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Sheriff Comes Out, Leaves Romney Campaign; Santorum Blast Obama's Theology; Book Documents Slavery after Civil War; Winter Troubles in East, West; Iran Trains Female Ninjas. Rio de Janeiro Carnival Underway; ESPN Takes Action after Controversial Jeremy Lin Headline
Aired February 19, 2012 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon. Thank you so much for watching. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
We're going to begin with this. Think about this -- a lot of people have had relationships turn sour on them, but not everyone has had an ex who has the power to deport them. All at once, an Arizona sheriff publicly came out of the closet, left his role in the Mitt Romney campaign, and denied claims from a former flame.
"The Phoenix News Times" reports that Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu threatened to deport his ex-lover, a Mexican immigrant identified only as Jose if he revealed their relationship. These are the photos that Jose gave "The New Times."
Babeu, who spoke with our Gary Tuchman in 2010, is nationally known for his tough stance on illegal immigration. He's also a Republican running for Congress, and he is staying in the race, he says, but he is leaving his role as Mitt Romney's state campaign co-chair.
The sheriff says he did nothing wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF PAUL BABEU, PINAL COUNTY, ARIZONA: I'm here to say that all these allegations that were in one of these newspapers are absolutely completely false, except for the issues that refer to me being gay because that's the truth. I am gay.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The Phoenix News Times reporter who broke this story, Monica Alonzo, and we asked her if she was concerned that Babeu's ex- boyfriend, Jose, could be making up all of this out of spite.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MONICA ALONZO, REPORTER, PHOENIX NEW TIMES (via telephone): Well, it was very clear from early on when I met with Jose that clearly he had been hurt by this. You know, this was a relationship that they had over a period of several years. Really what stood out the most is his desire to stop the threats and intimidation that he says and his attorney claim the sheriff and sheriff's attorney were making. He just wanted to be left alone, and he felt ultimately that the best way for him to achieve that is to sort of just end up to bully (ph).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So, that was Monica Alonzo from "The New Times." She's a reporter who broke the story. Sheriff Babeu appeared in re-election as for Senator John McCain, that was in 2010.
McCain is warning against any rush to judgment here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Sheriff Babeu is a friend of mine. I do not know the details except what has been published in the media, and I'm sure there will be a thorough and complete investigation if there's any allegations of wrongdoing. All I can say is that he also deserves the benefit of innocence until proven guilty, but I appreciate the support that he gave me in my campaign and always will.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Nonetheless, it is a pretty interesting story. So, I want to bring in L.Z. Granderson and a senior writer at ESPN, and also, CNN contributor Will Cain. As I said, it is an interesting story.
L.Z., do you see any hypocrisy here?
L.Z. GRANDERSON, CNN.COM CONTRIBUTOR: Just a little bit. You know, I'm pretty used to this now, right, when it comes to the GOP and this issue in terms of sexual orientation and sexuality. It always seems as if, you know, the person who's working for an anti-gay politician or is an anti-gay politician, for some reasons, seems to have these gay ties.
The thing that I find most interesting, and I don't want to get into whether or not Jose's story is correct or not, but I find most interesting is that he resigned from Mitt Romney's campaign but he's still running for Congress. So, I'm trying to figure out why would you resign from Mitt's campaign but still have your own? Either you are qualified to continue on as a co-chair for Mitt Romney or you're not.
LEMON: Hold on, hold on.
GRANDERSON: It's the same qualification. I think will lead just to be able to run for Congress.
LEMON: Why isn't the Jose part important to you? Because he could be making this up. We don't know. I mean, if we're going to take, you know, Jose at his word, we have to take Mr. Babeu at his word as well.
Why isn't it important to you that Jose -- Jose's side of the story?
GRANDERSON: It's not important to me because right now it's all rumor and projections, he said/he said sort of story. And so, I think it's important that we concentrate on what are the real facts. And that is he's elected to resign from Mitt Romney's campaign and I'm curious as to why. Does he feel coming out, all of a sudden, now disqualifies him from being able to serve with a Republican candidate? Because if that's the case, then we have a much larger issue to be talking about besides a lover's quarrel.
LEMON: If he was out in the first place, would you this would be an issue, you think?
GRANDERSON: If he was out in the first place, would Mitt Romney have him as a co-chair for his state campaign?
LEMON: Yes.
GRANDERSON: The state campaign, you know? I think that's the real question, right? Like why is he resigning? Did he feel he had to resign because he couldn't continue on as an openly gay volunteer? In the best case, that says something horrible about Mitt Romney's campaign.
LEMON: Will, before I ask you my question, do you want to respond to anything that L.Z. has said here?
WILL CAIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, I do want to respond to one thing. You know, L.Z. and I are friends and the viewers should know that. We've had a lot of conversations offline and on TV about generalizations.
And L.Z. almost invariably opposes generalizations both stereotypes when it comes to sexuality and stereotypes when it comes to race. But he made a broad sweeping generalization about the GOP and its hypocrisy about sexuality. I think these stories should be looked at as individual circumstances and judged as individual circumstances.
L.Z., by your own standard, I just don't know how you apply a broad generalization to an entire party, entire ideology and apply hypocrisy to it. I just don't know how you can do that by your own standard.
LEMON: L.Z.?
GRANDERSON: Well, I can give you a long list of examples but I don't know if we can take up Don's show like that. We certainly have plenty of examples of both people in religious front as well as the political front who happen to be GOP candidates, who happen to be anti-gay or linked to anti-gay organizations, and then we find out later that they are somehow either wrestling with sexual orientation or involved with these kind of flames --
CAIN: I just don't know
GRANDERSON: You're right.
CAIN: I just don't know what broader conclusion we're trying to reach with that.
LEMON: OK.
So, Will, listen, I get both your points, and I think that both of you do have a point to some extent on this issue. So, we'll stop it there.
But, Will, my question is the Arizona primary is nine days away. Is it going to have any impact, any at all, on the Romney campaign?
CAIN: I can't see it having one, Don. I can't see that there's any broader application. It seems to be my message in this story.
I can't see what the broader implication or the broader narrative or the broader effect this has on politics in general. L.Z. and you, Don, were talking a minute ago about why he would resign from Mitt Romney's campaign but not his own congressional race. I think the answer to that is pretty clear. I do think there's any kind of conspiracy regarding the GOP and homosexuality there.
I think this guy is now involved in a story that potentially deals with the abuse of power and around a story like that, you're going to have a hornet's nest of bad press. He apparently doesn't want to bring that on Mitt Romney's campaign but is willing to take that on for himself. I don't see any broader political implications.
LEMON: I think there is an abuse power thing, but I also think there is something as well about being openly gay and saying it and running on that platform and being the leader of Mitt Romney's campaign in that state and being open about it, rather than sort of going the opposite way and having to come out after some scandal. I think L.Z. has a very good point with that.
So, it's going to be about abuse of power --
CAIN: I think Log Cabin Republicans
LEMON: -- but it's also, it's also --
CAIN: I think Log Cabin Republicans or GOProud might have some issues with you guys. There are such things as gay Republicans.
LEMON: I'm not saying, I'm not saying these guys --
GRANDERSON: We didn't say there were no such things as gay Republicans. We didn't say anything at all about there not being a gay Republican. And I used to be a member of the Log Cabin Republicans when I lived in New York. So, I know there are gay Republicans.
My problem is, is that, one, he seems to resign when people found out that he was gay, and that's my issue. It's like that has something that says really, really poorly about how he feels that he would be accepted back as a volunteer with Mitt Romney's campaign.
CAIN: That's not the only thing going on in this story. That's not the only --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: OK. That's it. I just said that. I just said it's not the only thing. It's abuse of power and also what L.Z. said. So I'm not taking any side. I see both your points but thank you very much.
We're going to get back to you, L.Z. and Will. Don't go anywhere.
CAIN: See you in a minute.
LEMON: We're going to talk about the presidential race in about five minutes here on CNN. CNN is going to ask Sheriff Babeu some of these very same questions that we posed here when he's our guest exclusively on "A.C. 360." It's tomorrow night, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Make sure you tune in.
Whitney Houston now in her final resting place. The music legend was buried today during a private ceremony in Westfield, New Jersey. Her plot is next to her father's, John Houston.
Yesterday, Houston was remembered in a star-studded funeral service at her hometown church in Newark, New Jersey. Her ex-husband, Bobby Brown, left early because he says he was asked to move too many times and security kept him from seeing his daughter Bobbi Kristina.
And then last night, he did honor Whitney on stage during a performance with his group New Edition.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOBBY BROWN, WHITNEY HOUSTON'S EX-HUSBAND: I want to give blessings to my ex-wife, Whitney Houston. I love you. I want to give a lot of blessings to my kids, my fiancee, my brothers, and all of you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: There are still so many questions about how Houston died, but toxicology results are still weeks away.
The residents of Homs, Syria, woke to a familiar sound today.
Relentless shelling as security forces hammered their town for the 16th straight day. Opposition activists say 10 people were killed there today, 13 more were killed across Syria.
Rebels are still scrambling to organize in the north. Members of the armed insurgency say they're receiving no support from the outside world. One commander described it as the orphaned revolution.
CNN has just learned that three people have been killed in an avalanche in Washington state. This information is just coming in a short time ago. King County sheriff's officials say another two people received medical care.
CNN's Jacqui Jeras joins me now.
So, Jacqui, where is this? And what's the weather like where they are now?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, well, this is in Washington state, Don. And we put together a Google Earth to give you an idea of where it is, in the Cascades Mountain. They've been receiving in the last 24 hours some pretty heavy snowfall, over a foot, in fact.
And what happened here is some skiers at the ski resort went into what we call the backcountry or out of bounds skiing area and they believe that's what triggered the avalanche in this area and killed three people, two people were injured and it's our understanding now that the rest of the people that were involved have been accounted for. So that's the good news.
To put this in perspective for you, this is around highway 2. This is some webcams from the Washington Department of Transportation. And you can see the slope of the terrain here.
You know, this time of the year, we get frequent snowstorms that move through the area and the layers of snow will pile up on top of each other. If there's any melting or anything in between, that creates unstable conditions. And any little trigger, even something as little as a skier, can make things go off. So that's very unfortunate.
And here is just a map to give you an idea again of the location, the proximity to Seattle. This is a very well-known area. The snow has moved out, just make a couple snow showers now and that's about it, Don. So some sad news coming out of Washington state.
LEMON: Jacqui Jeras, thank you very much. We'll update you as we get more information here on CNN.
In the meantime, Republican candidate Rick Santorum says the government should not require health care providers to cover costs for prenatal testing. We have reaction to that controversial stance.
And also, when did slavery really end in the United States? If you think it was after the civil war, right after, you're wrong, according to a noted journalist. We'll talk with him straight ahead here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum is not playing it safe in his new role as primary challenger to Mitt Romney. He's made several remarks in recent days that set the political world on fire.
I want to bring in CNN contributor Will Cain in New York; L.Z. Granderson in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He's, of course, a contributor to CNN.com and a senior writer at ESPN.
OK, you guys -- are we all friends now? Is everybody fine?
(LAUGHTER)
CAIN: We always have been. GRANDERSON: We'll always be friends.
LEMON: I'm just joking. For the people at home, it was like you guys are mad at each other on Twitter. I'm like -- no, we're just having a conversation.
All right. Let's start with Santorum's comments about President Obama's, quote, "theology," right? Take a look at what Santorum said yesterday followed by reaction from the Obama campaign. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's not about you. It's not about you. It's not about your quality of life. It's not about your jobs.
It's about some phony ideal, some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology, but none -- no less a theology.
(APPLAUSE)
ROBERT GIBBS, OBAMA CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST: I can't help but think that those remarks are well over the line. It's wrong. It's destructive. It makes it virtually impossible to solve the problems that we all face together as Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
LEMON: So, Will, Rick Santorum said this morning that he wasn't questioning the president's Christianity. So, why did he use the word theology? He's been around for a while. He knows what he's doing.
CAIN: It's inappropriate. I don't know why he used it, Don, but I do think it's an inappropriate use of verbiage, I mean, because whether or not it's intended or not, it is going to have those implications for a broad range of people out there. Did he know that?
I just can't get inside his mind. I can't be that strategic about it. I don't know, but the bottom line is people out there are going to hear someone invoking religion and in a way that is a non-Christian religious context to say -- to suggest President Obama isn't a Christian. That's the bottom line. It's going to imply that President Obama is not a Christian. That's inappropriate.
LEMON: And I think that's the way most people are reading it. So, L.Z., do you think it's strategic. Will says he's not sure if it was.
GRANDERSON: Well, I tend to think it was strategic. It's just another code word that he's using to remind people that he's not like us.
LEMON: OK. OK.
GRANDERSON: He is different from us.
LEMON: I got it, I got it.
So, L.Z., Santorum said today that insurance companies shouldn't be required to cover prenatal testing because certain tests often lead to abortions. Are comments like these calculated moves in his part as well?
GRANDERSON: You know, whenever he says things like this, I just wish that people in the area would just ask themselves or ask Santorum, what do you base this on of? What facts are you using? Did you interview a bunch of doctors and this is what they've told you? Have you interviewed patients and this is what they told you? Why are you saying these things?
You know, he says a lot of things like this to challenge President Obama. He doesn't get challenged himself on the facts. And I think that's really disturbing and it skews away from the larger conversation about health care.
LEMON: L.Z. -- I mean, Will, if you want to weigh in quickly.
CAIN: I just love to kind of put this comment about prenatal care in context. Rick Santorum is opposed to amniocentesis and prenatal screening for some reason, whatever reasons he has, he's opposed to it. Call him a knuckle dragger, call him backwards, whatever you want. It's his view. He doesn't want the government to ban prenatal testing. He's not trying to seek that out.
But what he's opposed is to the government forcing private employers to include it for free in their health care plans. And I and many conservatives are opposed to the government forcing employers to provide many things in their health care plan. This should be a matter of choice and volunteerism between an employer and their employee. This is a broader problem with Obamacare.
LEMON: OK. Listen --
GRANDERSON: Will, did you say he's pro-choice?
LEMON: What did you say?
GRANDERSON: Did you say he's pro-choice?
CAIN: Are you playing off my words or asking if Santorum is pro- choice?
GRANDERSON: No, you said you want it to be a choice. So I'm saying, yes, are you pro-choice?
CAIN: Am I pro-choice versus pro-life in the abortion debate?
GRANDERSON: No pro-choice versus no choice.
CAIN: I'm not following you, L.Z. You're going to help me out.
LEMON: All right. Let's move on.
CAIN: All right. That's right.
LEMON: He's referring to mandatory health care. We get it. It was a moment but the moment is passed because you're not getting it.
So, listen, let's move on, Will. I want to talk about Michigan. A new poll shows that Santorum and Romney basically are tied in the state where Romney grew up. If Romney loses, are we looking at this race lasting into the summer?
CAIN: Well, it's going to last a long time, Don. It might last all the way to the convention. Let's say this -- it takes 1,144 delegates to win the Republican nomination, and between now and that convention, there are many states that are proportional delegate awards. They're not winner-take-all.
So, it's going to be hard to putting together those delegates. If you lose Michigan, you lose momentum, you lost a lot of things.
LEMON: It's going to be an interesting election. So, thank you. We have to get -- all of us should be in the same room at some point to conduct these interviews because I think your discussion is very lively and very watchable. So thank you both. See you next week, all right?
GRANDERSON: Thank you.
CAIN: Sorry I got confused.
LEMN: Well, it's not the first time, Will.
Next, a powerful report about slavery in America. It may not have ended when you think it did after the civil war. Pulitzer Prize- winning journalist explains this right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Did slavery in America really end in 1865 with the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Douglas Blackmon says there was a systematic re-enslavement of African-Americans that continued well into the 20th century, ending as recently as 50 or 60 years ago.
Blackmon's book is titled "Slavery by Another Name." It was turned into feature documentary and shown at the Sundance Film Festival. And I had a chance to talk with him about his book. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Why would you quite honestly a white man from the South take on this particular topic?
DOUGLAS BLACKMON, AUTHOR, "SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME": I grew up in a place in Mississippi that was -- where there were more black people than there were white. I went to schools where overwhelming black in the public school in the 1970s primarily. And for whatever reason, from really early on in life, I was sort of possessed with trying to understand why were things the way they were. Why were all the black people I knew facing such greater difficulty in their lives than I faced in mine.
And so, I began to write about civil rights and write about this question of race at a very early age and have been doing it for a long, long time now.
LEMON: Your book is an investigation of American corporations using slave labor after slaves were free. What did you learn?
BLACKMON: Well, I learned that after the civil war, after a period of time right after the civil war, when the emancipated slaves were, indeed, free for a period of time, they were in tough times, but they were authentically free, but then began this great campaign all across the Southern states to essentially re-enslave large numbers of African-Americans. And over the ensuing decades, a whole new system of slavery emerged partly through the criminal justice system but also just through the terrible means of economic exploitation of African- Americans in the rural areas of the deep Deep South.
But it was a return of slavery and a very really kind of slavery in which people were being bought and sold and abused terribly.
LEMON: OK. So, people are going to say what does that mean? What does that mean today?
BLACKMON: Well, what it means is that slavery didn't end 150 years ago, and so that any time you're in a conversation when somebody says to you, well, why are we still talking about all this stuff? Why are we still having a conversation? Why are black people still complaining about disparities? It's been 150 years since slavery ended, why can't they just get over it?
Well, that's fundamentally untrue. Slavery didn't really begin to recede from American life on a big scale until more like 50 or 60 years ago. And in many respects, there were vestiges of this that continue right up into the '60s, right up to -- our life times and for sure, there are thousands of elderly African-Americans alive today who were born on farms in south Georgia or south Alabama or South Carolina who were born into slavery in their childhoods. And for us to deny that is to deny one of the most important aspects of American history in the past 100 years.
LEMON: Tell us about a couple of descendants names, Tonya Groomes and Susan Burnore. Who are they and what was your influence on them?
BLACKMON: In the case of Tonya Groomes, it was that she's a descendant of the main character in the book and the main character in the film whose name was Green Cottenham. And he was an African- American, young African-American man who was arrested on a specious charge in 1908. He was sold into slavery in a coal mine in Alabama operated by U.S. Steel Corporation, and he died there under terrible circumstances a few months later.
Susan Burnore is a white woman, and she's the great granddaughter of a man named John Williams who lived in Georgia and who in 1921, after there was a brief investigation into that he was holding large numbers of African-American men as slaves to try to avoid prosecution, he murdered all of the black men who were on his farm and there were at least 11 bodies found.
And so these two women who come from -- whose ancestry goes back to the opposite sides of this terrible chapter of American history, both came forward, and they both have these beautiful perspectives and wonderful ways of discussing exactly what you've been asking about. And that is: what does this matter in modern life?
LEMON: It's fascinating. The documentary fascinating, the book fascinating. Thank you, Douglas Blackmon.
BLACKMON: Thanks for having me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Next, those two women we just spoke about join me in the studio here and you'll hear their compelling stories in their own words. That's right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Before the break we told you about a powerful book, called "Slavery By Another Name," that was recently turned into a documentary. It looks at African-Americans who were freed after the Civil War but later re-enslaved.
Two women share emotional stories about their relatives on opposing sides of the slave controversy. Susan Burnore is the great granddaughter of a slave owner who murdered 11 slaves to hide evidence of slavery. Tonya Groomes discovered her great grandfather was a free man, falsely arrested on a trumped-up charge of vagrancy and made a slave until he died.
We begin with Tonya talking about her great grandfather.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TONY GROOMES, ANCESTOR ENSLAVED AFTER CIVIL WAR: Green Cottingham represents these people who, but for the detailed research, they would have disappeared completely. What we didn't realize is people were being re-enslaved on a large scale. They were working for companies as leased labor but their crimes, as in the case of my late ancestor, vagrancy, which means I can't prove you have a job. So if you couldn't prove you had a job and you were an African-American male, you can be picked up at any time, forced into labor where the sheriff's department or the courts may receive payment for your work but you never do. And often times, it was brutal. And unfortunately, in the case of Green Cottingham, he does not survive. LEMON: Susan, your great grandfather, John Williams, murdered 11 black workers. He was essentially using them as slaves, the 11 black workers, and their bodies to avoid prosecution, right?
SUSAN BURNORE, ANCESTOR MURDERED TO COVER UP SLAVERY: Mm-hmm
LEMON: I want to play a very powerful moment from you in the film.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BURNORE: I just got so emotional to think about not just the fact that these men were murdered but the cruelty with which it was carried out. That's what's hardest for me to imagine and hardest to accept.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So, Susan, it's decades later. Do you have any guilt about that at all? How do you feel about that?
BURNORE: I can't say it was guilt because it was 90 years ago, long before I was born, before even my father was born.
LEMON: Yes.
BURNORE: Still, it's just -- it's a horrible thing to know about your family. However, I have known this about my family for quite a while.
LEMON: And people shouldn't be guilty because, as we said, this is American history. If there's any shame in it, it's not to know it and accept it and talk about it.
BURNORE: That's what was so remarkable about this book and this film, that I already knew my family's history, but I didn't know how widespread this problem was. I didn't know that it really is a big part of American history.
LEMON: So what do you want people to get out of this, Susan? Many people who would say why dredge this up. We know this is so painful. Why do this to yourself and to us?
BURNORE: Well, we don't dredge it up or I don't dredge it up because of anything good for my family. It's very painful to read about these things and talk about these things. But I think it's important for our country, important for our education system that they include this information, because all of us growing up never knew this, never knew this problem that existed for so many years with thousands and thousands of people.
LEMON: And ignorance is not bliss, right?
BURNORE: No.
(LAUGHTER)
GROOMES: No, it is not. It is not. And I think what we do is we sort of rehabilitate the reputation of the, you know, 20th century African-American because these people worked extremely hard. Your choice was to work hard or die. And people didn't even know what happened. A lot of times these people would disappear and you wouldn't know what happened to your relative, and that's how they were lost in our own family history.
And in the course of this book, you know, our family is not only -- we discover this ancestor, who probably disappeared -- he was the first cousin of my great grandfather. And you can imagine, even though he was one person, how horrifying it would be to live under that fact. But the beauty of it is that these people -- and I did talk to a lot of my older ancestors. They weren't broken. They weren't pitiful. So I guess instead of me seeing them as victims, I kind of see them as survivors.
LEMON: Did you guys ever have a chance to talk to each other before this project? Did you even know each other?
(CROSSTALK)
GROOMES: No, we met through the project.
LEMON: And then what happened? Tell me what happened.
BURNORE: It's funny, but it seems like we met and immediately had a connection. We have a lot of things in common, even though our stories about this particular project come from totally different positions. But we just hit it off and we've been hanging out some.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Thank you very much, ladies. Very interesting conversation. Appreciate you joining us here on CNN.
For more on "Slavery By Another Name," visit our blog, CNN.com/inamerica or CNN.com/don as well. We'll put that segment on there for you. Also catch the full documentary airing on your local PBS stations.
Up next here on CNN, a weather update, including winter troubles in the east and the west.
And later, they're training female ninjas -- female ninjas in Iran. We'll explain what this is all about coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: The Appalachians and the mid-Atlantic have been getting pelted with snow and the weather picture is similar in parts of the western U.S.
Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras, following the snowstorms from the CNN Severe Weather Center.
Are they really bad?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, it's bad for travelers, I'll tell you that. It's been big, fat, wet snowflakes across the Virginias and into the central Appalachians. There you can see the video. This is out of Roanoke, and there's only been about an inch of snow so far in the city itself, but you get up into the higher elevations, and we've seen as much as seven inches. So visibility has been very poor. The roadways have been wet. Certainly slick over the bridges and overpasses. And as temperatures drop down tonight, we're concerned about that really freezing up and creating that black ice as we call it, and that's going to carry over into your morning drive. Even, you know, if you may be out for president Presidents' Day you still want to keep that in mind. The heavy snow continues to come down. This is where the heaviest accumulations really have been. And now the real intense snowfall is pushing into eastern parts of Virginia. Norfolk, you're just rain right now but you are going to see that transition over, so expect that as we head into the evening hours for tonight.
Our second storm right here into parts of the Rockies. That's going to move into the plains for tomorrow. We're going to see rain, sleet, and snow, especially on the northern tier of the system -- Don?
LEMON: Jacqui, thank you very much.
You're going to like this next story. You're going to be interested in it because I know a lot of people are. Look at this. More than 3,000 women, Jacqui, being trained as ninjas. What's going on? In a country you might not expect. Find out why coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Thousands of women taking part in some unexpected training in Iran. They're learning how to be ninja fighters. They say they'll use their martial arts skills to defend their country if it is necessary.
CNN's international desk editor, Azadeh Ansari, takes us "Globe Trekking."
Azadeh, tell us about this school in Tehran. The video is interesting. They are --
AZADEH ANSARI, CNN INTERNATIONAL DESK EDITOR: They're serious.
LEMON: -- acrobatic. They're serious.
ANSARI: They are not messing around.
LEMON: Right.
ANSARI: The school started in 1989 and there are about 3,500 women that are officially in training for Japanese ninjitsu. And you can see them here. This is a segment that ran on the Iranian state-run channel, Press TV. And ever since this segment recently ran, it got a lot of buzz online. And these women, look, you can see them doing --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Can we hear them? Can we hear them?
ANSARI: You can here them.
LEMON: Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SHOUTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Wow, don't mess with them.
ANSARI: You can see they're showing off their techniques and all --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Is this unusual in Iran?
ANSARI: It's not unusual, but it is gaining a lot of traction and a lot of popularity, Don, especially among the women. Why is that? Because it appeals to them. It's a form of self empowerment in a country where they feel like their personal expressions are limited. And so it's a sport. And women are really taking to it. And they have students as young as 5 up to 56 years old.
LEMON: I can't get enough of this video.
(LAUGHTER)
Seriously. If they have to defend their country, they will.
ANSARI: Well, I mean, these are -- they're not doing this -- not a state-runt thing.
(CROSSTALK)
ANSARI: Right. They're not in the army but it's more of a personal choice that they do, to take this on as a recreational activity, but, possibly.
LEMON: Wow. OK. I'll stop looking at the video. I think it's so cool. I could watch that all day.
(LAUGHTER)
But this is going to be great video, too. Rio de Janeiro.
ANSARI: Indisputably --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Carnival under way. It's more than parades.
ANSARI: It is. And, we know it is indisputably the biggest party on the planet. LEMON: Bigger than Mardi Gras? Yes, I guess it is.
ANSARI: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: You know, Louisiana boy, I got to put it in there. Fat Tuesday is Tuesday.
ANSARI: Right.
LEMON: But anyway, go ahead.
ANSARI: Sure. But sometimes getting seats at the actual Carnival festivities can be very expensive. They can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars -- hundreds of dollars, and depending where you sit and how you participate, the price can go up. But what Brazilians do, they are probably the biggest partiers in the world.
(LAUGHTER)
They're not going to stop. If they can't get to the show, they will throw a party in their neighborhoods. And this is some footage we're seeing here from earlier today out of Rio de Janeiro. They're called these block parties. They're drinking, having a good time. The music continues sometimes into the early hours of the morning. But this year, the government has stepped in and said, you can have a good time, but they have taken an official stance against urinating in public. They have put 15,000 Port-o-Potties up across the city.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: Well, I hope so.
ANSARI: Yes, and they actually have this TV ad running on Brazilian TV with a catchy samba tune that says, you know, don't pee, more or less.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: I hope so.
(LAUGHTER)
It's OK to -- I'm not going there.
ANSARI: Have a good time but --
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: Have a good time. But really there are limits.
Thank you.
ANSARI: You're welcome.
LEMON: Appreciate it, Azadeh. Have fun down in New Orleans for Mardi Gras going on right now.
OK, ESPN takes action after a controversial Jeremy Lin headline, one that could be interpreted as an ethnic slur. That's after the break.
But first this. Each week CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta profiles innovators from all walks of life and all fields of endeavor. The program is called "The Next List." Next Sunday, he talks to Yves Behar, the industrial designer of creative things, like the $100 laptop and the wireless speaker jam box. Here is a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YVES BEHAR, INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER: When we started designing the $100 laptop, we were just looking at, how do you protect the keyboard and the screen. How do children sort of carry it around? We set aside between 10 percent and 30 percent of our work hours towards those kinds of projects.
I can't tell you that that's just what made business sense every month. But I can tell you that's what made human sense every month.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: One ESPN employee was fired and an anchor suspended over a phrase used to describe Jeremy Lin. The headline referenced the Knicks loss to the Hornets Friday night, but the comments could be interpreted as an ethnic slur. Did Lin fans find it offensive?
Susan Candiotti joins us now from New York on what fans and Lin himself are saying.
What are they saying, Susan?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. They are not at all happy about it, many of the fans that we spoke with in Chinatown today. That ESPN headline that ran on its mobile web site read, "Chink in the Armor," and it came after the New York Knicks lost to the New Orleans, which ended a seven-game winning streak, thanks largely in part to that sensational player, Jeremy Lin.
Well, after that, ESPN today fired, as you said, the headline writer and also suspended for 30 days an ESPN anchor who also used the same phrase.
ESPN also offered this statement, an apology that read, in part, "We again apologize, especially to Mr. Lin. His accomplishments are a source of great pride in the Asian-American community, including Asian-American employees at ESPN."
Asian-American fans that we spoke with called the comments insensitive at best and an ethnic slur at worse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You wouldn't say "N" world or any racist tone to any other race, for that matter, so why should Chinese be excluded?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's inappropriate. It is. And he should be treated like any other player. It shouldn't be -- I don't know. I don't think race should be a factor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: All right. I hope you can all appreciate the ambience that we're getting from the drums beating behind me. But Jeremy Lin addressed this issue and he is a bit more philosophical about it. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEREMY LIN, NBA PLAYER: ESPN has apologized. There's no -- I don't -- I don't think it was on purpose or whatever but, at the same time, they've apologized. So from my end, I don't care anymore. I have to learn to forgive. And I don't even think that was the intention, or hopefully not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: You know, we watched part of the game this afternoon at a bar called Libation. Fans taking in all of the Linsanity. But other Asian-American fans were telling us they hope throughout all of this that Jeremy Lin's play can help ease the stereotypes of all Asian- American athletes.
LEMON: Right, Susan Candiotti, thank you very much. We appreciate that. As we mentioned, Jeremy Lin is the talk of the NBA. And his influence is reaching beyond our basket ball, even beyond our borders. I'll talk about it with Jon Wertheim, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Well, from a nobody to a sports sensation, I'm talking about Jeremy Lin, the New York Knicks basketball player that has taken the league by storm in an unforgettable season.
We will talk about it with Jon Wertheim, a senior investigative report with "Sports Illustrated."
The new S.I. cover featuring, you guessed it, Jeremy Lin.
Jon joins us now.
He is in -- Jon, where are you?
JON WERTHEIM, SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED: Philadelphia.
LEMON: Good.
WERTHEIM: A little different this week.
LEMON: I'm glad you're not in Chinatown.
(LAUGHTER)
Did you see SNL last night? What did you think of that skit?
WERTHEIM: People have had to tread carefully. I hate thought -- this is such a great sports story. I seriously hate that it's masking what a great story this is. A couple of insensitive --
(CROSSTALK)
WERTHEIM: -- racial remarks.
LEMON: Yes.
WERTHEIM: It's a great story on all sorts of levels.
LEMON: The Knicks won again today. Lin had 28 points in career high, 14 assists. How could a guy this good fly under the radar? Two other teams gave up on him.
WERTHEIM: And basically the whole league had a look at him. It's a great question. A lot of general managers have got to do some explaining to their owners. But if you look at his game, it's not necessarily flashy. He needs to be in the right situation. He's talked about this. He's been very outspoken. So much talent and evaluation is now based on metrics and analytics and statics. His game doesn't translate well to those numbers. He needs to be in the right situation and, now that he is -- again, this is a great, great story. I don't know how you short change this. Again, against the Mavericks today, this is two weeks now of just sensational play. This was a guy who, Super Bowl weekend, was on the verge of being -- it's great. It's a great story.
LEMON: I think it's great, too. Remember, we were talking about is the NBA going to have a season? The networks so upset, all the sponsors. It wasn't great news about the NBA. And then you have Jeremy Lin. I think you're right. We're missing the story here. Yes, it's great. And I think that Jeremy Lin, if he's the person to shed light on what some could be deemed racist, and on this when it comes to the Asian-American community, then so be it. That's great. But we're missing the broader point, right?
WERTHEIM: Yes. And the NBA could not have ordered this better. Right after the Super Bowl, here comes this guy in New York. And we have this compressed season because of the lockout. What it means is that this sensation, if you don't like him tonight, he's playing again tomorrow. He's playing four or five games in a week, that's fueled this whole phenomena again, too.
LEMON: Yes. And we talked about -- I don't even know if we need to go on and talk about all of these punts. The guy who was suspended -- I don't want to play that. It's much to do about nothing and I think you're right. But, listen, I think he is foreseeing people to sort of change their minds about what an NBA player looks like. WERTHEIM: Yes. I mean, let's not be naive. Not a lot of Asian players or Harvard grad. At the same time, this is basketball. We've had Yow Ming (ph). Who was the star of the playoffs last year? German-born Dirk Lowitsky (ph). There's even an Iranian player for the Memphis Grizzlies. So I think the ethnicity is definitely a component of this. I think the better part of the story is, who knows, this guy at the end of the bench on the verge of being sent down to the minors, put in the right situation, he can score a t38 against Colby (ph). He can lead his team to beat the Mavericks. I think it's angle, that sort of talent evaluation is inexact and a lot of these bench players could be starts. That, to me, is much more compelling than, oh, he went to Harvard.
LEMON: And all-star event next weekend, which I think is great.
WERTHEIM: Right.
LEMON: He's a star now. He's pleaded with the media in Taiwan to give his family space. He says they are even following his relatives to work. He's a world-wide phenom.
WERTHEIM: Social media is a big catalyst in all of this, too. The acceleration of all of this. Again, Super Bowl weekend, people barely heard of this guy. But the -- I think sort of the swiftness of all this is interesting too. It's a great, great story, great sports story.
LEMON: Thank you, Jon Wertheim. Appreciate you joining us from Philadelphia tonight.
