Bush in Baghdad; New Jersey Ice Storm; Illinois Corruption Scandal; Remains Found
TJ HOLMES, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Well, U.S. troops in Iraq getting a lot of surprise visitors these days, just had Defense Secretary Robert Gates there yesterday, and look, President Bush today, in Baghdad. A surprise visit. We will take you to Iraq, live.</s>BETTY NGUYEN, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Also, the first lady is making news of her own. Find out what is on her mind as I sat down to speak with her. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, bringing you news from all around the world. Good morning, everybody on this Sunday. I'm Betty Nguyen.</s>HOLMES: And Hello to you all, I'm T.J. Holms, so glad you could be with us today. We will start in Iraq. President Bush has made it to that country, he's there right now, expected to be his farewell visit. He has made four visits all together, now. CNN's Michael Ware joins us now from Baghdad. Michael, hello to you, and do we know what is on his plate? We know a lot's on that plate, just speaking in general, but as far as this trip goes, what's on his agenda?</s>MICHAEL WARE, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I suspect there's more on his plate than he wishes to be handing over to another administration, that's for sure. Well, what we know is that President Bush landed roughly about two hours ago, which is late in the afternoon, here in Baghdad. Now, once he got off the tarmac, there was an arrival ceremony, and he was met by the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani. Now, from that arrival ceremony, it's believed he has a series of meetings with Iraq senior leadership, the</s>T.J. HOLMES: Michael, you talk there about everything sounds celebratory, ceremonial, but is anything substantial going to come out of this, and are the Iraqis pretty much looking forward to the administration and really holding off and waiting they know they got somebody else they're about to have to deal with?</s>WARE: Yeah, I mean, in many senses, we now have a caretaker in the White House. And let's face reality here, President-elect Obama campaigned on ending the war in Iraq, well, in many ways, the documents that President Bush is here to celebrate have already ended large chunks of the war, so -- and it wasn't done on U.S. terms. Yes, they're going to dress it up and make it sound pretty, but the agreement wrap U.S. combat troops up in such knots, so America's surrendered its ability to wage war. Nonetheless, the champagne will be flying --</s>T.J. HOLMES: The champagne flying, that sounds strange that champagne might be flying, but yes a farewell tour from the president. A last hurrah there. Michael Ware for us, certainly won't be your has hurrah in Iraq. We will see you again. Appreciate you.</s>NGUYEN: Well, back here in the state has been a long, hard cold night for crews trying to restore power in the northeast and you see exactly why -- trees, utility lines all over the region. And nearly 800,000 customers are without power, and the result of an ice storm that slammed into that region on Thursday and Friday. At least fourth deaths are blamed on the storm, three of them from carbon monoxide poisoning. I want you to take a look at New Jersey, today. Well, it's kind of pretty to look at, you see people hard at work, but all that ice has weighed down trees, utility lines still in the roadways, it's really making life hard for some, and it could be days, not hours, but days before power is restored.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just really brought everything to a complete stand still. You know, no lights, no roads, nothing, just cold and cold and creaking.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have been told by the state there may be people that are without electricity, and therefore heat for up to two weeks.</s>HOLMES: Dangerous, and not just uncomfortable, that's a dangerous situation for a lot of folks. Hundreds of utility crews have been busy throughout the night. Some areas more than half an inch of ice -- half an inch of ice covered just about everything. It takes that much ice a while to melt. And that stuff is heavy. Covered -- Reynolds, I know you have, as well, these things just paralyze an area, more so than snow and rain and flooding, even sometimes, an ice storm can shut an area down.</s>REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No question, I mean, an average tree, say, 30, 40 feet in height, can weigh up to four times with that coating of ice, additional weight on its normal weight. So I mean, yeah, when there's things snap and they break, they knock out the power lines. You have to keep in mind that for much of New England, you've got trees everywhere, so just people just trying to drive, it's not like they can just get in their car and drive easily to go get a space heater or anything. For one, they don't have any power, No. 2, the roadways are clogged, so they're going to have some serious issues. Things will get better in that part of the world, though today. They may say see some snow showers in parts of the Great Lakes, the Finger Lakes, too, but in terms of, for much New England, this situation should be getting a bit better. This morning in Columbus and Cincinnati, people waking up to rain drops, back over to places like Chicago, things are dry for the time being. Let's show you a live image we have out of Chicago, at this time. Here it is, CLTV, cloudy skies at this moment a bit of a breeze coming off the lake, but it should be interesting later on today, possibly some snowfall. As we go back to the weather computer, you can see Minneapolis, you have some scattered showers, then just to the north on parts of 35 and over to St. Cloud, it is all snow. Back into the northern plains, looking at snow and intense cold. We're talking temperatures that are subzero in many locations. That doesn't factor in the wind- chill, when those winds really kick up into the afternoon, it's going to be the equivalent of 40, maybe even 50 below zero later on today. Back into parts of Colorado, on 25 from Cheyenne southward to Denver even all the way down to say, Pueblo, you're going to be seeing the scattered snow showers, ski country, could definitely see some snow, there out of</s>NGUYEN: Yeah, welcome to the workweek.</s>WOLF: Oh, yeah.</s>NGUYEN: Thank you, Reynolds.</s>WOLF: Thank you guys.</s>NGUYEN: So, more problems ahead for Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, accused in the pay to play scandal. Tomorrow, the state's top congressional leaders, they are holding a special session to discuss motions to strip away his power and to impeach him. Blagojevich, who faces federal corruption charges, spent four hours yesterday holed up with high-profile defense attorney, Ed Jenson. He's represented people like media tycoon Conrad Black, who actually went to prison for defrauding is company. He also represented R & B singer R. Kelly, who was acquitted of child pornography charges this summer. As Blagojevich plans his next steps, we're also learning more about the type of contact the Obama administration has had with the governor. The "Chicago Tribune" reporting that President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff talked with Blagojevich about a possible Senate replacement. Now, the story does not suggest that Rahm Emanuel acted inappropriately, and sources tell CNN that he is not a target of the probe. Well, Chicago mayor, Richard Daley is calling out Blagojevich to, "Do the right thing."</s>MAYOR RICHARD DALEY (D), CHICAGO: He should, first of all, look at his family, and, also, understanding what the people of Illinois want, and he should do the right thing on behalf of his family, on behalf of the people of Illinois. I really believe that. He has to really look deep in his heart and his soul and figure that out. What is good for his family and for the people of Illinois.</s>NGUYEN: And up until now, Daley has been quiet about the federal corruption case against Blagojevich.</s>HOLMES: Well, the guy's been busy. He's been on the campaign trail for two years practically, he was just elected president, he's getting a day off, now. His day off comes a day after he reveals his choice for housing secretary. Yes, the president-elect in Chicago, taking it easy. Don't know what he'll be up to, but the work really never stops. But since he has a day off, we don't expect him to make any public appearances, today.</s>NGUYEN: But, an aide told us yesterday that Mr. Obama will meet with his economic team next week, and they're going to be talking about that stimulus package that they are working on, and we'll have folks really watching that closely as we all know we are in this recession.</s>HOLMES: All right, we will turn now to Alaska. You might remember a church that was at the center of some controversy during the campaign, because Governor Sarah Palin, you know, the VP pick on the Republican side. She actually made a speech there that some people found a bit controversial and where she connected God and the mission in Iraq. Well that's fire, you're looking at some video, there, of fire at that particular church. This is in Wasilla, her hometown. Investigators treating it as a potential arson case. Again, it's called Wasilla Bible Church. Nobody hurt here, but the damage is estimated at about $1 million. Now, Governor Palin actually stopped by the church yesterday, she offered an apology for any "undeserved negative attention" the church received during the campaign because of her. Meanwhile, still speaking about Governor Palin, here, former secretary of state Colin Powell has some choice words for the governor of Alaska, suggesting the GOP should rethink its emphasis on small- town values. Powell gave a interview to CNN's Fareed Zakaria.</s>FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: What do you think will happen to the Republican Party? You sounded concerned, then, and you always have been concerned about certain as secretaries of your party. Do you think it's moving in the right direction?</s>COLIN POWELL, FMR SECY OF STATE: We don't know yet. I think that in the latter months of the campaign, the party moved further to the right. Governor Palin, to some extent, pushed the party more to the right and I think that she had somewhat of a polarizing affect when she talked about small-town volumes are good. But, most of us were not raised in the small towns. I was raised in the south Bronx, and there is nothing wrong with my value system from the south Bronx. And I think the party has to take a hard look at itself. There's nothing wrong with being conservative, there's nothing wrong with having socially conservative views. I don't object to that. But if the party wants to have a future in the country, it has to face some realities. The Republican Party has to be appealing to Hispanics, to Blacks and Asians, because that's who we lost, to a large extent, in recent elections.</s>HOLMES: Now, Powell says that he is still a Republican, even though he endorsed President-elect Barack Obama. He says the GOP must stop shout at the world, his words. Well, is Colin Powell seeking a role in the Obama administration? You can find out that and a whole lot more in that exclusive interview with Fareed Zakaria, that's on GPS, Sunday, that's 1:00 Eastern, right here on</s>CNN. NGUYEN: Police in Woodburn, Oregon are beginning to identify possible suspects in a bomb blast that killed two officers. And that's according to the "Associated Press." But police captain Tom Tennant and state police bomb technician William Hakim, they both died Friday night. The two had been called to check on a suspicious device at a local bank, but when they took it inside that's when the device exploded. Woodburn's police chief was critically injured and so far there are no suspects that have been named. Meanwhile though, a vigil for the victims was held last night. A $35,000 reward is being offered for information leading to whoever left that bomb. In other news, the DNA results aren't back, but many people, including police, seem pretty confident that little Caylee Anthony's remains have been found. In Orlando, Florida, investigators continue to search woods were a child's remains turned up on Thursday, the discovery was made a half mile from the Anthony's house. The measurements and hair match Caylee. That said, they are waiting on conclusive DNA results before confirming anything.</s>HOLMES: All right, what if it does turn out to be Caylee? We'll have that answered, but that will lead to a whole lot more questions. We've got some questions here, we're going to ask those of our security analyst, Mike Brooks, he's here, as always, to help us out on such matters. Mike, glad to have you with us.</s>MIKE BROOKS, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Good to be here.</s>HOLMES: When we do have you, it means something bad is happening. But it's good to have you here with us. Help us here, we have, if it turns out to be in fact Caylee, how does -- what does a prosecutor do then? What is going to change-up their case?</s>BROOKS: Well the prosecutors had said, T.J., that they were not going to seek the death penalty against Casey, but now they could actually come back and put that back on the table again. If after all the conclusions come that there was an aggravated circumstance surrounding the death of Caylee Anthony, then they could put that back on the table. And they have got until they come to trial to decide, yes, we are going to do that.</s>HOLMES: How much does that, I guess, help a case in that just in the minds of jurors, if you are trying to prove a case with all of the circumstantial evidence, all of the stuff surrounding, but you still don't have a body, how does that change the case in the mind of jurors? How do you approach that?</s>BROOKS: Well, you know, having a body does help, but I've seen cases that were prosecuted without a body, it was all circumstantial and other forensics. There's a lot of evidence that we haven't heard about yet in this case, but now Thursday with the discovery of these remains that law enforcement believes it's Caylee, that could help push the death penalty back on the table again.</s>HOLMES: You see a lot of the evidence that we don't know about, if it is Caylee, again, if it is her, they're probably going to get a lot of evidence from that body, but also other evidence they are looking for at the grandparent's house. What are they looking for?</s>BROOKS: Well, you know, the sheriff said that some of the evidence they found at the scene led them back to the house, because Thursday night they put crime scene tape around the house, and they were back in there and they were there until about 2:00 a.m. on Friday morning doing a search. It was interesting what they took out. They took out four vacuum cleaners, and I'm saying to myself, why would they take out vacuum cleaners, one of them was a ShopVac. They're most likely looking for some trace evidence, some hairs, fibers that they found also on the scene. And they also had said that there was a piece of duct tape over the mouth of the skull that they found in the remains. Now, you get a lot of evidence from duct tape. You know, a lot of people when they tear the duct tape they'll leave fingerprint evidence on the adhesive side of that. There's also duct tape, apparently, around the bag. Now, they'll take all of this evidence is at the FBI lab Quantico, they should be able to separate that, get some finger prints -- possibly get some fingerprint evidence and other trace evidence that could have been at the scene and also back at the Anthony house.</s>HOLMES: Yeah, it's but evidentiary stuff, that we're talking about. That was just a horrible detail to hear that there was a piece of tape over the mouth, and again, we don't know for sure. Mike Brooks, we appreciate you as always, helping us on such matters. But again, we want to emphasize, don't know for sure yet if it's her. Police are saying they think it is, but waiting on the results. Mike, appreciate you as always, thank you, buddy.</s>NGUYEN: Well, the U.S. seems to be bleeding jobs. Where are the things really bad and how does your city stack up when it comes to jobs?