The speaker met in person to talk about the fiscal cliff was more than three weeks ago. And just after midnight on sunday, making history. The governor signed the voterapproved referendum into law on wednesday. And hugo chavez is returning to cuba for more cancer surgery but this time he is making sure a new leader is in place in case he doesnt return, and he named the Vice President as his choice for a replacement in case something happens for him. The 58yearold president is still scheduled to be sworn in for a new sixyearterm on january 10th. Sad news for fans of music star jenny rivera. There doesnt appear to be any survivors. The plane lost contact with air Traffic Controllers early this morning. So far no cause has been given for that crash. The National Menorah in front of the white house was illuminated tonight marking the first day of hanukkah. And no hanukkah celebration would be complete without the spinning dradel. Great lakes, i dont have to tell you, you are getting slammed with snow. We are still aweek and a half away from the start of winter. 8 inches of snow now in the twin cities and a few more inches will accumulate tonight and that storm will bring rain to new england tomorrow. We have more on the fisl cliff talks. President obama and john boehner met facetoface at the white house to try to prevent the fiscal cliff. Now just 23 days away. The wording here is identical, ending with this, the lines of communication remain open. The two men last spoke by phone on wednesday and on friday mr. Boehner said the white house had wasted another week for potential compromise. We dont know what prompted this meeting just that for the first time in a while the two sides are agreeing on something even if its just the wording of their statements and keeping tightlipped about what was said. Don . Thank you very much. In todays meetings between president obama and speaker boehner, is it a sign that we are close to a fiscal cliff deal . I asked the senior cnn analyst, david gergen. This week is a crucial week to see if they can get a break through. In fact, they are willing to sit down and they did it in private, and instead of the political theater we have seen in the last few weeks i think thats encouraging. Theres even a bigger longterm issue, and that is whether the kind of agreement they can reach now will lead to a grand bargain, or whether its going to amount to a mouse instead of an elephant. We will have to see what they can craft this week and see if they can get passed the fiscal cliff. The bargain is really important, too. In some ways, don, what is at stake is whether they can craft a deal is that win win. Each side can walk away with something in the short term saying this is encouraging. This is a moment, don, when a lot of things are hanging in the balance. Having them sit down today is encouraging because it means they dont want to take us all the way to the 11th hour and 59th minute. They want to get a break through now and thats encouraging. And are their hints they are moving closer together in a deal. Well talk about that next. List of almost two thousand Corporate PartnersCompanies Like microsoft, American Red Cross and adobe to create options for you. Not only that, were using what we learn from these partners to shape our curriculum, so that when you find the job you want youll be a perfect fit. Lets get to work. I have a cold. I took dayquil, but i still have a runny nose. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesnt work on runny noses. What . [ male announcer ] it doesnt have an antihistamine. Really . [ male announcer ] really. Alkaseltzer plus cold and cough fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a fast acting antihistamine to relieve your runny nose. [ sighs ] thank you [ male announcer ] youre welcome. Thats the cold truth [ male announcer ] alkaseltzer plus. Oh what a relief it is [ male announcer ] to learn more about the cold truth and save 1 visit alkaseltzer on facebook. [ male announcer ] to learn more about the cold truth try running four. Ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately weve got ink. It gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at Office Supply stores. Rewards we put right back into our business. This is the only thing weve ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. Make your mark with ink from chase. Just when you thought the fiscal cliff talks was at a standstill, boehner spent the day at the white house with obama, and we like to spend our afternoons with analysts. We have the Senior Writer for espn. Good to see both of you. Okay . Yes. Boehner had pretty tough words for the president on friday. Lets listen. There is a lot of things possible to put the revenue on the table but none of it will be possible if the president insists on his position and insist on my way or the highway. Anna, he also said the white house has wasted another week, and now two days later, they are meeting again. Did boehners remarks make the difference . Good. I think its great. We cannot reach a deal if you are posturing and negotiating through press conferences. They need to sit in a room and look at each other and talk constructive debate and move the ball forward. I think what happened today is a very good sign. Americans should be encouraged, its a good thing when the congressional leader and president is capable of meeting and talking about the difficult issues that face this country. What a refreshing and new idea. So you hear members of the gop, and you here corker, and they are saying he will only do this, and then the messaging that you hear on television is quite different than what is actually being said behind closed doors. I think you make a good point, ana. Do you agree there seems to be competing messaging going on here . They have to do the posturing to make sure the public stays on their side of it, and the constituents look like they are doing what they said they would do, and this is the only way they will get anything done, sitting in a room and hashing it out. Both of these men are very, very pragmatic. They are very caution guys. They are not as extreme as some of the voices in their parties happen to be. You have two politicians in washington doing what needs to be done for the better of the country, and i agree its a good thing, and maybe they went to see lincoln together to see if they can get something done like lincoln did. A promanc going on. This is not the endall be all of the negotiations. Theres a lot of big and hairy problems facing the country that president obama and congress will want done, so theres a lot of room and space and time, four long years for negotiations. Sometimes the democrats will have more leverage and sometimes the republicans will have more leverage. Right. People yell its not fair, its not fair, everybody does it. Its not four years. We will have a debt ceiling conversation in a few months. You have to remember that this is rapid fire. As soon as we get passed the fiscal cliff, president obama will have to meet again with boehner to discuss the debt ceiling. Steven baldwin was arrested and when he was released he wanted to come on this show and explain himself. Thats next. Reas are reporting reas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. And bps also committed to america. We support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. 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I have been in a conversation about this very thing for several months now, and again, i am not trying to be funny when i say this, i am really grateful that these guys are giving me a chance to work it out and its a tough situation because it wasnt me specifically, as you know, don, you have people do your taxes for you and etc. , etc. , and it was not handled appropriately. I am ultimately responsible but im in a conversation and we are communicating with them and what i am told is we will be able to work it out, and i am hoping thats the end result. Explain to the audience what happened. Well i dont want to cry in my coffee here, but the long story short is when i moved out of doing my normal career and mainstream secular hollywood and started to get into mostly faithbased stuff it changed my income a whole lot. That led to a lot of inexperience on my part, and then i had a very public bankruptcy filing because i have been trying to maintain all this stuff and then i got hit with the bad situation that i am in right now with some accountants that didnt represent me appropriately, so it has been a domino affect. The blessing is, to be honest with you in the wake of what has happened in the last 48 hours i have had nothing but really positive support from business people, partners i am involved with with stuff i have coming in the new year that will helpful to straightening all this out. I am looking forward to looking into that and looking there and paying my taxes. How did that turn into an arrest if you knew what was going on . Well, thats part of the conversation that we have been having with these folks, was that sometimes, don, when you are in a certain position, things happen a certain way. As i said before come on, stephen, you have always been very up front with me, so what do you think . I think when you are in a certain position of visibility and you dont do things the right way, legally they have the right to come down on you in a certain way so that other people say to themselves, well, maybe i should do the right thing . And thats part of the situation, i believe, that i am in right now and i am hopeful that its going to be the the end result will be that i can move forward and stay positive and be successful in the business that i have coming in the new year. Because you are a celebrity, you think they made an example of out of you . Well, listen, i think thats not something that we have not seen in the past that hasnt been true. I dont want to sugar coat one thing. I have the utmost respect for the people that i am in the conversation with, the rocklin county d. A. Is upset and i want to do the right thing and get this bill paid. I can do it, i just have to get back to work. Okay, good. Can you explain the mugshot to me . Some people compared this mugshot to zoo lander because it looks like you are posing here, you look like zoolander in the mugshot. What was going on with you . I think we will share in this, don, when you take in the photos, you are used to, like, one expression a lot of the time, and you made that pose with your daughter in that picture, right . Thats your pose. Is that your what does is that your magnum . Well, i look at it this way, if i am in the situation i am in, i might as well have a decent mugshot. Give me the pose . Strike a pose. How was it . You are not going to really make me do this, are you . Yeah. Does that work. You are such a good sport. You are, too. Thank you for letting me come on and talk about this. As a charity, we will put it online for you, and it benefits his moms charitable organization. Look for it online on our blog. Some workers in the state are not happy about one thing, and thats next. You dont have to inbound front of a television to watch cnn, you can do it if your computer at work, go to cnn. Com tv. Orsep. Whats that in reindeerpower . [ laughs ] [ pencil scratches ] [ male announcer ] chevys 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 tradein allowance. Hurry. Bonus cash ends january 2nd. Boproductivity up, costs down, thtime to market reduced. Those are good things. Upstairs, they will see fantasy. Not fantasy. Logistics. Ups came in, analyzed our supply chain, inventory systems. Ups . Ups. Not fantasy . Who would have thought . I did. We did, bob. We did. Got it. [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of all day pain relief. This season, discover aleve. All day pain relief with just two pills. Share not even close. Share you owe me. Share just right. The share everything plan. 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This is a terrible story out of western pennsylvania. A little boy, 7 years old, shot to death in the parking lot of this gun store north of pittsburgh. Police say the boy was buckling himself into a car seat when the pistol his father was handling in the front seat accidentally went off. Can you imagine . The bullet hit the boy and he died at the scene. The father could face charges over this. Authorities say he is beside himself. The father is traumatized and visibly shaken. Its experienced probably the worst tragedy anybody can go through is to take your own sons life. Officers that talked to the father say he was not aware that his pistol was even loaded. President barack obama visits union heavy michigan tomorrow a state he won easily last month and now the center of new labor protests. Its close to passing a right to work law and that is not sitting well with workers in the state where organized labor was born. One of the biggest labor unions in the state is firmly against the law which limits the unions power. The republican governor says he will sign the bill if it hits his desk this week. You know, its been dubbed the fireball over texas. A bright light was seen streaking across the houston sky friday morning and for a few hours it was the walk of the town. Debra wrigley of ktrk has the story. Reporter from a nasa camera, it looked like a bright light above the earth. These are from eyewitness viewers around the houston area. Just as day was breaking a bright flash of light that some people thought was lightning. I was like i guess its going to rain. Reporter it wasnt the weather and it was spotted all around texas. This map just a sampling of sightings in the houston area, and these are some of the pictures sent to abc 13. Com showing a small area of colored light. Others showing a trail behind it. And people have been talking about it all day. Like a ufo, taking a picture of the sky, like a big flash. Coworkers who are talking about did you hear about the flash this morning . Im like flash . Should i be concerned . Reporter at the Houston Museum of natural science, not concern, but a lot of curiosity. Its going so fast it actually gets through the atmosphere. That makes the glow. The museums astronomer suspects its a meteorite, a small piece of rock burning through space. If it meets the criteria. Did it make a trail, did it actually move, did it change color, did it move from east to west . Reporter a lot of scientists searching for an explanation of whats called the fireball over texas. A lot of people who arent scientists as well. I have heard Different Things about 2012, so its kind of scary because its getting closer to that day. That was Debra Wrigley reporting. Nasa has since cleared up the confusion. The flash was a meteor. Changing the look of our men and women in uniform and the military they might even take a page out of harry potter. Thats next. ] merry christmas, everybody not so much. Ho ho ho this isnt that kind of deal. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. Save on ground shipping at fedex office. Bp has paid overthe people of bp twentythreeitment to the gulf. Billion dollars [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. To help those affected and to cover cleanup costs. Today, the beaches and gulf are open, and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. And bps also committed to america. We support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. Were working to fuel america for generations to come. Our commitment has never been stronger. Almost half passed the hoeur, and lets look at headlines right now. President obama and House Speaker john boehner met face to face at the white house today to try and prevent the fiscal cliff 23 days away. We dont have much on details, but reps from both sides say theres much to talk about. And here is oklahoma senator, tom coburn. Will i accept a tax increase if it solves our problem . Yes. A cloud of Political Uncertainty hanging over venezuela. Hugo chavez is traveling to cuba for surgery for a third time. This time he named the Vice President to replace him in case something was to happen to them. A man who shot three people to death on an indian reservation in california has been killed. Police near fresno were involved in the shootout with the man that reportedly opened fire earlier on several people, three of whom died. His two young daughters were wounded, and Police Chased the suspect and said he shot at them, too. The National Menorah in front of the white house, illuminated tonight, marking the start of hanukkah. Of course, no hanukkah celebration would be complete without a spinning draddel. The big event at the nations capital, president obama will be inaugurated for a second term and that means plenty of turnover among his top advisoriers. Emily schmitt has a look at the upcoming cabinet. This is a wonderful opportunity f