McCain Endorsement from Lieberman; Jon Corzine to Sign a Bill Abolishing the Death Penalty
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: -- this morning.</s>ROB MARCIANO, CNN CO-ANCHOR: That was the same old story.</s>CHETRY: Yes.</s>MARCIANO: It is Monday, December 17th. John Roberts is off. I'm Rob Marciano.</s>CHETRY: It's good to see you this morning, by the way, and I'm Kiran Chetry. We begin with a home stretch in Iowa, just 17 days in fact, until the first votes for president are cast. And this morning, John McCain picks up another endorsement with the help of an old friend. Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman will publicly back McCain in New Hampshire. He announced it this morning. McCain also got endorsed by "The Boston Globe" and "Des Moines Register" over the weekend. Mary Snow is live in New Hampshire, where McCain and Lieberman are going to be hosting a town meeting. Good morning, Mary. It's interesting to see what you think and what others are saying think about how key this endorsement is, a Democrat turned Independent endorsing a Republican.</s>MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. And certainly, it's getting a lot of attention. You probably see behind me, it's being set up here for an announcement just about an hour from now. And as you mentioned, this is so interesting because Senator Lieberman is a Democrat turned Independent, how will this help John McCain? And Joe Lieberman, by the way, was the 2000 vice presidential candidate running with Democrat Al Gore and the switch being noticed, but the McCain camp is hoping that this will resonate with independent voters here, who'll be voting in the primary on January 8th here in New Hampshire. John McCain won the primary in 2000 here in New Hampshire, largely because of independents backing him, and the campaign is hoping that this endorsement will fuel that momentum -- Kiran.</s>CHETRY: Mary Snow live for us this morning in New Hampshire, thank you. Also, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards will pick up an endorsement today. The first lady of Iowa, Mary Culver will give Edwards her support, and they will stop at a homeless shelter this morning. Hillary Clinton picked up the endorsement of "The Des Moines Register" this weekend and today hits the roads and the skies for a helicopter barnstorming tour of Iowa. Senator Clinton will talk about her fight for Iowa when she joins us live in just 30 minutes, 7:30 Eastern time, right here on</s>AMERICAN MORNING. MARCIANO: A wintry storm pounds communities from the Great Lakes to the northeast this weekend. Our Reynolds Wolf has been all over it from Connecticut to upstate New York. Right now, he is live in Syracuse, New York. Still snowing there, Reynolds?</s>REYNOLD WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it certainly is, and we may see another inch or two before the day is out. What we're dealing with right now is just a little bit of a breeze. It's picking up. This is more a lake effect activity right now, Rob. And I'll tell you, although the snow is not quite as heavy, that breeze makes a lot of difference with how it feels out here. It is awfully chilly, that's an understatement. I'll tell you what, what we dealt here within Syracuse, the 17 inches of snowfall that we've had since the storm system came on through is just a tiny microcosm of a bigger, bigger storm system, that affected millions of people.</s>WOLF (voice-over): The fiery storm blew from Michigan to Maine. Ten inches of snow in Michigan, up to 18 inches expected in New England. Hundreds of flights canceled in Chicago and over 100,000 without power in Pennsylvania. A roof of a drugstore in Boston collapsed into the weight of the snow.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw the exterior wall start to buckle, and then everything was just like a domino coming down.</s>WOLF: In Cleveland, the Browns battle the Buffalo Bills in the middle of a blizzard, while snowplows were out in full force in Vermont. At least three traffic deaths were blamed on the storm and in some places, visibility was so bad you couldn't see the car in front of you. You couldn't see many Christmas shoppers either. Earlier reports suggest that blizzard dealt holiday sales a heavy blow. But fans of teen singer Hannah Montana were not disappointed. The concert in Rochester, New York, went on as planned.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We would go through a snowstorm to see her.</s>WOLF: Well, I'll tell you, Rob, one way that people are going to be affected today is going to be just by delays, not just on the roads but, of course, the skies above. In fact, take a look at this map that shows you some of the expected delays that we're going to be having in many parts of the northeast, and no surprise, I'm sure, many of the usual suspects. Many, in fact, all the New York airports, you're going to have at least some waiting. There's no doubt about that. As we make our way back to the Midwest, places like Chicago, not quite so bad, same story in Memphis. Back to Atlanta, it looks like we could see up to an hour. And back out to the pacific northwest, although San Francisco does not look that bad at the time being. Seattle, you will have a slight delay and I'm sure more will be in the mix as we make your way through the midday and afternoon hours. That's what always happens whenever you have one of these big storm systems affecting much of the country. Plus, we've got another storm system we're going to talk about fairly soon that's going to be affecting parts of the pacific northwest, and it's going to be a doozy of a storm. Let's send it back to you.</s>MARCIANO: Job security, my friend. Reynolds Wolf live in New York.</s>WOLF: It sure is.</s>MARCIANO: Thanks, Reynolds.</s>WOLF: You bet.</s>CHETRY: Time now to check in with our Alina Cho for some other stories new this morning. Good to see you, Alina.</s>ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Kiran. Rob, good morning to you, and good morning, everybody. Breaking news out of Saudi Arabia. A pardon for the woman who was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison after she was raped. After weeks of international outrage, word overnight Saudi King Abdullah overruled her conviction in the "interests of the people." She was convicted for being alone with a man who was not a relative. The seven men who attacked her received sentences of up to five years. Also new this morning, Russia announcing it has made its first shipment of nuclear fuel to Iran. Iran insists its nuclear power plant is for peaceful purposes, and the latest U.S. intelligence says Iran put its nuclear weapons program on hold back in 2003, but Israeli intelligence disputes that. In fact, a team of Israeli intelligence officers is in the U.S. right now trying to convince officials that Iran has indeed begun a new nuclear weapons program. A top U.S. general in Iraq says violence is at its lowest level since the first year of the American invasion. Lieutenant General Ray Odierno says he believes that means the Iraqi government can move forward to settle political differences among rival sects, but he also conceded the first six months of the year were probably the most violent since the 2003 invasion. A new Al Qaeda video on the Web today from Osama bin Laden's second in command, Ayman al Zawahiri, says the U.S. is defeated and looking for a way out of Iraq. He also threatened Sunnis cooperating with U.S. forces that they will be killed when the U.S. leaves the country. Pressure on the CIA coming from a Republican congressman, Peter Hoekstra says the intelligence committee won't be backing off and will investigate the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes and he's not buying the story that the tapes were destroyed to protect the identities of the interrogators.</s>REP. PETER HOEKSTRA (R), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: It appears these tapes existed for at least three years before they were destroyed, so I find the rationale for when they were destroyed and the reasons given for that, and the reasons for that timing not to be very convincing at all.</s>CHO: The justice department is fighting the congressional investigation and is asking intelligence officials not to cooperate. Hoekstra says the committee may be forced to issue subpoenas. Today, President Bush will say the economy is still going strong, despite worries about a recession. That will be the focus of a speech later today, in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The president will talk about what small businesses are doing to stay afloat and will also address the mortgage crisis. And those worries about the economy may be partly to blame for slow online sales this past weekend. However, in-store sales were also sluggish and that could be due to that winter storm that blanketed the northeast. I know I stayed at home. Many stores say they're waiting for those last minute shoppers, and there will be many of those. Senator Barack Obama's campaign has been dogged with false rumors, among them, that Osama is a Muslim, Obama rather. But yesterday, Obama attended Sunday services at a United Church of Christ in Mason City, Iowa. Obama didn't address the rumors, but he did speak about his experiences with the church and said he regularly attends church while on the campaign trail. Investigators are on their way to Rhode Island today, where a plane remains stuck after skidding off the runway. The U.S. Airways Express jet slid off the runway at TF Green Airport near Providence around 5:00 yesterday afternoon. All 31 passengers and three crew members thankfully got off the plane safely. Now, weather may have been a factor. A record 7.6 inches of snow fell at the airport on the very same day. And as I mentioned, I stayed at home. I went out to dinner briefly.</s>CHETRY: I was wondering whether or not more people will just say there's nothing else to do because it's so bad out, let's go to the mall...</s>MARCIANO: Yes.</s>CHETRY: ... or whether they stay home.</s>CHO: You don't have that choice in New York City. You know that.</s>CHETRY: Well, there is one mall. We have a mall here.</s>MARCIANO: It's called Manhattan.</s>CHETRY: We actually work in a mall.</s>CHO: Yes, that's true. That is true.</s>MARCIANO: Thanks Alina.</s>CHO: All right. You bet.</s>MARCIANO: All right. Well, the death penalty in New Jersey tops our "Quick Hits." Governor Jon Corzine will sign a bill today to abolish capital punishment and replace it with life in prison without parole. New Jersey will be the first state in 40 years to ban the death penalty. And the water wars are back on. Governors of Georgia and Florida and Alabama expected to meet today. Florida and Alabama are fighting for a greater share of Lake Lanier, Atlanta's main water supply. The U.S. interior secretary is trying to help them work out a compromise. And making flu shots mandatory for preschoolers. Is it smart medicine? Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen will tell us all about that. And Hillary Clinton takes to the skies hoping to lift her campaign. First though, she's going to join us live, right here, one on one. That's coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.