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for tarrant area food bank. >> man from india. >> these pizzas are a delight. >> when you see somebody who gets so engaged and gets so much of the community engaged, it's an endorsement of the battle we fight to end hunger. >> thank you for your time, and remember no matter how tall or small we are, we can make a big difference. hello, everyone, i'm don lemon, let's start with your headlines at this hour, a nightclub catches fire and a staggering number of people are dead tonight. it was packed with people during a pyrotechnics show and at least 233 people died when they couldn't get out. stay right there, cnn crew is on the scene, a full report in a minute. a brand new credit card fee kicked in on sunday, stores in 40 states can now charge you a checkout fee worth up to 3% of your total purchase. this stems from a legal settlement that allows stores to pass along processing fees charged by credit card companies, many retailers strongly oppose a credit card fee, you can avoid the phoebe using your dweb it card or paying cash. chuck hagel got the nod today to be the next secretary of defense. stanley mcchrystal and michael hayden both say hagel is a fine choice. hagel earned two purple hearts in the vietnam war, his confirmation hearing is set to begin thursday. japan has launched two surveillance satellites to help keep an eye on north korea. defense officials are threatening to carry out a nuclear test and more long range rocket launches. the u.s. security council expanded sanctions against north korea this week and condemned the country for last month's launch. 233 people killed in a nightclub fire in southeast brazil. some burned to death, some were trampled, some overcome by smoke. it happened when the jam packed nightclub suddenly caught fire aeb many of these victims didn't stand a chance. on the scene right now, rescuers are still picking through the burned rubble, cnn's sshasta darlington. >> reporter: smoke filled the air when the first firefighters entered the nightclub. where shirtless men were already trying to rescue some of the injured. emergency vehicles arrived not realizing the extent of the tragedy they faced. chaos and terror among survivors and the bodies of victims all around. the fire broke out at about two in the morning at a nightclub called kiss in santa maria in brazil's southernmost state. the club was packed with some 2,000 people, twice its legal capacity according to officials. >> people who were inside the facility, informed us that when they came out, that security guards blocked the exit to prevent people from leaving, and that's when the crowd started panicking, and the tragedy grew worse. >> people inside told us when they came out, security guards blocked exits to prevent people from leaving, he says. that's when the crowds started panicking. this is santa maria's local gymnasi gymnasium, it's been turned into a makeshift morgue, there are more than 100 bodies here, hundreds of families have come together trying to locate and identify the relatives who were young people in their late teens, early 20s, they died of asphyxiation and some of them were trampled to death. >> as the confidence for the many victims were lined up, investigators searched for the cause of the fire, which tore through the sound proofing insulation in the roof. brazilian president cut short her appearance at a summit in chile and headed to sarn ta maria to personally oversee the government's response to the tragedy. >> to the brazilian people, we stand together at this time. and even though there's a lot of sadness we will pull through. >> by daylight, hospitals in santa maria were full of people looking for relatives among the survivors. >> there are a lot of people scattered around the hospital's different departments as well as in the intensive care units who have not been identified yet. it isn't a big number, the people waiting outside for news are desperate. >> it was the end of the summer holiday season in brazil. the last chance to party for many young people due back at school or work on monday. cnn, santa maria, brazil. >> we had a similar tragedy here in the u.s., a fire started at an overcrowded nightclub in rhode island and died. if you can believe it, that was 10 years ago. susan candiotti has a look back at that nightclub fire. >> reporter: in 2003, 100 people died at the station nightclub in west warwick rhode island, where the band great white was performing, pyrotechnics ignited sound proofing material, smoke filled the room, in 1990, arson was the cause of the happy land fire in new york, it killed 87 people. authorities said the bronx club was operating illegally, two years after it was ordered closed because of safety violations. in 1977 fire at the beverly hills supper club in south gate kentucky killed 165 people. among 2400 waiting for entertainer john davidson to perform. what's believed to be an electrical fire went undetected at first. there were no fire detectors or sprinklers at the time they were required. the deadliest nightclub blaze in u.s. history happened in 1942 at the coconut grove club in boston. 492 people were killed, the cause of the blaze to this day remains unknown. >> cnn's susan candiotti reporting tonight. very cold weather is expected this week in the united states. we'll head to the middle of the country for that. and across the world. the desperate attempt to rescue two women and a baby trapped in dangerous floodwaters, next. i think your friends will understand. oh no, it's actually my geico app...see? ...i just uh paid my bill. did you really? from the plane? yeah, i can manage my policy, get roadside assistance, pretty much access geico 24/7. sounds a little too good to be true sir. i'll believe that when pigs fly. ok, did she seriously just say that? geico. just click away with our free mobile app. ♪ [ male announcer ] some day, your life will flash before your eyes. make it worth watching. introducing the 2013 lexus ls. an entirely new pursuit. in the united states we've had brutally cold weather and it's expected to continue through the workweek. icy roads and poor visibility are making travel dangerous and some areas in the northeast will get light snow. around the country bad weather has been mucking up traffic on the roads and in the sky. lindsay stores from kutv has our report from salt lake city. hi, lindhdy. >> good evening, don. utah is known for having the greatest snow on earth, and we're getting some of that greatest snow on earth tonight. really coming down here in downtown salt lake city. i have my trusty ruler here. here in downtown salt lake city we've picked up about 5, 5 and a half inches. and we're expected to get another # to 5 inches during the overnight hours, as the storm continues to slowly push across the state. storms this like, of course, they wreak havoc on the roadways as well as the airports. here in salt lake city, all the runways were shut down for about a half hour time, while they cleared all the heavy wet snow off the runways. most of those back open right now. one at a time to deal with the snow removal. on i-15, which is one of the major highways to go through salt lake city. it was closed down for a two-hour period this evening because of a horrible accident, someone jackknifed, shutting down the freeway completely. with all the problems a storm like this causes, it does bring good news to those of us here in salt lake city, as you probably know, we have been dealing with a thickened version, a very strong inversion for the past month, throughout the entire month of january with just a couple days break here and there, this storm has finally broken that inversion, got the gunk out of the air, finally brought in fresh clean air here in salt lake city. good news coming with this big storm moving across the intermountain west. >> lindsay stores from kutv in salt lake city. thank you very much for that. several people are missing and hundreds of homes destroyed in massive flooding in australia. heavy rains and tornados from a tropical cyclone were reported in the state capitol of brings bain, where almost 5,000 homes were affected. check out this dramatic rescue of two women and a toddler. they were airlifted from their car which was overtaken by floodwaters. everyone did make it out okay, though. did you see this interview? it was amazing. president barack obama and outgoing secretary of state hillary clinton share their thoughts on the tragedy in benghazi together side by side. . good toss! see that's much better! that was good. you had your shoulder pointed, you kept your eyes on your target. let's do it again -- watch me. just like that one... 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[ male announcer ] yes, you could business pro. yes, you could. go national. go like a pro. barrow island has got rare kangaroos. ♪ chevron has been developing energy here for decades. we need to protect their environment. we have a strict quarantine system to protect the integrity of the environment. forty years on, it's still a class-a nature reserve. it's our job to look after them. ...it's my job to look after it. ♪ outgoing secretary of state hillary clinton and president barack obama sat down to dawk with "60 minutes tonight." he had plenty of nice things to say, but it wasn't so long ago they were like this. >> while i was working on the streets you were certificating on the board of walmart. >> you were representing resco in innercity chicago. >> my how things have changed. tonight on cbs they address the tragedy in benghazi, libya this past november. >> i knew chris stevens, i sent him there originally. it was a great personal loss to lose him and three other brave americans. i also have looked back and try to figure out what we can do so that nobody in so far as possible will be in this position again. we also live in a dangerous world. the people i'm proud to serve and work with in our diplomatic and development personnel ranks, they know it's a dangerous and risky world. we just have to do everything we can to try to make it as secure as possible for them. >> i think one of the things that humbles you as president, i'm sure hillary clinton feels the same way as secretary of state. you realize that all you can do every single day is to figure out a direction. make sure that you are working as hard as you can to put people in place where they can succeed. ask the right questions, shape the right strategy. it's going to be a team that both succeeds and fails. it's a process of constant improvement because this world is big and chaotic. >> tonight the two had nothing but praise for each other. earlier i talked politics with lz and anna. the president is scheduled to make a speech is this week on immigration reform. and republican congressman paul ryan says he thinks this one issue is where the two parties can make a deal. here's what he said this morning. >> sorry about the technical glitch right there. as we work on that, we'll go to something else. this past week it was announced the u.s. armed forces ban on women in combat will be lifted, not everyone is happy about that. two voices on opposite sides of this move square off and that's next. a restaurant is hard, try running four. fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase. i took my son fishing every year. we had a great spot, not easy to find, but worth it. but with copd making it hard to breathe, i thought those days might be over. so my doctor prescribed symbicort. it helps significantly improve my lung function starting within five minutes. symbicort doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. with symbicort, today i'm breathing better. and that means...fish on! symbicort is for copd including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort may increase your risk of lung infections, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. with copd, i thought i'd miss our family tradition. now symbicort significantly improves my lung function, starting within 5 minutes. and that makes a difference in my breathing. today, we're ready for whatever swims our way. ask your doctor about symbicort. i got my first prescription free. call or click to learn more. [ male announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. [ male announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk. now back to politics with lz and anna. president is scheduled to make a speech this week on immigration reform. paul ryan says he thinks this is the one issue where the two parties can make a deal. here's what he said this morning. >> i think there are republicans and democrats, many of us are talking to each other that can come together with a good solution to make sure that this problem is fixed. once and for all, i think those principles do a good job of adhering to the founding principles, respecting the rule of law, and those who came here for a better life. >> anna, is this an idea whose time has come? >> i think so. i think it's been played strategically in a brilliant manner. marco rubio who is part of this gang of six in the senate. they've been working on this from day one after the election. i think they're ready to come out with something. i think you're going to see that marco rubio has laid a lot of the groundwork by selling these princip principles. he's gotten great enzorsment and support from one of the most right wing pun makers. now it's time to act upon it and grow it from there. it is basically the only thing happening in congress today, where there is a bipartisan movement on both chambers and both sides of the aisle. >> the election is a long time ago, i've been hearing this a long time ago. why wait? why haven't we heard anything from them? why are they waiting on a president? >> because timing is everything. you know what, if i were you, i wouldn't put money on them waiting on the president. the president's going to speak on tuesday. i wouldn't be surprised if these senators who are tremendously strategic and know how to play the political game -- i wouldn't be surprised if they preempt the president, maybe do it tomorrow. maybe do it before the president on tuesday. these are not folks that wait on the president. these folks act. >> you think they may come out on monday? do you know something we don't? >> i know a lot of things you don't. >> okay. >> we'll see, maybe anna does. do the republicans need an immigration deal given their showing in the november elections? >> first of all, i want to touch on -- the president has already spoken of this, he did that two years ago, three years ago in 2010. we voted on the dream act. he had mostly republicans and five democrats that decided not to vote on the dream act. the president gave us his outline in 2010 in terms of working toward immigration. as far as republicans newfound religion, i'm giving them props, this is not new for them either. john mccain, before he was against the dream act was a co author, a co responsible of the dream act. it was all about politics. i would agree with anna, timing is everything, and now after they got their butt kicked they want to follow through on what they started years and years ago. unfortunately, the latino population has been a pawn in the political game. if you want to be here, you're a part of the game. >> speaking of the gop. i want you to listen to bobby jindal, he's talking to his fellow republicans. >> we must not be the party that froekts the well off so they can keep their toys. we have to stop being the stupid party. i'm serious, it's time for a new republican party that talks like adults. >> he's not the only one giving that sentiment, paul ryan gave a similar sentiment this morning on meet the press. is this what your party needs, tough love? >> yes, we need to not sugar coat it, we need to learn the lessons of the last election, i think governor jindal is correct, i think paul ryan is right, i was at the republican retreat ten days ago, i can tell you we heard a lot of this and there is an acknowledgement that we have to reboot. now, we cannot -- you know, the best part that happened out of this election is that we learned that you can't just do it, with white men. that attracting latinos and women is not an option. and i think that's why this immigration thing -- that's why the election has been such a game changer for the immigration issue. because republicans know that it is a huge challenge, but it's also a great opportunity to rebuild some bridges. >> thanks to lz and anna. this week defense secretary leon pa net that issued the order lifting a ban on women in combat units. earlier i spoke with people with two different opinions on that decision. elaine donley handled women assignments in the armed forces. first i asked elaine why she was against the latest move by the pentagon. >> the tip of the spehr infantry about a tal yonz, these are the ones that attack the enemy. these are all male for good reason. we don't have women in those units it's not a good idea to put them there. everyone is insisting and assuming the standards will be the same. they will be equal but they won't be the same. general dempsey said if the standard is too high and the women can't meet it, we'll ask, should it be so high, that's when the pressure to lower the standards will continue. he also asked for a critical mass of women. that will further lower the standards so we can have more women in the unit. and then we have a diversity commission that says, we're supposed to have diversity metrics, that's another name for quotas and promotions for men will be contingent on meeting the diversity quota. the military is not there just to support equal opportunity. it's there to defent the country and carry out the missions that are asked of them. >> one shouldn't assume every woman would be for this new policy, and most men would be against it, and some men would be against it. miky, you're all for this. tell me about your experience in the military serving alongside women and why you're for it? >> i am. i think this is a very sensible pragmatic decision that's been taken by the pentagon. i also think it's a little overdue. i served as an assault helicopter pilot. i served closely and directly on the u.s. forces. iraq three times, afghanistan three times, i worked very closely with women, i commanded women in some very key roles, in some successful operations. all the evidence to me suggests -- or leads me to believe that the decision the pentagon made is a good one. and i'd just like to sort of pick up on elaine's point about the role of the infantry. she's right in saying that aspects of the infantry is indeed to hunt and kill the enemy. i would also say the 21st century warfare has changed. 21st century warfare in recent experience in iraq and afghanistan has been about counter insurgency, it's about winning hearts and minds. a big role of the infantry now is about lee a'sing with the locals. it doesn't just comprise of men, they comprise of women, little girls. and i think the dynamic that a woman brings to a unit that is out in these rolls, liasing with the local population is absolutely key and vital. >> elaine, i wan the to know, what about women who say they are perfectly qualified to serve alongside men on the front lines? >> well, 30 years of studies and reports that have been done indicate that when physical capabilities matter and they do, in the direct ground combat units that we're talking about now, women do not have an equal opportunity to survive or to help fellow soldiers survive. >> i think when it comes to endurance, there was a japanese lady that just made it on top of everest last year, i think women, professional athletes are operating at levels which most men would dream of. women are sailing around the world solo. when it comes to stomaching what infantry soldiers have to see, women are having to pick soldiers that have lost up to four limbs at times, daily in the back of a medevac helicopter coming from the battlefield. >> i think, mikey, let's be honest about this, and no one is being sexist here, as a man who grew up in a family of all women, a single mother for a long time, and listen, no one is a greater fighter of women than me. but women for the most part are not physically as strong as men, and when you're on the battlefield, you want someone as strong as you or stronger than you to help you out of a fox hole. that is just simple physics. >> forgive me. i don't think anyone's talking about compromising the standards that would affect the fighting ability of the infantry unit. i think they're talking about testing and adjusting. >> adjusting tasks. >> if women pass the required levels that allow them to join an infantry unit they should give them an opportunity. >> implementing this monumental policy change is going to take some time. each branch will examine all its units that don't accept women and come up with a time line for integration. every three months service leaders will have to check in on their progress. for one combat unit in the air force, women are already part of the team. they've been side by side with men fighting on the ground for more than a decade. >> today we're going out to the village of saana. >> thank you. >> we have intel there's possibly three to five fighters in the village. you're going to be going out with osi to do a source meet in the village with ahmed at the car garage. be aware they are possibly armed with rbg's and small arms. >> this is tech sergeant andrea jefferson's worst nightmare. patrolling a remote area of afghanistan. taking on enemy fire and a comrade goes down. >> he's bleeding right here, i want you to put pressure on his wound. >> jefferson has been training for this moment for months. >> get him out of here. >> within minutes, the injured airman is bandaged up and moved out of harm's way. this is in afghanistan, it soon will be for jefferson. they're at moody air force base in south georgia. >> in a matter of weeks they'll be on the front lines of battle in afghanistan. >> runner, runner, runner. >> they're ready. >> i really felt like the warrior medic i've seen in the movies. >> her squadron is called out, jefferson and the other women of her group will fight alongside the men. >> the females, you know, we do everything the men do, sometimes even better. >> they're members of the 820th based defense group, from air assault to ground combat. the group does it all. and that includes the women. they're medics, intelligence officers, police officers. their current mission? >> to be a first in combat ready group. >> unlike the rest of the air force, we get to go outside the wire. >> we have approximately 730 individuals assigned to our team, 99 of which are women. each and every one of our mission sets across the group are open to every individual that we have assigned here, regardless of gender, regardless of race. >> until this week, this opportunity was allowed only for the air force. but with secretary of defense leon panetta lifting the ban that kept women from serving in front line combat positions, all military women will be there fighting side by side with men. >> we have four different air force combat action medal recipients, three purple heart recipients as well as four of our ladies have been entered into the wounded warrior program. across the board, they all perform superbly. >> it's amazing what you can do when the adrenaline's pumping, you turn into super woman. half past the hour, get you caught up on the headlines right now. officials in brazil not ready to definitely say that pyrotechnics caused a nightclub fire that killed 233 people. the club was packed at twice legal capacity, victims were either trapped inside or trampled by the panicked crowd. these are protesters fighting with police northeast of cairo. the riots erupted after the government announced death sentences for people involved in last year's violent soccer stadium rye the os. mohammed morsi declayed a state of emergency and set a 30-day curfew in several cities. actors got to honor each ov other at tonight's screen actors guild awards. 22-year-old jennifer lawrence won an award for her work in "silver linings playbook." we'll have more winners from tonight's sag awards in just a few minutes. president barack obama is weighing in on the controversy over the links between football and the potential for brain damage. mr. obama tells the new republic he would have to think long and hard before i'd let him play football. he's especially concerned about college football players who aren't getting paid for the risks they take. scientists don't really know how we get the flu, but something called the flu machine could help us figure it out. we'll show it to you. if you have the flu, most people want you to stay far, far away. people infected are welcome at a maryland lab, especially if they're sneezing. emily smith reports, the doctor has a cool new machine. >> people go to such lengths to avoid getting the flu. you can't help notice a place actively seeking those who have it. >> i woke up at 8:00 a.m., every time i swallowed it felt like i was getting punched in the stomach. yesterday i slept for 18 hours. >> he tested positive for type a influenza. >> that's what research and discovery is about. and being a detective. >> scientists don't know exactly how the flu is transmitted. one theory, it may not be spread through direct or indirect contact but tiny viruss, 1/1,000 the width of a human hair that linger in the air. >> it would be much simpler if the flu is not aerosol transmitted. but i think it's going to play an important role. >> that's where this machine comes into play. it measures how much the flu virus spreads airborne. >> he has ventilation collecting all of his breath. >> this lab is part of a global study, hoping to more clearly explain flu transmission and potential solutions. >> things like having uv lights to sterilize the air, to have more ventilation, to have local exhaust ventilation, to control what people are breathing. >> the centers for disease control and prevention suggest disinfecting germ contaminated surfaces as one way to avoid the flu. dr. milton agrees with that advice for things we touch. but science still needs more answers about what to do with the air we breathe. emily schmidt, cnn washington. the gun debate hasn't moved congress to act yet. it has fired up some people. packed crowds at gun shows. hear what's bringing them out next 37 ♪ [ male announcer ] don't just reject convention. drown it out. introducing the all-new 2013 lexus ls f sport. an entirely new pursuit. she was a picky eater. well now i'm her dietitian and last year, she wasn't eating so well. so i recommended boost complete nutritional drink to help her get the nutrition she was missing. and now she drinks it every day. well, it tastes great! [ male announcer ] boost has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones, and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. and our great taste is guaranteed or your money back. learn more at boost.com [ dietitian ] now, nothing keeps mom from doing what she loves... being my mom. and less saturated fat? easy. it's eb. eggland's best. better eggs. it's eb. . thousands of advocates marched on washington's national mall this weekend. some held up the names of victims of gun violence. survivors of mass shootings were also there. they want congress to require universal background checks. they felt compelled to march after recent high profile gun tragedies. >> newtown just tore my heart out. honestly didn't feel this emotional since 9/11. >> across the street from that rally, a group of gun rights activists protested against gun control measures. the more talk of gun control, the more sales for gun dealers. that seems the case when you look at the crowds at recent gun shows. katherine calloway visited one venue in georgia where sails were high. >> reporter: gun shows are packed across the country, including this one in georgia. we're seeing people buying their very first firearm and gun owners are here to purchase additional firearms and ammunition. lines literally wrapped around the building as the debate over gun control laws has motivated people to check out the show. inside, we found judy kemper. >> why do you think there's so many people here today? >> i think people are trying to get the guns before they're banned or outlawed. >> reporter: the rush to buy is driving up prices and making ammunition and some weapons difficult to find. semiautomatic weapons are a popular item. >> stuff goes quick. >> gun owner john orslock says he comes to the shows to stock up on what he's unable to find in stores now. >> what do you use your guns for, target practice or -- >> target practice, self-defense, hunting. ten years ago i could buy 1,000 rounds of ammunition for $100. that would be pushing 600, $700. gold hasn't gone up that much in price. >> we get lots of first time gun buyers, they want to defend themselves, they're not interested in stockpiling guns or ammo. >> reporter: for those who didn't want to buy a watch, there were a litany of other items to take home, very much like a county fair. there were private sales taking place. between individuals which do not require a background check. and that was a concern for some of the vendors with a federal firearms license. >> if you have a license ffl, have you to do a background check, you sit down, we get your i.d., call you in. if you're a felon or crazy, you don't get in a gun in the state of georgia, if an individual sells you a gun they don't do a background check. >> the gun vendors are telling us, the one thing all this debate of gun control legislation has been is good for business. don? >> catherine, thank you very much. one of the biggest most watched tv show of the year, not snooki's baby being born, i'm talking the super bowl they're already prepping in new orleans, and we have the latest for you next. one day we're coming up with the theory of relativity, the next... not so much. but that's okay -- you're covered with great ideas like optional better car replacement from liberty mutual insurance. total your car and we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. learn about it at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? ♪ ooh baby, can i do for you today? ♪ [ female announcer ] need help keeping your digestive balance? align can help. only align has bifantis, a patented probiotic that naturally helps maintain your digestive balance. try align to help retain a balanced digestive system. try the #1 gastroenterologist recommended probiotic. align. barrow island has got rare kangaroos. ♪ chevron has been developing energy here for decades. we need to protect their environment. we have a strict quarantine system to protect the integrity of the environment. forty years on, it's still a class-a nature reserve. it's our job to look after them. ...it's my job to look after it. ♪ one week until super bowl xlvii, the battle of the coaching harbaugh brothers. great story lines for the game. let's get right to it. terence moore is here, he's a columnist for mlb.com. let's start with the harbaugh brother brothers. >> is there something in your throat? >> very familiar with each other's coaching style. >> yes. >> you have to expect that will have some impact? >> yeah, i stay it probably will. these two guys are highly competitive. there's that great story, when they were kids, their father jack had to draw a line down the middle of their room to separate the two. it didn't work, okay? so if we're lucky on sunday, these two guys in a tense moment could be going at each other, wrestling at the 50 yard line, let's hope for that. >> anything you'll be watching to determine the winner? >> well, you know, let's go with this, there have been 46 super bowls, okay? the quarterback has been the mvp 24 times, including 5 of the last 6, which means start with the quarterbacks, you have colin kaepernick for san francisco, joe flacco for baltimore, they have great postseasons, so whoever looks like that guy early, luckily will be that guy at the end with his fingerprints on the lombardi trophy. >> interesting. let's turn now for a minute. to baltimore. is everyone putting aside what happened in atlanta after the super bowl? >> they probably are putting that aside. i hate ray lewis' dance, do you like that dance? >> no, it's horrible. but i like ray lewis. >> wait a minute, what happened to -- no, i hate the dance. >> i'm going to get into that. ray lewis is one of the most liked persons in the nfl by his piers, except for quarterbacks. i had a 45 minute interview with ray lewis back in october. the thing that came across quickly. very sincere, very inspirational, he told me before he announced his retirement, he wants to spend the rest of his life telling young people his mistakes so they can't make the same mistakes. >> do you think he's a changed man? >> i'm convinced he is, from what happened 13 years ago. >> okay, are you ready to pick a winner? >> i will pick a winner, it's like this. >> 46 super bowls, i have covered half of them. i'll be there in new orleans this weekend. and the thing i've discovered, magic teams can win in baseball, college basketball. magic teams do not win in the nfl, the best team always wins. baltimore's the magic team, the best team san francisco. san francisco will win. >> san francisco's going to win? >> i thought you said baltimore's the magic team. >> magic teams don't win in the nfl. >> i thought you said magic teams do win. >> they don't. the nfl, if you look at baltimore, the owner died, earlier in the year, ray lewis in his last year, offensive coordinators, they changed mid season, they're a magic team. san francisco is getting everything else, that's why they're going to win the game. >> you want to put a wager on it? >> you're from new orleans. give me a bet -- >> case, but not new orleans here, we'll do some -- we can't do a poboy. i have producers in my ear going poboy. we have to do it here, how about some taco mack wings. >> for sure. >> wings. thank you, terence moore, appreciate it. >> wings are about 5 bucks terence. san francisco 49ers arrived tonight in new orleans for the big game next sunday. players are strictly business as they walked off the plane. the 49ers have won five super bowls in their history. the ravens will arrive tomorrow. south korean popeye con psy may not be in the half time show at the super bowl. there you go. he will be seen during the game. he's officially hit the big time now, psy will have his own super bowl ad for wonderful pistachios. here's one of the guys responsible for the multimillion dollar ad. >> he was really professional. an amazing performer, he really turned it on. as soon as we started shooting the commercial and delivered a true psy performance. he got along really well with our grammy award winning director matthew cullen, they collaborated and created a great commercial. every one of our commercials has a celebrity opening up pistachios in their own unique way. we've used people from the simpsons to the globetrotters. psy with all thinks great moves, he's going to open a pistachio as only he can. we're excited to share that with the 100 million plus viewers on saub super bowl sunday. >> all week long we're going to be covering the runup to the game. cnn is live in new orleans with our take. what it means to the city, how it became a cultural phenomenal and more. the volcano condition bleacher report special next saturday afternoon at 4:00 eastern. the stars, the glitz, the glamour. the winners and the loosers. we'll sift through the results from the sag awards next. . i think your friends will understand. oh no, it's actually my geico app...see? ...i just uh paid my bill. did you really? from the plane? yeah, i can manage my policy, get roadside assistance, pretty much access geico 24/7. sounds a little too good to be true sir. i'll believe that when pigs fly. ok, did she seriously just say that? geico. just click away with our free mobile app. let's say you pay your guy around 2% to manage your money. that's not much you think. except it's 2% every year. does that make a difference? search "cost of financial advisors" ouch. over time it really adds up. then go to e-trade and find out how much our advice costs. spoiler alert: it's low. really? yes, really. e-trade offers investment advice and guidance from dedicated, professional financial consultants. it's guidance on your terms, not ours. that's how our system works. e-trade. less for us. more for you. using cloud computing and mobile technology, verizon innovators have developed a projective display for firefighters. allowing them to see through anything. because the world's biggest challenges deserve even bigger solutions. powerful answers. verizon. [ male announcer ] end your long week... with a weekend getaway. save up to forty percent on all weekend hotel stays. book by january thirty first at hiltonanyweekend.com. we don't let frequent heartburn come between us and what we love. so if you're one of them people who gets heartburn and then treats day after day... block the acid with prilosec otc and don't get heartburn in the first place! [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. tonight's screen actor's guild awards. here are some of the big winners, argo won outstanding performance by a cast. brian cranston got his very first sag award for his role in breaking bad. anne hathaway won outstanding performance by a female actress for les mis. tina fey won for her last season on "30 rock." "modern family" won for best an sell will comedy series. we're going to wrap up tonight with a civil war story. 150 years ago this weekend an 1863, the first regiment of freed slaves found themselves in their first standup fight. union officers didn't know if these soldiers would fight. if they did, could they win? those answers came in florida at the battle of the hundred vines. >> good morning, general. >> in january 1863, while the men of the famous 54th massachusetts were still traini training, another regiment of black soldiers from south carolina was already in its first battle. >> this is probably the site. >> maybe one of the most important sites of the civil war. >> there were other bigger and more known battles, but that engagement at st. mary's was their battle. their battle to prove themselves and open the door for 180,000 african-americans to join the union army. >> in may 1862, union general david hunter ordered that all the slaves in georgia, south carolina and florida were free. he quick li formed his own regiment of freed men, but without washington's permission. eight months later, lincoln's emancipation proclamation meant the first volunteers could be formally recognized by the war department. their commander, thomas wentworth higginson was eager to test them on an expedition to florida. >> here we are where the first south carolinan served. >> the one night of the 26th of january, 1963, a federal calvary

Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom 20130128

for tarrant area food bank. >> man from india. >> these pizzas are a delight. >> when you see somebody who gets so engaged and gets so much of the community engaged, it's an endorsement of the battle we fight to end hunger. >> thank you for your time, and remember no matter how tall or small we are, we can make a big difference. hello, everyone, i'm don lemon, let's start with your headlines at this hour, a nightclub catches fire and a staggering number of people are dead tonight. it was packed with people during a pyrotechnics show and at least 233 people died when they couldn't get out. stay right there, cnn crew is on the scene, a full report in a minute. a brand new credit card fee kicked in on sunday, stores in 40 states can now charge you a checkout fee worth up to 3% of your total purchase. this stems from a legal settlement that allows stores to pass along processing fees charged by credit card companies, many retailers strongly oppose a credit card fee, you can avoid the phoebe using your dweb it card or paying cash. chuck hagel got the nod today to be the next secretary of defense. stanley mcchrystal and michael hayden both say hagel is a fine choice. hagel earned two purple hearts in the vietnam war, his confirmation hearing is set to begin thursday. japan has launched two surveillance satellites to help keep an eye on north korea. defense officials are threatening to carry out a nuclear test and more long range rocket launches. the u.s. security council expanded sanctions against north korea this week and condemned the country for last month's launch. 233 people killed in a nightclub fire in southeast brazil. some burned to death, some were trampled, some overcome by smoke. it happened when the jam packed nightclub suddenly caught fire aeb many of these victims didn't stand a chance. on the scene right now, rescuers are still picking through the burned rubble, cnn's shasta darlington. >> reporter: smoke filled the air when the first firefighters entered the nightclub. where shirtless men were already trying to rescue some of the injured. emergency vehicles arrived not realizing the extent of the tragedy they faced. chaos and terror among survivors and the bodies of victims all around. the fire broke out at about two in the morning at a nightclub called kiss in santa maria in brazil's southernmost state. the club was packed with some 2,000 people, twice its legal capacity according to officials. >> people who were inside the facility, informed us that when they came out, that security guards blocked the exit to prevent people from leaving, and that's when the crowd started panicking, and the tragedy grew worse. >> people inside told us when they came out, security guards blocked exits to prevent people from leaving, he says. that's when the crowds started panicking. this is santa maria's local gymnasium, it's been turned into a makeshift morgue, there are more than 100 bodies here, hundreds of families have come together trying to locate and identify the relatives who were young people in their late teens, early 20s, they died of asphyxiation and some of them were trampled to death. >> as the coffins for the many victims were lined up, investigators searched for the cause of the fire, which tore through the sound proofing insulation in the roof. brazilian president cut short her appearance at a summit in chile and headed to sarn ta maria to personally oversee the government's response to the tragedy. >> to the brazilian people, we stand together at this time. and even though there's a lot of sadness we will pull through. >> by daylight, hospitals in santa maria were full of people looking for relatives among the survivors. >> there are a lot of people scattered around the hospital's different departments as well as in the intensive care units who have not been identified yet. it isn't a big number, the people waiting outside for news are desperate. >> it was the end of the summer holiday season in brazil. the last chance to party for many young people due back at school or work on monday. cnn, santa maria, brazil. >> we had a similar tragedy here in the u.s., a fire started at an overcrowded nightclub in rhode island and died. if you can believe it, that was 10 years ago. susan candiotti has a look back at that nightclub fire. >> reporter: in 2003, 100 people died at the station nightclub in west warwick rhode island, where the band great white was performing, pyrotechnics ignited sound proofing material, smoke filled the room, in 1990, arson was the cause of the happy land fire in new york, it killed 87 people. authorities said the bronx club was operating illegally, two years after it was ordered closed because of safety violations. in 1977 fire at the beverly hills supper club in south gate kentucky killed 165 people. among 2400 waiting for entertainer john davidson to perform. what's believed to be an electrical fire went undetected at first. there were no fire detectors or sprinklers at the time they were required. the deadliest nightclub blaze in u.s. history happened in 1942 at the coconut grove club in boston. 492 people were killed, the cause of the blaze to this day remains unknown. >> cnn's susan candiotti reporting tonight. very cold weather is expected this week in the united states. we'll head to the middle of the country for that. and across the world. the desperate attempt to rescue two women and a baby trapped in dangerous floodwaters, next. ♪ [ male announcer ] some day, your life will flash before your eyes. make it worth watching. introducing the 2013 lexus ls. an entirely new pursuit. introducing the 2013 lexus ls. so, i'm working on a cistern intake valve, and the guy hands me a locknut wrench. no way! i'm like, what is this, a drainpipe slipknot? wherever your business takes you, nobody keeps you on the road like progressive commercial auto. 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[ male announcer ] end your long week... with a weekend getaway. save up to forty percent on all weekend hotel stays. book by january thirty first at hiltonanyweekend.com. in the united states we've had brutally cold weather and it's expected to continue through the workweek. icy roads and poor visibility are making travel dangerous and some areas in the northeast will get light snow. around the country bad weather has been mucking up traffic on the roads and in the sky. lindsay stores from kutv has our report from salt lake city. hi, lindsay. >> good evening, don. utah is known for having the greatest snow on earth, and we're getting some of that greatest snow on earth tonight. really coming down here in downtown salt lake city. i have my trusty ruler here. here in downtown salt lake city we've picked up about 5, 5 and a half inches. and we're expected to get another 2 to 5 inches during the overnight hours, as the storm continues to slowly push across the state. storms this like, of course, they wreak havoc on the roadways as well as the airports. here in salt lake city, all the runways were shut down for about a half hour time, while they cleared all the heavy wet snow off the runways. most of those back open right now. one at a time to deal with the snow removal. on i-15, which is one of the major highways to go through salt lake city. it was closed down for a two-hour period this evening because of a horrible accident, someone jackknifed, shutting down the freeway completely. with all the problems a storm like this causes, it does bring good news to those of us here in salt lake city, as you probably know, we have been dealing with a thickened version, a very strong inversion for the past month, throughout the entire month of january with just a couple days break here and there, this storm has finally broken that inversion, got the gunk out of the air, finally brought in fresh clean air here in salt lake city. good news coming with this big storm moving across the intermountain west. >> lindsay stores from kutv in salt lake city. thank you very much for that. several people are missing and hundreds of homes destroyed in massive flooding in australia. heavy rains and tornados from a tropical cyclone were reported in the state capitol of brings bain, where almost 5,000 homes were affected. check out this dramatic rescue of two women and a toddler. they were airlifted from their car which was overtaken by floodwaters. everyone did make it out okay, though. did you see this interview? it was amazing. president barack obama and outgoing secretary of state hillary clinton share their thoughts on the tragedy in benghazi together side by side. geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 % or more on car insurance. someone get me a latte will ya, please? executor of efficiency. you can spot an amateur from a mile away... while going shoeless and metal-free in seconds. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle...and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. now this...will work. [ male announcer ] just like you, business pro. just like you. go national. go like a pro. barrow island has got rare kangaroos. ♪ chevron has been developing energy here for decades. we need to protect their environment. we have a strict quarantine system to protect the integrity of the environment. forty years on, it's still a class-a nature reserve. it's our job to look after them. ...it's my job to look after it. ♪ outgoing secretary of state hillary clinton and president barack obama sat down to talk with "60 minutes tonight." he had plenty of nice things to say, but it wasn't so long ago they were like this. >> while i was working on the streets you were certificating on the board of walmart. >> you were representing resco in innercity chicago. >> my how things have changed. tonight on cbs they address the tragedy in benghazi, libya this past november. >> i knew chris stevens, i sent him there originally. it was a great personal loss to lose him and three other brave americans. i also have looked back and try to figure out what we can do so that nobody in so far as possible will be in this position again. we also live in a dangerous world. the people i'm proud to serve and work with in our diplomatic and development personnel ranks, they know it's a dangerous and risky world. we just have to do everything we can to try to make it as secure as possible for them. >> i think one of the things that humbles you as president, i'm sure hillary clinton feels the same way as secretary of state. you realize that all you can do every single day is to figure out a direction. make sure that you are working as hard as you can to put people in place where they can succeed. ask the right questions, shape the right strategy. it's going to be a team that both succeeds and fails. it's a process of constant improvement because this world is big and chaotic. >> tonight the two had nothing but praise for each other. earlier i talked politics with lz and anna. the president is scheduled to make a speech is this week on immigration reform. and republican congressman paul ryan says he thinks this one issue is where the two parties can make a deal. we've got over 8,000 mutual funds and not one of them has our name on it. why? because that's not the business we're in. we're in the business of finding the right investments for you. e-trade. less for us. more for you. we're in the business of finding the right investments for you. all stations come over to mission a no go call. go. this is for real this time. we are on step seven point two one two. we have entered our two minute hold. cabin venting has been inhibited. copy that. sys two, verify and lock. command is locked. flight computer state has entered auto idyll. three, two, one. the falcon 9 has launched. preparing for nose cone separation. standing by for capture. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to places beyond it. siemens. answers. so, i'm working on a cistern intake valve, and the guy hands me a locknut wrench. no way! i'm like, what is this, a drainpipe slipknot? wherever your business takes you, nobody keeps you on the road like progressive commercial auto. [ flo speaking japanese ] [ shouting in japanese ] we work wherever you work. now, that's progressive. call or click today. now back to politics with lz and anna. president is scheduled to make a speech this week on immigration reform. paul ryan says he thinks this is the one issue where the two parties can make a deal. here's what he said this morning. >> i think there are republicans and democrats, many of us are talking to each other that can come together with a good solution to make sure that this problem is fixed. once and for all, i think those principles do a good job of adhering to the founding principles, respecting the rule of law, and those who came here for a better life. >> anna, is this an idea whose time has come? >> i think so. i think it's been played strategically in a brilliant manner. marco rubio who is part of this gang of six in the senate. they've been working on this from day one after the election. i think they're ready to come out with something. i think you're going to see that marco rubio has laid a lot of the groundwork by selling these principles. he's gotten great enzorsment and support from one of the most right wing pun makers. now it's time to act upon it and grow it from there. it is basically the only thing happening in congress today, where there is a bipartisan movement on both chambers and both sides of the aisle. >> the election is a long time ago, i've been hearing this a long time ago. why wait? why haven't we heard anything from them? why are they waiting on a president? >> because timing is everything. you know what, if i were you, i wouldn't put money on them waiting on the president. the president's going to speak on tuesday. i wouldn't be surprised if these senators who are tremendously strategic and know how to play the political game -- i wouldn't be surprised if they preempt the president, maybe do it tomorrow. maybe do it before the president on tuesday. these are not folks that wait on the president. these folks act. >> you think they may come out on monday? do you know something we don't? >> i know a lot of things you don't. >> okay. >> we'll see, maybe anna does. do the republicans need an immigration deal given their showing in the november elections? >> first of all, i want to touch on -- the president has already spoken of this, he did that two years ago, three years ago in 2010. we voted on the dream act. he had mostly republicans and five democrats that decided not to vote on the dream act. the president gave us his outline in 2010 in terms of working toward immigration. as far as republicans newfound religion, i'm giving them props, this is not new for them either. john mccain, before he was against the dream act was a co author, a co sponsor of the dream act. it was all about politics. i would agree with anna, timing is everything, and now after they got their butt kicked they want to follow through on what they started years and years ago. unfortunately, the latino population has been a pawn in the political game. if you want to be here, you're a part of the game. >> speaking of the gop. i want you to listen to bobby jindal, he's talking to his fellow republicans. >> we must not be the party that protects the well off so they can keep their toys. we have to stop being the stupid party. i'm serious, it's time for a new republican party that talks like adults. >> he's not the only one giving that sentiment, paul ryan gave a similar sentiment this morning on meet the press. is this what your party needs, tough love? >> yes, we need to not sugar coat it, we need to learn the lessons of the last election, i think governor jindal is correct, i think paul ryan is right, i was at the republican retreat ten days ago, i can tell you we heard a lot of this and there is an acknowledgement that we have to reboot. now, we cannot -- you know, the best part that happened out of this election is that we learned that you can't just do it, with white men. that attracting latinos and women is not an option. and i think that's why this immigration thing -- that's why the election has been such a game changer for the immigration issue. because republicans know that it is a huge challenge, but it's also a great opportunity to rebuild some bridges. >> thanks to lz and anna. this week defense secretary leon panetta issued the order lifting a ban on women in combat units. earlier i spoke with people with two different opinions on that decision. elaine donley handled women assignments in the armed forces. first i asked elaine why she was against the latest move by the pentagon. >> the tip of the sphere infantry battalion, these are the ones that attack the enemy. these are all male for good reason. we don't have women in those units it's not a good idea to put them there. everyone is insisting and assuming the standards will be the same. they will be equal but they won't be the same. general dempsey said if the standard is too high and the women can't meet it, we'll ask, should it be so high, that's when the pressure to lower the standards will continue. he also asked for a critical mass of women. that will further lower the standards so we can have more women in the unit. and then we have a diversity commission that says, we're supposed to have diversity metrics, that's another name for quotas and promotions for men will be contingent on meeting the diversity quota. the military is not there just to support equal opportunity. it's there to defent the country and carry out the missions that are asked of them. >> one shouldn't assume every woman would be for this new policy, and most men would be against it, and some men would be against it. mikey, you're all for this. tell me about your experience in the military serving alongside women and why you're for it? >> i am. i think this is a very sensible pragmatic decision that's been taken by the pentagon. i also think it's a little overdue. i served as an assault helicopter pilot. i served closely and directly on the u.s. forces. iraq three times, afghanistan three times, i worked very closely with women, i commanded women in some very key roles, in some successful operations. all the evidence to me suggests -- or leads me to believe that the decision the pentagon made is a good one. and i'd just like to sort of pick up on elaine's point about the role of the infantry. she's right in saying that aspects of the infantry is indeed to hunt and kill the enemy. i would also say the 21st century warfare has changed. 21st century warfare in recent experience in iraq and afghanistan has been about counter insurgency, it's about winning hearts and minds. a big role of the infantry now is about liasing with the locals. it doesn't just comprise of men, they comprise of women, little girls. and i think the dynamic that a woman brings to a unit that is out in these rolls, liasing with the local population is absolutely key and vital. >> elaine, i wan the to know, what about women who say they are perfectly qualified to serve alongside men on the front lines? >> well, 30 years of studies and reports that have been done indicate that when physical capabilities matter and they do, in the direct ground combat units that we're talking about now, women do not have an equal opportunity to survive or to help fellow soldiers survive. >> i think when it comes to endurance, there was a japanese lady that just made it on top of everest last year, i think women, professional athletes are operating at levels which most men would dream of. women are sailing around the world solo. when it comes to stomaching what infantry soldiers have to see, women are having to pick soldiers that have lost up to four limbs at times, daily in the back of a medevac helicopter coming from the battlefield. >> i think, mikey, let's be honest about this, and no one is being sexist here, as a man who grew up in a family of all women, a single mother for a long time, and listen, no one is a greater fighter of women than me. but women for the most part are not physically as strong as men, and when you're on the battlefield, you want someone as strong as you or stronger than you to help you out of a fox hole. that is just simple physics. >> forgive me. i don't think anyone's talking about compromising the standards that would affect the fighting ability of the infantry unit. i think they're talking about testing and adjusting. >> adjusting tasks. >> if women pass the required levels that allow them to join an infantry unit they should give them an opportunity. >> implementing this monumental policy change is going to take some time. each branch will examine all its units that don't accept women and come up with a time line for integration. every three months service leaders will have to check in on their progress. for one combat unit in the air force, women are already part of the team. they've been side by side with men fighting on the ground for more than a decade. >> today we're going out to the village of saana. >> thank you. >> we have intel there's possibly three to five fighters in the village. you're going to be going out with osi to do a source meet in the village with ahmed at the car garage. be aware they are possibly armed with rbgs and small arms. >> this is tech sergeant andrea jefferson's worst nightmare. patrolling a remote area of afghanistan. taking on enemy fire and a comrade goes down. >> he's bleeding right here, i want you to put pressure on his wound. >> jefferson has been training for this moment for months. >> get him out of here. >> within minutes, the injured airman is bandaged up and moved out of harm's way. this is in afghanistan, it soon will be for jefferson. they're at moody air force base in south georgia. >> in a matter of weeks they'll be on the front lines of battle in afghanistan. >> runner, runner, runner. >> they're ready. >> i really felt like the warrior medic i've seen in the movies. >> her squadron is called out, jefferson and the other women of her group will fight alongside the men. >> the females, you know, we do everything the men do, sometimes even better. >> they're members of the 820th based defense group, from air assault to ground combat. the group does it all. and that includes the women. they're medics, intelligence officers, police officers. their current mission? >> to be a first in combat ready group. >> unlike the rest of the air force, we get to go outside the wire. >> we have approximately 730 individuals assigned to our team, 99 of which are women. each and every one of our mission sets across the group are open to every individual that we have assigned here, regardless of gender, regardless of race. >> until this week, this opportunity was allowed only for the air force. but with secretary of defense leon panetta lifting the ban that kept women from serving in front line combat positions, all military women will be there fighting side by side with men. >> we have four different air force combat action medal recipients, three purple heart recipients as well as four of our ladies have been entered into the wounded warrior program. across the board, they all perform superbly. >> it's amazing what you can do when the adrenaline's pumping, you turn into super woman. half past the hour, get you caught up on the headlines right now. officials in brazil not ready to definitely say that pyrotechnics caused a nightclub fire that killed 233 people. the club was packed at twice legal capacity, victims were either trapped inside or trampled by the panicked crowd. these are protesters fighting with police northeast of cairo. the riots erupted after the government announced death sentences for people involved in last year's violent soccer stadium riots. mohammed morsi declayed a state of emergency and set a 30-day curfew in several cities. actors got to honor each other at tonight's screen actors guild awards. 22-year-old jennifer lawrence won an award for her work in "silver linings playbook." we'll have more winners from tonight's sag awards in just a few minutes. president barack obama is weighing in on the controversy over the links between football and the potential for brain damage. mr. obama tells the new republic he would have to think long and hard before i'd let him play football. he's especially concerned about college football players who aren't getting paid for the risks they take. scientists don't really know how we get the flu, but something called the flu machine could help us figure it out. we'll show it to you. d toss! see that's much better! that was good. you had your shoulder pointed, you kept your eyes on your target. let's do it again -- watch me. just like that one... [ male announcer ] the durability of the volkswagen passat. pass down something he will be grateful for. good arm. that's the power of german engineering. ♪ back to you. if you have the flu, most people want you to stay far, far away. people infected are welcome at a maryland lab, especially if they're sneezing. emily smith reports, the doctor has a cool new machine. >> people go to such lengths to avoid getting the flu. you can't help notice a place actively seeking those who have it. >> i woke up at 8:00 a.m., every time i swallowed it felt like i was getting punched in the stomach. yesterday i slept for 18 hours. >> he tested positive for type a influenza. >> that's what research and discovery is about. and being a detective. >> scientists don't know exactly how the flu is transmitted. one theory, it may not be spread through direct or indirect contact but tiny viruses, 1/1,000 the width of a human hair that linger in the air. >> it would be much simpler if the flu is not aerosol transmitted. but i think it's going to play an important role. >> that's where this machine comes into play. it measures how much the flu virus spreads airborne. >> he has ventilation collecting all of his breath. >> this lab is part of a global study, hoping to more clearly explain flu transmission and potential solutions. >> things like having uv lights to sterilize the air, to have more ventilation, to have local exhaust ventilation, to control what people are breathing. >> the centers for disease control and prevention suggest disinfecting germ contaminated surfaces as one way to avoid the flu. dr. milton agrees with that advice for things we touch. but science still needs more answers about what to do with the air we breathe. emily schmidt, cnn washington. the gun debate hasn't moved congress to act yet. it has fired up some people. packed crowds at gun shows. hear what's bringing them out next. ♪ so, i'm working on a cistern intake valve, and the guy hands me a locknut wrench. no way! i'm like, what is this, a drainpipe slipknot? wherever your business takes you, nobody keeps you on the road like progressive commercial auto. [ flo speaking japanese ] [ shouting in japanese ] we work wherever you work. now, that's progressive. call or click today. thousands of advocates marched on washington's national mall this weekend. some held up the names of victims of gun violence. survivors of mass shootings were also there. they want congress to require universal background checks. they felt compelled to march after recent high profile gun tragedies. >> newtown just tore my heart out. honestly didn't feel this emotional since 9/11. >> across the street from that rally, a group of gun rights activists protested against gun control measures. the more talk of gun control, the more sales for gun dealers. that seems the case when you look at the crowds at recent gun shows. katherine calloway visited one venue in georgia where sails were high. >> reporter: gun shows are packed across the country, including this one in georgia. we're seeing people buying their very first firearm and gun owners are here to purchase additional firearms and ammunition. lines literally wrapped around the building as the debate over gun control laws has motivated people to check out the show. inside, we found judy kemper. >> why do you think there's so many people here today? >> i think people are trying to get the guns before they're banned or outlawed. >> reporter: the rush to buy is driving up prices and making ammunition and some weapons difficult to find. semiautomatic weapons are a popular item. >> stuff goes quick. >> gun owner john orslock says he comes to the shows to stock up on what he's unable to find in stores now. >> what do you use your guns for, target practice or -- >> target practice, self-defense, hunting. ten years ago i could buy 1,000 rounds of ammunition for $100. that would be pushing 600, $700. gold hasn't gone up that much in price. >> we get lots of first time gun buyers, they want to defend themselves, they're not interested in stockpiling guns or ammo. >> reporter: for those who didn't want to buy a watch, there were a litany of other items to take home, very much like a county fair. there were private sales taking place. between individuals which do not require a background check. and that was a concern for some of the vendors with a federal firearms license. >> if you have a license ffl, have you to do a background check, you sit down, we get your i.d., call you in. if you're a felon or crazy, you don't get in a gun in the state of georgia, if an individual sells you a gun they don't do a background check. >> the gun vendors are telling us, the one thing all this debate of gun control legislation has been is good for business. don? >> catherine, thank you very much. one of the biggest most watched tv show of the year, not snooki's baby being born, i'm talking the super bowl they're already prepping in new orleans, and we have the latest for you next. using robotics and mobile technology, verizon innovators have made it possible for teachers to teach, and for a kid... nathan. tadpole. ... to feel like a kid again. because the world's biggest challenges deserve even bigger solutions. powerful answers. verizon. [ male announcer ] end your long week... with a weekend getaway. save up to forty percent on all weekend hotel stays. book by january thirty first at hiltonanyweekend.com. or treat gas with these after you get it. now that's like sunblock before or sun burn cream later. oh, somebody out there's saying, now i get it! take beano before and there'll be no gas. one week until super bowl xlvii, the battle of the coaching harbaugh brothers. great story lines for the game. let's get right to it. terence moore is here, he's a columnist for mlb.com. let's start with the harbaugh brothers. >> is there something in your throat? >> very familiar with each other's coaching style. >> yes. >> you have to expect that will have some impact? >> yeah, i stay it probably will. these two guys are highly competitive. there's that great story, when they were kids, their father jack had to draw a line down the middle of their room to separate the two. it didn't work, okay? so if we're lucky on sunday, these two guys in a tense moment could be going at each other, wrestling at the 50 yard line, let's hope for that. >> anything you'll be watching to determine the winner? >> well, you know, let's go with this, there have been 46 super bowls, okay? the quarterback has been the mvp 24 times, including 5 of the last 6, which means start with the quarterbacks, you have colin kaepernick for san francisco, joe flacco for baltimore, they have great postseasons, so whoever looks like that guy early, luckily will be that guy at the end with his fingerprints on the lombardi trophy. >> interesting. let's turn now for a minute. to baltimore. is everyone putting aside what happened in atlanta after the super bowl? >> they probably are putting that aside. i hate ray lewis' dance, do you like that dance? >> no, it's horrible. but i like ray lewis. >> wait a minute, what happened to -- no, i hate the dance. >> i'm going to get into that. ray lewis is one of the most liked persons in the nfl by his piers, except for quarterbacks. i had a 45-minute interview with ray lewis back in october. the thing that came across quickly. very sincere, very inspirational, he told me before he announced his retirement, he wants to spend the rest of his life telling young people his mistakes so they can't make the same mistakes. >> do you think he's a changed man? >> i'm convinced he is, from what happened 13 years ago. >> okay, are you ready to pick a winner? >> i will pick a winner, it's like this. >> 46 super bowls, i have covered half of them. i'll be there in new orleans this weekend. and the thing i've discovered, magic teams can win in baseball, college basketball. magic teams do not win in the nfl, the best team always wins. baltimore's the magic team, the best team san francisco. san francisco will win. >> san francisco's going to win? >> i thought you said baltimore's the magic team. >> magic teams don't win in the nfl. >> i thought you said magic teams do win. >> they don't. the nfl, if you look at baltimore, the owner died, earlier in the year, ray lewis in his last year, offensive coordinators, they changed mid season, they're a magic team. san francisco is getting everything else, that's why they're going to win the game. >> you want to put a wager on it? >> you're from new orleans. give me a bet -- >> case, but not new orleans here, we'll do some -- we can't do a poboy. i have producers in my ear going poboy. we have to do it here, how about some taco mack wings. >> for sure. >> wings. thank you, terence moore, appreciate it. >> wings are about 5 bucks terence. san francisco 49ers arrived tonight in new orleans for the big game next sunday. players are strictly business as they walked off the plane. the 49ers have won five super bowls in their history. the ravens will arrive tomorrow. south korean pop icon, psy, may not be in the half time show at the super bowl. there you go. he will be seen during the game. he's officially hit the big time now, psy will have his own super bowl ad for wonderful pistachios. here's one of the guys responsible for the multimillion dollar ad. >> he was really professional. an amazing performer, he really turned it on. as soon as we started shooting the commercial and delivered a true psy performance. he got along really well with our grammy award winning director matthew cullen, they collaborated and created a great commercial. every one of our commercials has a celebrity opening up pistachios in their own unique way. we've used people from the simpsons to the globetrotters. psy with all the great moves, he's going to open a pistachio as only he can. we're excited to share that with the 100 million plus viewers on super bowl sunday. >> all week long we're going to be covering the runup to the game. cnn is live in new orleans with our take. what it means to the city, how it became a cultural phenomenal and more. the volcano condition bleacher report special next saturday afternoon at 4:00 eastern. the stars, the glitz, the glamour. the winners and the losers. we'll sift through the results from the sag awards next. ost complete nutritional drink to help her get the nutrition she was missing. and now she drinks it every day. well, it tastes great! [ male announcer ] boost has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones, and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. and our great taste is guaranteed or your money back. learn more at boost.com [ dietitian ] now, nothing keeps mom from doing what she loves... being my mom. ♪ [ male announcer ] don't just reject convention. drown it out. introducing the all-new 2013 lexus ls f sport. an entirely new pursuit. introducing the all-new 2013 lexus ls f sport. try running four.ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase. ...so as you can see, geico's customer satisfaction is at 97%. mmmm tasty. and cut! very good. people are always asking me how we make these geico adverts. so we're taking you behind the scenes. this coffee cup, for example, is computer animated. it's not real. geico's customer satisfaction is quite real though. this computer-animated coffee tastes dreadful. geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 % or more on car insurance. someone get me a latte will ya, please? tonight's screen actor's guild awards. here are some of the big winners, argo won outstanding performance by a cast. bryan cranston got his very first sag award for his role in breaking bad. anne hathaway won outstanding performance by a female actress for les mis. tina fey won for her last season on "30 rock." "modern family" won for best an ensemble comedy series. we're going to wrap up tonight with a civil war story. 150 years ago this weekend an 1863, the first regiment of freed slaves found themselves in their first standup fight. union officers didn't know if these soldiers would fight. if they did, could they win? those answers came in florida at the battle of the hundred vines. >> good morning, general. >> in january 1863, while the men of the famous 54th massachusetts were still training, another regiment of black soldiers from south carolina was already in its first battle. >> this is probably the site. >> maybe one of the most important sites of the civil war. >> there were other bigger and more known battles, but that engagement at st. mary's was their battle. their battle to prove themselves and open the door for 180,000 african-americans to join the union army. >> in may 1862, union general david hunter ordered that all the slaves in georgia, south carolina and florida were free. he quick li formed his own regiment of freed men, but without washington's permission. eight months later, lincoln's emancipation proclamation meant the first volunteers could be formally recognized by the war department. their commander, thomas wentworth higginson was eager to test them on an expedition to florida. >> here we are where the first south carolinan served. >> the one night of the 26th of

Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book TV 20130831

i'm talking just about the physicality. you can judge for the insight on your own. [laughter] but as nick said very cogently, this book covers a 30-year span of american history in the middle of the 19th century when nothing much happened. [laughter] there was just, oh, i don't know, the women's movement and the country divided in two, and there were spiritualists and spirit rappers and p.t. barnum all part of the same cultural moment. and then just in case you were getting bored, there was a war, a dreadful war where 750,000 people were killed, and that's probably, that's probably a figure that is not finished being revised upward. and, of course, there was the period of reconstruction that occurred in the south, and at the same time there was the settlement of the west augerred by the gold rush back in 1848 and completed with the slow and painful and very disturbing removal of the indians from that particular part of the country. just a few things that i concerned myself with for the last years. and it's a strange and complex moment or series of moments in american history as i just suggested, populated by a very unusual group of people that you wouldn't think of necessarily occupying the same historical time, never mind place. and i can give you some of their names. there's, of course, ulysses s. grant and abraham lincoln who always threatens to take over every book that he's part of, understandably enough. [laughter] susan b. anthony and frederick douglass, charles sumner, william lloyd garrison, harriet jacobs, harriet beecher stowe to name two harriets, emerson was still alive and writing until long after this period. longfellow, you have emily dickinson, william tecumseh sherman, two people i'd love to have seen meet one another. [laughter] as well as victoria woodhall who was the first woman who ran for president of the united states, and there was a woman whose name, a man whose name i won't even bother you with, the man who invented scientology which is rather strange and interesting and unusual. and, of course, or maybe not of course, nathan bedford forest. i could spend the whole time tonight allotted here just listing names, but not to worry, i'm not going to do that. i'm going to give you a little bit of background how i got into this book, some of the things that were important to me in the writing of it, and then i'm going to read very briefly and be very delighted to take and answer your questions if i possibly can. so to go back to the book itself, i did name some names. now i want you to think for a moment about the tremendous innovations, particularly technological but not exclusively technological, innovations during this particular period. think, for example, the first that comes to mind is, of course, photography. we have, many of us who live here in new york have probably gone b to see the met's show of civil war photography and painting. but it's interesting to think that the civil war was documented in this country from beginning to end by photographers which is shocking, really. and often when i thought about why it is that the revolutionary war -- which is n a sense, also brother against brother, country against country -- why that war hasn't captured the imagination the way the civil war has in addition to obvious reasons like let's get once of slavery once in a while, the reason is i think this wasn't photography at that particular time, so we don't know what people looked like. we can't really see them strewn maybe for good reason or better on the battlefield. so this photography, there's also the time of the railroads. railroads started just a little bit before this particular period and became so instrumental in the war effort because, after all, they moved so many men and so much munitions during the period of the war and the, to a certain extent, you can imagine why it was that the south was at a disadvantage or became at a disadvantage, because there were fewer and became fewer lines in the south than there were in the north. and, of course, that's really very important because by 1869 after the war, four years after the war, the transcontinental railroad was finished, and that took even more settlers from the east to the west and presumably back again, although i'm not so sure about that. but nonetheless, that too was very important in this period, and it was important for, as i mentioned before, the native americans who lived in those areas where settlers were going. think, too, the development of brand new american religion which is really so interesting, really becomes dominant and important in this particular period. and when i mention the list of names, i could have put brigham young in that list as well as everyone else. imagine him meeting emily dickenson. [laughter] and mormonism actually began in new york state, as many of you obviously probably know right in upstate new york in a place called the burntover district because of the series of revivals, religious revivals that had been sweeping through that particular part of the country and then went west and then farther west. so that's part of this period too and, of course, should go and can't go without saying is the anti-slavery movement which was gathering more and more momentum in the years after 1848, particularly after the mexican-american war ended in 1848 when the united states became a much bigger country and the disposition -- sorry about that -- the disposition of the land that was acquired from mexico was a matter of some concern. shall it be free or shall it be slave? and that a was a dialogue that became so acrimonious, a debate that became so tours that, of course -- furious that, of course, it spiraled into what we think of as the civil war, the war between the states or as the southerners sometimes called it, the war of northern aggression. think, too, of women's rights which i mentioned before. early anti-slavery advocates were, of course, very much involved in the women's movement and were women themselves. but after the war we had a very complicated historical moment when black men are given the vote but not white or black women, leaving black women doubly disenfranchised. and what was interesting about the passage of enfranchisement amendments is that enemies of both blacks and women liked to pit blacks and women -- black men and all women against one another which was, of course, something the that seemed to me to happen yet again in 2008 during the primary for president and may be still happening, absolutely. and then thinking of that, think of the change in laws. and i'm not just thinking of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, but i'm thinking of a we nefarious and rather horrible fugitive slave law that allowed southern planters, slave owners to travel north to places like massachusetts and nab men and women -- black men and women, slave, former slaves or free -- and bring them back south. and it was so horrible, that particular law, that it began to be a kind of resistance movement against it. and, of course, many flocked around what thoreau had called in 1849 civil disobedience. and that, of course, is before the slave, fugitive slave act, but nonetheless, civil disobedience became a very important way to push back against the government as it stood at the time. but with it was also -- but it was also a way of taking the law, i'll talk more about this in a minute, in one's own hands which culminated in, of course, the raid of john brown and his associates on harper's ferry which, to some people, really began the civil war. and in that particular case, it also, it also involved people who were then -- which was interesting to me to find that this term was used in that period of time -- people who were then guerrillas and who also took matters, law into their own hands. and very often you would see these in the kansas plains where people from missouri would go into kansas and make sure people couldn't, kansans couldn't vote against the slavery, couldn't vote against a free constitution. this was a time, in other words, this was a time of great change, tremendous amount of change; technological change, change in the law, change in terms of people's attitude toward one another, and the belief that you could change everything, you could change anything. you could change your poetry, you could change your prose. i mentioned emily dickenson. she is, of course, the most fresh, the freshest voice is even today. you think of herman melville changing the shape of the novel. he changed it so much, in fact, in 1850 when "moby dick" was published, he to have torpedoed his career, he went from being a bestseller right to obscurity. but he believed you could change, even nathaniel hawthorne believed in change for a little bit, but didn't like what the change was going to bring. he himself had gone to the utopian community, brook farm. so it's a time of tremendous expectation, huge expectation and great failure as well. it was a time of boisterousness, of the expansiveness of hopefulness and greed, oh, let's not forget good old american greed -- [laughter] which is very much part of this period. and one of the many things i learned while doing in this book is that the gilded age didn't start in the 1870s. history's not consecutive at all. all of these things are happening at the same time. it's a narrative nightmare, as i'll peek to you about. -- speak to you about. what was it going to do? well, as i suggested, i came to this book in a way from two earlier books. one i'd written a biography of hawthorne as nick mentioned, and to me, hawthorne was a very elusive 19th century figure because it seemed as though he belonged in the 17th century. and yet one, a couple of things about him were so out of keeping with our stereotype of hawthorne. for example, he met abraham lincoln. they didn't spend very long together. lincoln had more important things to do than meet a delegation from massachusetts who was presenting him with a whip. [laughter] something that hawthorne found very amusing, needless to say, in his grim sort of way. but he talked, he later wrote that hawthorne was the homeliest -- lincoln, sorry, hawthorne was the handsomest man -- lincoln was the homeliest man he'd ever seen, and he was wearing saggy slippers when he met the delegation from massachusetts. but nonetheless, he liked him for his wise and kind look, hawthorne's faint praise, it seems to me, because you mustn't forget that one of his dearest, closest friends was franklin pearce, and you may have forgotten that because he's not exactly a name to conjure these particular days. but he was a southern sympathizer which is really all you need to know for the purposes of this talk, to think of hawthorne being friends with franklin pearce and, of course, that's what i used to like to say would be as if j.d. salinger were friends with, i don't know, george bush. [laughter] the example's gotten a little dated. dickenson, i wrote a book about dickenson's relationship to a man named thomas wentworth higginson because it was this idea of this strange historical moment when you have the reclusive poet par chance who never crosses her father's house or grounds for anybody or anything enter into a 25, 24, 25-year friendship with a pan named thomas higginson, lost to us now except, of course, from me. but lost to us now but famous in his own time as a fervent abolitionist. and so fervent was he that he was the leader of the first federally-authorized group of black troops during the civil war, long before the massachusetts 54th which was stationed in, of all places, south carolina. so in that particular sense, i was very intrigued by the particular period, wanted to know much more about it, wanted to do it justice, and that was my first or one of my first questions to myself is how can i be responsible to the complications, the pain, the sorrow, the death, the death tolls of the great sense of liberation, the great sense of failed promise? how could i be responsible to all of those historical events and many of those people who gave everything to make the country a better place and who also gave everything to keep the country from being a better place? how could i be responsible to those events and people and issues and yet tell the story in a different way, a way that actually might say, oh, well, not just another boring book about this particularly -- not boring time, but nonetheless. and so i decided to do is approach the book, as i've said before, as if i were a visitor from another planet, very far away, and i had just dropped down in the 1850s, 1860s, 1870s, and i had just come here. the first thing you'd want to do is read the newspapers. well, at least that's what i wanted to do. and i thought, well, how would i make sense of a paper, a newspaper from, say, 1850, 1857, 1864 and on and on? in other words, or let me put it in a different way, if you were to come from my other planet and sit down today and read the times, i looked at the times, and i thought, well, i understand everything that's on the front page. but to give you an example, i read, of course, there's a tremendous and terrible violence in egypt going on, and at the same time as i see that headline, i see charges against two traitors fault jpmorgan for lack of oversight, and then i see finding poetry on the page and later on the canvas. you think, where am i? you know, what planet is this? apology and wikileaks, and you'd say, well, what is even that? [laughter] and and so what i was wondering about is what sense would i make of these juxtapositions as i literally did read them? and the questions that would come to my mind, for example, would be something like what did the rise of the mormon church have to do with the lincoln/douglass debates? they're both reported at the same time. there must be a connection between them. and i don't know offhand what connection is between them, but that was my job to find it out and to create a path between these two or among many events. in this particular case just as a kind of coming attraction, it seemed to me that the connection between them was the issue of popular sovereignty, and that was, as i mentioned before, the issue of whether you can vote in a sort of almost libertarian style, if you can vote whatever you want in or out of the law. take, for example, slavery at one extreme. take it another extreme -- and i'm not saying the mormons were necessarily involved in this -- but taken another extreme, polygamy. oh, if we want to vote it in, why not? if we want to vote in the ownership of other people, why not? and then you realize that's what the real debate was almost about, and the underlying issue was popular sovereignty which said the issue was ultimately slavery. some of the characters i mention -- forgive me, i think of them not because i think of them as caricatures, but i think of them as people who populate a kind of almost like landscape. [laughter] nor did p.t. barnum have to do with abraham lincoln, and what did either of them have to do with walt whitman? well, easy lincoln and whitman because whitman adored lincoln. p.t. barnum, i'm not so sure. oh, of course i'm sure. whitman is the p.t. barnum of poetry, after all. whitman lovers may not agree with me -- [laughter] and i see there are some here. but i don't mean any disrespect. do i contradict myself? of course i contradict myself. i contain multitudes which is exactly what the barnum museum did. other questions, why was there spiritualism before the war? i can understand why after the war you would want to contact the recently departed, there were so many of them. the spiritualism started in 1848, i think of that as, again, when in upstate new york you hear there are two sisters who hear knocks, and they begin to interpret those knocks, and they can actually, they can actually tell you and give you, put you in communication with loved ones you have lost or perhaps not even loved ones, but usually loved ones. and many of them, especially the quakers, especially the quakers who went to the fox sisters, the quakers would find out that there was no slavery in heaven which was -- [laughter] so you see what i mean in that particular context, what i mean is that i was interested in bringing together various questions or various items, various people, various events and trying to figure out what their relationship had to do with one another. what did reconstruction, if anything, because there may not be answers or other people may have different answers, what did reconstruction in the south after the war have to do with the settlement of the west and the indian wars? and, lo and behold, you realize the war is over, but the wars are not over. and that is something to think about as well because -- does not necessarily signal the end of fighting. many of the military, sherman, sheraton or custer who were soldiers during the war, particularly in the north, they went to the west, and they became part of the army movement out there. so asking these kinds of questions, seeing these juxtaposition, coming in from my other planet and looking at these disconnected events or people suggested to me a different kind of path perhaps that i could take through this material and also allowed me then to rethink the material itself. so instead of necessarily rehearsing for you what happened at bull run or first ma nas us depending on what you want to call it, i thought i would think about how is it covered? who covered it? who were the journalists there? how did they get there? how did they get their dispatches? did they write it at night in the tent and have somebody to ride it to could town very quic? that got me to thinking about the journalists who covered the war. not just, as i said, the photographer. or in that particular context or stepping back from that context, i began to wonder why was it that many of the photographers that we associate with the war like alexander gardener and timothy o'sullivan, two major ones that you see again at the met show or in any discussion or you see in any viewing discussion of the civil war, why did they go west after the war? that's where they went. and they did landscape paintings -- photographers with no people in them generally. sometimes, but generally often not. so there must be a reason more that, and that struck me as really so interesting. so i wanted to come at those events, people, historical schisms that we're familiar with in an unfamiliar way. another example, lincoln's assassination. we know lincoln was assassinated. i'm not going to tell you otherwise. but what i will tell you that when lincoln was assassinated, there were a group of guerrillas -- speaking of guerrillas -- from missouri who were headed east, they were headed to washington, and they were coming to kill the president. makes you wonder if one didn't, somebody else might have. the interesting thing is that they were too drunk to get, i don't think, much farther than, oh, i don't know where, but they didn't get very far before they heard the news, and that was the end of that. it was kwantrell and his gang, if you're interested. very unsaverly group of people, and i try not to make too many value judgments. i don't want to ignore, as i said, these kind of angles or different angles. so instead of them talking about the assassination per se, i'm also going to talk to you about or tell you about the conspirators who were executed as -- because or one of the, or i suppose this is a strange claim to fame, the first woman to be executed in the united states was one of the lincoln conspirators or alleged lincoln conspirator. her name was mary serant. and when several people who were in part of the military tribunal who called for this execution, they asked the then-president andrew johnson for a stay of execution, and he said -- and i really must quote this to you -- he said, he denied the stay and he said not enough women had been hanged in this war. so she was. in fact, hanged. or i'll tell you the story about willkie james who went down to florida after the war. he'd been in the massachusetts 54th, he went to florida to start a plantation where he would pay black laborers and create a kind of new brook farm. it didn't really work out because of the great backlash against the free black in the south. and so i wanted to tell these kinds of stories also partly because i believe that history is embodied and it's often embodied in people at particular time who are, as i said, confident, confrontational, eccentric, sometimes fanatic, often fanatic, and who may or may not compromise. that's one of the book's subtitles. and who are intent on redefining the american nation and also doing that, i wanted to cleanse myself as much as possible of received wisdom. lots of things we do know about, but there are numbers of things that we think we know about, particularly me, who always feels that she's been miseducated. and in that case one such example would be the person, thaddeus stevens, who you may have met most recently in the spielberg "lincoln" movie where he was played by tommy lee jones, very nicely. he did not seem like a creature out of birth of a nation where he was dreadfully caricatured, but it was that caricature of thaddeus stevens with a clubbed foot that was supposed to be a sign of the devil that i learned about when i studied history. someone recently said to me, well, who taught you history, southerners? it was actually, no -- [laughter] it was actually hart of around whole -- part of a whole school of students reconstruction called the dunning school. and dunning had been a professor at columbia and a famous book of his published in 1907 and influenced "birth of a nation" and me. [laughter] makes me very old. but thaddeus stevens, one of the interesting things i can summarize for you about thaddeus stevens, when he was sick and dying and knew he was going to die, he had a plot, a cemetery plot, that he bought near lancaster, pennsylvania. and be when he realized that that cemetery was not integrated, it was segregated -- no black men or women allowed in it -- he gave up the plot, and he made sure that he was buried elsewhere, and then he had written on his tomb something that bears your attention even though it's worthy, he said: i repose in this quiet and secluded part not from any natural preference for solitary but such as to raise -- i've chosen that it might be unable to illustrate on my death the principles which i advocated through a long life; equality of pan before his creator. which i find very moving, actually, that he would make those choices, that he would want that in perpetuity. so in that particular sense, as i said, i'm cleansing myself of certain kinds of prejudices, and i want to expand our sense of this particular period. so two other choices i briefly want to mention to you, they're both, they both reside in the beginning of the book. because be you, you know, many of your are writers, and one of the things one calls think abouts about is how do i begin? why do i begin which is another question -- [laughter] that i will not deal with here. these are the questions i don't want later. [laughter] in any event, my first thought and the first chapter begins with a filibustering expedition to cuba. pily buster -- filibuster at the particular time did not mean people standing up in the house or the senate, particularly like wendy davis, and talking for a long time. it was a word that described expeditions that went, illegal expeditions that went to various countries like cuba armed to the teeth and also funded by former congressmen in the government, and in this particular series of expeditions and the one i begin with, the intention was to go to cuba, liberate it from the spanish, annex it to the united states -- sounds a little bit like bay of pigs almost -- annex it to the united states and, best of all, make it a slave state. what was interesting to me about that besides the sheer insanity of this idea that one could, again, take law into one's own hands, ignore neutrality laws and just go and say i'm taking you -- bringing you home so that you can wear it like a pin on uncle sam's breast pocket. no, no, that's not even what interested me, although that's pretty interesting. what interested me is we never think of a book that contains a large middle section about the war begin anything cuba. but in a sense it does. the west is just as important as the south, and it's the extension of the south. and then i thought, well, that's fine, but why not begin even earlier? because, after all, john quincy adams, the last sort of remnant, genetic remnant of the founding fathers, who was the president himself and who is now in the house of representatives, in 1848 he died in the house of representatives. he died as he lived, serving his country, and he died after saying no. great. because emily dickenson, of course, said no is the wildest word we have in the language. and john quincy adams had said no. he was voting against draping generals from the mexican war in more gold brass and medals. he wanted no part of that war. the war was over. he knew what was going to happen, or he forecast with gloom because he had been dealing with the anti-slavery movement for a very long time. and he said no. and i thought that was rather marvelous because at the end of one era and, of course, it's very much the beginning of another era, an era of resistance, and as i said, of change. an era of ec ecstasy in all sens of the word. ecstasy as liberation, ecstasy as freedom, ec ecstasy as happiness, as rapture, ecstasy as delirium. so it was a way to begin to understand, for me, what those nos where going to come to mean and what it meant to try to change the law or to put one's self up against the law or to say no in so many cultural and political ways. and with that and with that sense is where i want to leave you for my remarks and actually just read you very briefly from the opening of book which is straight after quincy adams' death. and the present was and future would also be a time of delirium, failure, violence and refusal; refusal to listen and find or create that hard common ground of compromise, refusal to bend so great was the fear of breaking, refusal to change and refusal to imagine what it might be like to be someone else. john quincy adams knew how to say no, but that negative could be inflexible, ideological, fanatical, particularly when some considered refusal a better tool than compromise or when compromise itself was so flak sid and unjust to be meaningless, particularly if it evaded matters of human rights and dignity. in short, america was an ecstatic nation, smitten with itself and prosperity and invention and in love with the land from which it drew its riches, a land grand and fertile, extending from one sea to another and to which its citizens felt into it med. yet there was a problem, a hitch, a blot, a stain. the stain was slavery. that john quincy adams knew, and because of it he forecast with doom the price the country would have to pay. some of the people and many of the events in this book are so familiar they seem ready-made; lincoln, the confederate general george picket's charge at gettysburg, robert e. lee meeting the scruffy, cigar-smoking ulysses s. grant. but the richness and variety during this time of crisis bring into focus other events, other characters. the impounding of the schooner pearl as it tries to flee washington, d.c. with a boatload of fugitive slaves. the day hungry women ran through the streets of richmond begging for bread during the war. susan b. anthony riding on wagons without springs through kansas to secure the ballot for women. exuberant men such as walt whitman and.t. barnum -- p.t. barnum, horace greeley changing his political stripes. the execution of the lincoln conspirators and head of the anderson prison. and then the impeachment of a president. anna, not emily dickenson, on the stump at new york's cooper union, the saga of the anti-slavery general rufus saxton fired from the friedman's bureau by a soon-to be-disgraced chief executive and the grandeur and promise of freedom whether to the mormons or the men such as clarence king who possessed nature in the wild or thought he had. and there was the war, the terrible war and all the while before, during and after it the idea of compromise which was being bandied about, debated and often held responsible for the country's failure to face its fatal flaw, for its selfishness and shortsightedness and for the reconciliation at the end of reconstruction that opened a new era beyond the scope of this book of jim crow. i don't presume to say what people should or should not have done which is not to suggest i'm without judgment, sorrow or at certain times astonishment. still, by placing contradictions, principles and, yes, compromises next to one another, perhaps we can emphasize what the choices people may or may not felt they had given the exigencies within which they lived and the very mixed motives we come to understand be we do, but through a glass darkened. for in the roiling middle of the 19th century when americans looked within not without, there was an unassailable exuberance and spirited and nutty and frequently cruel or brutal. there was also a seemingly insatiable and almost frenetic quest for freedom expressed in several competing ways for the possession of things, of land and, alas, of person. and in instances there was a passion, sometimes self-righteous, sometimes self-abdicating, for doing good even if that good included for its sake and in its name acts of murder. thank you. [applause] i will take questions, and michael has the -- so he gets to choose. choose nice ones. >> i'm interested in clarence king, a man with a very big secret. could you say more about him? >> i could say much more about him and, in fact, he was, became very interesting to me. the secret to it eluded to here is the fact that clarence king was a very young man. he didn't go to the war but, rather, went west and surveyed the west and became the first chief of the united states surveying expedition, was very well known, a bon vivant, brilliant man, evidently. a club man, a good man, a man who wanted to be a writer and wrote a very popular and still, i think, very good book called "mountaineering in the sierra nevadas," a man who loved the west and who kept a secret, and the secret was that he was the common law husband of a black woman in new york city or in queens, i think. he told her, he gave her an alias. she never knew that he was clarence king, and his friends who included notables like henry adams, they never knew that clarence king had this secret marriage and several children. so he's interesting. [laughter] the reason why he's in this book is not just because of that, interesting though it is, is because he brings us to the west. he loves the west, and he's there as a kind of pioneer after the war who takes it to the west and seems to be enthralled by ruskin and beauty and mountains. and not keeps the secret, but actually begins to mine and explore the west for his and other people's riches. so he's a complex man. brilliant scientist who authored a paper called -- i don't think i can pronounce it -- in the 1870s. and he was talking about, he was positing a different view of evolution. different from darwin's on the one hand and different from agassi, the scientist, on the other hand. and what he talked about was catastrophe and how they change the course of how geology, how the mountains, how all things developed. so it was so interesting to me that here he was, a man who evaded the war somehow and for some reason, also still dealing with the war in the 1870s, had been a remarkable success by all standards and yet had this secret life which seemed to me then to give us a sense of really what reconstruction was all about. it was about a westward movement, it was about denial, it was about secrecy, it was about rapacious greed, it was about brilliance, really, and achievement. and it was ultimately, as henry adams knew, it was about failure. >> thank you. throughout the wars, you know, vietnam, we had the gulf of tonkin incident with, with the first iraq war, the babies being taken out of the incubators, kuwait side drilling into iraq and then the weapons of mass destruction, you look at a lot of different groups. and there are different groups that have brought us into those wars and their incentives. the groups that you looked at, what were the alliances that you saw that were going across boundaries that you might not think of that were pushing towards war and the conflict and shaping the forces of history to come? [laughter] >> well, in one sense, and it would be very glib of me what my answer has to be though is everyone. everyone was participating in what you're calling the shaping of history or the kind of move toward war. it's very confusing in ways and humbling to be living now. and as you've mentioned, you know, we're the recipient of many, many wars in anyone in here's lifetime, and then looking back and looking at a war like the civil war and wondering how did it happen, why did it happen, who made it happen? and one of the things, and i was talking about in in this this afternoon in an interview, one of the things you realize is that many people seemed not to know what they were talking about. not that they weren't brilliant, not that they weren't educated in cases. but they didn't know what war meant. they didn't can have that experience -- they didn't have that experience, they didn't have, they didn't have that imagination for some reason. so when you talk about who brought the war or what kinds of cross-sections of groups, you have people in the south, people in the north. you have really almost everyone i would say except the exceptions would be more salient than the go through who were sort of part of it. and part of the exceptions would have been perhaps strangely enough -- not strangely, but you'll see why i say strangely -- the quakers, certainly, because they're pacifists. whether it's amy and isaac post, william lloyd garrison who also believed very strongly in nonviolence. but thoreau brought his blood up, for sure, he who wrote "civil disobedience." and the strange person i would put in this brew and probably or some may disagree with me would be somebody like stephen doug -- stephen douglas who when he realized what was happening in the election of 1860 began to really work very hard to keep the south from seceding and actually sat near lincoln at the lincoln inauguration. and i think had he lived, he died shortly after that, probably would have been a force for something are positive, more positive than the racism he's associated with during the next some years. thanks. >> brenda, how did you figure out what to leave out? [laughter] >> so many times, you know, i felt on the one hand every sentence in the book actually had, i was sure, a shelf of books, you know, written about it. and then when you have someone like lincoln, you realize there's a whole presidential library dedicated to him. so there's a huge amount that i was leaving out all of the time. what i decided to leave out was, i guess, based in sort of two, sort of didn't fall into two categories. one was, as i said earlier, i wanted to be responsible to the history that i felt that i had been contracted to tell. in other words, that i can't leave out certain things. as i mentioned to you, i'm not going to leave out the gettysburg address, for example, because it's such a historical, important moment for language, for the war, more so many things, for lincoln himself. so it had to fall into that category. and the second category is that it had to help me narrate the story that i wanted to narrate, so it had to have some kind of dramatic movement. it had to move the drama, had to move the narrative forward. and if it didn't, then it really did have to go onto the cutting room floor. and believe me, the floor, so to speak, was rittered with -- littered we events, people, what have you, that didn't get in. but those are the two kind of litmus tests that i used. and i was very grateful to my editor who basically never balked at the page number and who didn't say, well, you can't do this, this and this. so i kept in whatever i really thought was germane to the story which was why the book is not 20 pages, something like that, you know? [laughter] the war, the war came, the war was over. [laughter] yes. >> why do you think b new york was such a hotbed of religion and spiritualism in that period? >> well, that's a good question. i really -- you know, i've often asked myself, and i'm somewhat familiar with the area where new york was a hotbed, for one thing anyone that's been to the area in upstate from, i suppose, syracuse to the left which is to say west, maybe albany to the left. anyone who's familiar with that particular area knows that it's very different from down state, and to my mind, it always is, seems to me, much more like the midwest, what we call the midwest now and then was the west. it seemed like the west in senses. it's agricultural. i think that that there was a sense of a tremendous need in the sense, a need for something that wasn't the congregationalism or even the unitarianism of boston, the sort of straight-laced world there, and there was a sense also that you could create new things and that you could speak to god directly through various means or in various groups that became open many that territory because it was somewhat open territory it was western, what we think of western. that would be my off-the-cuff kind of answer. ultimately, it's a fascinating question, and i don't know anybody's really dealt with that, you know, sufficiently. there's two right here. >> in the course of writing the book, did you change any preconceptions, did you experience a change of opinion about feelings you had concerning this period before you wrote? >> well and, again, this'll sound gullible, but one change of opinion was i went from mass confusion to less confusion. [laughter] i don't know if that's an opinion, but it always seems like, it seemed like a blob to me, you know? not to put too eloquent a point on it. reconstruction, as i said, was always a pisly to me because i was never comfortable with the way it was handed down to me. so everything was new. what changed was it wasn't that i went from certain knowledge to different knowledge, it was more as if i went from no understanding to what i'm comfortable with as some understanding now of the reasons for the successes and the failures of reconstruction. that was one thing. and that's been very important to me. for some reason, i find that very, very satisfying because i learned things about political parties, and i learned things about what happened in the republican party, and i learned, you know, that the issue of carpet baggers and scalliwags and, you know, terrible radicals was not the issue at all of what happened. another thing that i was, that was a happy surprise was that i was, i was a bit skeptical, forgive me, about abraham lincoln. i know he's an icon, i just saw somebody's eyebrows raise. [laughter] because i thought he can't be that good. nobody's that good, you know? he can't be that brilliant, that eloquent, that sagacious, he can't be those things, and i found out that he was, that he really was. and that was kind of chilling and, again, very humbling. so those would be two of the many, many things. >> thank you. of -- >> one of the things that's so exciting about the book is, as you've pointed out, is reading the stories that are familiar to us, and yet you make them fresh and then reading a lot of stories that aren't familiar to us. so the challenge for you as a writer is how do you take something like the gettysburg address, how do you make it fresh for you and then for us? and the second part of the question is, what stories did you come across that you were especially excited about that were new to you that you knew had to be in this book that were going to illuminate and expand our understanding of the era and give us different characters or different settings or some other kind of understanding of this period? >> yeah. let me take the matter of the example of the gettysburg address, because that's interesting to me. as a writer, researcher, historian, whatever i am while i'm doing this particular book, i'm thinking, oh, god, there's gettysburg looming ahead. what the hell am i going to do? i went to gettysburg through book after book after book on gettysburg. i'm not a military historian. when my husband reads, you know, drafts my books, he always -- not always, but often says i've got the guns pointing the wrong way -- [laughter] i shouldn't admit that. but i get them right, i get them right. but anyway, so when it came to gettysburg, both the battle and then culminating in the address, i remember it was a very conscious decision and you never know if it's going to work, i taught that a i would begin -- which is something i don't believe in which is the counterfactual -- but in a sense, i began with a different rhetorical device because also i'm always committed to keeping the reader, if i can, interested. especially when he or she thinks they know what's coming. so the rhetorical device was had there been no gettysburg address, you know, we may not -- and then i went through, and i used that device throughout the chapter. had there been none. so to try to whet your appetite for the coming the address which i don't speend spend much time on. i figure you could read gary wills or whomever you want on the address. but i wanted you to think about what it's like to live inside of time and think you wouldn't have known this address was coming. you wouldn't even have nobody the battle was -- known the battle was coming because it started almost by accident. so had there been, had this not existed, then we would not have done that and thus and such. so that's how i would decide in those particular instances, and that was, that was fun for me. it was exciting for me because each event or person was a challenge about how i would then present it to a reader in a fresh kind of way. about the different and new revelations, there were so many. i mean, one, we mentioned clarence king. actually, when i finished a certain section of the book, i thought, oh, good, now i can move westward, because i want to get -- and i realized i couldn't move westward. i hadn't set the west up. the question was how do i set the west up? i don't want to set it up just as a place where we're going to destroy another peoples. i want to set it up for what it also represents to people: great beauty, tremendous natural resources not just in terms of gold or copper or trees that can turn into paper, but because of the grand expanse of sheer physical beauty which enthralled the photographers and and, of course, enthralled many groups of people. and that then allowed me to get to west in that particular way. but i could go on and on. there's certainly people i'd known about but not quite known about, like i mentioned anna dickenson, the orator, before who's a revelation to many in ways as well. i didn't know she existed when i was writing a book on emily dickenson, and something would come up about anna, and i'm like can't they get her name right? no, no, there's an anna dickenson, and she was important in history. she was sent out like a canary into the mines, literally. she was sent to pennsylvania coal miners to talk about anti-slavery movement, and the republicans -- in a very hostile environment. oh, it worked okay, so the rest of us will come out after, which is sort of interesting, the use and abuse of women. but anyway -- >> brenda, can you say something about coming from literature and writing history? >> yeah. [laughter] yes. i'm intrigued that i'm often now introduced as a historian which is fine, i'm very flattered, in fact. history writing and historians were something else that i had to throw out of my wail of receive -- barrel of received wisdom and prejudices against. but when i, as i mentioned the book on hawthorne and certainly the book on dickenson and higginson, in both of those cases i'm writing about writers, but many both of those cases part of what always interested me is that they live in time. and as i mentioned, someone like hawthorne really did meet lincoln, he went to ma nas us, he was very close with the man who invented the term manifest destiny, all of those things. so i was never that far from history or writing about history. it's just that i was facilitiered through -- filtered through literature. literature is something that i love very much. but it exists in time. as i said, history's embodied -- and so is literature in that way. so when i wrote the book on dickenson and higginson that i mentioned earlier, so much of that book is nonliterary. it really is about anti-slavery, the abolition movement, what happens to poetry, how it gets published. that's historical too. we don't just need wars or the decimation of native peoples to be history. history can be how a poem gets published in that way. and so, to me, then moving into this book was, this particular ecstatic nation was a tremendous opportunity. it was, it made me -- [laughter] very ecstatic, in fact, to have the opportunity to be able to do what i had been sort of drawn to all along. which means that i didn't sideline literature. if anything, it's cultural and political history in that particular sense, because i think of them as the same. that's what i mean about reading the newspaper. on that front page where you have egypt and chase bank, you also have a story about an art critic who loved emily dickenson and longfellow. so there we are in that way. i think -- >> thank you very much. >> thank you. [applause] >> is there a nonfiction author or book you'd like to see featured on booktv? send us an e-mail at booktv as c-span.org or tweet us at twitter.com/booktv. >> beginning now on booktv, hans -- [inaudible] discusses his book, "who's counting: how fraudsters and bureaucrats put your vote at risk." from the 20th annual eagle forum collegiate summit. >> our next speaker is hans. he's an attorney and former member of the board of advisers for the federal election commission. he's a staff member here at heritage foundation,

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