now, but a million people are on the way to fill it up for america's biggest celebration. and 2012 arriving hour by hour around the world. live pictures here. happy new year. hon congress. just three days until the iowa caucuses. cnn's political editor paul steinhauser is in the thick of it live in des moines, iowa. whirlwind day ahead, i'm sure, for you, right? >> no doubt about it, nonstop on the campaign trail. this is the end of december in iowa and it should be cold. let's start with newt gingerich. he was reaching out to voters stai restaurant and bus stop. we've seen newt gingerich's numbers kind of collapse here. he was the front-runner, but that's not the case any more. he's telling voters, don't count me out. >> i would ask you to go tuesday night, take all your friends and help us win. i do think this is wide open, no matter what the news media does to try to create some stampede. newt beginning rip's numbers have been going down and rick santorum's numbers have been going up. he's out with a new television commercial and in it, he explains why he thinks he is the best candidate to take on president barack obama in the 2012 election. another candidate on the trail today, texas governor rick perry. we thought he was the front-runner when he jumped into the race back in august. but after slip-ups in the debate, he's seen his numbers drop. he will be across the state today trying to make those final pitches. michele bachmann is going on be campaigning today, the congresswoman from neighboring minnesota. e.d. >> you mentioned a lot of people. two candidates apparently have not made appearances so far in iowa today. who is that? >> yeah. you know what? they're actually the front-runners in iowa according to the latest polls. starting with mitt romney, where was he this morning in last nigh? new hampshire. new hampshire goes second in the primary caucus calendar. he was in hampton this morning reaching out to voters. he's coming back here later today to see the caucuses. while he was gone, he had two high profile surrogates stumping for him here in iowa. his wife and a guy called chris christie. with the other person who is not here and is not here at all this weekend is ron paul, congressman from texas. he's back home. he's going to spend the holiday weekend with his wife. but he did spend a couple days here earlier this week. he hits the ground again on monday. he'll pain with his son, rand paul, from kentucky. >> thank you, paul. the iowa caucuses are the first today from the presidential candidates. and it will be determined in places like the fire station, the courthouse basement in tipton, iowa, tens of thousands of people voting in places just like that to cast their caucus votes. here is how it works. thousands of registered republicans gather in the caucus centers. it is about less than 5% of the population of iowa that shows us for those. at 7:00 p.m. local time, the speeches begin. the candidates can speak or they can have representatives do the talking for them. a lot of the larger ones, though the candidates show up themselves for those. then, the folks who have attended these caucuses get to put the name of the candidate they want on a piece of paper. then somebody counts the pieces of paper. they count the republican office in iowa. that's it. celebrations for the winners and the losers look ahead. go east, young man, go east to new hampshire. and woman. coming up, we've got the candidates uninterrupted, not just the sound bites. here you will hear candy crowley live in iowa for the contenders 2012. that starts at 2:00 p.m. eastern. and it is expected to be pretty mild, much of 2011 just as paul was saying, even iowa is warm. but what about the start of 2012? >> it's funny how you die that into politics. i think it was mike huckabee who said the other day how important weather is going to be for iowa and how important weather is going to be as we ring in the new year. weather will be mild in the northeast, especially in new york, times square we anticipate mild conditions. 34 degrees, skies mostly clear as the ball drops in times square. it will be great there. i'll tell you, around much of the nation, it's going to be great. travel delays will be something that makes you want to rip your hair out. especially in places like san francisco, san diego. that volume is going to give way, but you still may have some backups. in denver, the wind may keep you grounded for a little while. in minneapolis, although we're expecting to be under an hour in the afternoon when the rain and the wind begin to pick up, you might see them increase a bit. the big weathermaker we have is the big one across the northern plains and moving into the upper midwest. you can see a telltale sign over parts of minnesota. for much of the central plains, the story we're going to have is the rainfall. wisconsin, there's the belt, upper peninsula of michigan, he could see 6 to 8 inches of snowfall. in terms of wind, there's a lot of that. area of low pressure moving towards the great lakes is going to give you a tight pressure gradient. the result will be wind gusts approaching 60 to 70 miles per hour. beautiful in texas. texas, oh, how i love you, mix of sunshine and clouds through the desert southwest. as you look towards the pacific northwest, expect rain on the coast and look for the scattered showers in parts of new england. as we wrap things up, eastern seaboard, highs in the 40s, 50s, six, even 70s and 80s. 81 in miami. 61 in kansas city. 45 in portland. san francisco with 65 with a little touch of that fog. >> you mentioned the snow up in minnesota. i recall a new year's in duluth snowmobiling home from the hall after the new year's eve. >> there are so many ways you could go with that story. >> after playing bingo. you don't understand it until you live through a duluth or international falls winter. that's cold. compared to that, it's balmy in times square. at the strike of midnight, the square will be a sea of confetecon f confete confetti. >> if you look behind me, you'll get a chance to see. police have erected some of the first pens, one of 65 pens that will stretch along this road here. once you're in, you can't leave. no going for bathroom breaks, no coffee runs, nothing. you are locked in. you can't have any alcohol, no backpacks. authorities are being strict because this is -- of course, new york city is always a terrorist threat, but is also a big party. about a ton of confetti are set to be -- one set the ball drops anderson cooper and kathy griffin will be ringing in the new year. we spoke to the organizer of the world's biggest party to find out exactly what goes into this whole process. >> what you see behind me is this is like organizing a super bowl show except you have half a million people every day every day. the crowd is already here. the crowd is in your way. it's great, but it makes it a lot more complicated. >> now, of course, new york city, like i said, is a terrorist threat. police have come out in force. we have plain closed police officers, helicopters flying overhead with infrared cameras. manhole covers have been removed. you have a ship protecting some of the cruise ships that will be going along the hudson and seeing those fireworks taking place so a heavy security presence, as always. >> as they have mentioned, anderson cooper and kathy griffin live in "new york times" square tonight. the best party is going to be at your house in front of the tv with anderson, kathy and the rest of the folks who are celebrating in times square. starts at 11:00 eastern tonight. do you want to make 2011 go out with a bang and get a tax break? easy ways to remove your burden when the filing status rolls around. in the new year comes new laws, thousands of them. like 40,000 new laws. some controversial issues like abortion and gay issues. josh levs runs down some of the ones that caught his eye. is in the usa today gallop poll released its annual list of the most admired men. newt gingerich dropped in the polls to sixth place, a tie with donald trump. number five, warren buffett. number four, 93-year-old evangelist billy graham. graham has been on the list since the poll started in 1946. and we'll tell you the top two most admired men after ta break. y daughter's like, "mom, wait up!" and i'm thinking, "shouldn't you have more energy than me? you're, like, eight!" 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[ powers down ] uh-oh, flobot is broken. the "name your price" tool, only from progressive. call or click today. welcome back. we told you about some of the admired men this year right before the break. but here is number two and one. number two, former president george w. bush. he lost the top spot in 2008 when president obama took office. and president obama is the most admired man in 2011 for the fourth year in a row. if you want to take advantage of a tax break this year, time is running out. earlier, i got the chance to speak to personal finance coach collide anderson. he complained why making a donation now may mean you owe less later. >> what a lot of people don't know is that if you're in the 25% bracket as far as tax income, every dollar that you get is about 25 cents off your taxes you're able to deduct. so it helps you. it helps minimize that. >> let me ask you something i saw in my notes and it interested me. give employees a bonus. small business. because that's payment forward. how does giving a bonus to an employee help you? >> as a small business owner, i can give you a bonus and today will be a great day for someone to get a bonus because now you're reducing your income. so this is less income that you have to claim as a business owner. so if i call you today and say, hey, here's a 1,000 bonus, that's less income i made in 2011. >> what about the energy efficiency? what about the energy efficient appliances and things like that. >> this is the last year. this is the time to do it. you can do 10% of what you're purchasing up to $500. whether that's a new hvac system, heating and cooling, go out and get it now. go out and make that purchase. this is the last year that you can use to reduce your tax. >> so you get the bonus first. then you go out and you go buy is energy efficient tv. >> and it's a great time. you can buy equipment. if i'm a business owner, i can go buy computers, supplies, and those things help me. if i go today and make those purchases, save your receipts and make sure that you can go ahead and reduce that tax position. you're reducing the income that you took in and less taxes. >> do most people go out and make these donations or buy these things on, you know, the last day of the year? >> a lot of people do. a lot of people make those donations, swing by the good will, they go by organizations and as you mentioned, this is a great time because a lot of that's organizations have in need. giving has been done. it will slowly come back up, but a lot of people are out there making purchases, giving, looking at church times before sunday. >> some good ideas. save some money last minute here. there are thousands of new laws in the new year. josh joins us right now with those. new laws going into effect with lots of suv. >> all over the country, nearly 40,000 lost. we're going to be telling you about that coming up. and required teaching about gay americans. i will break those down for you next. [ woman ] ♪ what i want this season ♪ if you'd like to try and guess ♪ ♪ it is something very special ♪ i would readily confess [ dogs barking ] ♪ 'cause all i want this season ♪ ♪ is something from your heart ♪ la da da, la da da [ male announcer ] thinking of others this holiday season, travelers. [ding] announcer: clean kitchen surfaces, utensils, and hands with soapy water. one in 6 americans will get sick from food poisoning this year. keep your family safer. check your steps at foodsafety.gov. we're going ready to ring in the new year. ralt of us have these lists. i don't think any of us had, i hope, for 40,000 new laws, but that's what you're getting, right, josh? >> yeah. close to 40,000 laws were ena enacted in the past year and some of them are unactenacted tomorrow. no one knows half the laws in their state. it's almost impossible. >> and a lot of them are outdated. what about those new ones? >> last hour, we talked about some quirky ones. starting with one in california, you're seeing over my shoulder, but let's take it. california is creating this rule that is requiring schools to teach in, quote, the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender americans in the development of california and the united states. they have groups children learn about and they're adding lessby yab, gay, bye sexual into those groups. >> as long as the kids are learning reading, writing and everything else, i guess the more you can teach them, better? >> yeah. we'll see what happens. some controversy, you've heard of this kind of thing. in new hampshire, requiring parental notification for a minor who wants to get an abortion or that minor can seek to get a court order. sometimes there are parental consent laws. this is a parental notification law. a minor has to make sure that a parent is informed. >> gee, thanks. you're a parent. you have to sign a waiver for the parent to sign a school, yet there are a lot of states who say a child can make this monumental decision and go through this by themselves without letting you know. >> the governor first vetoed it, saying there should be an exception for rape, incest. but that was ultimately overrode. one more. this i find interesting because it shows the split in the country over immigration issues. the e-verify program. we have seven states now that are requiring employers to use this e-verify program to confirm whether a perspective employee is a citizen of the united states. >> doesn't that help them? >> it does in many ways or helps them make sure they have a legitimate immigration status. you've got tennessee, south carolina, all requiring that now. california is doing the opposite. they're creating a law saying state and local governments may not require employers to use that program unless they have to. >> but isn't the whole thing in our country right now trying to get americans more jobs? why wouldn't you want to help verify you're giving an american a job? >> a lot of spaufrters say exactly what they're saying. those opposed to this have a few key arguments. one of the things is it's not 100% accurate. it's gotten better, but there are still problems that persist. also, they say it drives undocumented workers further underground into potential unscrupulous areas. >> which is a real problem. >> right. >> so there real problems. i've posted the language so everyone can see the -- >> all 40,000? >> you know what? i'll tell you -- >> you did not do that. you do not have the time to do that, do you? >> no. >> if so, i want your life. >> oh, man, no one wants my life. >> i want that free time. >> there's a great organization that has a list of these and they have links to the pdf of the actual language. i encourage everyone to get more details. >> so someone somewhere did spend their working life putting all this together, compiling it together. >> maybe you and i should have their lives. >> thank you very much. extreme couponing. the trend may be pretty popular. but one georgia food bank is using it to help people in need. what a great idea and we're going to show you how they're doing it. tissue box (whispering): he said nasal congestion... nyquil: i heard him. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't. is puttering economy has dealt some big blows this year. one woman found a way to help ease the cash crunch in homes in they are community. natalie has her inexpiring story. >> if holiday meals and gifts can strain a holiday's bumt. for many people, the cost of basic things like groceries can be overwhelming this time of year. one woman has taken the couponing craze and turned it into an opportunity to help people in her love georgia community. i was doing it for my family. i was amazed at what you could get for free or almost free. and god truly laid it on my heart, why don't you help meet the needs of others. >> so she created save it forward. providing more than 60 families groceries every month using extreme couponing. that means collecting every coupon she can find and using them to cut her grocery costs. school counselor jessica how wide is familiar with seeing many students who don't have enough to eat. >> i believe the pantry program support their families by making the parents feel secure and knowing that each month they're going to receive groceries and food. like keith braswell whose wife had to stop working because of illness. but them providing the food for me and my family creates time for me to really be with them and do the things i need to do for them to be a caretaker. >> tell us a little bit. these rsc are the bags the families actually receive. >> yes. >> how do you determine what goes into the basket? >> the things that i love about extreme couponing is they will allow us to love on people extravagantly. what people receive in our bags is not a normal food pantry type of food. we provide items, name brand items like brownies and fruit snacks for kids. >> how much have you saved on receipts? >> on this particular receipt we spent $3796. we saved $63.36. >> volunteers help purchase groceries and stock the food pantry. >> at save it forward makes it super easy. they hand you an envelope and you go to the store. put it with your grocery list in your purse and you're done. >> rhonda is always looking for more coupons. >> in the times that we live in, we all are trying to stretch every dollar that we can. we make it easy for people to give back to the community without a significant impact on their wallet. >> natalie allen, cnn, atlanta. >> that is great. good for her and i hope that she inspires a lot offer folks. verizon is buckling under the pressure of their customers, becoming the latest to drop some fees that had been planned. plus, we're counting down to the iowa caucuses. coming up, my two guests hash out why voters can't make up their mind. [ male announcer ] great tasting tap water can come from any faucet anywhere. the brita bottle with the filter inside. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk. top stories right now, gop candidates are in their final acts of the race to the top of the iowa caucuses. mitt romney is leading the polls, congressman ron paul is second. rick santorum is surging to third while newt gingerich is sliding down and rick perry is squeezing between them at fourth. they're all campaigning except paul. he's spending the weekend with his wife. l.a. police are offering a reward for information on the person or persons setting fires in l.a. investigators have no suspects yet. iranian officials say they have no intention of blocking the strait of hormuz. iran threatened to close the strait. the reversal announcement was broadcast on iran's state-run television. verizon, can you hear your customers now? initially, they announced they were going to charge $2 for you to pay your bills. a convenience fee. convenient