fix. and would you ask your boss's wife out on a date? especially if your boss is the president of the united states? >> announcer: from cnn's world headquarters bringing you news and analysis from around the globe, live from studio 7, this is "cnn saturday morning" with t.j. holmes. let's start with the senate. open for business today. it will be open about three hours from now. they have some work to do. they need to work on a couple of bills. one is a big spending bill that will fund the government through september. a deal is reached that will keep us from having a government shutdown. the government was supposed to run out of money, a one-day extension so they could vote today. looks like crisis averted there. the other issue is payroll tax holiday extension. that could mean an extra $1,000 in your pocket. at least mean you won't lose that $1,000 at the beginning of the year. a compromise keeps it going for another two months. >> okay. two months is not something that makes people feel very good. same conversation in 60 days. >> that was not the preferred alternative. we wanted to see the same things that passed in the house of representatives, an extension. democrats would not accept credible off sets to pay for it in the senate. this is what we got down to in terms of a package we could get support from both democrats and republicans for. >> you see what we're talking about here, folks. they reached a deal. your taxes won't go up january 1st. this whole debate, fight you're seeing, they will do this whole thing over again two months from now. the house passed a spending bill. members expected to come back from holiday vacations to vote on payroll taxes next week if it gets through the senate. following next hour live to the white house to hear what president has to say about the bills including a deadline on the controversial keystone pipeline project added to the payroll tax bill by republican tax lead eers. turn to presidential politics. mitt romney picked up a big supporter in the race for republican nomination. south carolina governor nikki haley says romney is the guy. >> with great pride, great respect, great support michael and i are very proud to say we are endorsing governor mitt romney for president of the united states. >> haley won with big support from tea party groups, south carolina's primary is third in the nominating calendar after, of course, iowa and new hampshire. a bigger norm is up for grabs later today when the des moines register will pick its candidate for the iowa caucuses. here is a look how things are shaping up in iowa, just a couple of weeks until they start voting in the caucuses. american research poll has newt gingrich out by five points as you see there. his lead getting a little smaller. a few points ahead of romney and paul, both at 17%. much more on the iowa race coming your way about 20 minutes from now. iowa certainly the place to be unless, apparently you're leading. rick perry, rick santorum and michele bachmann. he's in virginia for a book signing. the impact candidates' wives are having on the race. turn to another big story, weather story we're watching in the philippines now. philippines slammed by a major tropical storm. almost 200 people confirmed dead now. still have another 400 or so missing. 20,000 soldiers are being mobilized to help with certainly and rescue efforts there. we have on the line with us from manila maria resa. tell us the current update. they are still in desperate search and rescue mode now? >> reporter: absolutely. the storm is supposed to exit this evening but no longer really the storm itself but aftermath. turning to aid and rescue workers looking for hundreds missing. they are trying to supply drinking water. they are asking for volunteers to try to get food and clothes to the 20,000 -- actually the government estimates about 100,000 people were displaced by the storm. world vision said they are particularly concerned about children saying that many conditions like 13-year-old remni whose mother was killed in the flood and father and siblings are missing. what was the issue here? it was a tropical storm. not necessarily winds coming through, this was a flooding issue. >> reporter: absolutely. the tropical storm dropped more than 10 hours of heavy rain friday night. its effects, not the storm itself, actually caused the casualties and the most damage. the government said they warned residents to evacuate the areas they felt would be prone to damage but most of the residents ignored it, because these areas have not been traditionally hit by flash floods and landslides. friday night floodwaters rose alarmingly fast to roof levels while residents were sleeping. nearly all the casualties died in flash flood, five killed in a landslide triggered by rain according to national officials of the coordinating and disaster council. >> maria ressa on the line for us. thanks so much. we'll check back in with her. an ongoing situation as i bring in reynolds wolf. just a mess there. the tropical storm, we're kind of accustomed here we here about hurricanes, with a tropical storm we don't feel so threatened. here it was the rain, flash flooding. >> to be honest, there isn't a huge surprise when you have one of these things. any kind of tropical system we have that hit the united states, be it hug organizatioo, whatevee problem flooding. they bring rain, wind, but the issue in manila and philippines you've got high elevations in the areas, you have a tropical storm that pushes through we have what we refer to as orographic lift. it enhances rainfall makes it heavy. hurricane watch steep rain, the ground can only hold so much. the sheer weight of the rainfall absorbs in the soil and gravity then mudslides. the last couple of hours with the system, what's amazing if you look at this tropical system, the center of circulation. let me get that back here a second. the center of circulation is actually right here. it's amazing. you take a look at manila right here. basically what caused a lot of this, an outer band that made its way through manila. there it is right there. that one big cluster, deep tropical moisture, boom, heavy rainfall, widespread damage and of course fatalities. problem is, it's going to take a while to get a true assessment of the damage they had here, t.j. as soon as daylight comes and things begin to dry out a bit, a better assessment, unfortunately gremlin 2 of the true damage, the cost of how it impacted the philippines. >> reynolds, thank you. we'll check with reynolds throughout the morning and keep an eye on that situation in manual ark, in the philippines where an ongoing search and rescue is happening where we speak. we're nine minutes past the hour now. we know marines are known for their bravery but this is a little too brave. you're going to meet a marine, might be the bravest of them all -- see that guy right there? he was brave enough to ask the first lady out on a date. he asked his boss's wife out on a date. dude, you know she's married, right? we'll get into this in just a little bit. also coming next, those who stand in harm's way coming home from iraq. the employee of the month is... spark card from capital one. spark cash gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. it's hard for my crew to keep up with 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. 2% cash back. that's setting the bar pretty high. thanks to spark, owning my own business has never been more rewarding. [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? this guy's amazing. we're 11 minutes passed the hour. trial of army private expected to be behind the biggest leak in history. private manning, the guy in the photo here, hard to make him out here. he's the smaller guy in the video with the glasses. kind of hard to make him out. he's the shorter fellow there. that is bradley manning. he's been let out of the courtroom at ft. meade. the judge refused an attempt to get him removed from the case. they wanted the judge to recuse himself. manning is accused of leaking classified military documents to wikileaks. after more than eight years of law the last of america's military forces will soon be out of iraq. we've been seeing so many of those great homecomings. here are now some of those sweet reunions between troops and their families. >> if he were hear right now i'd say thanks for serving us and our country. >> just really happy. >> it is a tremendous feeling and one that very few moments in life parallel. just really thankful to be home. >> i love you. >> oh, baby. oh, my god. >> mommy. >> what a surprise. what a shock. this is the best mother's day present. >> i have a surprise for you. >> very proud to be the mother of a soldier. >> be sure to tune in all day today for "cnn newsroom" special reporting, home from iraq. we're at about 14 minutes past the hour now. santa needs a little help and he's getting some this year. anonymous donors paying off the layaways of cash-strapped families. >> an angel dropped in our store last night. that's the only way you can say it. >> this is happening at stores across the country. we'll tell you more about these acts of kindness in just a moment. also first lady michelle obama. you know, the married first lady of the united states, married to the president of the united states. she gets asked out on a date by a guy who works for the president of the united states. is this okay or has he lost his mind. stay with me. s new soup. it's his two favorite things in one... burgers and soup. did you hear him honey? burgers and soup. love you. they're cute. 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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor about cymbalta. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. go to cymbalta.com to learn about a free trial offer. 16 minutes past the hour on "cnn saturday morning." give you a look at stories making news across the country. we start with a college fraternity in some trouble. all right. sorry, we don't have the sound there for you but that is a story you may have heard about this fraternity actually in vermont. they leaked out, has gotten on the internet. they put out a list, asked a survey of their members saying who would you rape if you had the chance. that survey got out. that university chapter of this fraternity has now been suspended. this happened in burlington on the campus of vermont. we'll get that back. have more news across the country here. something i told you about a second ago, families getting some help. santa needs some help around this time of year. anonymous donors popping up all around the country paying off the layaway bills of families who could use some help. in indianapolis, a woman walked into a walmart and went right for the layaway department. she says she wanted to make the holiday better for as many people as she could. she paid off the layaway bills of more than 50 customers. the balances ranged from $10 to almost $800. listen to this. >> she said that she had money. she wanted to make christmas happy. it was like an angel just dropped out of the sky. >> i took out my credit card to pay my minimum balance. she said, don't pay that. i'm going to pay it for you." i said, what can we do for you? she said the only thing you can do for me is to give back. >> now, we want to hear from you on this story. tell us something nice maybe you plan to do for someone over the holidays. or maybe what's the nicest thing a stranger ever did for you. i'm already talking to some of you this morning. i have my twitter feed on the desk with me. by all means send me a message. i will reply as much as i can. the nicest thing you've done over the holiday, the nicest thing you plan to do. you know where to find me, the blog, twitter and facebook page. >> can you really ask your boss's wife out on a date? would it matter if her husband is the president of the united states? well, that's kind of what happened here. take a look at this. this is at a toys for tots event in washington. 20-year-old marine aaron leaks. he's leaning over and trying to get the attention to ask the first lady of the united states to accompany him to the marine corps ball next november. she said she'd love to. he's, however, going to be doing a tour in afghanistan next month. he plans to be back and go to that ball. now, reynolds, our wonderful vp, who has a level head, one of the wisest women i know. she tells me i'm looking into it too much. she's saying i'm looking at a guy asking his boss's wyatt out on a date. she says no. what do you think? >> i'm not going there. he's got guts. president obama is definitely the boss in a situation. she's more than a little bit taken, i would think. probably not, i would say, available. >> the guy serving his country. we'll seen this with mila kunis, justin timberlake. they went to the ball. this the new trend. we'll see if it happens. >> regardless, she has to be touched. it's a nice gesture to say, i'll pass, to be honest. one thing to pass on in parts of southern california is strong wind. couple of weeks ago talking pout santa ana wind. they are back. with full force again they will range 40 to 50 miles per hour. we could see damage once again today. with the damage we could also see delays, cross winds affecting places like lax, as far south as burbank you could have those problems in terms of winds. scratch what i said earlier about the gusts. we could see 45 to 60 miles per hour. personal in the afternoon high mountain passes of san gabriels. they will tend to accelerate when they do. that's when we could see damage, downed trees, power lines. basically same recipe, certainly be back again. something else we'll be seeing with this is the potential for some snow in the high parts of, say, back to yosemite, nice dusting on half dome. a possibility of seeing snow in chicago. with that a chance of delays, delays at all the major airports in that part of the world. orlando fog on the i-4 corridor is going to keep you driving fairly slow. delays expected at the airports if you're going to international drive or maybe visit, a few backups. san diego, showers, wind we talked about. boston, rain and snow showers in detroit. motor city, driving on the lodge this morning, expect a little bit of the snow to stick around at least through the midday hours. light stuff, not as heavy as chicago. a lot to talk about weather wise, not just here but other points around the globe. we'll share that. >> reynolds, thank you. see you shortly. 21 minutes past the hour now. a coroner has now ruled the death of a florida a&m drum major was homicide. we'll show you how the suspected hazing now is impacting other schools even outside florida. stay with us on this "cnn saturday morning." let me get you a free tank of gas -- how's that sound? 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[ horn honks ] hey, we're trying to save here. i came in for this. yeah, fill it up, too. thank you. don't thank me. i'm just the messenger. about 25 minutes past the hour now. the coroner in orange county ruled that last month's death of a florida a&m band member, ruled it was a homicide. 26-year-old robert champion died november 19th in a suspected hazing incident. the coroner determined blunt force trauma is the cause of death. last night an internal medicine expert put the finding in perspective. >> anderson, they were severe. let me put it in perspective. mr. champion's blood count was approximately 13 grams of blood. by the time they performed the autopsy it had dropped down to 7. that means he lost approximately six to seven pints of blood into the muscles where he was beaten. that's what causes hemorrhagic shock. it's the same as if his carotid artery was cut. >> three people have been arrested in connection with a separate hazing incident at florida a&m university that happened roughly two weeks before champion's death. both incidents now have sent shock waves beyond the famu campus, one high school in particular. our george howell with more on that and the hazing culture that surrounds both cases. >> reporter: the southwest dekalb high school band performed for presidents, played at the rose bowl. when you ask band parents like annie brown. >> the band, it's like family, a real nice family atmosphere. >> reporter: but brown tells me her suspicions are now raised about the culture within that family. the dekalb school district in atlanta started an investigation into all of its bands after the death of florida a&m drum major robert champion, the graduate whose death is believed to be the result of hazing. the administrators said they discovered two cases of what they can only describe as inappropriate behavior. >> inappropriate behavior. >> i don't want to get into the specifics of the behavior, but we had two incidents over the summer of inappropriate activity associated with band at two different schools. that was part of the evidence we collected that determined we needed a formal investigation. >> sitting here waiting for your son, do you worry about all these things you've heard on the news? >> yes. even when i was in high school back then, it happened then. >> in high schools. >> high school, colleges. >> reporter: the dekalb county school district suspended all outside activity for its 20 bands, a decision robert champion's parents say is a move in the right direction. >> i wouldn't have never thought the band, the one thing he loved the most, that this would happen like this. >> people don't want to go to high school and be the kid left out. you don't want to be the kid in college you don't have any friends. that becomes -- you go through those processes, become a member of one of these groups and you automatically have status. >> the president of this college wrote a book on hazing and says it's important to examine student organizations, clicks and subgroups from high schools to colleges. there's always been a strong history, connection between southwest dekalb and famu band. both victims went to school here. not to mention the fact two of the three people arrested for allegedly beating hunter also went to this school. parents tell me they appreciate the fact this school district is investigating all of its bands. >> if that would help one kid not be hurt, be hazed, even losing their life, it would be