Transcripts For CNNW EarlyStart 20121204

Plunging over the fiscal cliff. Three storms in one week. The west coast is getting hammered by rain. A live report minutes away for you. Good morning. Welcome to early start this tuesday morning. Im Christine Romans. Im zoraida sambolin. Its 5 00 a. M. In the east. We begin with breaking news. Iran claiming it has captured a u. S. Drone. This is video from state television in tehran it shows two revolutionary guard commanders examining what appears to be an intact scan eagle drone. We dont know if its the one they claim they captured. Moments ago a u. S. Defense official told Barbara Starr the u. S. Navy has fully accounted for all unmanned vehicles operating in the middle east region. We have the latest developments now from cairo. A u. S. Source says that if the iranians do have something, it is not an actively operating u. S. Navy drone. What would that mean . Could this actually be a fake . It could be. Its not clear right now, but iranian officials have a different story. We dont know when or how this u. S. Drone was allegedly captured, but you can be sure iran is going to count this as a big intelligence victory over the u. S. You can also be sure theyll use this to portray the u. S. As the aggressor in the region. Thats what iran has done for more than three decades. Briefly, lets tell you about the reports from state media in iran. Reports say iran captured a drone flying over the northern persian gulf waters after it allegedly flew into iranian airspace. This is a region close to irans only Nuclear Power plant. A statement by irans revolutionary guard said this happened over the past few days. The statement described the drone as a u. S. Made scan eagle. This is a shortrange drone with a tenfoot wide wing span. Iranian officials claim it was spying in iranian airspace. U. S. Officials have not confirmed this report. They say all their drones are accounted for. U. S. Officials saying if iran has a drone, its not one of theirs and not actively operating. Iran did capture a u. S. Drone last december, and last month iran fired at a u. S. Drone that it said invaded its airspace. Will this just escalate tensions between the United States and iran . I dont think it will escalate things, but it certainly wont help tensions. You can take a few things away from this. The u. S. Continues to be very active with its drones in the region doing spy work. It certainly doesnt help the tensions. Iran and the u. S. Keep going back and forth. Iran is going to use this to bolster its position that it is the u. S. Meddling in affairs of foreign countries, and the u. S. Is the bully in the region, and back and forth they go. I dont think this will escalate things between them. Resa sayah, thank you very much. Up next, fiscal cliff futility. In 28 days, crippling tax hikes and spending cuts become a painful reality for every american if a deal does not get done. Republicans are offering up a counter proposal to what the president offered a counter proposal that calls for 2. 2 trillion in deficit savings. It includes 800 billion in tax reforms, 600 billion in medicare reforms and 600 billion in spending cuts. Because it doesnt contain tax hikes for the wealthiest americans or specifics about which loopholes will be eliminated, the president immediately rejected the republican proposal. Want to know how far apart democrats and republicans are . Listen to this. I think were going over the cliff. Its unfortunate the white house has spent three weeks doing basically nothing. What we cant do is sit here trying to figure out what works for them. The president s idea of negotiation is roll over and do what i ask. Its clear to me they made a political calculation. If their ideas are different from ours, we cant guess what they are. They need to be more specific. Some specificity from them. He cant be serious. Havent even begun to be serious. We need to get serious. I dont think theyre serious. I would say were nowhere. Period. Were nowhere. Hard to disagree with that. Were nowhere. Period. The cliff is grim, and no one is making new years eve plans because everyone thinks this will be a real clincher what about the republican plan . How does it differ from the white house proposal . Where are these two sides now . Looking at sort of the big headlines from Speaker Boehners plan, 800 billion in tax reform savings. So this is the new tax revenue. This is the amount, 800 billion. This would be through closing loopholes, not through increasing tax rates, which republicans remain opposed to the 600 billion in health savings, thats the entitlement reform, thats medicare cuts and other spending cuts to entitlement programs. Look at how this compares to the white house plan. 1. 6 trillion in new taxes, which is two times the amount of revenue in Speaker Boehners counter off err. Also 400 billion in cuts to medicare and other entitlements, thats 200 billion less in cuts to entitlements, also asking congress to give up its authority on the debt limit vote to have a very long debt limit vote which is a nonstarter for republicans. They like to have that power. The white house dismissing this as nothing new. Theyre saying it lacks specifics, as you heard n that conglomeration of sound bite theres, because Speaker Boehner doesnt outline exactly what deductions he would target. He doesnt outline his entitlement cuts, but theres a lot of lacking specifics on both sides. Both plans propose entit entitlement cuts. How much of this is real negotiation, how much of it is politics and in the game of politics who is winning here . Most of this is politics. The white house and comingal democrats have the upper hand here and feel they do. Its a question of how much of the upper hand, if they have heres why they hold more cards. If you ask people, this is a recent poll done, if you ask people how should you increase tax revenue, 21 said reduce Tax Deductions which is what republicans are proposing. 29 said increase tax rates. 39 said do both. 7 out of 10 people are saying increasing tax rates should be part of how you increase revenue, which is what democrats are talking about, what the white house is talking about. Heres why you are not hearing specifics on entitlements, from both democrats and republicans. When you ask people what should you not be cutting spending on . 77 say social security. 80 say medicare. That shows you how tough it is to stake out a position on entitlement reform. Republicans are saying the white house and Congressional Democrats are overreaching here. But the fact is theyre coming from an inferior bargaining position and they are trying to get everything they can in the next few weeks. Thank you. It is 8 minutes past the hour, the rain and flooding are relentless in california. Three storms in less than a week and at least one death attributed to those storms. More rain is expected today. Rob marciano is following it all from the cnn Weather Center in atlanta. A lot of rain headed their direction . Yes. Not as much as last week, but the ground is already sat ratur. Napa valley has been getting hit hard. The Russian River up and over flood banks. Now they will ease back into the riverbeds, but with additional rainfall today, it may go back into flood stage there. There is the latest video showing a couple glimmers of sunshine, that was shortlived yesterday. How much rainfall have we seen in the last few days . In a sixday total almost two feet of rain at mount sast ta. Sterling city, 21 inches of rainfall. Sims, california, 17. 9. This is tremendous rainfall for a nontropical area. It has a tropical connection, because its coming from the direction of hawaii, but still a mid and northern latitude situation. Seattle and portland seeing some rain, snow at the Higher Elevations. If anything is a saving grace, its a little cooler this goaround, so some of the moisture getting locked up in Higher Elevations in the form of snow. Most of that is well north of San Francisco and napa valley. This will sink further south, well get another piece of energy later on today that will spin up across the bay area and intensify the rainfall. Thats what we will be watching closely. Our computer models highlight that. One pulse to the north. Another one fills in further to the south. It shouldnt be nearly what we saw last week. The ground is saturated. Rivers are swollen. It wont take much to get more in the way of flooding. Once we get past that, we are looking at a fairly dry scenario going over the next few days. Today is the day. Then tomorrow well hopefully be breathing a sigh of relief. This morning intense fighting in syria outside the city of aleppo. Rebel fighters trapped hundreds of government soldiers inside a military base and say they are giving them a chance to defect. This as president obama warns syrian president Bashar Al Assad that there will be serious consequences if he uses chemical weapons against his own weapon. This regime is a real problem for us. Its alliance with iran, its possession of chemical weapons, weapons of mass destruction. Its human rights record, its support of terrorism. This is a regime we would like to get out of the way. We dont want to see it replaced with people we dont support either. The Syrian Foreign Ministry denies they have plans to use chemical weapons. The family of Jovan Belcher is speaking publically for the First Time Since he fatally shot his girl friend and killed himself. Belchers sister and uncle stood by his aunt as she spoke outside the home where the football star lived with 22yearold Kasandra Perkins and their 3monthold daughter. We will cherish the wonderful memories we have of javon and pray those memory also bring us peace as we grapple to understand the unpredictable and tragic ending of his life and the life of Kasandra Perkins. Kansas city Police Confirm that the gun used by belcher was purchased legally. Belchers mother has been given temporary custody of the couples daughter, zoe. A picture of suspect George Zimmerman released by his attorney reportedly taken by a Police Officer the night zimmerman shot and killed martin. The bloody picture itself is not new, but the fact its a High Resolution color photo is. Zimmermans Attorney Says it gives the case more context. Is it devastating . No. But its just one piece of evidence that shows what george was going through that night and why he reacted the way he did. Zimmerman faces a Second Degree murder charge for killing martin back in february. Prosecutors say zimmerman profiled and pursued trayvon. It is 12 minutes past the hour. Let the speculation begin. Will and katherine are expecting a baby. But what happens if they have twins . What happens if they have a boy and a girl . We talk succession coming up. And an ambulance gets a boot while on an emergency call. Find out why after this quick break. Choose the same brand your mom trusted for you. Childrens tylenol, the 1 brand of pain and fever relief recommended by pediatricians and used by moms decade after decade. How theyll live tomorrow. For more than 116 years, Ameriprise Financial has worked for their clients futures. Helping millions of americans retire on their terms. When they want. Where they want. Doing what they want. Ameriprise. The strength of a leader in retirement planning. The heart of 10,000 advisors working with you onetoone. Together for your future. Well, having a ton of locations doesnt hurt. And a santa to boot [ chuckles ] right, baby. Oh, sir. That is a customer. Oh. Sorry about that. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. Fedex office. 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Its hard to see opportunity in todays challenging environment. Unless you have the right perspective. Bny mellon Wealth Management has the vision and experience to look beyond the obvious. Well uncover opportunities, find hidden risk, and make success a reality. Bny mellon Wealth Management welcome back to early start. Britain is buzzing this morning with news that a royal baby is on the way. Buckingham palace made all the rumors official yesterday announcing katherine the duchess of cambridge and wife of Prince William suspecting their first child. Matthew chance is live in london for us. Good morning to you, matthew. I know it is all the buzz. So we know the duchess is less than 12 weeks pregnant. The royal family was forced to announce the news early after she was taken to the hospital for acute morning sickness. Whats the latest on their condition . We have not had any updates on her actual condition. She is still in this hospital behind me in central london. She is starting her second day in bed there. She is expected to be there for the next several days with that acute morning sickness involving nausea and vomiting. Generally the risks associated with it have to do with dehydration. The understanding is shell be getting fluids to deal with that intraveno intravenously. In terms of latest visits, we hear her husband, Prince William came last night. He is expected to turn up any moment now as well to see his wife inside this private hospital. Of course, youre right, a lot of excitement a lot of excitement around the country about this. This is the best selling daily newspaper the sun saying kates expectations, reference that the child will become the monarch. The child whether its a girl or a boy thats given birth to in several months from now will go on potentially to be the heir to the throne in britain. The daily mail, a nations joy, a husbands nerves. A nervous Prince William there pictured coming out of the hospital last night. Finally, just briefly, this headline in the Daily Telegraph, could it be twins for kate . The possibility of some kind of multiple birth for kate. A lot of rumors about that. The Daily Telegraph just one of those papers hoping to spread that rumor. I will stay on that rumor. Could it be twins and i heard tripl triplets, and part of the reason is severe morning sickness has been associated with multiple births. Have there been multiple births for middletons family . It goes back a long way. Im sure there will have been in the past. Im not sure of the accident incidence of multiple births in the royal family or the middleton family. Youre right, one thing that points to multiple birth is this severe morning sickness. It doesnt mean there will be one, but its one of the indications that there could be the possibility of a multiple birth. Well get an update on her condition, perhaps the state of her pregnancy as well later on in the day. Matthew chance live in london, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Coming up in the 7 00 a. M. Hour of starting point Soledad Obrien talks to tony blair. It is time for your early reads. The Sacramento Bee reports a federal judge is barring the state of california from enforcing its new law banning day conversion therapy. Two Mental Health providers and a former patient are suing to overturn the ban. Judge william shub ruling the First Amendment rights of Mental Health professionals outweigh concerns about the concerns of potential dangers associated with their practices. A new orleans man has been fired from his job at a Convenience Store an hes facing a criminal citation if you can believe it police say he booted an ambulance that was responding to an emergency call for a man with chest pain. There is a sign at the store which warns that vehicles left unattended in the parking lot will be booted. The man claims he did not know the vehicle was an ambulance when he put the boot on it. Its clear to us that it is an ambulance. This guy is not from this country. He is telling Police Officers i had no idea this was an emergency vehicle. At least that is his excuse. This particular place enforces that you cannot be in there more than ten minutes without being booted. He was doing his job. Like four layers to that story. Amazement and dismay, thats how fedexs ceo is describing the fiscal cliff crisis. I was worried the Health Care System spoke a language all its own with unitedhealthcare, i got help that fit my life. Information on my phone. Connection to doctors who get where im from. And tools to estimate what my care may cost. So i never missed a beat. Were more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. Thats health in numbers. Unitedhealthcare. Time for citi price rewind. Because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. And you really dont want to pay more than you have to. Only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. 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I asked the ceo of fedex, he employs people. He is shipping packages. He cares about the price of oil, price of energy, and he cares about the clarity of whats happening in washington. Listen so what i asked him. As a ceo, when youre watching the fiscal cliff, how do you make decisions . Is it irrelevant to your business if we go over the fiscal cliff . How does a ceo look at whats happening in washington and decide for next year . Most of the ceos look at the situation in washington with complete amazement and dismay to be frank about it. The problem is the ideological pinnings on both sides of this argument are so difficult to bridge that its going to be hard for them to get a deal. He also said that theyre fighting the wrong fight. I asked would you be willing to pay higher taxes yourself . Warren buffett says rich should pay higher taxes. He said the fight should be about the Corporate Tax rate, doing things to goad corporations into spending money and into hiring, and into really building out their business, not just for Small Business but for big business, too. Thats what the argument should be. The argument over tax rates for the rich is the wrong fight to be having. What worries me about this, you said these big ceos like fred smith will make decisions as we get closer to the fiscal cliff, because they have to kick in some of these changes. Do you get a sense they are already prepared for it and making the changes . The Third Quarter gdp report from last week, i saw Company Spending on equipment was down almost 3 in the quarter. Thats something you usually only see in a recession. What that tells you is companies are putting off decisions waiting for washington to get it. I didnt get the sense yesterday, there were highlevel hill aides and people advising the president and senators and republicans about this, i didnt get the sense anyone was optimistic. My goodness. Thank you for sharing. Every time you send a text message it could soon be recorded and stored for two years. Up next, well tell you about new legislation proposed by some Law Enforcement agencies. If you think running a restaurant is hard, try running four. Fortunately weve 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 weve ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. Make your mark with ink from chase. Inspiration. Great power. Iconic design. Exhilarating performance. [ race announcer ] audi once again has created le mans history [ male announcer ] and once in a great while. All of the above. Take your seat in the incomparable audi a8. Take advantage of exceptional values on the audi a8 during the season of audi event. Military families face, we understand. At usaa, we know military life is different. Weve been there. Thats why every bit of Financial Advice we offer is geared specifically to current and former military members and their families. [ laughs ] dad dad [ applause ] [ male announcer ] life brings obstacles. Usaa brings advice. Call or visit us online. Were ready to help. Breaking news this morning in the middle east, iran says they captured an unmanned american drone, but u. S. Officials have a very different story. Thats coming up. Plus two Virginia Tech st p students arrested and charged for their part in an explosion on campus. And well tell you about proposed legislation that would force Cell Phone Companies to record your Text Messages for two years. And well show who will be using the texts if the bill is approved. Good morning to you. Welcome back to early start. Im zoraida sambolin. Im Christine Romans. Its tuesday, december 4th. Its 31 minutes past the hour. We begin with breaking news in iran. Reporting it has captured a u. S. Drone. Youre looking at video from state tv in tehran. It shows two Iranian Revolutionary guard commanders examining what appears to be an intact scan eagle drone. But a u. S. Defense official tells Barbara Starr the u. S. Navy has fully accounted for all unmanned air vehicles operating in the middle east region. Well have much more on this developing story throughout the morning. Call it the fiscal cliff follies, because with 28 days remaining before massive tax hikes and spending cuts kick in, democrats and republicans are ridiculing each others ideas. Its a recipe for recession. The gop offering up its first plan which calls for 2. 2 trillion in deficit savings over the next decade, including 800 billion in tax reforms, 600 million in medicare reforms and spending cuts. But the president rejected it outright because it does not contain tax hikes for the rich. Time is running out. Any sign of serious negotiation on the horizon . Id say on the horizon, that would be fair. The log jam that youre watching, were expecting to continued likely until next week. So dont be surprised if you see that. I think the policy prescriptions here, what needs to be done to find a package for deficit reduction are clear. Right now youre watching the politics play out. All you need do is open your ears, listen to the white house, listen to Congressional Republicans youll hear them playing the blame game. Making vague promises about achieving revenue through capping deductions or closing loopholes simply doesnt add up to a serious proposal. Im certain that if this is not good enough for the white house, we will go over the fiscal cliff. This is a compromise on taxes. So the white house now, christine, is insisting that they wont talk specifics on entitlement reform, which is what republicans want until they budge on those income tax rates, budging on increasing them for wealthy americans. As you know, republicans at this point dug in saying theyre not going to do that. The white house feels they have the upper hand here because so many americans, we talked about 7 in 10 think those income tax rates should go up. This is a proposal, there are some differences, bowles would not have raged the eligibility age for social security. What does he think of this plan . He also thinks another big thing is missing, thats increasing those tack rates for wealthy americans. Heres what he said. I am positive to get a deal done you will have to have higher tax rates on the top 2 . Im equally sure the 350 billion worth of cuts that the president put on the table for Health Care Entitlements is not going to be sufficient to get the deal done. There will have to be compromise. The white house is saying that there is nothing new in Speaker Boehners counteroffer. That it is lacking specifics, what kind of deductions would he propose to increase tax revenue. I will tell you there are a lot of things in here that are similar to the grand bargain, the failed grand bargain that the speaker and president tried to work out last year and one democratic leadership aid telling cnn, i guess in a moment of truthfulness, that it does pass the laugh test. So, certainly its not something that democrats are going to hop on board with, but maybe it could have been worse in their estimation. All right so maybe were at mile two of the marathon. 25 miles to go. Thanks. Two Virginia Tech Football Players have been suspended from the team. They are charged with manufacturing and detonating an explosive device. Police say 20yearold joshya trimball and brian road y were arrested after a small explosion. Nobody was hurt. New York City Police searching for a man who allegedly pushed another man to his death in front of a subway train. The two apparently had some sort of argument on the platform prior to this fatal assault two men from mexico have been charged in the death of a u. S. Coast guard member. Both appeared in court yesterday. The chief petty officer suffered a traumatic head injury when his boat was rammed off the southern. Caller cal coast. It all happened on sunday. He was pronounced dead on shore. Still no sign of an 11yearold leukemia patient who was removed from a phoenix hospital last week by her mother. Police have located emilys father. He denies involvement in the case. Doctors say the young girl could die within days. She has been receiving chemotherapy for about a month and has a catheter in her heart that could become infected. The head of the cdc warns that all signs are pointing to a bad flu season this year. So cdc director dr. Thomas freiden is advising all americans over the age of six months to get vaccinated. He said the flu arrived early this year but the vaccine is an excellent tool to fight it. Monday night football. Robert griffin iii needing a little luck to lead his redskins to a victory over the giants. The skins go on to win 1716. They are within one game of the giants in the nfc east. Another storm suspected to slam into the west coast today. That is the third one in less than a week. Were tracking the storm for you this morning. Every time you send a message, it could soon be recorded and stored for years and used against you if you get in trouble with law. What will they do with all that useless information . Of any Small Business credit card how does this thing work . Oh, i like it [ garth ] svens Small Business earns 2 cash back on every purchase, every day woohoo so thats ten security gators, right . Put them on my spark card why settle for less . Testing hot tar. 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Once we get rid of this one, we should see more of a drying pattern. In some cases they have received almost two feet of rainfall in a sixday period. Flood watches remain up from seattle to just just south of medford, across Northern California for another three, four inches of rainfall today. Storm warnings up as well. It will be windy, high Wind Warnings posted for some of the mountains and higher crests of the sierras and cascades. Here is your first pulse of rainfall for today. Fourth storm in less than a week. This is a double whammy. We get a pulse this morning in the form of rain and snow. A warmer pulse later on today. That will sink down to the south and grab the northern parts of San Francisco and napa valley where they had a slew of problems as far as flooding there along the Russian River the rainfall now is light to moderate across i5. One pulse today, one again later on tonight that will bring heavier rainfall just to the north of San Francisco. But sacramento, which has been hit hard, they will get a good brunt of 1 1 2, 2 inches of rain. A weak front is pushing across the great lakes and pushing to the northeast which has been incredibly warm. Record high temperatures, into the 70s for some folks as far north as wisconsin and illinois. Crazy stuff. Thank you. Lets get you caught up to speed this morning. President obama rejecting a fiscal cliff counter offer from republicans. The gop proposal calls for 2. 2 trillion in deficit savings over the next decade, including 800 billion from tax reform. 600 billion from medicare reform, 600 billion in spending cuts. The white house is refusing to consider it because it doesnt include tax hikes for the wealthiest americans. And britain is rife with speculation this morning, is kate having a boy, or a girl . Is she having twins . Triplets . What about a name . Britain is buzzing with news that Prince Williams wife, katherine, is pregnant. She is in a London Hospital being treated for severe morning sickness. Students at one Elementary School in atlanta will attend class in a different building this morning. Dozens were sickened yesterday at their regular school by Carbon Monoxide poisoning. At least 49 were sent to the hospital. Fire officials believe the heating system failed. Later this morning we will talk to a student, a parent and a school official. The judge overseeing the Court Marshall of nadal hassan has been removed. A military Appeals Court ruled the judge was biased. The move invalidates a judges order thats hassen hfshgs hassa removed. For months, it has been said voyager one was close to interstellar space, but its now believed to be a few years away. Neil Patrick Harris will be on hand tonight to light the National Christmas tree. The ceremony takes place at 5 00 p. M. Eastern. Iran claims they captured an unmanned american drone. The u. S. Navy telling a different story. Were digging through the details coming up. And that story weve been telling you about all morning, new legislation would track, record and keep all your Text Messages for two years. Thats coming up after this quick break. Ost a fortune. Nobody said an allinone had to be bulky. Or that you had to print from your desk. At least, nobody said it to us. Introducing the business smart inkjet allinone series from brother. Easy to use. Its the ultimate combination of speed, small size, and lowcost printing. For their annual football trip. Thats double miles you can actually use. Tragically, their buddy got sacked by blackouts. But its our tradition thats roughing the card holder. But with the capital one venture card you get double miles you can actually use. [ cheering ] any flight, anytime. The scoreboard doesnt lie. Whats in your wallet . Hut i have me on my fantasy team. In that time thereve been some good days. And some difficult ones. But, through it all, weve persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. So why should our anniversary matter to you . Because for 200 years, weve been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. And the next great idea could be yours. Breaking news, iran claiming it captured a u. S. Drone. State tv in tehran show two revolutionary guard commanders examining what appears to be a scan eagle drone. But moments ago a u. S. Defense official told Barbara Starr that all unmanned air vehicles operating in that region are accounted for. We have Barbara Starr, she is in with thus morning. Nice to have you. Whats the latest on that . They say they have the drone, the u. S. Navy says we have all the drones. The u. S. Navy says they have all the drones they operate over the middle east, they reiterate they operate these unmanned reconnaissance drones in International Airspace. They do not go into iranian airspace. I think it remains to be seen. We have had cases in the past where they lost control of drones, of course they drifted into airspace. It may also be something that went down moments ago that the iranians are showing. Its just going to have to wait and see. Right now the u. S. Navy says they have everything. There were conversations this morning about a fake drone . These things are always possible. The scan eagle is a navy drone. There are pictures of it on the internet. I guess the iranians could have made themselves a model of it and be showing that. Lets talk about syria the white house says it has contingency plans in place for direct action against syria if it uses chemical weapons here. Have they revealed details of those plans . Look, the u. S. Military plans for everything. Yes, for months now they have been looking at what they would have do if they had to go in and secure the chemical and biological weapons sites. At estimate, 75,000 u. S. Troops, and that might not do it all. This is not something the u. S. Wants to do everyone should anticipate the u. S. Really going the diplomatic route, trying to pressure the russians, the chinese, anyone they can to get the syrians not to do this. President obama, of course, talked about this yesterday. Today i want to make it absolutely clear to assad and those under his command the world is watching. The use of chemical weapons is an would be totally unacceptable. And if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable. The United States talks like that as firmly as he did, i think thats a message to syria, to the world and maybe even a bit of a message to iran, which is involved in trying to support the assad regime. There are talks that russia may be getting involved to have assad relinquish power. This is sort of one of the rumors out there, that might be one of the countries that would take him in if he were to step down. Theres no indication that he plans to leave office. These consequences that the president was talking about, do we know anything more about that . The ultimate could be some sort of military strike against irans chemical sites. But thats going to be tough. They are spread out. Theyre throughout the country. In civilian populations. This is going to be very, very tough if they were to decide to go that route. Barbara starr, i know you are following these developments for us. Nice to have you in studio today. Text messages are such a part of american life. L. O. L. , pick up some milk, honey. And much worse, you know. I know. Thats the rated g version. Now Law Enforcement groups are asking congress to enforce legislation that would record and store Text Messages for two years. The reason is criminal investigations can be adversely impacted without such a law. Officials report Text Messages are frequently used as evidence in criminal trials. The Biggest Tech Company in the United States is finally producing some computers in the United States. We talk to Apple Computers coming up next. And the federal government wants to talk to lindsay lohan. Find out why. [ male announcer ] when a Major Hospital wanted to provide better Employee Benefits while balancing the companys bottom line, their very first word was. [ to the tune of lullaby and good night ] aflac aflac [ male announcer ] find out more at. [ duck ] aflac [ male announcer ]. Forbusiness. Com. [ yawning sound ] [ male announcer ]. Forbusiness. Com. Try running four. Ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately weve 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 weve ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. Make your mark with ink from chase. Since Ameriprise Financial was founded back in 1894, theyve been committed to putting clients first. Helping generations through tough times. Good times. Never taking a bailout. There when you need them. Helping millions of americans over the centuries. The strength of a Global Financial leader. The heart of a onetoone relationship. Together for your future. I just served my motherinlaw your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much. I told her it was homemade. Everyone tells a little white lie now and then. But now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] shes right behind me isnt she . [ male announcer ] progresso. You gotta taste this soup. Welcome back. Its 56 minutes after the hour. Were looking at the top cnn trends on the web this morning. Theres a word that apple may be slapping an assemble in the u. S. Label on some of its items. The company has shifted some of its manufacturing back to the United States. So you can expect to see an assembled in the usa label on some imac boxes. The company is coming under scrutiny for overseas label practices, and it could be good pr to label that products are made or assembled in america. Apple is making so much money assembling overseas, they couldnt figure out what to do with all the cash in the bank. You can afford to do some work in the United States with that money. The world is not going to end this month, at least thats what a federal government blog says. You may have heard this theory, some people believe the ancient mayan calendar predicts the end of the world on december 21st, 2012, by scholars long interpreted that people have interpreted that calendar wrong. The troubles keep coming for actress lindsay lohan. The latest is a big visit from uncle sam. The irs has reportedly seized her assets, including her bank accounts, because they say she owes 234,000 in back taxes from 2009 and 2010, and an unspecified amount from 2011. Going gaga over the British Royal baby news. The latenight hosts could not resist a few oneliners. Good news from great britain, princess kate and Prince William are expecting a baby. How about that. Yep. Yep. The bad news, prince harry already planning a huge baby shower in vegas. I dont know what will Prince William and Kate Middleton are expecting their first baby. You can tell the baby is a member of the royal family because kate said she can already feel it waving. The pope is on twitter. Thats true. Pope is on twitter. Popes only been on twitter for about 15 hours. He already called chris brown a douche bag. The twitter name of the pope is pontifacts. Thats only because dude in the big hat was taken by trace atkins. Early start continues right now. New this morning, iran says they have captured an unmanned american drone after they say it came into restricteded airspace, but u. S. Officials say they have accounted for all of their drones. In 28 days your paycheck will get smaller. In 28 days your taxes will go up. A new proposal from republicans to keep us from plunging over that fiscal cliff. Four storms in one week. The west coast is getting hammered by rain. A live report is just minutes away. There is more rain headed your way if youre on the west coast. If youre on the east coast. If youre on the west coast, hey, maybe go to bed. Im Christine Romans in for tom berman. Im zoraida sambolin. It is tuesday, december 4th. We begin this morning with developing news from the middle east. Iran telling the world that it has captured a u. S. Drone. Take a look at this video from state tv in tehran. It shows two revolutionary guard commanders examining what appears to be an intact american scan eagle drone. But a u. S. Defense official is telling cnn this morning the u. S. Navy has fully accounted for all unmanned air vehicles operating in the middle east region. Reza sayah is following these developments for us. If the iranians do have something its not an actively operating u. S. Novi drone. So what could this be . What could this mean . Well, at this point, really tough to verify exactly what happened. Because were getting all sorts of different accounts coming from washington and tehran. Washington not confirming that iran has captured a drone. They say all their drones were accounted for in the Persian Gulf Region and if iran has a drone it wasnt one that was operating in the navy. Tehran has a different story. They say they captured a u. S. Drone and you can be sure theyre going to use this report to push forward their position that they continue to make big winds, big intelligence wins over washington. The report came a few hours ago according to Iranian State media. Irans revolutionary guard capturing a small u. S. Drone flying in the northern Persian Gulf Region. This is a region thats near irans only Nuclear Power plant in bushehr. Robb suggested that this u. S. Drone was spying over that particular region and they captured it allegedly once it flew over iranian air space. Of course, christine, the u. S. Denies this part of this information war going back and forth, has been going back and forth over the past few years. All right, reza sayah. Youll continue to follow it for us. Thanks. The fiscal cliff debate hitting a new low. 28 days tax hikes and spending cuts will create a lot of pain for nearly every american if a deal does not get done. Republicans offering up a counterproposal to the president that calls for 2. 2 trillion in deficit savings over the next decade. It includes 800 billion in tax reforms. 600 billion for medicare reforms. And 600 billion in spending cuts. But it does not contain tax hikes for the wealthiest americans. So the president immediately dismissed it. And if you want to know just how far apart the two parties are, this should clear it up for you. I think were going over the cliff. Its unfortunate that the white house has spent three weeks doing basically nothing. What we cant do is kind of figure out what works for them. The president s idea of a negotiation is roll over and do what i ask. Its pretty clear to me theyve made a political calculation. Their ideas are different from ours, we cant guess what they are. We look forward to the time when they are specific. They need to be more specific. Some specificity. Some of their specifics. He cant be serious. Havent even begun to be serious. We need to get serious. I dont think theyre serious. I would say were nowhere. Period. Were nowhere. I would say were frustrated. Brianna keilar is live in washington. All right, so we know its not in the plan. No repeal of the bush tax cuts. But what is in this plan and how is it different from the white house proposal . Lets look at the headlines here from Speaker Boehners counteroffer. 800 billion in tax reform savings. This is the tax revenue, this would be the new taxes. This would be done by closing loopholes, limiting deductions, not, obviously, by increasing income tax rates for the wealthy. 600 billion in health savings. Thats the entitlement reform. Thats medicare cuts. Cuts to other entitlements. Compare this to the white house, 1. 6 trillion in new taxes, so thats two times the amount in Speaker Boehners counteroffer. And 400 billion in cuts to medicare and entitlements. So thats 200 billion less than Speaker Boehners. Also something in here that the white house has proposed as a nonstarter for House Republicans was having Congress Give up their debt limit vote. The white house is call being Speaker Boehners counteroffer not serious. Theyre saying there needs to be specifics. But i will tell you that democratic leadership made in a moment of i guess you could say truth, that it does pass the last test. Obviously democrats dont like it but it certainly could have more things in it that they dont like. So maybe its not, as far as a starting point, they actual ply were surprised that republicans the saying on this one, is he crazy . Maybe. All right. So so far both plans have proposed entitlement cuts but neither has given any specifics. The gop plan calls for an increase in tax revenue but no specifics on where that will come from. How much of this is a real negotiation and how much of it is just politics as usual . Right now a lot of this is politics and posturing, and sort of opening offers, publicly putting offers out there, that are sort of the starting point. The white house says its not going to talk specifics on entitlement reform with republicans until they capitulate on this income tax rates, letting them go up for the wealthy. They say theyre not even going to talk about it until republicans will cave on that. Heres why they think that they have the upper hand on that. When you poll people and you say how do you increase tax revenue, 21 say reduce deductions. Thats what republicans are proposing. 29 say increase tax rates. 39 say both. So youve got 7 out of 10 people who are saying increase in tax rates, which is what democrats want to do, what the white house wants to do, that that should be part of it. And also why are you not hearing from specifics on entitlement reform . Well heres why. When you say to people what should you not cut spending on . 77 say social security. 80 say medicare. So its really tough to propose specifics on spending cuts to medicare. You can see why. So thats a whopping number. And everybody feels very strongly about that. Brianna keilar live in washington for us, thank you. All right, the rain, the flooding are just relentless in Northern California. Four storms in less than a week, at least one death attributed to these storms. Meteorologist rob marciano following the storms from the cnn Weather Center in atlanta. This is probably the strongest storms theyve seen in two years. So its significant for sure. The good news is that it comes on the heels of a pretty dry year. So, a lot of this rain, even though weve had a tremendous amount of flooding in many spots, it was fairly well absorbed relative to how much rain fall we got. When i talk about rainfall. We talk about mount shasta, we normally talk about snow, right . This measure is rain. 23 inches of it at mount shasta in Northern California. Other spots over 20 inches. Over a foot across much of Northern California, and the hits just keep on coming. Medford, oregon, over 7 inches. San francisco proper saw four inches in six days and that is significant for San Francisco. Not raining in frisco right now but in sacramento youre about to get some. This is just light stuff. Going to begin to increase. The heavy stuff right now is in seattle and portland. This will begin to slide down to the south as our next punch of moisture comes through later on today and tonight. An inch or two is all we expect. Maybe a little bit more in the mountains. Again its pretty high snow levels here, so were not really storing a lot of that snow like wed like to. Speaking of snow, not a whole lot of it in places like chicago, the rocky mountains, as well. And its been warm across much of the east coast. You get a bit of a cooldown over the next few days. Temperatures could be record breaking across the eastern quarter of the country. Record breaking. It was beautiful. It was 60 something in new york and washington, d. C. All right, thanks, rob. Seven minutes past the hour. New this morning the head of nato says if syrian president Bashar Al Assad were to use chemical weapons against his own people, it would provoke an international response. President obama has also warned there would be consequences. Last night on out front a former Deputy Assistant secretary of state spoke about the dangers of the assad regime. This regime is a real problem for us, it aligns with iran, its possession of chemical weapon, weapon of mass destruction, its human rights record, its support of terrorism, you know, this is a regime wed like to get out of the way. But we dont want to see it replaced with people we dont support, either. The Syrian Foreign Ministry denies they have plans to use chemical weapons. New evidence coming to light in the Trayvon Martin investigation. A picture of suspect George Zimmerman released by his attorney reportedly taken by a Police Officer the night zimmerman shot and killed martin. The bloody picture itself isnt new, but the fact that its a high revolution color photo is. Zimmermans Attorney Says it gives the case more context. Is it devastating . No. But its just one piece of evidence that shows what george was going through that night, and why he reacted the way he did. Zimmerman faces a Second Degree murder charge for killing martin back in february. Prosecutors say zimmermans profile and pursued Trayvon Martin. Jovan belchers family is speaking for the First Time Since the kansas city chief es linebacker fatally shot his girlfriend before turning the gun on himself. His sister and uncle joined his aunt as she spoke outside the home where the football star lived with 22yearold Kasandra Perkins and their 3monthold daughter. We will cherish the wonderful memories we have jovan. And pray that those memories will bring us peace as we grapple to understand the unpredictable and tragic ending of his life and the life of Kasandra Perkins. Belchers mother has been given temporary custody of the couples daughter, zoe. Lightning may force the removal of more than 4 Million Pounds of explosives that remain in a small town in western louisiana. They say theyll stop if lightning is spotted within five miles of the explosives site. The company is accused of improperly storing a total of about 6 Million Pounds of explosive material. The town of doyline remains evacuated. By the way, some scenes from the show true blood are filmed believe it or not. Will and catherine are expecting a baby. But what happens if they have twins . This woman is 15 seconds pregnant and the world is just consumed with the talk. What happens if its a boy and a girl . Well talk succession coming up. The writers desktop and the coordinators phone are working on a joke with local color. The secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategists tablet. And while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center. Working together has never worked so well. Home of the legendary grand prix circuit. The Perfect Place to bring the allnew cadillac ats to test the 2. 0liter turbo engine. [ engine revs ] [ derek ] 272 horsepower. The lightest in its class. The cadillac ats outmatches the bmw 3 series. I cannot believe i have ended the day not scraping some red paint off on these barriers. [ male announcer ] the allnew cadillac ats. Starts with ground beef, unions, and peppers baked in a ketchup glaze with savory gravy and mashed russet potatoes. What makes stouffers meatloaf best of all . That moment you enjoy it at home. Stouffers. Lets fix dinner. But im still stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesnt unstuff your nose. What . [ male announcer ] alkaseltzer plus liquid gels speeds relief to your worst cold symptoms plus has a decongestant for your stuffy nose. Thanks. Thats the cold truth to a currency market for everyone. The potential of fxcm unlocked. Nyse euronext. Unlocking the worlds potential. How theyll live tomorrow. For more than 116 years, Ameriprise Financial has worked for their clients futures. Helping millions of americans retire on their terms. When they want. Where they want. Doing what they want. Ameriprise. The strength of a leader in retirement planning. The heart of 10,000 advisors working with you onetoone. Together for your future. A royal baby is on the way in britain. Buckingham palace has confirmed that Prince Williams wife catherine you should see your face right now the duchess of cambridge is pregnant. They married in a lavish ceremony last year and britons have been waiting for the announcement the dazzling young couple would become parents. Max foster is in london. We know the duchess is not yet 12 weeks pregnant. The royal family forced to announce the news early because she was taken to the hospital for acute morning sickness. Whats the latest on her condition, max . Well, they were aware they couldnt keep this story quiet once they were in the hospital. They wanted to be as open as possible. They had to announce it to the public at the same time they did to the queen and Prince Charles and that just gives a sense of how this story was rushed yesterday. You wouldnt normally announce a pregnancy of the royal family before twelve weeks. There was also concern as she was taken to hospital. Shes been in overnight. Were not getting an update. Ive spoken to the palace today. A source has told me they do expect Prince William to arrive today to check in on his wife and we may get an update after that. Also, some suggestion that the middletons are on their way up today, so were expecting some comings and goings. But so far no update on how shes feeling. Shes going to be in a few days. It sure sets you up for a very long bump watch if shes not even twelve weeks pregnant yet. This will be a very big story for some time to come. The baby, of course, is in line to be either queen or king, after Prince Charles, and then Prince William. And theres about to be a change in the rules, right . A succession in terms of whether the baby is a boy or a girl. Explain to me the details on the succession changes. Okay. Well its very, very complicated. Im told to keep it very simple and break it down. Its basically the case, if at the moment i mean actually if she has a boy, then the other successors die that boy will become king and if its a girl, her younger brother will still become king. And thats a step system inherent in the law. There is agreement in government and in governments across the commonwealth, they do want to change it. But its very, very complicated. They dont even know which laws going back hundreds of years to change at this point and there hasnt been given time in parliament to this. So its not a done deal yet but they do want to change it. Theres a lot of speculation, i have to say, today about whether or not she has twins and what that means. This is the Daily Telegraph, a very well regarded reporter writing this article talking about twins. What does happen if she has stwins . Well, if the first twin comes out that will be in in direct line if its a boy. But if its sucesarean what happens . Its basically up to the surgeon. The so the surgeon will pick the monarch for 16 countries. Dr. Kingmaker or queenmaker. Oh, you would, you have so much to talk about for the next oh, 32 to 30 30 to 32 weeks. Max foster. Coming up in the seven clock hour of ststarting point soled talks to former british Prime Minister tony blair. That is incredible can you look first and then yank the girl . All right. 17 minutes past the hour. Time for your early reads. How your local newspapers are reporting on the national headlines. So were going to start with the Kansas City Star with new information on the murder suicide involving chiefs star Jovan Belcher. So the newspaper reports the team was trying to help belcher as his domestic issues worsened at home. The chiefs provided counseling to him and his girlfriend Kasandra Perkins. And seconds after the Fatal Shooting a newspaper reports that belcher actually leaned over perkins body, kissed her forehead, and said that he was sorry. His mother was looking on at the time. Belcher then kissed his mother and his 3monthold daughter zero and drove his bentley to the chiefs facility where he committed suicide in front of coaches, and in front of the general manager there. Thats tragic. The newark star ledger in new jersey reporting that governor Chris Christie is going to ask the federal government to reimburse the state for 100 of the cost of rebuilding from superstorm sandy. Christie heads to washington on thursday to meet with federal officials. You know, parts of the new jersey coastline, complete devastated by this powerful storm. You know, governor christie estimates that sandy caused upwards of 20 billion of damages. And the Atlanta Journalconstitution with more information about dozens of children and adults that were sickened by Carbon Monoxide poisoning at the local school there. At least 49 people were sent to the hospital yesterday. Take a look at this. Fire officials believe the heating system failed there. Finch elementary had no Carbon Monoxide detectors, either. Which, i guess, theyre not required in georgia. And many parents complained they were left in the lurch because of poor communication. Soledad obrien will talk to a student, a parent and also a school official. So well get lots of sides there. Also coming up, amazement and dismay. Thats how fedexs ceo is describing the fiscal cliff crisis. I sat down with fred smith. Hear what he has to say about he and other ceos are responding. [ nyquil bottle ] hey tylenol, you know were kinda like twins. [ tylenol bottle ] we are . Yeah we both relieve coughs, sneezing, aches, fevers. And i relieve nasal congestion. Overachiever. [ female announcer ] tylenol® cold multisymptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion. Nyquil® cold and flu doesnt. But when i was in an accident. I was worried the Health Care System spoke a language all its own with unitedhealthcare, i got help that fit my life. So i never missed a beat. Thats health in numbers. Unitedhealthcare. [ gordon ] for some this line is a convenience. How you doing today . Im good thanks. How are you . Im good. [ gordon ] but for others, its all they can afford. Every day nearly nine million Older Americans dont have enough to eat. Anything else . No, not today. Join me, aarp, and Aarp Foundation in the drive to end hunger by visiting drivetoendhunger. Org. In the drive to end hunger alriwoah did you get that . And. Flip yep, look at this. It takes like 20 pictures at a time. I never miss anything. Isnt that awesome . Uh thats really cool. You should upload these. I know, right . That is really amazing. The pictures are so clear. Kevins a Handsome Devil that phone does everything search dog tricks. Okay, see if we can teach him something cool. Look at how lazy kevin is. Kevin, get it together dude cmon, kevin take 20 pictures with burst shot on the galaxy s3. Welcome back to early start. 23 minutes past the hour. We are finding your business this morning. U. S. Stock futures are up slightly as of now. Theres a lot of volatility in the markets because of the gridlock in washington over the fiscal cliff. So christine, you interviewed the ceo of fedex . I asked fred smith. And hes somebody who started his own company in 1971, and he has watched washington through all of this iterations over the past 20 or 30 years and i just said, what are Company Executives doing when they watch how washington is running our business . Could you run your business that way . Ceos say, of course, we could never run our business this way. We need some clarity on Corporate Taxes. We need clarity on personal income taxes. We need clarity from all of these different, you know, we need to know whats happening with the governments budget. Listen to a little bit of our exchange. As a ceo, when youre watching the fiscal cliff, i mean how do you make decisions . Is it irrelevant to your business if we go over the fiscal cliff . I mean how, how does a ceo look at whats happening in washington and decide for next year . Well, i think most of the ceos look at the situation in washington with complete amazement and dismay, to be frank about it. The problem is that the ideological pinnings on both sides of this argument are so difficult to bridge that its going to be hard for them to get a deal. I asked him if you know, they should raise taxes on the wealthiest americans, if that would be an important first step in getting a deal done. He said theyre fighting about the wrong thing. We should be talking about lowering taxes on corporations and getting Big Companies the incentive to start hiring again. And emerging companies that have a chance to hire a lot of people, the focus should be there. It shouldnt be in the fight over taxes for the very rich. Fiscal cliff, amazement and dismay. Ive heard it again and again. Toes are the two words i focused on, amazement and dismay, and my question comes is he making any changes for fedex . Companies need clarity. And even in the Third Quarter gdp report you can see that Companies Holding back on computer purchases, on equipment purchases, because they dont know whats going to happen next year. If theres going to be a recession or not. Can i tell you, not to know whether youre going to have a recession is such an uncertainty for your families. Christmas spending. How do you do Holiday Spending if you dont know what kind of tax refund youre going to get . Congress is in a sticky spot here. The mood was pretty grim in washington yesterday when i was there for that interview. A lot of folks were saying theyre not making plans for the holidays. Washington insiders. Because they think that theyre going to be doing this down to the very last minute. I know you were dismayed saying that typically behind the scenes, at least, theyre cutting some deals, and you felt that watching here and what youre talking about is exactly whats happening. People who are in on the discussion zoraida told me yesterday that what were seeing play out is whats playing out. Theres no back channel negotiation. Theres no were seeing it play out in real time and thats thats actually a little bit frightening. And because of this, theres Something Else thats happening i want to tell you about. Oracle is the latest company that says its going to pay out dividends to its shareholders early to avoid higher investment taxes next year. This means a pay day early for investors. Mom and pop investors, too. Youre going to get a dividend before the end of the year. Dividends currently are taxed at 15 . In 2013 if we fall off the fiscal cliff, dividends will be taxed at ordinary income rates so your rate on your investments is going to go up depending on your tax bracket, that means 15 , 28 , 31 , 36 or 39. 6 . So the rate on your Investment Income could be more than double what it is right now for middle and high income earners. Other companies that have paid out their dividends early, walmart, costco, dillards so they are preparing for this . Oh, yes. Theyre getting the money out early so their investors dont pay higher taxes on it. What is the one thing we need to know about our money today . Ho, ho, ho, december has been the best month for stocks over the past 30 years. December has been the santa claus rally they call it. When investors square their portfolios, they close out their positions, could the fiscal cliff talks in washington kill santa claus . Another reason to be mad at your policymakers. December should be a good month. It historically is. All right, thank you. 27 minutes past the hour. Every time you send a text message it could soon be recorded. It could actually be stored for two years. Up next well tell you about new legislation proposed by some Law Enforcement agencies. We dont know whether youre going to like this or not. If youre leaving the house right now this is something you like you can watch us any time on your desk top or mobile phone. Go to cnn. Com tv. Questions . Anyone have occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating . Yeah. One Phillips Colon Health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. Approved [ female announcer ] live the regular life. Phillips. [ female announcer ] live the regular life. Try running four. Ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately weve 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 weve ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. Make your mark with ink from chase. In 28 days your pay check will get smaller as your taxes go up. Coming up a new proposal from republicans to keep from plunging over the fiscal cliff. And iran says they have captured an unmanned american drone. Theyre showing it to you there. U. S. Officials, though, have a different story. Thats coming up. Plus two Virginia Tech students arrested and charged for their part in an explosion right near campus. Welcome back to early start. Glad to have you with us. Im zoraida sambolin. Im Christine Romans in today for john berman. Its tuesday, december 4th. 31 minutes past the hour. All right, its beginning to look like millions of americans are about to get dragged right over that fiscal cliff. Because with 28 days remaining before devastating tax hikes, and spending cuts kick in, democrats and republicans are now reduced to ridiculing each other. And the result could be a painful recession. The gop offering up its first plan yesterday. So it calls for 2. 2 trillion in deficit savings, this is over the next decade. Including 800 billion from tax reforms. 600 billion from medicare reforms. And 600 billion in spending cuts. But the white house quickly said, no way, because the deal doesnt contain tax hikes for the wealthiest americans. Brianna keilar live from washington this morning. And brianna, are we beyond political posturing to the point where we have reached a stalemate . There is a lot of posturing going on and there is an impasse, obviously. At this point you have the white house saying theyre not going to discuss specifics on entitlement reform with House Republicans until they capitulate on increasing the income tax rates for wealthy americans. So there is an impasse but theres a lot of posturing. The offer of the white house details of which came out last week, and now this counteroffer from House Republicans out yesterday. So i think the policy prescriptions here are pretty clear on what has to be done, although both sides are very far apart. If you just listen to whats going on, certainly it seems like its a whole lot of the blame game. Heres some. Making vague promises about achieving revenue through capping he can dukzs or closing loopholes simply doesnt add up to a serious proposal. Im certain that if this is not good enough for the white house, we will go over the fiscal cliff. So this is a compromise on taxes. Dont be surprised, zoraida, if this logjam continues, at least into next week. Thats what it seems like now. I dont think anybody would be surprised there, brianna. So this new gop plan seems to, for the most part, draw on proposals made biers skin bowles, the democrat who cochaired the Deficit Reduction Committee last year. There are some specifics for example bowles would not have raised the eligibility age for social security. What does he think of this specific plan . Well he specifically says theres a big thing missing and its what the white house and democrats will say is missing of Speaker Boehners plan from their perspective and that is increasing those tax rates on wealthy americans. Heres what he said. I am positive that to get a deal done youre going to have to have higher tax rates on the top two . Im equally sure that 350 billion dollars were from cuts that the president put on the table for Health Care Entitlements is not going to be sufficient to get a deal done. Theres going to have to be some compromise. Now zoraida, as you know, the white house has said theres nothing new about the speakers counteroffer. They say its lack iing specifi. But i will tell you it does bear some resemblance to that grand bargain that was being worked out between the peek speaker and the president last year, the failed grand bargain and there was one democratic leadership aid who said to cnn it does pass the laugh test. Some of them were surprised. They thought it would be maybe more towards what republicans want and actually it wasnt. All right, brianna keilar, live in washington. Thank you. All right, back to developing news this morning. Iran claiming it captured a u. S. Drone. State tv in tehran showing two revolutionary guard commanders examining what appears to be a scaneagle drone. But the u. S. Defense official tells our barbara star all unmanned air vehicles operating in the region are accounted for. Barbara starr is with us, shes been following these developments. We know an official told you that if the iranians do have something its not an actively operating u. S. Navy drone. What, what could it be or is this, you know, is this stagecraft from the iranians . Well, well see what really happens in the coming hours. The navy says at the moment all of their drones and marine corps drones are accounted for. A number of other Companies Operate this same drone in that region. It could be from one of them. It could be something that went down months ago. What is this drone . Its essentially a small radio controlled plane, very small. You can see it there. Low tech. Low cost, designed to conduct surveillance over the persian gulf. The navy operates them in International Air space so if one goes down, they actually, in the view of the u. S. Navy, its not really such a big deal. Lets talk about syria here, because that is something, the president sounds like it is a very big deal at this moment for the white house. They say they have contingency plans in place for direct action against syria if it uses chemical weapons. Have they revealed any details about this . They have absolutely not. This is the ultimate, very serious situation. We do know that the u. S. Military certainly has been planning for months for all the whatif scenarios in syria, and chemical and biological weapons is the worst at the moment. So yeah, they have plans to be able to go in, secure the Chemical Biological weapons sitesite s. But if, if assad were to suddenly strike against his own people, what military option could be used becomes very difficult. The sites are dispersed in civilian populations. And the american appetite for Something Like that is very minimal. But dont count out. The israelis are next door. They might not wait. And diplomatic pressure . Absolutely. Working through the russians to try to get them to go after assad again and say, do not do this. All right, Barbara Starr. Thank you. Lets take a look at the top cnn trends on the web this morning. Hear ye, hear ye, a real baby is on the way. Announcement britain has been waiting for since Prince William married Kate Middleton last year. Now Buckingham Palace confirms that the zuch es of cambridge is, indeed, pregnant. Shes hospitalized this morning in london being treated for severe symptoms of morning sickness. New york mayor Michael Bloomberg reportedly wants Hillary Clinton to be his successor. Several newspapers reporting the mayor called the secretary of state months ago and urged her to run in 2013 and hes convinced she would win. Calling her a perfect fit. Mrs. Clinton reportedly told mayor bloomberg that shes not interested. All right a renewed appeal for the release of an american prisoner in cuba. 63yearold alan gross is beginning his fourth year of a 15year sentence on the island. The u. S. State department issued a new statement calling for his release. Gross says he was there in an effort to connect cubas small Jewish Community to the internet. The cuban authorities said he was using imported Sensitive Communications equipment to connect dissidents. Two Virginia Tech Football Players have been suspended from the team. Theyre charged with manufacturing and detonating an explosive device. Police say 20yearold Joshua Trimble and 19yearold brian roadie were arrested sunday after a small explosion near an apartment building. No one was hurt. An Attorney Says players were just pulling a prank on some female friends. Monday night football. Rookie quarterback Robert Griffin iii getting a little lucky in the Washington Redskins 1716 victory over the defending super bowl champion new york giants. Teammate josh morgan recovers the ball, runs it into the end zone, for a touchdown. The redskins are now within one game of the giants in the nfc east. And another big storm is expected to climb into the west coast today, im sorry, that is the third one in less than a week. We are tracking the storm for you this morning. And listen to this. Every time you send a text message it could soon be recorded, stored for years to be used against you if you get into trouble with the law that is. The details coming up next. [ nyquil bottle ] you know i relieve coughs, sneezing, fevers. [ tylenol bottle ] me too and nasal co [ tissue box ] he said nasal congestion. Yeah. I heard him. [ female announcer ] tylenol® cold multisymptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion. Nyquil® cold and flu doesnt. Plays a key role throughout our lives. One a day mens 50 is a complete multivitamin designed for mens Health Concerns as we age. It has 7 antioxidants to support cell health. One a day mens 50 . And with my bankamericard cash rewards credit card, i love em even more. I earn 1 cash back everywhere, every time. 2 on groceries. 3 on gas. Automatically. No hoops to jump through. Thats 1 back on. [ toy robot sounds ] 2 on pumpkin pie. And apple. 3 back on 4 trips to the airport. Its as easy as. [ man ] 1. [ woman ] 2. [ woman ] 3. [ male announcer ] the bankamericard cash rewards card. Apply online or at a bank of america near you. [ male announcer ] the bankamericard cash rewards card. Have led to an increase intands clinical depression. Drug and alcohol abuse is up. And those dealing with grief dont have access to the professional help they need. When you see these issues, do you want to walk away or step up . With a degree in the field of counseling or psychology from capella university, youll have the knowledge to make a difference in the lives of others. Lets get started at capella. Edu 42 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to early start. There is no relief in Northern California. The storms just keep on coming. Four of them in less than a week. Now one death attributed to all of this nasty weather, and sadly, more rain is expected today. Meteorologist rob marciano is following it all from the cnn Weather Center in atlanta. But you do say that there is a reprieve headed for those folks west, right . Longerterm pattern once we get through today and tonight will be rather dry one. At least for Northern California. Not so much for the Pacific Northwest where its raining right now. Seattle and portland, snow at the Higher Elevations, as well. That rain is starting to push down into california. Well get two surges of this storm. One this morning across the north, and the second one will come this afternoon. More so across the south, and eventually will push down into the northern fringes of San Francisco. Could see another inch or two of rainfall up through the sacramento area. That will cause some flooding because the ground, obviously, is so saturated. Some of these spots weve seen over 20 inches of rainfall at mount shasta. Not snow, rainfall, 23. 48 inches. So it has been a dry year so some of that got absorbed but we saw a tremendous amount of flooding as well with infrastructure damage weve been showing the past couple of days. Across the east coast, a cold front into some incredibly warm air. Records will fall again today. Yesterday chicago got up to near 70 and parts of Northern Illinois into the 70s. A little cool today into the 60s from d. C. To new york city. Enjoy it. Were going to start to see temperatures go from 10 to 20 to 30 degrees above average, a bit of a cooldown over the next few days. Generally speaking the longerterm trend for that, as well, zoraida is one that keeps us rather mild here. Going forward. Certainly doesnt feel like christmas just yet. No, not yet. Im sure its headed our way. Thank you so much, rob. Appreciate it. All right. 44 minutes past the hour. Lets get you up to date. Iran reported this morningate has captured a u. S. Drone. Youre looking at video from state tv in iran, shows two Iranian Revolutionary guard commanders examining what appears to be an intact scan eagle drone. U. S. Defense officials tell our Barbara Starr, quote, the u. S. Navy has fully accounted for all unmanned air vehicles operating in the middle east region. New evidence coming to light in the Trayvon Martin investigation. Look at this. A picture of suspect George Zimmerman released by his attorneys, reportedly taken by a Police Officer the night zimmerman shot and killed martin. The bloody picture itself is not new. But the fact that it is a High Resolution color photo is. Its part of the latest batch of evidence prosecutors turned over to zimmermans defense. Zimmerman faces a Second Degree murder charge for killing martin back in february. A powerful typhoon has struck the soern philippines this morning, packing winds of 110 miles an hour. The storm has destroyed homes, triggered land slides. At least three people have been killed in the philippines. Officials say millions of people could be affected. Nasas curiosity space rover has discovered evidence of organic compounds on mars. Samples of dust and sand from a dune on mars appear to contain carbon, sulfur and chlorine compounds. But scientist heres on earth arent sure what to make of those findings and whether they could be a sign of life on the red planet. Nhl labor talks set to resume today. A small group of owners and players will be there. But the leagues commissioner and the head of the Players Union will not attend. That will be productive. The nhl labor lockout is in its 79th day and all games through december 14th have already been canceled 46 minutes past the hour. Soledad obrien joins us now with a look at what is ahead on starting point. Good morning, everybody. Former british Prime Minister tony blair is our guest this morning. Going to talk about iran, going to talk about syria, going to talk about the fiscal cliff impact on the world economy, and of course, the baby. Coming out of Buckingham Palace. Eventually. Also, republicans are now out with a counteroffer on the fiscal cliff. Congressman becerra is going to join us. Republican ron johnson from the state of wisconsin will discuss the fiscal cliff and the negotiations for that, as well. Plus the truth about all those myths that your parents told you. Should you run with scissors . No, of course not. Can you swim after you eat . No, of course not. The alltime jeopardy champion ken jennings has a new book out where he researchers all these myths and breaks it down. Its so funny. Yes, yes. Its ahead this morning at the top of the hour on starting point. Oh, wow. Thanks soledad. Coming up, about catherine duchess of cambridge, right . And her royal bun in the oven and how we now have eight more months of speculation whether its a boy or a girl, what theyre going to make it. Were going to talk to Elizabeth Cohen when morning sickness is so terrible you go to the hospital. And im also curious about extreme morning sickness means it could be twins . Elizabeth cohen is going to have all the information for us coming up. Ronment. Unless you have the right perspective. Bny mellon Wealth Management has the vision and experience to look beyond the obvious. Well uncover opportunities, find hidden risk, and make success a reality. Bny mellon Wealth Management but they havent experienced extra strength bayer advanced aspirin. In fact, in a recent survey, 95 of people who tried it agreed that it relieved their headache fast. Visit fastreliefchallenge. Com today for a special trial offer. Neural speeds increasing to 4g lte. Brain upgrading to a quadcore processor. Precognitive intelligence with googlenow complete. Introducing droid dna by htc. Its not an upgrade to your phone. Its an upgrade to yourself. The distances arent getting shorter. The trucks are going farther. The new 2013 ram 1500. With the bestinclass fuel economy. Engineered to move heaven and earth. Guts. Glory. Ram. Welcome back to early start. 15 minutes past the hour. As we have been reporting this morning, britain is buzzing with news that catherine the duchess of cambridge, wife of Prince William, is pregnant. With the couples first child. Weve also learned that shes in a London Hospital being treated for symptoms of severe morning sickness. So how bad can morning sickness get . This doesnt sound like a case of having a few saltine crackers. How often do the women end up in the hospital with morning sickness . It is relatively unusual. Most of us do just eat saltines and were fine. I remember doing that when i was pregnant. When it gets really bad doctors do put women in the hospital because they need to get them intravenous treatment. Now, for some women, this just magically goes away at around the 12, 14week mark. For other women, morning sickness one, lasts all day, not just in the morning, number two, can last the entire pregnancy. You know, we were talking to our reporter out there, and he was saying that in all of the headlines theyre talking about, could it be a boy . Could it be a girl . Could it be multiples . And there is a report online that when you have extreme morning sickness, it could perhaps, that that could perhaps be a sign of a multiple pregnancy. Is there any medical proof of that . You know what . Anyone can get morning sickness. You can get morning sickness with one baby, with two babies. It is somewhat, slightly more likely with multiples. And interestingly enough, it is slightly more likely with girls. There have been a bunch of big studies that show that when a woman is pregnant with a girl, the mom is battling her own hormones, which are at high levels, and the girl fetus has her own hormones. So you put those on top of each other. So im not predicting a princess. But im just saying, that there are studies that show the morning sickness is often worse with a girl. You have lots of mothers out there, going oh, no, i was sick as a dog. And that was a boy baby. Exactly. So how do you treat morning sickness . Im assuming they hydrate the patient and theyre watching . Right. They hydrate the patient. They give her nutrition via i. V. And theres also antinausea medications they can give. Theres not much more that can be done. I mean even with that treatment some women still feel sick for months and months. Again, others with that twreemt theyre just fine, they walk out of the hospital no problem. Is this hereditary at all . If your mom had severe morning sickness are you more likely to experience it as well . I was reading somewhere on line, this girl is 119 pounds, 510. So you start wondering what are the reasons why shes experiencing severe morning sickness . There really are no reasons. No one can really say why one woman gets through a pregnancy scot free, doesnt feel sick at all, and another woman is sick as a dog every day throughout the entire pregnancy. You just dont know. You can make things up. Oh, its because shes so skinny. Oh, its because her mother was sick. The thing is we really dont know. Two things we really do know is multiples and a girl. The number one cause of morning sickness is pregnancy. Yes, that is so true. They say shell only be in there for a couple of days. Is that typically it and then they release you, you go home, and they watch you . For some women thats all you need. A couple of days and youre fine. There are other women, im not saying her in particular, but there are women who go in for a couple days, they get treated and it doesnt go away. There are women who are in the hospital with morning sickness throughout most of their pregnancies. Wow. Can you imagine being pregnant and having the whole world watching you like that . No, no, i cant. Shes not even 12 weeks yet. Its going to be a long, long nine months. Lets hope its uneventful from here. Thanks elizabeth. Appreciate having your insight this morning. Seems like everybody is communicating by Text Messages these days. Now Law Enforcement groups are asking congress to enact legislation that would require Wireless Companies to record and store customers Text Messages for two years. Officials say these messages are now frequently used as evidence in criminal trials, and they say that criminal investigations can being adversely impacted without such a law. You know california is having all sorts of problems with these torrential rains. Lets check in with rob marciano in the Weather Center in atlanta to see whats going on. Is there any relief on the way for those folks . Yeah, this storm is rolling through, this last one that well see, i think, for awhile here, and with this will come additional rainfall with some saturated soil, looking at flash flood watches that have posted back through medford. And this is mostly in the form of rain, and obviously some wind as well. Wind gusts over 60 miles an hour, especially across the sierras, siskiyous and cascades. Other Important Note of interest here, cool front. Not really cold front. Heading across the east coast. Thats going to cool things down after some seriously recordbreaking temperatures, and including Northern Illinois yesterday. Temperatures into the lower 70s. Chicago a little bit of rain to your east. St. Louis, as well. A little pulse of rain trying to get into new york city. Sprinkle shower a little bit here. But overall temperatures will be well above average by a good 20 degrees in some spots. Right now, 52 degrees if chicago. 48 in new york. 53 in d. C. If we have time i dont know. You can pop up the d. C. Camera. Pretty mild. If not, just toss it back to you guys. Having some technical difficulties with my ear piece. There is the capitol. Cant we all just get along . Christine rolens, get on em. I know. I know. Come on, just fix it. We are going to get along. Rob marciano, thanks. Were going to take a quick break and well be right back. Yep. The longer you stay with us, the more you save. And when you switch from another company to us, we even reward you for the time you spent there. Genius. Yeah, genius. You guys must have your own loyalty program, right . Well, we have something. Show her, tom. Huh . You should see november oh, yeah . Giving you more. Now thats progressive. Call or click today. Can i still ship a gift in time for christmas . Yeah, sure you can. Great. Wheres your gift . Uh. Whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. Ship Fedex Express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. 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