Digging Out from the Blizzard; Where is Lorena Bobbitt Now?  Looking to 2012
CHO: Bottom of the hour now. Here are the stories grabbing our attention this morning. Amazon says the third generation Kindle is the best-selling product in the company's history. Kindle replaces "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" which was at the top of the list. The man who dubbed himself the patriot pilot is now coming forward. Chris Liu is his name. He's a pilot for American Airlines. He posted a video online that got a lot of attention that showed San Francisco airport security which he described as a farce. Liu says he wanted to show the discrepancy in security checks for passengers and airport personnel. And the weather, as you probably know by now, is getting better in the northeast but it could take until the weekend for airlines to return to normal operations, maybe longer. Four thousand flights were cancelled just yesterday because of the snowstorm. Across the northeast, there are two kinds of people, those who are snowed in and staying in and those who are braving it and digging out. Chris Knowles is live in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, this morning. Hey, Chris, good morning. Good to see you again. So again you got more than two feet of snow? Is that what you were saying?</s>CHRIS KNOWLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, 29 inches of snow. We're kind of over that winter wonderland portion of it, now just mounds of snow. And of course as the melting starts to take place, a new danger, falling ice from above. That's something to be especially aware of in the city and even small communities where we have the two-story roofs. So 29 inches of snow, making it one of the top 10 worst storms ever here. The timing of this thing was absolutely crucial. Of course there's never a good time for 2 1/2 feet of snow, but for one local businessman, because it happened after Christmas, it made all of the difference in the world. Here's what he had to say.</s>JOE SPIEKERMANN, OWNER, MAZUR'S BAKERY: If it would have happened Christmas, even Christmas Eve, that would have been the biggest disaster because that's our biggest day is Christmas Eve.</s>KNOWLES: How much money are we talking about?</s>SPIEKERMANN: We're talking probably close to $40,000.</s>KNOWLES: That's a lot of dough.</s>SPIEKERMANN: That's a lot of -- that's a lot of dough. And I called my wife, I said listen, I'm not coming home tonight. I slept in the back next to the flour bags. And I was right next to the ovens so I was nice and warm because they were still running all night. We're making fresh breads and rolls, you know, for the customers that were still coming in.</s>KNOWLES: Yes, bad puns aside, you know, Joe the baker, considering himself very fortunate despite the fact that he and his 60 odd employees were faced with digging themselves out before they could do their job over Christmas. So over this next week, we're going to be seeing things return for what we can basically call normal. The trains, buses, et cetera, beginning to take their place. Now the streets out here are beginning to look a whole lot better than they were just a few hours ago this morning. We're starting to see melting as we're expecting. Temperatures above the freezing mark, maybe even into the 40s by the end of the week. If that happens, Alina, we're going to be real excited about that. Back to you.</s>CHO: All right. Chris, well, go home and play with your kids in the snow a little bit if you have a chance. All right. Chris Knowles, thank you so much for joining us.</s>KNOWLES: Yes. Will do. Her name is Lorena Gallo, but back then on news programs and the subject of late-night comedians, she was Lorena Bobbitt. She's remembered as the wife who employed a, shall we say, dramatic response to an abusive relationship with her then husband John Wayne Bobbitt. But in the nearly two decades since then, she's started a new life. She's been in a long-term relationship 13 years strong, she has a 5- year-old daughter, and while she works as a part-time hairdresser and real estate agent, she says her true passion is counseling domestic violence victims through her organization. A new name, a new family and a new mission in life, Lorena Gallo, formerly Lorena Bobbitt, joins me now from Washington, D.C. with lighter hair. Good morning, Lorena. Nice to see you.</s>LORENA GALLO, FORMERLY "LORENA BOBBITT": Good morning.</s>CHO: Tell me about your organization, Lorena's Red Wagon. What is the mission?</s>GALLO: Yes. The primary mission about my organization is definitely to help -- the prevention of domestic violence through family oriented activities. And what we do is basically raise money to help the children and the families in need, and I go to the shelters, and I provide hot meals for them, for example, Thanksgiving, we did a food drive, and we served 35 families. And another thing that I did was having a wrapping party which actually it was very successful for the past Christmas. We donated toys for the children and the shelter also.</s>CHO: That's wonderful.</s>GALLO: And the basic -- yes, yes, and you know it's wonderful to actually put a smile on a kids' face.</s>CHO: Yes.</s>GALLO: And you know, for the sad families, which are actually homeless in the shelters, and one of the reasons that they are there actually, Alina, is because I found out through working with the shelters that the families who are in the shelters are homeless because due to the abusive relationship, the women who are there.</s>CHO: Well, I know that you hope to open your own shelter someday.</s>GALLO: Someday.</s>CHO: But I have to ask you -- I mean obviously you were a victim of domestic violence yourself.</s>GALLO: I was.</s>CHO: But was there something specific that inspired you to do this because this is not a small undertaking?</s>GALLO: No. Definitely. And I was a volunteer in the shelters way back before. It's been 10 years ago. It's just that the organization has been for four years, so it's now known as Lorena's Red Wagon. But basically, yes, that was because I was in the woman's shoes, basically. I was abusive -- I was in an abusive situation, I should said. I was a victim of domestic violence, and, you know, definitely that inspired me to help other victims, obviously, because I know the pain.</s>CHO: Sure. Of course you do.</s>GALLO: And I know the emotional -- you know that people leave and definitely the victims of domestic violence have.</s>CHO: Well, I have to tell you -- well, I have to tell you, you look fantastic, first of all.</s>GALLO: Thank you.</s>CHO: And so -- and I'm thrilled to be talking to you.</s>GALLO: Thank you, thank you.</s>CHO: You know, I have to ask you this. You know, I mean as you well know, there was a time when joking about the Bobbitts was a national past time.</s>GALLO: Yes.</s>CHO: I wonder after all of these years, are you finally able to laugh about it?</s>GALLO: I finally am. And it took a lot of time. It took a lot of years and definitely a lot of -- I went to a psychologist and thanks to the doctors, you know, the therapists, that I'm here and I'll be able to now basically start all over again and, you know, start a new relationship and have a family and, basically, I can laugh now, you know. But it's not a subject of a laughing matter when we talk about domestic violence, though. It's a serious problem, and what happened to me was very bizarre, obviously, but I was a victim. I'm not a victim anymore, and that is the message that I come -- I have to come across and say it. And, you know, domestic violence is a serious issue and it affects 32 million women -- people in the United States and it's a worldwide epidemic, it's a social epidemic, that if we don't do anything about it, then we face with a bigger problem in the future for our newest generations to come.</s>CHO: Well, I know -- I know that the best advice if you're in that type of situation is get out, go somewhere, just leave.</s>GALLO: Yes.</s>CHO: So Lorena Bobbitt, now Lorena Gallo, we thank you so much for joining us live today. And best of luck with Lorena's Red Wagon.</s>GALLO: Thank you so much. Thank you.</s>CHO: We're back after this.