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tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  January 4, 2014 11:30am-12:01pm PST

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it's a great way to build olympic spirit. phil black, cnn, moscow. >> that's it for "your money." we'll be back at 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. eastern time. have a good weekend. hello, everyone. i'm fredricka whitfield and here are the top stories we're following in the cnn newseum. an art tick blast is about to barrel across the u.s. adding insult to injury for those all right hit by a national storm. it could be a historic event with temperatures plummeting. the cold air will head from the west and southern states could feel some of the pain. you could see zero temperatures as far south as nashville. people in boston including our own margaret conley know what
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that's like, the chill there. still lots of snow behind you. what's the biggest problem for folks there? >> reporter: well, fred. we're actually pretty lucky. the coastal regions were hardest hit. there were about 13 deaths that resulted from the storm. here in boston there were up to 2 feet of snow in the massachusetts area and last night temperatures were near record low temperatures. but here most people have been spending the day trying to scoop out their parking spots. a lot of shoveling of snow. we ran into danielle here and she's taking care of little nicholas here. she was telling us how difficult it was for her to get a parking spot. >> that's right. it's very hard. people put things in the spot and we can't park. >> you can't park. people are putting in chairs and cones trying to reserve their spot, right? >> that's right.
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little chairs, big chairs, everything. >> reporter: and you don't want to mess with those spots. >> no, no. >> reporter: you took care of nicholas. he's bundled up. >> he's very good. i warmed him very nice. it's especially cold. he's very warm. >> reporter: he's in a little bubble here. the travel does seem to be getting better. we see them flying in and out of logan. a lot of flights were canceled yesterday and into today, so the hope here is that they're going to get back on track and on schedule. >> oh, boy. i know folks are hoping from some normalcy, but something's telling me with this one-two punch, more snow, more bad weather on the way. it's only going to add insult to injury. i think somebody's trying to get into their parking space behind you right now. >> reporter: thank you, fred. don't mess with parking in
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boston. >> margaret conley in boston. some 40 million people will get hit with this new round of winter weather. samantha mohr is tracking the weather. is it true? boston will be hit again? >> oh, yeah. definitely will be hit again. the brunt of the throw or the punch since you called it a one-two punch, it will be throughout the mid nation. there was the first punch here. the second punch on its way in and final we've been watching for the snow to move into chicago. it is indeed moving in right now. o'hare just reporting light snow. so just the outer edge of the snow. but it's going to turn into much heavier snow as we head into the overnight hours and through sunday as well. winter storm warning in effect for chicago through tomorrow evening. all the areas you see draped here in pink and that lavender color, that means winter weather. gusting winds, blowing snow, incredibly cold temperatures
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once the arctic air moves in behind the low itself. it's all about timing. it's all about timing the moisture with the cold air and exactly when the two will meet will determine how much snow you get and how heavy that snow will be. so we'll be watching that carefully as the low moves on up from the south central plains toward the ohio valley. you know, we have a bit of a football game in cincinnati. >> just a little one. >> just a little one with the bengals hosting the chargers. we originally thought heavy, heavy snow. but it's going to turn out as rain and turn into snow. the models are more wet than snowy, but they will end up getting cold air in behind it, we do know that. look at how tightly packed the isobars are, fredricka. the windchill factors likely to be record braking.
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>> keep your hands and head warm. >> and put the baby in a bubble. >> baby in bauble. like that. former first lady barbara bush is back home after being admitted to the hospital. she was admitted six days ago, being treated for pneumonia. she thanked all her doctors and nurses. the former first lady is 88 years old. new developments for a 14-year-old girl. a death certificate was delivered for jahi mcmath yesterday. it came as they agreed in court to a transfer to a different facility. the transfer has not been done yet. we've been reporting on a vicious crime. now a new york man is facing hate crime charges for allegedly playing this so-called knockout game. the takes taking place in
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predominantly jewish section of brooklyn. in the so-called game, they try to knock out an unsuspected person with a single blow. they're evacuating americans from that country. about 20 embassy staff members have been flown out of the capital of juba and others have been encouraged to leave. the u.s. ambassador is still in the country to help international efforts to end the fighting. tomorrow their government and rebels will begin face-to-face talks in ethiopia. all right. first it was our e-mails and then our computers. now the nsa is building a new super computer, a firsthand you thought your online records were safe, thing again. this computer will be able to crack everything.
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republican senator rand paul is now leading a class-action lawsuit against the obama administration for the nsa policies. he claims they violate the fourth amendment which protects people from unreasonable search and seizure and he says just about everybody is eligible to be part of the lawsuit. >> we now have several hundred thousand people who want to be part of this suit to say to the government and to the nsa, no, you can't have our records without our permission or without a warrant specific to an individual. so it's kind of an unusual class
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action suit in the sense that we think everybody in america who has a cell phone would be eligible for this class action suit. >> paul, who was considering running for president, has a page on his website for people to join the lawsuit, and it also asks for a $25 donation. a judge said last week the nsa's program is constitutional. all right, what's driving that lawsuit is opposition to a string of nsa tactics from eavesdropping on our e-mail to hacking into our computers to developing softway that tracks iphones. well, now the nsa is building a super computer that will be able to crack encryption on practically every compute never the world. here's cnn's brian todd. >> reporter: encryption, those scrambled codes that protect our most sensitive information online, shield the most top secret crucial data that governments possess from hackers and cyber spies. now the nsa is reportedly developing what's called a quantum computer.
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when it's complete, it will be able to break just about any encryption in the world. >> when nsa gets that quantum computer, what will it then do? >> the quantum computer will be a game-changer. it will allow the nsa to break the codes that foreign governments use. >> reporter: they'll also be able to break into the encryption codes we all use to break into our bank accounts, medical records. a privacy advocate says that would leads into a world with no secrets. >> we don't know, in fact, what capabilities there are, what steps are zbik taken to undermine the types of encryption we might use when we purchase a book or download a user. >> reporter: it's revealed in documents provided by nsa leaker edward snowden and reported by the "washington post." how would the super computer work? when the regular computer tries to solve a problem it has to go
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through at least one solution one by one by one. it simultaneously tries every possibility. according to documents the quantum computer is being developed at this lab in maryland. how close is nsa to fichb issuing this computer? it could be five years to a decade away. they wouldn't comment on the project. brian todd, cnn, washington. support by two newspapers to give edward snowden a break. should the fugitive be given a deal to come home? [ male announcer ] this is the story of the little room
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two huge newspapers, "the new york times" and britain's "the guardian" want the u.s. to grant edward snowden clemency. the papers' editorial boards are calling him a whistle blower and courageous. snow den admits leaking details of how nsa collects data on phone calls and e-mails on millions of americans. it's explained why clemency for snowden is such a hot button issue. >> it engenders a lot of sharp opinion on both sides of this question, whether or not is he a
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traitor as some people in congress have called him or some people -- some of his supporters, some of his journalist supporter says he is a hero. he himself told the "washington post" recently that he felt his mission was accomplished already, but, you know, the question of whether or not the government can try to, you know, give him some kind of clemency, that's a very complicated thing. for instance, snowden has allegedly took hundreds of thousands of documents, but he no longer controls most of those documents, according to the journalists that he has been working with. i asked attorney general eric holder this question a couple of weeks ago, and here's what he had to say. >> it's not something that i would support. i think that he has clearly broken the law and harmed the nation that he claims to have loved. the conversation that we are engaged in is one that i think -- is certainly worth well to
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try to determine how do we safeguard privacy and keep america safe. how do we find balance with regard to our surveillance activiti activities, but i would not say what he did is worthy of clemency. >> as you can tell, there would be tremendous pressure on the other side to not do this within the government, fred. >> hmm. and so the snowden leaks overall, what, if anything, has been impacted by him revealing this classified information? >> well, you know, there are -- there are some changes that are being contemplated right now and congress is in some discussion of bills to pull back what the nsa is doing. the question is whether or not -- there's big argument over what the nsa is doing, whether it's legal or not. it's clear congress has authorized it, the president is in favor of it and authorizes it and the court, so far, has signed off on what the nsa is
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doing. so the question of legality probably is separate. the question of whether the government should be doing this, whether the nsa should be doing this, that's a more complicated question. you're talking about politicians who have to worry whether or not there's a terrorist attack tomorrow and whether or not there will be questions later on that what the nsa was doing could have prevented those attacks, for instance. that's a much more complicated question. that's for congress and the president to decide. the president said he'll address this next month and we'll see what he says, fred. >> thank you so much. appreciate it. evan perez. there's a new reason to put away your cell phone away while driving. some distractions are worse than others. >> there's a guy on the road. i'm trying to text. >> reporter: we all know texting and driving is a dangerous combination but could dialing
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while driving be even worse. behind the wheel of a driving simulator i discovered hor distracting it could be. >> the number i'm calling -- >> reporter: it's even worse for newly licensed drivers. >> we found that for novice drivers, texting increased your risk for a crash three times that of an alert teen driver and dialing and reaching for objects increased it by eight times. >> reporter: researchers put devices on cars belonging to 40 drivers, more than 100 inexperienced ones. dialing, reaching for an object, even eat behind the wheel greatly increases the chances of an accident, but according to a study, the act of talking on the phone while pushing a pedal says it's oklahoma. not so fast. >> the simple question of will you go to the market today, you can have a simple answer yes or no, but if somebody asks what is
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the multiplication of 365, you have to think. >> reporter: distractions inside the car can quickly turn you into a terrible driver. >> what happened whelp i was texting? >> you were within the road, but you slowed down quite a bit. >> reporter: bottom line, the safest way to drive is with both hands on the wheel. cnn, miami. and chicago put a big dent in its skyrocketing crime rate last year. why are things looking safer there and in other big u.s. cities? we'll ask an expert next. hd "
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chicago's big push to curb violence appears to be working. crime is down in the city that has been synonymous with violence. it's not the biggest city in the country, but chicago comes in number one for homicides, but as ted rowlands reports, 2013 was a step in the right direction. >> salas, villa. >> reporter: the final roll call of the year at chicago's ninth precinct. lieutenant tom talks about new year's eve and goes through his precinct's numbers for the year. >> shootings were down 88 from
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last year, a 46% decrease. >> reporter: 2013 was a great year for the entire police force overall. crime was down nearly 25% from 2012, and the murder rate was the lowest since 1967. >> it's hard not to be pleased, but, you know, we're not satisfied. >> reporter: some of the credit goes to chicago police superintendent gary mccarthy who was brought in two years ago by mayor rahm emanuel. mccarthy and emanuel made sweeping changes that now seem to be paying off including some major changes at the police department. >> moving cops from behind the desk out onto the street. officers doing foot patrol. an interdiction strategy on gangs so there's no reprisal shootings. >> reporter: besides policing, the city has invested in more after-school programs and this year doubled the size of its summer jobs program. it's also putting pressure on parents to keep better tabs on their kids. >> yeah, get close to home now. it's starting to get late, boys.
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>> reporter: there were several heartbreaking stories in 2013 including the killing of 15-year-old hidea pendleton, shot after taking a final exam. president obama talked about her in his state of the union. >> she was shot and killed in a chicago park after school. just a mile away from my house. >> reporter: the biggest problem still facing chicago according to mccarthy is illegal guns and the lack of accountability for those caught with one. an example, the man accused of killing pendleton who mccarthy says would have been in prison if illinois gun penalties were stronger. >> her alleged killer pled guilty to illegal possession of a firearm in november of 2012 and killed her in january of 2013. >> reporter: still, things are better, and most people on the south side of chicago we talked to say they have noticed a difference. >> it has slowed down, though. it has slowed down. >> reporter: is it getting better? >> yes, it is getting better.
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>> it's kind of all coming together in one monstrous thunder clap, and the goal is to keep making it better. >> make sure you guys watch each other's backs, okay? have a good night. be safe. >> reporter: ted rowlands, cnn, chicago. >> chicago isn't the only big city that's seen a drop in homicides. also on the list, new york, detroit, los angeles and philadelphia. so what's behind it all? joining me now is a criminologist, jack levin from northeast oouuniversity. good to see, jack. >> thank you, fredericka. >> yeah. there were a lot of predictions within the last five years of crime rates soaring in large part because of the bad economy. this is the opposite. what is the common denominator in your view? >> well, you're absolutely right. we thought the crime rate was going to skyrocket. >> yeah. >> because of the budget cuts and so many inmates being released after the war on drugs. instead, the murder rate, the rate of serious crime has
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plummeted over the last four years. and, you know, i think chicago now knows what a lot of other major cities have already discovered, that the police can do a lot more than just respond to crime. they can also prevent it. they can send more and more officers to crime hotspots around the city. they can do more about prosecuting gun crimes. they can supervise our youngsters, collaborate and cooperate with the residents. the probation officers. the patrol officers. they can get involved in the gangs. they can do community policing. and all of these policies and procedures will pay off in a lower crime rate. >> and so you're saying in many of these cities, all of those things that you just addressed have actually been applied, and that in large part is why the violent crime rate is dropping. so more of the same, then?
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>> well, we've seen the rate of violent crime decline really since the mid-1990s. there were certain models like zero-tolerance policing in new york city, the partnership model in boston and los angeles. and now there are other major cities like chicago that are catching on, and they are using the same very effective methods for reducing the crime rate. >> interesting. so, you know, places like baltimore, washington, d.c., the homicide rate actually went up in 2013. there were a little more than 100 homicides in washington, d.c., in 2013. while we're talking, in due part because of the navy yard shooting, that was a spike. but even though it's higher than in 2012, it's still much lower than what you were talking about, the '90s when washington, d.c., was considered the murder capital of the world. 400 to 500 murders in one year.
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so in your view, is this kind of a short-lived trend particularly for cities like baltimore or washington? while the numbers are still high, it's far less than what it used to be? >> well, you know, i hope this is not a short-lived trend. i hope that this is something that we see continue into the future. but there are other factors involved as well. for example, there is the aging of the population. so that there are fewer young people around, and young people commit a disproportionate number of street crimes. there's immigration. believe it or not, the cities with lots of immigrants have much lower crime rates. el paso, where, you know, the majority of residents are newcomers, well, they have almost no murders at all. >> wow. >> so there are other factors. and let me just say one more thing. >> yeah. >> about chicago and some of the other cities. and that is many of these cities have not seen a reduction in
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shootings, but they've seen the reduction in homicides. thanks to trauma centers, hospitals where people who might have died from gunshot wounds 10 or 20 years ago are now surviving. and they're taking their cue from afghanistan and the war there where lots of our military are surviving. >> a host of influences here. criminologist jack levin of northeastern university, thanks so much for your time and expertise. appreciate it. >> thank you, fredericka. >> and happy new year. all right. we've got much more straight ahead in the "newsroom." right now it's 3:00 eastern time. i'm fredericka whitfield. here's a look at our top stories. on the heels of a massive snowstorm, a fierce arctic cold front is sweeping across the country threatening to push low temperatures even lower and possibly shattering records across the u.s. ne> and we have the results of a