Im deborah feyerick. Have a good night and a great have a good night and a great week. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com big new developments in the health of Hillary Clinton. She is back to work today. The case against accused a rare ra movie sheeter james holmes. We are just hours away from prosecutors unveiling their evidence in court. The biggest scandal to hit washington since washington. Call it knee gate. Seriously. What is one of the brightest stars doing in the game with a bum knee only to injure it again, maybe even worse . I cannot tell you how we have been discussing this this morning. Its a story. There is outrage. There is consternation in washington right after the fiscal cliff. Can they get no reprieve after all the problems theyve had . Oh, my goodness. Welcome to early start. Im john berman. Nice to have you back. Im Zoraida Sambolin. It is 5 00 a. M. In the east. The president preparing for another bruising battle with republicans over his choice to head up the defense department. Former republican senator, chuck haggle hagel of nebraska. He questioned israel and his unwillingness to back sanctions. Listen to Lindsey Graham yesterday at the state you of the union. This is an in your face nomination by the president to all of us who are supportive of israel. I dont know what his Management Experience is regarding the pentagon, little if any. I think its an incredibly controversial choice and it looks like the second term of barack obama is going to be an in your face term. Foreign Affairs CorrespondentJill Dougherty is live from washington this morning. Good morning to you. Good morning. Opposition to hagel comes from the right and left. Can you break down the issues . Yeah. I think it has to really start with israel because the people who believe that he is not a supporter of israel, in fact, they would question his devotion to anything that would help israel. He, for instance, believes in talking to hamas. He also has come out against iran sanctions by the united states. And so that gets other people very worried about his position. He opposed the surge in afghanistan. And when you get into that issue, the gay issue, so called, about 14 years ago he made some comments about an ambassadorial nomination who as he put it was openly and aggressively gay. Now thats, of course, a buzz saw of criticism. So its not going to be an easy type of nomination certainly as you can imagine. So why did the president pick hagel . You know, this he have some similar views. He is a maverick, thats true, but he also, i think you have to say, is a moderate realist. He also has some good credentials. Hes a vietnam veteran. He heads the prestigious think tank, the atlantic council. The president would believe that they share similar views. The president , of course, is in charge on policy. Democrats hold a majority in the senate. Is it possible hagel will not get enough votes . I think the white house would have to believe that they will but its not going to be an easy thing at all. All right. So lets switch gears here. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton returns to work today. Whats on her schedule . Well, she has an amazingly big schedule this week, you know, away for almost a month. She wanted to come back, they said she wanted to come back and really get to work. So if you look at the schedule, today she comes back 9 15 sharp shell be over at the state department. She will be meeting with the assistant secretary, and then this week she has a number of meetings at the white house and then finally hamid karzai comes. Theyll be talking afghanistan friday. Her spokesperson said she was raring to go, so i suppose full speed ahead. Jill dougherty, li live at the e house. All of this candidate stuff will be overshadowed today by the redskins and what happened last night. The nfl season ended badly for the Washington Redskins. That is the understatement of the century. Their playoff loss to seattle, not even the worst of it. What happened . Well, the redskins, 14 points, they scored 24 straight points to beat the redskins. 27 yard run for marchand lynch. The really bad news, im talking the awful, epochically tragic news. Youre seeing it here, rg 3, the superstar rookie quarterback for the redskins reinjured his knee in the game. No one even touched him. Theres no word on the extent of the injury. Clearly not pretty. You heard it again in the first quarter. A lot of people asking why coach Mike Shanahan did not pull him out in the first quarter. He was completely ineffective after he started limping. So many questions today. Oh, yeah, by the way, seattle won and they will play atlanta next weekend. All right. The Baltimore Ravens are also moving on in the afc playoffs. They beat the Indianapolis Colts 249 on sunday. It was the last home game for the soon to be retired ray lewis. Joe flacco threw down two touchdown passes including one to Antwon Bolden who set a franchise record. The ravens will meet Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos next sunday. The waiting is over. Tonight in south florida the top ranked fighting irish of notre dame tangle with second ranked alabama for the bcs title. Notre dame has a 51 alltime record against alabama. These two teams havent faced each other on the gridiron since 1987. Each has Nine National titles. Kickoff is 8 30 eastern. Thats pretty late. Are you watching the game . I am. Youre wearing green today. Youre clearly siding with the irish today. There is some other sports news, believe it or not. The lockout, the nhl lockout that put the hockey season on ice could soon be over. They reached a tentative agreement sunday following a marathon bargaining session. The proposed tenyear agreement must go to players and owners. If the players approve it they should be back on the ice to begin a shortened season as early as next week. You know what people always say in hockey, the only thing that matters is the playoffs. If they have the playoffs, thats all that matters. People think more than the playoffs. President obama signed into law a 9. 7 billion Superstorm Sandy aid package. Most of that will be used to pay Flood Insurance claims. Theyll vote on a 51 billion package on january 15th. House Speaker John Boehner received Harsh Criticism last week from new Jersey Governor Chris Christie and new york congressman, peter king, both of them republicans, when he refused to bring a 60 billion sandy bill up for a house vote. Syrian president Bashar Al Assad defiant and refusing to step down. He made his first public speech dismissing any chances that he would stop the forces. He called on the west to stop funding them. Were about to learn a lot more about accused aurora gunman james holmes and the evidence against him. We go live to colorado for a preview of todays hearing. Thats coming up. But their shakes arent always made for people with diabetes. Thats why theres 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 whos getting smart about her weight. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. A smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. Welcome back to early start, everyone. In just a few hours, james holmes, the suspect in the aurora, colorado, shooting massacre will be in a hearing. Prosecutors will be presenting evidence and for the first time the public will hear details of what went on inside that theater during the shooting rampage back in july. Cnns casey wian is live. Reporter good morning. Its been six months since james holmes allegedly gunned down dozens of people killing 12 in a colorado Movie Theater. Even today, the sights and sounds of that day are both chaotic and disturbing. Aurora, colorado, just after midnight july 20th, 2012. 315 and 314, first shooting at century theaters. He came down with his gun in my face. He was about three feet away from me at that point. In that instant, i didnt know what to do. I was honestly terrified. Right by the exit. Just firing away. Hes not aiming at a specific person, hes just aiming everywhere trying to hit as many people as he can. Ive got a child victim. I need rescue at the back door of theater nine, now. Just got to get out. Just got to get out the door. Just get my kids out of here. Suspect is going to be a male, unknown race. Black camo outside outfit believed to be wearing a vest, gas mask, and multiple long guns. Reporter that suspect, 25yearold james holmes, is charged with killing 25 people and wounding dozens more. Prosecutors are expected to call scores of witnesses before a rap pa who he County District judge william sylvester. Hell determine whether the evidence is sufficient for holmes to stand trial on more than 150 counts including murder, attempted murder, and weapons charges. The weapons included explosives allegedly used to booby trap holmes apartment. His attorneys are expected to present a diminished mental capacity defense. The government is going to say the guy wasnt crazy. He was crazy like a fox. He was conniving, premeditated. That may be true. You can have a mental disease. Reporter he had been seeing a psychiatrist and he was a doctoral candidate in neural science. His attorneys say he was hospitalized in november after repeatedly banging his head into a jail wall. Now up until now the judge has had a sweeping gag order in place so as you mentioned earlier, john, this is going to be the first time the public is going to be able to hear a lot of evidence the prosecution has against james holmes, john. Casey, i have to say it was chilling to hear all that sound from that morning that night especially in light of what the country just went through in newtown. Its amazing to hear that. This hearing will not be quick, am i right . Theres a mountain of evidence. Were expecting to hear from a lot of people. Yeah, there could be as many as 70 witnesses. Were expecting this could last as long as a week. We dont know how much the defense is going to put on, but its expected theyll begin to lay the groundwork for whats expected to be a diminished mental capacity defense. We know that because of some of the Court Filings that happened. What about a plea from holmes, did we hear anything about that yet . Nothing yet. That would come at his arraignment assuming that the judge finds that theres enough evidence for him to stand trial. No one expects the prosecution to have any difficulty showing that. There is a great deal of interest in this trial around the country but im also sure in aurora, colorado. Will some of the family members of the victims be there. Some will be there. Some of them apparently do not want to be in the same room as james who willments so there will be some who will be in sort of an overflow room that will include members of the media because they just dont want to be in the same room as this guy, john. Casey wian, live for us. Thanks a lot. At 6 00 were going to talk to a lawyer about the nuances and the laws there declaring somebody insane. 15 minutes past the hour. Heres Christine Romans with our top stories. Good morning day morning. Chuck hagel is president obamas likely choice to be the next secretary of defense. Even knthough hagel is a republican, republicans are challenging the pick, questioning his unwillingness to back sanctions against iran. Hillary clinton heads back to work this morning. The secretary of state was discharged from a New York Hospital on wednesday. This will be her first day back on the job since being side lined by an illness, a concussion, and a blood clot. She has meetings first thing this morning with her assistant secretary of state and after a full day of meetings tomorrow, shell be greeting afghan President Hamid karzai when he visits washington friday. Shell oil says that drilling rig that ran aground across the coast of southern alaska is ready to be towed away today. Recovery could begin today. Theres no signs of any oil league. The rig was being towed back home when it ran aground about a week ago. It was horror over hobbit this weekend. Texas chain saw 3did, that w number one. Jango second and the hobbit fell to third making 17. 5 million. No respect for bill though . Show bill some love. Two violent ones, number one and number two. It is 16 minutes past the hour. Were getting an early look on your local news that is making national headlines. From the wall street journal, a revealing interview with house Speaker John Boehner about the recent fiscal cliff debacle. The Ohio Republican saying one thing stunned him, its when the president told him we dont have a spending problem, we have a health care problem. Boehner said he was astonished by that. At one point the speaker told the journal reporter, i need this job like i need a hole in the head. A lot of people trying to write their own history of these debates and discussions. I think thats whats going on with that. In the San Francisco tribune, a man who was shot during a hate crime. He had a gun and he decided not to use it in his own defense. Surveillance video from a walmart parking lot shows this guy getting shot at from point blank range. The alleged shooter, 25yearold daniel quesnel, asked muhammad if they were muslim or from the middle east. He said no. He fired 20 shots and then walked off. Quesnels mother turned him in to police and helped police find him. Thats incredible. The victim had a handgun but decided not to use it in his own defense because the guy who was shooting at him was using a pellet gun and he thought it would be unfair. Terrible. 18 minutes past the hour. For an extended look at all our stories, go to our blog. You can follow us on twitter and facebook. Just search for early start cnn. It is a big bright spot in our economy right now. Coming up, what auto sales say about the state of this economy heading into the new year. Aig . We said we were going to turn it around, and we did. Woman were helping joplin, missouri, come back from a devastating tornado. Man and now were helping the east coast recover from hurricane sandy. Were a leading Global Insurance company, based right here in america. Weve repaid every dollar america lent us. Everything, plus a profit of more than 22 billion. For the american people. Thank you, america. Helping people recover and rebuild thats what we do. Now lets bring on tomorrow. But they have to use special care in keeping the denture clean. Dentures are very different to real teeth. Theyre about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. Polident is designed to clean dentures daily. Its unique microclean formula kills 99. 9 of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains, cleaning in a better way than brushing with toothpaste. Thats why i recommend using polident. [ male announcer ] polident. Cleaner, fresher, brighter every day. [ male announcer ] polident. We asked total strangers to watch it for us. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Ill be right back. They didnt take a dime. How much in fees does your bank take to watch your money . If your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. Ally bank. Your money needs an ally. This is new york city youre looking at here. Top of the morning to you, new york city. Come hang out with us. Grab your cup of coffee. Were going to be minding your business this morning. U. S. Stock futures are trading flat ahead of the opening bell. Some of the attention is off washington because earning season kicks off this week. We have some pretty good news for the Banking Sector. Overnight there was a big story, i guess if you will, out of new york. I wont get too wonky for you. International banking regulations pushed off. Bank stocks around the world are rallying. We have futures slack. Well watch to see if the Banking Sector is the driver. Theres a saying, the stock trader almanac has a saying about the first five days of the year. Its really an automatic Warning System for the rest of the year. The first five days if they do well you usually get a very good year for stocks. 38 times january the first five days have done well, 33 years the s p has done better. Let me show you what weve done the first five days of the year. S p, the dow, all of them higher. Nasdaq up 4. 58 . As john said, earnings will be the driver. The historical precedent is that can be good for the overall year. Let me tell you where we are in the economy. We had great news late last week about car sales. If youre going to shell out 38,000 for a car or youre going to be able to borrow money for a car, that shows you have a little bit of economic confidence. Housing, this year were expecting housing to go higher. Thats the balance in the economy overall as i see it right now. Thats what investors are grappling with. A lot of people still paying for 2012. Oh, yeah. Dealing with their credit cards right now. Heading into 2013, what does it look like well be paying more for. This is the time were taking stock. What kind of prices will be going up. Corn overnight rallying again. Weve seen a huge rise in corn prices. That goes into cereal and snack foods and meet. You can expect to pay 3 to 4 more. Rent prices up 5 more. Were expecting rent prices to decline. Mail at the end of this month it will be another penny to cost you to get a stamp. Grab forever stamps, everyone. Public transit in some big cities like new york considering it, also in chicago where some of the monthly taxes are going up. You can expect fares to go up. Your commute probably going to get a little bit more expensive. Thats a little bit of a rundown to cost you more this year in 2013. Eat burgers while you ride the subway. Everyone is getting a 5 or 6 raise this year. Oh, wait, theyre not. Plan accordingly. Thank you. Youre welcome. Really the only thing that any of us want to talk about this morning is football. By any of us i mean me. A star player suff