Powerful Winter Snowstorm; Potential Health "Nightmare"; Domestic Drone Strikes Against Americans; Russian Ballet Acid Attack; Zimmerman Won't Seek Immunity; Back At Home
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. Take a look. Right now, there is snow falling on the nation's capital. Schools and federal offices are closed. Winter weather alerts are in effect for much of the central and eastern part of the country and we're getting an update from utilities, more than 93,000 customers are without power this morning and most of them are in the state of Virginia. This is all from that monster storm that's already blanketed several cities, grounded flights from the Dakotas to Ohio. Coastal flood warnings and advisories are in effect for portions of the mid-Atlantic from Maryland to Connecticut. Some people in New Jersey towns are voluntarily evacuating after they went through all that trouble and disaster during Superstorm Sandy. So it's kind of a mess across the country. Karen Maginnis is tracking the system for us. So Karen, exactly what does it look like and when does it move on?</s>KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, it's going to take some time, Soledad, because as the storm system sweeps to the east it's going to slow down. You mentioned the power outages in Virginia, Northern Virginia. Why? Because the bull's-eye as far as the snowfall totals are concerned, 20 or more inches across northern sections of Virginia, where our correspondent Joe Johns is. They could see 15 to 20 inches of snowfall there. Not to be left out, besides Washington, D.C., pretty much shutting down, 4 inches to 8 inches of snow expected there, New York City 2 to 4, 4 to 8 for Boston with the potential for coastal flooding. Right now as we take a look at that capitol building, the snowfall is not heavy, but it's persistent and will continue for the afternoon, making travel difficult on the roadways. Expect a number of power outages for this afternoon with, Soledad, possibly 50-mile-an-hour wind gusts.</s>O'BRIEN: What a mess. All right, thanks for the update. Appreciate that. Big story we're following this morning as well, there's a warning from the CDC about a hard-to-stop superbug. It's a deadly nightmare bacteria that's on the rise in U.S. hospitals. Our senior medical correspondent is Elizabeth Cohen. Tell us a little bit about this superbug.</s>ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: All right, this superbug lives in hospitals, Soledad, and is spread by the hands of the people who work at hospitals, doctors, nurses and others. And here's the problem, most antibiotics do not work against it. And the ones that do can either -- don't work very well or can be toxic, both to the kidney and to the neurological system. So let's look at what the numbers say according to this new CDC report. They said last year it showed that 200 hospitals had at least one case of this in their hospital or in their nursing home. So that's one case in at least 200 hospitals and nursing homes. And again, antibiotics, they have tested it and most of them just don't work -- Soledad.</s>O'BRIEN: So then what do they do? I mean, if you know immuno- compromised patients and people whose job it is to go from patient to patient to patient, it sounds like potentially a disaster.</s>COHEN: First of all, those people need to do a better job of washing their hands. That's been a huge problem in hospitals in this country. It's getting better by some accounts, but they need to just wash their hands better. Another question is, what can you do since you aren't in control of what hospitals do? So you have to ask those doctors and nurses to wash their hands when they come in. Does it matter if they're wearing gloves or not. If you don't see them wash their hands or sterilize them, ask them to do it. Also wash your own hands frequently. And if you've got a catheter in you or if you're with a family who does, get that catheter out as quickly as you can. Every day say can it come out today because those things can harbor bacteria.</s>O'BRIEN: Interesting. All right, Elizabeth Cohen for us. Thanks, Elizabeth.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had one of those bugs a couple of years ago.</s>O'BRIEN: A superbug?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I went in for an abscess surgery under my skin and was getting ready to go. Suddenly I looked up and everybody in the room looked like they were in a moon suit. I had to stay an extra three days and I was two weeks at home on antibiotics. It was a nightmare, scary as hell.</s>O'BRIEN: You went in relatively healthy, but if you're someone who's not healthy and to have another flood of treatment is really, really difficult.</s>ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You're not supposed to get sicker in the hospital.</s>O'BRIEN: That's where all the sick people are. Clearly it makes it easier to get much sicker. All right, other stories making news -- John.</s>JOHN BERMAN, ANCHOR, CNN'S "EARLY START": Thank you, Soledad. Attorney General Eric Holder refusing to rule out the possibility of using drone strikes against Americans on U.S. soil. Senator Rand Paul had been threatening to hold up the confirmation of John Brennan for CIA director until his questions about the administration's domestic drone policy were addressed. This morning he has his answer and Paul calls it an affront to the constitution. Chris Lawrence joins us now live from the Pentagon this morning. So Chris, lay out this White House policy, this new seemingly policy of domestic drone strikes.</s>CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: John, basically Eric Holder is saying that the White House and the administration have no plans to carry out any sort of drone or lethal strikes on Americans here in the U.S., but he left open the possibility that down the road there could be a circumstance in which it would. That may be very shocking to some Americans who don't believe the U.S. government would ever have the power to assert that kind of authority. But in this letter, Attorney General Holder basically says this is a hypothetical situation. It's not something the government is considering. And he hopes that no president would ever have to confront this. But it is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the president to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States. He goes on to provide some examples of those so-called extraordinary circumstances, such as preventing perhaps the attack on Pearl Harbor or more recently the attacks on September 11th, 2001. But this opens up a whole can of worms. I mean when you look at the government's targeting of U.S. citizens abroad in Yemen, the killing of Anwar Al Awlaki, some of those families of U.S. citizens filed a lawsuit against the federal government. Having that happen on U.S. soil would open up all kinds of possibilities, because while the Obama administration rightfully is saying they were asked this hypothetical question, it is hypothetical, what is hypothetical today may not be so in five, ten, 15, 20 years.</s>BERMAN: Very good point, Chris. A hypothetical discussion that I think will be the source of great debate in Washington very, very soon. Chris Lawrence at the Pentagon, our thanks to you. Meanwhile, a stunning confession in an attack that nearly blinded the director of Russia's famous Bolshoi Ballet. Police say the company's lead dancer, Pavel Dmitrichenko, has admitted to planning an acid attack on the ballet company's artistic director. CNN's Phil Black is following developments for us live from Moscow this morning. Phil, this is just a bizarre story.</s>PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is indeed, John. Police here have released this video of the man, the leading dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet. It is a short clip that he is heard speaking in Russian confessing to this acid attack. He says I was responsible for organizing this attack but not to the extent that it happened. So it's somewhat a qualified confession there. What did happen? Well, this was back in January when the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet was outside his apartment building. Someone approached him, called his name, he turned. That someone threw a jar of sulphuric acid in his face. The police here now say they have also caught the person who threw the acid and a third person who acted as the driver that night. As for the motive, well, it's always centered on the possibility here of rivalries and jealousies within the Bolshoi Ballet. Police have confirmed they believe it was because of hostile relations between these two men at work but no further details just yet.</s>BERMAN: All right, Phil Black in Moscow, our thanks to you. A significant new development in the Trayvon Martin alleged murder case. Shooter George Zimmerman's defense team deciding not to seek immunity under Florida's stand your ground law. Zimmerman's lawyers cancelling a hearing scheduled for next month that could have freed their client if it went their way. Instead they will try to convince a jury that Zimmerman shot and killed the unarmed Martin in self defense. Zimmerman's second-degree murder trial begins on June 10th. A teenage boy who disappeared while skiing with his father Sunday has been found. A snowmobiler spotted Nicholas Joy yesterday morning at Sugar Loaf Ski Resort in Maine. Joy says he simply got lost out on the trail. He told the man he drank water from a nearby stream and survived for two nights in the bitter cold by building an igloo out of snow and pine needles. That is some smart thinking.</s>O'BRIEN: Thank God that he's alive and safe. Wow. Ahead this morning, since the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, gun control and ownership has been like a lightning rod issue. Why are guns so appealing in the first place? We have a new book that looks at gun culture in America. We're going to talk about that straight ahead. And then a NASCAR tradition could be coming to an end. It's today's "Bleacher Report." We're back in just a moment.