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Washington preps Presidential inauguration part two – Athena Jones reports
The nation's capital is abuzz with final preparations for President Barack Obama's inauguration to a second term on Monday at noon. Hundreds of thousands are expected to turn out on Capitol Hill, the National Mall and Pennsylvania Avenue for the parade.
Athena Jones is in Washington for us this morning with the latest on the preparations and the events scheduled for Monday.
While many are looking forward to the president’s second inauguration address, countless numbers are also looking forward to discovering what the First Lady is wearing to the ceremony. One thing we do know is that Michelle Obama has a new hairstyle.
CNN Trends: Te'oing is the new Tebowing
Manti Te'o girlfriend hoax has inspires a new meme: Photos of people posing with an arm around an invisible girlfriend explodes on the web.
Aurora shooting victim family member boycotts theater opening, argues theater using shooting as momentum for opening
Six months after the massacre in Aurora, the Century 16 movie theater where 12 people were killed and nearly 60 wounded is scheduled to roll its screens again. The Colorado theater will reopen to the public tommorrow, remodeled and renamed.
The newly renovated theater was opened this week for private visits from family members. A formal reopening dedicated to the remembrance of the tragedy will be held tonight. Aurora's mayor and Colorado's governor are expected to speak. But many families have decided not to attend tonight. Jessica Watts, whose cousin Jonathan Blunk was a victim of the shooting at Aurora, is one those boycotting the reopening. She joins us live from Denver this morning.
Watts says she has no interest in attending the theater’s reopening because she feels families are “being used as pawns” and as “momentum for their public ticket sales.” However, some families did visit the theater and said it was therapeutic for them. Watts believes “it depends on the healing process” whether some find it helpful or not. “All of us are at different stages of healing and grief and…different levels of trauma,” she says. “I know of a few family members that are going back, but I choose not to, just because I would rather focus my energy on…how we can make a change…in policies, kind of according to what President Obama wanted to do yesterday.”
The president proposed measures to curb gun violence yesterday, but it looks unlikely that the Senate will pass an assault weapons ban. Still, Watts feels hopeful. “Our pleas are being heard,” she says.
MYB: Boeing’s Dreamliner nightmare continues
Christine Romans look at how grounding Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes could affect the company's bottom line and drag down the markets.
CNN Trends: GQ names Beyoncé 'Miss Millennium'
Trending on the web this morning: Beyoncé is named "Miss Millennium" by "GQ" Magazine.
Yacht racer Alex Thomson on final stretch of Vendee Globe: 'It’s still on and anything can happen'
The Mount Everest of yacht racing is in its final leg. It's called the Vendee Globe, a grueling three-month race where competitors sail solo around the world. Harsh elements, loneliness and even possible death are some of the challenges they face in this 23,000 mile, non-stop race. Last summer, “Early Start” introduced you to one of the racers, Alex Thomson.
Today, we speak to him again live from from the Hugo Boss Racing Yacht in Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil. Making his third attempt, Thomson is currently in fourth place in the last stretch of the race.
Sailing in the trade winds about 100 miles off the coast of Brazil, Thomson says he feels great and he can’t believe it’s already been 60 days into the race. “I’ve had a good race so far and I’m in the final stages,” he says. “The boat’s a little bit tired, I’m a little bit tired, but it’s still on, and anything can happen.”
Daily Beast's McKinnon: GOP must 'get on board...or continue to dig our ditch deeper' on gun control
This morning, President Obama has his gun task force's recommendations in his hands. Yesterday, during the last press conference of his first term, he said that he'd be reviewing some steps he could take to advance his gun control priorities.
“What you can count on is that the things that I've said in the past, the belief that we have to have stronger background checks, that we can do a much better job in terms of keeping these magazine clips with high capacity out of the hands of folks who shouldn't have them, an assault weapons ban that is meaningful, that those are things I continue to believe make sense,” President Obama says.
Daily Beast contributor Mark McKinnon, also co-founder of No Labels, takes on the GOP's position on guns for destroying the party and comes to “Early Start” this morning to explain.
He suggests Republicans come forward with their own proposal for gun legislation because there are gun control measures that Republicans support which have nothing to do with the Second Amendment. McKinnon urges Republicans not to be defensive about it.
“Don’t wait for the Democrats to come out with an agenda, then simply respond to it,” he says. “Have a Republican agenda. Let’s have a Republican plan on guns.”
He believes Republicans would “get a lot of points” for saying, “we want to protect our rights, but we want to make sure that we do background checks, that...we do mental health checks,” he explains. “Those things just make common sense.”
McKinnon believes change is on its way, “and if Republicans don’t get on board and acknowledge and be part of it, then I think we’ll continue to dig our ditch deeper.”
Vice President Biden shares gun control recommendations with President Obama; White House Correspondent Dan Lothian reports
Aurora, Newtown, Webster are all places recently marred by tragedies by gunfire. Now, Vice President Joe Biden has officially delivered his recommendations to President Obama with suggestions for trying to stop these horrific shootings from happening again.
The recommendations reportedly include proposing background checks on all gun sales, making certain rapid-fire weapons off-limits and keeping guns away from the mentally ill. White House Correspondent Dan Lothian is following developments and has more on “Early Start” this morning.
Will Coca-Cola's new anti-obesity ad make a difference? Elizabeth Cohen explains
Coca-Cola, the world's most valuable brand, has joined the fight against America's weight problem. The soda giant launched a campaign aimed at "finding meaningful solutions to the complex challenge of obesity" on Monday. Critics claim the new ad is hypocritical. CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen explains the goal of this new campaign this morning on “Early Start”.
According to advocacy groups, the ad will have little impact, Cohen reports. “The Center for Science in the Public Interest says this is not meaningful,” she says. “They say that Coke is basically trying to do damage control. That Coke has seen what Mayor Bloomberg has done in New York, at limiting soda sizes and availability, and they don't want other people to do it, so that’s why they think they’re doing it.”
However, Coke refutes that claim, saying that they’re trying to make a meaningful contribution to the fight against obesity, and they say with all of their no-calorie and low-calorie products they actually have made a meaningful contribution.
Is Fla. 'open season' python hunting the best answer to snake overpopulation? Wildlife expert Jeff Corwin weighs in
Hunting to conserve wildlife seems a contradiction, but not in Florida. An invasive species of snakes are now the target of a hunting competition.
Giant Burmese pythons are threatening the delicate ecosystem of Florida’s Everglades, so the state is now asking the public for help. Until February 10th, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has declared open season on pythons in the Everglades.
All you need to participate is a $25 registration fee and an online training course. The person who kills the most pythons wins $1,500, while $1,000 goes to the person who bags the longest snake.
Jeff Corwin, wildlife conservationist and the host of "Ocean Mysteries" on ABC, explains why he thinks the state's answer to the python issue is drastic.
"The truth is these snakes are having a devastating impact on this critical habitat and the species that live here," he says.
Corwin, who says his career has been based on snakes, admits he has mixed feeling about the contest. "Frankly, they've done nothing wrong. They're just doing what snakes do," he says. "But something has to be done to manage this environment, or we could literally see some species pushed to extinction because of the presence of these invasive snakes."
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