certainly are still devastated by him being allowed to walk the streets. however, this family respects the wishes of this court and realizes that under florida constitution, he has a right to be released but that doesn't negate the fact that they have mixed feelings about him being released so close to his actual arrest and long journey it took to get him there. >> $15,000 is what we had to pay on $150,000 bond. how are they feeling about that amount? there are a number of people who said in print they thought that sounded low. >> the family has stayed away from that issue. we are trying to be as respectful as we can to this process and the court process. their aspect of this is far emotional because they have lost their son and the journey that it took to get them to the point of having him arrested has been a tough one. it's with a very, very heavy heart they see him walk freely late last night back into the public. >> mr. parks, will cain. part of this process you described was the bond hearing where george zimmerman took an opportunity to apologize to trayvon's parents. i understand that wasn't well received with them. what was it about that that they did not appreciate? >> we had asked them prior to that we thought it should be a private process and happen at some point in the future. it's clear at a bond hearing that's not a time for you to take the stand and to offer an apology. you put on evidence in a case that's related to the pretrial release of bond conditions of the defendant. they took the opportunity, a very self-serving opportunity to go ahead and offer this apology. when you're in a bond situation, all evidence from the stand should have been directed to the court and it was not. it was rather clear. >> there are details about his release at midnight. he followed another man out. didn't look at any of the controversy. many of them were surrounding the jail. and then got into a white bmw and drove away. will you and the family members be notified if in fact george zimmerman is leaving the state if he leaves florida and moves to another state while this trial is pending? >> that part is unclear. as you may know, when the court made its pronouncement, all pretrial release conditions are coordinated with the sheriff's office since they're the ones responsible for his release. however, i'm sure that as we go into it, they will notify the victims' advocate with the state attorney with any information that the family needs to know and are entitled to under law. >> it will eventually get to trayvon's parents. we saw in the miami herald's obituary page, a card of thanks and notes from the parents saying they wish to express their heartfelt appreciation for words of encouragement, peaceful rally support to those who signed petitions, poems, video tributes, monetary gifts to our defense fund and all acts of kindness shown to them during this difficult time. tell me a little bit about this card of thanks and why they decided to put this in the paper now. >> well, soledad, that card is no different from any other newspaper in our country where a family who has lost a loved one where friends have come to the aid to console them during their time of loss. this is customary in america. hopefully everyone sees it as just that. we see this in the paper and obituary section. this is no different. >> will you sum up the case how you think it's going so far. there are critics that say they think the prosecution's case seems weak at this point. would you agree with them? i disagree with them. the situation we were in last friday was a bail situation. mr. o'mara decided to take a few stabs at the probable cause affidavit and he did so. obviously he was not successful in terms of the hearing because, one, his client is still in custody and, two, bail was set at a level. i think that we need to be clear here, the prosecution did not come to court to try its whole case. i agree wholeheartedly with what the prosecutor said after the hearing. that was not the trial. it wasn't a mini trial. that was a bond hearing. we are very confident as we move forward of the evidence that we are quite aware of is enough to convict him. there's also additional evidence that we're not aware of but we believe we have more than sufficient evidence to convict george zimmerman. >> darryl parks, always nice to see you. thank you for talking to us. appreciate it. another big story we're following this morning is snow. snow. how weird is that? wet, heavy snow falling hard in parts of the northeast. some areas between west virginia and western new york could get up to a foot of snow or more. other place chas could get soaky four inches of rain and some cities could experience power outages that could last several days. brings us right to brian todd. he's in pennsylvania this morning. dubois, is that right? >> reporter: that's right. this is where the winter wonderland is occurring. you see accumulation around me. the big concern right now, heavy accumulation on the trees. the trees here have almost full foliage on them. you see wet snow on the trees packing and they're worried the trees will start to collapse and bring down power lines. we're told from the statewide power company, they already have about 3,000 power outages in indiana county just west of here and so that's a big concern. it's going to be a concern throughout the day. this is very heavy wet snow as i climb out of the ditch there. we'll go across the railroad tracks. our photo journalist is going to follow me. the question is when is it going to start accumulating on the roads. as you can see here, we're on a highway near interstate 80. not accumulating on roads yet. there are snowplows and trucks that have gone past here this morning getting ready to plow the roads. interestingly for those snowplows, they've had to reattach plows and spreaders because they took those off the trucks for spring not anticipating weather like this. they are trying to get out ahead of this as fast as they can. one emergency management official here told me that a big concern here in clearfield county and nearby center county where the snow is starting to accumulate is that they will get all sorts of calls for emergencies. they are worried about home fires. many have home burning fireplaces and stoves and cold furnaces they'll fire up in this weather and if they get problems with that or fires, they'll have to deploy emergency management people and fire teams and they don't have many in rural areas like that. they are afraid they may get overloaded with calls and have to call someone in the neighboring county and that county will have trouble sending people over because they are heavily deployed. that's going to be some of the things we'll be looking for in the next few hours as this snow starts to accumulate. >> all right, brian todd for us this morning. such a beautiful shot. it looks so pretty. i have done many of those snow shots. they are so miserable. no hat on. freezing. it looks great. let's get to meteorologist rob marciano. see where the storm is headed now. i know you have done a few of those yourself, mister. >> not many in late april. that's what is certainly unusual. even more -- it's not unprecedented but unusual. what is kind of really weird is that the last time we had a big snowstorm across the east coast was back in october. back when the trees had leaves because it was still fall. this has been a crazy winter in that regard. center of the low is over new york where it is dry and will continue to be dry. this will move up toward the north and west. but the damage already done in some spots across parts of upstate new york and through the finger lakes. temperatures hovering around the freezing mark. notice buffalo and pittsburgh are above freezing. they're not going to see the accumulation but what we have seen so far, newfield, new york, ten inches of snow. ridgebury, eight inches of snow. locke, new york, seven inches of know. more accumulation is expected across western pennsylvania and cold air will work in from canada. 8 to 16 inches potentially in some spots especially across the higher elevations. brian todd mentioned the fall foliaa foliage. winds gusting to 40 miles an hour creating problems not only in snow zone but across major metropolitan airports with delays at philadelphia, 55 minutes. laguardia will chime in as well. >> does that mean my daffodils are done? >> it's mild in new york city. temperatures cooling down only into the 40s. you're fine. >> thank you. let's get to zoraida. >> you are safe in new york city. >> zoraida has the rest of the headlines for us. good morning. >> good morning, soledad. iran says it cracked the codes on a u.s. spy drone it captured last year and officials in tehran are leaking the alleged details. iran long bragged about capturing the drone. the pentagon doubted iran's military would be able to decode it but iran says it has. it also claims that data from that drone shows it's the same one that flew over osama bin laden's hideout in pakistan two weeks before he was killed. french president nicolas sarkozy finding himself in a fight for his political life this morning after finishing second in the country's presidential election on sunday. socialist candidate came in first. he defeated sarkozy by just over one percentage point. they'll face each other in a runoff election on may 6th. students and teachers return to class in oakland this morning three weeks after a gunman opened fire on campus and killed seven people there. 43-year-old has been charged with seven counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder. he's due back in court next week to enter a plea. rocker ted nugent's controversial comments are starting to cost him. commanders at the u.s. army base in ft. knox, kentucky, have canceled his upcoming performance citing nugent's remarks at nra convention that he would be dead or in jail if president obama was re-elected. the guitarist explained his comments during a meeting with the secret service last week. consequences, soledad. >> all of the explanation in the world won't fix that one. thank you. still ahead on "starting point," sex, money, power and a sick wife at home. the criminal trial of john edwards begins today. we'll tell you what to expect and who is going to testify. and in our get real. it was a world of hurt. there's not so much. and if you are headed to work, don't miss the show. check out our live blog at cnn.com/startingpoint. this is off jon's playlist. "paper planes." the best part of any great meal? delicious gourmet gravy. and she agrees. with fancy feast gravy lovers, your cat can enjoy the delicious, satisfying taste of gourmet gravy every day. fancy feast. the best ingredient is love. mine was earned off vietnam in 1968. over the south pacific in 1943. i got mine in iraq, 2003. usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection, and because usaa's commitment to serve the military, veterans and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. this morning we're talking about sex and politics, money and betrayal. it is in fact the basis for the federal criminal case against former presidential candidate john edwards which starts today in a north carolina courtroom. edwards is accused of accepting nearly 1 milli$1 million in ill campaign contributions during his bid for the presidential nomination. prosecutors say he used that to hide the extramarital affair. edward's defense will argue that was siphoned off by his aide to help young build an expansive dream home. edwards faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted. let's get to a criminal defense attorney. nice to have you. how he has fallen from running for the presidency of the united states to keeping himself out of it prison. he was offered a deal which he decided not to take in this case. >> that speaks volumes to the hurdles prosecution has in this case. they offered john edwards a deal of serving three months in jail. >> he would keep his law license. >> that to me says the prosecution understands and realize ths they have an uphillt until this case. john edwards doesn't win popularity contests for sure, this prosecution and these charges are clearly expanding the scope of the definition of campaign contributions. >> let's talk about that. is election finance law clear cut or is there a lot of wiggle room? it sounds like so much wiggle room they bring these charges. >> enormous amount of wiggle room. it's so vague. here's one of the key questions. were these funds being earmarked for the campaign? were they meant to influence the election? the answer the defense is clearly not. they were not used for the election. if the donors were going to give this money regardless because they were personal friends of his and they didn't want this extramarital affair to come out, that's not a violation. >> could not both sides say that concealing the mistress was an attempt to win an election? >> of course. concealing a mistress is an attempt to keep your reputation intact. that does not make it a donation for campaign finance. that would then -- any time someone did something for john edwards that sort of enhanced his reputation or helped him prevented his relationship from being damaged would be a chip that would go into campaign finance kitty. that's not the law. this is dangerous. if this prosecution win this is case and they could because of who john edwards is, this will send a message that will reverbrate through potential candidates going forward. it muddies the water of what is campaign finance and what is not. >> the lawyers have said the indictment of mr. edwards amounts to prosecutorial v vindictivene vindictiveness. they pointed to someone seeking the seat for north carolina which is what john edwards was sitting u.s. senator before all of this drama unfolded in his life. how do you think this is going to end? is this going to go through the entire courtroom process and end up with all of this information being revealed which i'm sure all parties, certainly edwards, has no interest in, or will they come to a different deal that's not on the table originally. >> anything could happen during a trial. things happen. witnesses take the stand. they're not what perhaps the prosecution thinks they're going to be after they testify and maybe they revamp their deal. i know john's lawyers and they certainly are on top of their game. >> he's had a million. >> the team he has in place is on top of their game and the laws here are very unclear and when you talk to a jury about proof beyond a reasonable doubt, in this case there's plenty of reasonable doubt. >> simple question for you. what is john edwards -- i know this sounds like we're going back five steps here. what is he specifically charged with? receiving over his limit of campaign contributions from a single donor? >> that and also making false statements to the government about it. he has to file certain documents. >> on the first charge, receiving over his limits of campaign funding from a single donor is different now, right? this happened in 2008. he's being prosecuted for a law that's no longer enforced? >> it was in place at the time of his candidacy and that's really what counts. it's a federal offense at the time and again he's filed documents that the government is claiming were false because he didn't include these contributions although the donors are saying or were saying at the time these were not campaign contributions. these were personal payments that we made. >> of course the campaign finance law in the filing is just as complicated as irs code. people disagree on what it means. these were not public funds. this is not taxpayer money we're talking about. it's private funds. isn't the issue whether it was a contribution for the campaign? isn't that the main issue whether it was for some other purpose or as a campaign contribution? >> absolutely. >> don't know but you have to look at circumstances. these are people who knew them. if they made donations to him so to speak regardless of the campaign to cover up his extramarital campaign, that's not a campaign contribution. and don't forget the defense has two experts. if the judge allows them to testify in this case, it's game over for defense. i think they get an acquittal full blown. two former members of the campaign finance committee who will say that this is not a violation of a campaign finance laws. >> he's really, really, really wealthy. you have to ask yourself for $900,000, which is tons of money to all of us but for him not that much money, wasn't part of that going to intent which is you need another source of funding because you got to get it around your wife because you don't want people to know about the girlfriend. isn't that going to be proof in a way for him? >> i guess part of it is he didn't necessarily need the money to subsidize this but then what account would that come out of that would have raised sort of bells and whistles. >> you are talking politics. i'm talking affair. >> all right. appreciate it. still ahead this morning on "starting point," it's a bird, it's a plane. no. it's actually a really, really loud meteor shower. we'll show you that straight ahead. no chance for world peace as the player formally known as ron artest revisits his brawling days. that's his victim on the ground. we have details in get real next. and this is will's playlist. 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"beer for my horses." >> our get real this morning, who could forget this moment. take a look back if you will. 2004 ron artest playing for the indiana pacers runs into the stands and starts brawling. remember this? look at that. he just runs into the stands. people are, like, my god, go get him. he starts having a fistfight with fans. it was called malice in the palace and was suspended for 86 games. fast forward to september 2011. artest decided to give up brawling ways and changed his name to world peace. who knew that would be so painful. he now plays for the lakers. he was ejected from yesterday's game for decking oklahoma city's james harden with a nasty elbow. that looked seriously painful. dropped to the court and stayed down for a minute. world peace was tossed for a fragrant foul and the league is reviewing the blow. do you call it mr. peace? he apologized. he said he was celebrating after a dunk. he says that was not intentional. take a look. >> he had no idea his body was brushed up against him. >> last year he won the citizenship award. i don't know what it proves. it proves something. it proves that he should get read about focusing on his name. >> we remember when charles manson changed his name but it didn't change anything. we've seen in the nba that players can be redeemed and we've seen it happen can kobe and i hope it happens again with ron artest. >> it hasn't happened yet. >> i don't know. accidental? >> n