey world as a gay man. he had told his dad, rafer, he wanted to some day have a career in hockey and perhaps in nhl management. >> to brian burk's credit, he really embraced his son. he was just so supportive of him. it was so heart wrenching when you learn of that tragedy. everyone remembers the other story, the miracle on ice. they even made a movie about it. that story could come full circle with the american women's team? >> reporter: yes, very much so, rafer. the head coach of the u.s. team, mark johnson, and he, of course, was a member of that miracle on ice team back in 1980. they beat the then soviet union. no one thought they could do it. he's the head coach of the women's team here at the vancouver games. wouldn't that be a great way to bring it all full circle for johnson? they already came out of the

gates blasting, rafer. they beat china 12-1. they play russia later today. johnson really showing his experience and giving his experience to a whole new generation of olympians here in vancouver. >> mark, thanks very much. we appreciate it. we'll check in with you later on. now another big story at the games, the comeback of u.s. skiing star bode miller. the notorious bad boy. this guy bombed in torino four years ago. now he's got a new attitude. sing it, robin. >> i don't really want to. >> the reason he's got a new attitude is because he is a father. robin meade doesn't want to sing? miller took bronze in the olympic downhill on monday .09 behind the winner. the three skiers finished within .09. that is the closest race in men's downhill olympic history. he's also now the most decorated u.s. olympic skier, alpine skier, ever. he's got more events coming up. so many people to root for in these games. >> he does have a new attitude.

sorry. i didn't feel it. >> that's okay. that's fine. ♪ i got a new attitude >> all right. time right now for i-report of the day. i can see bob laughing in the corner because i didn't comply. this comes from marilyn where one family was trapped inside by 5 feet of snow. the real problem problem was, w they going to do with a hyper greyhound dog as their pet in the answer, they built a little racetrack in the snow. the dog loved it watch. watch, the dog can't get enough. thanks to ireporter steven nash. i was being contrary. >> i wrote it down, february 16th, 2010, she didn't sing. light snow overnight, light snow this morning, the low clouds are in and out. i don't see delaying right now but might see a couple more pop

up around atlanta as those low clouds cycle in out of the northwest, otherwise, going to see delays across the northeast. boston, loaning, calling for light snow and rain mixing in this morning. all snow this afternoon, watch for an hour or more. la ga yard wa, queens, 78-minute delay flying in there over an hour. san francisco currently a 45-minute delay, right around an hour or so and about a 45-minute delay also for philadelphia because of the low clouds. that will last all day long. full details on that, robin in a half hour. new jersey senator frank lautenberg is okay after he fell at his home. now, he could be out of the hospital soon. a spokesperson for the 86-year-old democrat says that lautenberg was conscious when an ambulance took him from his home last night but he went to the hospital out of kwaugs. now, he returned from a trip to haiti on friday. if you or someone that you snow looking for a job, listen, there is encouraging information about the job market.

let's hope so they are little but doing a big job. you will hear from some kids who got together to help earthquake victims in haiti.