[Soledad O'brien, Cnn Anchor:] Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro, New York Congressman Peter King, and actor Gabriel Mock, the star of the hit show "Suits."
[John Berman, Cnn Anchor:] I love that show.
[O'brien:] That's ahead. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello begins right now. Yes, you can come back tomorrow for that. Hey, Carol, good morning.
[Carol Costello, Cnn Anchor:] Good morning. And thank you. Happening in the NEWSROOM, fireball in London. A deadly crash as a helicopter slams into a construction crane. New details on what may have caused this frightening accident. Under the gun. Much of the eastern United States, from Louisiana to Maine, getting rain, snow, and ice. And this is just the beginning. An arctic blast plunging south. Champion cash. A startling look at the money, the players and the influence. SEC schools spending the most three times what most people earn in a year. It's an eye-opening look at the athletes and the almighty dollar. Plus this.
[Shiraz Khan, Austin Resident:] I don't know if I want this guy to be the face of Austin anymore.
[Costello:] Outrage at the cyclist and the confession and now will cycling be booted out of the Summer Olympics because of Lance Armstrong? NEWSROOM starts now. And good morning. Thank you so much for being with me, I'm Carol Costello. We begin this morning with a spectacular and horrifying helicopter crash in the heart of London. The chopper hit a construction crane high atop a building shrouded in fog and the flaming wreckage rained down on rush hour traffic below. Zain Verjee is in London with all the latest details. Good morning, Zain.
[Zain Verjee, Cnn International Anchor:] Good morning, Carol. Can you imagine going to work, it's a typical day, cold, foggy, rainy in London, and something like this happens? Well, thousands of commuters were facing this exact situation. Thick fog, plumes of smoke and fireballs raining down in lines from the sky. Basically what happened was a helicopter went off course. You know, police are going with the theory one of them at least of the issue of poor visibility at that time, crashed into a crane, got its rotor blades snapped off and then took part of the crane with it and then just came crashing down onto the ground onto one of the main roads that you're looking in that video. That is called Wandsworth Road. And it apparently landed right on top of two cars. Police are saying two people are dead, 13 are injured, one critically. And a man they say ambulance services pulled someone out from a burning car. So police are saying, Carol, this is a total miracle that it wasn't worse. I mean, this was at, like, 8:00 a.m. local time and there's traffic, but an hour later there would have been way more people there Carol.
[Costello:] That's just amazing. And just to make it clear, terrorism was not involved. It appears to be a tragic accident.
[Verjee:] Yes. Police have ruled that out. I mean, they're looking in to what exactly happened obviously. You know, one of the things that we immediately sparked off the possibility of terrorism right at the beginning with the fact that the British intelligence headquarters, MI-6, is actually located right in that area of Vauxhall. Now, I don't know, Carol, if you've seen "Skyfall," OK? But you know that scene just just on the Thames River where the building burst into flames on one part of the floor, well, that is exactly where MI-6 is. Partly also in that area you've got businesses. There's a major market. There are major housing developments and actually the U.S. embassy is supposed to be moving to Vauxhall. This is going to be the area of the new location of the embassy. At this time of day, too, Carol, it was totally packed with commuters. Think of Penn Station, right? Like that's a main thoroughfare and a main point where travelers coming into New York City will get off at. Well, this is exactly the same thing. People were totally stranded. Hundreds of people just decided to walk to work because there was no other option. One of the main issues right now, Carol, is that crane. You know, remember during Hurricane Sandy the focus was on that crane in New York City? Well, it's dangling dangerously right now. Police are focusing on that area. They've cordoned it off and they're asking people just to stay away from that scene, so that's really what could potentially provide the greatest threat.
[Costello:] All right. Zain Verjee reporting live for us from London. Also this morning new concerns for the airliner that's been billed as the future for air travel. Just hours after the new 787 was forced to make an emergency landing, Japan's major airlines grounded their entire fleet at half of the 50 Dreamliners in service all around the world. And today's incident the crew reported battery problems and a burning smell. It's the latest in a series of incidents over the past 10 days. Those concerns had already prompted U.S. and Japanese officials to conduct their own safety reviews. Problems over the past week and a half include a battery fire, a braking problem and two fuel leaks. Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines have returned their Dreamliners to service as early as tomorrow, but safety and production concerns are weighing on the American manufacturer. Boeing stocks fell nearly 5 percent in pre-market trading this morning. We'll have to wait until tomorrow night to hear exactly what Lance Armstrong had to say to Oprah Winfrey, but whatever Armstrong says in the TV interview it will not be enough for the World Anti-Doping Agency. For Armstrong to come clean with them, he would have to make a full confession under oath and tell all he knows about doping activities. Then the group could reconsider its lifetime ban on Armstrong. There's also this development, with far greater significance. An International Olympic Committee an International Olympic Committee member suggests that if Armstrong implicates top cycling officials in widespread doping activities, the IOC could consider dropping the sport from the Olympics. CNN's George Howell is in Armstrong's hometown of Austin, Texas. Good morning, George.
[George Howell, Cnn Correspondent:] Carol, good morning. You know my hometown as well, and I actually worked here in Austin some 12 years ago. I covered a big citywide celebration with Lance Armstrong. It was 2001, just after he won the Tour de France three times, brought so many people together, some 15,000 people together if I remember correctly. It was a great celebration. Here you had an athlete who, you know, not only inspired the world but he was also a cancer survivor and people took note of that. But now when you think about Lance, you can't help but be disappointed and when you talk to people here in Austin, you can tell that they are looking at it differently.
[Khan:] Well, he's an icon here, you know. People looked up to him, they admired him, but now they're going to kind of look at him maybe in a little bit of negative light now, you know, like, do we really want Lance Armstrong to be the icon of Austin, Texas? I mean, that's a lot of people have that question in their mind now that, you know, I don't know if I want this guy to be the face of Austin anymore.
[Howell:] You know, there's also a bike path here in Austin. A lot's changed. There's a new bike path named after Lance Armstrong. There's the store, you know, that he co-owns, but, you know, some people are questioning whether that bike path should be renamed. People are thinking differently about him given what they expect to happen tomorrow when he will admit after years of denying it that he did take part, Carol, in doping.
[Cooper:] George Howell reporting live from Austin, Texas, this morning. Tomorrow at 3:00 Eastern we're going to have a half-hour special on why we cheat and we're not just focusing on Lance Armstrong. We'll take a look at everyone, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, anyone, or how about retired General David Petraeus. Why do we cheat? It's also going to be our "Talk Back" question. That's tomorrow, so you can weigh in. That's Facebook.comcarolCNN. Keep that in mind for tomorrow for that half-hour special beginning at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. And this just in to CNN, fourth quarter earnings in full swing on Wall Street and this week we're hearing from the big banks, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan reporting higher earnings before today's opening bell. Alison Kosik is digging in to those numbers for us, so let's start with Goldman.
[Alison Kosik, Cnn Business Correspondent:] OK, actually, let's start with JPMorgan.
[Costello:] OK.
[Kosik:] Because JPMorgan JPMorgan is going to catch your ear because I know you'll like this. You know that CEO Jamie Dimon, he had to take a huge pay cut, but besides that the company itself posted solid profits. JPMorgan actually made a profit of about $5.7 billion in the final three months of 2012. That's up more than 50 percent from a year ago. Now, if you look at banks overall, they've actually outperformed the broader market in the last year. You look at the you look at the KBW index is up 30 percent in 2012 compared with the S&P; 500 which was only up 13 percent. And you know what's driving these banks? The housing market recovery. We certainly saw that with JPMorgan. New mortgages totaled $1.6 billion, that's up more than 50 percent. The company also slashed the amount of money it holds in reserve to cover bad loans, and what shows is that credit conditions are improving. OK, so as for JPMorgan CEO, Jamie Dimon, he is paying the price for last spring's trade gone bad in London, the infamous London wale trade that cost the company more than $6 billion. Those were trades that were made they're making big bets on complex derivatives. The company the company says Dimon bears the ultimate responsibility, so guess what, the bank cut his total salary, which includes his bonus, they cut it in half to $11.5 million. I know, poor Jamie Dimon.
[Costello:] I'm glad he won't have to apply for food stamps.
[Kosik:] OK, Goldman had a strong finish as well. Also benefiting from the housing recovery and the credit conditions that are getting better. Goldman is booking a profit of almost $3 billion and that's triple from a year ago. And despite what CEO Lloyd Blankfein called a challenging economic conditions for most of the year, Goldman pretty much coming out very strong. What's most interesting with Goldman, Carol, is that there's this shift going on from making money on trading and investment management to Goldman getting most of its growth from lending money. You look at Goldman shares, they've recovered in 2012 from a really, really tough 2011. Shares lost almost half their value in 2011, most of it coming after the summer debt ceiling debate. Well, guess what? Shares of Goldman have gained 48 percent in 2012. The rally has continued this year. Goldman Sachs shares right now are up 2.5 percent in the premarket Carol.
[Costello:] All right, Alison Kosik reporting live from the New York Stock Exchange. Snow, ice and rain, a huge winter mess stretching from Maine to Mississippi. We hear there's a 40-mile backup in Massachusetts. We'll be right back.