Because everything is 50 off. How it became 50 off, who knows, but thats what the sales are. Lets look, this is the mall at newport center. It has gotten a little bit more busy in the last couple of minutes. The doors opened at 6 00, even though some stores did stay open overnight. The big retail chains, macys and kohls, staying open 24 hours. Here its been rather calm. We saw a couple of college kids who did do the thing, stayed up all night buying things for themselves. But for the most part, its been rather civil. Across the country, a different story. Overnight, the hunt for bargains across the nation becoming a contact sport. Police prying the shoppers off the floor at this walmart in houston, texas. Refusing to let go of a discounted tv. One Police Officer even grabbing this shopper by the face and throwing him to the ground. Tempers flared at this walmart in michigan city, indiana. With shoppers clamoring for a bargain on sony speakers. And in los angeles, police were called to another walmart after a brawl broke out over a 5 barbie. There was obviously a fight between a guy and a girl over a barbie doll. And the girl socked the guy in the face. Just to get the barbie. The stampede through the front doors a welcome sight for retailers. Hoping to cash in on the holiday frenzy. I wouldnt be doing this if the demand was not there. The National Retail federation projected this Holiday Season spending will total nearly 617 billion. Growing 4. 1 over last year. I rushed over here to be one of the first ones to just get everything that i need and go home. Some shoppers camping outside for days. My tv, my generator, my little tent, chairs, let everybody have a good time. Strumming the guitar to pass the time. Got in my car and drove. All in an effort to nab great deals like this flat screen tv marked down 400. Theres one more 55inch. A convenient alternative to all the mayhem. The lady in the green jacket is fighting. Cybermonday when retailers are set to offer steep discounts online to avoid crushing crowds. Now, i do have to tell you being a smalltown girl from manhattan, i dont go to malls very often. The fact that im here and i was here at 5 00 in the morning, is a a surreal experience, that people come and shop at malls that early. A lot of them were looking for the big discounts, and they got it. People buying electronics, people buying sheets. Some of the smaller stores, this hat store, okay, they made the decision at last minute to stay open. It paid off. One of the people inside telling us they made really a full days worth of extra sales. But then i saw another small store in the mall, they said it wasnt worth it. They stayed open late, they said after midnight, the folks went home. Did Good Business until 12 and then it closed down. You got to think that the workers are being paid time and a half. Whether or not the decision will pay off in the long run, well get those numbers in a couple of days. John and michaela. The owners have to crunch the numbers to see if it makes sense to pay the staff to be there. If theyre going to get the kind of sales theyre hoping for. Deb, youre a brave woman to brave the mall on black friday. The has beenerdashry, i like saying haberdashery. Ive got some presents for you guys, so dont get discouraged. Well turn now to ferguson, missouri theyre giving thanks for another night of calm. But theres new concern about the calls for black friday protests. Police and National Guard troops on alert at Shopping Malls around ferguson. Amid growing calls on social media for action following the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown case. We want to bring in ana cabrera for more. It is quiet and peaceful here this morning. On this black friday. There were in fact no arrests overnight involving protesters. So that is good news, were at a target just outside of ferguson. You can see very empty parking lot here this morning. The doors dont open for a couple of more hours, were not seeing any big crowds. But we are seeing a number of Law Enforcement here on scene. Can you see the Police Vehicle just over my shoulder here. Weve seen a number of Missouri State troopers. National guard, as well as st. Louis county police, they are here just in case. With more protests expected today. This region remains ready. Overnight, this walmart in ferguson shut its doors ahead of black friday. Law enforcement and the National Guard at the entrance as they turn away potential customers. In response to the grand jurys decision, not to indict officer Darren Wilson, plans for a nationwide retail boycott on the biggest shopping day of the year, are flooding social media. Using hash tags like blackoutblackfriday, and handsupdontspend, protesters showing solidarity, vowing not to shop at all during the Holiday Weekend or shop at blackowned businesses. I think economic power is as powerful as political power. The aftermath of the ferguson decision, norns Saints PlayerBenjamin Watson said he was s sympathet sympathetic, confuse and embarrassed. In downtown st. Louis, the annual parade canceled. I wanted to be a peaceful, i dont want the protesting, i dont want the rioting, i dont want the violence. This chaotic scene played out during macys signature thanksgiving day parade in new york. Nypd holds off a group of angry protesters pushing past barricades. The group had organized on social media under the stoptheparade. Seven people were arrested. And on twitter, this painful photo circulated of Michael Browns family sharing their first holiday without him. So we will be watching for any protests, any black friday boycott that happens here today. The whole premise of this is, that money equals power and these minority communities, the demonstrators who are part of that, that larger community, are hoping that in their absence, their presence will be felt. Michaela . Very interesting part of a conversation that we want to have right now. Thanks so much ana. We want to bring in liz brown, she is a columnist at the st. Louis american the leading africanamerican paper in st. Louis. Also joining us this morning to sort of grandeur discussion about what is going on. Pastor white, a familiar face, with the peace of mind churj of happiness and clergy united. Liz great to have you, pastor, thank you so much. Both of you getting up early on the day after thanksgiving. Please know i appreciate you both for doing this. This is such an important discussion to be having. Liz, ill start with you, obviously weve been seeing sort of a shift in the protests and demonstrations over the past few days. More calm, we see the protests spreading across the United States, however. For ferguson, do you expect that to continue . The protests to continue . Or the calm to continue . The calm to continue, liz. I think that the i think that people are refocusing, reshifting. Getting energy from not only the, the actions of people across the country, but actions across the world. It is thanksgiving, after all. I think its an opportunity for those that have been in the forefront of the actions and the protests, are regrouping to proceed in another way. Regrouping and reassessing, as you say. Pastor, im curious what youre getting a sense of as we wait for these probes, the federal investigations that are going on both into the Police Department and, their handling of the shooting and into the Police Officer himself. Do you get a sense that the community believes that there will be, there will be justice . Do you get the sense that they believe they will see the officer wilson violated Michael Browns civil rights . Do they believe that . Well weve had some incidents all over the country where officers have been able to get off on criminal charges. But have been brought up on civil charges so were spreading the word out to the community at large to let them know. One of the things weve discussed is will the doj come in to investigate what happened in our city. This target lot is empty, as much as there seems to be calm. Imagine the mental stress that goes on to folks in this community where now what is normally a rushrush situation where folks are out in lines at 3 00 a. M. This parking lot is empty. As much as we talk about the looters have done, what the protesters have done, what about Governor Nixon has done on monday when they did not protect this community . These are the results of this. Where now we cant celebrate our thanksgiving holiday and our shopping season, but were out, cant come to the parking lots, cant go to the stores to shop the way we want to do. Its interesting, that result of something that were seeing happen from the protests on monday. But what the effort has turned to today, liz, barack friday, its been interesting to see the movement on social media the idea of boycotting black friday, theres been all of these various hash tags that have surfaced. Interesting, there seems to be a movement of wanting to try to harness, as ana cabrera was telling us, harnessing the buying power of the Africanamerican Community and denying that buying power to make a point. Well, if theres a long history of economic boycotts in this country. Weve seen it in the civil rights movement. It is a very effective way to get your point across. And to bring peoples attention to a very serious and compelling issue. So it makes sense that the national progression, if you will of this movement would be moving into okay, were going to get, weve gotten your attention this way, we will continue to do that. But were going to get your attention in the pocketbooks, thats why were talking about it right now, right if because it is such a huge buying season for stores. So why not engage in an action that would get their attention in a very effective way. And using the 2014 method of using social media and the hashtags, et cetera. So its a brave new world. It is a brave new world. Im struggling to catch up to it. Pastor, im curious, you probably saw the results of the macys thanksgiving day parade, you were talking about the traditions we have around this time of year, big tradition being held in new york city yesterday. We understand there were a few arrests, some people tried to interrupt the thanksgiving day parade. When you see that, does it make you feel that the message of what youre trying to accomplish in ferguson is, is being spread correctly . Or does it feel like a change or a shift in the message . Well first of all, i mean one of the things that we missed here in ferguson, we were planning a thanksgiving day parade even here to help feed some of the families and that had to be postponed until this sunday afternoon. And so when we see the national protests, the macys parade and l. A. And philadelphia, it excites us to know that those of us who are out here protesting against the injusticnjustice, t have brothers in all walks of life this is not just a ferguson issue, this is a National Issue and were excited to see that those throughout this country have taken up arms and taken up a stance against the injustices that are going against all minorities of this country. Pastor, liz, thanks so much for joining us today. Well be talking to you in the coming days and weeks. I know we will. Thank you so much, today. John . Just moments ago, pope francis arrived in turkey for an historic visit this threeday trip could be one of the most challenging of his papacy. A mix of religious and political meetings. With the pope addressing a number of topics, including the influx of refugees from the conflict in syria. Arwa damon live in ankara this morning, good morning, arwa. It will be a challenging backdrop for pope francis visit. His first stop will be to a mausoleum and from there to the president ial palace to meet with president recep tayyip erdogan. This visit comes at a time when many will tell you christianity has not been this threatened in say about the last century or so. In the region. The region of its very birthplace and this threat to christianity really began with the effects of the u. S. Led invasion of iraq of 2003 that saw the rise of al qaeda, targeting the christian population, with horrific acts of storming churches, to laying explosives outside of christian homes. And then of course, we had the more recent emergence of isis, Even Deadlier than its predecessor, al qaeda targeting not just christians in iraq, but christians across syria. Adding to this massive exodus from both countries, those christian who is do choose to stay in iraq or syria, say that they do so, because they believe in god and their faith is all that they have. Or because they have agreed to pay the terrorist organization something of a protection tax. One of the key objectives of pope francis visit to turkey is to try to build that evergrowing divide between muslims and christians. The other objective of this visit is to build upon the alreadygrowing solidification of the bridge between the two sister churches. John . Arwa damon, a big trip getting under way, thanks for being there for us. We want to get to pamela brown for some of the days top stories. Great to see both of you and happy friday. Lets look at the headlines, breaking in the last hour, a series of shootings at buildings in downtown austin, texas. Police say a gunman was targeting several buildings, including their headquarters. The cops apparently managed to shoot the suspect before he got them. Taking a live look at pictures, the citys Police Headquarters remains evacuated and police are being urged to stay away from the downtown area. More on the story as details come in. Meantime, Ruth Bader Ginsberg home for the holiday, the 81yearold Supreme Court justice released from a Washington Hospital thursday after undergoing heart surgery. She needed a stent in order to repair a blocked artery. Officials say shes planning to return to work on monday when the court begins hearing a new round of arguments. Mexicos president pushing Police Reforms he hopes will kbad combat widespread crime and corruption, he wants to give state control over local police to stop collusion between officials and gangs and is trying to defuse anger over the disappearance in 43 students in september. 11 partially burned bodies thursday, about an hours drive from the students school. Its unclear if theyre linked to the missing students case. And bill cosby fallen out of favor with two massachusetts schools. After a string of Sexual Assault allegations. Cosby agreed to resign as honorary chairman of the Capital Campaign at the university of massachusetts, at amherst. And also Berkeley College of music in boston, ending its affiliation with cosby, they had an online scholarship in his name. Cosby has ann an Honorary Degree from berkeley. With thanksgiving now in the rearview, the white house is already gearing up for christmas. The White House Christmas tree is due to arrive this morning. First Lady Michelle obama will be on hand for a welcoming ceremony. And the first family spent the holiday feasting on the traditional thanksgiving dinner at the white house. President obama took time out to call and thank troops, offering his gratitude for their service to the country. The tree arrives at 11 00 a. M. Eastern and well cover it here live. Thats a promise to you. So much anticipation. Now i have to think about getting my tree. I just sort of managed thanksgiving. Switch gears. Lets talk about weather, meteorologist Jennifer Gray is in for indra petersons. Keeping track of the forecast. Interesting we saw a lot of Power Outages in maine due to the heavy, heavy snow causing some problems there. A little bitter forecast for folks this weekend . Getting better by the weekend. In fact a warming trend expected for the weekend, if you can believe it. Cold air still in place across much of the east. Even though most of the snow is pushing out. Were going to see a little bit of lakeeffect snow for the next day, but otherwise going to see quiet conditions across portions of the east. South, very quiet, warmer temperatures starting to usher in, thats going to impact the midatlantic, the northeast. We do have a cold front on its way by the end of sunday. And thats going to affect areas to the north. So those areas will still remain cold. The northern plains, but the south, the east, will stay a little bit warmer in the days ahead. So cold air for today in place in the north. Sunny in the rockies, we do have rain and some snow in the pacific northwest. And even portions of california getting bigtime rains as we go into the weekend. Current temperatures very cold in the north. 11 in minneapolis, this morning, guys, but that warming trend is just days away. Atlanta will be about 70 degrees monday. Thats quite a change. Jennifer, thanks so much. Well check back in with you a little later so a thumbs up for the economy. In a new cnn orc poll. Well tell you what has americans feeling so good. And how that could have retailers seeing some green just in time for the Holiday Shopping season. The mercedesbenz winter event is back, with the perfect vehicle thats just right for you, no matter which list youre on. [ho, ho, ho, ho] no matter which list youre on. Lease the 2014 cla250 for 329 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. Big Economic News today, a really Surprising New poll from cnn and orc showing a renewed degree of optimism among americans. This poll shows that 52 of americans think that things are going well. This is the first time in nearly eight years that a majority has shared that opinion. So what is behind this shift . Will retailers benefit . And will people start feeling a difference in their lives . I want to sp