Winter Travel; President Bush's Agenda
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: It is warming today in New York City. I think it's like 8 degrees outside today.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: What? It's warmer?</s>HEMMER: Yes. Well, warmer than yesterday, of course.</s>COSTELLO: Anything was warmed than yesterday.</s>HEMMER: I'm telling you. Good morning, everybody. Soledad is out today. Carol Costello is here to help us out. Good morning to you.</s>COSTELLO: Good morning.</s>HEMMER: Staying warm?</s>COSTELLO: No.</s>HEMMER: I took a walk last night for about 30 seconds.</s>COSTELLO: Why?</s>HEMMER: I just froze like that.</s>COSTELLO: For 30 seconds?</s>HEMMER: Yes. I was ready to go back inside. It is that time of the year, so...</s>COSTELLO: It's like your lips freeze together.</s>HEMMER: Yes, but it's warming up. In a moment here, is President Bush's confidence in Iraq starting to slip? More on the news conference from yesterday in Washington and comments he made about insurgents there and the impact they're having. Suzanne Malveaux is standing by at the White House. We'll check in with Suzanne in a moment.</s>COSTELLO: Also, our series, "They've Got the Goods," continues with Sirius Satellite Radio chairman Mel Karmazin. In his case, the goods consists of one Howard Stern. We'll find out if the new chairman plans to let Stern do whatever the heck he wants to in his brand-new gig.</s>HEMMER: I like that. Kelly Wallace is back with us, too, looking at the headlines. Good morning -- Kelly.</s>KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Great to see both of you. Good morning again, everyone. "Now in the News." Tens of millions of people will be on the road this week. With much of the country already in a deep freeze, they face some wicked weather.</s>WALLACE (voice over): From the Midwest to the Northeast, signs of autumn's bitter end. Arctic conditions made for treacherous travel. In Pennsylvania, more than 70 cars piled up on an icy Interstate 80 over the weekend. Dozens of people were injured, and traffic was backed up for 20 miles. Icy roads and dense fog are blamed for at least two deaths on New Jersey roads. The South getting its share of cold weather, too. Record lows reported in several North Carolina cities. And a rare sight: snow along North Carolina's Outer Banks. Weather watchers, meanwhile, are keeping an eye out for another big storm system as Old Man Winter hits the ground running. And with more than 50 million people on the road this Christmas week, there could be more misery in store for holiday travelers.</s>HEMMER: They can't figure this thing out, can they?</s>COSTELLO: But they have: $100,000 will come from private funds now, they say. The City Council still has to pass it.</s>HEMMER: Yes.</s>COSTELLO: But it should make Linda Crop (ph) happy.</s>HEMMER: Yes.</s>COSTELLO: That's the City Council chair. I love that story.</s>HEMMER: I'm still</s>WALLACE: Oh, my goodness!</s>HEMMER: How come you were burying the lead?</s>WALLACE: How did you know? Twenty-five feels so good.</s>HEMMER: We had e-mail to tell us. Happy birthday, Kelly.</s>WALLACE: Yes, yes. Well, thank you so very much.</s>COSTELLO: Feliz (ph) kukliano (ph).</s>WALLACE: I always laugh because it's the shortest day of the year, you know, the beginning of winter. Anyway, I try to be optimistic about it, Carol.</s>HEMMER: We'll make it</s>WALLACE: Exactly. Thank you so much.</s>COSTELLO: President Bush has outlined his second-term agenda. His end of the year news conference yesterday covered everything from Iraq to immigration. Suzanne Malveaux live at the White House with more. Good morning -- Suzanne.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, President Bush was very candid about the challenges Americans and Iraqi soldiers face in dealing with the insurgency there. He also, again, defended his embattled secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld. And the president, of course, saying despite some of these challenges, he tried to portray a sense of optimism to the American people about completing his second-term agenda.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're nearing the end of a year of substantial progress at home here and abroad. In 2004, the United States grew in prosperity, enhanced our security and served the cause of freedom and peace. Our duties continue in the New Year. I'm optimistic about achieving results.</s>MALVEAUX: And the highlights of his second-term agenda on the domestic front to reform Social Security by allowing young people to invest portions of their contributions in the stock market, to update and simplify the tax code, to make tax cuts permanent, to cut the budget deficit in half over five years, and to establish a guest worker program for illegal immigrants. Now, on the foreign side, he would like to facilitate Iraq's January elections. That is a key goal. Also to promote the establishment of a democratic Palestinian state, to continue diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran and North Korea to abandon their nuclear programs, and to secure nuclear materials from Russia. And, Carol, I should also say a more immediate goal, of course, is to round out his cabinet appointments, those nominations. It's expected perhaps as early as today he may name the nominee for Homeland Security Department or the director of national intelligence -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: But no change in the Defense Department category?</s>MALVEAUX: No, no change. President Bush was very clear on that.</s>COSTELLO: Yes, he was. Suzanne Malveaux, live at the White House this morning.</s>HEMMER: Carol, Soledad is out this today, but our series continues with Soledad. It's called "They've Got the Goods." And here's Soledad now.</s>SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Now time for our "They've Got the Goods" segment. Mel Karmazin, the former head of Viacom, headed to Sirius Satellite Radio last month just after his pal, Howard Stern, inked a deal with them. Together, the two media heavyweights gives enormous heft to the new satellite radio industry. How much heft? How big a deal is it in the scheme of things?</s>HOWARD STERN, SHOCK JOCK: I want you to experience radio the way I think it should be. The future of radio, it is the death of FMA radio, the death of the FCC interference!</s>O'BRIEN: Joining us this morning is Mel Karmazin. Nice to see you. Thanks for coming in to talk us to. Give me a sense of perspective. How big of a deal is it that Howard Stern and you also are at Sirius Satellite Radio, not necessarily just to that particular place, but also the industry as a whole?</s>MEL KARMAZIN, CEO, SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO: The Howard Stern thing was very big. I don't know about me going, how big that is. But Howard was huge. And probably had Sirius not hired Howard, I would not have been as interested. And the reason I got interested was they made a major statement in hiring the No. 1 radio personality of the last 20 years. And it's all about content. You know, people first listened to AM radio, and then things went over to FM radio. And now, with the kind of content -- be it the NFL or be it Howard Stern or our competitor of having Major League Baseball -- it is a huge boom for satellite radio. And you're going to see over the next few years the next generation of radio. And you're going to see satellite radio being this huge, huge business.</s>O'BRIEN: Can they really compete with the traditional radio?</s>KARMAZIN: Well, let's compete, I'm not sure what that word is. I mean, did radio -- did television came along...</s>KARMAZIN: Yes. There's no question, you know, that the programming is going to take audience away. Now maybe it will get people to come back to radio that may have left and went to their iPod. But, you know, we have 65 commercial-free music channels. And that's an important selling point. So, if you're a consumer and you're able to now get 120 channels in your car in CD quality, and 65 of them are without commercial, and you have the strongest personalities and the strongest talent, why would you not be listening to satellite radio as compared to FM radio?</s>O'BRIEN: You're paying Howard Stern $500 million over five years. Is that right, five or six years?</s>KARMAZIN: That deal was done before I got there, and it...</s>O'BRIEN: But now you're in charge, so you're paying it.</s>KARMAZIN: But one of the things that I haven't done yet is to read that contract.</s>O'BRIEN: You might want to go and read it. Because whatever I know, it's a lot of money, and you're not profitable yet.</s>KARMAZIN: Less than he's worth, in my opinion.</s>O'BRIEN: Really?</s>KARMAZIN: Less than he's worth. I think that...</s>O'BRIEN: How are you going to do the math on that?</s>KARMAZIN: The math works on Howard is if we can take his huge audience -- and the audience is estimated by various people to be anywhere from 10 to 12 million people. And if we can get a million of those customers to subscribe to satellite radio, that more than pays for Howard.</s>O'BRIEN: He now says he can do anything he wants. He can say anything he wants. He won't be fined as he has been on traditional radio. As his boss, does that worry you at all?</s>KARMAZIN: Well..</s>O'BRIEN: Do you want to have some kind of limitation on that?</s>KARMAZIN: Howard is a brilliant broadcaster. Howard knows that he's not looking to go over the line to where he's going to offend people or not please them. He talks sex. It's very difficult in -- you know, in terrestrial radio to have a discussion of sex that's not going to get people worried that you're getting dangerously close to what the FCC is going to find indecent. So, I think what you'll see is "The Howard Stern Show," as he's doing it today, without the edits and without the bleeps that are being done, and definitely, in our opinion, very decent, not indecent.</s>HEMMER: Mel Karmazin with Soledad. Our series continues tomorrow. It's called "They've Got the Goods." Soledad profiles the "Jeopardy" champ, Ken Jennings and his winnings from this past year. And what a year it was for him, too -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: He's like the second-most clicked on person on the Web.</s>HEMMER: He made a lot of cash.</s>COSTELLO: Yes, he did, and a lot more to come, I'm sure. New details are emerging this morning in the largest arson case in Maryland's history. So far, six people have been charged. But an unnamed source in today's "Washington Post" says as many as 16 people might have been involved. Alisa Parenti from our affiliate, WJLA, files this report.</s>ALISA PARENTI, CNN AFFILIATE WJLA REPORTER (voice over): Two more men will appear in court today on arson charges, bringing the total number now arrested in the case to six. As many as 10 more may follow. So far, none of the suspects, their families or their attorneys have commented publicly.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have no comment. This is ridiculous. I have no comment.</s>WILLIAM BRENNAN, EVERHART'S ATTORNEY: My policy is not to comment publicly on any cases that are pending.</s>WILLIAM PURPURA, WALSH'S LAWYER: We hope to present enough information to the court to convince the court this young man should not be detained pending the trial.</s>PARENTI: According to court documents, the men met at a Wendy's, where they loaded a car with gasoline, matches, flares, and butane torches. Then they allegedly went to the Hunters Brooke, community, kicking down doors and setting pools of the accelerant on fire, ultimately causing $10 million in damage. In court yesterday, Michael Everhart, Patrick Walsh and volunteer firefighter Jeremy Parady, all 20 years old. Detention hearings for them will be held Thursday. But later today, the first person arrested, 21-year-old Aaron Speed, will also appear in court.</s>COSTELLO: Alisa, a question for you. What's the motive here? You get 16 people together. You just set fires, what, for fun? Was there some other reason?</s>PARENTI: Well, apparently revenge is something that investigators are looking at. You'll remember the first person who was charged said he was disgruntled and unhappy the way the company treated him. He was a former employee of that subdivision working security, unhappy about the way the company treated him after the death of his infant son. How all of these other people came into play, that, I guess, we'll have to find out as it plays out in court.</s>COSTELLO: Alisa Parenti, live from Greenbelt, Maryland, thank you.</s>HEMMER: Today is the winter solstice, and in just one moment it begins. One minute to be exact. Winter's official start time is 7:42 a.m. Eastern. Right now, it's 7:41 a.m. Eastern. It's the shortest day of the year. Only 9 hours and 15 minutes of daylight. And for most folks in the eastern part for the U.S., it's going to be a chilly 8 hours and 15 minutes, too.</s>COSTELLO: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, some stories -- stores, rather, are considering offering a different kind of holiday spirit to get your money. Andy is "Minding Your Business."</s>HEMMER: Also, when it comes to the separation of church and state at Christmastime, Jeff Toobin explains the all-important reindeer rule. Honest. Back in a moment.