captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: good evening. i'm jeffrey brown. egyptian president hosni mubarak announced he won't run for reelection in the fall, as unprecedented crowds took to the streets. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the newshour tonight, we get reports from independent television news correspondents in cairo and alexandria. >> brown: we talk to senator john kerry, chairman of the foreign relations committee, about u.s. policy toward egypt and the arab world. >> i see in this an enormous opportunity for the united states and for the world. i see an enormous opportunity for the egyptian people. >> suarez: and we look at the

makeup of the opposition: who are they, what do they want, and how can their demands be met? >> brown: then we get the latest on the snow and ice storm hitting much of the country, snarling airports and paralyzing cities. >> suarez: and betty ann bowser tells the story of a colorado clinic helping diabetes patients stave off the devastating consequences of the disease. >> we're winning the war because we see less long-term complications happening. we have fewer patients ending up with diabetes caused... causing blindness or with kidney failure. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> i mean, where would we be without small businesses? >> we need small businesses. >> they're the ones that help drive growth. >> like electricians, mechanics, carpenters. >> they strengthen our communities. >> every year, chevron spends billions with small businesses. that goes right to the heart of local communities, providing jobs, keeping people at work. they depend on us. >> the economy depends on them. >> and we depend on them.

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by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: egyptian president hosni mubarak addressed his nation tonight and announced he will not seek another term. but he insisted he will stay in office until elections later this year, and oversee a "peaceful transfer of power." >> it is not in me to betray what you've entrusted me with. my first responsibility right now is to regain calmness and stability in our home country, to ensure the peaceful transition of leadership, and to ensure... and to ensure

that the responsibility goes very peacefully to whoever the people of egypt choose. in the next election. >> brown: the egyptian leader's announcement came after days of mounting protests. vast crowds continued to fill the central square in cairo tonight. they had watched as the speech aired on a giant television screen. i talked by phone a short time ago to "new york times" columnist nicholas kristof. what kind of reaction have you been able to get so far after president mubarak's announcement? >> well, i think people frankly find it... there is a strong sense that people want him out and out now. and the idea that he can say, oh, you know, i won't run for re-election is just so far from, you know, from people's

demands that it's, it's not going to placate people. the idea that the u.s. would devote political capital to try to get him to, you know, say that he won't run for re-election also seems kind of remarkable. >> brown: what is the situation on the streets where you are nw? what are you seeing? what kind of security is out there? how many people? what's going on? >> well, there are still people, many fewer than in the day or early evening. outside, things are pretty dead and pretty quiet. a lot of neighborhoods you still have these barricades, sort of check points, you know, in some cases every 100 yards with, you know, people carrying clubs, bats, in some cases machetes, occasionally guns. and swords sometimes.

and they are nervous though not quite as jittery as a day or two ago. >> brown: what about food and gas shortages, something we've been hearing about a lot in the last couple of days? how much pressure is that add to go the situation there? >> well, there are a lot of shops are closed. those that have been open have only been open for a coule of hours. they have less food than they used to. i did go around to some shops today that actually, i was kind of surprised by how much they did have. another factor is that money isn't getting around. the banks mostly have been closed. a lot of a.m.t.s are out of money. but i mean there is some evidence that maybe president mubarak thinks that this is putting pressure on citizens. i think it may well be that it's really the other way around. that this is putting pressure ultimately on the government.

in any indication there is something of a stalemate. i don't think that this is going to end it. i think that at this point, you know, president mubarak comes... the road to stability is his leaving office rather than his promising not to run for re-election. >> brown: one last thing. is this based on the opposition, the people you're able to talk to, what's your sense of how organized it is when they... when they respond to mubarak's announcement? >> it is striking how little organization there is. you have a lot of very different groups. the only people who historically have really been organized as an opposition are the muslim brotherhood. there really never really has been allowed to be a secular opposition force. now that is what is emerging for the first time. but in a certain amount of chaos.

having said that, i find it kind of remarkable how such an incredibly disorganized group had managed to create the protests with a certain degree of order. when i was out today, a man near me was caught with a gun. you had all these volunteers who grabbed him, seized the gun, led him over to the soldiers and formed a protective cord onaround him so he wouldn't get badly beaten up. in absence of real effective organization, these volunteers have emerged. they're doing a, you know, qte impresse job. >> brown: all right. nicholas kristof in cairo for the "new york times," thanks very much. >> my pleasure. >> suarez: the late-day appearances by the two presidents followed another dramatic day in cairo. jonathan rugman of independent television news has that report. >> reporter: walking proof

that was an uprising a week ago has become a revolution. some sang but the people were standing up for freedom. from others an outpouring of hatred for one man's 30-year rule. >> there's corruption everywhere. hosni mubarak get out our country. we are a freedom country. get out of our country. >> reporter: the crowd squeezed its way through army tanks into the square. the army's pledge not to use force encouraginging the biggest demonstration modern egypt has ever seen. only last friday, egyptians were tear-gased and shot when they tried coming here. now nothing can keep themout. many just can't believe it. >> this is like a wake the shoulders of the people. it's a phenomenal event. sit unprecedented in egypt and in the whole region. absolutely phenomenal.

there's no way you can overemphasize this event. >> reporter: they were lynching mubarak effigies from lamp posts. they even likened him to adolph hitler. "you're a coward," they sang, ""an agent of america. go, go, there is revolution everywhere here." who do you want to replace the president? >> i think i cannot expect right now because everything is happening. it is beyond expectations. how can we expect what is going to happen? >> reporter: are you frightened for the future or are you excited? >> excited, yes. >> reporter: who do you want to be president? >> i don't have a clue, but not him. >> reporter: in the square, they prayed for freedom from tyranny. the center of this city of 18 million people grindgto a halt. in a new egypt, we were told, muslims and christians will live in peace. but for all the festivity

there's a dangerous power vacuum here. banks and the internet have been shut for days. the economy is crippled. egyptians say nothing can change until the regime folds. >> suarez: more than 18,000 people jammed the cairo international airport today, trying to get out of egypt. dozens of charter flights arrived to ferry away foreigners and egyptians. but the airport was in disarray, with some police demanding bribes to let foreigners on planes. and by day's end, 3,500 people were still waiting. >> brown: the political tremors from egypt spread farther across the middle east today. in jordan, king abdullah fired his government after protests over rising fuel and food prices and demands for greater reform. meanwhile, the palestinian government in the west bank announced plans for local elections there "as soon as possible." and there were calls on social media sites for syrians to stage a "day of rage" in damascus this friday.

>> suarez: now to our interview with senator kerry. it has been a day of maneuvering in both cairo and washington. part of that included a "new york times" op-ed column this morning by the senate foreign relations committee chairman, urging mubarak to step aside. i talked with senator kerry earlier today. senator kerry, welcome to the program. >> thank you. glad to be with you. >> suarez: just a short time ago president mubarak of egypt spoke to his people. he urged the government to pursue the transfer of power in a way that fulfills the people's demands. he said he won't be a candidate for re-election and that he's advocating changes to the egyptian constitution. is this pretty much what the united states was urging the egyptian president to do? >> well i think it's a very significant step forward. i think there are still concerns about this interim period, and the people of egypt are really going to probably express their point of view about that. but this is is a very significant step for, one that

is welcome. i think all you had to do was listen to the tens of thousands of people in the square or elsewhere who responded to the news that he would not run for re-election and there would be the beginning of a process to transfer power. >> suarez: as clear as he made it that he was not going to be around forever, he did make it clear that he intended to stay until the end of his term. and hand on power in what he called an orderly way. is this going to be enough to satisfy the demands of crowds that are even now chanting in the streets of egypt, "we are staying. he must leave"? >> as i said the people of egypt are going to dictate whether or not that is enough. that's the way it ought to be obviously. they've exercised something that we hold very near and dear which is the right to assemble, the right to speak, the right to petition their government. they've done that. and now the government is responding. now, president mubarak said that he may speed up the

elections, that there may be a process in these deliberations that will result in that. i think we just have to let the next 24 hours, 48 hours work their way. in my judgment today i called for the notion that he should create a caretaker government and that he should step aside in order to help facilitate that process. but again, the egyptian people, i am confident, are going to speak loudly and clearly with respect to this. >> suarez: is this a tough spot for the united states? does this country risk being criticized either for meddling in egypt'sovereignty or by stepping back too much? >> well, is there a fine line to walk? the answer is yes. but is it really difficult? i don't think so. i think the united states, our values are very, very clear. they're crystal clear. we've learned from experience when we stand with... against

president markos in the philippines dramatic and revolutionary change takes place. when he play the inside game we inherit the residual problems of an iran with respect to the shah, and our lationship with him. so i think, you know, we're walking... i think the obama administration has it correct here. i think they understand from the get-go they've understood exactly what our goals are. wu we also have other interests. we need to be sensitive to them. egypt was a critical player in the peace process of the middle east. we don't want a catastrophic failure of prevention on the gaza strip and on the border with egypt. we don't want radical movement of one kind or another to fill any vacuum. we don't want send a message to friends that we don't understand those kinds of sensitivities. so i think the key here has

been to make clear that we understand and are sympathetic to and supportive of the aspirations of the people of egypt, that we know there's a need for change. but to make it responsible change. change that can be affected with accountability and transparency and ultimately hopefully with an outcome that permits the aspirations the people are expressing in the street to actually be fulfilled, to be worked on, to be advanced. that's the key here. and it's a tricky line but i think the administration is working it well. >> suarez: at the end of this process, sir, do you think american influence in egypt will inevitably have been changed, inevitably reduced? >> not inevitably reduced. certainly changed. the question will be how we approach aid in the future. and how well we are defined as being on the side of the

aspirations of the people as a whole. today i wrote an op-ed in which i suggested that for a long time now we've had a mubarak-son trick policy. we need to have an egyptian people centric policy and communicate that. i think we can restore the good will of the united states. i think that what the obama administration has done in the last days, the statements it has made, the support for the egyptian people, the sending of an emissary in frank wisner to help deliver a message, which message is now clear to people, i think all of that has been appropriate and helpful. >> suarez: as you look across the entire region, has the united states given itself perhaps a simpler today and a tougher tomorrow by sometimes valuing stability over democracy in some of these countries when we supported

regimes and leaders that were out of sync with the people? >> yes. simple answer. >> suarez: what now? >> well now comes the time of building this reform. i see in this an enormous opportunity for the united states and for the world. i see an enormous opportunity for the egyptian people. i also think there is something here for leaders in other countries to actually embrace, not to be fearful of. you know, the move to modernity carries its risks, but the greater risks are not moving at all. and i think people have learned that. so i think there are ways to embrace the desire for greater participation, greater enfranchisement and most importantly greater opportunity. if the egyptian people were not suffering the kind of unemployment that they were, if there hadn't been the kind of repression that there has been, if education and other kinds of opportunities were greater, i don't think you'd

have seen this kind of mobilization. but this was not, you know, this was not something organized by an existing political party. it was not something motivated by a, you know, a quiet conspiracy campaign of radical elements. this was a spontaneous combustion of millions of people at every walk of life, at every level of economic... of the economy, all of them speaking with one voice. and the message is clear. i think leaders in other countries sort of need to take the template of what plays out here and get ahead of the curve in their own nations. >> suarez: when you look two steps to the east to amman and king abdullah firing his cabinet and looking ahead to a regime change there, are you concerned? >> no. i'm not. king abdullah of jordan is extraordinarily intelligent, thoughtful, sensitive, in touch with his people.

the monarchy there is very well respected, even revered. i think there are many things that they can do and will do in approaching this that can meet the aspirations of their people. but, you know, i think secretary clinton gave a very fine speech in qatar a few weeks ago really on the cuss-of all this. she made it very clear i thought in very direct and candid terms that the middle east was facing the very challenge that has now erupted in tunisia and in egypt. i think that, you know, for some time many of us have been talking privately with leaders over there and occasionally publicly. last year i spoke at the islamic conference and similarly laid out thoughts about what was to come if there wasn't better governance, if there wasn't a response to the aspirations of people if they didn't work to address the humiliation and anger and frustration of young people

growing up without opportunities. that's what this is about. i think if we altogether move to address it, it can actually wind up helping us with respect to larger challenges we face of radical, extreme religious exploitation and terrorism and other problems in south asia and, in fact, in other parts of the world. >> suarez: john kerry is the chairman ofhe senate foreign relations committee. senator, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. good to be with you. >> brown: coming up, we have more on egypt, with a look at exactly who are the protesters; plus, the monster winter storm; and the story of a clinic that works to prevent and treat diabetes. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: u.n. officials reported today that more than 200 people have been killed in the unrest in tunisia, and more than 500 have been hurt. the uprising there ousted president ben ali last month, and it sparked the protests now roiling egypt. sporadic violence has continued throughout tunisia, including a

fire set at a small synagogue last night. there are new fears about the safety of u.s. government employees in iraq after u.s. troops leave at year's end. the senate foreign relations committee reported today the situation is "at a critical juncture." the report suggested one option is to keep hundreds of american troops on hand to safeguard the u.s. embassy. a pennsylvania woman has pleaded guilty in a plot to kill a swedish cartoonist who offended muslims. colleen larose had dubbed herself "jihad jane." prosecutors said she helped foreign terror suspects. larose was arrested in october of 2009. she could face life in prison. wall street pushed sharply higher today on strong earnings and reports of rising factory activity. the dow jones industrial average gained 148 points to close at 12,040. the last time the dow finished above 12,000 was june of 2008. the nasdaq rose 51 points to

close at 2751. and major automakers reported strong sales in january, with general motors and chrysler up more than 20%. toyota sales were up 17%, and ford gained 9%. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jeff. >> brown: and back to the egypt story with a look at the makeup of the opposition and how it's responded to the mubarak announcement. the protesters who filled the streets of cairo today were united in one thing. >> we want mubarak to leave, and it is his choice how he will leave. >> brown: but beyond that shared goal, opposition tothe regime has come from numerous groups with sometimes conflicting agendas. the protests were originally driven by the april 6 group made up largely of young people frustrated with economic hardships and repression who spread the world on the social media websites facebook and twitter.

by the weekend they were joined by the muslim brotherhood. the islamic fundamentalist group is formally outlawed in egypt. egypt this is then prime minister defended that policy to the newshour's margaret warner in 2005. >> well, the reason is that when we look at history of the muslim otherhood itself they're not pro democracy. they say today that they are. but their history doesn't say that. we are a little skeptical. >> brown: a key question has been how much opposition groups will coalesce around mohammed el baradei former head of the u.n. nuclear agency and nobel peace prize winner. he returned to cairo after the protests erupted. >> i hope that president mubarak agrees to leave the country after 30 years in power. i don't imagine him seeing more bloodshed. >> brown: the u.s. ambassador in cairo spoke by phone with

el baradei today but there was no word what they discussed. egypt also has several opposition political parties and figures, including someone who ran in egypt's first multicandidate presidential election in 2005. he was later jailed for three years on forgery charges. >> i challenge president mubarak and i will win even from behind these bars. >> brown: in cairo today a second round of opposition talks aimed at developing a coordinated strategy apparently broke down. after youth groups boycotted over charges that traditional parties had agreed to a dialogue with the new government. more now from michele dunne, senior associate at the carnegie endowment for international peace and editor of the online journal the "arab reform bulletin." she's served at the state department and on the national security council staff. mona elta-hawy is a longtime reporter in the middle st, now an award-winning columnist and lecturer on arab and muslim issues. and tarek masoud is an assistant professor of public policy at harvard university.

he just returned from a three- month trip to egypt, where he was researching opposition politics. i'll start with you. i was just reading a report that mohammed el baradei has given an interview in which he referred to president mubarak high school speech tonight as a, quote, trick to stay in power. do you think that that will be the reaction from demonstrators and opposition groups? >> absolutely. know was the reaction that was coming out in realtime as people in tahrir square, thousands upon thousands of them were listening to mubarak address the nation. they very angrily made clear that they weren't buying any of it. it was very clear that he was basically trying to make it seem like he wanted to save the country from this crisis that he himself had created for the country. and then this idea that he wouldn't run again and that he had never intended to run again. nobody in egypt buys this. you could hear very clearly. i was watching al jazeera english online. people were saying leave,

leave in arabic. they made it very clear they were not going to leave and most of them want to stay in tahrir square. they were telling him that you're the one who is going to leave not us. egyptians are not buying this. what is more worrying is that the mubarak thugs then entered some citizens, alexandria and cairo to find with the anti-mubarak protestors. mubarak must be held responsible for what happens going forward. >> brown: michelle dunn we talk a lot about how organized is the opposition here. when the president speaks, president mubarak tonight, who speaks back to him? who do we expect to hear from and how organized is that message? >> there are different kinds of opposition in egypt. there are some legal political parties. some of them are rather discredited by having worked with the egyptian regime over the years. there are some big opposition movements, and they've tried to form a kind of a committee here. mohammed el baradei is

somewhat of a spokesman for them to... in order to react in an organized way and to offer the egyptian government someone with whom to negotiate. they say they want to negotiate with the military after mubarak leaves. >> brown: do you see el baradei as having the credibility for these groups to coalesce around? >> i think he has a great deal of credibility. i'm not sure he's going to get 100% support from every group. don't forget that some of these groups have very complicated relationships with the security services and so forth. but i think the major groups are going to allow mohammed el baradei to be something of a focal poi. not their leader but a focal point for this purpose. >> brown: when you look at the opposition groups out there and the demonstrators, is there an agenda that one can see beyond getting rid of president mubarak and particularly the important question now as we look at whatever this interim period is?

>> i think, yes. there absolutely is a unified opposition agenda. if you look at the national association for change, which mohammed el baradei founded and which most opposition groups participated in, they had a very concrete list of changes that they wanted to see. if you look at the protests, the protests were about, you know, not simply unseating mubarak but an end to injustice, arbitrary detention. they want, you know, obviously some economic justice. but also there are concrete reforms that they want to make to the constitution to trim the powers of the presidency. so that's the broad agenda. the problem is right now that it's not simply who on the opposition side is doing the negotiating. it's who are they going to negotiate with? are they simply going to negotiate with the military? if that's the case will the military somehow try to control this process? >> brown: what do you see to that? who negotiates now?

who speaks at this point, to whom? >> you know, i think that the fact that we've seen up to a million people if not more in egypt today, from all walks of life. i think that really speaks to the kind of democracy that egyptians have wanted all along and that the mubarak regime claimed didn't exist because it always positioned itself as either us or the islamists. i think it's absolutely imperative that the young people who have been at the lead of these incredible protests that i have never seen anything the like of in my life. i was born in egypt. i'm 43 years old. it's absolutely unprecedented. i think it's imperative that those young people are involved in whatever negotiations take place because if they are not, they're going to feel let down. they must not, whoever emerges as either a focal point, as michelle said or some kind of committee. they must not forget who was pushing this. i think it's imperative also for the u.s. administration to understand that it's a good

thing that there isn't this one person behind the protests because that says clearly that egyptian society is now stepping forward and wants to be this kind of robust democracy that represents all points of view. the neighborhood watch committees we've seen rise up or kind of form organically against these thugs who are out on the streets. that says to me that egyptians are there being civil, taking care of their own neighborhoods, saying we are ready to assume responsibility for our country. and finally the fact that we haven't had the police on the streets for so many days and yet it's been incredibly peaceful barring the thugs that the mubarak regime sent out. that is a good sign to me. it's good we don't have this one person driving it but many people who must be included. >> brown: michelle dunn, you've been looking at this possible reform movement or transformation even before all this started. here we are on a night when president mubarak says i won't run again. what happens next? what are the possibilities? i know that's a hard question.

>> i think that sort of the package that president mubarak offered today that he won't run, that i would sponsor some amendments to the constitution to open up the presidential race, that he would have the police trim back human rights abuses and so forth would have been very acceptable a year ago, two years ago or possibly even a week ago when this first started. but i really have the sense right now that this is not going to be enough. certainly for the organized opposition group, it's not going to be enough. we'll have to wait and see over the next couple of days whether it will take sort of the wind out of the sames of the demonstrations at all. whether it will see smaller numbers because they were calling for a very big demonstration on friday and saying that that's the decisive day. that's the deadline. by then mubarak has to leave. so it's really going to be interesting. i agree with what mona said that the initial reactions that we're hearing is that what mubarak has offered has

really inflamed sentiment rather than mollifyed people and that, you know, that opens up the risk for, you know, the longer these demonstrations go on, the demonstrators' demands kind of escalate and the more the possibility of violence. >> brown: what do you look for in the... well, the hours and days ahead? all this is unfolding by the hour. what do you look for to see how this will play out among the opposition groups and the demonstrators? >> well, one question that i'm wondering about is what is the role of the current egyptian constitution in all of this? so if mubarak aseeds to the legitimate demands of the demonstrators and their completely understandable demands and leaves the current egyptian constitution mandates an election for the president within 60 days. it's possible, of course, that you would then have this election and opposition parties would participate in it, but it's an election for a

presidency that has a large number of really, you know, dictatorial powers. so having this presidential election before you first amend the constitution seems to me to be difficult. now how do you amend the constitution? well only the parliament can do that but the parliament is a national democratic party parliament. it's mubarak's parliament. you would have to first dissolve them. the opposition looks at this process and thinks we want to shortcut this. we want to get rid of mubarak, suspend the constitution, have a dialogue with the military and create a... an alternative constitution. that could be... that could work but it could also be an opportunity for the military to draw this out and consolidate its hold. >> brown: were there any hints at all in the speech that you heard president mubarak did talk about the constitution in his speech. any hints to help us understand where this may go? >> he referred to two articles in the constitution that have to do with what kind of

candidate can run. this has been a longstanding problem in the egyptian constitution. basically after the protests in 2005 in egypt and pressure by the then bush administration, mubarak changed or amended rather the constitution to allow other candidates to run. that's... but the way it's worded is it prohibits any independent candidate from returning. so mubarak addressed that today. i have to stress that mubarak has been totally outpaced by what has been happening on the streets of egypt. it's very clear that the demonstrations and this million man march today has outpaced both mubarak and the u.s. administration. i think it's imperative that the u.s. administration joins senator kerry and makes it very clear to mubarak that it is now a case of mubarak versus the country of egypt. for the sake of the stability of egypt and its people, mubarak must step down. i think this is absolutely crucial for the obama administration to understand. >> brown: all right.

thank you all three very much. >> suarez: now, the story of the winter storm that assaulted the midwest today and pushed toward the northeast. the huge system unleashed a potentially deadly mix of heavy ice, record snow, and high winds. even as the snow had just begun to fall, forecasters and officials were warning people to prepare for the worst. >> this is not something that is sneaking up on us. it's been well forecasted. we know it will be bad. prepare like it's bad. >> suarez: at least 33 states were affected. winter weather aletters extended from new mexico to maine with blizzard warnings in seven states plus predictions of sub zero cold and winds of 60 miles an hour. those in the southwest got it first. dangerous whiteout conditions hit highways in new mexico. and a thick coating of ice covered downtown dallas,

making walking treacherous and driving more so. the super bowl is set for sunday at cow boy stadium in nearby arlington, but officials warned fans to put off their travel plans by at least a day. already ice shut down dallas fort worth international airport for two hours on tuesday morning. it's a major hub for american airlines. conditions also forced operations to halt for a time at oklahoma city's will rogers international airport and others. all tolled at least 6,000 flights were canceled nationwide. with heavy blowing snow in much of the midwest, leaders there tried to get ahead of the storm. oklahoma's governor declared a state of emergency early on. >> we've already pre-positioned emergency services around the state. we'll work towards coordinating those. we have guards on standby throughout the state.

we have emergency centers that have been notified. >> suarez: in missouri salt trucks worked into the night. heavy ice began to coat st. louis. in chicago, one to three inches of snow fell overnight. but officials predicted up to 20 inches more making it a storm of historic proportions. >> in other words, there's no reason to believe at this point that the storm will miss the city. every chicago resident should brace for a storm that will be remembered for a long time. this storm will tax the city's resources and test the patience of chicago residents used to dealing with inclement weather. >> suarez: in all, chicago could get one of the heaviest snows since the blizzard of 1967 when 23 inches crippled the windy city. elsewhere, the first wave of the system brought freezing rain to indianapolis leaving half an inch of ice. crews worked to clear streets and sidewalks before the second round brings snow tonight.

>> they found odd but i think we would rather have a couple feet of snow than a lot of ice with the damage it can do to utility lines, to cell towers, and to basic services. >> suarez: in the northeast already on track for record snowfall this winter, plows and salt trucks were out in full force as snow began to fall northwest of new york city. in pennsylvania residents made runs on hardware stores in search of shovels and salt. >> i'm getting rock salt because of the impending ice. i'm not looking forward to it. just like every one else. >> suarez: areas from the mid atlantic well into new england were expected to get mixes of ice, sleet and snow over the next 24 hours. >> suarez: and for more on this storm and the night ahead, we turn to meteorologist joe bastardi of accuweather.com. joe, we're right in the dead center of winter. it's going to snow. but is this storm, with its

intensity, the length of the storm track, its energy, something unusual? >> well, what's unusual about this storm is it's actually two storms. if you take a look at this radar chart i have here, you can see that. one is already moving off new england. and the second is coming behind it. now there's a big lull, 6-8 hours where the street crews and the highway departments can get out between new england and let's say the upcoming snow later tonight and try to clean things up. we had that in chicago. boston already picked up 6-8 inches from the first one. you can see the other one exploding quickly northeast ward. so the two of them together coming within a 24-hour period are being blended together and called one storm but really it's two separate systems. in the end it doesn't make a difference because of the fact that you're going to get a lot of snow with the second one and a lot of ice with the second one. what is a blessing though is that we did have the break here to try to clean some things up before the second

shot came in. >> suarez: what's going on in the upper atmosphere to create a weather event that before it ends may stretch 2,000 miles? >> well, we've seen storms that are bigger than this. let's remember the 1993 super storm dumped 20 inches of snow from alabama into an expanding arc all over the eastern part of the united states. we certainly have had some big storms this year in the northeast, specifically from philadelphia northeast-ward. last year was almost dallas to d.c. that got the worst of that particular winteder, but i think what happened over the past 20 or... 10 or 20 years we were lulled into a false sense of security that winters won't be that bad anymore. the atmosphere is telling you and serving notice right now that things may be changing back to where we were in the '60s and even '70s and even before that time when we saw big storms like this across the country. >> suarez: quickly, joe, who is getting the worst of it right now? where will we stand in the morning? >> this is i-90 rather than 95

storm. if we go back to the map agan. let's take a look. we've had a couple of storms that have started around philadelphia and gone up to boston. this particular storm center, 55 up to chicago and then it takes i-90 up to buffalo and down to albany. that's a pretty good area for the axis of heaviest snows. a lot of 12- to 18-inch amounts, a few 20- to 23-inch amounts. the reason why chicago especially eastern suburbs may do better than everybody else is because that wind comes in off the lake and amplifys the snowfall. that 1967 storm was a tremendous storm, of course. 1999 they got hit like this. so in the history of chico snowstorms, this is probably a top five one. >> suarez: joe bastardi of accu-weather, thanks a lot, joe. and for the latest on preparations, we are joined by the head of the federal emergency management agency, or fema. craig fugate is at fema headquarters in washington. as we just heard, administrator, this is a multi-region storm. does it require a different kind of response by your agency? >> well it does mean you have

to be prepared in a lot of different areas. supporting states. because we're not sure how bad it's going to be particularly the ice and the damage to the power lines, we've been positioning supplies and generators from as far west as oklahoma city and all the way up to get ready to support the northeast states. a lot of area to cover. we've been working with the states for the last day-and-a-half getting ready just in case it's needed to support them. >> suarez: there's heavy pressure on transportation system. road, rail and air. is there some sort of coordination between parts of the country about what gets shut down and how and when it comes back up? >> yeah, i think it's more due to the weather. i mean the airports again the airlines have been telling people up front get ready for a lot of cancellations. adjust your travel. again, the interstate systems, those are being shut down trying to get those back op echbl it's because of this large area. it's not so much as we're going to coordinate this as we're deal ing with the weather as it occurs trying to

get things back open. >> it's already been very snowy and many of the parts of the country getting hit by this storm. are counties and cities running out of salt? running out of money for overtime, for plows? that kind of thing? >> i think there's definitely been a financial impact to the repeated storms. right now our primary concern is on the life safety efforts particularly as states are looking at these heavy snowfalls. some states have put their national guard on alert. that's really our focus for the next 24 to 36 hours is life saving. after that looking at what recovery assistance may be needed. >> suarez: earlier we heard the governor of indiana say he would rather have a foot of snow than a couple of inches of ice and worried about the infrastructure. are power outages a possibility overnight for a lot of people? >> that's the real question as the governor pointed out. often times snow will have some power outages but some of these ice storms we've seen large-scale power outages. that's been a concern with this forecast is how much ice we would get and how much of

the power system would be impacted. we do expect power outages but hopefully they will be the power outages of short duration measured in hours not in weeks as we've seen with some of these ice storms. >> suarez: finally, administrator, it's commonly heard during storms like this, if you don't have to go anywhere, don't. do people listen when they're urged to stay home? or do they think, well, actually i have to get out on the road? >> i think a couple folks were going to do that and opened the door and got some of these frigid temperatures and decided to sit tight. here's the deal. give the crews that are cleaning the roads a chance to get roads cleared. every time you get out there if you get in a wreck or you get stuck, those plows have to work around you. rescue crews have to go out. that just adds stress to the system. if you want the roads cleared faster don't add to the workload. sit tight. if you don't absolutely have to be out there. wait until the things gets by. when it's safe get out and do what you need to do. >> suarez: thanks for joining us. >> thank you.

>> brown: finally tonight, tackling one of the biggest health care issues in america, the growing burden of diabetes. that's the subject of tonight's edition of front line. we an expert. the correspondent is lowell bergman. >> tim brown graduated from a technical college and then became a billing contractor in marlboro county south carolina. he's also the elected coroner which means when someone dies unexpectedly he decides how it happened. >> this is just kind of behind the house. >> there was a time when the coroner was blind, right? >> yes, sir. that happened here in marlboro county. we had mr. francis stanton. he was a blind gentleman. >> he was there for 40-some years. >> i don't really know but he'd been there for a long

time, yes, sir. >> you gotlected and y just sort of, if you will, dove into the subject? >> yes, sir. that's correct. off the deep end. i've been elected seven times. >> reporter: coroner brown would find himself in the national spotlight after he got a phone call that a body been found near the state line. and the body was found over there? >> yes, sir. somewhere right in that area right there. you see where that old log is across. and we didn't find any identification. no wallet. we didn't find a watch, a ring, a necklace. >> reporter: nothing? >> nothing, no, sir. >> reporter: if the body had been found just a few feet away, the investigation would have been handled by a fully equipped state medical examiner's office in north carolina. but the body turned up in south carolina. so coroner brown was in charge. like most coroners, brown does not do autopsies. he had to ship the decomposing body to a private forensic

pathologist more than 100 miles away. >> the autopsy was done outdoors. in an old garage behind the hospital. it was sometimes very hot particularly this time of year like in august. recognize that once bodies start decomposing it's almost accelerated with heat. >> reporter: you did this autopsy in the garage. >> correct. and then we sent the body back to tim brown. >> reporter: based on that autopsy, brown declared the death a homicide. but he faced a dilemma. he did not have a refrigerator in which to store the decomposing body of the unknown victim. he didn't have the funds to bury the man. so he had the remains cremated. >> a developing story here tonight as the father of michael jordan. james jordan has been missing

now for three weeks. >> a few days after i elected to cremate the body i was watching the "cbs evening news". the father of michael jordan was a missing person. i thought, well, it might be my john doe. >> reporter: might be. >> might be. i think i said that might be my manjoo authorities.... >> reporter: dental records confirmed that the body tim brown found was in fact michael jordan's father. >> obviously complicate the f.b.i.'s investigation. >> reporter: two men were ultimately convicted of the murder, but the jordan family was left with only ashes to bury leading to a media outcry that coroner brown should not have cremated the body. you made due with the resources that you had. >> i did. yes, sir. i still believe that the decision i made was professional decision. >> reporter: many people say because of this incident things have changed. >> well, it's directly attributed to the situation. there's no doubt about that. >> reporter: have the

qualifications changed? for being a coroner? >> i really can't speak to that because i've kind of been grandfathered in. >> reporter: today coroners in south carolina have limited access to a refrigeration unit. and there's a new requirement to be a dore er in. ... coroner. you have to have a high school diploma. >> brown: again, the major developments of the day. snurz when we come back to major story of the day. crisis in egypt. president obama spoke with egyptian president mubarak for 30 minutes this evening. just a short time ago mr. obama appeared in the grand foyer of the white house to make a statement. here's an excerpt of what he said. >> throughout this period, we've stood for a set of core inciples. first we oppose violence.

i want to commend the egyptian military for the professionalism and patriotism that it has shown thus far in allowing peaceful protests while protecting the egyptian people. we've seen tanks covered with banners and soldiers and protestors embracing in the streets. and going forward i urge the military to continue its efforts to help ensure that this time of change is peaceful. second, we stand for universal values. including the rights of the egyptian people to freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and the freedom to access information. once more we've seen the incredible potential for technology to empower citizens and the dignity of those who stand up for a better future. and going forward, the united states will continue to stand up for democracy and the universal rights that all human beings deserve. and egypt and around the

world. third, we have spoken out on behalf of the need for change. of his speech tonight, i spoke directly to president mubarak. he recognizes that the status quo is not sustainable and that a change must take place. indeed all of us who are privileged to serve in positions of political power do so at the will of our people. through thousands of years, egypt has known many moments of transformation. the voices of the egyptian people tell us that this is one of those moments. this is one of those times. now it is not the role of any other country to determine egypt's leaders. only the egyptian people can do that. what is clear and what i indicated tonight to president mubarak is my belief that an orderly transition must be meaningful.

it must be peaceful. and it must begin.... >> suarez: that was president obama speaking from the white house a few minutes ago. and now to hari for what's on the newshour online. hari sreenivasan for what's on the newshour online. hari? >> sreenivasan: we have continuing coverage and updates on the crisis in egypt. we look at the democrats' decision to host their 2012 convention in north carolina, a state president obama narrowly won in 2008. plus, spencer michels looks at california governor jerry brown's plan for tackling the state's budget troubles. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. ray? >> suarez: and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, we'll have the latest on the blizzard hitting a wide swath of the u.s., from the rocky mountains to new england. i'm ray suarez. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. we had hoped to bring you betty anne bowser's story about a clinic working to prevent diabetes. our egypt coverage ran longer than expected. we'll air that story soon.

for now we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> you can't manufacture pride. but pride builds great cars. and you'll find it in the people at toyota all across america. >> okay, listen. somebody has got to get serious. >> i think... >> we need renewable energy. >> ...renewable energy is vital to our planet. >> you hear about alternatives, right? wind, solar, algae. >> i think it's going to work an a big scale. only, i think it's going to be affordable. >> so, where are they? >> it has to work in the real world. at chevron, we're investing millions in solar and biofuel technology to make it work. >> we've got to get on this now. >> right now. >> and by bnsf railway.

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ow! of course. thank you. i'd call her honeydew goodbody, not lisa. the very fact that she is called lisa proves that she exists.