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going nowhere. holiday travel on hold as a wet and nasty winter storm slams the northeast and strands thousands of airline passengers. and tornado terror, this christmas twister's fury captured on camera as it tosses a pickup truck like a toy. and just five days until the fiscal cliff. president obama catching a flight back to washington where there's doubt that a deal can get done in time. good morning, everybody, for a thursday morning. very early, 5:00 a.m. on the east coast. welcome to "early start." i'm alina cho. >> i'm drew griffin. john and zoraida are off today. it's 5:00 a.m. in the east. a deadly winter storm system slamming the northeast after hammering the nation's heartland. look at this radar, system serious snowmaker. it's packing destructive winds, six states under winter storm warnings right now. pennsylvania, new york, massachusetts, new hampshire, vermont and maine. all could see a foot of snow or more. more than 200,000 customers spanning several states already without power. 1,700 plus flights canceled yesterday. imagine that. hundreds more already taken off the board this morning. there are six deaths being blamed on the weather since tuesday and the threat hasn't passed yesterday. bonnie schneider, meteorologist checking the system from the cnn center in atlanta. first, we go to ennis standing by in miserable, snowy new york. it's a pretty picture, ines. >> reporter: you can still see the snowfall here. and this area is expected to get anywhere from 9 to 13 inches here in syracuse and in some other areas of new york, up to 18 inches. and i'll tell you that the snowplows have been working 12-hour shifts throughout the day yesterday and evening. they were spreading salt before the storm in anticipation of the storm. this area is used to getting a lot of snowstorm. two years ago they got almost 180 inches of snowfall. and so this time they're saying, look, we're used to getting snow. the challenge is this amount of snow in such a short period of time, it's been almost two years since syracuse has seen one foot of snow all in one shot, drew. >> it is incredibly pretty pictures from my nice, warm studio, ines. we appreciate you getting up this morning and getting in it. the nba's indiana pacers were actually forced to postpone last night's home game against the chicago bulls. that's a real rarity. take a look at these pictures. getting around the country today and the rest of the week will be a challenge. let's get right to the cnn weather center in atlanta. meteorologist bonnie schneider tracking the system for us. bonnie, good morning. >> good morning. >> what's the latest? it's a huge mess out there. >> it is. it's hitting the northeast hard. you have that heavy rain across new york and long island, across the connecticut sound and really heavy downpours into boston and drive a little further north and it's all snow. that combined with strong wind is making for a very messy day today. so many people are out and about, trying to enjoy holiday time or maybe just heading back to work or to the stores to return gifts. but unfortunately we're seeing heavy downpours into bridgeport, connecticut and once you start heading to upstate new york, it's accumulation. we're talking about a foot or more for upstate new york, 3 to 6 for places like massachusetts, worcester and the berkshires. the pocono mountains will see about 6 inches of snow and into northwestern new jersey you're still looking at snow as well. this is a strong area of low pressure, it will work its way across the northeast. the cold air coming in behind it will help enhance the heaviest snow across the great lakes and extreme northern new england. we're also experiencing some bitterly cold temperatures right here in the south. this morning it's 35 in atlanta, 33 in birmingham. the cold air is here. for southerners this is a big deal. we're not used to this cold weather. back to you. >> none of us are. bonnie schneider, thanks so much. the storm has done considerable damage in the southern states. take a look at incredible video we have from a surveillance camera. this is from a walgreens in mobile, bomb bomb. this is from a walgreens in mobile, alabama. >> i've never been in a war zone but i'm sure it's what it looks like. there's a bunch of tin. i was just thankful i was alive. if it would have been 100 yards the other way it would have ripped through the middle of the store. >> pearl river county, mississippi, look at this, two dozen homes damaged, destroyed, more on the storms. we'll have that in the next half hour. for those of you getting back into your morning routines today, we are just five days away now from going over the fiscal cliff. happy new year. here's what you might have missed. president barack obama has left hawaii. he left last night, arriving in d.c. early this morning. the senate is also coming back from its christmas vacation to work on a deal today. sources tell us majority leader harry reid will be pushing a scaled back version of the fiscal cliff package that president obama laid out last week. it moved the tax hike needle to $400,000 per household. no word yet on when the house might come back with time ticking away. democrats are hoping that a scaled back plan could get through the house, senate and white house before that big ball drops on 2013. that would be sometime on december 30th or even on new years eve. we want to bring in jonathan allen. he's a senior national correspondent for politico. the top headline on politico is fiscal cliff deal increasingly unlikely. i think a lot of people are feeling that pessimism right now. what are you hearing? >> well, i think what you've got here, alena, is a nash equilibrium to borrow from economic theory and game theory. each of the players believe they are pursuing their optimal strategies given the strategies of the other players and there's no reason to change it. i think as observers of this, the american public, you can say there's a real reason to change it. in terms of the politicians, i think they're pursuing their best strategy right now and that leads us toward that cliff. unless something changes in the next couple of days, most folks now believe that any fix will happen after january 1st. >> the house gop leadership put out a statement yesterday. i want to read part of it for you. it says in part, the house has acted on two bills which collectively would avert the entire fiscal cliff if enacted. those bills await action by the senate. if the senate will not approve, and send them to the president to be signed into law in their current form, they must be amended and returned to the house. the senate first must act. now, the house leader john boehner says he will give house members 48 hours before he calls them back. that means the earliest they'll be back is on saturday. so are they just passing the buck to the senate? >> i think that's what's happening in both chambers right now. you saw a return statement from senate majority leader harry reid's spokesman yesterday talking about the incompetence of the house. these two sides are pointing fingers at each other. you have a situation now where these guys are completely confident or at least confident enough that their strategies are the right ones for them that they're not moving off the ball at all. and without any sort of movement, that's why you hear so much pessimism. >> i think part of it is they're afraid of spooking the markets, right? no gop senator wants to sign -- wants to vote for tax increases if the bill's not going to pass. that looks bad to their constituents. and as one democratic source told our dan that bash, this will be the last train we have and there is no sense in it leaving the station before we have assurance it will get through. procedurally, jonathan, is there still time? >> procedurally, there's still time. it certainly depends on how complicated the fix is. if it's something simple it can be drawn up in a few lines and perhaps there's time. if they end up trying to get complicated there may not be time. if there's somebody in the senate bent on stopping this from happening because the senate rules, you can see there being a problem in terms of getting it done before january 1st, it really all depends on the level of consensus. when there's consensus in congress, things move very fast. sometimes in the blink of an eye trillions of dollars can go out the door. at other times if people want to hold up the process, it can take several weeks to get done. >> one analyst talked about bungee jumping off the cliff. so an easier bill will come after january 1st that everyone will vote for. sounds like a likely scenario. we'll have to see if that happens. jonathan allen, senior washington correspondent for politico. thanks so much. >> take care. the health of former president george h.w. bush has taken a turn for the worst. he was moved into intensive care because ofs aelevated fever. the nation's 41st president is on a liquid diet. his condition listed as guarded. the 88-year-old coping with christmas in the hospital by -- well, he says he's determined in the to be grumpy about all of this. toyota has agreed to pay a $1.1 billion settlement. that would be to settle a class-action suit over sudden acceleration issues. under the agreement, toyota will install a break override system in affected cars. it will set up a fund of $250 million for former toyota owners who sold their cars from september of 2009 through all of 2010. that would go to compensate owners for their car's reduced value because of bad publicity. toyota's attorneys say a separate fund of $250 million will also be established to compensate current owners whose vehicles aren't eligible for that break override system. in this terrible weather, rescuers are racing to save that giant sick beached wheel off breezy point in queens. if that sounds familiar, it was one of the areas leveled by hurricane sandy. and a phi sparked by the storm, the 50-foot long whale is believed to be a female hump back. experts say the likelihood of it surviving isn't good. the whale appears to be very skinny and weak. lathis afternoon, the late daniel inouye's successor will be appointed. brian schatz will fill the seat. he's flying to d.c. with president obama. he was widely expecteded to appoint colleen hanabusa to take over. before his death, inouye appointed her to take over. there's a plan being considered in one state. plus, a day at the office with one of the richest men in the world. a look at what's on warren buffett's desk. that's just ahead. when you have diabetes... your doctor will say get smart about your weight. i tried weight loss plans... but their shakes aren't always made for people with diabetes. that's why there's glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. and they have six grams of sugars. with fifteen grams of protein to help manage hunger... look who's getting smart about her weight. 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[ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. ...so as you can see, geico's customer satisfaction is at 97%. mmmm tasty. and cut! very good. people are always asking me how we make these geico adverts. so we're taking you behind the scenes. this coffee cup, for example, is computer animated. it's not real. geico's customer satisfaction is quite real though. this computer-animated coffee tastes dreadful. geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 % or more on car insurance. someone get me a latte will ya, please? 15 minutes after the hour. welcome back to "early start." it's not every day you get a tour of the office of one of the richest men on the planet and arguably the best investor of our time. well, warren buffett gave our poppy par low just that, showing her around his modest office in berkshire hathaway's omaha, nebraska headquarters. what she found and didn't, just may surprise you. >> i've been in this building 50 years. they moved me around a little bit. >> reporter: history on the walls legendary investor warren buffett's office. >> i formed my first partnership in may of 1956. this was a year-end balance sheet which i typed myself. there's probably typos in it. these are my partners i had at the time. this was my father in law, my roommate in college, his mother, that's my aunt alice, my sister doris and her husband truman. >> reporter: and you. >> that was the gang. if they kept the $10,000 investment and when i liquidated the partnership re-invested that in berkshire hathaway they would now have about 500 million. did i very well with small amounts of money back in 1964. when a panic happens with a really good company, i like to buy. >> reporter: buffett's m.o. for investing. this 1901 "new york times" article reminds him daily of an important lesson. >> we never go out on a limb. we always have lots of money. we never borrow a lot of money. first campaign i got active in is when i was 10 years old in 1940 and wilkie was running against roosevelt. my dad thought if roosevelt got elected there would never be another election. >> reporter: a vocal republican in his earlier years, buffett now leans left and is a big obama supporter. >> we were talking about the economy. >> reporter: what else. >> i brought along figures i thought would be of interest to him. this is the presidential medal of freedom. >> reporter: he's never had political ambitions like his father. >> that's my dad's campaign picture when he was 39 years old. this is my dad's desk. this sat on his desk when i was a kid, when i was 10 years old. i always admired it. >> reporter: this is my favorite thing in your office. i need one of those. the too hard box. >> the real problem is if they're in there and i don't realize it. >> reporter: then there are the fun things, like the model mars rover, given to him by students at cal tech. >> thattette bas getting a t-shirt. >> reporter: and the mock "sports illustrated" cover. >> if they ever bring me out it will be as water boy. >> reporter: no fancy flat screen tv, just an old tube. >> no computer. >> reporter: that means no e-mail, perhaps the secret to buffett's success. poppy harlow, cnn. 17 minutes after the hour. let's get you up to date with the morning's top stories. six states in the northeast under this winter storm warning. you can see why. heavy snow, damaging winds targeting folks from pennsylvania to maine. holiday travel a mess. 1,700 flights canceled yesterday. more of the same expected today. nelson mandela is out of the hospital but he's going to keep getting medical treatment at home. south africa's former president has had a couple of health problems this month, including a lung infection and gal stone surgery. he's 94 years old. he hasn't at peared in public in more than two years. so many gifts have poured into newtown, connecticut, that officials are now asking people to stop sending them. at least for now. newtown has been swamped with things like toys, flowers and school supplies ever since the school shootings. community leaders say they're grateful for the support and they will talk about best ways to help the town very soon. just about 19 after the hour. we're going to give you early reads, the local news making national headlines. we begin with a story from arizona where in the wake of the newtown killings, the states attorney general is proposing a plan to arm one educator in each school. under that plan, each public school would designate a person, either a principal or teacher to keep the gun in a secured, locked location. it would be a voluntary program. the attorney general says state law would need to be amended before that plan could move forward. and happy new year chicago. beginning january 1st, chicago's parking meters will be the most expensive in north america. a 75 cents jump doesn't sound like a lot. listen to this. the price will then be $6.50 per hour downtown. that is more expensive than san francisco and even new york. and even leaps over vancouver for most expensive on the continent. for an expanded lookal all of our top stories head to cnn.com/earlystart. also search for us on twitter and facebook, search early start cnn. one of the largest settlements of its kind. coming up, toyota paying billions to customers past and present, impacted by those stuck accelerators. what a night, huh? but, um, can the test drive be over now? head back to the dealership? 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[ male announcer ] now all you need is a magic carriage. citi price rewind. start saving at citi.com/pricerewind. but with advair, i'm breathing better. so now i can be in the scene. advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator working together to help improve your lung function all day. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than twice a day. people with copd taking advair may have a higher chance of pneumonia. advair may increase your risk of osteoporosis and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking advair. if you're still having difficulty breathing, ask your doctor if including advair could help improve your lung function. get your first full prescription free and save on refills at advaircopd.com. minding your business this morning at 23 past the hour. stock markets worldwide are in a holding pattern awaiting the results of fiscal cliff negotiations in washington. u.s. stock futures pretty flat this morning indicating that markets will open little change today. stocks could take a big hit next week if congress does not make a decision in time. that, of course, adding to concerns, treasury secretary geithner also warned congress in a letter yesterday that we will reach the nation's debt ceiling on monday. that's when the government reaches its legal borrowing limit. treasury can delay a debt crisis for a couple of weeks until february or march using emergency measures to keep the government operating until congress acts to fix this problem, too. big news from toyota. they are announcing a record $1.1 billion settlement over that unintended accelerator issue which they say does not exist. toyota has always said it's been floor malts, stuck gas pedals and operator error but they're going to settle these cases to put it behind them. the bulk of the money will go to its customers past and present. they will install brake override systems for all vehicles identified by toyota as having a problem with the floor mats getting stuck. toyota set aside $250 million to compensate owners who sold their cars while their sales were plummeting over the bad p.r. and a separate 250 million will be used to compensate owners who don't qualify for that brake override system. finally, all 16 million current toyota owners will be eligible for a warranty on certain parts related to sudden unintended acceleration. toyota, again, maintains it does not have a problem with unintended acceleration in its vehicles. they say those problems involve floor mats, gas pedals and drivers mistakenly hitting the gas instead of the brake. why did they settle? toyota's legal officer released a statement saying this, it was a difficult decision, especially since reliable scientific evidence and multiple independent evaluations have confirmed the safety of toyota's electronic throttle control systems, however, we concluded turning the page on this legacy legal issue through the positive steps we are taking is in the best interest of the company, our employees, our dealers and most of all, our customers. the fact is that court trials over these issues were beginning to creep up on toyota. a lot of lawyers were asking for a lot of documents and depositions. the settlement will keep a lot of the toyota records out of the public eye and also a settlement can get these lawyers oback and put the entire episode behind went. shares are up about a quarter percent this morning. we have more good news for the housing market. later this morning, we will get more fresh data on new home sales for nor. that's expected to also show some strength in that part of the housing market. good news if you don't own a home. >> that's right. of all the holiday etch changes going on the day after christmas, this one had the most firepower. more coming up. plus, the biggest celebrity scandal of 2012. lindsay lohan never disappoints. we'll tell you more about them, coming up. 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[ laughs ] [ pencil scratches ] [ male announcer ] chevy's giving more. get the best offer of the year -- 0% apr financing for 60 months plus $1,000 holiday bonus cash. plus trade up for an additional $1,000 trade-in allowance. hurry. bonus cash ends january 2nd. wow, look at that, winter storm warnings. a big swath of the northeast getting socked with high wind driven snow and soaking rain. >> five days from the fiscal cliff. there's serious doubt this morning that our leaders in washington can strike a deal in time. >> no easy job. the commander chief talks about the hardest part of being president. welcome back to "early start." i'm drew griffin. good to have you with us. >> glad you're with us. i'm alina cho. john and zoraida have the day off. it's 30 minutes paragraph the hour. whether you're driving or flying chances are your holiday travel plans are in turmoil today. the culprit, a devastating winter storm that's smothering the northeast. look at all of that white. more than 1,700 flights had to be canceled just yesterday. hundreds more are already off the boards this morning and that number will almost certainly climb. bet it will. storm has already battered the south and midwest. folks in six states from pennsylvania to maine could see up to 2 feet of snow today. meteorologist bonnie schneider is tracking the extreme weather from the cnn center in atlanta. first we go live to ines ferre in a snowy syracuse, new york. ines, good morning. >> >> reporter: good morning, alena. yes, it's still snowing here in syracuse. visibility, ice, are some of the concerns. you can see that plows have been coming in and out of these roads here in downtown syracuse, but you can still see that the snow is still accumulating. we saw the last plow just a few minutes ago here. and right here on the side, you see the accumulation. and this is snow from this snowfall which is expected to be 9 to 13 inches in this area. plus some snow from previous snowfalls in the last couple of days. they've gotten some 13 inches of snow here in syracuse. city officials say that syracuse is actually used to getting a lot of snow. of course a big challenge as this amount of snow in such a short period of time. now, one of the good things about the snow is that it's coming during a holiday week. that means that school's out, a lot of people are on vacation. that's just one less headache to deal with, alina. >> ines ferre in a still snowing syracuse, new york. ines, thank you. if you're traveling by air or car, be careful. conditions are so bad in parts of the midwest, the nba's indiana pacers were forced to postpone a home game last night against the chicago bulls. that hardly ever happens. meteorologist bonnie schneider tracking this storm. eventually this thing will push out into the ocean. the question is when. >> eventually. not even tomorrow. we'll still be talking about it then. it's such a wide area of impact, millions of americans affected by this storm even as early as we talked about it on christmas eve. we're looking at heavy snow in places like upstate new york. i want to show you video outside of buffalo in hamburg. the snowplows they're used to snow there, of course. look at this. it's tough to get traction when the snow comes in so fast on any roadways. so many people are out and about. the wind speeds are likely to pick up, especially along the coastal areas in boston. that's one of the reasons that we're looking at windy conditions, stretching as far to the south as the mountains of virginia and certainly up into new england. rain and wind combined will impact air travel today in new york city, all major airports, newark, new jersey, philadelphia certainly washington, boston you're looking at rain and very windy conditions, delays should be over an hour. these heavy thunderstorms are sweeping across warwick, rhode island up into boston and northern mass you're seeing heavy snow as well as sleet and freezing rain into kingston. we'll see up to a foot in northern new england and less as you head further south. this is a very intense storm and the wind will batter regions that were already battered by hurricane sandy not too long ago. this is not good news for coastal new england. >> what's behind it, is it going to be colder? >> yes, yes, much colder. the colder air is definitely in place. temperatures in the 30s in the south. that colder air is coming in for sure. >> thanks, bonnie. the winter storm targeting the northeast right now left behind a path of destruction in the south and midwest as well. tornadoes tore up parts of mississippi in pearl river county, an ef-3 force twister destroyed or damaged some two dozen homes. tornadoes also doing considerable damage to downtown mobile, alabama. an ef-2 twister, 5.7 miles long, 200 yards wide with peak winds reaching 135 miles per hour, simply no match for the local high school. >> it's a wonderful school. i just don't know what we're going to do with the kids when it's time to come back. this is a dangerous situation with all the roofs off and the windows blown out, this is just devastating. six deaths so far being blamed on the storm, including two small children, killed in a car accident in arkansas where some towns were hit by nearly a foot of snow. the headline today in washington, back to work. the president and senate returning from christmas break today with all americans hoping real work might get done on fixing the fiscal cliff before we all fall off. sources tell us senator harry reid is trying to cram through a scaled back version of the obama cliff plan from almost week. the house is still out. after the gop went into recess last week after the gop didn't have enough support to pass its own plan "b." congress has very little time, though, five days to be exact to come up with some kind of a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff. it may already be too late with the way things work on capitol hill. let's bring in jonathan allen, the senior washington kpon for politico. jonathan, let's get to that. i think if everything lines up they could possibly get a deal signed from the fiscal cliff but when does that ever happen? >> yes, i think the problem, drew, there isn't that much time when congress has a consensus they can move quickly but there's no indication of that right now. all of the players seem locked into their strategies. for folks familiar with economic theory, this is a nash equilibrium. they believe given what the other folks are doing their pursuing their optimal path and that path seems to be leading us toward that fiscal cliff. i think most folks in washington expect that that will happen rather than some sort of fix here in the last couple days. >> so the senators and the congressmen from both parties have basically done the analysis and feel in their own hearts that they will not be too terribly harmed politically if we go over the cliff? is that basically the politics of what you're hearing here? >> i can't see directly into the hearts of any of these members of congress. >> if they have a heart, right? >> but i can gauge from what their public posturing is. we're not seeing any movement. we haven't seen any movement for many days now. the house republican leaders had a conference call with each other yesterday. afterward they got off and announced to everyone that they were in the exact same position they were before. they believe the senate must act, then the senate responded and said, look, we're in the exact same position, we believe the house ought to act on what we've done previously. the president is coming back from hawaii earlier than expected. that may be just to make sure he's not in hawaii when everyone goes off the cliff. >> and just real quickly, not to get too much into the weeds but this is pretty much in harry reid's court. he's got to come up with some kind of a deal that the president will be willing to sign and that the house will somehow pass before he brings it to the table, is that right? >> i think senator reed and the white house are in close consultation. he's been a tremendous ally of president obama's in the senate, for better or worse. each side has its own view of that. right now i think you're likely to see senator reed move a version of the bill that's acceptable to president obama or attempt to. it's not clear whether mitch mcconnell or other senators in the republican party will allow that to move forward. if something passes in the senate, i think it's likely that the house will follow suit. i think that takes the pressure off john boehner a little bit in terms of bringing something to the floor that his minions don't love. >> take care, drew. two firefighters shot and wounded on christmas eve are improving and starting physical therapy. joseph hoffstetter and the other firefighter were shot after being called to a fire. we are starting to hear the 911 calls. >> multiple firemen down. multiple firemen shot. i am shot. i think it was an assault rifle. >> volunteers from other areas have stepped in to help the webster fire department. >> we're all family, yep, brothers and sisters. it will be a long time before this department gets over this. i understand, if they need us to come back and help out we'll be here. >> police say william spengler set the fire to lure the firefighters into a trap. he eventually killed himself. his sister was also found dead. how does a small community deal with something like this? the webster, new york, fire marshall will join us in the next hour. we'll find out how the community is supporting the firefighters who was hurt and mourning the ones who died. >> the day after christmas returns looked different in los angeles. mayor moved l.a.'s annual gun buyback event from mother's day to yesterday. he did that because of the connecticut school shootings. people could exchange pistols, shotguns, rifles, for grocery store gift cards worth about $100. d.c. prosecutors won't say if they'll prosecute david gregory for showing a high capacity magazine on "meet the press." they're illegal in washington. even if they're not attached to a weapon. d.c. police says nbc actually asked if they could use the magazine on the show and their answer was no. coming up at 10:00 a.m. eastern time on "cnn newsroom," victor blackwell will talk with nra president david keen about gun rights in the wake of the newtown massacre. coming up, how facebook's privacy policy may have come back to haunt its founder, mark zuckerberg. plus the biggest celebrity scandals of 2012. omnipotent of opportunity. you know how to mix business... with business. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above. and still pay the mid-size price. i could get used to this. [ male announcer ] yes, you could business pro. yes, you could. go national. go like a pro. yes, you could. why they have a raise your rate cd. tonight our guest, thomas sargent. nobel laureate in economics, and one of the most cited economists in the world. professor sargent, can you tell me what cd rates will be in two years? no. if he can't, no one can. that's why ally has a raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally. share brotherly love. share one up's. mom ? mom ? the share everything plan. lets your family share a pool of data across 10 devices with unlimited talk and text. get a spectrum 2 by lg for $49.99 welcome back to "early start." 45 minutes after the hour. for celebrities, 2012 was a scandalous year which included custody disputes, drunk driving, rehab, cheating and divorce. many of these scandals are featured in the 2012 "us weekly celebrity yearbook" issue. bradley jacobs is here to give ug the sco us the scoop on the biggest celebrity scandals of the year. let's start with demi moore. her husband, ashton kutcher recently filed for divorce even though they've been separated for some time. that surprised her? >> yes. it was a year since they split. you know, it's been a very rocky year for demi moore. she turned 50, sources say she's really unhappy about aging and you can see that ashton wasn't the only young guy in her life. she's chased after voito schnabel. most disturbingly -- here she is partying away with stacey keebler who is 33. >> wasn't she running around like a little cat. >> that was kim kardashian maybe. >> demi, she's become estranged from her three daughters, especially her middle daughter, scout. she really has a very tough relationship with those girls right now. she even sat apart from them at the oldest -- youngest one's graduation earlier this year. demi's having a very hard time. >> let's hope she gets it together in 2013. meanwhile, let's talk a little bit about what you're calling the twilight cheating scandal. >> it wasn't just me calling it but "us weekly" did call that story, the biggest story of the year. we ran photos in the magazine of kristen stewart kissing and making out with her snow white director rupert sanders. she's involved with rob pattinson, everyone knows. >> he moved out very quickly after that. >> yes, he moved out very quickly. >> they broke up. >> but then they had to promote the final twilight movie "breaking dawn part two" all over the world for a month. they did get back together, they were seen dancing, et cetera. now that the movie's come and gone, it's a little bit of a question mark about their relationship. are they really together, are they not? we're watching them carefully. >> lindsay lohan, everyone's favorite train wreck. >> that's exactly what i say. this year lindsay tried so hard to get a comeback. she got this role, "liz and dick." >> i watched it. >> i couldn't take my eyes off it. >> i thought it was great in a campy way. >> it was extremely campy. she just can't get out of her own way. she didn't understand the reviews were terrible on this movie. she didn't see it as campy and she's had a really rough time. she continues the downward spiral, even her co-stars, i edited a story about how her co-stars were making fun of her at the premiere. >> early on in her career she was seen as such a talent. >> it was so long ago now we can't even remember talented lindsay. she gets in trouble, she refuses to stay in or clean up her act. >> i feel like it was the year of mug shots of amanda bynes. >> yes, amanda bynes, she had a lot of run-ins with the law. two duis -- i'm sorry, two hit and runs, a dui. look at these. it's a litany of mug shots for this girl. >> that's unfortunate hair as well. >> amanda bynes, she quit the business, quit acting. >> quit the business? how old is she? >> she's 26. she has nothing to do. she wanders around a lot. we have firsthand reports at "us" in beauty stores, hair places at 2:30 in the morning. she locked herself a boutique's dressing room for two hours and told people, go away when they came knocking on the door. she did the same thing a month prior. >> it's that classic story of having too much success too early. >> she doesn't talk with her parents or old team. yet another meltdown. >> halle berry, olivier martinez and her ex, gabriel aubrey, big problems. >> this wasn't really a meltdown. this was a really ugly incident happening on one of the happiest days of the year, thanksgiving, a family holiday. the fight is, of course, over nahla, her 4-year-old daughter with her ex, gabriel. they've had a protracted custody battle. she wanted to get full custody and live in france. that was denied. there's a lot of friction there and it came to a head when gabriel came over on thanksgiving day and got into a fight with olivier martinez, her current fiance. >> it wasn't just a fight. it was a brawl. >> grown men fighting over halle berry and this -- >> there it is. >> there's gabriel aubrey. >> then we released that photo and i pulled it up on my blackberry, i audibly gasped. i couldn't believe it. >> that's a classic movie-making black eye. olivier martinez, he's small but packs a punch. he's a boxer. gabriel i don't think knew what he was getting into with this fight. things have calmed down with them. they haven't disclosed the new arrangement. things are quieter. halle's in paris right now for the holidays. >> with olivier? >> yes. >> never a dull moment in your world. >> 2013, we'll see what has. >> i'm sure there will be plenty more scandals. bradley jacobs, senior editor for "us weekly." we'll see what happens. drew? coming up, what the fbi was doing to keep tabs on the movement. . your doctor will say get smart about your weight. i tried weight loss plans... but their shakes aren't always made for people with diabetes. that's why there's glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. and they have six grams of sugars. with fifteen grams of protein to help manage hunger... look who's getting smart about her weight. 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[ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card gives you 1% cash back on every purchase plus a 50% annual bonus on the cash you earn. it's the card for people who like more cash. what's in your wallet? every rose has its thorn, even for the president. he and mrs. obama sat down with barbara walters. here's what he described as the toughest part of his job on "nightline." >> the thorn is always knowing that as commander in chief i've put, you know, men and women of our armed services in harm's way, and some of them get killed and some of them get injured. and that always weighs on me. that is as raw and as fresh now as it was the first month i took office. >> this was billed as their first sitdown interview since winning re-election. it was taped days before the newtown massacre. newly real estate leased fbi documents showing the bureau considered the occupy wall street movement a potential threat and had counterterrorism agents across the country keeping watch. agents were in touch with police, businesses and universities nationwide even before demonstrators set up in new york's zucohti park last year. what a wounded firefighter said to a paramedic as this terror unfolded. and travelers stuck on a plane for five hours that never even left the gate. passengers fuming. why weren't they let off? why the pilot is now apologizing. and usain bolt made olympic history, remember? which sports moment defines 2012? that and more, coming up. but first, how mark zuckerberg himself may have gotten burned by facebook's privacy settings. we'll explain. time for citi pr. because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. and you really don't want to pay more than you have to. only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. and if it finds one, you get refunded the difference. just use your citi card and register your purchase online. have a super sparkly day! ok. 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[ male announcer ] it's practically yours. test drive! but we still need your signature. volkswagen sign then drive is back. and it's never been easier to get a jetta. that's the power of german engineering. get $0 down, $0 due at signing, $0 deposit, and $0 first month's payment on any new volkswagen. visit vwdealer.com today. welcome back. 58 minutes after the hour. drew griffin along with alina c cho, taking a look at top cnn trends on the web this morning. call him a bad quarterback but do not call him a bad teammate. tim tebow firing back after a report that said he asked out of some offensive plays sunday after he was snubbed for the jets starting quarterback job. espn said tebow was so upset with that perception that he quit on the team that had dampened his christmas. as for tebow, he's likely out of new york next year. this is a funny story. looks like someone might be confused by the privacy settings. mark zuckerberg's sister is upset after a private family photo she posted on facebook went public. she posted a photo of her family that included the facebook ceo mark zuckerberg. someone who wasn't supposed to see it saw it probably because she was friends with someone else who was tagged in it and it was retweeted. all this followed by an angry response from randy zuckerberg that included this line, it's not about privacy settings. it's about human decency. welcome to the club. "early start" continues right now. going nowhere fast. holiday travel on hold as a wet and nasty storm slams the northeast and strands thousands of airline passengers. trucks tossed like toys, a tornado's powerful fury captured on camera in alabama. and just five tense days until the fiscal cliff. president obama back to washington on the air force one where there's doubt that a deal can get done in time. good morning, everybody. >> so glad you're with us on a thursday. john and zoraida have the day off. up first, a powerful winter storm is hammering the northeast right now and snarling holiday travel plans for millions of families. look at the live radar and all of that white there. this system is expected to dump up to two feet of snow on central maine and is packing destructive winds. six states are facing storm warnings, pennsylvania, new york, massachusetts, new hampshire, vermont and maine all could see at least a foot of snow or more. more than 200,000 customers spanning several states are already without power. more than 1700 flights cancelled yesterday. hundreds more already taken off the board this morning. six deaths are already blamed on the weather since tuesday, and the threat certainly has not passed yet. meteorologist bonnie sh -- schneider is tracking the storm but we first go to inez. has it stopped snowing? >> reporter: no, we're seeing lighter snow but it's still falling steadily and governor cuomo has asked people to avoid non-essential travel. here's why, poor visibility and the possibility of ice on the roads. you can see the roads here in downtown syracuse. we've seen plows coming in and out of these roads but the snow is still accumulating. what you're seeing on the sides of the road too is accumulation from this snowstorm, which is expected to dump 9 to 13 inches and also some previous snowstorms. they have had 13 inches in the last four days. syracuse officials say this area is used to getting snow. of course a big challenge is so much snow in such a short period of time. it's been almost two years since syracuse has seen a foot of snow all in one shot. >> inez, thank you. a potent winter storm really socked the midwest. travel conditions were so treacherous the pacers had to postpone a game against the bulls. getting around the country today and the rest of the week will be a challenge of the meteorologist bonnie schneider tracking the system. what is the latest, especially for me, bonnie, in new york where it's been raining, sleeting and miserable. >> rain and sleet and wind. it's going to be one of those days the rain is blowing sideways on the streets of manhattan. north of new york we're looking at heavy snow across the upstate area, certainly across vermont, new hampshire and maine. this snow will accumulate quite a bit. remember, this storm is pulling down colder air in behind it as it wraps in from the west so temperatures dropping down below freezing in scranton, so that colder air is working its way to the east. all of this rain and wind and snow will impact your air travel. we are anticipating lengthy delays today in the northeast and the mid-atlantic and even chicago, salt lake city and seattle also facing delays. so many millions of people traveling this weekend. right now some of the hardest hit areas are rhode island, connecticut, long island and certainly into new york city where we're seeing heavy downpours. notice the rain coming in right at jfk and la guardia. once you drive up towards kingston, new york, it's more of a wintry mix. heavy snow accumulating across new england. this is good news for those enjoying a ski holiday but for the rest of us traveling it's going to cause a lot of slowdowns so give yourself extra time. >> bonnie, try sleeping. it was a howling wind last night. it was so loud. it really kept people up. all right, bonnie schneider, thank you so much. several states in the south are picking up the pieces after getting torn up by tornados. this incredible video comes from surveillance cameras at a walgreens in mobile, alabama. cars just tossed around in the parking lot by a tornado. winds well over 100 miles per hour clearing store shelves faster than any after christmas sale could. >> i've never been in a war zone but i'm sure it's what it looks like. there's a punch of tin. all of the stuff lifted all these buildings over here. i was just thankful i was alive. if it had been 100 yards the other way, it would have ripped through the middle of the store. >> it also tore up parts of pearl river, mississippi. two dozen homes or damaged or destroyed and at least 25 people were hurt. for those of you getting back into your routines this morning, we are five days away from going over that fiscal cliff. happy new year, everybody. here's what you might have missed. president barack obama has left hawaii, he left early. the senate is also coming back from its christmas vacation to work on a deal today. sources tell us majority leader harry reid will be pushing a scaled-back version of the fiscal cliff package that president obama laid out last week. that moved the tax hike needle to $400,000. no word on when the house might come back with time ticking away. democrats are hoping the scaled-back plan could get through the house, senate and white house before january 1st. sometime on december 30th, maybe even new year's eve is when they're probably going to get that deal done but let's go to jonathan allen, a senior washington correspondent for politico. the top headline on politico this morning, fiscal cliff deal increasingly unlikely. jonathan, really? >> i think there's a lot of pessimism here in washington. you've got, as you pointed out, five days left. i think the real indicator here is that none of these parties are moving off their position. the senate democrats, the house republicans, the white house. there hasn't been any reason for folks to look at what's going on and say, oh, i see where a deal could be coming together. so what you've got is what's described in economic game theory is where everyone has decided on their strategy, looked at the strategies of the oar players and figuring that their optable strategy is to go over the cliff and pick up the pieces later. >> and basically fight for which party is going to get the most blame in the meantime, right? >> that's right. this is a finger-pointing exercise. everyone is sort of putting together their best case for why the other guy is at fault. you know, the possible exception here, drew, is if the senate can pass something, a scaled-back version of the obama plan, perhaps if the senate passes something, i think that will remove some of the pressure for house speaker john boehner. i think that will put more pressure on his troops. it's possible that something like that could get through the house, but i wouldn't bank on it, bet on it or gamble on it on the stock market. >> something very interesting happened yesterday, tim geithner sent a note to harry reid saying basically, hey, we're out of money on january 31st. that has to do with the debt limit and raising the debt limit. do you think at all that kind of financial pressure is going to play into this? >> it's interesting, if we go over the f 'tis cal cliiscal cl should buy some room. the fiscal cliff is a cut in taxes and a cut in spending which should relieve some of the spending toward the debt limit. it is a factor in terms of long range planning for the united states government. but actually going over the cliff might buy some more time. so i think what secretary geithner was doing was sort of issuing a warning saying we should take care of this now. whatever the plan is in the last five days or even if it's right after the new year should probably take into account the fact we're going to need more room under that debt ceiling at some point. >> jonathan allen, we'll rely on you throughout this crisis to see what's going on. thanks for joining us this morning. >> take care, drew. he was hoping he'd be home by christmas but former president george h.w. bush is still in intensive care at a houston hospital. he's got an elevated fever. the nation's 41st president is on a liquid diet. he's listed as guarded. he's the 88-year-old bush coping with christmas in the hospital? well, his spokesman quotes him as saying i'm determined not to be grumpy with all of this. >> at least he has a good attitude about it. meanwhile, when a local newspaper pushes a map -- first we'll tell you about a whale because rescuers are racing to save a giant and clearly sick beached whale off breezy point in queens, new york. if that place sounds familiar, it was one of the areas just leveled by hurricane sandy and a fire sparked by the storm. the 50-foot-long whale is believed to be a female humpback whale and experts say the likelihood of it surviving is not just good because the whale appears to be very skinny and weak. >> poor thing. when a local newspaper published a map with the names and addresses of legally registered gun owners, a blogger struck back in a big way and that blogger will join us live coming up. plus, you will hear an airline pilot caught on tape just ripping into his bosses as he apologizes to passengers. hearing this, it is amazing, and you'll hear it next. now with a fancy coating that gives you a burst of wildberry flavor. now why make a flavored heartburn pill? 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[ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. satisfaction guaranteed with two times the points on dining in restaurants,? you may find yourself asking why not, a lot. chase sapphire preferred. there's more to enjoy. outrage growing this morning over a newspaper's decision to publish a map pin pointing the address of people with legal gun permits. it was published by the journal news which is based in white plains, new york. it shows homes where public records indicate someone living there holds a gun permit of the part of an article called "the gun owner next door." they say they got the information from public records. it has readers online furious, including one blogger who decided to strike back and posted the home address of most of the leadership and staff of the "journal news." that blogger is christopher mountain and his blog can be found at christopherfountain.wordpress. com. i got that blog right. >> yes, christopher fountain.com. >> so why did you do this? why did you basically try to turn the tables and show where these people lived. >> well, i just thought they were being hypocrites. they were taking perfectly -- in the aftermath of newtown, it was obviously one tragedy, but somehow they were conflating legal gun owners with some craze editorment edit ed tormented devil up in newtown. i'm a licensed permit carrier in connecticut and there were some connecticut residents who were picked up by that. i was not. >> and the kplication by the newspaper, although we should point out nobody on that newspaper is coming on our air like you are, the implication seems to be that there's something wrong, there's something bad, there's something dangerous here. >> exactly. they defended their publishing it under the grounds that parents of small children would have the right to know whether there were guns in a house the children were playing at. the statistics are that a child is something like 540 times more likely to drown in a swimming pool than to die accidentally by a gun. so my thought was go on the property records were and show where swimming pools were. the fact that they didn't tie it back to newtown. >> let me read what the paper's publisher printed. janet hassen is not coming on our air. >> i have her address, if you like. >> i'm sure you do. one of our roles is to report publicly available information on timely issues, even when unpopular. we knew publication of the database would be controversial, but we felt sharing information about gun permits in our area was important in the aftermath of the newtown shootings. you obviously disagree. >> well, she could have just published the number of gun permits, which is actually quite small if she wanted to show an issue that there are 2,000 legally registered guns in her county, fine. but the fact that they put the addresses -- i've received e-mails from abused women who were under protective order in hiding and they're terribly afraid now their names and addresses are all over the internet and accessible through that map. >> let me ask you if you've gotten any nasty e-mails after you posted where the publisher lives, where these reporters live? >> i would say 95% are positive. probably because of the nature of the readers of my blog and where it's being cited. but, yeah, i have received some nasty -- but i've received that in my life before. >> you obviously wanted to make a statement. you printed -- you posted a lot of people that had nothing to do with the gun story. >> absolutely. and in fact originally i just posted the publisher, the editor and the reporter's names and addresses. other readers started digging around and supplied them. as they came in, i published those too. they used a blender bust to publish every licensed permit holding, whether it's abused wives in hiding, i've received a call from a new york city detective who had been receiving death threats after that map was published. so i thought i saw nothing wrong with using the readers' research and posted it all. >> thanks for joining us. a bold move. >> okay, thank you. >> we'll read your blog from now on, see what else you're going to have posted. >> lots of interesting stuff. thank you. >> take care. >> thanks, drew. it's 17 minutes after the hour. let's get you up to date with the top stories. six northeast states, pennsylvania, new york, massachusetts, new hampshire, vermont and maine all under a winter storm warning this morning. some places are facing up to two feet of snow. holiday travel, of course, already snarled. more than 1700 flights canceled yesterday and more of the same expected today. this afternoon daniel inouye's successor will be sworn in. lieutenant governor brian schatz was tapped to fill the seat. he's flying to d.c. with president obama. abercrombie was widely expected to appoint a congresswoman to take over. before he died, inouye named her as his preferred successor. nelson mandela is out of the hospital but he's going to keep getting medical treatment at his home. south africa's former president has had a couple of health problems this month. he had a lung infection and gallstone surgery. he's 94 years old, hasn't appeared in public in more than two years. heavy delays have tempers flaring and eyes rolling at airports all over the country. in dallas, cnn affiliate wfaa reports that one american airlines flight sat at the gate for nearly five hours. that's without leaving the gate. one passenger said the airline told them they could get off, but also warned them that they could be leaving at any minute. and now listen to the pilot's apology to his passengers. >> it is beyond reproach. i have no words to tell you how sorry i am for all of this. decisions are being made way above our heads by people that obviously in my humble opinion don't have a clue what they're doing. >> certainly not something you hear every day. meanwhile airline americans offering this up statement. quote, our hindered ability to deice and approach aircraft with ground equipment, jetways and ramp stairs created serious delays, for aircraft inbound and outbound. operating safely was our focus. safety should be the focus, but nonetheless, i have to tell you being a passenger on that flight for five hours, at least you get that. well, it's one of the largest settlements of its kind. coming up, toyota paying billions to customers impacted by those stuck accelerators. i found a powerful new way to cut out arthritis pain. [ male announcer ] icy hot arthritis lotion. powerful encapsulated menthol gets icy to dull pain, hot to relax it away. power past pain. welcome back to "early start." it's 23 minutes after the hour. minding your business this morning, stock markets worldwide are in a holding pattern waiting the results of those fiscal cliff talks in washington. stocks could take a big hit next week if congress does not make a decision in time. adding to concerns treasury secretary timothy geithner warning congress yesterday we will reach the nation's debt ceiling on monday. that's when the government reaches its legal borrowing limit. treasury can keep the government operating a couple of weeks using emergency measures but congress needs to act on this too to avoid a full-blown debt crisis. toyota is announcing a record $1.1 billion settlement over the unintended accelerator issue. it will go directly to its customers past and present. toyota will install brake override systems for vehicles identified by toyota as having problems with floor mats getting stuck. toyota also setting aside $250 million to compensate owners who sold their cars while values were plummeting. a separate $250 million will be used to compensate owners who don't qualify for the brake override system and finally all 16 million current toyota owners will be eligible for a warranty of certain parts related to sudden unintended acceleration. toyota maintains it doesn't have a sudden unintended acceleration problem in its vehicles. it says those problems involve floor mats getting stuck, gas pedals getting stuck and drivers hitting the gas instead of the brake by mistake. so why are they settling? here's what toyota's u.s. legal officer said in a statement. it was a difficult decision, especially since reliable scientific evidence and multiple independent evaluations confirmed the safety of toyota's electronic control systems. however, detroit toyota conclud turning the page on this legacy legal issue through the positive steps we are taking is in the best interests of the company, our employees, our dealers and most of all our customers. a little behind the scenes here, the trials were beginning to creep up and lawyers were asking for a lot of documents and depositions. the settlement can keep a lot of those records out of the public eye. also a settlement gets the lawyers off the company's back and perhaps puts this entire episode behind toyota. shares in the company up about a quarter of a percent ahead of the opening bell. chip maker marvel technology group has been ordered to pay $1.17 billion in damages to carnegie mellon university for patent infringement. shares fell more than 10% on the news yesterday. this is one of the largest patent suits in history, and tops the samsung/apple settlement last summer. a jury found marvel infringed on the patent related to disk drive circuits and it sold billions of chips incorporating the university's technology without a license. more good news for the housing market. home prices posted their biggest annual jump in two years in october. home prices trending higher and have been for the past five months. later this morning we'll get fresh data on new home sales for november, expected to show some strength in that part of the housing market. well, of all the holiday exchanges going on the day after christmas, this one had the most fire power. more coming up. t a thing at all? it's lots of things. all waking up. connecting to the global phenomenon we call the internet of everything. ♪ it's going to be amazing. and exciting. and maybe, most remarkably, not that far away. we're going to wake the world up. and watch, with eyes wide, as it gets to work. cisco. tomorrow starts here. make a wish! i wish we could lie here forever. i wish this test drive was over, so we could head back to the dealership. 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[ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. winter storm warnings, a big swath of the northeast getting socked with wind-driven snow and soaking rain. dramatic new recordings from the scene where a gunman torched his house just to lure firefighters into a deadly trap. we're talking to that fire marshal in that town live. and panic at the mall. just have a look at this. shoppers running away as a big brawl breaks out. can't wait to hear more about that, right? welcome back to "early start." it's 30 minutes after the hour on a thursday morning. so glad you're with us. >> john and zoraida are off. it's 29 minutes off the hour. a dangerous winter storm pummelling the northeast and nor touring holiday travelers. just take a look at that live radar. that's the culprit, covering just about all of new england. six states right now under winter storm warnings, pennsylvania, new york, massachusetts, new hampshire, vermont and maine. central maine could see up to two feet of snow today. everyone else is facing a foot or more. and heavy winds could do a lot of damage. 1700 flights had to be cancelled yesterday, hundreds more already off the boards this morning. the number most certainly will rise. meteorologist bonnie schneider tracking the extreme weather from the cnn center in atlanta but first let's go live to inez in snowy syracuse, new york, with a frosted cnn hat to top it all off. inez. >> reporter: drew, good morning. yeah, it's still snowing steadily here and governor cuomo has asked people to avoid non-essential travel. here's why, poor visibility and the possibility of ice. i want to show you the conditions on some of the roads here in downtown syracuse. plows have been coming by here throughout the whole morning. we saw one just a few minutes ago but the snow is still accumulating. what you see here on the side is actually snow from this snowfall, which is expected to leave about a foot of snow when all is said and done and also some other snowstorms in the past couple of days, some 13 inches that has accumulated from other snowstorms. now officials here say that syracuse is used to getting snow. one official saying to us that syracuse is a resilient place. but of course the challenge is when the snow comes in such a short amount of time. it's been almost two years since syracuse has seen a foot of snow all in one shot. >> it looks like people are staying off the streets. i don't see a lot of car traffic at least. >> reporter: there is not a lot of car traffic and also school is out this week and a lot of people are on vacation. >> thanks for braving the elements all morning long out there. two important tips if you're planning to travel today. be careful and be informed. that's right. conditions so bad in parts of the midwest the nba's indiana pacers actually had to postpone last night's home game against the chicago bulls and that hardly ever happens, if you know anything about sports. getting around the country today and the rest of the week could be a challenge, a big one, so we want to get straight to the cnn weather center with bonnie schneider tracking the storm. bonnie, last night in new york city it was the howling wind that kept a lot of people up in addition to the snow and the rain. what's it like out there this morning? >> we're still going to look at the wind. if you're in a high-rise building, the winds are stronger the higher you go up so if you are really up high i'm sureyou heard the winds blowing. speaking of wind, we also have wind-driven snow and there was a huge problem where the blizzard was blowing across the midwest. almost two feet in illinois. take us back to new york and you'll see we had 12 inches of snow in swain, new york. we also have new pictures out of hamburg, new york, near buffalo where the snow plows are always out and about. but even the suvs are having trouble with traction on these snow-covered roads. looking at radar, the snow is moving away from buffalo and is pulling to the east so it's hitting areas hard across areas to buffalo, further to the north towards syracuse and you see temperatures getting much colder. so 39 degrees in new york city. those numbers will go down as the colder air comes in. look at the airport delays, a big travel week. we're expecting them across major metropolitan areas in the east and in the west. heavy rain through connecticut into boston providence right now. new york city, you're getting a break but there's a batch of rain headed your way and it will be wind-swept rain so the rain will be blowing sideways today. good day to hold on to your umbrella or stay inside if you can. >> a lot of people trying to get home or get back from vacation, doing all that traveling today, so hopefully they'll be keeping it here on cnn. >> i want you both to check this out. the winter storm slamming the northeast caused a lot of sdruk destruction in the south and midwest. this is pearl river county, mississippi. an ef-3 twister destroyed or damaged two dozen homes. it also flattened parts of mobile, alabama. an ef-2 twister, 5.7 miles long and 200 yards wide with peak winds reaching 135 miles an hour. there's the local high school that really got trashed. >> it's a wonderful school. i just don't know what we're going to do with the kids when it's time to come back. this is a dangerous situation with all the roofs off and the windows blown out. this is just devastating. >> across the country, six deaths so far being blamed on this storm, including two small children killed in a car accident in arkansas, where some towns were hit by nearly a foot of snow. this morning we're hearing new recordings from the scene of a fire set as a trap by a gunman who ambushed firefighters as they responded to the scene. it happened on christmas evening morning in webster, a town in upstate new york. 62-year-old william spenglor started a massive fire, lured firefighters there and shot and killed two of them, injuring two others. the awful spine playing out on the scanner. >> multiple firemen down, multiple firemen shot. i am shot. i think it was an assault rifle. we have multiple firemen down. a working fire. >> a new statement from the two injured firefighters who are still recovering in the hospital thanking the nation for its support. they say we are humbled and a bit overwhelmed by the outpouring of well wishes for us and our families. like so many others, our thoughts and prayers are with the families of michael chiapperini and tomas and with those who lost their homes. investigators try to figure out how and why this happened. robert is the fire marshall of webster, new york. thank you so much for being here with us at such a difficult time. i know you were at a candlelight vigil last night for all of the four firefighters. tell me what that was like. >> good morning. it was, you know, a very quiet, somber event. we met at the four corners in the village of webster, which is within the town. i had a priest available, said a couple of prayers, spoke a little bit about the two firefighters that have died and just gave us a chance to get together as a community. >> and let's talk a little bit more about that. michael, you just saw him there, and the other victim, 19-year-old tomasz, just 19 years old. i know you were friends with michael. really a hero firefighter. really just beloved in that area. tell me what he was like and how his family is holding up. >> chip, we call him chip, chip was a great guy. we've been firefighters together for over 20 years, although in separate fire departments, but we're co-workers at the town of webster, as chip was a lieutenant currently down in the police department, which is in the same building that my office is located in. >> and i understand -- this just awful. i understand that his son, nick, was actually in the 911 dispatch center, heard all of those awful, just terrible calls coming in. have you had an opportunity to speak to him at all? >> i have. i spoke -- nick works as a dispatcher for a commercial ambulance company, and he was working nights that night. he heard the dispatch and the ca call. i spoke to him that christmas eve afternoon. i spoke to him in the afternoon. he insisted on riding in the fire truck to escort his father's body to the medical examiner's office. he was doing as well as he could. >> meanwhile the other victim in this, tomatomasz, just 19 years, hometown kid. i know you graduated from the same high school. have you had an opportunity to speak to his family, his parents, and if so, what have they told you? >> no, i haven't spoke to his parents. i know that he was a relatively new firefighter and came through the same recruit class that mike's son, nick, came through. >> i understand they were very, very close friends, right? >> very, very close friends. it's very difficult for everybody and for our community. >> i think a lot of people were shocked, i know i was when i first heard about this on christmas eve morning. i just couldn't believe my ears when i had heard that these firefighters were shot. i thought as tragic as it would have been, i thought that they had perished in the fire while fighting the fire, which typically is what happened. but as you know, we're hearing new details. i want to read a part of a note that the shooter left saying in part i still have to get ready to see how much of the neighborhood i can burn down and do what i like doing best, killing people. this from the gunman, william spengler. when you saw that, what went through your mind? had you ever heard about anything like this happening? >> no. i really can't say exactly -- put into words what i'm feeling. i mean we've trained to go to fires. we go to fires and know that there's that possibility that you may become injured or whatnot, but nobody -- we've trained -- after 9/11 we trained to, you know, be alert for secondary devices that were aimed at the first responders. but never -- never would anybody have thought that somebody would have been waiting for the firemen as they came around the corner, barely even out of the rig yet. the rig continued moving and crashed into an embankment in front of the scene. it's just something that's been very difficult to come to terms with, both personally and for the rest of us. >> i've seen a lot of tears from a lot of grown men in that area and understandably so. i wish you the best as your town recovers. you're the fire marshal in webster, new york. thank you for joining us this morning. >> you're welcome, thank you. well, following shootings like that and the tragedy in newtown, connecticut, los angeles decided to do a little something proactively about it. they decided to move up the date of their annual gun buyback event and a lot of people did just that. they came out to turn in their guns for grocery cards of the you get $200 worth. the mayor moved that event from mother's day to yesterday specifically because of the connecticut school shooting. city officials say this year's haul was bigger than last but we don't have the exact numbers. d.c. prosecutors won't say whether they'll charge david gregory for showing a high-capacity magazine on "meet the press." he used it as a prop but those things are illegal in washington, even if they're not attached to a weapon. d.c. police say nbc asked if they could use the magazine on the show and the answer was no. coming up at 10:00 a.m. eastern on cnn newsroom, carol costello will talk with the nra president about gun rights in the wake of the newtown massacre. sheer panic at a sacramento mall. just look at this. can you imagine that? police say a 20-person brawl broke out in the food court. during the fight there were reports of loud pops that sounded like gunfire. given what's been going on lately, you can imagine the terror there. the mall security director actually says there was no gunfire, no guns were recovered. three teens were arrested, the stores went into lockdown just in case. the mall reopened about an hour later, still trying to figure out the source of those popping sounds, but we'll keep you posted. but just look at that video, incredible. coming up, new revelations about occupy wall street and what the fbi was doing to keep tabs on the movement. plus, swamped in the street. how this bus ended up stuck in just a matter of seconds. we'll explain. ali velshi in for soledad this morning -- >> talking about his post-christmas workout routine. >> coming up on "starting point" this morning, with an 11th hour deal to prevent the u.s. going off the fiscal cliff, is that actually going to happen? we have both sides of the aisle and both sides of congress with us. republican representative steve la tourette and democratic senator richard blumenthal. "sex and the city" d.c. style. we'll talk to the authors of the juicy new novel dishing about life working for a demanding senator on capitol hill and he's a mean one. the grinch from the musical joins us live and it turns out he may not be that mean after all. that and much more in 14 minutes or so. the grinch is going to be here. >> in costume, i hope. >> of course. it's going to be the real grinch. it's not an actor, it's the grinch for those kids watching this morning. >> of course it is. thank you, ali. >> good to see you both. >> we'll be watching. 47 minutes after the hour. let's get you up to state with the top stories. six states from pennsylvania to maine facing a winter storm, a big one. 12 to 24 inches of snow could fall in parts of new england. holiday travel just a nightmare on the roads and in the air. more than 1700 flights cancelled just yesterday and much more of the same expected today. people in oceanside, california, waking up to this. a water main breaking creating a giant sinkhole. it swallowed a bus, left 400 customers without water. witnesses say the bus creeped down the flooded street and then just nosedived into the hole. the driver escaped through the window. he was the only person on board. former president george h.w. bush still in intensive care in a houston hospital this morning. he was transferred there on sunday because of an elevated fever. the nation's 41st president is on a liquid diet right now. his condition is listed as guarded. ♪ >> remember occupy wall street? well, newly released documents show the fbi viewed the movement as a potential threat, even had counterterrorism agents from alaska to florida keeping watch. agents were in touch with police businesses and universities nationwide, even before demonstrators set up in new york's szuciatti park last year coming up, the top sports stories of 2012. linsanity is on the list for sure. be ready. for the days when you get a sudden call from the school, be ready. for the times you need to double-check the temperature on the thermometer, be ready. when you have children's motrin on hand, you're ready. for high fever, nothing works faster or lasts longer than children's motrin. be ready with children's motrin. new york city today, rainy, windy, crazy. 36 degrees right now. later it's going to warm up to a high of 46. what does that do for you? >> not a whole lot. >> 2012 was an exciting year for sports fans all over the world. usain bolt made olympic history in london, johnny manziel was the youngest player ever to win the heisman and lebron james got a championship ring. "sports illustrated" has ranked the best moments of the year and maggie is here to countdown the top five moments from the year. we were just talking about this. you do a vote and start out with 112 great moments and whittle it down. >> 112 greatest moments of 2012 and everyone in the office gets to put their input, no matter what sport you cover, all the editors, all the writers and the senior higher-ups decide what's going to be the top five moments of the year. >> so let's do the countdown. number five is johnny football, huh? >> yeah, johnny football, johnny manziel. we've never had a freshman win the heisman before. his story is so unique because he goes from obscurity relatively as the quarterback of texas a&m and after beating number one ranked alabama in tuscaloosa, which is incredibly hard to do, we start looking at all the records that he starts to break. s.e.c. records. he's the only freshman to ever throw for 3,000 yards and rush for over 1,000 yards. i mean tim tebow, cam newton couldn't even do that. so johnny manziel kind of comes out of nowhere and wins the heisman. >> it will be interesting to follow him now. see how long is he going to stay in college and how long is he going to handle the pressure, right? number four, a guy that's in the news a lot, knows how to handle pressure, usain bolt. >> can you imagine being called the fastest man on the planet? how cool is that? he's the only person to ever attain really the double-double, which is winning its 100 meters and the 200 meters in the olympics in back-to-back olympic games. he actually got a triple-double. we don't really talk about the fact that he's a two-time gold medalist in the 4 x 200 relay as well. we saw the michael phelps cover which was one of the great moments for the americans in the olympics but usain bolt has captured the imagination of the world. >> lebron james finally did it. >> he finally did it. you think back to the decision in summer of 2010. he goes on national television and tells everyone he's leaving cleveland for south beach. then he gets to miami and starts promising not four, not five, not six, not seven rings and the expectations grew infinitely and finally lebron james in his second year with the miami heat gets his ring. the moment that stands out for me is him on the podium hugging the trophy and the mvp and he goes it's about damn time. >> everybody felt it wasn't that big of a deal, it's just finally you did it. >> not only did he win back the public's favor, went from a villain back to a hero, he also won a second gold medal. >> linsanity swept through this city like crazier. >> can you imagine a crazier two weeks of jeremy lin? it ended up being two months from start to finish. but you're the end of the bench literally, the last resort for a team that's struggling with injury. you go from playing on average about six minutes a game to starting. and then the peak, 38 points against the lakers and so many people were so inspired by jeremy lin, the first taiwanese american to make it to the pros. his story coming from harvard, sleeping on his brother's couch, went from an unknown to the world's biggest superstar. >> what happened to him? where is he now? >> he's in houston. he signed a three-year, $25 million deal that the knicks did not want to match. so far against the knicks he's 2-0. >> okay, very good. number one. >> yeah, number one. the buildup to this. let me give a little back story. the replacement referees had been getting so maligned throughout the preseason and beginning of the season and everyone was just waiting for that one moment that would really get the referees and the league back to the table and get the negotiations going. monday night football, packers/seahawks. russell wilson throws the hail mary to the end zone. it's now called the fail mary but you see the rest. one calls a touchdown, the other calls a touchback. it goes into the call heard round the world and two days later the referees and the league got it settled. >> maggie, great. thanks for coming in. great moments. >> all right, thank you, drew. today's best advice from a scientist turned tv star. that's coming up. and coming up on "starting point" the story behind this incredible video. a tornado tossing cars and trucks around like toys in a parking lot. and it tastes good? sure does! wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy. what's the rush? meet the 5-passenger ford c-max hybrid. when you're carrying a lot of weight, c-max has a nice little trait, you see, c-max helps you load your freight, with its foot-activated lift gate. but that's not all you'll see, cause c-max also beats prius v, with better mpg. say hi to the all-new 47 combined mpg c-max hybrid. with odor free aspercreme. powerful medicine relieves pain fast, with no odor. so all you notice is relief. aspercreme. we wrap it up, as always, with the best advice. >> that's right. today we hear from travis taylor, one of the stars of the cable tv's "rocket city rednecks." >> my two favorite pieces of advice. one, was my grand mother always told me don't poke that or put your finger in it. and the other is i heard from yoda, there is no try, there's only do or do not, and i firmly believe that. >> that's "early start." >> that's some accent. we'll be back again tomorrow morning early at 5:00 a.m. eastern time. "starting poin

Transcripts For WJLA ABC 7 News At 600 20121026

showers leftover into tuesday wednesday. the leaves, if you live by the the bay, astronomical tides. be an issue.d downed trees, power outages. the all of these things to start about.g jennifer donelan has been in how residentsee for thearing of a big blow from the storm. what is up? different tone, day closer to the weekend. metro station at federal triangle. overnight, metro crews placed around the greats. the concern is flooding in the would overflow through below into the .etro transit system now, everybody is taking they watch and wait for. in maryland, where the governor of thed a state mackenzie, ever critical agency from the fire department to city talking about emergency operations. >> if it is on top of us or to the west, that could be serious storm surge. we don't know which path by go.icane will what we can do is make sure we are covering all bases. >> street crews were removing leaves. .> people are talking about it like a reasonably s possibility. hiseanwhile, scott makes of the day, talking had of the arrival. >> i clean out my daughters. -- i cleaned up my gutters. >> in kensington, they were preparing for multistate power outages. a nightmare scenario for utility companies. pepco has all hands on deck and r contractors, they're extra workers. in rehoboth beach, sandbagging is well underway. >> we are very concerned. >> the virginia governor also state of emergency. >> they are pre planning instead of being reactive. >> we will do everything to make sure this race goes off at 10:55. amphibious. we like rain. we call it liquid sunshine. >> some counties are handing like charles county. are waiting until tomorrow, including the district. the big concern, the leaves. says if your bond to leaves in your front yard, don't throw them into the them., bag this could cause a serious problem when it comes to flooding. for updates abc 7 on hurricane sandy. are not on the air, go to ouralways website, wjla.com. breaking news from takoma park. >> the police say an armored been stolen after a shootout. s fromare live picture newschopper 7. not releasedve details, but this happened on university boulevard. that shots were exchanged between a guard and a but they still do not how many suspects were .nvolved as many as three people we are told. just 11 days left until the election. impacting the trail.n today's rallyor mitt romney and vice president joe biden for the weekend were canceled. john mccain was campaigning in formmonwealth of virginia mitt romney. was there and joins us from the newsroom. senator mccain was comparing the campaign to his own ago?years right.lutely first, the cancellations. a big rally also scheduled for president with bill clinton monday in prince william county air. in the governor mcdonnell says worst- scenario, he can postpone day, although that is not likely. another twist in an already unpredictable race. slip on theional understandable, but the of the path sat down of controlled tv interviews. t is now the biggest concern. while joe biden stumped in wisconsin and continue to mock make romney -- out there is a lot of qualified women. >> he perhaps optimistically the movie iowa to soundtrack for air force one and ,ave an economic speech critical of the sluggish page out ofking a playbook. >> we need real change, big change. come.ime has sides concede at this wate there are very fe forcided, they are looking every one of them. about policy. is personal. better than john mccain. in our interview today, he was directly critical of the .resident's demeanor >> this coarse language the uses, i always treated respect when with s running against him. i think this disrespect he y is reallyt romne not presidential. i think some people may decide that way. >> back to the ather, i have spoken with both camps. are not a bit uncertain as or romneyhe president few dayshe next because of the hurricane. again, he went through this with the republican convention. be the second time a has had a big influence on this race. >> still 11 days until the election. ok, scott thuman, thank you. there is more of our vote 2012 coverage on our website, wjla.com. harry reid is in a vegas hospital after his motorcade was a car crash. it happened on a highway near the vegas strip. to nevada highway patrol, the chain reaction crash vehicles,ix capital police vehicles. harry reid was to get to hospital by ambulance. learned he is ok. ata scare in northeast d.c. afternadian embassy employee found a suspicious e.bstanc evacuating the building and shut down two pennsylvania avenue a white envelope with discovered. was the scene has been cleared, but the police have not reported as to what was in the envelope. >> some ford cars under investigation. what the problem is any model years under the microscope. >> many runners in this year's marine corps marathon. one of them will stand out from the rest. >> today may be the first state place your order for the ipad >> today may be the first state plac[ male announcer ]he ipad if barack obama is re-elected, what will the next four years be like? one: t the debt willrow from $1 trillion to $20 trillion. two: 20 million americans could lose their employer-based health care. three: taxes on the middle class will go up by $4,000. four: energy prices will continue to go up. and five: $716 billion in medicare cuts that hurt current seniors. five reasons we can't afford four more years of barack obama. i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. >> federal officials are looking the older model ford taurus and mercury sable, 2000 to 2003 models. angry workers in belgium set to a vehicle after they to close thes plant there in 2014, but as between no connection the throttle and this. the plant in belgium was one of its largest facilities in europe. it will mean the loss of more than 9000 jobs. >> today is the first day to ipad mini. new note the only models are entry-level wifi.s with it prius orders are expected be in hands on november 2. prius orders are expected be in hands o[ edmonds ]2. he doesn't really care where a good idea comes from. you know, it could come from a democrat like me or it could come from anybody. we made things happen. we balanced budgets. i knew he really cared about all of the things we had to get done. and the work that we were doing and its impact on people. [ lindstrom ] he was very sensitive to those programs and taking care of the women and children. [ edmonds ] i see qualities in the man that makes me know i can put the nation in his hands and feel very good about it. [ romney ] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. andand this is maryland. it. teacher: this is west virginia, pennsylvania, delaware. every year marylanders spend five hundred and fifty million gaming at casinos in these other states. question seven will build a new casino and bring table games to baltimore... generating hundreds of millions for schools. and that money has to go to education. it's the law. so vote for question seven. so we can stop spending all that money here, and keep maryland money in classrooms like mine. what mitt romney's tv ads saye? about women? or what mitt romney himself says? mitt romney: do i believe the supreme court... should overturn roe v. wade? ye yes. and it would be my preference that they, that they... reverse roe v. wade. pefully reverse roe v. wade. overturn roe v. wade. planned parenthood, we're going to get rid of that. i'll cut off funding to planned parenthood. anncr: no matter what mitt romney's ads say.ay we know what he'll do. anpresident obama: i'm barack romneyobama and...y i approve this message. well, inside the brewer, there's a giant staircase. and the room is filled with all these different kinds of coffee. actually, i just press this button. brew what you love, simply. keurig. >> that time of year, the annual corps marathon. scheduled to take place sunday. >> the marines can handle it. doubt the number of l stories from this but one runner will stand out. cleave caught up with him. >> this is not how most people gear up for sunday's marine marathon, but travis taylor is not most people. he is working on his second r the and has worked fo defense department and nasa. 39-pounde wearing this body armor suit when the race starts. we canoal is to show armor suit and inebody can run a marathon it. able marines ought to be it.ear >> he designed and built the in the hopes of creating protection for u.s. troops. current body armor saves but ied's still take limbs. is hoping to stop that. my brother is going back for his fourth deployment in n in january. o do what i can to make sure he comes home safe. >> he may have the only body suit made by a concerned mother. >> the body armor it survives up against held gunfire, and even made it through the monkey bars. but 26.2 miles? is this the pace for the marathon? hoping that i can hold up 26.2 miles. >> how are you feeling, 100 feet? >> i am getting tired. [laughter] >> we have all hopes for a marathon man. the information for the marathon on our website. to wjla.com. >> what do you think for the marathon? >> the temperatures in the breezy, 15ies, breeze, scattered showers. a lot to share with you. cloudyftop camera, skies. that, we will have cloudy skies several more days, of whatever will sandy.with like adverse affects by monday, sunday night, especially into tuesday. 67 in chevy chase. is an average temperature. further to the south, along the coast, still picking up wind s of 52 m.p.h., the no beach. wind outorth, the quite as strong. 71 the official high at reagan national, 63 the morning low. front we have been was slowly make move, but it is a big player in what will happen. behind it, there is upper level support, a dip in the jet stream. interacttures will with sandy as it moves north. this will have to turn to the because the north atlantic a ridge of high pressure that.ill block the anticipation is still we been saying, this storm act together. it has not sheered apart a overe, but it will move waters, pull back together. be upgraded back to a e before it makes few days.he next complex set of atmospheric circumstances, but it is amazing models haveuter similar conclusions. that is because of the approach to thee west, the block north, it has to turn to left. if by some crazy happenstance it left, we are off hook. that will not happen. where it makes landfall, virginia beachen long island, but because moves into the tropical wind and rain will spread dramatically over a large area. e affected inl b the mid-atlantic and northeast. the further north, especially if south overs further atlantic, the water will across southern new england, new york city, the harbors. potential with tens of millions of people. is something we are taking should,iously, and you too. day is sunday and theay night because that is is expect to turn to the north and northwest. the sunday whether, showers, cool, a bit of a breeze, in the 50's. , increasing wind and rain, according to the current time line. tuesday, i think that will be it, high wind, hiring, possible flooding. the temperature is going down, wind and rain probability going up in advance of sandy. >> and now the toyota sports your brought to you by dealers.ota >> speaking of the weather, it still underetcher the weather? >> london is questionable. he may be the iron man, but he still mortal. s incredible 231 game streak, he practiced today, g in individual drills only. after a six-hour examination that rolled fletcher have a concussion. his hamstring is feeling better, 100%.ill not the fact that fletcher did any s promising and he good sign.a >> we have 48 hours before the game. a great way of healing. just hopefully over the next few i continue to improve. balance, i have that a coupleith weeks now. but we're figuring out what is on.g think he will play sunday. >> postseason baseball, at the not sod break was after all. the tigers waited six days for their world series upon it to be decided. the seven-game marathon, took game 1. night, a pitching duel ug fister and bumgarner. san francisco is better, and it was an impressive performance. >> i like to simplify things. i think i can simplify this easy. the way that i look at it, we are two games back with five to but we are playing a team catch. to that is the best way to approach it. >> almost november, but tiger woods looking to continue his could play at the classic in malaysia. 7th.7, -- par-3 finished the day at nine under. president obama's remarks the nhl should reach a resolution, they have not. . canceled 13 more games. not good news. teacher: this is west virginia, pennsylvania, delaware. and this is maryland. every year marylanders spend five hundred and fifty million gaming at casinos in these other states. question seven will build a new casino and bring table games to baltimore... generating hundreds of millions for schools. and that money has to go to education. it's the law. so vote for question seven. so we can stop spending all that money here, and keep maryland money in classrooms like mine. prand you're seeing that rightno quit in amnow.a... over five million new jobs. exports up forty one percent. our auto industry... back. and our heroes are comg home. we're not there yet, but we've made real progress and the... last thing we should d do is tun back now. here's my plan for the next four years: making education and training a national priority; building on our manufacturing boom; boosting american-made energy; reducing the deficits responsibly by cutting where... we can, and asking the wealthy to pay a little more. and ending the war in afghanistan, so we can... do some nation-building here at home. that's the right path. so read my plan, compare it to governor romney's... and decide which ibetter for you. it's an honor to be your president... and i'm asking for your vote... so together, we can keep moving america forward. i'm barack obama and i approve this message. >> the next important date from the hurricane center will be right before 11:00. we will have updates tonight, wjla.com the on-line home that you need to know. world news is next. >> be ready and be with us at 11:00. have a good night. [ mitt romney ] we have to work on a collaborative basis. look, the reason i'm in this race is there are people that are r aeally hurting tody in this country. and we face this deficit -- could crush the future generations. and republicans and democrats both love america but we need to have leadership -- leadership in washington that will actually bring people together and get the job done and could not care less if it's a republican or a democrat.

Transcripts For CNNW EarlyStart 20121220

♪ dashing through the snow >> it is holiday travel, folks, threatened by a blizzard. >> you have to put up with the snow and the singing. >> the once promising talks b bogged down again with less than two weeks to go. >> and getting to the bottom of the benghazi fiasco. hearings set to start in a matter of hours from now. good morning you to. sorry about the singing this morning. welcome to "early start." >> it's 5:00 a.m. in the east. she's been singing all morning. we're going to begin with this storm. the cause behind all the singing. it is a big one. it is pounding the nation's midsection and threatening to derail holiday travel plans for millions of americans. what bad timing. a blizzard warning in effect for half a dozen states. colorado has already been clobbered at 156 mile stretch of interstate 70 had to be shut down in both directions yesterday. look at that. the storm is also hitting iowa hard overnight packing wind gusts over 50 miles an hour. the wind part of the real problem here. some places could see a foot of snow or more. emergency management officials as far north as wisconsin offering this advice to early christmas travelers. >> i think the first thing you should think about is changing your plans for thursday. >> you know, a lot of people getting on the road today and tomorrow for the christmas season. they have to deal with. this. >> and traveling with kids, you know, the delays start at airport, no fun. >> it could be sunny and 70 degrees and traveling with a kid ain't easy. but it's so bad in was was that the governor there already issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency before the storm even arrives. let's go to meteorologist alexandra steel who is tracking this storm from atlanta. what does it look like? >> of course, colorado yesterday. texas yesterday. the roads be it the wind storms or whatever we saw. today it's i-80 through iowa. iowa will be virtually shut down. let me show you pictures from wisconsin. you can see, of course, you heard what the governor is already doing in advance of the storm. the storm is coming in toward you, no question about that. so what we're seeing and what we've already seen, that's where we are. again for the most part. nebraska is out of it. but hastings already eight inches on the ground. this is really this was phase one of the storm. we're getting into phase two of the storm which means more snow and incredibly stronger winds. so eight inches in hastings. iowa, seven inches. iowa will see an incredibly rough day. here's where the blizzard warnings are. we're going to see a virtual shutdown of the state. the snow will be coming down. winds will be gusting to 50 miles per hour. here's what we're expecting, 6 to 12 inches of snow. then into graeen bay, northern wisconsin could see a foot plus in terms of snowfall. so incredibly amount of snow today. more than we saw yesterday. and the winds will be so much more powerful. places like chicago, a rainy start. but then late this afternoon and into tonight we'll see a change over from that rain to snow. and then look at this tight pressure gradient. it winds up and you can see, guys, the closer those lines are, the lines of equal pressure, the stronger the winds. the winds we've already seen have been strong. but the winds, the strongest yet to come. so today the midwest will be incredibly hard hit, guys? >> what day does it get out east? >> it gets to the east coast before the weekend, actually. so today we're fine. into friday night and saturday night. but it moves quickly and just a rain maker. >> all right. alexandra steel, thank you very much. >> we were laughing about it, but this creates that black ice and really treacherous driving conditions. folks, be careful out there. so what happened? what happened to the progress on the fiscal cliff negotiations? it is 12 days to go and a political stalemate has set in. president obama and john boehner appear to be digging in heals. he says take the deal. meantime, the speaker intends to put his plan b up to a vote in the house today. it would extend the bush era tax cuts up to $1 million. if some democrats block it, the president becomes responsible for the tax hikes that kick in when the nation goes over that fiscal cliff. cnn political editor paul stein houser is in washington this morning. your job is to explain all of this to us. >> it really seems like a way they're playing a game of political chicken right here. you heard the president and house speaker come in front of cameras within two hours of each other. both men were really talking against each other. it was not very optimistic. you're right, optimism of earlier in the week dissipated. take a listen to what both men said. well, we don't have that sound. both men really talking against each other there. here's the sound. >> the president's offer of $1.3 trillion in revenues and $850 billion in spending reductions fails to meet a balanced approach. i hope that the president will get serious soon about providing and working with us on a balanced approach. >> at some point there's got to be i think a recognition on the part of my republican friends that take the deal. you know, they will be able to claim that they have worked with me over the last two years to reduce the deficit more than any other deficit reduction package. >> the president made his comments after an event on gun control after an announcement on gun control. mr. boehner, his news conference lasted 56 seconds. he stormed off after making his comments. does he have the votes for plan b? also, where do the negotiations for a wider settlement stand? of course, if will is no agreement by the end of the year, the country falls off the fiscal cliff, that means higher taxes for almost all americans and massive spending cuts. >> the other question is how do americans feel about this? and you have brand new poll numbers to share with us. i can only imagine. >> we do have brand new poll numbers. this is a national poll coming out right now at this hour. as other polls indicated, americans are siding more with the democrats. take a look at this. which party should compromise more to get a wider deal, to get bipartisan solutions? nor people say the republicans should compromise than the democrats. and who would be more responsible if the fiscal cliff occurs? the so-called blame game. once again, more people would blame republicans. 48% say republicans and congress would be to blame. 38% say the president. 1% say both sides would be at blame. >> again, 12 days to go before that fiscal cliff. paul steinhouser flif washington, thank you. other big news in washington. they're dealing with the fallout from that report on benghazi. one state department official resigned, three others on disciplinary administrative leave after a review cited systemic failures in leadership and management deficiencies. tuesday department officials are set to testify at 8:00 a.m. eastern time this morning. and we now know that next month secretary of state hillary clinton will testify before the house foreign affairs committee about the attacks on benghazi as one of her advisors told the chairwoman of the panel. clinton is said to be feeling better after suffering concussion in a fainting spell. that's good news. seven minutes past the hour. president obama is now declaring a gun control or that gun control is a issue in his second term. he insists he'll use all the powers his presidency to push through meaningful reforms. >> the vast majority of responsible law abiding gun owners would be some of first to say we should be able to keep an irresponsible, law breaking few from buying a weapon of war. i'm willing to bet that they don't think that using a gun and using common sense are incompatible ideas. >> he also said that the dialogue, he'll have dialogue but he's not going to have a lot of dialogue. he's going to push things through very quickly. vice president biden is tapped to spear head to push new gun control laws through congress. >> he wants them back next month. south korea elected its first female president. park is the daughter of a military dig dater. park is promising greater engagement with north korea. >> it is show time for u.p.s. today's peak shipping day will be the busiest in its history. the men and women in brown will deliver 28 million packages in the united states. that's about 300 parcells every second, folks. tomorrow is the deadline. >> it feels like they're shipping a lot of coal to washington right now with this fiscal cliff thing. check your stockings there in washington for that. it is nine minutes after the hour. detectives investigating the newtown school shooting retracing the steps of the gunman's mother in the days before the attack. we'll tell what you they found. >> and the new trend among america's teenagers that you parents are going to want to hear about. ♪ [ male announcer ] how could a luminous protein in jellyfish, impact life expectancy in the u.s., real estate in hong kong, and the optics industry in germany? 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[ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? we are gathered here today to celebrate the union of tim and laura. it's amazing how appreciative ople are when you tell them they could save a lot of money on their car insurance by switching to geico...they may even make you their best man. may i have the rings please? ah, helzberg diamonds. nice choice, mate. ...and now in the presence of these guests we join this loving couple. oh dear... geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. try running four.ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase. get selsun blue for itchy dry scalp. strong itch-fighters target scalp itch while 5 moisturizers leave hair healthy. selsun blue. got a clue? get the blue. we have new details leading up to thetown massacre. the mother was in new hampshire taking a vacation the days before. she felt comfortable enough to leave her son adam lanza alone to for three days. the morning after her return, she was dead. take a look at this photo. all but one of the students in this first grade class picture, they were killed. all but one. another reminder of the enormity of this tragedy. and there is no end to the outpouring of emotions. some 3,000 people gathering in western connecticut university to mourn and honor all of the victims. san drashgs more victims being laid to rest today. >> reporter: that's right, john. five more funerals today for the victims of the newtown shooting. three children and two adults. 6-year-old allison wyatt, 6-year-old benjamin wheeler, 6-year-old catherine hubbard and teachers lauren rousso and ann marie murphy will be laid to rest today. being here for several days now, john, we have seen processions and funeral arrangements and these rituals have become a way of life here in newtown. and very sad. you can see the private pain becoming very public shared grief for this community and being felt around the country, actually, as more and more people come to newtown to pay their respects. you mentioned a big tribute last night. 3,000 people gathered in a neighboring town to memorialize the victims of this tragedy. they came together, trying to be uplifting, to offer comfort and support for the residents here in newtown. again, the funeral pro sections coming through town has unfortunately become a way of life here and will continue for days to come. john? >> and tomorrow, sandra, of course, is the one week anniversary of the shooting. what's being planned for that? >> reporter: obviously, it's going to be a very sad day for residents here as they remember the exact time, 9. 30678 9:30 is when the gun shots rang out. to commemorate that moment in time, we understand that church bells across this area will ring 26 times, 20 times for the children who were killed and six times for the teachers and the staff and the faculty members who died in that tragedy. so, again, a very important moment for this town as they reflect on what happened here a week ago. >> that's right. another day of reflection, another somber moment for newtown, connecticut. san drashgs thanks very much. later i have a story, three of the little girls that were killed attended this dance studio. and these teenagers actually taught them dance classes and summer classes. so they wanted to remember the girls in a positive light. and so they share all these amazing stories. we're going to bring that to you shortly here. it is 15 minutes past the hour. let's get you up to date. christine romans has the top stories. the top story, weather. the season as first major winter storm dumping a foost snow. up to a foot of snow in the great planes. a live picture to you from our affiliate wisn in milwaukee. also a stretch of interstate 70 had to be shut down in both directions from colorado to kansas. a blizzard warning is in effect in half a dozen states. in a rare move, president obama phoned the secretary of army to personally express concern about reports of abuse at the daycare center at ft. mier in virginia. this week two workers at that facility were charged with assaulting a child. and a review of all the workers there found several with questionable backgrounds including records of sexual abuse of a minor, sexual assault, and assault. an annual survey of drug abuse among teenagers finds that marijuana use leveled off after rising stead fli that age-group for four years in a row. for example, the study called monitoring the future finds of 6.5% of 12th graders say they smoke marijuana daily. that is down slightly from last year. remember this picture of the monkey in the jacket in an ikea earlier this month? the woman who owns the animal will be in court today trying to get darwin back. the owner claims toronto animal services seized him illegally after he got out of her car. he's been living in an animal sanction wary since then. >> i wonder if he kept the coat? >> a horse in palm beach, florida, jumped a fence, took a dip in a swimming pool. veterinarians gave the 30-year-old horse a sedative. firefighters attached a harn toes andy and used a tow truck to lift him out of the pool. when it's all over, andy didn't have a scratch on him. had a nice refreshing dip in the pool. >> i'm sure he enjoyed every moment of it. >> all right. 17 minutes after the hour. time for your early reads. the local newsmaking national headlines this morning. we're going to start with the tampa bay times. guns were pulled off the shelves of a lone star pawnshop after the sandy hook school shooting. the owner says he'll lose half of his business but he's doing this for his daughters. >> my daughter at this point associates firearms with evil people because of what she sees on tv and what she sees at school. my conscience overrides the need to make the money. he also said he couldn't bear think about selling the gun that might end up being used in another massacre. thousands of miles away, but hitting a little too close to home, the sacramento bet talks about a marine who called himself to duty. called himself to duty to guard an elementary school in modesto. he was responding to a facebook post urging soldiers to be posted at every school, of course, in the wake of last week's tragic shooting. another retired marine dug his fatigues out of the attic and answered the call in tennessee. he wasn't getting paid and he was not armed. several parents came up thanking him for his service. and for stepping up to make the children feel safe. >> it is a statement though, that has come to this. >> yeah. i know. i know. i'm grateful that they're doing. that for an expanded look at our top stories, head to our blog. can you also follow us on twitter and on facebook. just search for early start/cnn. >> as our leaders in washington bicker at the edge of the fiscal cliff, your tax returns hang in the balance. find out what happens to them if there is no deal. we'll tell you about it coming up. it ain't pretty. make a wish! i wish we could lie here forever. i wish this test drive was over, so we could head back to the dealership. 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[ male announcer ] yes, you could business pro. yes, you could. go national. go like a pro. ♪ ooh baby, can i do for you today? ♪ [ female announcer ] need help keeping your digestive balance? align can help. only align has bifantis, a patented probiotic that naturally helps maintain your digestive balance. try align to help retain a balanced digestive system. try the #1 gastroenterologist recommended probiotic. align. good morning, new york. look at that great shot. come over after two strong days of gains, u.s. markets closed lower yesterday. stock futures are down this morning as fiscal cliff talks stall in washington. >> so here's the deal. you can see a delay in getting your tax refund next year unless congress moves on the fiscal cliff soon. this is going to hurt all of us. christine has details. >> we're already there. tax season starts in a couple weeks. you're going to start getting 1099s at the end of january and you have companies -- the government can't change in just one week or two weeks. if you're talking about having to make retro active tax changes, i mean it's really a mess. i want to talk about the amt in particular here. you know, the irs acting director warned congress about a real problem with not passing an amt patch. if the amt patch goes away, every year we patch this amt. amt was meant to make sure that rich people paid a minimum amount of tax now because of the way congress designed it in the infinite black wisdom. it gets middle class people every year. there is a patch to make sure you don't get slammed with amt. 30 million more people would pay the amt. 100 million tax refunds would be delayed. stephen miller sent a letter to the house and senate. tax writers saying this is going to be unexpectedly higher taxes for many taxpayers who simply aren't aware of their new tax liability. it will be a total and complete mess. 100 million tax refunds delayed, 30 million more people have to pay the amt. >> you've been looking into the business of guns all week. there is just fascinating stuff going on. >> a billion dollars in profit this year. one forecast, a billion dollars in profit this year for this industry. kint ov i can't overstate how big, powerful and profitable it is to make the guns you're looking at on your screen. the traditional bolt action rifles and guns you think as a big part of the industry, the fastest growing part of the market are the sport rifles. there is a coolness and hipness factor in owning the military style rifles. there is huge soaring demand for those. there are more gun shops in america than there are super markets and mcdonald's restaurants locations combined. think of the impact of this part of the -- you don't talk about it every day. it's a huge industry. it is prevalent. when we were putting the statistics together, i see mcdonald's everywhere. i don't see gun shops everywhere. but i'm not looking for it. i mean it's just a pervasive part of the american culture. we are the leader in guns. we own more guns than any other country in the world. and we lead the world in gun violence as well. gun stocks yesterday by the way bounced back. i told you they were three hard days for the gun makers. yesterday investors said these have been punished enough. now we see value again in these stocks. in part because sales are up. it's been a ten-yaer trend of rising sales. sails right n sales are up right now as people want to protect themselves and get ahead of what they think could be restrictions coming down the line. so big bounces back for the stocks. i told you yesterday the smith & wesson had a record second quarter for profit. when you look at gun sales over the past decade, as the economy moved side ways, gun sales have been up, up, up. it's been a really powerful industry. and a profitable, profitable industry. investors make make $1 billion this year. >> remember tim tebow? >> who? >> the jets seemed to have forgotten about last year's nfl sensation. we'll take a closer look coming up. i feel bad. nyquil what are you ? 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[ female announcer ] tylenol® cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion. nyquil® cold and flu doesn't. as part of a heart healthy diet. that's true. ...but you still have to go to the gym. ♪ the one and only, cheerios a winter blast just before get away day. snow falling from kansas to wisconsin with blizzard warnings in effect. >> tiny dancers taken way too soon. ballet instructors share memories of three talented young victims of the newtown tragedy. >> search for answers in the benghazi attack. twin hearings on capitol hill amid word of a shake-up at the state department. welcome back to "early start," everyone. i'm john berman. >> 30 minutes past the hour. we're going to talk about holiday travel plans for millions of you. >> screwed up. >> it could be on hold this morning thanks to a huge winter storm that is whipping throughout midwest. there is a blizzard warning in effect for half a dozen states. take a look at. that the storms stretching from colorado to wisconsin. some folks in chicago are on my facebook this morning saying it is awful there. the rocky mountain state will be battered. 156-mile stretch of i-70en with colorado and kansas sut down in both directions by heavy snow. that was yesterday. this system is packing wind gusts over 60 miles an hour. parts of iowa could see a foot of snow or more today. wow. it is so bad, in fact, that the governor of wisconsin has already declared a state of emergency in his state. meteorologist alexandra steel is live from the weather center. my goodness. what else is in store for today? >> let's talk about what we saw yesterday. we talked about denver and what happened in texas with that blinding dust storm. all right. this is what it looked like through colorado. colorado yesterday one of the hardest hit places on i-70. today, it's i-80 through iowa. literally iowa virtually shut down today. blizzard conditions really will prevail throughout much of the day. here's a look at what we have. hastings, nebraska, yesterday, eight inches of snow. today, this morning the snow is over. but 35 mile-per-hour wind gusts. blowing snow. temperature right now feeling like 5 degrees below zero. so behind the snow, incredibly blustery and cold. the story for today will be really phase two of this storm. we're going to watch the snow move in. snow gets heavier. accumulation totals get into the double digits. and the winds get even more powerful. you know, we talked about chicago, 7:00 tonight we're going to watch that rain in chicago change over to snow. and then the wins gear on up to get to 50 mile per hour gusts. sustained in the 20s and 30s. so an awful night tonight to travel in chicago. tomorrow morning, here's where we're seeing the rain. there is even a severe side to this. so tomorrow morning in new york, in washington, baltimore, all these airports tomorrow morning just slammed with very heavy rain. not snow, just rain. and then friday moves out the afternoon except for boston and northern new england. but still, behind it, cold and windy. no matter where you are in the midwest or northeast. so that's how we're going to see this thing move through today. but there is also a severe weather impact today. tornado watches now issued through noon. we're going to see that south of atlanta, charleston, probably atlanta could be into potentially very strong storms today. >> all right. alexandra steel live in atlanta, thank you. >> there is a lot going on in washington today. a hearing in the deadly benghazi consulate incident. this after a review of this indei incident. three more people are on administrative leave from the state department. this independent review examining september's attack blamed systemic failures in leadership and management deficiencies. the review found a lack of leadership left the u.s. consulate insecure and vulnerable. u.s. ambassador to libya and three other americans were killed in the attack on september 11th. our foreign affairs reporter has the latest on this. you know, yesterday it said no one, you know, breeched their duty. you had a sense some heads were going to roll inside the state department. >> that's right. it's a major shake-up, john. even though the panel found that these people didn't legally breech their duty, they found deficiencies and they identified in the report four individuals, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security eric boswell, his deputy charlene lamb if you remember was sicite in a lot of documents for denying security requests and another gentleman raymond maxwell at the policy shop which the panel showed didn't show a lack of ownership of the issues and another gentleman in the diplomatic security department. it's really, you know, i think there could be more heads to roll, if you will. >> so this is, in fact, a big broad shake-up. interesting you say that there could be more from this coming up. two state department officials are testifying on capitol hill today, correct? >> that's right. the deputy secretaries of state, as you know, secretary clinton still suffering from a concussion and won't testify. but very interesting who's going to be chairing the meeting. the current chairman of the senate foreign relations committee john kerry who is tapped to be the next secretary of state. so it's going to be a difficult balance while he has to be hard on these gentlemen, but also show a little support to the department which he did yesterday. let's take a listen. >> i think that the department has taken a huge step forward to address lessons learned from benghazi which are important to everybody. you know, there's 70,000 employees over there. there are 275 different posts. it's a dangerous world we're in. i think that this report is going to significantly advance the security interests of those personnel and of our country. >> a lot of questions still, john, about whether secretary clinton will testify. we understand her staff has told congressional committees she will be back in january and is prepared to give testimony herself. >> all right. thank you very much. 35 minutes past the hour. 12 days inform the fiscal cliff and negotiations are the a stalemate. there is growing ranker between president obama and john boehner. he ups the ante when he calls for plan b which extends the bush era tax cuts on incomes under $1 million. he promises to veto the bill if it ever reaches his desk and to complicate matters. it's no the clear he even has votes to pass plan bs there a way to untangle this mess? is that my first question for you? can you untangle the mess? >> personally, i don't think i can do it. what happened to the optimism from earlier this week? both gentlemen making comments yesterday and both seem to be playing a political game of chicken in a way. the president after making gun control comments, he talked about the fiscal cliff about two hours later the house speaker went in front of cameras for 56 seconds before walking off. here's a taste of what both men said. >> tomorrow the house will pass legislation to make permanent tax relief for nearly every american. 99.81% of the american people. then the president will have a decision to make. he can call on senate democrats to pass that bill or he can be responsible for the largest tax increase in history. >> at some point they have to take me out of it. take out their votes and think about what's best for the country. if they do that, if they're not worried about who's winning and who's losing, i think we can get this done. >> the big question, as you said, does house speaker john boehner have enough support from his own coalition from his own party to pass plan b today and will plan b derail the negotiations for the larger deals to try to avert the fiscal cliff. >> you know, you're not giving yourself enough credit. you could untangle this mess. you just don't have the power to do it. you have new polling data for us this morning on how americans feel about this? >> yeah, a brand new poll. we asked americans which party's policies are too extreme? take a look at these numbers. they're very interesting. more people say the republican party has too extreme views and opinions. 53%, only 37% say that about the democrats. a different story two years ago. one other number to look at in the fiscal cliff negotiations, approval ratings for both men. look at the approval rating for the president, 52%. the house speaker, his approval rating is lower at 34%. those numbers are interesting as both men try to negotiate to avert the fiscal cliff. >> thank you. it is 38 minutes after the hour now. coming up, gone but never forgotten in newtown, connecticut. the conversation with three of the young victims. instead of focusing on how they died, she's chosen to take inspiration from how they lived. , there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and... is concentrated, so you could use less gel. and with androgel 1.62%, you can save on your monthly prescription. [ male announcer ] dosing and application sites between these products differ. women and children should avoid contact with application sites. discontinue androgel and call your doctor if you see unexpected signs of early puberty in a child, or, signs in a woman which may include changes in body hair or a large increase in acne, possibly due to accidental exposure. men with breast cancer or who have or might have prostate cancer, and women who are, or may become pregnant or are breast feeding should not use androgel. serious side effects include worsening of an enlarged prostate, possible increased risk of prostate cancer, lower sperm count, swelling of ankles, feet, or body, enlarged or painful breasts, problems breathing during sleep, and blood clots in the legs. tell your doctor about your medical conditions and medications, especially insulin, corticosteroids, or medicines to decrease blood clotting. talk to your doctor today about androgel 1.62% so you can use less gel. log on now to androgeloffer.com and you could pay as little as ten dollars a month for androgel 1.62%. what are you waiting for? this is big news. what are you waiting for? why they have a raise your rate cd. tonight our guest, thomas sargent. nobel laureate in economics, and one of the most cited economists in the world. professor sargent, can you tell me what cd rates will be in two years? no. if he can't, no one can. that's why ally has a raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally. is the same frequent heartburn treatment as prilosec otc. now with a fancy coating that gives you a burst of wildberry flavor. now why make a flavored heartburn pill? because this is america. and we don't just make things you want, we make things you didn't even know you wanted. like a spoon fork. spray cheese. and jeans made out of sweatpants. so grab yourself some new prilosec otc wildberry. [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. welcome back. we continue to learn more about the young victims and their lives and extra curricular activities outside of their schools. three of the young girls, jessica ricos, charlotte bacon and olivia wrangle were students at dance et cetera. i had a chance to talk with their dance teacher and some of the teenage girls who helped give lessons to those little girls. >> memories from a dance troop of three little dancers. >> there's a pit in my stomach. >> when the dance teacher heard about the shooting, she ran to her studio to check the student roster. >> and then when i finally got to the office, i combed through to see who was 5. at that time they were saying it was a kindergarten class and would was 6. >> on saturday, her worst fears confirmed. charlotte bacon, olivia wrangle and ricos were all dead. where were you when you found out the names? >> i was here. >> you were here? >> i was here. >> so was i. >> we all were here. >> saturday. >> we kept classes and rehearsals going. >> to keep everything as normal as possible. >> how did you get through that? >> it was hard. the little girls were all with us and we were trying to stay strong for them and not show all the motions we were feeling. it was so hard. >> especially knowing that some of the children they were teach hg lived through the trauma of the day before. yet amazed by their resilience. >> we tried to keep details from the conversations with the little ones. but to keep it honest and let them know why we're sad. and then they would give us a hug. >> owe live why and charlotte were part of the dance school's musical theater program. olivia loved to sing "good morning baltimore" from "hair spray." >> i'm heard the expression of a smile from ear to ear. she had this beautiful smile and her cheeks, like, those cute baby cheeks. you just want to go grab them. >> charlotte just had such a big personality. you know, even when we were singing in theater class, she would be acting out what we were saying. she made up her own little dances every time we were singing our songs. and she would just so spunky and full of energy. >> jessica, they remember, as a focused and determined little ballet dancer. >> it was 9:15 in the morning. i didn't want to get up. i remember her walking in and her smile and hearing her laugh and just having her hugs around me just so tight. >> the girls know there will be more hard days ahead. >> it doesn't seem real yet. and i don't think it will until we have that musical theater class again and i realize they're not going to walk through that door anymore and we'll never get to hear them sing. >> the young dancers believe their art will help them get through this. >> we will. we will dance every dance we perform. we will sing every song that we sing and remember them and know that they're souls are here with us. and that they always will be. and, you know, in our darkest of time, there will be a light shining on our path. and our light will be jessica, charlotte and olivia. >> i have to tell you, originally we were just supposed to talk to jen. jen said the girls need a voice. they need to talk about these little girls. they need to share their memories because it's part of their healing process. and as difficult as that was, john, to sit down for the girls, the laughter that they were having remembering these little girls and keeping their memory alive the way that their parents would want to keep ate live and the way that they need to was really, you know, it was really something they needed. they all walked out in a better mood. >> it is very moving. just as a reminder, every aspect of life in this town going on in the weeks, days and months, there will be an absence. every new thing that happens, there is an absence everywhere they go. >> all the teenagers there don't live in the communities. they're in neighboring communities. yet, they're all tied in to somebody. they know somebody who died. so it really the extended family all over the place that is really reeling with pain. and i'm glad that we had an opportunity to share, you know, these little girls' lives because they really did have full lives, full of beautiful lives. >> nice to see. all right, we'll be right back. i can't stop eating 'em! what's...that... on your head? can curlers! tomato basil, potato with bacon... we've got a lot of empty cans. 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[ male announcer ] it's practically yours. but we still need your signature. volkswagen sign then drive is back. and it's never been easier to get a passat. that's the power of german engineering. get $0 down, $0 due at signing, $0 deposit, and $0 first month's payment on any new volkswagen. visit vwdealer.com today. thnch . this is a live picture of milwaukee. i hef 70 in colorado reopened in both directions last night much the storm expected to dump a foot of snow in some places from the rocky mountain state as far north as wisconsin. that is milwaukee. it's coming down. 36,000 people without power right now in des moines, by the way. 35-car pile yurp on tup on the d express way left one person dead. the chain reaction car crash start the when a tractor-trailer struck several cars and then caught on fire. the expressway was shut down for hours in both directions while police carried out their investigation. phoenix plans to add an important addition to the skyline. it's going to build an observation tower that will reach 420 feet into the sky, accessed by glass elevators. it will provide visitors with panoramic views of the city and surrounding mountains much the developer hopes the tower becomes a symbol of phoenix and destination for tourists. >> interesting design. >> i know. it really is. have you ever seen a sand storm in phoenix? it will be cool to see a sand storm from that tower. >> thank you so much, christine. all right. so you were waiting for the day that tim tebow would be a starting nfl quarterback. you're going to have to wait a little bit longer. the quarterback question for the struggling jets has been resolved. tim tebow is not the answer. >> tim can play, you know, quarterback through our traditional things. but to me, i was just -- i just kind of made a decision that in my gut i feel best thing for our football team is for greg to be our quarterback now. >> so the greg he's talking about is greg mcelroy who will start in place of the struggling mark sanchez. mcelroy leap-frogged tebow to go from the third string to starter leaving t-boy with the clipboard still. >> tim tebow is not happy about this. "the new york daily news" is reporting that he will ask to be traded when the season is over. there is so much to talk about here that is why we're so glad we're joined by our anchor from "sports illustrated".com. what's going on here? they traded for this guy. big splash. and they just don't want to put him on the field. >> it finally turned into the complete circus that we all thought that it was going to be at the beginning of the season. but you have to look at what the jets their future, they're putting greg mcelroy on the field. writing is on the wall at this point. tebow is not back in 2013. that's pretty much proven by this move. can you almost put it in stone that he'll not be back next year. they want to see if greg mcelroy can challenge for that starting quarterback job with mark sanchez and maybe another veteran quarterback that would bring in to have a true quarterback competition in the jets locker room. tebow out the door. >> there are a lot of people surprised he was ever even there. there is a high ranking nfl personnel evaluator who spoke on condition of anonymity. and he said tebow attempts to play quarterback despite poor footwork, throwing platforms, release timing and progression and he goes on and on. so not as surprising, right? >> it's surprising. he was number two on the depth chart all year long. and you try to put him in the nontraditional offensive packages, it just wasn't working. you could tell things were coming out from practice, tebow didn't look so good. the jets lost faith in him. if you're going to go with tim tebow like the denver broncos did last year, you have to completely l lly tailor make hi defense around him. you have to throw out your entire game plan and put in one specifically for tebow. we saw it work last year in denver. but they ended up getting rid of him. you need to have an offensive coordinator or team that is committed to running that offense or else it's not going to work. >> just one little comment from tim tebow. he said in response, some things are hard to understand. they're trying to do the best they k and i understand that. which is about as angry as you ever see tim tebow. >> right. those are fighting words. i mean whatever you think about tim tebow, whatever you think about his ability to be a quarterback, no one can deny he has been the epitome of class during this entire debacle. they put him on punt coverages. i mean this is a guy who is a first round draft pick, a starter last year, led six game winning drives and led the broncos to the playoffs last year. he was on punt coverages. he had to gain 20 pounds. he had to change the entire way he plays. he's been nothing but class. >> they got what they wanted. they're on the back page of the tabloid. >> that is true. >> maggie gray, thanks for being with us this morning. so we have a packed hour ahead on "early start" including sending children to school in body armor. sales of things like bullet proof backpacks are surging 500% after the tragedy. but parents and the company selling it are saying. >> and a giant winter storm is threatening travel plans across the country. whether you're planning to fly or hit the road or even if you had a sleigh it would be hard. how much snow can you expect? we're tracking the storm live. >> sanchez in jeopardy? not yet. plus, nasa's new threads. the space suit of the next generation that might make you say to infinity and beyond. >> love how you say. that. >> but first, we knew it all along. the truth behind this viral video of an eagle swooping down and snatching a baby. we'll tell you about it coming up. excuse me, sir i'm gonna have to ask you to power down your little word game. i think your friends will understand. oh no, it's actually my geico app...see? ...i just uh paid my bill. did you really? from the plane? yeah, i can manage my policy, get roadside assistance, pretty much access geico 24/7. sounds a little too good to be true sir. i'll believe that when pigs fly. ok, did she seriously just say that? geico. just click away with our free mobile app. try running four.ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase. welcome back, everyone. it is 58 minutes after the hour. or two minutes before the hour if you use that. john berman here. taking a look at the top cnn trends on the web this morning. >> i'm impressed you can think that fast. >> just like that i figured that out. >> it's one of the videos that looks too strange to be true. guess what? it is. take a look. it looks like an eagle swoopes out of the air, picks up a baby and then drops him. so turns out that's really a well done fake. it is orchestrated by students studying 3-d animation in montreal. they made the baby and the eagle. can you believe it? >> that is impressive stuff. >> brilliant, kids. brilliant. >> i wonder if that whole lord of the rings things was made up. >> coming up on "starting point," we'll talk to the three students behind the hoax that are now soaking up the viral fame. love. that. >> they deserve some. friendly neighborhood spiderman dropping by the oval office. this is a picture of president obama playing with a kid in a spiderman costume that is spreading all over the web. it is just phenomenal. we're seeing more and more of these things. the white house is trying to show the lighter side of the prs facebook and twitter accounts yesterday. you know, you can't mess with spider-man. your spider sense is tingling. >> you know you guys are all just grown-up kids. "early start" continues right now. good morning, everyone. john berman along with soar riae s sambolin. a tornado warning in mobile, alabama. let's go right to alexandria to tell us more about this. >> good morning, guys. this is all part of the same blizzard that we're seeing, of course, through iowa and wisconsin. on the southern side of this incredibly energetic system we have severe weather and the threat of it through the day. here's where that tornado warning is. this is the cell, this very strong thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado. the cell moving northeast at 45 miles per hour with its sights set on mobile. so this cell moving northeast 45 miles per hour, tornado warning for mobile county. actually in the whole southeast we do have a threat and a tornado watch posted through noon this afternoon. so again, in the southeast, this very voracious system. but on the northern tier of it we saw the video and have seen it throughout the day, yesterday what happened in colorado. the storm system now is moving east. here's where the really quadrant of concern is. iowa, you can see right i-80 through des moines, biggest cities impacted today, des moines, madison, green bay and then chicago late tonight. the swath where the heaviest snow will be, you can see it delineated in the purple between about 10 and 12 inches of snow. so this is really phase two of this storm. we saw the snow. today we'll see more snow. we saw the winds yesterday and last night. we'll see stronger winds today. so it's kind of even energizing further still. here's the radar picture, the northern tier, but of course where the snow is and the blizzard conditions. this is the swath of that. we do have blizzard warnings in six states meaning the snow is coming down but it's the invisibility and incredibly strong winds that make this a poirlous sca o perilous scenario today. there's that severe side from chicago all the way down to st. louis. again, green bay to des moines, that's where we'll see a foot of snow today coupled with incredible winds that we'll see throughout the day pick up in earnest through tonight in chicago. >> all that snow coming down is taking down power lines as well. there are 36,000 people without power in iowa this morning. thank you for that. we'll continue checking back in with you. >> and the weather system is causing a tornado warning in mobile, alabama. so guys, if you are down there, stay alert. other news, president obama and house speaker john boehner butting heads over the fiscal cliff negotiations. only 12 days to go now and it seems like a political stalemate has set in. the president has challenged republicans to, quote, take the deal and stop finding ways to say no to him. meantime the speaker intends to put his plan b up to a vote in the house today. this would extend the bush-era tax cuts on incomes up to $100 million. if it passes and senate democrats block it, which they will, boehner says the president will become responsible for the tax hikes when the nation goes over the fiscal cliff. that's what boehner is trying to suggest here. the president suggests otherwise. paul steinhauser is in washington this morning. whatever progress we had seemed to have stopped short. >> reporter: yeah, the optimism has gone away and both men are playing a political game of chicken. the president making his fiscal cliff comments after announcing some gun control efforts. john boehner coming in front of cameras two hours later. he spoke for 56 seconds before leaving. here's a taste of what both men said. >> the president's offer of $1.3 trillion in revenues and $850 billion in spending reductions fails to meet the test that the president promised the american people, a balanced approach. and i hope the president will get serious soon about providing and working with us on a balanced approach. >> you know, at some point there's got to be, i think, a recognition on the part of my republican friends that -- take the deal. you know, they will be able to claim that they have worked with me over the last two years to reduce the deficit more than any other deficit reduction package. >> reporter: the big question for today, of course, does john boehner have enough support from his own party to pass his plan b and will plan b basically side track negotiations for a larger settlement. john, as you know, if there's no agreement by the end of the year, that means basically tax cutin -- or tax increases for all americans. >> yesterday paul brown from georgia told me he was leaning against voting for it. he is a very conservative republican. however, the speaker may have some cover from grover norquist who says that republicans can go ahead and vote for it if they want. on the subject of public opinion, though, we have some brand spanking new poll numbers to talk about how americans feel about all this. >> reporter: we do. these numbers are interesting and they also indicate that americans seem to be backing the democrats more or at least feel more in favor of what the democrats are doing than republicans. take a look at this first number. which party should compromise more? americans feel the republicans should. also who would be more responsible if there's no deal. more people would blame the republicans in congress. only 38% blaming the president, about one in ten blaming both sides. >> again, if you're looking ahead to the big events today, it is this house vote on speaker boehner's plan b. thanks, paul. today the fallout from that damning report on benghazi. one state department official has resigned, three others on disciplinary administrative leave, this after an independent review examining september's attack cited systemic failures in leadership and management deficiencies. two state department officials are set to testify before house and senate committees at 8:00 a.m. eastern. we know next month secretary of state hillary clinton will testify before the house foreign affairs committee about the attacks in benghazi. that's what one of her advisers told the chairwoman of the panel. clinton is said to be feeling better after suffering a concussion and a fainting spell. less than a week after the newtown school shooting tragedy, president obama is declaring gun control a central issue of his second term. he's plans to bring sweeping new gun control proposals next month. he will use all the powers of his presidency to enact meaningful reforms with the vice president leading the charge. >> this is not some washington commission. this is a team that has a very specific task, to pull together real reforms right now. >> the team consists of officials from the justice department, homeland security, health and human services and the department of education. detectives investigating the newtown school shooting retracing the steps now of the gunman's mother in the days right before the attack. what they found coming up. plus gun violence and the tale of two different societies. one reporter shares her unique perspective. it will make you stop and think. that's just ahead. 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this is big news. new details coming to light about the days leading up to the newtown massacre. friends of nancy lanza, the shooter's mother, saying she was in new hampshire taking a vacation at a hotel. that's about a four-hour drive from newtown. they say she felt comfortable enough to leave him alone for three days. the morning after her return is when she was found dead. take a look at this photo. all but one of the students in this first grade class picture were killed. the little girl in the middle played dead. another reminder of the enormity of this tragedy. and there's no ebld to the outpouring of support. people gathering to mourn and honor the victims. sandra endo is following all of the developments for us. good morning to you, sandra. >> reporter: good morning, zoraida. five more funerals here today in newtown. three children and two teachers. 6-year-old allison wyatt, 6-year-old benjamin wheeler, 6-year-old catherine hubbard, lauren rousseau and lauren murphy will all be laid to rest here. last night we saw lines wrapped around churches in the freezing cold. people waiting in line to say their final goodbyes and that, unfortunately, has become the daily ritual here in newtown, zoraida. a lot of people still wondering why, searching for answers. we know from the connecticut state police, they say that the full and complete state police report won't be completed for months because they have to go through the pain staking task of interviewing all the victims. that means the survivors and the children that witnessed the shooting as well. that's certainly going to take some time. it's a very delicate situation, according to law enforcement officials heres are and so they want to make sure they go through the thorough task of interviewing everybody. so that will take several months to come, zoraida. >> sandra, tomorrow 9:30 a.m., one week since this tragedy happened. i would imagine that they have something planned to commemorate this. can you tell us about that? >> reporter: absolutely. 9:30 is when the gunshots rang out here in newtown at sandy hook elementary, and the governor here calling for a moment of silence. not just here in connecticut, but across the country in terms of support for the victims and the victims' families. he's also asking area churches to ring their bells 26 times for the victims. so certainly a very important and poignant time for residents here in newtown tomorrow at 9:30. >> sandra, i cannot tell you how grateful we are to have you out there. thank you for that. john? >> these are some statistics that a lot of people of talking about. in 2008 japan had just 11 gun-related murders. the u.s., 12,000. so should america look to other countri countries' gun policies now? we have someone with a unique perspective on this. cnn's own kyung lah. >> reporter: i moved back to the u.s. this summer. for the last five years, i was living in japan as cnn's tokyo correspondent. in that entire time, i never covered a shooting. there weren't any. this is my third mass shooting i've covered in just six months. >> kyung lah is on the scene for us at that apartment complex. she's got more on this part of the investigation. >> reporter: in this brief time, i've heard this question again and again by those victimized, most recently from a frustrated newtown resident. >> why are we so different from so many other industrialized countries that have so little gun violence and we are just -- what makes us so different? why is that? >> reporter: i don't have the answer, but i can compare japan and the u.s. in japan, there are almost no guns. the average person just can't get one. and i have to tell you, it's the safest place i've ever lived. here in the u.s., gun ownership is considered normal. 40% of americans own one. there are enough guns here to arm every single man, woman and child, about 300 million firearms. but these mass shootings, which are now a part of our american narrative, follow a familiar pattern. the shock, national outrage, memorials, funerals. then the conversation fades. the rest of the world wonders why. >> i've seen too many of these massacres. i've been here for 12 years and there is never anything more than a brief conversation. and i think people outside of america just can't understand that. >> reporter: but it's not all about guns. remember japan's tsunami. in the wake of the disaster, people lined up for food and water. there was never any violence, no rioting, no crime. it's about society. individual rights are second to the community's needs in japan. here in the united states, the constitution, including the second amendment, is considered sacrosanct. we saz americans prize freedom, the good and the bad. >> it's about freedom. freedom works both ways, you know. if americans would waive their freedom to buy any kind of guns any time, anywhere in any situation, then that would have given these kids at the elementary school the freedom to live. >> reporter: i met these three men who fought for freedom in iraq and afghanistan. these men of war were so disturbed by the newtown shootings that they came here on their day off to donate christmas trees at the town hall. they wonder what is this national security that they're fighting so hard for? >> to come home to what you think is safe and to experience the same thing here, it's troubling and it's -- it brings such sorrow to everyone, the whole army. >> reporter: none of us have the answer, but maybe the deaths of the shooter's mother, 20 innocent children and their brave teachers will this time keep a vital american conversation going. kyung lah, cnn, newtown, connecticut. tonight our guest, thomas sargent. nobel laureate in economics, and one of the most cited economists in the world. professor sargent, can you tell me what cd rates will be in two years? no. if he can't, no one can. that's why ally has a raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally. welcome back. right now the season's first major winter storm is dumping up to a foot of snow in the midwest and great plains. this blizzard has knocked out power to tens of thousands in iowa this morning. a blizzard warning is in effect in half a dozen states and 36,000 people are already without power waking up in the des moines area this morning. a wannabe terrorist who didn't have the cash or the bomb. a 20-year-old florida man in jail on terror charges this morning. federal prosecutors say he wanted to attack a landmark in new york to avenge deaths in afghanistan, but he didn't have the money or the materials to make it happen. he is a u.s. citizen who was born in pakistan. his brother was also arrested. there are stronger privacy protection this morning for children who go online. the federal trade commission updated privacy rules to make it harder for companies to collect personal data when children use websites, mobile phones, apps, smartphones or tablets. parents have greater control over their children's information. it's show time for u.p.s. the carrier says today's peak shipping day will be the busiest in its history. the men and women in brown will deliver 28 million packages in the u.s. that's about 300 every second. tomorrow is the deadline to make sure your gifts arrive by christmas eve. sometimes a horse just wants to take a little dip. of course getting him out of the pool is another story. firefighters in palm beach county, florida, had quite a challenge after a horse jumped a fence and wound up in the pool. after given a sedative, firefighters used a harness and tow truck to pull him out of the water. he is just fine. a second-grade teacher in rhode island said school officials didn't let him speak at a meeting so he spoke through youtube. >> i've had it. i quit. i would rather leave my secure $70,000 job with benefits and tutoring connecticut for free. >> that's stephen round. he said the providence school system is turning students into good test takers rather than good learners. >> i think the video explains it all. it was purely frustration. it just got to the point where i can't stand by and watch kids not learn. and i have the key to help them and the administration won't let me use it. >> providence school officials say they're sorry that he wasn't satisfied but they didn't comment on the specifics of that resignation. "early start" is back in 60 seconds. new york, new york. >> good morning. how are you this morning? >> the financial center of the universe. we are minding your business this morning. after two strong days of gains, u.s. markets closed lower yesterday and stock futures are flat again this morning as these fiscal cliff talks in washington seem to be going nowhere. >> aren't you tired of it? 100 million people could see a delay in getting their tax refunds unless congress moves on the fiscal cliff soon. christine has the details. >> the urgency is felt among small business owners, big business owners, payroll software companies, the irs, anybody who has to handle a paycheck or a tax return for next year. look, the tax season starts in just a few weeks and we don't know if there's going to be another amt patch, the alternative minimum tax. this will affect millions and millions of people. what is that amt? this was a tax designed to make sure that wealthier people paid a minimum amount of tax. because of the way congress designed it so poorly, every year it has to be patched to make sure middle class people don't have to pay a bunch of taxes. 30 million more people would pay the amt if the patch goes away and 100 million tax refunds could be delayed in this crazy tax scramble to figure out what to do after we either go over the cliff or we go over the cliff for a little bit and then the cliff gets fixed. so this is a very big deal. the irs acting director has sent a letter saying there could be lengthy delays of tax refunds and unexpectedly higher taxes for everyone. so that's still a very big problem. amt patch, the drama is just killing me. >> i'm shaking my head because i don't think these things are factoring into the negotiations. i simply don't think the politicians are weighing these considerations right now. >> i've been calling it congressional malpractice. i mean they write these laws that are crazy that we have to patch every year and now they can't fix the problem that -- don't get me started. >> since we know you know better, tell us the one thing we need to know about our money. >> home values are up. i'm going to leave you on a high note. home values are up more than 5% this year. the best year for home prices since 2006. the last time home values stood where they are right now, may, 2004. we're going to get existing home sales data at 10:00 a.m. eastern today. here's what you need to know about home prices. places like phoenix, san francisco, san jose, denver, very didn't year for home prices. double-digit price increases. phoenix is up 20% on home prices. philly, atlanta, new york, chicago, these places saw either flat or slightly lower home prices over the last year. >> i want to switch gears here in light of what happened in newtown. you've been working really hard on guns. >> i have. i've been looking into the industry. >> a lot of money. >> look, a billion dollar industry. like $3.5 billion in sales. a billion dollars in profit in this industry. fastest growing part of the industry are these tactical rifles. modern hunting rifles. the things like the ar-15 style weapon that was used to kill teachers and children in that school. just a little hint about how pervasive the industry is in our lives. there are more gun dealers in america than there are supermarkets and mcdonald's combined. we buy guns, we have guns, we have the highest number of guns, we have the most gun violence, and the cost of guns, the cdc has tried to figure out how much guns cost. the medical costs of treating fatal gun injuries and the economic damage cost to lives. cdc said 2005 was $37 billion. $37 billion. stocks of those gun makers i told you how they have been down for three days. they were all up yesterday. investors are saying, look, people wanting to buy guns, we're armed to the teeth in this country, there's huge demand for it and so investors yesterday were saying that that sell-off in the stocks is over done. >> it's one of those stories that's so difficult to come up with a really good conclusion here. kyung lah had this really great piece on the heels of that. >> an analyst who -- a wall street analyst who covers the gun industry told us there is a hipness and coolness factor to these big magazines and to these what i would call a military-style big semiautomatic rifle. there's a big demand for that kind of gun. regular americans want to own those guns because it's cool. >> christine romans, thanks very much. another big story that we're following at this moment is the weather. i can tell you this, we were telling you about tornado warnings in mobile, alabama. those have expired or are expiring at this point. but we're looking at right now pictures from milwaukee, wisconsin, where there is snow on the ground and people covering snow on the ground, as you can see. it's going to get much, much worse there today. we'll tell you how much worse and where else is going to be affected coming up next. this 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[ male announcer ] with free package pickup from the u.s. postal service the holidays are easy. visit usps.com. pay, print, and have it picked up for free before december 20h for delivery in time for the holidays. you can even give us special instructions on where to find it. free package pickup. from the u.s. postal service. because it's nice to have an extra pair of hands around for the holidays. a winter blast just before getaway day, folks. snow falling from kansas to wisconsin with blizzard warnings in effect. >> it is getting ugly out there. meanwhile, the search for answers on the benghazi attack. twin hearings today on capitol hill amid word of a shake-up at the state department. plus, has it come to this? bulletproof back packs and body armor for little kids. so really it's an interesting story. we'll share that with you. welcome back to "early start." >> it is nice to see you this morning. it's 31 minutes after the hour. it's nice to see you unless you're stuck somewhere watching because you're snowed in. >> at an airport. >> holiday travel plans for millions of americans could be on hold this morning thanks to this huge winter storm that's whipping through the midwest. the blizzard-like conditions have already knocked out power to tens of thousands of people in iowa this morning. there's a blizzard warning in effect for half a dozen states and the storm is stretching from colorado all the way up to wisconsin. the rocky mountain state, colorado, already been battered. 156-mile stretch of i-70 shut down in both directions by the heavy snow yesterday. this storm is packing a lot of wind too. wind gusts 60 miles an hour and higher in some places. parts of iowa, the whole state being hammered, could see a foot or more of snow today. the governor of wisconsin is already declaring a state of emergency there in advance of the storm's arrival. so if you're looking to get out of town before the big holiday rush, good luck. meteorologist alexandria steele is live from the weather center in atlanta. what is in store for us today? >> there's so much. this is so incredibly powerful on so many fronts, john. not only the blizzards that we're going to see and have seen through iowa today and also into wisconsin. it's really des moines, green bay, chicago tonight. around 7:00 we'll see this rain change over to snow. but the snow won't be the worst part, it's the 50-mile-per-hour winds. so incredibly tough travel. but also there's a severe side to this. so here's the warm side. along this warm side some incredibly powerful storms as well. already this morning we have had a tornado warning for mobile. you can see this whole thing in the red box is the tornado watch box. it's mississippi, alabama and portions of louisiana. just very strong powerful lines of storms. we had a tornado warning for mobile but right now if you're driving on i-65 toward atmore this is that incredible storm that had that tornado potentially embedded in it. so blizzard conditions, near a foot of snow with it. here's the quadrant of it, des moines through green bay. that's where the heaviest snow and blizzard conditions will be today. we'll talk about when it moves out coming up in just a bit. happening today, the women gau -- benghazi consulate incident hits capitol hill. so far there has been one resignation and now three more are on administrative leave at this state department as well. the independent review examining september's attack blamed systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies as well. a lack of leadership left the u.s. consulate insecure and vulnerable. the u.s. ambassador to libya, christopher stevens, and three other americans were killed in that september 11th attack, as you very well know. elise labott has the very latest for us. this is a major shake-up, elise. >> reporter: it is, zoraida, although the report found none of the officials were legally in breach of their duty but it found a lack of leadership and recommended that these people have some disciplinary action. that's why the assistant secretary, the top security official at the state department for diplomatic security, eric boswell, resigned. so did his administrative leave, his deputy, charlene lamb who testified before congress and was cited in a lot of documents, denying repeated security requests. so she and some other officials placed on administrative leave. but my understanding is they won't be back at work. >> elise, there are two state department officials that are testifying today. what are we expecting there? >> reporter: well, as you know, it won't be secretary clinton. she was originally scheduled to testify, but she's still suffering from a concussion, so her deputies, bill burns and tom nyes will be testifying before the senate foreign reegsz committee and later this afternoon before the house international affairs committee. very interesting who will be chairing that hearing this morning, john kerry the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee, tapped to be the next secretary of state booenwe understand. so he's trying to walk a fine line of being tough on these gentlemen and also showing some support for the department. take a listen about what he said yesterday about why it's so important to make sure the state department gets the resources it needs. >> the report specifically calls on resources. there's a need to put about $2.5 billion a year over a number of years into efforts to strengthen our security status in various critical places. >> reporter: so if it is john kerry, as we expect, he could be back before congress in a few weeks to ask for some of those resources during his confirmation hearing. >> yeah, he is walking that fine line. elise labott, live for us, thank you very much. the other big story in washington, of course, the stalemate over the fiscal cliff negotiations with only 12 days left to go. there is growing rancor between president obama and house speaker john boehner. rancor is such a good word. there is lots of it there today an it's getting worse. the speaker expected to call for a vote in the house on his plan b which extends the bush era tax cuts on incomes under $1 million. the president has criticized that bill and said he'd never sign it. it's not even clear that the speaker has enough republican votes to pass this plan b. i want to turn to paul steinhauser in washington for the latest on this. good morning, paul. this doesn't seem to be going many places this morning. >> reporter: it sure doesn't. what happened to the optimism from earlier this week? we heard a lot of rancor from both the president and from mr. boehner yesterday. the president making his fiscal cliff comments after announcing some new efforts on gun control. about two hours later, the house speaker went in front of cameras and talked to just 56 seconds. here's what both men said. >> the president's offer of $1.3 trillion in revenues and $850 billion in spending reductions fails to meet the test that the president promised the american people, a balanced approach. and i hope the president will get serious soon about providing and working with us on a balanced approach. >> at some point there's got to be, i think, a recognition on the part of my republican friends that -- you know, take the deal. they will be able to claim that they have worked with me over the last two years to reduce the deficit more than any other deficit reduction package. >> reporter: the big question, john, as you said, does the house speaker have enough support from his own party to pass that plan b. he did get some support yesterday from grover norquist who backed the plan, gave it his blessing. will this plan b vote side track the bigger negotiations to avert the fiscal cliff. john? >> the speaker furiously trying to secure the votes he needs. you also have news about public opinion on this new polling data. >> reporter: a national poll just out about 90 minutes ago. we asked which party's views may be too extreme, its opinions too extreme. you can see more americans say republicans rather than democrats. that was a very different story two years ago. finally one more number. the approval rating, president obama, 52%, john boehner, just 34% of americans say he's doing a good job as house speaker. >> paul steinhauser in washington where there is a lot of rancor. thanks very much, paul. it is 38 minutes past the hour. new details coming to light about the days leading up to the newtown massacre. friends of nancy lanza, the shooter's mother, saying she was in new hampshire taking a short getaway at a hotel. that's about four hours away from newtown. they say she felt comfortable enough to leave him alone four days. the morning after she returned, she was found dead. would you send your child to school in body armor? sales of things like bulletproof backpacks surging. 500% after the tragedy in connecticut. coming up, what some parents and the company selling it are saying. ta! santa! ho, ho, ho santa! want to see some magic? watch this! merry chr... 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[ female announcer ] tylenol® cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion. nyquil® cold and flu doesn't. welcome back. 42 minutes past the hour. in the days following the shooting at sandy hook elementary in newtown, there's been a surge, a demand for little known products that can literally bulletproof your children. >> from backpack inserts to bullet resistant toddler pants, parents are going to extremes to keep their kids from becoming statistics. >> reporter: it is a disturbing sign of the times. >> you guys make inserts for children's backpacks. >> that's correct. >> reporter: bullet resistant inserts. >> that's correct. >> this is one of them? >> yes. >> show us how they work. >> this is our military grade product. >> reporter: coo rich brand says in the last week sales have jumped 500% and are still climbing. desperate parents seeking ways to protect their kids in the most extreme situations. the material will not stop high velocity rounds like the ones used in newtown, but three shots with a 9 millimeter at point blank range -- >> all of the kinetic energy and penetration was actually absorbed with our armor. >> three small holes. the armor is a little stiffer. and the rounds are inside here? >> that's correct. >> reporter: and amend two is not alone. in boston bullet blocker, in austin, texas, bulletproofme.com says sales are up 50%. even the colombian designer has a request for bullet resistant gaurmentes for a toddler. >> people do say that you're profiting off of terror and horror. >> and that's the last thing that we wanted to do. i mean this was something that we put out there at the request of parents trying to meet the needs. >> reporter: amendment two says it's proprietary material lends itself to a product some teachers have asked for, a protective blanket. >> because of the lightweight nature of the material the company uses, they say it can be used as a mat in a school and in an emergency for protection. >> reporter: at salt lake city's get some, guns and ammo owners say protective gear won't stop a killer. only another gun will. >> i think if you knew every teacher had a gun, you'd think a little differently about your plan. >> reporter: utah has allowed teachers to carry concealed weapons. the law is yet to be tested. but after newtown, anything seems possible. >> our thanks to miguel. this is innovation and ingenuity you never want to think about. >> now you wonder do you, don't you, what's the answer. it is 45 minutes past the hour. let's get you up to date on the other top stories. blizzard warnings in six states this morning. the season's first significant winter storm slamming the midwest and the great plains right before the holiday. word this hour that the storm has already knocked out power to 36,000 customers. that's in iowa. and they are getting the brunt of it right now. the storm is expected to dump up to a foot of snow in some places as far north as wisconsin. benghazi report fallout. one state department official resigns, three others on disciplinary administrative leave this morning after that independent review examining september's attack cited systemic failures in leadership and management deficiencies. tuesday officials are expected to testify before house and senate committees later this morning. president obama found the secretary of the army to personally express his concern about reports of abuse at the day care center at ft. mier in virginia. this week two workers at the facility were charged with assaulting a child. a review of all the workers found several with questionable backgrounds, including records of sexual abuse of a minor, sexual assault and assault. about three hours from now, the casket carrying the late senator daniel inouye will lie in the house capitol rotunda so the public can pay their respects. he was a world war ii hero, witness to pearl harbor and second longest serving senator in history. he represented hawaii from the time it became a state. his fun yeral is tomorrow. in south korea, the country's first female president has been elected to office. she is the 60-year-old daughter of a former military dictator who led back in the 1970s. she is promising greater engagement in north korea. let me give this a try. to infinity and beyond. take a look at the new threads at nasa. these are well. these streamlined white and green z-1 space suits could soon replace the bulkier one astronauts wear now. they could enhance astronaut capability and mobility during space walks. also nice green flare there. >> well, kids buzz lightyear is coming to life. i'm loving this. it's my favorite. it isn't rocket science, it's good ole country know-how. how to use moon shine to launch a rocket. coming up, the star of tv's rocket city red necks is going to join us live. ld truth. i have a cold, and i took nyquil, but i'm still "stubbed" up. 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[ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus. ♪ oh what a relief it is! ♪ [ male announcer ] to learn more about the cold truth and save $1 visit alka-seltzer on facebook. we want you to meet a really interesting man. he is a former nasa scientist who's worked for the government for the past 25 years. >> now he's the star of the hit show "rocket city rednecks" where he and his team solve engineering problems using good ole engineering ingenuity. they're helping build a steam catapult to launch a car forward just like an aircraft carrier catapult. take a look. >> this thing hopefully if it works right, it's going to give you a little bit of a jolt. jay and i got in the car, we buckled up, default our helmets on, we're ready to go. here we are in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. do you hear the guys in the background? yeah, yeah, we're loving that. so the show's second season premieres tonight on the national geographic channel. dr. travis taylor joins us now. welcome. very nice to have you. >> good morning. >> this jay leno moment, were you a little worried that was going to back fire on you? >> well, we didn't want to kill the nation's talk show funny man. then my dad took me aside and said, on, you better not kill jay leno. but i asked jay, i said, jay, we're going to get kind of a jolt from this. do you think you can handle it? do you have any health issues i need to know about? he said, well, i pulled 7.3 gs with the blue angels. >> so you worked with the department of defense and nasa for 25 years, had above top secret clearance. you hold five degrees. optical science, engineering, physics, aerospace engineers, astronomy and electrical engineering and are currently completing a second ph.d. in engineering. >> i completed that. >> you're a showoff, let me say that. you're a showoff. >> why this show with all of these degrees? >> well, that's a really good question. i was talking to my family about doing this show, the idea was we want to get the next generation interested in science and math again. we want to get the kids back into it seeing that it's cool. so we can have that next generation of people like neil armstrong. >> the term "redneck" means a lot of different things to a lot of different people and they're not always nice. but you embrace it. >> absolutely. we've looked up several different origins, but the true one is the southern farmers, share croppers, they had everything they had on their farm. if something went wrong, they had to fix it with the things they had so they were hard-working family centric folks. >> so one of the things that you've used is to create a moon shine powered rocket. let's look at this. >> we're pouring moon shine into the rocket's fuel tank. and then very carefully we insert that fuel tank into the rocket, which, by the way, is loaded with explosives. it's going, it's going, it's going. >> my first reaction is this is a waste of some good moon shine, but second, how do you come up with these ideas? >> the first american in space went into space on moon shine. i bet you didn't know that, did you? it was about 80% moon shine and 20% water. >> you're being serious? >> i'm being serious. >> you have this deadpan delivery. >> explain what you mean there. >> well, alcohol is a really good rocket fuel when you mix it with liquid oxygen or nitrous oxide and makes a very good rocket motor. so that's what they used for the first rocket that put alan shepherd in space. >> i've got to tell you i'm a believer. i sat and watched this with my 14-year-old and we just kept on watching and watching and watching and he was learning in the process. so congratulations, i think this is remarkable. have you ever had any close calls? >> well, we did build a submarine out of a fertilizer tank -- >> what could possibly go wrong? >> well, my dad wasn't real happy when me and my nephew got in there and we went underwater. we hit about 16 feet and that turns out to be the crush depth of some of the pieces we were using. so we sunk the thing like twice in 30 seconds. it was a little scary but we were fine. we got out. >> dr. travis taylor, you have to come back and teach us science because that would be the most fun science class in the history ever. >> absolutely. pleasure to do it. >> thank you very much. coming up, we knew it all along. the truth behind this viral video. an eagle swooping down and snatching a baby. later on "starting point" what is the deal with tim tebow? why the nfl's most celebrated backup can't get in the game, even with the starter riding the bench. five days later, i had a massive heart attack. bayer aspirin was the first thing the emts gave me. now, i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. [ woman ] learn from my story. before you begin an aspirin regimen. with two times the points on dining in restaurants,? you may find yourself asking why not, a lot. chase sapphire preferred. there's more to enjoy. [ tylenol bottle ] me too! and nasal co [ tissue box ] he said nasal congestion. yeah...i heard him. [ female announcer ] tylenol® cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion. nyquil® cold and flu doesn't. with odor free aspercreme. powerful medicine relieves pain fast, with no odor. so all you notice is relief. aspercreme. welcome back. 57 minutes past the hour. looking at the top cnn trends. >> it looks almost too strange to be true. guess what, it is. it looks like an eagle swoops out of the air, picks up a baby and then drops him. so it turns out that's a really well done fake. it is orchestrated by students studying 3-d animation design in montreal. they made the baby and they made the eagle. i love that. >> such good technology. >> you're going to meet them. coming up on "starting point" we'll talk to the three students behind the hoax who are soaking up all the viral fame. >> this is going viral too. friendly neighborhood spider-man dropping by the oval office. this picture of president obama playing with a kid in a spider-man costume is spreading all over the web. it was posted on the president's facebook and twitter accounts. one of the writers was joking that spider-man was mad because he makes over $250,000 a year. he's worried about his taxes going up. >> that is so sweet. that is it for "early start." thanks for being with us today. >> "starting point with soledad o'brien" starts right now. good morning, welcome, everybody. our starting pointing this morning, a winter thrashing. a giant winter storm is threatening holiday getaway plans nationwide. a foot of snow up north and we're watching for a possible

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